Chapter Text
Two figures could be seen arguing in a meeting room. One, sitting on a throne made of Endstone, with long black hair and an elegant dress, the other, standing in front of the throne, in a suit of armour.
“But my queen, with your power we could do so much more if we devoted more attention to the Overworld, even just a small amount.” The one in the armour said.
“And how, exactly, Perix, do you propose we do that? We have been in a stalemate for years. If we were to change tactics now Fable would see that as an Okay to attack.”
“My Queen, if you could just give me-” Perix was interrupted in their plea, as an Ender guard teleported in.
“My Queen, a lost Overworlder has been found wandering the central isle.” They reported.
With a cold disregard, the Queen, Enderian replied “Dispose of them.”
“He claims not to mean harm. He says he was sent to see you.”
“By whom?”
“He did not say.”
“Bring him to me.” The queen said. The guard promptly teleported out, and in a couple seconds they returned with the prisoner held by the arms between them and another guard. The intruder was frantically looking around the room in confusion.
“Leave us” Enderian promptly demanded, and the two guards swiftly followed.
“My guards say you were sent for me. Fable is truly foolish if he thinks one of his measly Overworlders has any power here.” Enderian said, with beginning anger.
“I- I’m sorry, but I don’t know who that is.” The intruder replied.
“You take me for a fool? That you are not some sorry attempt at a spy sent here.” Enderian mockingly laughed. She looked into the mind of the intruder. Who did they think they were, trying to lie to the Goddess of Mind.
As she looked, she saw that they were telling the truth.
“You… You’re not lying.” Enderian said disbelievingly. “Who, other than my brother, would send an Overworlder here, into my Realm?”
“I- Please, I don’t know anything about a Fable, or e- even much about where we are. I- I was told you could help me.”
“Help you? What in the Realms made you think I would help you ?”
"Please! Haven’t you- Haven’t you ever loved someone? So much that you would do anything for them? I need to get my friend back- she’s the only one I have” The Overworlder replied desperately.
The phrasing struck a nerve in the Goddess. She had, but she was not about to dwell on those feelings any time soon. Isla had long been a lost cause. Sternly, she replied, “I cannot do anything for the petty minds of Overworlders.”
“No I- she died- she died and it’s my fault- and they said that you could help me get her back and- …”
“Who gave you that idea?”
“Soraza. She said you’re the only one who-” The intruder was interrupted as Enderian teleported right beside him.
“Soraza is dead! And you dare drag her name into your lies?”
“I’m not lying, I wouldn’t lie about something like this. I made a deal. She told me you’re the only one that can access Purgatory.”
“How did you learn this?”
The Overworlder looked down, then up, and cautiously replied, “I… Don’t remember.”
“Liar!” Shouted Enderian, as she began using her powers on the Overworlder, digging deeper into his mind than the passing thoughts she usually used. The powers clearly hurt the Overworlder, but Enderian just dug deeper, trying to see who had given the intruder this preposterous information.
“Ho- What have you done? What sort of Overworld plot is this?”
“I don’t know, I don't understand!”
Teleporting back to her throne, and her Warden, Enderian said “If Fable thinks some kind of barricade will trick me into believing your little lies, then you can suffer for it.”
As she finished her statement, the two guards returned, teleporting right between the intruder.
“Wait, I’m not-”
“Take him to the prison.” She said, and then directed to Perix, “It looks like you have a new guest.”
As she said that, Perix went over to the new prisoner, and the two guards grabbed a hold of him, to stop him escaping.
“Please I just want to help my-”
“Let me know, if you feel like telling the truth, Caspian.” Enderian said, and with that he got teleported away along with Perix and the two guards to his new prison cell.
Just before the event in the meeting room, in another place in the castle, a person was working in the Alchemy Lab.
Sherbert, the so-called ‘Prince’ of the realm, was experimenting with new potions. Enderian was at a meeting with Perix, so neither of them were there to supervise, not that they really needed supervision, but this specific potion was something they had tried to create for a while. It was Perix’ project originally, trying to see how to create a potion to slow down the mind. She never explained what she needed it for, and any time Sherbert tried to ask, the question got redirected. But she had had trouble with the potion for a while, nothing worked.
