The End: An Official Minecraft Novel

by Catherynne M. Valente

  We await your orders, Your Excellency, Mouth of Chaos, bowed Kraj.

  He didn’t mean that obedient bow or those obedient words. Eresha knew it. Kraj knew it. They each knew what the other knew. Telepathy made diplomacy so difficult, hardly any enderman bothered with it.

  I have no orders for you, spawn of misrule, the Mouth thought, dipping her head to accept his submission.

  What do you mean?

  Eresha began her own pacing.

  The war is over. More precisely, there is no war. There are no humans here. It is over. It was a mistake.

  Kraj stared at her.

  Are you not relieved? she thought. No death, no bloodshed, no horror of loss. Go home to your End. All of us will go home to our Ends. We will live in peace again. Return the weapons and armor and supplies to the fragments on the end ship. We will not need them. We need only one another once more. I have communed with the Great Chaos. This is the path of the endermen.

  You are a fool, Commander Kraj thought harshly.

  You may not speak to me that way, fragment, Eresha barked in his mind.

  I am not a fragment. I am older than you. And it seems I am far more intelligent. Only a fool would believe that since we cannot see the enemy today, there is no enemy at all. I tell you, the humans would not just give up. The End is rich and beautiful and vast. What general leading the human horde would simply walk away from such spoils? What knights would prepare themselves for battle and then wander off before the plunder? They are coming, Eresha. They are already here. Just because the mutant greenboy is not a double agent and saboteur does not mean there are none. How can you be so dense?

  The Mouth stood very still, controlling her anger in a way no enderman could unless the whole teeming nation of them stood shoulder to shoulder. Perhaps she was stronger than Kraj thought. The crowds below were too far away to have an effect. They were on equal footing. Yet she could keep her temper easily. Kraj could barely stop himself from boiling over.

  I have communed with the Great Chaos. This is the path of the endermen. I have spoken, she thought icily.

  You have spoken wrongly, snapped Kraj.

  Captain Tamat and Corporal Murrum stepped away from their commander in horror. The Mouth could not be wrong. It was impossible. She alone had the ear of the Great Chaos. She could not even be questioned. They stepped away to avoid the lightning bolt or fireball that would surely obliterate Kraj where he stood.

  Nothing happened to him.

  And what is this enemy you speak of, Kraj? Eresha thought. Her magenta eyes filled with impatience and contempt. She thought he was so far beneath her. Kraj fumed. Humans? We see humans every day in the Overworld. It is very little trouble to kill one if they irritate you. If you want to find your enemy, it is as simple as finding a house and waiting for them to return to it. Why wash our country in ender blood when, and I cannot stress this enough, nothing is happening and no one is here?

  Yes, humans! The commander exploded. Of COURSE they are our enemies! Anyone who is not of the End is our enemy. Anyone who is not like us! Anyone outside our great End! They kill us for sport. They steal our hearts to travel just a little faster. They gouge out our eyes to decorate their doorways to our country, where they do nothing but pillage and murder. The End is for endermen! he thundered.

  But it is not, Eresha continued calmly. You forget yourself. You forget your Enderdome training. It is also for shulkers, for endermites, for chorus trees and the ender dragon itself. Every country is shared among many. And once, the End was for whoever built these great towers and palaces and pillars and roads. For we certainly did not. Some ancestor of ours took it from them, whoever they were. This is the path of the Great Chaos, my fragment. It is not always kind.

  I do not want to be like them. Do you, Eresha? How many times have humans come to the End and cut a path of dead endermen and stolen treasure throughout our world?

  Many, Eresha admitted. I cannot count them all.

  Do you remember your first invasion?

  The Mouth of the Great Chaos nodded. I was a fragment. First of my End. Little cleverer than a bright wolf, even with all my family gathered, for then there were only three of us. Three of us, and two of them. Two were enough. I had never seen anything like it. One seemed to command the very elements. When she killed us, we were powerless to stop her. Frozen in time or burning to death when no fire was nearby. She was like water itself. Like rain. She fell on us and we died. Endermen feared her, but marched on. That is who we are. And wherever he walked, fire followed him. They took everything. It was years before my End recovered. Sometimes, I think it never did.

