Seer kept examining her surroundings. The jellyfish hd finally relented and let her do this after she had to admit that there was something magical not medical about the vessel's sleep so she had to find the cause. Their mind was just such a mess though! It was still clearly scarred from holding the Radiance and that made it hard to find any new evidence of damage or anywhere to try to sense what was going on. Their mind had already been hard enough to get to!

Eventually she did find a place to settle though and the elderly moth sat down ready to perform her duty. It was a small but dark and smooth rock. It looked a lot more solid and stable than the rest of the landscape. Due to being int the dream realm, it didn't take Seer long to attune. She could feel the land and its links to reality like it was part of herself. This also unintentionally caused a fragment to appear to her.

The fuzzy image of the very vessel she was there to help -Hollow- materialised in her mind looking scared and confused. "Seer! Thank goodness! Last time I woke up Hornet said it had been three days! H-how long was I out this time? I-I'll have to get Monomon to find me some medicine or something cause I need to-"
"Dearie, you're not actually awake. I was just scanning your mind and you showed up"
"Oh..." they lookd crestfallen at this realization.
"If you want to chat I'm more than happy to, but I do need to do my job at some point" she told them.
"A-are my siblings all right?"
"Well the ones I know of are fine! Haven't seen the weilder, er I mean Ghost, for a couple of days since Monomon told them about you but their probably just keeping themself busy."
"You're going to be able to fix me right?" Seer opened her mouth to speak but was but off by Hollow clarifying, "For them I mean. If I don't wake up, they'll be distraught!"
"Well I came her to figure out how to do that dearie, so I hope so to."
"Ah, ok then... I s'pose I'd better leave you to do that then. You do...whatever dream stuff you have to do..." Seer waved them off in fake cheer as they faded.

She then concentrated on the task at hand. She could feel something was off. Their link felt weak so she followed it. The moth felt it start to dissipate though and by the end where she should be able to sense them -aftr all they were asleep- she could feel a slight presence in desolate spac. Almost as if-

Oh...

Oh no... This was bad! If she couldn't sense them there then that meant something was wrong with the dream realm as a whole. And she had a feeling she knew what... It was starting to fit together like jigsaw peices to form a larger picture. The strange chills she'd felt before. This vessel's slumber. The trouble the nightmare clan was having. The destruction of Greenpath. All connected and weaved intrecately on one thing. And when that failed, they failed. And this bigger picture showed only one thing to Seer. The dream realm was fading.

Est sat surrounded by a bunch of other bugs they knew half bored, half concerned, They didn't know Hollow that well but they were siblings and they were not going to let their anything happen to them. That was why they had agreed to attend this uninteresting meeting anyway. Wll, they had assumed it was going to be uninteresting: no one had told them there was actually news to tell! And oh was there news to tell...

On one side of Est was Toothy fidgeting with their cloak nervously and on the other was Tweet staring intently at Seer who had just entered the room. She was joined by Monomon and the panic was clear on their faces. Est's claws itched for their sickle ready to destroy any being threatening the kingdom. They may not be in this for Hollow but thy were in it for Toothy. The spiky collared vessel did not need stress. If the emotion on the newly entered pairs face was justified, then Est would be ready to defens Toothy at all costs- even though they wouldn't really need. Est new their closest sibling was an extremely competent warrior -they were being trained by a mantis lord- but no amount of recent practise would match their skill fom years spent practising for revenge. On top of that their sickle was much more deadly than any odinary nail.

So they snapped to attention when Monomon spoke.
"Thank you all for attending this emergemcy meeting. As you might have guessed, we have some bad news.." She then lightly tapped Seer on the shoulder. Most might have not noticed this prompt but Est was keenly absorbing every detail.
"I'm not going to try and undermine this because its a serious threat. I'm alse not going to try and soften it- the dream realm is collapsing." Several audible gasps rangs around the room but Est just tutted in annoyance. The best thing they could do now was hope some monser was causing it that they could help defeat.
"We believe it has something to do with the Radiance's" then the moth went quiet as if she hadn't quite accepted this simple truth herself, "death. Without the godess of dreams to hold it up, its falling. Its like if the Nightmare Heart were be stopped from being linked with the nightmare realm. The issue here is that dream is so important its been causing other problems around the kingdom such as-"
"Ok, yeah we get its bad and been causing issue shut how about we hurry up and fix it." Est interupted.

Thinking back on it they probably shouldn't have tried to hurry up a moth when talking bout her realm fading. Seer turned to them with silent fury behind her glazed pink eyes.
"Becuse we don't know how to! We didn't just call this meeting to tell everybody what's going on! We didn't call a meeting when Hollow fell to sleep did we!? We're to figure out solutions but unfortunately" the elderly moth really spat out that last word, "we can't do that with everyne lacking key infomation!"
"Fine, continue then" they sighed. They then saw the glare Toothy was shooting them. They knew what they wanted the to do. Making sure their sibling was aware of their displeasure in this, they dryly muttered, "and sorry I suppose"

Seer then composed herself a bit before preparing to speak again.
"Anyway, as I was saying, the issues around Hallownest at the current time are all connected to this. The magic of the Nightmare clan is failing because of how closely connected the two relms used to be, Greenpath is wilting because Unn is no longer able to dream it up heathy, ghosts are having trouble appearing because it is the essence of dreams that lets them do so in the first place adof course, Hollow is slumbering due to this to. My best guess as to why is that their extended stay locked in the dream realm and close ties to the missing godess has left them ill at its destruction" she looked at each member of her audience it affected as she spoke their corresponding reason. One vessel across the room from them sat up in alarm at Seer's last sentence though. And it didn't seem like an 'oh no my sibling is even more affected by the dumb moth goddess' kind of panic though. Instead, a realization seemed to have dawned on them. Est looked at th vessel and indentified them as Wanda as they stood up clearly ready to share their thoughts. Est's eyes narrowed as they wondered if this was even going to be relevent. But it was relevent all right...

