Characters: The Pale King/The White Lady, The Pure Vessel, Lurien the Watcher, Lurien's Butler
Word Count: 8.551
Summary: The Pale King and Hollow have a talk with Lurien about making Hollow's existence public. They spend some time with the White Lady for the same reason. And last, Hollow experiences something new.
(Author's note: Lots of headcanons in this one. I talk more about them later, in the end notes. Please enjoy.)
"We were fearing that it would happen.", the Pale King said, his already strong coffee tasting even more bitter after Lurien had dropped the news on him. "But we still hoped that we would have some more time to sort everything out."
"May I suggest to make the news official better sooner than later, your majesty?", Lurien asked. "If you leave the rumours like they are, they may worsen and only turn into something more major."
The Pale King didn't answer at first, instead he was looking at Hollow. He knew that Lurien was right, he was aware that one day he would have made Hollow known to the public, but in his personal world that day had been far away, a day after they had dealt with the infection, not while they were in the middle of it and he accidentally had summoned Grimm to the realm through his actions.
Hollow, however, seemed to take his stare in a different way, because they put their cup down and signed, with shuddering hands: "Have I done something wrong?"
"What? No, Hollow, you haven't done anything wrong.", the Pale King reassured his child immediately. The Pale King looked to Lurien accepting the Watcher to say something too, but he was quiet, his expression under the mask not be able to seen and he seemingly fidgeted under his cloak. Whatever was on his mind seemed to put him into a dilemma.
The Pale King decided to ignore him for now and kept talking to Hollow. "It is on me, I knew that the citizens would get ideas and still showed myself in public with you. As you know, your existence as the Pure Vessel was kept secret from everyone despite the palace staff and the dreamers. I... never expected to step in front of the public and explain your existence to them."
Hollow's head sank when he talked about their role as the Pure Vessel. "Do they have to know?", they signed.
"About your role as the Pure Vessel?", the Pale King asked, taken aback. That had almost broken his relationship with the five great knights, the citizens knowing about that part sounded like a rather bad idea, in fact, it sounded like a disastrous idea.
"I wouldn't advise to tell them about that part.", Lurien chimed in.
Hollow violently shook their head at both of them and then signed: "No, about me... existing..."
"I am afraid they already know about your existence, child.", Lurien said, sipping on his own coffee, in a way that it was impossible to look beneath the mask.
"Hollow...", the Pale King started. "I won't ever force you to do anything that you don't want, but... we have to introduce you to the public one day and Lurien is right, for the peace of the kingdom, it is better when we don't wait. You don't have to deliver a big speech.", the Pale King stopped for about a second before continuing, "Um, not that you could, but, show yourself at my side while I explain that you are the child of me and my Root, do you think you can do that?"
Hollow seemed to think for a moment and then signed: "I only have to stand at your side and don't do anything?"
The Pale King nodded to them.
"I can do that. I am good at doing nothing.", Hollow signed and they seemed a lot more satisfied than before, all while the Pale King felt a stab of guilt in his chest, because of course they knew how to stand still and do nothing, but they didn't knew how to handle the public, because of the way he had raised them.
The Pale King's eyes wandered back to Lurien who still hold his coffee cup in both hands, or whatever he had, his robes were over them. He felt an intense need to drink from his own cup to soothe his nerves, so he did just that.
"You know how the nobles in the city are.", Lurien said. "They probably would get offended if such an important announcement would made directly to the public. It would be the best to talk to the queen first, as far as I know, she handles the social affairs of the kingdom."
"Yes, that is correct.", the Pale King said and his light dimmed a bit. It was one thing stepping in front of the public and tell them an announcement, that only would take a few minutes and then he could recharge in his work shop, but the nobles... and probably also the rulers of their allies, like Herrah or the Mantis Lords, all would need to be invited into the palace for a party. That meant countless of hours of him having to act to the whims of their guests and it was... torture to say the least. Normally his Root would handle it, but with Hollow there, he didn't want to leave their side and also it would be more than rude, when the father of the heir wouldn't be present. Even as reclusive as he was, he knew that some actions wouldn't be excused.
"We thank you for your advice.", the Pale King told, carefully putting his coffee cup back on the saucer. "Is there anything else you wanted to tell me?"
Lurien shook his head, which more looked like his whole robe twisted around. The Pale King asked himself how exactly Lurien looked under this robes and without his mask. He had seen Herrah in more great detail than he had ever asked for and Monomon was clearly from the Uoma family, but nobody had ever seen Lurien shed this robes. Maybe he was ashamed about whatever was under them. The Pale King could relate to him wanting to keep it a secret though, he normally also wore his robes because of his body that looked more alien to the mortal bugs, remnants of his wyrm body.
"Then we would like to ask you something.", the Pale King said and Lurien went rigid, but relaxed when he said: "Or more, Hollow would like to ask you something."
Hollow, with their cup in hands, looked at him and only moved when he said: "Go on, ask Lurien your question."