  Kraj threw up his arms. Then you know I am right! They must be stopped! You were right before. Why wash our country in blood? We should take theirs! Together, we could march on the Overworld and destroy all their works. Wipe out the Forces of Order once and for all. Together, endermen are unstoppable. It is only because we insist on staying apart like stunted donkeys that we do not rule this universe. Perhaps we should change. Evolve. Perhaps there should be a new law: No enderman shall henceforward ever be alone.

  Eresha rolled her eyes at his little speech. I also remember rising up to the Overworld and slaughtering a village of humans because I and my fellow-fragments simply wished to do it. This is the balance of the Great Chaos and the Forces of Order. I accept it. I suggest you do, too. There is no threat. Go home. You are no longer a commander, but simply Kraj again. Go home to your fragments and sub-fragments and sub-sub-fragments. I have spoken.

  No. No. Kraj’s blood thickened and ran cold. She took his title. He felt it as painfully as a blow from a sword. She couldn’t do that. She couldn’t rob him like that. She couldn’t make him go back to no one listening to him. To everyone laughing at batty old Kraj and paying him no attention. He wouldn’t let her.

  Telepathy made diplomacy very difficult, it was true. Betrayal was even harder. You couldn’t think about it for even an instant before you did it. You had to act faster than the speed of thought. Faster than your brain telling your arms to move.

  Just that fast, Kraj lifted Eresha, the Mouth of the Great Chaos, off her feet and flung her off the edge of the seventh courtyard of the Grand High and Glorious Cathedral of Entropy. She plummeted silently into nothingness. Black into black. Enderman into the End.

  Kraj, commander once more, stood and watched her fall. He was filled with the most extraordinary calm. And why stop at commander, now that he thought of it? Why stop at all?

  All hail the Great Chaos, he thought after her.

  Jax materialized on a sandy yellow outcropping of rock. The void yawned away beneath. His toes skittered on the edge, sending pebbles tumbling over and down into nothing. Mo and Loathsome popped into space next to him, fury in her eyes, excitement and interest in the horse’s.

  “What did you do?” Mo hissed.

  “Cut through the crap and made a command decision,” Jax said, rolling his eyes. He pointed behind them.

  A thunderous roar echoed somewhere far above them. ED was flying in its long, slow circles in the distance. Jax had brought them close to the dragon’s island. But why?

  And Jax teleported! That could only mean he had an ender pearl. He was packing the absolute soul of some poor dead enderman somewhere. Where? And who was it? Mo didn’t suppose she’d ever know the answer to the second question.

  “Shall we? After you, my lady,” Jax said with a mock bow.

  “Shall we what?”

  Jax glanced up. “Well, you can stay here while I go up and make quick work of that dragon so we can get out of here and figure out what’s up with your whole—” He gestured at Mo, Loathsome, either or both. “—situation. Or, since you and your pet lizard are so cuddly and close, you could come up with me and distract him so I can try to one-shot the old monster and then we can head up to the Overworld as friends who had a fun a
dventure together killing interesting things. I’d rather the second. I’m not awful like you said. I’m really not. I’m just…ambitious and highly motivated by insurmountable challenges. That’s what my hubunit used to say, anyway.” He winked at her.

  “Why do you even care about me or my twin or what happened to us?”

  “Oh, I don’t,” Jax assured her. “I just want to figure it out before Roary does. Can you win at solving mysteries? Because I want to win at solving mysteries. I just want to win full stop. It’s kind of my thing.”

  Mo glared at Jax. “I’m not helping you kill my friend. And I’m not going anywhere with you. I hate you. You had no right to teleport me without my permission. You had no right to touch me without my permission—”

  “Is he your friend though?” Jax interrupted.

  “It’s not a him!”

  “Whatever!”

  “You know I can just teleport away, right?” Mo yelled. “I don’t have to stay here with you at all.”

