Enter the Dragon
Chapter 6: Traveling, Learning, and an Awakening…
Sitting at the Stag station in Greenpath, Ray was faced with a conundrum. There were three ways to get to Deepnest, but none of them were ideal. He could take the straight route, simply take a stag to the stag station, and make his way to the nosks den from there, but he wasn't sure if he would get questioned or attacked by the denizens of Deepnest. The other two ways weren't as straight forward, with one of them going through the fungal core, to then drop down into Deepnest. The last one was through the hidden station, past the palace, and then to Deepnest through the tramway.
His musing was cut short by the appearance of a stag, stopping at the station, lowering itself down to be boarded, saying "Hello, tall one. Where too?" Humming in thought, I make my decision, saying "I need to get to the White Palace, please." At that, the stag looks me up and down, replying "Understood, climb on."
I climb on, securing myself to the seat, after which the stag takes off, moving through the stag way tunnels, causing my stomach to flutter from the speed and roughness of travel.
Hornet was walking through the Archives, looking for a private place to read this, mysterious book she found in the restricted section. What was weird about it, was that when she saw it, it called to her, like she needed to read this book.
It was a matte grey color, with the symbol similar to her father's royal symbol, but different, with extra horns, and colored a dark black. The material felt like it had been soaked in ink, and yet no stains appeared on her hands when exploring the book, finding no names or anything else besides the symbol.
Books, she remembered, were quire rare, requiring wood to make the paper, and a substantial amount of ink to impart the knowledge upon the pages. The advantage of the books was that a single book could hold dozens of tablets worth of knowledge and took up less space, but the paper they were made from was easily damaged.
Tucking it into her cloak, she eventually found her preferred hiding spot, a place that only a spider could climb to, and after making sure she was in the clear, entered her hiding spot. Once settled, she went to open up the book, when her sister jumped into her hidey holt, startling her as Helia says "What cha doin?" in that childish accent she oh so loved doing, settling in next to her.
Once calmed down, Hornet replies "I'm reading, obviously.", showing the book to her. Heliac glances over it, looking it over before saying "And where did you find a book? I thought they were quite rare?"
Hornet begins to pull open the book, responding "They are, and this one was found in an empty area of the restricted section." Helia simply hums in response, reading over the first page with Hornet, which says "To those higher beings of light and dark, god and void, this message is for you."
Hornet turns the page, which reads "Before there was anything, before there was time, there was the void. And from the void, came everything. From within the void, two beings were created, the being known as Life, and the living entity of the void, known as the Lord of Shades. Life, afraid of the dark, fled the void, creating living beings in it's wake, attempting to escape the frightening darkness. The Lord of Shades, entranced by the light and warmth of Life, chased after it, spreading the void in its wake, absorbing and loving all that Life left behind. Eventually, Life would tire, and the Lord of Shades would catch up, bundling up Life in its arms, and returning to the void, keeping Life safe from the world."
Hornet stared, taking in the words, trying to understand the meaning behind them, looking at Helia, who was staring at the book, deep in thought. After a few moments, Hornet whispers out "This, this means, that my sibling, can't be hollow. The entire plan is doomed to fail."
Helia takes a deep breath, before reaching out, turning to the next page, and began to read, hugging Hornet with her free arm.
The book's pages read "In the realm of dreams and nightmares, another pair took shape, called forth by the belief of the moths. The pair would be known as the Radiance, God of Dreams, and Grimm, God of Nightmares. Together, they led the moths through their dreams, Radiance leading the dance, with Grimm following behind. Together, they completed each other, keeping the dream realm in balance.
That is, until they stumbled upon the land of the living shadow, drawn by the living light that is Life, like a moth to a flame. The Radiance, the leader of the dance, wanted to take Life for its own, while Grimm, the follower, wanted to move on to lands anew, continuing the dance. Their disagreement led to a schism, with the Radiance dealing a mortal blow to her brother in her anger, driving Grimm and his followers away, disrupting the dance.
With no further distractions, she drew upon her power, and attacked the very void itself, driving it from the lands above, searching and searching for the appealing light of Life deep within. This drew the void back together to reform the Lord of Shades, who lashed out at the Radiance, forcing her back into her domain, but not before the Radiance found and stole Life's light for herself, adding to her power. From her realm, she attacked the Lord of Shades through the power of her dreams, emboldened by her followers worship and the power gained from Life, forcing the Lord of Shades into a never ending sleep, pushing the void further down into the ground, out of sight.
For many cycles, the Radiance ruled from her dream realm, content with her followers worship, and grew complacent, eventually growing blind and deaf to her followers pleas, only giving miracles for the most fervent followers.
Then, the wyrm came. Appearing from beyond the wastes, the wyrm was drawn to the land by the latent power of the pale root, a living remnant of Life's creation, but was met with fear from the moths. The wyrm, after coiling around the large tree like root it's instinctual need to hunt triggered by the hidden presence, eventually exhausted itself, it's exhaustion allowing the root to reach out and communicate with it, expanding it's consciousness with the revelation of other beings having thoughts. The wyrm, once it's strength had been regained, summoned it's power, and pushed out a spell of understanding. This allowed all who had come from Life, who each spoke their own tongue, to understand each other. Those others who weren't intelligent before, now found themselves understanding of the world around them, understanding of themselves. All who were touched by the wyrm's spell, understood its source. The wyrm, it's body decaying from the force of the spell, shed its outer form, and ascended to godhood, becoming the God of Light and Knowledge. The moth tribes, who had been ignored for far too long by their creator, willingly joined the new light, reaching out for help to survive. And the wyrm, its mind and body emboldened by the new worship it received, abliged.
