I still couldn't remember the spell when I woke up the next morning. But I could remember that Gem had managed to contact me. I also remembered that almost for sure Grian had something to do with that weird spell memory loss thing.

I didn't cry about it, even though I wanted to. My experiences in Third Life and with Xornoth had hardened me that much. Instead of sulking in bed like I had during Third Life, I forced myself to get up and move.

I headed down the hill to the Scottage to check on my allies and ask them to tell me the spell so that I could use it on Grian. It was too late. He wanted to stay red, at least for now. And I wanted to stop him. It was for the greater good, even if his idiot red-name self didn't understand that.

"Whoa. What's wrong?" Pearl said when she answered the door. I knew I had ugly purple bruises where Grian had pushed me into the wall, but they must have been worse than I thought. That guy was strong for his size.

"I promised Grian a life," I started.

"Okay, sorry, hold up just a sec," Pearl said. "SCOTT!"

He came down the stairs a minute later. "Yeah? Oh, hi, Blue."

"Hi," I said. "Where's Cleo?"

"She's in the mines," Pearl replied. "What were you saying about giving Grian a life?"

"I promised Grian a life," I started again. "But he wanted to get it from Scar. Or, that's what he said. But then he was taking forever, so I went to his base to talk to him."

"He's a red name though! That's not a very smart thing to do," Scott scolded.

"I thought I could trust him. But when I went over to see what he was waiting for, he kept trying to stop me from giving him a life. I started to say the spell, but then he started yelling that he wanted to kill Bdubs first."

"Oh, for the Boogey kill at the very start," Scott remembered. Pearl shushed him.

I continued, "I kept saying the spell, but then, well, I forgot it."

"Forgot the spell?" Pearl asked.

I nodded. "I still can't remember it."

Pearl paled. "Now that I think of it, neither can I."

We turned to Scott. He thought for a minute before shaking his head. He didn't remember either. "What could have happened?"

"I think that it was either Grian or... okay, if I explain, this is going to take a while."

They sat down.

I told them the truth about being a ghost the whole time, not hiding in a bunker. I also backed up even more and told them about my interactions with the Watchers in Third Life. To finish, I told them about my suspicions that the Watchers played some part in the memory loss.

"It makes sense," Scott said. "They're definitely capable of taking memories. Look at Third Life. And I have heard about them, in books and stuff. But those stories are just legends. Or so I thought."

I hadn't thought about that.

"But why do they want Grian to stay red?" Pearl said, rocking nervously in her seat.

I shrugged. "Grian also said something about how he was exiled and something was supposed to be gone."

Pearl tensed.

Scott noticed as well. But he spoke up about it. "What do you know, Pearl?"

"I agreed not to talk about it," she replied, shaking her head.

"Pearl, we might need to know this," I said desperately.

She winced. "Fine, but you can't tell anyone that you know, not even Gem." She looked pointedly at me.

I nodded.

Pearl took a deep breath. "You know that I never lived in X Life. I came from another Realm called Legacy. We had just left the Second World when I decided to come to the Empires to be with people I knew... from before Legacy. Sausage tagged along just because."

Scott and I leaned in closer.

"It was a world called Evolution. I was there with several other people, a couple of which are now from the Empires. We all had dealings with the Watchers."

I was pretty sure that "dealings" was implying something more than it said.

"Some of us managed to escape Evo when the Watchers turned out to be evil after they took one of us for their own. If the Watchers did dump us all in here-"

"They did," I interrupted.

"-Then we're all here for a reason. I'm guessing that I'm here because I escaped Evo. Several others here were also from Evo, and they had escaped. Scott is Xornoth's brother. Grian... he made me promise not to tell people his past until he did, but he's here as punishment for something big. More than just escaping Evo."

"That doesn't explain why they want Grian to stay red," Scott pointed out.

"Maybe they don't want him red," someone said from the doorway. We turned to see Cleo, back from her mining trip. "Maybe they want him out."

She let us ponder that as she climbed the stairs to the bedroom.

But she soon came back down when thunder rang across the world. A new Boogeyman was being chosen. We all sat awkwardly in the living room.

3...

2...

1...