They put the cup back down and then signed. Their question actually surprised the Pale King a bit, because he thought that they wanted to ask something different.
"Can I look at the city from up here?"
"Well.", Lurien said after the Pale King had translated their words. "Certainly, that is pretty much what I do in my spire, watching the city, I didn't get the title of Watcher for nothing. Would you like to take a look through the telescope?"
Hollow looked at the Pale King again and once he gave them a little nod, they shyly nodded to Lurien.
"Then please follow me, Pale Heir.", Lurien said as he stood up. Hollow flinched a bit and then stood up to follow him. The Pale King looked at them, it wasn't the first time that Hollow had reactive negatively to someone calling them by their title. In fact, more than once, they had shown the desire to be simply called Hollow. While it wasn't a problem for the likes of Herrah, Lurien, a more than devoted follower to the Pale King, would have the utmost difficulty to talk so casually to his king's child. He decided to explain it to Hollow later, but also try to tell Lurien that he should call Hollow by their preferred name.
The Pale King got up and followed Lurien and his child, from the corner of his eyes, he saw how Lucien hurried over and started to clean up any dirty dishes from the table. Hollow and Lurien had arrived at the telescope and Lurien explained to Hollow how it functioned. Shortly later, Hollow looked through it and their body language revealed that they were rather fascinated. The Pale King noticed that they had the telescope angled so that they mostly could look at the rain pouring down on the city, not on the city itself.
"A rather fascinating sight, isn't it?", Lurien said. "I often paint this view from up here, the city is so beautiful... I want to see it remain for all eternity."
The Pale King flinched at Lurien's words. That was what he had promised him for his service as a dreamer. To keep the city safe. Now that he knew that Hollow wasn't in fact, well, hollow, he asked himself what would have happened if he had gone through with the original plan. Had Lurien laid down to dream only for the city to get slowly infected over time and his spire would stand guard over a city that had fallen down? That would have made the name City of Tears even more fitting.
Regardless, the infection wasn't beaten yet. There still was a very real possibility that the city would fall. The Pale King very much needed to take measurements and his best bet for now was to quarantine everyone who was infected. Lurien surely could help him with it, but he decided to put this talk for later, for now, it was about Hollow.
They seemed to be able to watch the city for hours, because they hadn't grown bored even after around twenty minutes had passed. "Hollow, it is time that you give Lurien his telescope back.", the Pale King said and they instantly stopped and stepped away from the telescope, but not without another look in its direction, as if they wanted to keep going. "There was another thing we wanted to ask, remember?"
Hollow looked back at the telescope and, after a few seconds, had passed, they signed: "Music!"
"Yes, indeed.", the Pale King said as he followed Lurien back to the table and sat himself down on a cushion, curling his tail comfortably around his feet. "Lurien, we wanted to ask you about playing music. Aren't you playing an instrument of your own?"
The Pale King noticed that a new cup of coffee as well as a new cup of chocolate had been placed on the table. Lucien really was on the ball.
"Me? Oh no, that must have been a misunderstanding.", Lurien said. "I chose painting as my artistic outlet. It is Lucien here who plays the violin.", he gestured at his butler. "He often accompanies my painting sessions with his music, it helps me concentrate."
"Only the ones that Master allows me to see, of course.", Lucien said and the Pale King saw how Lurien got rigid, asking himself what the problem was, he often didn't want for anyone to see his projects, it made him nervous and he got annoyed by people asking questions.
"W-well...", Lurien said after his stiffness ended, "You are interested in playing an instrument of your own?"
Hollow nodded at that question.
"There exist a lot of different instruments to choose, but all of them require a lot of practice. Anyone who can play the instrument can act as a teacher, but some bugs made it their living to teach others how to play an instrument. If you would be interested in learning the violin, however, Lucien surely could show you how."
Lurien gestured at Lucien who gave them all a slight bow.
"What kind of instrument are you interested in playing anyway, child?"
Hollow didn't waste any time to sign it out and the Pale King translated for them, feeling a bit disheartened by their words: "Anything where they don't need to use a voice or a mouth..."
"That cancels out any wind instruments.", Lurien spoke. "It leaves a good amount of instruments which are played by your hands alone, like the violin, the piano, the drums, the harp..." Lurien interrupted himself when he caught Hollow staring with their head angled at him.
"You don't know how any of these instruments look like, correct?"
They shook their head and the Pale King answered for them: "It never had been a necessary to teach them about music, because..." He didn't want to finish the sentence, he had hurt Hollow enough already in their life.
"Y-yes, I understand.", Lurien said, his robes rustling, "It would be best to take them into a shop that sells instruments and let them choose for themselves, your majesty."
The Pale King simply gave Lurien a small nod at his words.
"Like this, they can see what they want to try and which instrument they would like to learn. It can take years to master an instrument, right, Lucien?"
"I started playing the violin when I was younger than Hollow here and I still have to practice regularly.", Lucien spoke.
