Location: Grimm's Tent

"Master! Master!" Brumm called out as he neared Grimm's room. This wasn't… ideal to say the least. Suspicion had been raised about the creatures already, which was to be expected considering how they just marched into town, threatened a gang, then a noble, at least according to Xym that's what happened. Then according to the grimm kin, had a scene that attracted a whole crowd of bugs, nonchalantly marched into the fungal wastes and scared a few locals with their presence. Honestly it's amazing that they didn't attract more attention with their lack of subtleness.

Brumm reached his master's changing room door, and heard talking on the other side, like the Master was having a conversation with someone. He could tell he was talking to someone else, and not himself, Grimm had a particular way of speaking when talking to himself, and this was not it. So who was his master talking to? Brumm waited at the door for a moment, before deciding to knock.

"Master! Urgent news!" Brumm said as he knocked.

"Ah, yes, I'll be right there," Grimm's voice said from the other side of the door.

Brumm could hear the sound of chair legs grinding against the floor as it was pushed out, and footsteps as Grimm got closer to the door. The knob turned, and the door opened revealing the troupe master himself, holding the crystal they had taken, and the unmistakable smell of lifeblood wine, it was very pungent.

"Who… who were you talking to?" Brumm asked confused, looking past his master into the room, he did not see anyone there.

"Oh, I was just having a little chat with my sister… heh, or at least a part of her, heh heh" Grimm said, chuckling.

"Were… were you talking to your sister's shard this whole time?" Bruhmm asked, slightly exacerbated, the guests were waiting this whole time, Brumm was worried that they would just walk off in boredom.

'Oh calm down dear Brumm, I wasn't in here that long…"

Brumm looked at Grimm with an analyzing gaze.

"Master, how much did you have to drink?" Brumm asked, between the pungent smell and the chuckling, Brumm had a suspicion that Master stopped paying attention to how much liquid was left in the bottle again.

"Oh not that much, heh, come come, I'll show you" Grimm said as he ushered Brumm into his changing room.

Grimm guided Brumm to his desk, where a bottle of life blood was placed.

"See Brumm, absolutely nothing to worry about" The bottle was empty.

Grimm looked at it, then back at Brumm, then back to the bottle.

"Ah… ok so…"

"Master..." Brumm sighed.

"Alright, so I may have made… less than… advisable decisions, but I assure you, I am in more than capable condition to perform" Grimm said, chuckling slightly as he spoke.

"Master, you have been in here for a rather extensive period of time, I was concerned that our new acquaintances would try to leave in sheer boredom" Brumm explained.

"Oh shoot… well let's not keep them waiting any longer, haha" Grimmd said moving back towards the door.

"Master, about that… something came up"

Grimm whipped around "Did something happen?"

"Unfortunately yes, armed representatives from the Kingdom we are in have requested to know why we are here, and, unfortunately have asked questions about figures whos descriptions resemble our guests" Brumm said.

Grimm just stared at Brumm for a moment.

"Well they'll have to go through me" Grimm said, moving to walk out of the room.

"Master no!" Brumm yelled, running towards him and grabbing on to one of his arms to stop him from leaving.

"They aren't taking Xym!" Grimm said angrily.

"No one is taking Xym Master, they just asked about figures that resemble humans, probably our guests, no one said anything about taking Xym" Brumm said, trying to reason with the clearly tipsy Grimm.

"Rrrg, well good, I got him fair and square, and the troupe just wouldn't be the same without him…" Grimm said, seemingly saddening himself at the thought.

"Yes, we all love Xym master, but we really must focus on the task we face here"

"I'll go tell them to screw off" Grimm said, once more turning to leave.

"Master!" Brumm said exacerbated.

"Alright alright I'll be nice" Grimm said, himself sounding exacerbated, before finally walking out of the changing room door.

Brumm sighed, this was possibly the worst situation for the troupe master to begin drinking so much life blood wine. Grimm usually was good about keeping a lid on his drinking habits, but sometimes when he gets lost in thought… he forgets how many glasses he has had. It was situations like these that made Brumm entertain the thought of hiding, or dumping Grimm's life blood wine stash. He always decides against it on the grounds that Grimm probably had a hidden stash, and that Grimm might in turn react… poorly to it. He wasn't afraid of his Master, but he really did not want to be the one assigned to dig and/or clean out latrines.

It was not above the troupe master to give out unfavorable assignments to those who have sufficiently annoyed him.

Location: Dirtmouth

"Yea I saw the giants, went right into that tent"

"I think I saw them rob a passing noble"

"They seemed nice when I was coming back through the Crossroads"

"Seemed pretty articulate and rational last time I saw them"

"They had a moth and three other weird looking bugs with them"

"Yes, the white curs fell in droves to my blade, though, my beloved life ender did not survive the harrowing duel"

And other such civilian testimony was given to Hegemol and his detail as they began questioning the townsfolk.