I crossed my fingers, not just for myself but for Scott, Pearl, and Cleo as well. This alliance had already been affected too much by Boogeymen. There was the whole Joel-kills-Scott-and-then- gets-killed-by-Pearl thing, and then Pearl got killed by Lizzy only a few days later. Not to mention the heartbreaking betrayal that Bigb had committed to Cleo.

You are...

The Boogeyman.

I did everything I could not to panic.

"Is anyone the Boogeyman?" Cleo asked. She was wary. Last time someone in her alliance had received the curse, she had been the victim.

I raised my hand. They all stared at me before Scott raised his as well.

"Two? In the same alliance?" Pearl yelled at nothing in particular.

"Not again..." Cleo said weakly.

"I won't kill any of you," Scott said.

"Me neither," I said. But the curse was already taking hold. Usually, I would have said that I would rather be red than kill someone, but now I was already plotting my target. I wouldn't kill anyone from the Scottage, no. But I would avenge one of my friends.

"Cleo," I said. "Do you want to kill Bigb yourself, or can I?"

Cleo grinned, all signs of panic gone. "As long as he dies."

I nodded.

Pearl looked between me, Scott, and Cleo, horrified. Then she ran upstairs. Didn't she know she was safe?

Since our conversation was mostly finished, I headed back up to my tower. I wanted to plan my kill on Bigb. But I couldn't let him or anyone else know that I was after him.

Instead of going to the Fairy Fort Tower, where Bigb now lived, I went to Magical Mountain to buy some enchantment for my weapons and armor. I would bide my time until I saw a good opportunity.

I had never been to the top of Magical Mountain except while I was a ghost. I had been up there partway when I talked to Joel, but now that I had to climb to the top manually, I started to appreciate the sheer size of the thing. I sighed and started up the mountain, wondering why Scar couldn't have at least made a staircase.

I was three quarters of the way up when my watch vibrated. I allowed myself a quick rest to check it.

Bdubs Onehundred was blown up by Mumbo Jumbo

Was Mumbo a Boogeyman? That made three if he was. I had never seen more than two, but it was entirely possible. The Watchers had been more active than usual these past few weeks, between talking to Martyn, making me normal, taking the spell memories, and now choosing a lot of Boogeymen.

I stared up the hill. Only a few more minutes of leg torture before I could get scammed by a guy who claimed he was a wizard but actually wasn't.

Why was I doing this, exactly?

I sighed and had barely started my climb again when another message popped up.

Mumbo Jumbo was slain by Etho Slab

Revenge, another Boogeyman... or both?

I got to the top and leaned against Scar's house, panting.

Scar had remodeled his dirt house into a weird deepslate and wood structure that looked kind of like a giant ice cream cone that got dropped. It made me crave ice cream. There was a creamery at Rivendell that made the best ice cream and frozen yogurt in the world. I wondered if Scott had their recipe.

The inside was lined with barrels for Scar's goods, all behind a desk. There appeared to be nobody home, but I knew that Scar rarely left his "valuable" wares unguarded.

"Hello? Scar? Joel? Anyone?" I called.

"Do you need enchantment?" Scar asked, climbing down a ladder in the corner that I hadn't seen before. He was still dark green, even after Etho's Boogey kill a while ago.

"Yeah," I said.

He tried to get off of the ladder, but tripped over his long purple robe. "Well then, have you come to the right place!"

I stared at him. "I wonder that too."

"That's not what I- oh wait, you're joking! Come over to the desk of negotiation."

I shook my head, trying not to laugh, and walked closer to the spruce wood desk.

Scar rummaged through a cupboard and pulled out an amethyst crystal. "This is an enchantment pass. You can have unlimited enchantment until you leave this building, for the low, low price of one diamond."

I had three diamonds that I had come across while gathering deepslate for my tower. I pulled one out and set it on the table. "Done."

He handed me the crystal. Okay, so I got free amethyst, too. All I needed was two copper ingots and I had a spyglass.

Holding the purple crystal made me think of Gem. She had said she was captured. By who? And why?

I decided it wasn't important.

I followed Scar up the ladder to the attic, or the inside of the ice cream cone. I hadn't seen a bed anywhere in the house. The upside-down ice cream cone seemed to be nothing but a shop. I wondered where Scar was actually living.

Inside the attic, there were three raised platforms made of amethyst. One of them was larger than the others, big enough to hold both a person and the enchanting table.