"So the earlier you start to practice, the better. May I ask why you are interested in learning an instrument, Pale Heir?", Lurien asked, making Hollow flinch again and sign three words before they signed out their answer.
"First, they ask you to be called Hollow.", the Pale King said, now fully convinced that Hollow didn't like to be called by that title. "Second, they said... because... they don't have a voice..." The second part was much more difficult for the Pale King to say, his own guilt about having robbed them of their voice creeping up to haunt him, again. Involuntarily, he had to think about that none of the vessels had a voice and all of them that had fallen to their death... couldn't even scream their suffering once their shells cracked...
He felt himself shivering slightly.
"Well, music is a form of expression, as is art.", Lurien said. "You don't actually need a voice to express yourself, you can express yourself through many forms. A picture expresses the feelings of the artist through shapes and colour, a musical performances expresses the feelings through sound, a novel expresses the feelings in the form of a story that the author told. You surely can find an outlet to express yourself, Hollow... Your majesty, how would you say do you express yourself beyond words?"
"Um.", the Pale King was totally taken aback by the question. How did he express himself? Did he even express himself? He barely even used words to talk to his subjects and most of the history of the kingdom he simply had put on lore tablets which could be found around the kingdom.
"We... that is a difficult question..."
He thought about his Root and how she arranged flowers to express herself, but... did he do something like that? Did inventing spells in his workshop count?
It was Hollow who got his attention and when he directed their gaze at them, they signed two words. "Saws" and "spikes".
"Saws and spikes?!", the Pale King glanced at them with nothing but confusion and Lurien seemed too share his sentiment, even though his face couldn't be seen under his mask. Then, it slowly dawned on the Pale King.
"Are you talking about the Path of Pain?!", he gasped.
"A rather cruel name for a piece of art.", Lurien commented, with his butler standing next to him, looking rather uncomfortable.
"It wasn't a piece of art, it was a test for the capabilities of the Pure Vessel.", the Pale King blurted out. "A gauntlet full of traps to avoid, to see their true prowess."
"I beat it.", Hollow signed next to them and then crossed their arms, looking kind of puffed up and... proud.
"Yes, Hollow here beat it and then..." Then they had shared a moment. A simple glance, that was all it had been, but he had felt proud, so proud of his Pure Vessel. And Hollow... they... they probably had felt proud too, that they had beaten this challenge and that they were happy that he had been proud of them. They still had been so small at that moment, how could he ever have been fine with letting a small child undergo this challenge?
After that they had withdrawn in their chrysalis and when they emerged, well, the Pale King and Hollow both knew what had happened then. That such a small moment would be enough to rob them of their pureness... or hadn't they been pure to begin with?
"Your majesty, with the utmost respect, but... wasn't it a bit extreme to test a child with such a gauntlet?", Lurien said, fidgeting with his robe.
"We, um...", the Pale King was at a loss what to say. Even Lurien had pointed out what he had thought about just seconds earlier. Herrah probably would have taken Hollow and not let him see them for a week and Monomon would have given him an earful of a lecture.
"I enjoyed doing it.", Hollow signed.
"You did?!", the Pale King asked. "But why?"
"I liked... the challenge.", Hollow signed. "It made me feel..." At this word they looked a bit guilty, unsurely cocking their head at the Pale King.
"It's fine for you to feel, Hollow.", the Pale King said.
"It made me feel like I accomplished something...", they finished. "I would do it again."
"But not as long as you are still off balance.", the Pale King said. Once he noticed that Lurien just stared at them, he explained what their little talk had been about.
"In a sense, we guess we truly express ourselves through gauntlet building...", he said. He did had fun building up the Path of Pain, making it hard, but not impossible. Of course he had watched every attempt and made sure to send Hollow back to the beginning when they failed, so that they wouldn't get hurt. Ah, back there he already had developed feelings for them, even though he told himself that he simply didn't want to waste a perfectly good pure vessel.
"If that has been all, do you want to listen to one of Lucien's songs?", Lurien asked. Hollow wasted no time nodding, so vividly that they almost fell over, the Pale King caught them at their robes and helped them standing upright again.
While Lucien was setting up his instrument, the Pale King pulled Lurien to the side. "Lurien, on a word.", he said, with Lurien turning his attention fully to him.
"Yes, your majesty?"
"First, Hollow doesn't enjoy being called by their title, as you probably have noticed. We know that it may be hard for you, but they would prefer if you could call them by their name."
"I can't do that when I have to talk about them in my official role as the Watcher, but I will do my best to respect your wishes and call them by their preferred name.", Lurien said. The Pale King frowned a bit when Lurien mentioned that he wanted to respect his, the Pale King's wishes, not Hollow's, but he didn't paid it too much attention.
"Second, you are watching over the city, so you must be able to see where the infection strikes. We need to quarantine everyone who shows signs off the infection. There have been too much casualties, as our sentries and our knights have reported, we need to keep them to a minimum."
