boxfullofzeroes | voicetest the voiceless

voicetest the voiceless

They're not dead.

Less dead than they'd felt, at least. Their shell doesn't normally take so long to reform.

Then again. Their shell doesn't usually break of their own violation as they ascended in a boiling rage, ate at least one realm, a god, and all the Godseekers.

(That last point is debatable, actually. There's some odd sense, deep under their...shell? Void? Wherever they once stored things like Isma's Tear, much deeper now...that the sea-mind is still there, sluggish and held in a stasis. They're already adjusting enough, and they don't seem to be dying or trying to kill them, so that problem is neatly sorted as 'for later'.)

They push their body to stand. Their horn clangs uncomfortably loudly against the grate they've apparently woken up beneath. They're somewhere in the Royal Waterways. A quick check of the map--or, not so quick, as it takes time to locate where it had been--shows they've risen about halfway through, closer to the City of Tears than the White Palace. They'll go to the Stag Station in the City Storerooms next.

So they think. Complications arise on the way.

The Infection is gone, leaving dead Flukes, Pilflips, and Hwurmps in piles enough it takes time to force their way past. Their body seems too small. No, their body is fine--there's something wrong with perception itself. That will take time to adjust to.

Then, they discover the Monarch Wings now stretch and warp when used, twisting around the nearest pipes after landing before the Knight forcibly calls them back. Shade Wings, they decide to call these.

Once they're high enough to hear the rain above, they realize a noise they'd ascribed to water running in the distance is, in fact, something swirling behind their mask. Many somethings. All the fragments of Siblings with enough self left, staring out from their eyes. It's disconcerting.

By the time they actually get out of the Waterways, they're using their Shade Wings to grip ledges and drag themselves up, with those holding onto things better than their own arms are with the Mantis Claw.

The Knight faceplants awkwardly onto the floor of the building Lemm's shop is in. If the City is the same as below, there's little left to try killing them in the area.

They'll just take a moment here, thanks.

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As out-of-sorts as he still sounds, they do believe he will get used to it. They can't be that much more terrifying than the wandering, burning dead, and Lemm adjusted to those enough he'll partly miss them.

They look back up. Yes, that was quite a fall, for a normal bug. Not as far as dropping from King's Pass. They're uninjured from the landing, though some of where they landed on glass lightly stings.

...Albeit less and less by the moment. While their mask is an unknown, it appears they needn't Focus to heal bodily injuries anymore.

While they could stand out in the rain forever, Lemm might not fare so well with the now-dangerous ground. He doesn't seem to want to be waiting there as much as he seems he'd rather not leave.

The Knight's Wings brush over the glass. A few twinkling shards scatter over the edge, disappearing beneath the water. They make an effort to avoid activating them further in a long hop across, landing just steadily enough not to tip at the very edge of the doorway. It appears their perception is off again.

Lemm stays very still as the Knight approaches. There's still a barely-perceptible tension in the way he's staring, but the longer it is since the roiling shade fell from the tower, the more it seems to ebb. It is definitely helping that the Knight seems to be acting more or less the same as ever towards him.

He underestimated. Lemm thought them small and relatively insignificant, a simple wanderer with strange habits and skill with a nail - unusual, yes, but not massively so. What he just observed was... pushing it, a bit. Should have asked more questions.

"Don't think I'm not seeing patterns, little secret keeper," he tells them once they're close enough. Whatever that means. "I told you I was studying this wreck. Now you've made me wonder what your purpose is here."

Little secret keeper. Another title granted in Hallownest. They accept this one far better than King.

Has he? They wonder what might yet be left. Most of the kingdom didn't seem to know of the Radiance. Even fewer knew of Vessels.

Part peace offering, part of a start of an answer--it resonates with the Void's non-hum, has meaning older than Hallownest they are newly aware of, even if incapable of deciphering untested--they produce a third Arcane Egg.

Oh, that's just not fair.

"Don't think you can distract me with relics," he scolds, even as he eagerly reaches out to take it with absolutely no hesitation whatsoever...