Scar stepped onto the largest platform and gestured to the others. "Pick a platform, pick a platform." He sounded like a game show host.

I awkwardly stepped on one of the crystal platforms, now thoroughly convinced that Scar was insane.

"Okay, so I'm going to put the table here," he said, placing the Enchanter on the same pedestal that he stood on. "You stay on your platform. You're close enough that you can enchant, but far enough away that if you destroy the table, I can pick it up before you do. I do apologize for the inconvenience, but it's for the safety of the Enchanter."

Okay. So maybe Scar wasn't as dumb as I thought. "Clever."

"I know, right?" He grinned with pride.

I took off pieces of my armor and enchanted them one by one, setting them on the table and reciting the spells that the book told me.

When I was finished, I was about to thank him and leave when I had an idea.

I could kill Scar. He had no idea that I was Boogeyman, and he wasn't very good at fighting. I would almost certainly win. And I could steal the Enchanter.

I stopped myself before I pulled out my sword, though. If I killed him, I wouldn't be able to kill Bigb like I had promised Cleo.

"Would you like to buy some magical crystals while you're here? I have luck, courage, silver tongue..."

"No. They're fake," I said, reconsidering my decision not to kill him.

"They're only fake if you don't believe in them!"

"You sound like a kids' show," I said, rolling my eyes. "I know magic when I see it."

"What, do you know a 'real' wizard then?" He taunted, using air quotes.

"In fact, I do."

That was followed by a sort of staring contest between us, where each person tried to get the other to admit to their lies. I put a hand on the hilt of my sword.

"Who?" Scar finally said, curiosity taking over.

"My sister back home in the Empires," I said, still glaring.

"How do you know that she's real? What if I'm a real wizard and she's fake?"

"I've seen her power in action. I've seen her make crystals that can communicate across worlds, enter people's dreams... how did you get your powers?"

"From- from a mystical being."

"Describe them."

"Why are you testing me? I should be testing you," he grumbled, but answered my question. "They didn't really have features. They were just a grey silhouette that offered me a purple orb."

I sucked in my breath. "That's... that's exactly how Gem got hers."

"Gem?"

"That's my sister."

He looked uneasy for a minute. But he quickly lightened up. "So, now that you know that I'm real, do you want to buy a crystal?"

I politely refused and started down the mountain, thinking about what had just happened.

It wasn't impossible that the being that gave Gem her powers would give magic to someone else, right? Even if that someone wasn't really using their power to help anyone?

I shook off my doubts and went to find Bigb.

I had never talked to him. I had barely seen him in Third Life. He probably wouldn't trust me enough not to kill him.

I headed to the Fairy Fort Tower anyway. They seemed to have redecorated a little. Bigb and Lizzie had moved in permanently and even built small houses for themselves in the courtyard. But the place seemed darker somehow, even though it was well lit.

The two smaller houses were a cute little mushroom house and a stone tent shape that someone had thrown together. I assumed the mushroom was Lizzie's because she couldn't build anything ugly to save her life.

Unfortunately, when I got there they had company. Grian was at the tower for some reason, while Lizzie, Ren, and Bigb tried to keep their distance. Joel was setting a trap on Lizzie's cute mushroom house while they talked. I was mildly surprised about it, but then I realized he might have been another Boogeyman. He saw me and waved, and then touched a finger to his mouth as if telling me to be quiet. As if I didn't already know.

"Can't you just give me the wither skull?" Grian whined. "It's mine anyway."

"Scott gave it to us and said to keep it away from you," Lizzie said. As always when there was an outsider, Ren had his bow silently pointed at the red name. Bigb watched a little to the side, his back to me.

I didn't know when Scott had given them a wither skull. It must have been while I was building my tower.

Grian pulled out his sword. "Give me the skull."

"It's three to one," Ren warned, pulling the bowstring back even further.

If Joel was trying to kill Lizzie, and I was after Bigb, then if Grian killed Ren we'd be fine. It was actually three to three, but the four of them in the courtyard didn't know that.

"Let's discuss it like civilized humans. And werewolves. And axolotls. Put the bow down, Ren," Lizzie said gently. Of course, she wasn't an axolotl anymore.

With a little bit of grumbling, Ren put his bow away and hopped down from the pillar to consult his allies.

