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This is the story of the blood god’s three brothers.
One born of kingdom and conquest.
One born of escape and tranquility.
The final one was of sun and luck, sent to balance.
His first true brother, friend, and confidant.
King Philza, the ruler of the Antarctic Empire, ruling by the immortal blood god’s side.
After taking over the territory, they were a dual dictatorship, making up the empire through a nether-like fire.
Even the strongest fire must be put out. The revolution forced them to abandon the throne.
Techno did not want to flee. He wanted to stay and fight for the throne. But, a cooler head prevailed and did not give him a choice in the matter.
So they fled.
They fled for months before stumbling upon snow-covered mountains around a calm frozen lake.
That is where they built a home. A cabin with enough room for a wing for each of them, but they still spent most of the time in each other's company doing chores.
They watched as the landscape changed through the seasons. Finally, the snow melted, and the valley turned into a stunning scene.
The place bore the name Flower Fall . A place of joy and peace.
They were happy in the pattern of the seasons.
Until they weren’t.
It should have been Techno in that role, in that place, in that job… but no.
At that time of year, the ice should have been solid enough to support the weight.
Techno watched as he walked onto the ice to check a fishing trap. He was scrounging along the beach, looking for wood or anything else of interest that had washed up.
There was a loud crack as the ice gave way, and he watched as Phil plummeted into the icy cold water.
He spent the rest of the dark day diving into the water nonstop to find him. Each time coming up empty.
The dark came and swallowed the valley.
He only stopped his frantic diving once he found a green and white hat with an emerald gem hanging from it.
That was the blood god's first lesson.
Payment is due even in times of peace.
The second lesson came years later.
He had settled into a rhythm of grieving and continuing. The time had passed so he could leave his exile without fear, but he chose not to.
The voices in his head called for him to pay the cost, but he ignored them, and as he was alone, there was nothing they could do.
The day arrived in late spring when a tall brown-haired person arrived.
His name was Wilbur, or that’s at least what he said as Techno held a knife to his throat.
They became fast friends. Fast brothers.
Wilbur, with his guitar, filled the valley with music, which filled him with something like joy.
No, not joy. He hasn’t felt joy since the lake.
Over the years that Wilbur stayed, that feeling turned to joy.
The voices quieted with the music. It was the music that calmed the soul.
Wilbur opened up about how he stumbled into the valley. He had been searching for his solitude and escape.
Now they enjoyed the solitude together.
The voices taunted him. “Nothing ever stays for the immortal blood god…The price is coming.”
And so it did.
A warm summer night was made warmer by the burning of a cabin full of memories.
Whether it was started by a stray lantern or an ember from the fireplace is lost to time. But, whatever it was, the result was the same.
An inferno.
A blaze.
A near-death experience for the immortal and a deadly experience for the mortal.
The only thing of Wilbur’s he found was a singed guitar in the ashes.
The blood god’s second lesson.
Immortality comes at a cost that he has sworn to pay.
“Come on, Apollo,” he called to the dog that happily trotted to his side.
Pulling the axe from his back, he started swinging at a dark oak tree.
“Hello.”
His swing stopped mid-swing. Turning, a child was standing under a tree in the little grove.
Apollo leaped to his feet and started growling with his hackles up from Techno’s side.
How had this child snuck past his defenses or gone without notice? He leveled the axe at the boy.
He didn’t flinch in the least.
“Where did you come from?” Techno growled. This child was not a normal child…
The boy just smiled. The sunlight hit his hair, making it glow a golden color.
“My name is Tommy.”
Techno nodded. “Ok, Tommy, what do you want?”
“Why, to meet the blood god.”
For the first time in centuries, his blood ran cold. That name was not used since the days of the Empire, and that had to be lifetimes ago by now. It certainly was not something this boy should know.
“How do you know that name,” Techno whispered with a million daggers.
The boy- Tommy, just kept smiling.
“Oh, the name? Do you not go by it anymore? I do apologize. It was the name I remembered from the Empire days.”
“The Empire was several lifetimes ago. Someone your age can’t remember that.”
Tommy smiled even bigger. “I have lived more lifetimes than you, blood god . I remember the name of the dictator that took my land from me.”
Apollo started snarling even louder than he was before.
“So revenge is your goal?”
Tommy’s golden laughter filled the valley. “Lower the axe. If I wanted you dead, you would be.”
Techno wholeheartedly believed him too. There was no question about who was at a disadvantage.
“No, my wish is not for more bloodshed. In fact, I would have tried to take the area over if you hadn’t.” There was a pause as he looked around at the trees. “Flower Fall is a perfect name for this place. A perfect place for two immortals to live.”
And so they did. Techno slowly grew to trust Tommy. They even built a whole new basement for Tommy.
Techno had offered to build a new wing to the new cabin.
Tommy had flat-out refused.
“I would hate to have to heat it with a fireplace and have embers escape causing a fire.”
It was only once Techno was in bed that night that what Tommy had said sunk in.
He had never mentioned the fire.
There were no signs of the fire.
His breath hitched as he inhaled.
Who was this boy?
The seasons passed as they grew closer as brothers. Unfortunately, Techno never did get that answer to his question.
There were nights of summer spent with Techno riding on Karl with Apollo and Tommy running through the fields of flowers.
The voices returned as they always did.
“He will die.”
“The deal requires payment.”
“The boy of chance will die by the blood god's hands.”
Techno ignored the voices in favor of the recent memories and joy of the time.
During a rainy summer night, he was working in the kitchen preparing baked potatoes for them when he heard the sound of hoofs on the floor.
He turned to see Tommy holding the rope of a blue sheep. The boy smiled. “I found a friend.”
“That you did. Why is he in the house, though?”
“Well, he doesn’t like the rain. He said his last friend was allergic to it.”