...Though before his fingers can connect, he quickly withdraws and pats himself down. With an annoyed huff he shakes his head.

"I didn't bring my spyglass. Or any Geo to pay you with," he adds, trying not to let that sound too much like an afterthought. "Will you be breaking my window, too, or are you feeling tame enough to do business properly? I've made myself clear how I feel about carelessness in my shop."

Yes, he still feels slightly uneasy inviting them back in after what he just witnessed, but - well - look at what they're offering.

Not that they need that Geo, really. Unless Sly restocks, or Iselda makes more pins.

Which isn't impossible, knowing both shopkeepers. And they would like a better variety of map markers...

The Knight shakes their head and gives another bow. No, they will not. They will not, they emphasize to their siblings' more aware fragments, who have mostly settled. Unless things have changed drastically incredibly quickly, there shouldn't be corpses in Lemm's shop.

Edited 2022-11-03 15:03 (UTC)

It's a good thing Lemm can't magically see how much Geo they have already, or there'd be some serious price slashing going on.

"If you say so." He half-turns to go back to the elevator, pausing midway to glance back out over the square.

Shame for there to be such a mess there now. The mystery knight may not have much of a legacy as far as Lemm is concerned, but the statue still counts as a relic, and it's near enough his shop that it's going to bother him.

He tears himself away with an unreadable hm and keeps walking, keeping that thought extremely to himself.

When the elevator stops, he remembers how much of a hurry he was in when he left. He picks up the pace and power-walks ahead just enough to begin hurriedly clearing away the avalanche of texts to make some counter space.

...He doesn't have any bodies in his shop, correct? They slow just enough to scan when Lemm hurries ahead, in case there's trouble. Or in case he decides to grab a journal and heft it at their face. Unwise, as fearful bugs tend to be.

No, only a small mess for him to clear up. They hop to sit on the tipped furniture again as he does that, turning the Arcane Egg over in their tiny claws.

They haven't stopped to look at it before. They found this in the Abyss, as well as the one prior. The first was from Seer, which only now strikes them as strange.

...It looks like the Black Egg high above in miniscule form.

Suddenly, they're glad to be rid of it.

No, no bodies! Just a strange antisocial bug clamouring to tidy the untidy before anyone sees it, though of course he's too late by the time the Knight pats through the door.

Both hands occupied by a dropped journal, Lemm pauses to nod it in their direction. (The heft is obvious, but with his experience it doesn't slip from his fingers.) "I'm sure you think you're clever for dangling that in front of me, but you don't know the gravity of it. Most sellers don't."

More room is cleared, until he at least has counter space, and then he swiftly sidles behind the desk and pats open the register to indicate he's ready to make the trade.

"The truth is, we Relic Seekers don't know the half of what we buy. All that layered information..." He gestures flaggingly at the thing with a larger denomination of Geo. "They must have had some simpler method of accessing the inward layers, unknown to us. With modern tools, we can only pry so deep before the whole delicate thing fractures."

He taps the Geo against the till, giving shape to his frustration when his actual voice stays more or less at his baseline. "Twelve hundred."

His fingers twiddle an eyeglass restlessly.

The Knight wasn't intending to be clever. Lemm sounds back to his old self far more now.

They glance at him and the Geo they might not need. The Geo--

An epiphany jolts them, full-body, as though just reawakening. The Geo that appeared from nowhere. The Geo that disappeared after their unruly Shade swallowed it when they didn't make it in time before being struck down too quickly first.

They can reach deeper than they ever have before in ways they haven't thought to document.

...They wonder.

The Knight stares fixedly down into their hands, tracing along the edges of the shape imprinted on the outer shell.

He waits. Not for too long, though, his patience is notoriously limited.

"...Your skill is with a nail, not a chisel," he points out, hoping that might jog them into handing it over. He may be blunt, but he doesn't snatch things. "Ah. Maybe you're curious about how it's done, eh? As much as I enjoy the work, I can only imagine it to be unspeakably dull to watch. These things take time. Of which most bugs don't have infinite reserves."

