Author's Note: I edited the last chapter! Oh boy, that was a crazy one. Kinda have to go back and read what happened before I wrote this hhhh

I have already moved to AO3 for fics [works/21998680/chapters/52496101] Just paste it behind the AO3 link, but I'll also update here for those that likes to read. Just waaay way slower.

"Oh, sorry sweetie," Queen Herrah said to her sweet little daughter before ushering little Hornet to stay behind her.

She then walked over to the king and he had to crane his neck up to look at her.

"To what I owe you a visit, Herrah?" He looked between her and the small youngling behind her.

Herrah clicked her tongue in annoyance, "You seem to have forgotten. Not surprising since you are already old."

Pale king sputters at her jab at his age before trying to make himself look bigger and retorted, "Excuse me, I'm notold."

"Say what you want, Wyrm." She then rolled her eyes.

"I came here because you're supposed to take care of your darling Hornet," She then brought out a small portable paper timetable about who's in charge of being Hornet's caretaker and shoved it in his face.

"We agreed on this, so she would at least get to know her father better." Herrah said to him as she crouches down and pokes him in the chest at the word "father"

He totally forgot about this! After the whole thing with containing the infection and planning to train the pure vessels…

Sigh, there's no escaping this, is there?

"O-of course, I didn't forget that at all," Lying King. We all know you forgot.

"Come now, my child. Let's… uh, go play with your newest brothers," He said to Hornet as she poked her head out and ran over to the King.

"Brothers?" She asked before looking at Pure and Ghost. She didn't know that she has brothers! They're going to have so much fun sparring and running around the hall.

The queen of Deepnest also seems to notice the two tiny vessels beside him. She was so focused on the king that she ignored almost everything around her.

"Why, hello there." She said to them, but the both of them just stared at her and Ghost tried very hard not to wave since the king was right beside them.

Herrah then turned to look at the king and sigh. Such a horrible fate upon these children, "So, you have already found the "hollow" vessel to enact your plan. Though two of them, I'm certainly surprised." Pale king nodded his head stiffly as she talked.

The Deepnest queen wishes for it to be different and maybe, just maybe he would soon see what he's doing is just... wrong. Though that's not really her problem, she just felt guilt for the vessels. They seem like such adorable little children.

When she turned to look at the smallest vessel to study them, she could see a tiny glimmer of light in their eyes.

Wait. Light? Shouldn't they be made from pure void?

Then she turns to look at the older-looking one. Eyes pure darkness that not even light could penetrate.

... She probably didn't have enough sleep today.

"Have fun now, my darling. If you need anything, I'll be with your aunty White Lady." She patted her child's head before starting to walk away in the direction of her friend's room.

Hey. Even if she's the king's wife, it doesn't mean she isn't fun to talk with. The roots have quite a tale about her

The king looks at two bundles of emotionless children and one jumping jelly bean next to him. It wouldn't hurt if she played with them for a bit.

"Alright, alright. You can play in my workroom while I work on some… stuff," He squinted as he ended the sentence with less than elegant wording, but the children seemed to get it as Hornet started to lead the two vessels to their destination.

"Last one there is a rancid egg!" She laughed as she started to sprint down the hallway. The two vessels looked at each other before running after her.

"Don't run down the hall… way. Ah, this is why I don't want children." The king mutters to himself as he slapped his forehead, feeling another migraine coming.

Hopefully, they won't make a mess of his room. That's but a hopeful thought.

The race ended up destroying one of the vases, but thankfully he wasn't there to witness it. Only the servants saw and they quickly hid the evidence of the broken glasses.

"Haha, that was fun!" Hornet happily said to the two vessels as they caught up to her.

Undoubtedly, she won the race. Though only because she got a head start. That, and maybe because she's very agile for someone her age.

Ghost congratulated her by clapping their hands while Pure just stared at her.

"Thank you, thank youuuu," She playfully bowed at the two vessels and snickered. They aren't much of a talker, but it's alright. Most of the servants don't really speak anyways and that's really boring. She likes her home in Deepnest, lots of spider siblings and they play games with her.

Maybe with her new brothers here, that would change!

"Daughter of the three queens", The Radiance hummed from the back of Ghost's mind as she got out to look at another child the king had.

You knew of her? Ghost decided to talk with Radiance in their head while leaving Pure at the mercy of their new sister.

"Not as much, but just enough. I could feel her presence from outside of the Black Egg, standing there. I have a feeling she was a child of one of the dreamers," The memories are foggy, but through the haze, she could remember them all.