The Radiance, who had been content before, now suddenly had a yawning void of empty dreams to fill, and suddenly realized how lacking her worship had been, began to try to force herself into the dreams of these new minds, only to find herself being blocked from their minds, shielded by a new light, one that rivaled her own. Summoning her might to a physical form once again, she lashed out at this new light, her fury from her believers being stolen from her driving her actions. The battle shattered the land above, darkening the sky with the power of their light. In the titanic battle, the Radiance's brother, hurt and angry, assisted the wyrm, launching a two-pronged attack. In the end, the Radiance's physical body was destroyed, with all of her power lost with it, disappearing from the dream realm. The god Life, disappeared as well, leaving behind an empty void, rumbling deep beneath the land. And the wyrm, now ruler of the land, proclaimed the land to be Hallownest, and he their Pale King.
But even in death, the Radiance lives on, still worshiped by a select few devout believers, keeping her name alive. This allowed a faint memory of her to come back into being within the dream realm, lacking the power to force her will upon those that scorned her, but even the sturdiest mind may give in to the sweet promise of the dream.
The burning one will soon come, their mind born from a land without gods, brought to Hallownest with but one goal. The salvation of Hallownest, and the end of the never ending dream."
And on the last page, was what could only be described as a painting, of a being, who appeared to look a lot like Helia, but without the short fuzz of a bee, with their horns being shown to be similar to Hornets, but ending in two curling points on each side.
After rereading the book, a couple of times, the two of them turn to each other, with Helia exclaiming "We need to show this to your father right away."
Hornet simply closes the book up, respond "No, not right away. He won't believe it if its just us showing him. Firstly, we need to show mine and your mother. Then with their help, we can convince him that my sibling isn't hollow."
Helia nods, her wings starting to buzz in place in excitement, asks "So, this burning one, do you think he's here already?" Hornet stands up, putting the book in one of the pockets of her cloak, responds "I don't know, and I don't care. Whether this burning one is here or not, we need to do what we can to stop this foolhardy plan." and jumps out of the hiding spot, Helia following along shortly behind.
Getting off of the stag, I stumbled a bit before my balance returned, and I began walking. Noting that at the time the hidden station (or, Palace Station, as it's apparently called), was quite busy, bugs coming and going, nobles being tended to by servants, larger worker bugs carrying supplies to the palace. It was the hustle and bustle of a kingdom in its prime, and it was something I hoped to keep together.
But first, I had some vessels to rescue, and so I began walking, making sure to keep my cloak secured around my form, moving forward through the crowds. It was while passing the white palace, which was just as massive and grand in scale as I expected, that I realized that the Pale King and Hollow Knight were walking towards me, with a pair of Kingsmolds following dutifully behind them.
I kept to the side, making sure my hood kept my face hidden, continuing to move in the opposite direction, hoping and praying that they ignore me for now, when I notice the Hollow Knight's head tracking me, staring at me with their dark eyeholes, which was much more unnerving than I was expecting.
I continued walking past, ignoring them even as I hear a whisper in the back of my mind "sibling…". I push back mentally "Not sibling, but friend. I'll be back, with more siblings. Pretend I wasn't here." along the same path I felt, feeling a sense of, agreement, for lack of a better word, in response.
Continuing on, thankful that the Pale King hadn't noticed me, or noticed the Hollow Knights apparent interest in a random cloaked bug, but from what I knew of him, it wouldn't surprise me if he was far too busy thinking about the current infection problem to notice a single bug out of many.
Finally making it to the exit, I climb and fly my way up to the top of the ancient basin, and find myself in front of the tram station. And then I have a horrible thought. In the game, you needed the tram pass to operate the trams.
Fortunately for me, there was instead a toll booth, instead of the usual tram pass slot, costing 500 geo for transport. Which was quite steep, but thankfully I had more than enough geo to pay for it, stepping into the tram, which was surprisingly empty.
Stepping forward to the side facing Deepnest, I press the glowing button, and settle down on a seat, waiting as the tram departs into Deepnest.
Out in the deep, dark empty lands of the wastes, the Grimm Troupe travels, always searching for the next nightmare flame to keep their master alive. Within one of the wagons, the Troupe master sits, humming a tune to himself as he waits, awaiting the time to begin the next show, when a niggling feeling brushes up against his consciousness, a calling back to the land of Hallownest.
He stiffens, feeling the call not of the wyrm, or even a lit torch, but of the void, calling to him, demanding he come to Hallownest. He gets up, calling out to Brumm "Brumm, we're making a change of plans. Set course for Hallownest." Brumm, in the lead wagon, simply nods, and directs the Grimm Steeds, telling them to change course.
Grimm sits back down, a small grin appearing on his face, as he considers the possibility of why the void, of all things would be calling. Regardless of the reason, it has been a long time since Grimm has seen Solaris, and it would be good to see him again. And it would be much fun to tease him again, such delightful teasing would be some of the best fun he's had in quite a while.
AN: And there's chapter 6 done. Ray is on his way, almost running straight into the Pale King himself, and Hornet and Helia have found the mysterious shadow book. Curious things will be happening, but up next, will be Ray's first proper fight against an enemy.
I do hope you all have been enjoying it so far, and peace out.