"I will do my best to come up with a solution and find a place for the infected to stay until you found a solution for this whole mess.", Lurien said. They both then turned their attention to Lucien, who had started to play a song, with Hollow sitting on the ground completely mesmerized by it.
After the song was over, earning Lucien a small round of applause, which he bowed too, it was time for the Pale King and Hollow to take their leave. Lurien escorted them to the elevator where he send them off with a bow.
Once they had rode it down, the Pale King spoke: "Hollow, you don't seem to like being called the Pale Heir. Why?"
Hollow, who already had started walking, stopped, and signed at him: "Because it reminds me too much of having been the Pure Vessel. I have a name now. Father, do you think of yourself as the king?"
"I...", Hollow had a good point, he always referred to himself as the Pale King in his mind. "You got me there, Hollow, I truly think of myself as my title."
"Why?", Hollow replied. "You have a name."
They then started to walk again and the talk was over, before the Pale King could even think about explaining to them why Lurien mostly used their title. His mind was to occupied thinking about their words. Maybe he should try and think of himself as Pendry? It had been so long that he used that name, even his wife normally didn't use it... Even when he hadn't been the Pale King, he normally had introduced himself as the Pale Wyrm.
He decided to follow Hollow's example though and think of himself by using his name and not his title, starting right now.
Back at the palace, Pendry didn't waste any time and searched out his wife right away, Hollow in tow.
"Rydellia.", he said once he had found her enjoying a cup of tea in solitude on one of the balconies. "I need to talk to you."
She gasped and held her branches in front of her mouth: "When was the last time you have called my by my name... Pendry?" She had a warm smile on her face.
"I think... it might have been a few centuries...", Pendry rubbed one of his prongs. "Hollow made a good point about names earlier, so I thought I should give it a try..."
"Oh, how wonderful.", Rydellia embraced Pendry and once they both looked to Hollow, who still stood in the door way, she invited them to join their embrace and soon all three of them were entangled in a hug.
"I doubt that you have come to me only to talk about names, my Wyrm.", Rydellia said. Of course, old habits died hard and Pendry was rather fond of her nickname for him. His Root was the only one who managed to make it sound warm.
"No.", Pendry shook his head once he rested comfortably on Rydellia's lap, Hollow being held in the same position, just opposite of him. "Lurien told me about rumours in the city, about Hollow. The rumours are very close to the truth, so he advised me to make their existence public."
"You don't need to say another word, I perfectly know why you have come to me." Rydellia clapped two branches together and exclaimed: "It's time to organize a party!"
"Unfortunately, yes.", Pendry lowered his head, fidgeting with his claws. They only were in the planning phase, hadn't even started the planning phase, but he already became anxious.
"Watcher said this word too.", Hollow suddenly intervened. "What does it mean?"
"You want to know what a party is?", Rydellia asked, lifting Hollow on one of her branches until they were closer to her face. Hollow nodded and she continued: "It is an event where you invite other bugs to socialize and celebrate. It had food, music, dance, entertainment, but mostly it is a opportunity to talk to others, especially people you haven't seen in a while."
"That is why father doesn't like it."
Ouch, that burned a bit, even though Hollow had hit the nail on the coffin.
"Yes, exactly.", Rydellia said. "Not everyone enjoys socializing as much as I do. He normally stays in the background, when he even stays. I so often have seen him fleeing the scene and found him in his workshop later." She chuckled at the memory while Pendry was trying to keep a straight face and not burying it in his claws. Didn't Monomon write that the embarrassing stories normally were told by the parents about the children? It had to be the reverse with them, because Hollow hadn't been allowed to be a child for too long.
He shouldn't have thought that, now added to feeling hot and flustered, he also felt an intense feeling of shame and regret.
"And your father isn't the only one. Lurien, for example, even if he shows up and stays every time, most of the time he just stays in the background and watches your father. I know his title is the watcher, but he doesn't need to take it that literally."
"I think Watcher may have a crush on Father...", Hollow signed, making Rydellia break out in a clear laugh and Pendry wanting to vanish on the spot, burying his face in his claws and spiralling his tail around his legs.
"Oh, you think that too?! My Wyrm, even your child has noticed, how about you finally acknowledge it too?", she said.
"Not now, my Root.", Pendry said, being sure that his light never had been so bright.
"My apologies.", Rydellia said. "It's just too much fun to tease you." She gave him a gentle stroke over his wings and waited a bit, until his glow normalized and his pose relaxed.
"So.", Rydellia started. "Before we can introduce Hollow to the commoners, we first need to introduce them to our allies and the nobles."
"Yes, that is why we need the party.", Pendry sighed. "Can you organize everything, my Root?"
"Certainly.", she nodded. "You just take care of Hollow, teaching them how to act and getting them a proper outfit. When we introduce the heir of Hallownest, they shouldn't wear their everyday robes."