From what he had gathered, they had in fact robbed a noble, successfully talked a group of delinquite bugs out of fighting them, and actually speaking in a way they could understand. At least, those were the recurring points brought up by many of those questioned. Apparently these tall beings had just recently come back here, had struck another member of their kind in their midsection, and had entered the tents.

The story was rather bizarre if Hegemol had to be honest. A group of tall beings that has kept most of Hallownest in a state of fear and anxiety, come into this small surface town, rob a noble, punch one of their own kind, and then enter some 'circus' tent. It sounded like bad comedy.

However, the most important part was the fact that they could communicate with others, meaning that they could be questioned. If they could be questioned, if they can be questioned, they may be able to at least understand more about them and their motives. Such as why does the Shade Lord think they are his children? What relation do they have to the Moth Tribe? Why did the metal giant feel the need to lay waste to the City of Tears? What were they?

All this and more were questions that Hegemol needed answered for the Hallownest's sake. He needed to remain calm and respectful however, considering that these tall beings were likely the ones to destroy the 4th City of Tears Brigade, he couldn't just threaten them. Thinking about it, this was probably why he was sent, Ogrim was too injured and still needed time to heal, as well as generally not being too bright. Ze'mer was… awkward, to say the least, not the best for diplomacy. Dryya on the other hand was too… heavy handed, she was a fine warrior, and a good friend, but she ran the risk of offending these creatures with her less than amicable attitude.

Isma probably would have been perfect for this in all honesty, she was kind, intelligent, usually good at keeping her calm, as well as being better able to read people. However, what made her a less viable choice in this scenario was… well… the giant hurt Ogrim. In almost any other circumstance, a situation like this would be perfect for Isma to handle. However, since these beings, or, someone or something associated with these beings had harmed one so close to her, it was uncertain whether she could keep her emotions in check.

Hegemol believed that she could, but agreed with the King that it was not worth the risk. Hegemol did not doubt that he could fulfill this task, the tall beings here did not appear to favor violence, at least according to civilian testimonials, which raised the question as to they attacked the 4th Brigade.

So he would show them professional respect, even if they did not deserve it, or maybe they did, after all, for all he knew the 4th City of Tears Brigade was at fault. It would be advantageous to rid himself of all preconceptions he can of these creatures before speaking to them, that would allow him to best gauge the actual situation.

Now, if only that troupe master would show up…

As if on cue the flaps to the tent opened, revealing a tall bug in black and crimson robes, his eyes glowing a scarlet red. Hegemol approached the bug, assuming that he could possibly be the troupe master, if not, he would just ask about him again.

"Ah ha, greetings… yes, I take it you are the ones who asked for me, yes?" The tall bug said a Grin on his face, and the pungent smell of life blood wine on his breath. Hegemol recognized the smell, he fancied himself a drink every now and then, that time Ze'mer and Isma got drunk were more than enough to make him moderate.

"I assume you are Troupe Master Grimm?" Hegemol said matter of factly.

"Why yes, I am Troupe Master Grimm of the Grimm Troupe, how could ya tell? Heh heh"

Hegemol sighed internally, Grimm was clearly tipsy, no matter, he would just have to be patient.

"I have some questions relating to the sightings of white clad tall beings moving through the town, and entering your tent. If at all possible I would like for you to bring them out here for questioning, they are implicated in the killing a battalion of sentries and possible association with a giant that caused significant damage to a city."

"Ah, you must mean the three that I got to attend my show, I assure you they are responsible for no such crimes, none at all, I found them fair a square, so why don't you just march back to your king and inform him there is nothing to worry about? Ha" Grimm said grinning.

Out of the corner of his eye, Hegemol could make out the bulky bug from earlier standing by the tent's entrance, looking somewhat mortified.

Hegemol sighed "Grimm, I would very much appreciate having an audience with these creatures, they have a lot of things that they need to explain"

"And I… already told you fine sir, that they do not," Grimm said in a weird mix of mild hostility and chipperness.

Hegemol was getting annoyed, this wasn't going anywhere. The Great Knight was considering more drastic measures; he felt a faint rumbling sound from the stag station building.

Suddenly the stagway station building exploded into a hail of splinters as a giant black figure burst from it. The figure approached rapidly, Hegemol raised his weapon in preparation for an attack.

However the black being stopped abruptly as it was just upon them.

Hegemol could hardly believe what he was seeing, it was the Lord of Shades… which meant that he was here for the tall beings he considered his children… This could be advantageous, a tall being trapped in the Abyss is one less tall being wrecking the City of Tears. Still he wanted his answers first.

"Nightmare god, I demand you hand over my children!"

"Oh… bother…" Grimm said, even in his less than sober state, he knew this was bad.

Location: Grimm's Tent

Hollow was elated, Lord was here, there was no way his broken siblings could flee now. Lord would catch them, Lord would fix them, and Lord would keep them where they belonged. In the Abyss, with their siblings.

Lost radiated an equal if not greater elation as well. They were both very happy, their three siblings would finally be coming home.