So she had left Sherbert to continue the experiment. They were the resident potion master, having mastered the art and understanding of brewing at an early age. Over the years they had invented a bunch of new potions that no one had thought of before, such as their potion of Haste and the potion of Blindness, along with a handful of others. Perix had been sure that if anyone were to discover the recipe for the potion, it would be Sherbert.
So while Sherbert’s caretakers were in a meeting together- something about some concerns Perix had had or whatever -Sherbert was experimenting with various slowness inducing ingredients. So far, they had ruled out the actual Slowness potion as a base. It seemed the sugar and fermented spider’s eye variants only affected the body, and that was not what Perix had been looking for. After that, they moved on from using water bases entirely, water just wasn’t susceptible enough for multiple ingredients. Its bonds were typically only strong enough to combine one ingredient, this seemed to be needing more.
So, they had moved onto scoria. The lava-based tonics had more bonds for the ingredients to latch onto. So far, they had tried the basic slowness recipe, without much luck, as well as experiments with honey. Honey seemed to have the most promising results, creating the slowness required, but going beyond just the speed inversal of a normal slowness potion. Sherbert had tried the original potion, and gotten extremely woozy from it, not because it was particularly dizzying, but because it got much harder to think or do anything.
The honey did slow down the brain functions as they had suspected, but it also affected the body in peculiar ways. They felt some form of resistance in their body, like the body felt the weakness and made up for it with some kind of resistance, tensing up so outwards “attacks” weren’t felt as much. They also seemed to have acquired Slow Falling. The body itself wasn’t slower, per se. It moved at a normal speed, but it was as if the body was gliding down honey blocks. Not slow, but the descent was decreased, like the fall was resisted.
That was an interesting find! As soon as the tonic’s effects wore off, Sherbert wrote down their findings. This could be what Aunt Perix was looking for! They hadn’t fully explained what they were hoping to achieve exactly but this seemed close enough from what Sherbert could gather!
Gathering up the remaining two potions, Sherbert ran down the halls, using their specially grown chorus fruits to teleport between the rooms without doors. Sometimes, being the only person in the palace who couldn’t teleport at will got annoying. But they also understood that getting doorways installed to every room in the palace, maybe even beyond it, was too much for just one person, it also helped with keeping baby Sherbert out of rooms they weren’t supposed to be in. Certain wings had them, the newer sections and those that had gotten major renovations over the years, as well as the living quarters where Sherbert and their family’s rooms were. Over the years, Sherbert had even gotten their own wing of the Palace to do with as they pleased.
In order to still let Sherbert traverse their home and Realm, the royal scientists had been tasked with growing chorus fruits that were more reliable in their teleportation. After a couple years, around the time Sherbert had been eight or so, they had been successful, and ever since then Sherbert had had a steady supply of them for moving around their home.
Soon, they reached the hall leading to the meeting room. Sherbert slowed down, and as they got closer, they heard talking. Enderian and Perix. They were about to announce their arrival when they heard the tone Enderian was speaking in. She was mad, or at the very least frustrated, and that was never a good sign to interrupt.
Perix tried to say something but was interrupted by a guard. Now Sherbert was really not trying to get caught. They hid by the bend in the hallway, they could look down and kind of see what was going on in the room, but anyone inside would have trouble spotting them.
As they eavesdropped, they heard the news about an Overworlder intruding. At first, Sherbert felt just as mad as Enderian had felt. How dare an Overworlder come here, to try and spy on them, what was Fable doing? But then… Then they heard the fear, and the confusion, in the Overworlder’s voice. He seemed genuinely scared and confused, no ill intent. He seemed to just want help with his friend. Privately, Sherbert thought Enderian was being too harsh on the guy, but they would never mention that to anyone. Any time they seemed to show sympathy, or even interest, towards anything from the Overworld, Enderian got cross. She didn’t tolerate any inclination toward the Realm that started the War and caused all sorts of problems for the End.