Hollow looked down at their robes: "What is wrong with them?"
"Nothing, nothing.", Pendry said. "For, uh, celebrations, you are just expected to wear something more... celebratory. I have my own robes for such occasions."
"Correct.", Rydellia said. "We should talk about who to invite of course... The late dreamers are bound to be invited, Lurien acts as the mayor of the city, so he needs to be invited anyway and Monomon does so much for the education of young bugs. Herrah as the queen of Deepnest would be needed to invited anyway... and then... the Mantis Lords!"
The Pale King nearly choked on his own spit: "You want to place Herrah and the Mantis Lords at the same table?!"
"Of course not!", Rydellia said. "We all know that their relationship isn't the best. But, I will make sure that they behave, I may not be their queen, but I am still a queen and they are coming into my palace."
Pendry noticed the resolute look on his wife's face and relaxed a bit. He could trust her that no fights would occur in the palace. Well, even though Herrah and the Mantis Lords were strong, they were still mortals, his Root would be able to stop them with ease.
"I have a list with all the nobles of the city, all the dukes and duchesses, all the barons and baronesses... What about the bugs that study soul?"
"The one who follow the so called Soul Master?", Pendry crossed his arms, both sets. "No, I don't approve of their work. They try to exploit something that is only meant for Higher Beings. I have tried to get them to end their work, but then the infection happened."
"All right, not them.", Rydellia said. "But the five great knights of course, they have to stand at our side anyway."
Pendry lowered his head when his thoughts went to Ogrim. He still hadn't returned to the palace.
"...I am sorry.", his Root said and laid a branch on his shoulder, warm with soul that she slowly shared with him. "I am sure Ogrim will return to the palace one day.."
"I am not too sure...", Pendry said and glanced at Hollow, who hadn't intervened once during their talk and just observed his Root.
"Hm... have I forgotten anyone? Oh yes, Queen Vespa from the Hive!"
"Oh no...", Pendry said and finally Hollow intervened.
"Why don't you want her to come?", they signed
"Because she will be accompanied by her knight and the last time he was here, we needed an hour and three of the great knights to explain to him, that he was running against a window, because he got very upset at it and thought it was a threat for his queen.", Pendry said, the horror of the memory flushing back into his mind.
"Yes, it was rather funny.", Rydellia laughed. "He's a strong and loyal knight, but he lacks a bit in intelligence. The Hive doesn't have windows, that may be another problem."
"What is the Hive anyway?", Hollow asked.
"That is something your father can explain to you, I have a party to prepare.", Rydellia sat down both Pendry and Hollow and then walked back into the palace, leaving the two of them standing.
"I haven't seen her that enthusiastic in a long time.", Pendry said as he looked after her. "Well then, Hollow, we better leave her be. Let me explain to you what the Hive is..."
Pendry then spent the better part of the day to explain to Hollow the different areas that existed in Hallownest and who ruled over them. Most of them were ruled by mortals, only Greenpath had a Higher Being called Unn, but she didn't want to get involved with Hallownest, so Rydellia hadn't even suggested inviting her. Her being a slug, she probably needed a week to arrive at the palace anyway. Hollow listened intently and got very interested in the Hive once they learned that honey came from there, but got a bit quieter when he talked about Deepnest.
Later, Pendry brought Hollow into bed and met up with his wife, to talk a bit more about the party plans. He had to brace himself, it would be a few rather busy days. He just hoped the infection wouldn't spark in the meantime, he didn't feel any closer to a solution still.
Since they had come back from the Watcher's Spire, the palace had changed. The Royal Retainers were hurrying and bustling around and Mother was seen frequently in the hallways, giving orders or distributing letters. For Hollow not so much had changed, they spent most of their time working on the homework Quirrel had given them or with Father. He had been told to teach them how to act once the so called party would occur, but all he said had been:
"If someone talks to you, just nod and feign interesting, don't say anything yourself until they ask a question and if, then just agree with them. All these nobles just want to hear themselves talk, they are not interested in holding a conversation, they just want for someone to listen to them."
Standing there, not saying anything and nodding, Hollow could do that. They would have been fine to stand perfectly still and not do anything at all, but Father said that this would be too much. For Hollow it wasn't a problem, after all, they didn't had to pretend that they didn't think anymore. All the time they had stand there rigid, repeating to themselves to not think, only to realize that they were, in fact, thinking and stopping any thoughts altogether. It was so much more easier to stand there and think about that they were allowed to think. No "do not do not do not do not" over and over again. It felt so liberating, but at the same time, a feeling of guilt came over them now and then, because they had failed in their task.
When this happened, they sometimes fell back into their old behaviour, about trying to stop all thoughts and feelings, until they remembered that it was fine and that Father wouldn't be mad at them. It wasn't like he had ever been mad at them when they still had pretended, but... they feared that they would disappoint him back then and that feeling still lingered in the back of their head.