  Jax crossed his arms. “Go ahead. See, I don’t think you can. I think you’re not in your enderman suit anymore. I think you can’t do anything I can’t do, and I don’t think you have the ender pearls to do it.”

  Mo froze. Was it true? Was she stuck moving from place to place on her slow, heavy legs like any other human girl? She hesitated. She knew she should just do it, do it right now, blink out here and blink on somewhere else. But what if it didn’t work? What if Jax was right? Mo didn’t think she could bear it if he was.

  Loathsome gave a low, nervous whinny. Something moved in the distance. Something out on one of the other crags on the underside of the ender dragon’s island. Something almost the same color as the great sky beyond.

  An enderman was standing out there on the rocks. Probing the air with her long, black fingers.

  Mo was so excited she forgot nearly everything that had happened to her over the past two hours. She forgot that no endermen were roaming around on ED’s island as they usually would, keeping one another calm and clever. She forgot that nearly everyone had answered Kraj and Eresha’s call to arms. She called out to the enderman with her mind, waving her arms in the air.

  Hello! All hail the Great Chaos! Help! Help me! I’ve been kidnapped by this human! He’s going to attack ED! Help us! Where is your End? I am Mo, twin of Fin. Do you know me?

  The enderman turned toward Mo. It was wearing one of the golden chestplates Fin and Mo had collected and Kraj had commandeered. The metal glinted in the dim End light. The enderman’s purple eyes narrowed. Its skin flushed red with rage. It screamed a scream of total hate and eternal fury into the sky. Its thoughts were not elegant. They were not organized into tidy sentences. There was only one enderman, after all. One enderman alone is nothing but the shape anger takes when it wants to walk the world.

  DIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIE

  It charged her.

  As it crossed the distance between them, Mo recognized the enderman.

  No, she thought. Lopp, no, it’s me!

  The enderman did not stop.

  Lopp, stop! Remember when you offered to be my hubunit? A unit of superior strength and power? Now would be a great time! Lopp, come on! It’s me! It’s still just me!

  But it wasn’t Lopp, not really. Not out here, by herself, with no one else around. There was nothing in her mind for Mo to latch on to. There was no her there.

  Lopp’s fist collided with Mo’s face. Loathsome reared up to protect her mother, spraying black and yellow fluid from her churning muscles.

  “Idiot!” Jax yelled, stomping toward them. “You don’t call to them, for frick’s sake.”

  Lopp landed a blow between Mo’s shoulder blades. She went flying and sprawled on the yellow rock. The enderman hurled herself at Jax and got a hit in against his ribs. He grunted, but that was all.

  “It’s just one mob, geez,” Jax huffed. “You can’t handle one mob by yourself?”

  “I don’t want to handle her!” Mo shoved back at Lopp’s rampaging form. She tried to be gentle. It wasn’t easy to shove someone around a cliff that dropped off into infinite space without hurting them. Much harder than just punching them until they fell off the edge. Lopp’s dark body flushed where Mo hit her. It seemed to only make her angrier.

  Lopp, it’s me! It’s Mo! I know I look different, but I’m not different! Same old Mo! I’m just a fragment, I’m no danger to you. Take me away from him, we can go find Kraj’s army together.

  Lopp swung her arms wildly, thoughtlessly. One fist caught Loathsome under the chin and slammed her into the rock wall. The other smashed Jax’s nose.

  Yes! Get him! Try not to get my horse though. She’s going to come with us.

  Lopp screeched and lifted Mo up off her feet by her throat.

  Wait, no! Mo thought frantically. That’s not what I meant. Please, Lopp. You must remember me. I need a hubunit of superior strength!

  But all the enderman saw was a human girl. An enemy. A monster.

  Jax pulled an iron sword out of his pocket. (How did he fit so much in there?) Without thinking about it much at all, he stabbed Lopp through the chest.

  No! Mo thought.

  “No!” she screamed.

  Loathsome gurgled furiously and sank her sharp teeth into the enderman’s arm. Jax put one foot up against the sagging, dying enderman to push her off the blade of his sword. Lopp’s magenta eyes blazed hate and pain. Her fist tightened on Mo’s throat.