Joel started adding the finishing touches to his trap. He was placing the last TNT minecart when Grian wandered behind the house where he was working and said, "You know you have another visitor, right?"

"Uh, hi..." Joel said.

"Boogeyman," Ren said automatically, taking out his axe.

Joel started to clean up his TNT. "Okay, I am a Boogeyman, and I was trying to kill someone, but please don't tell? I won't target this alliance again."

I burrowed myself deeper into my little bush hiding place. If I was discovered, then my plan would be ruined.

Grian pointed his sword at Joel. "We're negotiating. You're not supposed to be here."

Joel backed up and glanced around for an escape. "I know. Can I go now?"

For half a minute, I thought Grian was going to kill him. Then he lowered the sword. "Get out of here."

Joel nodded and continued cleaning up his trap. But he was going too fast and not being careful enough. He touched a TNT minecart. I knew all too well what happened when people did that.

With a loud BOOM, the toadstool hut exploded. Joel flew backward and landed on the ground before his body dissolved into yellow flames. Dead by his own trap.

Joel Smallbeans blew up

Lizzie, Bigb, and Ren jumped backwards, screaming. I can't say I didn't jump a little myself, but I managed to stay quiet. Grian burst out laughing at the backfired trap.

All my efforts to keep reds away, and Joel died as soon as I couldn't heal him. Thanks a lot, Watchers.

He would probably be after the Scottage again. I had made him promise to leave them alone, but now that he was red again the deal was off. We had an enemy.

Ren looked around, startled. Bigb nervously took a bite out of a loaf of bread to heal himself. Lizzie yelled, "My beautiful house! My valuables chest! No!" Grian was still laughing, but I could see that his skin was paler than usual. He was hiding it pretty well, but he knew how close he had come to dying.

What if the Watchers did want him out? Why was he here in the first place, if they didn't want him there? Cleo's theory made sense and also didn't at the same time.

The Castle Alliance, even though they had a red name in their midst, relaxed. And that was a fatal mistake.

Joel, who had returned for his things, popped out of the forest behind me.

"Hello," he said.

"Please don't kill me?" I pleaded. I couldn't kill him because he was red. I didn't want to, anyway.

"I won't. I just want to kill Lizzie."

"Lizzie?" I said. His own wife?

"Yeah. This'll be a lot more fun if she's on my side."

"But she's green."

"When I was yellow, I knew that I wouldn't stay yellow much longer. I wanted to get her so that when I turned red, I could just go and kill her once and have her with me."

I was both touched and horrified by this.

"Who are you targeting?"

"Bigb."

"Oh yeah, 'cause you're allied with Cleo, huh? I'll have to blow up the Scottage with Grian if he'll help me."

"No, you won't!" I said.

"I will. They're the reason I turned red the first time."

"Every time you've been a Boogeyman, you've died and turned red," I said, shaking my head.

He shrugged. "More opportunity to get revenge on the ones who killed me," he said. "You wanna help me kill them? I bet Grian will join in and get Ren."

I didn't want another red, so I hoped that Grian would just back out. But knowing him, he would join in. And then they would probably kill me.

But on the other hand, I really could use the help...

"As long as you don't kill me right after," I said.

"Deal. I can't promise anything for Grian, though."

I nodded. "If he kills me, I won't blame you."

We shook on it. Then we ran in.

Most of the Boogey kills I had seen so far involved someone hanging out with someone, and then betraying them. I had never seen someone just run in and slaughter a victim, but I had a red name to help me.

I attacked Bigb from behind. My sword clanged against his armor, leaving probably a bruise but no lasting injury. He yelled and turned around, pulling out the battle axe strapped to his belt to fight back. He managed to parry my next blow.

Joel had immediately taken Lizzie by surprise, slashing through a gap in her armor. The blade hit its mark, and Lizzue erupted into bright green flames, leaving her items and armor behind.

Lizzie Shadow was slain by Joel Smallbeans

Ren yelled a battle cry and ran into the fight, but was intercepted by Grian. Ren angrily swung his axe over and over again, his sight set not on his attacker but on the one who had killed his ally and commander. Good but also bad for him, Joel joined Grian in fighting the werewolf.

I found a gap in Bigb's armor and stabbed.