At the moment, Hollow was sitting hunched over their homework. Calculation. It was something that was completely logic and should have been solved with ease, but numbers seemed to slip their mind. They didn't really get why they needed to learn that stuff, wasn't it enough that they could count? They rather would read the newest book in the "Accidental Wife" series that Quirrel had lend to them during the last sign lesson session.
It was a more than welcome distraction when Father knocked at the door of their room and once they knocked three times on the table, their sign for him to be allowed to come in, he entered and announced right away: "Hollow, I would like to take you to the city, so that we can get your robes for ceremonial occasions ready. Do you have time?"
Hollow all too much wanted to leave the stupid homework behind, so they nodded and stood up. They knew that they eventually had to do it, but this time wasn't now. Maybe they could ask Father for help later, he was good with everything that was logic. He had explained how spells worked to them once, but they had quickly given up trying to understand. For them, spells were just a feeling, once they started thinking about them, they literally couldn't cast them anymore.
"Good, then let us leave once you are ready.", Father said. He left after they nodded and they then cleaned their desk up and met up with him once they had gotten ready to go out. The both of them stopped at Mother for a brief moment, who was busy decorating a rather large room, and once Father had explained where they would be, they went to to the city.
Hollow barely had trouble with walking anymore, they had started to learn how to handle these horns. It was easiest when they would walk a bit slouched forwards, that kept them into balance the best. They hoped that they would be able to climb the steep cliff from the basin to the city on their own today, but soon had to learn, that it still was a bit too much for them. Like always, Father helped them out and carried them up. As they looked at his spread wings, translucent, but beautiful, they thought at their own, ruined ones under the robes. Sometimes they wish they could fly like him, but their wings only could served as a cloak. They probably had lost them in the void.
It didn't upset them that much however, they couldn't even jump right without falling over most of the time, so flying would probably be even more difficult. At least they could teleport, if they got that down right, then they could climb up that cliff without trouble. However, they only could teleport around three times before their soul ran out, so it wasn't an option. Yet.
Arrived at the city, Hollow was eager to see the rain, but was surprised to see that it wasn't there today. When they looked at Father, he explained without them even asking: "The rain isn't there every day. In fact, it shouldn't be there at all, but the roof constantly leaks. It requires constant repairs. It must have been repaired recently."
Hollow would have preferred for the city to be covered in rain the whole time. They loved watching the rain. Something about it was so very calming. They could stand there for hours and watch the rain. With a wistful look to the rather dry panes, they followed Father again. The city seemed to be the same, bugs hurrying around and bowing, regardless of what they were doing beforehand, once Father passed them. Because Father had told them that they needed their ceremonial robes, Hollow expected for them to get to the tailor, the one that had helped them picking out their dress. What they didn't expect, was one of the bugs approaching the king and talking in a rather distraught manner: "Your majesty, it's good to see you, because we need help. A sentry suddenly showed signs off the infection, out of nowhere. They already have injured six other sentries and a few citizens trying to overwhelm them. We are in desperate need of help."
"We are on our way.", Father said and then turned to Hollow, who already had clutched their nail. "Hollow, you stay here, it is too dangerous.", he said.
Hollow waited for a good second before they nodded to his words. They surely would be able to fight, but if Father wanted for them to wait, they would wait. They had seen him fight, they knew that Father wouldn't have had trouble against a single sentry.
They had been in an alleyway with several shops that weren't very busy right now. There also was a larger plaza with a bench, but no bugs right away. Maybe they had gotten send away because of the infected sentry. Hollow moved there and sat themselves down, listening to the distant noises of the city, wondering if they rather should have stayed right at the spot where Father had left them. Soon their thoughts faded out when the comfort of the bench hit and they half dozed off, with their head propped on their left hand and their nail still clutched in their right.
They snapped out of their half-nap when they heard voices approaching. They shook themselves awake and listened in. Nothing seemed important in the conversation, just some chatter like the Royal Retainers used to do. Hollow liked listened in to them, because they loved to chat about the various love affairs between the palace personnel and it reminded them of the novels they read. They had memorized each and every relationship between them and sometimes even wrote them down before bed, thinking about what could have happened between them.
The voices now weren't of Royal Retainers though, they sounded different. Soon the voices grew closer and two bugs came into view, smaller than most bugs Hollow had seen so far. Hollow continued to observe them as they made their way over the plaza. From the sound of their voices and the way they presented themselves, Hollow determined that the taller one of them was a boy and the smaller one must be a girl. Quirrel had explained how gender worked to them, but they had a bit of trouble getting it. Hollow didn't feel like they had a gender, they didn't feel like they needed a gender, they were just Hollow. Quirrel assured that everything would be alright as long as they respected pronouns and also, that most bugs were pretty obvious about their representation. Hollow also didn't assume that they needed to talk with them, until the both of them arrived at the bench. Both bugs stopped and stared at Hollow.
"Who are you? What are you doing here? That is our spot.", the boy bug said.
