Scarlet had heard something was wrong at this point but no one had told exactly what. It was frustrating to feel in charge but be denied access to infomation vital to helping the kingdom or something. Honestly she could only speculate what this big problem was. She was just assuming from all the distant mutterings she'd heard of it that it must be a danger to the kingdom...

So that was why she had decided to speak o Verde after she was done dealing with all the Grimmkin. They were close -due to being family- with a lot of the bugs who likely knew what was actually going on. This caused her to possibly be a bit snappy and short tempered with the Grimmkin but they'd forgive her and she could easily make it up to them.

When it became clear that her job was at last done, Scarlet stood up and stretched. She felt deep into her channel of magic and sliightly relaxed at the coursing power of nightmare. Focused, she drew upon this power ready to wap straight to Verde. She could sense their location in the main hall practising and so pin-pointed a spot in it. As normal, she let herself fade in red essence and drift rapidly to her destination. But this time, something went horribly wrong...

Scarlet jolted uncomfortably once she rematerielised and looked around dazed. At some point she realised that she was sat down on unfamiliar floor! This was not the deep velvety colours of the tents! This was - she squinted and tried to recall her travels with Ghost. This was the Resting Grounds! Why was she here? The troupe mistress was sure she tried to teleport to Verde! She frowned before preparing to try again.

This time she was sent spiraling around at high speeds. Locations in the vast caverns of Hallownest flashed before her and Scarlet felt quite sick. But her powers kept draining the longer she involenteritly travelled. Eventually Scarlet pushed hard enough to stop herself and was sent catapulting near her intended location. Her body hit the ground at high speeds and there was a slight audible crack. She tried to sit up and speak a greeting but all that came out was a quiet croak. The last thing she saw before it all went black was the red blur of Verde's cloak as they approached.

As per usual for her unconscious state, Scarlet was in the Nightmare realm. She'd have to ask the Nightmare heart what happened. So she took a deep breath and listened for the second heartbeat in her chest. It was feint and quiet but she urged it to appear like normal. But instead of it getting louder as the being manifested in front of her, it got lighter and Scarlet could not make contact. Strange... None of her powers seemed to be working properly...

She awoke in the medical tent with Verde and Grace at her bedside.
"Mistress you're ok!" Grace called out in relief.
"Yeah, yeah I am..." she replied,
"What happened?" Verde asked shocked.
"I just tried to teleport to you to ask what this big issue that everyone's talking about is when I ended up in the Resting Grounds. I tried again and was thrown around the dream realm for a bit before I got a hold and it spat me out where you found me... Grace, do me a favour and make sure no one else tries to teleport." The butterfly nodded and darted out the room anxiously.

Scarlet tried to close her wounds with the normal red spark but -as expected at this point- nothing happened... She huffed quietly in annoyance before turning back to Verde.
"So I suppose you can tell me what's going on now..." she smiled weakly.
"Oh yeah... Hollow" they paused and the scarlet mistress could tell that they might be crying slightly behind their mask, "f-fell into some kind of coma. They woke up once for Hornet but t-that was yesterday... There's been no response since and Monomon says that they might be in an even deeper sleep..."
"Oh... My condolences. I guess I assumed that it was some kind of kingdom wide threat. But its a pesonel issue.. Best I can do now is keep you all safe..." Verde nodded and turned to leave.
"Verde, wait. If you want to go see them, you can. Just don't try teleporting there okay?" They smiled weakly as well as murmering thanks before departing.

Scarlet groaned and lay back down. She could only hope that Grace was able to warn the others in time...

Ghost felt refreshed after a good night of beating up memories of tougher foes. They might even be calm enough to visit Hollow! Yes, that was what they would do. Maybe offer emotional support or something to their siblings while they were there. Combat therapy had just proved highly effective for them so maybe it could help their siblings too!