Bigb Statz was slain by Bluemoon Tay

Ren was holding his own remarkably well for a yellow against two reds. Now that I was cured, I could go against those reds as well.

I ran and attacked Joel. He already hated the Scottage, what could possibly make it worse?

He cried out in alarm when I stabbed him. It wasn't very deep, but it still did damage. And it was bleeding.

Joel turned to attack me.

Ren slammed the hilt of his sword into Grian's head and knocked him into a sweet berry bush. Grian fell over into the thorny bush and apparently had taken a lot of damage in the fight before, because he got one of the most embarrassing deaths possible.

Grian Buildoff was pricked to death whilst trying to escape Ren Dog

Thoughts raced in my head. One, that had to be the most hilarious death message I had seen ever. Two, Grian was out, just like the Watchers possibly wanted. And three, Joel was still trying to kill me.

Ren stepped back to take a quick look at his wounds.

And Joel got a lucky shot.

Bluemoon Tay was slain by Joel Smallbeans

------

I woke up at home.

Well, not at home, but as close to home as I could get in Last Life. I was in my tower.

I sat there for a minute, processing what had just happened. Joel and I made a deal. We ran in to kill Lizzie and Bigb. We succeeded. Grian was out. Joel killed me.

I had killed Bigb.

Now that I was cured, the guilt of what I had done came crashing down. What had come over me? I hated fighting.

But Bigb was Cleo's enemy, even if he hadn't actually done anything to her on purpose, right? I was helping my allies.

I settled back in bed. Yeah, that was it.

But something still bothered me.

Cleo had been betrayed by Bigb, even if he was under the Boogeyman Curse. And I had just used that curse to probably make the Scottage further enemies with the Castle Alliance.

What was I thinking?

It actually didn't hit that hard that Grian was out. He had almost killed me, after all. He had kept me from helping him, and death was what he got. He was probably watching the Southlanders or Scar as a ghost now. See how it feels, I thought bitterly.

Or maybe he was just haunting someone for fun. That sounded like him.

I rolled out of bed and landed on the floor with a thump. I didn't want to get up, but Ren or Joel had my stuff and I needed to get it.

I went to Joel's cottage first, spare sword in hand. He didn't seem to be home, so I went to the Fairy Fort Tower.

Ren, Bigb, and Lizzie were all there, as well as Martyn. His presence didn't surprise me much, since I had seen him making an alliance with Ren a while ago. I was a little panicked that Martyn would give away something. But no, he glared at me to keep quiet. Gladly, I thought.

I was met with open hostility from the Castle Alliance at first. Ren, even though I had turned against the reds at the last minute, was not happy that I had attacked in the first place. However, he seemed to care more about the fact that he had failed to protect Lizzie. After I apologized to Bigb, he sympathized a little with me because, after all, he had been the Boogeyman himself. That was the advantage of targeting someone, or a group of someones, who already knew what it was like to be under the curse. Bigb said that the Scottage and the castle Alliance weren't any worse off than they were already. I promised to try and get Cleo to listen to me, but the last time that had happened was with the llama, Pizza, and that had ended in Scar turning red, trying to steal something, and causing a war even after he was out.

Eventually, the subject of our conversation became the reds who attacked them with me. Grian was the first one out, after being the last one alive in Third Life. We laughed bitterly at the coincidence. I wondered yet again if Cleo was right, but I didn't tell them her theory out loud because Cleo was obviously a sore subject in the Castle Alliance. Another reason that I didn't tell them was that it had things to do with the Watchers, and Martyn obviously didn't want me to talk about them.

Joel had retreated after he killed me. He didn't have anything against Ren. He just wanted him to be distracted while Joel killed Lizzy. Ren, of course, had every right to kill Joel. So there was still a red name out there, except he would be threatening my allies instead of my neighbors. Wonderful.

They did give me back my stuff, after making me promise not to target them again. I reminded them that I had been a Boogeyman and didn't have much control. They took that as an agreement.

I went to the Scottage after that. I needed to tell them what had happened.

The first thing Pearl said when she opened the door was, "Are you cured?"

I nodded and let myself in.

"You don't need to knock on the door," Pearl said. "This is practically a second home for you."