For the most part, Sherbert agreed, but sometimes… They felt a kind of longing, a kinship toward the Overworld. Sherbert didn’t like that feeling. They knew how much trouble the Overworld had caused, and how horrible a person Fable had been. They knew those feelings probably were because they were Fable’s child, but they still didn’t like it. Sherbert hated their father and refused to acknowledge their familial ties. Fable had been the one to abandon Them , had been the one who left them for dead somewhere, only to be rescued by Enderian as she had stumbled upon them on a trip to the Overworld. Enderian was the entire reason Sherbert was even alive right now, so they tried to push down any feelings of longing toward the Overworld.
It seemed like Enderian was the only one left in the room now, the others having gone to the prison. She still seemed angry, so Sherbert waited a minute or so before they casually walked down the hall, acting like they hadn’t just witnessed the entire event.
“Hey Mom! Have you seen Aunt Perix? I think I figured out a solution to her potions problem, and I thought she would be in here.”
“Perix is… Preoccupied at the moment. Fable seems to have sent one of his Overworld Spies here, despite the tentative peace between our realms. He was discovered, of course, and is currently in the prison, where Perix is interrogating him. She’ll be a bit, I’m afraid.”
“Oh, okay! A spy? Really? I thought we hadn’t heard anything from the Overworld in years. You don’t think Fable’s trying to restart the war, do you?”
“No no, Sherbert. I don’t think he’d be that foolish. Though I certainly can’t guarantee it. I think he was just trying to get intel on how we are doing after the war. You know, trying to scope out our rebuilding progress and such. The idiot probably got paranoid after not hearing anything from us for a couple years. It’s not us who wanted the war, he was the one who started it. As far as I’m concerned, we don’t have anything to do with each other.”
“Well that’s good, I don’t particularly want a war either haha. Anyways, thanks Enderian, I’ll be in my room then. Don’t want to ruin the potion if it’s actually what Aunt Perix is after, bye!”
“Bye Sherbert, dinner will be in a couple hours.”
“Okay!” And with that, Sherbert ran off, not toward their room, but toward the prison.
They had gotten curious about this new prisoner. It was the first Overworlder they’d ever met, and they were curious about Enderian’s cover-up. It wasn’t easily noticeable, but after living with Enderian their entire life, Sherbert had learned to pick up on the subtleties.
Her phrasing had been oddly firm, Fable sent “one of his Overworld spies” who “of course, was discovered”. From what Sherbert had seen, and heard, the Overworlder wasn’t a spy sent by Fable, more a lost guy having faulty information. The guard had said he was looking for Enderian, that wasn’t any sort of spy behaviour Sherbert knew of. So, they wanted to know more. If they were discovered by Perix, they could just say they wanted to show them the potions, but hopefully it wouldn’t lead to that.
As they crept through the corridors toward the prison cells, Sherbert wondered how far in their interrogation Aunt Perix was. She usually took her time, but she also knew that Sherbert should be in the potion lab working on her potions. If they got there fast enough, they might be able to catch the tail-end of the interrogation.
As they reached the cells, they indeed heard Perix grilling the new prisoner. It was quite shocking actually. Sherbert knew that Perix was the Warden. That they were the one to oversee the prison, but they had never actually seen them in that setting. It was almost like seeing a completely different person. Perix was so… Cold. She was methodical, emotionless, calculating, with no regards for the Overworlder as a person. Sherbert felt kind of uncomfortable. It was so jarring to see their aunt -- who was normally warmer, sarcastic and teasing, sure, but never cold -- with that demeanour.
Eventually, it seemed Perix got tired of the lack of answers. She withdrew herself with a promise to return for actual answers soon and teleported out of the room. A minute or so after, Sherbert crept out of hiding. They walked over to the cell where the new prisoner was being held, ignoring the two empty cells beside him.
“Hi! Why are you here?” They asked, suddenly showing themself at the prison door.