"If Hollow is affected because of their long stay in the dream realm, d-does this mean the same c-could happen to the dreamers?" Everyone rounded on Wanda and Monomon looked quite stricken. The noise levels started to rise as everyone furiously discussed such an idea. This wasn't helping! Toothy looked even more panicked now! So they whacked their sickle hard into the floor, making a resounding clank. Everyone then turned to them and they -in their normal dry tone- told them, "Why don't we listen to or resident expert on the subject rather than debating it amongst ourselves." Seer shot them a grateful look but they continued to glare.
"I'm afraid Wanda may have a point. It is possible in some time this could happen to the dreamers too. It hasn't already happened and could possibly not be as bad because Hollow spent the time locked with the Goddess who's absence is causing this mess. All this does is just raise our need to solve this though... Any ideas?" Everyone shifted quietly and stared at the floor. No one knew how to fix this issue when the majority hadn't even ever seen the dream realm!
"Well we need to fix this" she told everyone before muttering unheard to most, "Before we get a whole realm crashing into us" Est heard though.

As before they'd been eyeing the moth so noticed when she looked about to speak again.
"What did you say?" they asked her even futher concerned and angered.
"We need to fix this?"
"No, after that" She paled slightly.
"Uh I hadn't wanted to make things to scary. I-I thought the stakes w-were already high enough so I may have skipped the part where I tell you that the dream realm might crash into Hallownest when it fades" she hurried to finish. Est groaned she was right about the stakes not needing to be higher already.

They looked around the gauge the reaction and was about to turn to Toothy when they noticed one important absence. The Pale King.

Ghost was bored and worried out of their mind now. No amount of fighting bosses was going to fix the worry they had for Hollow. Espcially after tat meeting. They had listened in as best as they could by shifting through each vessel. They couldn't properly link or communicate with one because 'noooo that would be too easy'. So they were forced to sit and wait -unable to do anything- as their kingdom was on the brink of destruction!

Woah...

Did they just call it their kingdom? Ghost fretted even more as they realized how a like to their father they were being. Hidden away while the kingdom they had worked for fell to ruin? Check. Calling the kingdom theirs? Check. The others would never like them if they got like him! They'd never like themself if they got like him! Was their new found status getting to them? Become a higher being and boom you're a worse version of yourself?

They curled up on the ground and reverted forms. Not to their regular vessel form, or even the Shade Lord! No, they changed to a dark void version of their odinary form. They felt themself like that. Not having a vessel's connection to him or the overconfidence of being a higher being. They'd be rescued. Surel eventually one of them would get suspicious at their extended absence. They were unable to contact any of them so that was all they had to rely on...

But a thought crept up their mind. A thought that they would never normally even consider for it was too much of a self betrayal. However, desperate times called for desperate measures. The only being that could possibly communicate with them was the being they were just chastising themself for being like- their father.

They groaned and sat up reaady to try. The former king was still a highr being and had a void connection so mght even to trace Ghost's attempt at the very least! They felt outwards with the void as they were now used to doing and gripped on the Pale King.
"Can you hear me?" they asked.
"Ghost?" he replied clearly suprised.
"Yes! You can hear me! Listen, I need you to tell everyone I'm stuck in Godhome!"
"In where?"
"Ugh, don't worry about it. Its just a place in the dream realm. I can't leave cause of the whole realm collapsing thing"
"Look, Ghost I'll tell them but give me a short while, I'm with Hollow right now"
"Are-are they alright?"
"As good as they can be for a bug in a coma!"
"Good.
" they then stiffly added, "Thanks I suppose" Ugh they hoped Est never caught wind of the fact that they'd just old the Pale King 'thanks'. They'd never hear the end of it. If they escaped unharmed that is...

The Pale King sighed as he sat by Hollow's bedside. This had been the best time for a visit despite the meeting. Possibly against his better judgement he had cast a small spell enabling him to be with Hollow while listening in. He was definety going to feel it tommorow but for now it was working.

He gazed over at the vessel's face and took in their features properly. Small things returned to him that had somehow lapsed his noticed before such as the thin crack running down from the top of their head to their right eye. He wondered when the injury had come about... It was also next to Hollow that the true diminish in his size once again, became noticabl. He had already realised and hated the further reduction of course but it only came into persepctive when next to the vessel he knew all so well.

The rest of the vessels would be with Hollow soon trying to see them or tell him about that which he already knew. Since hearing the words at the meeting, he'd known what to do. He knew he had to do it for he was the only one capable of stopping this. He just wasn't sure if he was capable of allowing himself to do it.

Another glance at Hollow had made his mind up to at least examine the situation for himself to decide if there was a different way. Ghost would have to wait. At least if his plan worked his job would be useless anyway...