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Etho’s eyes were bleeding.
Cleo didn’t quite know how to tell him, as she watched him hunched over the crafting table in the corner of their base, fiddling with some logs. He kept looking over his shoulder at her, then turning back to his work. It was a miracle he hadn’t noticed the blood by now.
It was incredibly unsettling, and almost certainly had something to do with his task.
“Etho,” Cleo said, “Are you feeling alright?”
Etho froze for a moment, before continuing his work, without turning around. “Yup, yup. Feeling great.”
He really was a terrible liar. “Are you sure?”
“Just doing some crafting,” he said airly, still not turning around to face her.
“For the past twenty minutes?” Cleo pointed out.
“Lots to craft,” Etho replied quickly.
“Etho,” Cleo said forcefully. He finally turned around, nervously fiddling with the logs in his hands. Small rivulets of blood seeped from the inner corners of his eyes– soon it would run beneath his mask.
“Yes, Cleo?” he said innocently.
She frowned. “Your eyes are bleeding.”
Etho narrowed his eyes and swiped at his face with a free hand. He failed to hide a small flinch when his hands came away bloody, and laughed nervously, wiping the rest of the blood away. He didn’t get it all, and left streak marks down his face.
“I thought you might want to know,” Cleo said as she watched him scramble, a small smile on her lips. “Your task is supposed to be a secret.”
“This has nothing to do with my task,” he said firmly.
“Your eyes just do that?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Really?”
“Redstone and all, Cleo, it does funny things to your body, I tell ya.”
“Well come over here so I can properly clean you up. You’ve done a poor job of it,” Cleo said.
Etho’s eyes widened for a moment, before his gaze dropped and he shook his head. “Nah, it’s fine. I’ll just… stay here. Lots to craft.”
He had been done crafting for some time and both of them knew that, but Cleo was having fun. There was no harm in poking fun at Etho, who was clearly up to something, and she couldn’t guess his task as a green name anyway.
“Fine then,” Cleo said airly. “I’ll be upstairs doing some enchanting. Call if you need anything.”
“Sounds good,” Etho replied without turning around. She didn’t miss the tension drop from his shoulders as she retreated. Cleo carefully made her way up the stairs, loud enough that Etho could hear her leave, and sat at the top step.
Then, she waited.
And she didn’t have to wait very long.
Etho came to the foot of the stairs moments later, carrying a stack of cobblestone for the railings. He froze as he saw her sitting at the top of the stairs. “Hey, Cleo,” he said casually.
“What are you doing?” Cleo said with a laugh. This entire situation was absurd.
“Building.”
“Then get to work.”
Etho eyed her for a moment, before placing a block of cobblestone. Then another. All the while, he stayed rooted in place, glancing up at her on occasion.
His eyes had started bleeding again.
“Looks good,” Cleo said. “Are you gonna come up here and finish it?”
“Yes?” Etho said, although he didn’t move.
Cleo continued staring at him for a moment, just to make him sweat, before she made her way down the stairs, and stood in front of him. “You’re quite bad at this.”
“At what?” Etho feigned.
Cleo rolled her eyes, and moved past him, to sift through their chests. The second her back was turned, she heard Etho’s soft footsteps follow at a distance. She dug around until she found a clean towel and bucket of water.
The moment she turned to face Etho he stopped in his tracks.
“We’re friends, so I’m not going to make you fail,” Cleo said, approaching him. “But I’m still going to have fun with this.”
Etho stammered for a moment. “You don’t know my task, Cleo. I… I’m just quirky.”
Cleo snorted. “Quirky. Sure, go walk to the other end of the room then.”
“I’m quite comfortable right here,” Etho said hesitantly. His eyes were darting around the room, looking for an escape.
“Comfortable? How about now?” Cleo asked cheekily, drawing her sword, and casually resting it on Etho’s shoulder. She would never hurt him– they were allies and friends, and they both knew it– but the opportunity to make Etho sweat a little… it wasn’t something she could refuse.
Etho laughed nervously. “We’re friends, right Cleo?”
She resheathed her sword with a flourish. “Of course. Now sit down, you're too tall,” she said, dragging a stool over.
“Can you… uh,” Etho muttered.
Cleo sighed and covered her eyes with her free hand. “Better?” For a moment, she thought Etho would book it. He was quick, and she knew his task.
But Etho, bless him, was smarter than that. All it would take was for her to open her eyes and he would have to stop, or fail his task. Etho sat on the stool with a sigh.