Lemm taps his fingers on the counter.

"Myself included. What are you doing?"

They wouldn't mind watching a tedious process. They can be restless, but it can be curbed if they believe there's something worthwhile to find or learn at the end of it.

But they might not need to.

They don't look up. Tracing. Reaching, feeling the darkness inside stir beneath. In layers, as Lemm said. They're hardly an expert on this, so they keep from tearing in from the core outward.

Splitting gently around the shape, it unfurls the top layer of itself like petals.

He's almost about to get out his tools, in case the prospect of watching might actually hurry this exchange along. He doesn't like others hanging around in his shop, but arrangements can be made for an Arcane Egg.

His hands freeze halfway to the drawer.

Lemm considers that he might be seeing things, or perhaps he's actually fast asleep over his translation work, and he'll wake up to the sound of the wandering plague shuffling outside.

He knows this isn't the case, though, sure as he knows this:

"You have been keeping secrets! What - easy, now, careful with that, you..." His hands lift awkwardly over the counter like he means to take the egg from them, but he doesn't dare close the gap, ineffectually hover-handsing and trying not to sputter like a dying candle. "You little sneak, you... You're one of them. All this time, you - how are you doing that?"

The Knight trots closer to offer the Egg directly into his hover-hands. It's open, yes, but what it's meant to say hasn't been directly translated into something they understand.

He keeps asking questions he knows they won't answer. The closest thing they could solidly offer in their current state is activate the Shade Wings further, which would probably knock things over.

Rather than that, they loosely gesture to the window outside. The mess should still be visible from his angle.

"Ah, the... Yes. The deal is still on. I'll... have to recalculate..." Curse him, but he's so worked up he barely manages to steady his hands enough to accept the egg without fumbling the thing.

In complete, reverent silence he draws it closer to himself, peering down at the clean, open ridges. Holding it in his own hands seems to have rendered Lemm speechless, now, and he very carefully transfers it to one hand, reaching for his magnifying lens with the other.

For a time he seems lost in that lens, examining the egg with such tight focus the rest of the room might as well not exist.

Hopefully they're feeling patient.

The Knight considers leaving. They've got other objectives they could be working on.

...They'd prefer to know if anything interesting is found from their newly-learned ability. There's much of this place before Hallownest and the Radiance they'd only fount the tiniest fragments of, which involves part of what they're made from. Even the title that rings more clearly than others, Lord of Shades, comes from that corner of the Abyss left in offering to whatever had gone by that long before.

Besides. Lemm hasn't paid them yet.

The makeshift bench is a perfect place to return and relax on in the meantime.

It is a while before he gives any sign of acknowledgement that the Knight is still here.

But his mind has clearly been racing in that time, because this is what he breaks the silence with:

"Thirteen hundred. And a proposal."

He sets the egg down with such care that it barely makes a sound against the counter, and takes a deep breath, letting it out in a slow, self-calming sigh.

"There must be a reason you keep returning to my shop, and risking my pride to say so, I doubt it was my reputation." He drums his fingertips on the counter, still thinking hard about what to say, how to say it. What not to say, yet. "You've put me in a difficult position. I don't work well with others. But now I know you've your own ties to all this, I'd be mad not to ask. Can I convince you to help me with my work more directly? Unlocking Arcane Eggs would be part of it."

They 'wake' to aim a heavy stare in his direction. Thirteen hundred is a ripoff when they've doubled the information he's got from it.

That the Geo might not matter in the long run keeps them from showing signs of more open irritation, along with it partly being apology from the alarming sight they'd made earlier.

And he hasn't tried to kill them at any point. While being less common for shopkeepers in the first place, it counts for a significant amount. Neither has his previous grumbling ever been insulting enough to cause a genuine internal sting.

The Knight pops up at the unexpected question; their interest is piqued.