“UAGH!” The Overworlder screamed in shock, having only just calmed himself down from the interrogation. He scrambled to the back of the room, trying to get as far away from the cell door as possible.
“Who are you!?”
“Sherbert. Why are you here?”
The Overworlder seemed very confused, not answering for some time, before seemingly giving up on trying to make sense of the new person at their cell.
“I don’t know. I was told to ask someone named Enderian for help. They were supposed to help me bring back the Lady of the World.”
“Hm, I’ve never heard that name before.”
“Who are you?” The Overworlder asks again.
“Sherbert. Anyways, wanna be friends?” Sherbert asked bluntly and with no prompting.
They weren’t quite sure why they asked that, but in hindsight it made sense. They’d never really had any friends before. The closest they got was a couple of the Endermen that helped around the Palace, but they were more servants they were friendly with, than any real friendship. Well, and the Things. All the objects around them in the world, talking to them. They’d been commenting on the new prisoner’s situation the entire time, but Sherbet was kind of ignoring them right now. But… The Things weren’t the same either. They were nice, and Sherbert liked talking to them, but… This was a person, just like themself, who seemed to be around their age, and was interesting. Of course Sherbert would want to befriend him.
“Uhm… I’m sorry, what?” The Overworlder seemed confused. It made sense, but Sherbert was lonely, so they trudged forward.
“Friends. You seem interesting, and like you could use some friendly companionship here.”
“I… What? Why would you wanna be-? Why would I wanna be frie- I’m so confused.”
“Okay. Hi, my name is Sherbert, you seem lonely, and I could use someone to talk to, do you want to be friends? I’d think having someone outside the prison cells to talk to would be better than being all alone.”
“I… Okay, sure? We can be friends, I guess?”
“Yay! Okay! In that case, what’s your name, and why exactly were you looking for Enderian?” The Overworlder seemed to have accepted his weird situation, agreeing to be friends. Now Sherbert was more curious about his situation. That’s what friends did, right? Talk about themselves?
“I- sigh, okay. Well, first off, my name is Caspian. I was looking for a way to resurrect my friend the Lady of the World. She… She died in my arms not too long ago, actually. I was told by this person Soraza that Enderian could help me get to Purgatory. I… I don’t remember how I know this, I swear I don’t! I just… I knew I had to get here to ask for help. Lotta good that did me.”
“Oh… Oh Caspian, I'm so sorry about that. That must have been so hard for you. I’m sorry they just threw you in here without allowing you to actually explain… They usually don’t do that.” Sherbert felt bad for this Caspian. They couldn’t even imagine how hard it must be for him, to have seen his friend die right in front of him, and with nothing to do to help her. Then again, Sherbert didn’t really have any friends… But now they do! Caspian said he’d be their friend!
Caspian was quiet for a bit, then he asked, “... What do you mean, usually?”
“Oh… Just that, well. Enderian isn’t usually so rough. She… The Enderian I'm used to always allows you to explain the entire situation. I’ve never really seen her so… Mad. I mean, even when she’s angry I’ve never seen her like that.”
“So you know her well? Enderian?” He said it kind of wearily, that much Sherbert could hear. They already hadn’t wanted to just come out and say they were Enderian’s kid, but this… Sherbert wanted to tell him, but… Maybe not now. When they’ve gotten to know each other some more! When Caspian hadn’t just been put in prison by Sherbert’s guardians.
“You could say that. She’s the Queen, Goddess of the Mind, and ruler over the End. You’d be hard pressed to meet anyone here who doesn’t sorta know her. I live at the Palace, along with a bunch of other people, so I’m around her more often than some of the Endermen living in the End, you know?”
“Oh. That makes sense, I guess. Then… Do you know what she was talking about in that room? About a… Fable?”
“I mean, yeah. Everyone knows about Fable and the Overworld here. Don’t you? I mean, you’re literally from the Overworld, how can you not know about your own God?”