Cleo opened her eyes and set the bucket of water on the floor with a heavy thunk. “May I?” she asked gently, gesturing to Etho’s mask.
He took it off himself, and tucked it into his pocket without a word. Etho looked up at her warily, with a face she had seen only a handful of times before. The unfamiliarity with his expressions made him difficult to read, but at the end of the day, Etho was easy.
If you did it right, you could look into his eyes and read him like a book.
She dipped the towel in the water, wrung it out, and gently took it to Etho’s face, wiping the blood from his eyes. Etho shut his eyes and sat, still as a statue. Without the mask he looked younger. Softer. It was a little uncanny, and for a moment, she felt like she was seeing something she shouldn’t.
Neither of them said a word.
Cleo took her time, making sure the blood was mopped up, along with a few days of sweat and dirt. There wasn’t a lot of time to get cleaned up these days, and she could tell Etho had been neglecting himself.
She gently combed her fingers through his hair, which was hopelessly tangled and dirtied. Etho huffed, but didn’t stop her, so she continued, gently tugging knots out and trying to tame the mess.
When the blood was gone, and the dirt mostly cleared, she dried his face, and he slipped his mask back on.
“Thank you,” Etho whispered as she pulled away.
“Anytime,” Cleo replied, turning away so Etho could move again. She busied herself with emptying the bucket and cleaning the towel, giving him a few moments to himself.
“Grian said we’re almost done for today,” Etho said, peering at his comm, as she returned.
“Let’s get you to the Secret Keeper then,” Cleo said with a grin. “You need a win.”
“I haven’t succeeded yet,” Etho said grimly. “And I have a feeling this might be the most difficult part.”
“I’ll help you.”
“I think Grain figured it out too. We’ll see how it goes,” Etho said. “Lead the way?”
Cleo laughed. “Right this way.”
===
They had barely made it out of their base when Cleo heard Etho stop behind her. She turned to see him looking at something far in the distance.
“Who?” Cleo asked wordlessly.
“Tango,” Etho said with a grimace. “He’s way in the distance, I think.”
“How can you see him?” Cleo asked, scanning the trees in the distance for any sign of Tango. If he was out there, he was doing a good job of hiding.
“I can’t,” Etho whispered. “I can feel him though. Looking at me. I know it's him.”
“I– How?”
“I don’t know,” Etho hissed, scanning the forest. “I know he’s watching though, he’s somewhere in front of us, I can tell that much.” He paused. “It wasn’t this bad before.”
His eyes were bleeding again. At this point, Cleo figured it was a lost cause trying to hide it. It would be best to get Etho to the button as quickly as possible. She stayed in front of him, keeping him at the corners of her peripheral vision, so she wasn’t the one preventing him from moving.
Etho sighed and dropped his shoulders, taking a weary step forward. “He stopped.”
“Hopefully he left for good. I can scout ahead if you want.”
Etho didn’t reply. He wasn’t frozen in place, but he kept scanning the area around them, like something was going to jump out at them.
“Etho?” It was awkward addressing him without looking at him.
“I couldn’t move,” Etho said hoarsely.
“Well, that’s the whole point of your task, isn’t it?”
“It is.” Etho went silent for a moment. “But I couldn’t move. Like, I physically did not have a choice. I felt Tango watching me, and my body stopped responding.”
Cleo took a deep breath. “Okay,” she said calmly, trying not to panic. She had no idea what the progression of Etho’s task meant, but it couldn’t be good. “I’m going to go back to the base and grab a horse. Stay put.”
She left Etho in the dust, before he got the chance to respond. He could have followed, but didn’t. Again, he was intelligent. As much as he probably didn’t want to be left alone, he stayed put.
Cleo hopped on their second fastest horse (Bdubs had nabbed the fastest) and took off towards Etho at breakneck speed. She watched him, frozen in the distance, but couldn’t exactly turn away without risking a fall.
She pulled up beside him, and slowed the horse to a stop. “Hop on,” Cleo instructed, turning her gaze away and offering him a hand.
A moment later, Etho’s icy grip found her own, and he saddled up behind her, wrapping his arms around his waist. She kicked the horse into motion and they sped off towards the Secret Keeper.
With the horse, anyone could look at them, without consequence. It would be getting Etho off the horse and to the button that would pose a problem, but Cleo wasn’t concerned with that at the moment.