"I want you to know that the person coming in is me and not like, Joel so that you don't come running down the stairs with your swords out, tripping, and impaling yourself."

She shrugged. "Suit yourself."

Cleo came down the stairs when she heard visitors. "Hi, Blue. I saw that you killed Bigb."

I nodded, guilt leaking in again. "Where's Scott?"

"He went to go get a kill," Cleo said with a shrug.

Right on cue, my watch buzzed. So did Pearl's earbuds and Cleo's armband.

Impulse Esvee fell from a high place

"Oh no, poor Impulse," Pearl said, actually sounding genuine.

"The question is, did someone push him off or did he fall?" Cleo said.

It was likely that he had just fallen from the ghast farm or into a hole; however, it was also likely that he had been pushed.

"Another red," I said. "Another person who possibly hates us."

All three of us winced.

Scott came back an hour later. "I'm cured!"

We cheered. The Scottage was safe from the curse for now.

"Who did you kill?" Cleo asked.

"Impulse. I spent three hours chasing him all over the place before I pushed him into a pit."

"So that's how he died," Pearl said.

Another person who definitely hated us.

"And you need to explain what happened with Bigb and Joel and Lizzy and Grian," Scott said, pointing at me.

"We can do it over dinner, right?" Pearl complained. "I'm hungry."

We laughed and pulled out steak and potatoes from our rations.

"So," I started, in between mouthfuls of food. "I went up to Magical Mountain first to get enchanted. Then I chewed Scar out for being a fake wizard. And then-"

I grinned and stopped talking when they all laughed. I decided not to tell them about the fact that Scar might have been genuine.

"And then I went to the Fairy Fort Tower."

"It's actually called the Shadow Tower now," Scott interrupted. Or at least, that's what Lizzie said when I went over there in my Impulse chase."

"Okay, the Shadow Tower. I went there and it was WAY crowded. All the members of the Castle Alliance -" Cleo flinched " - were there. Grian was there, too, trying to get them to give him a wither skull that you guys apparently gave them. And Joel was there when he was still yellow, setting a trap. He was another Boogeyman."

"Another?" Cleo said. "There's you, Scott, Mumbo, Etho, and now Joel too?"

"I'm more worried that he's red again," Pearl said gravely.

"We gave them the wither skull because we didn't want Grian to get his hands on it," said Scott. "He would be - would have been - dangerous with the skulls. We didn't even trust ourselves to keep two of them, so we gave one to the Castle Alliance."

I nodded in acknowledgement of their comments. "They caught Joel and then his trap backfired, turning him red. Then he came back and decided to help me kill Bigb because he wanted to get Lizzie."

"YOU HELPED JOEL?" Scott yelled.

"Shut up and let me tell the story. We went in and killed Lizzie and Bigb. Grian helped once we were in and attacked Ren. Then I was cured, so I attacked Joel."

"Good!" Pearl cried.

"Then Ren pushed Grian into a berry bush-"

"Not the best way to go," Cleo grinned.

"-and then Joel killed me. Now the entire Castle Alliance is yellow, and I'm light green, and Grian is out."

"At least you killed Bigb," Cleo said.

I stared out the window. There was an awkward silence.

"First major battle of Last Life. Of course Grian was in it," Pearl said in a feeble attempt to lighten the mood.

"Joel's here!" I yelled in alarm.

"What?" Scott, Pearl, and Cleo ran and crowded the window.

He was. Joel was standing outside with some TNT in hand. He locked eyes with us through the window, placed a singular TNT, and lit it. It blew a crater in the terrain.

Then he left.

My guess was that he had come to kill us, but he wanted there to be just one or two people. Now that he had arrived and found all four of us here, he settled for a warning.

"Well, that was weird," Pearl observed.

We all agreed.

"I'm going to go up to my tower to mentally punish myself," I said.

"Maybe... just in case... maybe you should move in here," Scott said.

"Why?"

"Because Joel isn't yellow anymore. He's going to come after all of us, and you're an easy target since you live alone."

I got an idea of my own. "I based a lot of defenses of my tower off the Crastle."

"I noticed," Cleo grinned.

"It's on top of a hill that will be tiring to climb and easy to pick off enemies from. Also, the tower is made of stronger material. What if you guys moved in there? I know it would be kind of a struggle to get all your stuff out of the Scottage, but it's a defensible location."