They continued to ponder why Godhome looked so gloomy as they mindlessly wandered to the exit. They could probably just teleport out using their dream nail to their dream gate in Dirtmouth but they were already close to the exit now so it didn''t really bother them. At least the drearyness of the area hadn't dampened their spirits after they'd finlly risen them again...

That job was to be done at the exit. Well, what used to be the exit... Now it was just an empty platform... Ghost stared bewildered at the floor that usually glowed gold with essence and tapped it to see if it was just visibly gone. However, to their dismay it failed to activate to any number of ways they tried. And they tried a lot of ways...

Ghost tried jumping on it, descending darking it, wedging the tiles of the floor up and lying still on it for a few minutes to name a few... Eventually they gave up on that way out and pulled out their dream nail to leave that way. Unfortunately for them, the blade refused to materialise. So Ghost was swwinging around an empty hilt to no effect. Frustrated they threw the bladeless blade onto the floor and huffed. This was so unfair! It wasn't that long ago they had sucsessfully escaped this place. At least then they could of actually left if they really needed to! They might have just squished some of Hallownest a bit with their immense form...

Due to their uncontrollable emotions swirling in their head, panic was released and unleashed their true form. So the massive void monstrosity that was the Shade lord, stood crying -alone- in the dimming glow of Godhome.

It was a disaster! If they couldn't leaave, they'd never see Hollow or any of their siblings again! They wouldn't even ever know if Hollow was okay or not! They'd never be able to contact anyone! They'd be stuck alone forever because no one would know where they were! It was hopeless. Ghost gave up and curled inwards. Their tears -fully void- fell down them and soaked back into their form. They felt well and truely lost for the first time since wandering the vast caverns for the first time.

Nymph quietly -to not note his sister to his presence as she might mess up his duty- spread his wings and took off. Today was a day where he checked Greenpath instead of the Gardens. The mosskin were settling down after the infection ravaged through them and disrupted their sacred connection with their creator but they still could probably use some help. So Nymph made it his mission to see them rebuild themselves to their former glory.

He let himself glide throught the passages, focused on his task but still alert to his surroundings. His acute knowledge of the area he protected let him know that he was in Greenpath the second he entered. He strolled down the pathways padded with moss and glided over any acid when necessary. Peeled, his eyes scanned the landscape for any sign of mosskin. There were none in open sight it would seem. And even worse, Nymph was noticing something the futher in he went. Greenpath was wilting.

Not bouncing up after each step upon it, the foliage seemed saggy. The bushes seemed less vibrant and colourful while vines were edged with brown. Nymph frowned at all of this and scooped a lone flower that had spilled out from the earth up and examined it. Whispers of soul left him and travelled up the plant's stem, leaving a trail of white etchings up it. He could feel the plant properly now and could tell the source of the issue. It was a deep rooted problem possibly even coming from the source of these lands themself. Nymph needed to see Unn.

Gently, he buried the flower and hoped he could fix the problem before it died off. He then worked with all of his might to get to the lake of Unn as quickly as possible. He still didn't see any trace of mosskin on his way, so it was likely that they were hiding from the destruction of their homes or even praying to Unn to get her attention to fix this. Well, Nymph was happy to notify the higher being for them himself. Focused, he managed to reach his destination in record time.

The vessel briefly considered using the bench but decided against it: reasoning that he needed to deal with the issue at hand as quickly as possible. As he flew over the vast lake, he noticed that even it seemed somehow duller than usual. It felt like Greenpath's entire ecosystem was falling out of place. The plants couldn't grow because the acid wasn't producing enough heat and the bugs couldn't live without the plants. Only Unn could fix this.

Once he reached the shore of the lake, Nymph dropped down onto the ground and contiued forward on foot. His wings still did see use though to manoeuvre around the small puddles of acid. Slightly annoyingly, he still had to make contact with the acid but he was a bit more resistant to it than most other vessels. On top of that, it seemed cooler than normal which lined up with his earlier musings.