Hollow looked left and right, searching for the bug the boy had addressed, until they realized he must have talked to them and pointed at them, as if saying: "Who? Me?"
"Of course I am talking to you, or do you see any other bugs around?!", the boy growled. Hollow raised their hand to point at the girl beside him, making the boy even more mad. "She doesn't count!"
So, what should they do now? Should they talk with them? In a sense, they already were conversing with each other. Father had explained them how to talk to nobles, but they doubted this boy was one of the nobles. They crossed their arms and cocked their head, thinking. What would Father do in their situation?
"I am asking you again: Who are you and what are you doing here?!", the boy apparently grew impatient. Hollow didn't want to get too much attention on them, so they raised their hands and started to sign. However, that only earned them confused stares from the boy bug and kind of a pitiful one from the girl bug.
They lowered their hands and flipped their journal open, that they still took with them everywhere they went and wrote into it.
"I am Hollow. I am waiting for Father."
They presented the journal to the two, who shared a look. The boy bug once again spoke : "I have never seen you here before. From which school are you?"
They wrote their answer in the book again.
"I am not going to school."
"Really?", the boy bug said. "But you look around our age. You should go to a school." He crossed his arms and frowned. Hollow didn't knew how to react or what to write, they had said the truth. They weren't going to school. What else should they say?
The girl bug nudged the boy at his sleeve and then said: "Kim, please, they obviously can't talk. They probably have a tutor."
Hollow felt an intense feeling of gratitude and nodded at her. They supposed that Quirrel counted as their tutor.
"See?", the girl said and clapped her hands. Hollow kind of hoped that they would leave, but the bug apparently called Kim wasn't satisfied. "Why aren't you able to talk?", he asked.
"I was made without a voice.", Hollow wrote in their book. "I wasn't supposed to cry out my suffering."
Only when both bugs in front of them got a deeply disturbed look at their faces at their choice of words, Hollow deflated on the bench. Had they said something wrong? They only said the truth... Hollow wished Father was there, as much as he seemed to dislike talking, everyone he talked to just had to yield to him. They never had to held a conversation with strangers on their own before and started to feel rather uncomfortable about the whole deal.
"Who is your father anyway?", Kim asked. "Why is he just leaving you here?"
"He has to deal with an infected sentry.", Hollow wrote, thinking that it was better to omit the part about who he was, the latest talk with Lurien was proof enough to them, that it was a bad idea.
"Oh, maybe their father is a sentry.", the girl exclaimed. "Only the sentries and the knights deal with the ones that get sick, my mom told me about it. And see, they even have a nail." She pointed at Hollow's nail. It was just then that Hollow noticed that each of them had nail of their own, though they didn't seem to be real... rather made out of some kind of wood.
Hollow was unsure what to do. Should they lie and tell them that their father was a sentry? They were rather good at lying, with having pretended for so long to not have any emotions or thoughts, but something felt wrong about it. As they were still pondering about their next words, the bug named Kim suddenly stepped closer to them and inspected their nail.
"That one? Never have seen a nail like this before. In which dojo do you train?", he asked.
"Um, I think that isn't a shellwood nail for training.", the girl said. "That actually... looks like a genuine nail. Is it from the nailsmith in the city?"
Hollow nodded, standing up and moving closer to the girl to show their nail to her. She examined it with glowing eyes. "Woah.", she said. "It's real. That is one of the finest nails I have ever seen. My mom works as sentry, so I get to see her nail all the time, but this one looks like such high quality that it should be for one of the great knights."
"Hey, don't ignore me.", Kim came stomping from behind. "Nari, just because you would like to become a nailsmith, you don't have to praise the nail of some random kid hanging around at our spot!"
"Cut it out.", Nari said, huffing and crossing her arms. "Just because you did awful today at nail practice, you don't need to lash out at anyone who made the mistake to even look at you."
"Anyway.", Kim growled. "You have a nail, so you practice with it, right? I challenge you to a duel and when you lose, you have to leave this place."
"I.. don't think that might be such a good idea.", Nari said, but Hollow stood up, their nail ready, stepping into the middle of the plaza and bowing. Father had told them to wait, so they wouldn't abandon this place. If they had to fight for it, so be it.
"Good to see that you are not a coward.", Kim stepped opposite of them and gave them a curt bow in return. Once he had drawn his nail, Hollow stroke. They dashed forwards, easily parried his hastily raised nail and then let soul pillars emerge from the ground, enough distraction to go for a dive attack, which would probably make them fall over, but...
...they stopped when they realized that Kim sat on the ground, shivering and crying as well as when they heard Father's voice: "Hollow, what have you done?!"
Incapacitating the sentry had took longer than Pendry had been anticipated.
Not only had they wreaked a lot of havoc already, once he had stepped on the scene, she had become even angrier and the sentry's efforts had doubled. Once he had managed to knock them out and get them into quarantine, Pendry then had to spend even more time healing all the other sentries and the citizens that had gotten hurt in the scuffle. All while he was hoping that Hollow hadn't wandered off and had stayed where they were, but who was he kidding, he knew that Hollow never would do something without a prompt.