Scott thought for a minute. "I don't think there's enough space," he said finally. "But what if we built a tower as high as the mountain and your tower, and we connected them with a bridge? If we need to, we could rig the bridge to blow up when we flick a lever."

"But that would make two entrances to both towers," I said.

"It would give us a way to get to one another easily."

The pros outweighed the cons in this plan. "Let's do it."

We looked at Pearl and Cleo.

"Why not? I think it's a good idea," Pearl said.

"Make your tower entrance water, not a bubblevator or ladder," Cleo advised. "But I'm in."

I momentarily forgot about mentally punishing myself when we started the new tower. It was extremely tall and thin, made of deepslate and cobblestone until they got to the top. Then, they expanded outward to make a large platform that they then added railings and a roof over top. I went to my tower to make a balcony at my top floor, and we built a bridge to connect the two towers, Cleo and I working from my tower and Scott and Pearl working from theirs. We were done in no time.

When Joel came back, we would be ready.

Just as we placed the aesthetic touches on our build to make it look better, our communication devices signaled a death message.

Lizzie Shadow tried to swim in lava

"What? Another red?" Cleo cried.

I typed, accident or kill?

A new message popped up from Lizzie. Jimmy.

Confused, I scrolled up in search of a death message involving Jimmy. I found one from yesterday that I hadn't noticed because we were too busy building.

Jimmy Solidarity blew up

"He's yellow now?" Pearl peered over my shoulder at my watch.

"How did he die?" Scott said.

"He blew up," I said. "But I don't know where or how."

"One new red," Cleo mused. "How many are there now?"

"There's Joel," Pearl started.

"And Lizzie," I added.

"Bdubs probably still is, too," Scott added.

He was for sure if everyone had their memory of the spell erased. They all were stuck as murderers until either they died or someone willing to give them lives remembered the spell.

Part of me knew that that would happen in a very long time, if ever. The other part was still hoping. There were so many yellows, it wouldn't be long before a red killed one of them, and that person would kill someone else, and so on in a giant chain effect until the remaining green and yellows lived in constant fear, too scared to leave home even with a group.

That was the fate that awaited these people and this world if nobody remembered the spell. Or if someone (like Scar) remembered, but would only sell the information for another life.

I could easily see that happening.

I built a taller bubblevator tower from the Scottage Tower. I wanted to be able to see almost the whole world laid out before me, so that I could see any attackers before they arrived. I decided to call that watchtower the Crow's Nest, after the little basket at the top of a mast in a ship. To complete the effect, I covered the floor in hay just because I felt like it

I still had the one-time enchantment pass from Scar's shop. He had scratched a large X in it, so that I couldn't just walk back into his shop and use it again. But it could still be chiseled and carved into a clear circle for a spyglass. I went down and grabbed two copper ingots from one of my chests. I welded them together, chiseled the amethyst, and put the pieces together to make a brand-new telescope. I took it to the top of the Crow's Nest and looked out over the map.

Bdubs was the only one in the snow castle, possibly because Etho had moved, but I found it more plausible that he had just gone mining or something. Bdubs seemed to be building a TNT cannon, but it was facing the other side of the snow fort, not us, so we were safe from that red name until he figured out how to turn his buddy red. Then they would wreak havoc across the world together.

At Magical Mountain, I was alarmed to see that Scar was watching me as well with his own spyglass. I waved. Scar looked embarrassed and put his spyglass away.

I looked toward the distant Southlands and even more distant Shadow Tower. It was too far to see them even with a spyglass, but it was still nice to know that I could see everywhere from the top of this tower.

The first traces of dusk were starting to darken the sky. I climbed down the ladder to the Scottage Tower, and then crossed the bridge to my own hilltop fortress. I collapsed in my bed, exhausted from a long day of building, but sleep was a long time coming.

I didn't want to admit it to myself or my allies, but I was afraid of the four red names. If they were going to attack, they would probably attack at night. Should I go out and keep watch? But I wouldn't get any sleep if I did...

Once I finally did manage to close my eyes, I was immediately plunged into another conversation with one of the Watchers. Well, not really a conversation, just an ominous voice. A warning.

It won't be long now before the shadows deepen. You can join them... or be crushed when you try to fight back.