He pushed forward, able to tell that he was close to Unn. Her power over the lands gave everything closer to her a slight more vibrant tinge. A sigh of relief escaped him when Nymph reached the cavernous section where Unn usually resided. He floated down to the ground beside the acid and perched waiting. As expected, Unn appeared after not too long. But she seemed more ragged and tired than normal. Her normal green colouring was not dulled like her kingdom but her eyes were each half shut.

"Nymph, what can I help you with?" she asked with weariness evident in her voice. He studied her and decided it might be worth being a little mre subtle than he intended.
"The Greenlands are fading! So with all due respect, I came to check what was going on on your end" Unn audible sighed as shifted her long body to Nymph's level. "I am aware. Its just so awful! I can't seem to fix it! I do try to maintain the land as much as I used to but it won't get better! It feels like someone has stretched my connection with the land! I see my followers something but can do nothing!" she explained, becoming more desperate with each sentence. This waas a strange occurence... Could it be linked to Dryya's difficulties apearing to him and his mother earlier?
"Well the only suggestion I have is to wait it out -it could just be a one off thing- or ask my mother for help..."
"You really think it could just be a one off?"
"Its possible"
"Thank you Nymph. If things aren't better by the next time you visit you have my permission to fetch your mother I suppose..." Now that was surprising. Unn had been on bad terms with the White Lady since she first took control of the Gardens and she had to give up her land to some outsider. At least she was willing to try and fix the problem though...

'Who knows' he thought, 'maybe I can even get Misfortune to help out properly...'

The king sat -as usual- at his desk crafting. I took up his hands -and if he wanted his mind- so it was an easy time passer. He briefly wondered if he should try using some extra soul to make the process quicker but decided swiftly against when he remembered how painful it had beeen the last few times he had burned himself up... He was worried about Hollow of course: but he would probably just get in everyone else's way. He couldn't use his soul properly for complex spells yet with damaging himself and he dard not try to tap into any new found void powers he might have since the substance tampered with his reincarnation so he couldnt assist much either.

He looked up to the sound of approaching footsteps and saw Lost in all of their glory. He smiled a smal smile of fondness at them. They had embraced the change around them and look how powrful they had turned out! Maybe if he hadn't kicked the Radiance out of Hallownest all those years ago and instead worked with her, things would be different...

"Father, I'm going to see Hollow. Are you coming?" they asked politely. He almost stared at them but that would be behaviour unbefitting for a ki- he wasn't a king anymore- he could stare.
"You want me to come? I appreciate the offer ,don't get me wrong, but most of your siblings probably blame me for this" Lost sighed and shook their head.
"I've already been up there and none of them think its your fault! When Hollow wakes up, they'll appreciate it that you visited them..."
"What of the others? Will they think me good for visiting? Or w-will t-they just g-go after me like-like l-last time I was with th-them"
"Come on! You survived Verde's performance unscathed didn't you!?"
"yes..."
"And all of my siblings were there weren't they?"
"yes..."
"So what's the big fuss!? They'll be glad you took time out of your day to come see one of your children!" He liked being able to think of the vessels -especially Hollow- as his children not machines now. That was why he had taken to just calling Hollow 'vessel' in the first place.
"Alright, I'll come." Lost started to cheer, "BUT, if anything happens I'm holding you accountable!" The lifeblood vessel grinned at them. "I wouldn't expect anything less. Leaving in 10 minutes?"
"Sure..."

With that Lost turned and left. So now he was roped into visiting a building filled with a smart jellyfish who seemed to love sneaking hidden inults and jabs in her words at him, vengeful children and other bugs who had likely heard rumours of him from sed vengeful children. 'But who knows' he mused to himself, 'maybe I can even help them...' His magic may not be half as good as it was before but a simple scanning or healing spell couldn't do that much harm, right? Ghost could do healing spells already and even when they hadn't ascended to a being of his status they could pull them off without damaging themself futher!

This might even be his chance to actually get to know the vessels! He'd already befriended Rim and Lost so perhaps it wasn't an impossible task after all...