"Hey, you alright?"

Grian pursed his lips. Xisuma was helping him set up his bed, and must've noticed the anxious vibes rolling off him. "It's nothing, just some pesky anxiety." He answered. He sighed and flopped down on the bed.

Xisuma sat down next to him, a worried look shooting through his visor. "You sure?"

"Y-yeah. Just, antsy I guess." Grian replied.

Xisuma paused for a moment. "If it makes you feel better, I know what caused your physical changes in a Faerie."

Grian shot up. "You do!?"

Xisuma nodded. "It was caused by the XP you gained during the phantom hunt. The magic must've awoken the previously inactive DNA you had. It changed your instincts first, and then moved onto the more physical stuff, which is why it took so long."

"Wow." Grian blinked. "It's strange. I finally know how. And I also know why, since I've apparently always been a Fae. But..." He twiddled his thumbs. "It makes me wonder, is there anyone else out there like me? Where does my magic even come from? It's like, one question gets answered, and then three more pop up."

"Well, perhaps future you will discover that." Xisuma gave the Fae a reassuring smile. "We are moving servers soon, anyways."

"Oh right. New books, new villagers, and a looming nether update as well." Grian stretched. "I guess I've answered enough questions for now. Time for me to move on, and begin accepting  myself and recovering."

Xisuma grinned. "That's the kind of thing Joe will be thrilled to hear from you. Tomorrow."

"Yeah, we should get some shut-eye, huh?"

"Mmhm." Xisuma stood up and walked over to his own bed. "Especially me, I probably have a dozen or so phantoms out to get me."

Grian giggled and flopped down onto the bed, almost forgetting his looming promise.

Almost.

The book seemed to glare at him from the other side of the room, drawing a silent sigh from Grian's mouth. He glanced over to see Xisuma in bed, waiting for the sun to finish setting. Grian quietly moved to the floor, to avoid falling asleep himself.

A few minutes passed, and Grian let out a sigh of relief. Xisuma wouldn't wake up till morning, and Grian could finally get his mission over with. He walked over to Xisuma and quietly snatched the device off the nightstand.

His fingers shook as he hastily typed in the command that would take him to the server island. He tried to ignore how normal the admin screen felt to him. He tried to ignore the instincts from evo flooding back. He reminded himself that he was no longer an admin. He gave that up when he left Evo.

He pressed enter and squeezed his eyes shut as the teleportation whisked him away to the server island. When the vertigo finally stopped, he opened his eyes.

The server island was a tiny sphere built from bedrock in the sky, far above build limit, and directly over world spawn. The sphere was only lit up by ender roda, and a console sat in one corner, barely used. There was also a portal on it, that when Grian glanced through, led only to a wall.

Grian gulped and walked over to the console and typed a couple things on it. He poked his head back through, and sure enough, the wall had disappeared, leaving only a void and other floating portals blocked off by their own walls.

He took a deep breath and ripped out a couple of his own feathers, wincing. He quickly tossed them in to the void before pulling back through the portal and scampering over to the console.

His hands flew across the surface, closing the wall back down and locking it securely.

Grian took a shaky breath and teleported himself back to Xisuma's ase before wiping the commands off the communicator's history and placing it back on the nightstand.

He scrambled into bed, welcoming the quiet darkness. His paranoia had peaked, and he didn't need a freakout, not right now. He just wanted to sleep and forget all of what happened.

His story was over, wasn't it? No more to worry about. It was over.

But deep down he knew he wasn't that lucky.

______________________

Sam quickly typed in his code, excited that it was all coming together. He had the feathers and he'd imbued them in his virus, ready to send it through to Hermitcraft. It originally wasn't going to be easy, since he thought he'd be trapped in that book still. But he wasn't anymore. He had someone to work through.

He entered the codes and watched as the feathers crumbled to ashes. Now, all he had to do was tell his friend.

Sam skipped over to the End portal and hopped through, running over to the cloaked person, who was studying the void again.

"It's done! Once morning comes, I can transfer the virus into the system and then our plan can continue. You've done your part, yes?"

The man stood up, his cobalt blue cloak fluttering around his feet. "I have. I just need you to lay the bait for me."

Sam bounced on his heels a bit. "So, who's our target? Is it gonna be Mumbo? I know him and Greeon are super close."

"Actually, I've gone for the bigger fish." The tall man pulled out his communicator and showed the screen to Sam. "I got a hand from a certain someone who was fading away. A certain... alter ego."

Sam's grin widened as he read the words on the screen. "I thought he'd perma'd by now?"

"Well, as of now, he has. Let's just say that I'm fulfilling his final wish." The cloaked man gave a bitter laugh.

"Genius. He can't ignore us now, not after we've taken the core of the server." Sam pulled out a knife and twirled it between his fingers. "It'll be utter chaos once their admin goes missing."