A few times she felt Etho tense behind her, but she couldn’t tell if it was nerves, or if someone was looking at him. She slowed them as they approached spawn.
A small group had gathered, but they were engrossed in conversation. Grian was among them, and his eyes widened as they approached. He gave Cleo a small nod, which she returned.
“Hey, everyone,” Grian said cheerfully. “Take a look at this,” he said gleefully, doing a small dance.
Most of the crowd seemed interested enough to pay attention to him, or kind enough to ignore Cleo and Etho’s approach. She let Etho get off the horse first, then slid down herself, taking care not to look at him.
They were still a good distance away, and the gathered group was mostly distracted. Cleo led the way, ready to pull anyone else away that came by.
Etho was a few paces from the button, when he froze, and looked towards an outcropping of rocks. Cleo followed his gaze and saw none other than Gem, swinging her legs on a ledge above them, looking down at them with a grin and bright eyes.
Bright yellow eyes.
“Hi Cleo,” she said with a happy wave. “And Etho,” she tacked on with a laugh. “About to hand in your task? I haven’t even had a chance to guess it yet.”
Etho laughed nervously, and Cleo could see the terror in his eyes. Had he been able to move, he probably could have leaned over and tapped the button.
Gem, however, was watching him like a hawk.
“Do you want to talk, Gem?” Cleo asked, trying to pull her away.
“I want to guess Etho’s task, first,” she said with a grin and hopped off the rocks, landing on the ground with practiced ease. “Are your eyes… bleeding?” Gem asked as she approached.
“No,” Etho lied, wiping the inner corners of his eyes. It did nothing but smear the blood around.
“Gem–” Cleo tried.
“That’s gross,” Gem said with a laugh, leaning close to Etho. “Now why would they do that, hm?”
“Restone, ya know,” Etho said nervously. “Does all sorts of odd things.”
“I’ve never seen that before,” Gem pressed, playing along with the lie. “Maybe it has something to do with your task…” she pondered.
Cleo couldn’t help but grin to herself. Gem was doing the exact same thing she herself had done before– make Etho sweat until he couldn’t even speak straight.
And maybe… maybe she would let this play out. Just for a minute. To see where it went.
“No, no, completely unrelated to my task.” Etho said with wide eyes, still frozen in place.
Cleo took a few steps back away from the button, behind Gem. “I don’t know, earlier, he told me it was part of his task…” Cleo said.
Etho’s eyes widened in fear, and Gem turned to Cleo in excitement. Cleo slammed her eyes shut.
With Gem turned towards her, Etho was left completely unseen. A second later, she heard the mechanical click of a button, and opened her eyes once more.
“CLEO,” Gem admonished playfully. “You let him press the button.”
“Oops,” Cleo grinned. “My bad.”
Etho stretched his arms over his head and his eyelids wrinkled as he grinned and claimed his hearts. “Easy,” he said casually, trying (and failing once more) to wipe the blood off his face.
“What was your task?” Gem pressed.
“Couldn’t move when people were looking at me.”
Gem groaned. “Oh, I could have gotten you. The blood… oh, you’re a weeping angel, that’s a cruel task,” she said gleefully. “I’ll have your head when we get home,” she said playfully, and danced off.
“Can’t wait,” Etho muttered. He turned to Cleo. “Thank you. I quite literally couldn’t have done it without you.”
Cleo nodded solemnly. “We both know I’m carrying this alliance,” she said sarcastically.
“You are. I’d… I’d be lost without you.”
Cleo scoffed, but was secretly pleased. He was damn right. “Let’s go home,” she said, offering him her arm. “You need to actually get some building done today.”
Etho laughed. “You’re not wrong.”
They walked arm in arm back to the horse, passing by Grian, who was still entertaining over half the server. He seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself, lost in a ridiculous dance.
“Should we…” Cleo trailed off.
“Nah, let him make a fool of himself.”
Cleo nodded. “He is pretty good at that.”
They mounted the horse, much more gracefully this time, now that Cleo could look at Etho without consequence. “You’ve still got blood on your face, “Cleo pointed out, as she pulled Etho onto the horse.
Etho went to wipe it off his face, but Cleo grabbed his wrist and he stilled. With the corner of her sleeve, she mopped it up as best as she could, although she couldn’t fully clean away the smears.
“Sorry,” Etho muttered.
Cleo gave him a kind smile. “It’s not a problem. Let’s go back.”
She snapped the reins, and they went sailing off, in the direction of home.