  DIE, the thing that used to be Lopp thought.

  And then, faster than a breath, there was no one at all standing on the outcropping of yellow rock. No girl, no boy, no battle.

  The ender dragon howled somewhere far above.

  Space flipped upside down. The black sky and yellow rock suddenly floated above them. Then they flipped inside out. Then a brilliant light obliterated the world around them. It consumed the End and the island and the crag of rock and the rumbling of ED in one huge white flash.

  When the flash faded, Mo was standing on green grass. Jax pulled his sword out of Lopp and stumbled backward a little, catching his balance. Loathsome bit down harder. She growled with her mouth full of enderman. But it didn’t matter. Lopp was already dying. She’d tried to teleport away, but all it had done was drag them all with her into the Overworld. The enderman crumpled to the ground. Her eyes faded as she fell. Mo reached out after her, but Lopp was gone. Mo’s green, human eyes filled with tears.

  “What were you doing out there all alone, you dummy?” she whispered. “You died! You didn’t have to. Only dummies die.”

  “Did we just teleport out of the End completely, like, for real? Neat!” said Jax. He looked down at the loot on the ground. “Cool chestplate.” He put his hands on his hips and sighed heavily. “I’m gonna have to find another portal. So annoying. Doing things twice is stupid.”

  Mo blinked. She hadn’t even noticed that they’d teleported. They’d teleported, and she was somewhere else. Somewhere very else.

  The sky above Mo shone deep, royal blue. A jungle of trees surrounded her, stretching on as far as she could see. Little red flowers bobbed here and there. Brown mountains rose up in the distance. A few yards away, a bright blue lake sparkled in the golden sunshine. As she watched, dumbfounded, a huge black squid splashed its tentacles out of the water, then slammed them back down, sending up a spray of white foam. It was as though the squid had waved at her, welcoming her to the world.

  A single, fat, round-cheeked pig stared at them, its mouth hanging open in shock.

  “Oh,” Mo said softly. “They’re pink after all. Kan always said. I never believed it. But they are. So pink.” She reached out her hand to pet the pig.

  The pig did not want to be petted. The pig was much more concerned about Loathsome at the moment. Its black eyes slid over the horse, trying to make sense of it. The two animals gazed at each other for
a moment. A glob of lung fluid swelled up on Loathsome’s chest and, with a massive PLOP, dripped onto the ground.

  The pig bolted away.

  After a few moments, Loathsome began to nibble lightly on the dead enderman’s head. Brains? she said hopefully. Like most babies, once the pony had a new idea in her head, she wouldn’t be letting it go anytime soon.

  But before Mo could teach her horse about eating friends’ brains, Lopp disappeared in a curl of smoke. Ender bodies didn’t last long. The Great Chaos hates waste. When she’d disappeared, her pearl remained. And the chestplate.

  Jax nudged the armor with his toe. “I’ve never seen an enderman wearing human gear before. Ever.” He glanced shrewdly at Mo. “Is this yours?”

  “Yeah,” Mo said, part of her still so angry that her people had robbed her. And here was Lopp, not fighting in an apocalyptic war of all against all but wearing her stuff like she’d just borrowed a shirt.

  He handed it back to her. The metal was warm in the sunshine. Mo gathered it to her like a long-lost teddy bear. She held it tight. It smelled like home. Just a little bit like the End. Like her ship and her brother and her good old life.

  “Thank you,” she whispered.

  “You don’t have to thank me,” Jax said quietly. For the first time, his voice sounded very serious and gentle. “It’s your loot. No one should have taken it from you in the first place.”

  How Orderly of him, Mo thought. But she was so grateful. To have one piece of her collection back. One piece of herself back. Mo fastened it on. It felt good and solid and real.

  Jax bent down, picked up the ender pearl lying on the ground, turned around, and started walking again.

  “Whoa! Wait! Don’t you dare,” yelled Mo. “You give that to me!”

  “No way, I made the kill, I get the drop. That’s your loot, this is mine. I’m being really fair here.”

  “But it’s her pearl! That would be like me taking your brain for a souvenir.”