Not that this reminded her that a mother sacrificed her life for the king's cause to trap her in the temple forever. The mother was pulled away from her child and for what cause? Was it worth it?

Apparently yes.

I see.

Ghost could feel a slight agitated feeling coming from the moth god in waves. They wanted to reassure her that everything is alright and that they're in the past! They could fix it before it began.

But a small chirping sound of their sister broke them out of their mental talk with the moth. A hand pulling them along with their brother to the king's workshop.

"Come on! Let's go see what father is doing. He always buried himself in his work." Little Hornet said to her brothers with one confused-looking and one just as confused.

The king's workshop is what you would expect. Not to be confused with the other workshop, where he works with the void. This one is more like a normal workshop for papers and other small inventions.

"Ah, there you are. I was wondering what took you so long." The king turned to look at the sound of the door opening. Three gaggles of children came with Hornet as the leader, dragging two brothers by the floor... oh no, they look positively drained!

"Father! My brothers and I played lots of games together! Do you want to play games with us too?" Hornet tilted her head cutely as the two vessels laid on the floor, unfunctional. The Radiance came out to poke at Ghost to get them to stir, but alas, nothing beats the fearsome knight of Hallownest than their sister Hornet as a child.

A bundle of energy she might add.

The Pale king stood up from his desk and came over to them, checking out the vessels first as they looked tuckered out. 'So that's why they took so long to get here' , he thought. He can't blame him, Hornet is just too energetic.

The moth reflexively moves away from the king as he comes near the vessels. It's weird being near him when she's not taunting the king.

After making sure that they're fine, not that he cared about them cough, he turned to look at Hornet and pet her head "Sorry dear, father has to work on something."

"Was it the infection problem? If I come face to face with it, imma poke it with my needle!"

"E-eah, well- not exactly," He tried to calm her down before she accidentally destroyed something, but it proved to be fruitless. She's brave at least?

"Then what is?" She looked up at him with wide eyes. Ready to pry the information out of the stoic king if need be. She wanted to help him! So he could spend more time with her.

"The infection stopped for the last few days. It's just... odd" Why is he telling this to a child? He didn't know. He just couldn't ignore the babyface from her. Curse the cute face. Herrah must've taught her something.

The knight stirs up from the floor and if they saw the moth god protectively curled around them, they didn't say anything. They caught the last part of the conversation, however.

The infection... stops?

Well, that's weird. Does that mean when they're... here in the past, they replaced the Ghost and Radiance from the past?

"Hmm... that answers some questions" The moth perched on top of them and watched the king with his daughter.

"We don't have to worry about the infection problem for a while. This might give us a chance to convince the king to stop with his plan."

And that's a good idea too. The vessel is thinking the same thing and they agree with the moth mom. The problem is...

... how?

A few while after the conversation with the moth, the king put his children on his bed so he could focus on his work. Hornet is tired from the day and decided to take a small nap. Pure is next to her, sleeping also. A child needs his rest.

The ghost, however, is wide awake on the bed. They looked in front of them to see the king's back, working on something... something.

"Mwuahaha. It is time, little vessel. We now have the perfect opportunity to rat the king's out. Find his deepest darkest secrets!" The Radiance strikes again. Looking at the king with a grin while rubbing her wings together evilly.

What if he finds out you're snooping around in his room?

"That doesn't stop you from doing the same around the palace."

...

"..."

Fair point.

The vessel just gave up and let the Radiance do whatever she wanted. The moth floated over to where the king is working and leaned over to see what he's doing. Ah, an important blueprint of some sort. Probably not as important.

"Did you draw a statue of yourself, Wyrm? Need something to inflate your ego more than it is?" She squinted at the tiny tiny statue of the king on top of some building that closely resembles a City of Tear's architect.

The king jerked from his seat with his back rigid as a stone. Did... did he just hear a voice?

The moth didn't seem to notice his discomfort and went over to look at other details on the blueprints. She almost, almost snorted when she saw the placement of each bench on the paper.

"Why in the world would you place random benches under the rain? Who would even sit there? Put them inside a building or something."

The king wondered if he's slowly going crazy from work as the voices in his head, or is it above him? Questioning his logic behind the placement of the benches.

Yeah, he's probably imagining it. There's no way something as bad as The Radiance is talking to him or something.

...

Yeah

...

"Why did you even build a city under a lake anyways?"

Someone, please explain why the voice is mocking him.