Techno nodded as if that made perfect sense. Of course, it didn’t, but then again, nothing did here.
So that is how a blue sheep joined the little group of horses, dogs, cows, bees, foxes, turtles, and two immortals.
Techno had fallen asleep quickly that night after a peaceful day. His dreams were filled with a black void only filled with wither skulls, blood-red eyes, and the voices.
“He is out paying your price.”
Techno gasped back awake. The night was silent. That was nothing out of the ordinary, but this was too quiet.
There was no noise of the gentle baa of Friend or moo of Clementine.
He shot to his feet, narrowly missing tripping over Apollo. He threw the door open into the central part of the cabin as he rushed over to the door leading to the basement.
Throwing it open, let a cold draft into the rest of the cabin.
“Tommy!”
There was no response from the darkness.
A chill settled onto his shoulder.
Tommy was gone.
The voices laughed as his panic rose. He could remember Philza trying to talk him back to a calmer state when this used to happen at the Empire.
He took a deep shuddering breath, then another. His head cleared as he thought through where the boy might be.
“Outside,” he mumbled. It was cold in the basement. He had just gone out for more wood. Surely.
He grabbed his cape and pulled it around his shoulders after scraping his ax to his back. Holding his lantern, he and Apollo rushed out into the dark. That rain had picked up to the point where he was already almost soaked through in a matter of seconds.
There was a faint moo that was heard in the loud rain.
He pushed through the rain as Apollo ran at his side. Eventually, the faint sound as a sheep joined the nightly sounds.
As they got louder, he finally spotted the faint glow of another lantern. Rushing up to it, he found Tommy’s cold, soaking, wet body cuddled up against Clementine's side.
Techno immediately picked him up, wrapping his cold body in his cloak.
He began running back to the cabin, the cold painful against Techno’s body. Tommy was just barely breathing.
Clementine, Apollo, and Friend all were running at his heels.
As he arrived at the cabin, he threw the door open and dumped the wet cloak on the floor. He shut the door against the cold and set Tommy on the couch in front of the dwindling fire.
He pushed the couch closer and grabbed the wood from the pile to grow the fire.
As the fire grew, he put several thick blankets on Tommy. He took a minute to watch his breathing grow less difficult and more steady.
The worst of it had passed now.
He pulled a chair up to the side of the fire and pulled a book off the shelf. As he flipped to the beginning of The Art of War and began to read through the night.
The night passed slowly as he read, tended the fire, and checked Tommy’s breathing.
As the light began to fill the window, Techno felt the book fall from his hand as he started to doze off to sleep.
He fell back into a sleep in the dark void once again, but the voices were silent through the night.
The smell of breakfast woke him from his sleep. The sun was now high in the sky with the rain gone.
“Good morning, Techno,” Tommy said from the kitchen.
Techno shot out of his chair after seeing Tommy up and cooking.
“Why are you up? You were at Mumza's door not even a couple of hours ago.”
Tommy smiled. His hair started to glow again, similar to when Techno first met him.
“I was always going to be fine, my broth-“ He stopped mid-word and cleared his throat before continuing. “The blood god would never let anything happen.”
Techno’s heart stopped for a moment.
Tommy was going to call Techno his Brother.
No one had called the blood god their brother since Philza and Wilbur left.
The weight in the air was momentarily sliced as Tommy set down a plate of food on the table. They sat down to eat and were silent till Tommy broke it.
“Your voices can’t hurt me.”
“Heh?”
“Your curse’s cost is blood. My cost is to help people like you. We balance each other and will for eternity.”
Techno nodded to appease the boy. Unfortunately, he didn’t believe him. Nothing had ever balanced the curse.
Not his first brother's calm.
Not his second brother’s music.
But there was something nagging at him.
Could this boy’s light scare away the void?
The seasons changed once again as they settled into the new rhythm. It had taken months for Techno to trust Tommy to go out again alone. Even when he did, he had Apollo follow him with the command to start barking if anything happened.
Nothing ever did, and the two always returned safely.
As the summer changed to fall and then to winter, Techno’s uneasiness about Tommy going out alone returned.
The temperature reminded him too much of when he had to carry his cold body back to the cabin.
There was one job that Techno forbade Tommy from doing. That was going out onto the frozen lake to check the fishing lines.
So early that morning, Techno wrapped his cloak around him as he walked carefully onto the lake. It was mid-season so the lake was at its thickest.
The voices began yelling louder than they had since Tommy had arrived.
“Payment.”
“Payment.”
“Payment.”
“Pay-“ The word was interrupted as a loud crack sounded through the morning.
The ice fell away from his feet, and he felt himself plunge into the icy cold water. The cold stole his voice away from him before he could yell.
The water swirled around him.
How ironic, the immortal blood god associated with the fire and heat of the nether would die by the opposite, water and cold.
He tried to swim to the hole in the ice, but his cloak pulled him down.
His arms and legs began to burn as his effort to swim back up became weaker and weaker.
The voices grew louder and louder. Techno just smirked. Of course, the voices would be the last thing he heard.
Then a light appeared in the water. It was shining like pure sunlight. The water warmed in the area as if the sun itself was under the water.
Hands grabbed his arm and pulled him up back towards the light.
He was unable to help from being so exhausted from his original fight.
They reached the top and watched as the light pulled him out of the water. Finally, the light’s face became clear.
Tommy’s concerned face was evident. He helped support Techno as they stumbled back to the snow-covered beach.
“Thank you,” Techno paused, “brother.”
Tommy’s hair glowed brighter than the sun.
Techno’s questions were given answers at that moment.
This boy was Tommy, and his light could scare away any darkness.
Even the darkness of the immortal dictator cursed blood god named
Technoblade
.