“Own What ? We don’t have any… Well I mean, I guess there’s some gods and stuff but… That’s mostly for the priests and priestesses? The average person doesn’t… Really do religion? I guess?”
“Oh… Oh that’s… Interesting? I mean, I wouldn't really call this a ‘religion’ thing, it’s more… Enderian has a court, she’s like, the Queen you know? Of the Realm? You guys don’t have that?” This was… New. Sherbert had always expected the Overworld to be like the End. At least in terms of how it was ruled. Enderian and Perix always talked about Fable’s kingdom, and his realm and how he ruined the Overworld with his schemes and the way he ruled over it…
“Well, I mean, sure we have kingdoms, but like… Not over the entire Realm? There’s multiple kingdoms, all ruled by different governments and such. Then there’s villages all over the world not connected to any kingdom, because they’re so far out. That’s where I come from actually. I mean, the world is massive, I don’t see how any one person could rule it all.
“Huh… That’s… Really interesting, I never knew that. I guess I just assumed it would be the same as here.”
“How is ‘here’ actually run? We don’t know a lot about the End. Most people don’t even know it exists, and those who do are… Reluctant, let’s say, to give any information about it. I only really discovered it because… Because… Uhm… Hmm, I’m not actually sure. Well, I know I talked to Soraza, and she said to go to Enderian for help. Honestly, the whole process for how I got here… I don’t remember it.”
Well. That was… New. The Overworld doesn’t know about the End? But Mom always said… Sherbert was confused. And a little overwhelmed too honestly. This was interesting! They’d never gotten so much information about the forbidden Dimension they originated from. But… It also seemed to be hurting Caspian, to try and remember what he didn’t know. So Sherbert decided to change the topic. This was a lot of ‘World Stuff’, but they still didn’t really know Caspian .
“Well, that’s okay. How about you tell me about yourself then? You said you come from a village? How was that?”
That seemed to instantly cheer him up a bit. His head didn’t seem to hurt him anymore at least.
“Well, I actually wasn’t there a lot. The Lady of the World found me one day, when I was being chased by a horde of monsters. She saved my life that day. I owe her everything- well… Owed, I guess… She- she died, as I mentioned. A- Anyways. Uhm… When she saved me, she led me to her village. It was nice there. But, I’m an adventurer in my heart, so I would frequently go out and look at the world, going wherever the wind would take me. It’s… How I got my nickname, Ghosty, because I was like a ghost. Never there… Uhm- anyways! Lady of the World tried to use it positively. So I didn’t feel so bad about it. Sh- She… She was my best friend.”
“Tell me about her?” Sherbert asked softly. They didn’t want to make Caspian relive bad memories as it seemed he was, but… Maybe they could help him remember some of the good things.
“She… Well, she had this sunset orange hair, and these sky-blue eyes. She seemed as if nature itself had taken a human form. Whenever she was mad, it was like the sky itself responded to her emotions, always raining and thundering. Plants always seemed to grow faster around her, bigger, better quality. She was an amazing friend.”
“She sounds wonderful. I’m sorry you ended up here instead of being able to help her.”
“It’s - well it’s not fine, but. You didn’t have anything to do with it. And I doubt you’d be able to get me out of here- so.”
“I… I can at least try. You don’t deserve to be in here. You didn’t do anything wrong! I… I’m sure that when Enderian has calmed down she will let you out! She has to!”
Sherbert was sure that there had to have been a mistake. Enderian wasn’t so needlessly cruel that she would just lock someone in prison because they were an Overworlder. And Aunt Perix! Sherbert had never seen them like that! It was scary. Their sweet and caring, if a little snarky and sarcastic, aunt, turned cold and hard, threatening and intimidating an innocent prisoner… It was a side Sherbert had never seen before. And Sherbert couldn’t even really confront their caretakers about it, because they had to seem unknowing about Caspian. Well, this sure was a situation.
“Thanks, but… I doubt you’d be able to help.” Came Caspian’s reply. He sounded so resigned. Like he believed he was never going to get out of here again.
Sherbert couldn’t let that happen.