So when he returned, already feeling a slight headache blooming, to where Hollow was, he was rather shocked to see Hollow standing there, with their nail raised, in front of a shivering and crying adolescent bug.
"Hollow, what have you done?!", he exclaimed and hurried over to the shivering bug, to see with relief that he wasn't hurt, but still shaken to the core. This was even more apparent because he didn't started to bow once his thrall hit him. His companion, however, while equally shivering, soon was bowing and almost hit the ground with her head.
"Father.", Hollow signed. "I got challenged to a duel."
"And you thought it was a good idea to accept a duel against someone who is clearly weaker then you? He doesn't even has a real nail.", he said, folding all of his four arms and tapping his foot. He turned to the girl, after releasing her from his thrall and asked: "What happened?"
"I.. I don't really know... It was so fast... There were... pillars of light...", the girl brought out.
"You used your soul magic against a mortal bug?!", Pendry blurted out, making Hollow deflate a bit, making him feel a bit guilty. While Hollow surely had done everything wrong that could go wrong, he had left them alone and didn't tell them what to do when someone approached at them. In a sense, he also felt a bit proud, because they had acted on their own will.
"Sorry...", Hollow signed, their head low, gaze cast on the floor.
"We talk about it later.", Pendry sighed, turning to the two children.
"Our apologies. They are used to spar against the great knights and didn't knew to hold themselves back."
"Your father is the KING?!", the bug on the ground suddenly shouted out, making Pendry flinch and looking around, hoping that nobody had seen or heard anything. It was a good thing this particular plaza was empty because of the infected sentry that had been nearby.
"No word to anyone about this.", he said, raising a claw to his mouth. "Don't tell anyone what happened here today."
The boy on the ground managed to get back on his feet, with the help of his friend and then both of them nodded.
"Good.", Pendry said and laid a hand on both of their shoulders, sharing a tiny bit of soul with them. Instantly, the two of them relaxed.
"Our apologies again.", he said. "Hollow didn't want to hurt you, they simply didn't knew better, though, you should think better too, to challenge someone to a duel who owns a real nail."
The both of them nodded again and then were off, the boy was practically running off while the girl struggled to keep up with him.
"And now to you.", Pendry huffed, laying both of his claws on Hollow's shoulders. "I am so proud of you."
"Wait, what?", Hollow signed, cocking their head in confusion, in fact, they cocked it so much that it nearly looked like they twisted their neck. Giving the void nature of their body, that was entirely possible.
"Hollow, I am not proud of what you have done, that surely went wrong, but I am proud that you have done something out of your own, free will. Without me ordering you to do it. We just need to teach you proper etiquette how to deal with mortals."
"So you aren't angry?", Hollow signed.
"Oh, you will get a punishment. Later.", Pendry said, making Hollow lower their head again. "Come, let's get to the tailor now. After all, that is what we came here for."
Hollow nodded and followed him and once they were in front of him, they signed: "Are you sure they won't tell anyone?"
"Oh, don't worry.", Pendry said, a smile on his face. "I didn't only share soul with them to relax them, but I also cast a spell on them. Every time they will try to talk about this event, they will suddenly forget the details about it."
It was one of his finer spells, but not one that could be cast easily, because it was absolutely necessary to infuse the bug who got enchanted with soul.
"You can do something like that?!", Hollow signed, their excitement showing in their frantic hand moves.
"Yes, but it took quite a bit of time to develop it. I would teach it to you, but you can't even pass on soul to other bugs to heal them, we need to work at this first..."
They spent the rest on the way talking about how to improve their handling over Soul once they arrived in front of the tailor.
"Are you ready to get your ceremonial robes?", Pendry asked and once Hollow confirmed his words with a nod, the both of them stepped over the threshold into the shop.
(Author's note:
I wanted to make a switch from titles to names for so long and I finally could do it. It still feels a bit weird though, so I hope I don't mess this up. How do you like my names for PK and WL?
Well, I totally have the headcanon that Lurien draws inappropriate erotic art of the king. Also, I wanted to let play Lurien instruments at first, but after I saw that he actually canonically draws and that isn't just fanon, I decided to switch it around and make Lucien the musician instead. I like them to be bros anyway.
I am thinking more about how gods works and I think for White Lady, being polyamorous is completely normal. She thinks every god is, but PK isn't able to wrap his head around that idea too much. She would be totally fine with him taking another partner, she is probably just waiting for his agreement for her to take another partner as well.
The last scene with Hollow was a bit difficult. I changed it around quite a bit. I wanted to make a scene like that for a long time, but I am a bit "eh" about it. The book series they think about wanting to read doesn't exist, I just used a book title generator and used the most cheesiest title I could find.
As always, thanks for reading. I would cherish when you could leave me a comment.)