He holds their stare. Yes, he now understands they can turn into a huge shadow creature and blow out windows. He's decided at this juncture that they probably will not.

"What? I told you, I prefer to work alone. I'm having to adjust my expectations." He pats the register, as if this has anything to do with mathematics instead of just being a moody Relic Seeker being stingy. "Besides that you're getting a job offer as part of the deal."

Lemm gestures behind him at a shelf with another Arcane Egg on it - this one looking a little bit cracked. He'd tried a little too hard with that one, and it looks like he regrets it now.

"As well as getting into these cleanly, I'll have questions. Hopefully some you can answer, likely many you can't. I know better than to expect you to start chit-chatting, though."

He pauses to fidget with the eyeglass.

"...I'm forced to admit without knowing more about you I can't say for definite what I'll be asking. I'd be a fool to believe today's tricks are the last you've been keeping from me. Very hard to put a contract like that in writing, so we won't have one - but you will be paid for your time, regardless of how it's spent."

The cracked Arcane Egg receives the stare next as the Knight turns the idea over in their thoughts.

A job prying into their business...isn't out of the question. It might possibly go better if they have a moment to organize what they've learned in this ruined kingdom they hatched and rose beneath.

A job that might keep them in place for long likely would be out of the question. The urgency is far less now that the Radiance is dead and they who terrible cry that called them is no longer trapped in its suffering; this hardly means they want to let the changes to Hallownest and its few surviving people go by with their sequestering themselves in one tiny part of it.

Their map is taken out and pointedly held up for Lemm to see. There's a great number of pins, many marked, some known only to them. (...Some no longer known to them. They'll need to check when next nearby.)

He leans in to study the map with some interest. A lot of it is quite imparsable without context, which many bugs surely lack in spades. Lemm has more of it than most - but whatever he does or doesn't notice he keeps to himself.

"You've been around." A pause. Then... relief? He waves a hand at them to dismiss the map. "Ah, I get it. Lots to do and see, eh? I won't hold us to a schedule. For the sake of my purse, limit your time here as much as you like."

His discomfort has always been less important than being a Relic Seeker, and the potential for discovery here is pressing in on all sides. Lemm really would have had to kick himself if he didn't try at all. But he can't claim he's eager for anyone to spend lengthy amounts of time in his shop.

With that important factor cleared up, the map indeed disappears back from whence it came.

Fully agreeable terms. The Knight nods decisively.

Sometimes one shakes on an agreement, or at least acts pleased about it. Other Relic Seekers might. Other bugs might. Lemm doesn't even nod back.

"That's that, then. Here's my first question." He gestures to the Arcane Egg still lying open on the counter, and flashes them a suspicious look. "Did you find all of these things in one place?"

And the map comes right back out.

They're too small for this. The Knight hops straight up to land on the edge of the counter, avoiding knocking anything over as best they can, and lie it flat between them.

Two taps on the Abyss.

He pins his fingers against one edge of the map to help keep it in place. (He'd like to scold them for jumping on his furniture, but what's the alternative? They're right.)

"Pah. So you have a hoard of these, and you're bringing them to me in a trickle on purpose. A cunning market manipulator you are." ...He's not serious. Is he?

Maybe not, because he moves on too quickly for it to be some real accusation he wants to resolve. If they're watching, the Knight might see him pore over the map a little more closely than they perhaps expected. He lingers. Slides his fingers from the edge to the Abyss, and taps a different part of it.

"This." Straight edges, patterning. He's pointing at the lighthouse, of all things. "How did you get - never mind. This is a building?" He'll stick to yes-or-nos for now.

The accused is unruffled. They had hoarded a stack of Hallownest Seals after they realized they were stumbling over so many for emergencies.

They don't mind Lemm's interest, either. They've documented the more of Hallownest than anyone prior to its fall. They're vaguely proud of that.

...Is a lighthouse a building? There is a room on the top of it. And it's called a 'house' to some degree. It hadn't like a building when they were scrambling up the side.

It's certainly something unnatural, so they nod after a bit of a pause.

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