voicetest the voiceless

[focusedvoid]

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.

Comments

[capitalcurator]

After the Knight's gone, it isn't long before there's a sign up on the shop door and its owner has gone walkabout again.

It's been a long while since Lemm came this way, but he has questions he's not certain can be answered anywhere else - that and he's running out of paper, so he might as well get some of the practical stuff done in the meantime. He contemplates ringing the Stag bell just to see if the Knight was really right about there being one still running - but it's not far to where he's headed, and he's still feeling a little flighty at the prospect of making conversation, so he instead heads up through the Royal Quarter and takes the lift to the Resting Grounds.

Relic Seeker Lemm finds the Dreamers' memorial without much trouble. From the bag he's brought with him he pulls the Knight's notes (and a stolen borrowed Royal Quarter Lumafly bulb), and he compares the names just to be sure. He's seen those masks, back when he first made the hassle of a pilgrimage down to the city (the Temple of the Black Egg had been such a draw back then!). Lurien's name, too, he became familiar with as he picked through the old ruins. Herrah and Monomon... not as much, but maybe he would know more if the city never switched to silk for so much of its written records. Bane of his existence.

Now I wonder if that was a conscious choice. How much did you want lost to time, I wonder? Obviously not all of it.

He moves on. Now that he's actively looking for it, it isn't too long before he's seeing it everywhere: the little flower-like motif of the Moth Tribe, woven into charms and hung through passageways and sometimes carved into graves or wrought into the fences. He knew they were caretakers of the graves here from his own readings, and he'd always heard rumour they delved into dreams. Now he knows to withhold his skepticism, the Resting Grounds are that much more eerie.

Lemm is not afraid of the dark or the dead, though. He studies the symbol and counts the points and copies down a couple of variations on the very edges of the Knight's note papers.

(He stops off at the Pleasure House on his way back when he finds it unlocked, if only to take a dip to clean off. There is... an encounter there. Lemm comes away in a foul mood despite the relaxation he went in for.)

From then, he'll stay home until the Knight returns, organising relics into categories and spending the last of his paper on the Arcane Egg.

[focusedvoid]

When the Knight returns to the shop, they make a beeline for the counter. All the items Lemm asked for are deposited (plus pins) before they settle back onto their usual spot.

Before anything else can be started, they pull a paper closer and use their own newly-replaced quill to scribble a quick question of their own.

Have you seen any miners/small beetles from crystal peak recently?

A passable sketch of a beetle with a headlamp is added on the margin.

[capitalcurator]

He's already reaching for the till when they enter, though when there's a drawing waved in his face he pauses long enough to squint at it and then shakes his head, looking peeved.

"None like that down here as far as I've seen. Just a rotten toll collector over in the fop district, now." The words come out with a sizeable serving of venom, and he huffs in disgust. "No, no one like that. Friend of yours wandered off, did they?"

Lemm's first order of business is scrutinising the receipt for everything that's owed. He covers the paper the Knight bought for themselves, whether or not they brought a receipt for that - he can work it out, either way it's factored into the bill. Another neat little sum of Geo is squared away on the counter for them. He did say he'd cover it all.

Though there's one thing missing and that's still the payment for the writing earlier. Lemm is still trying to weigh the ethics of that one versus his dwindling Geo savings. The till tray stays open until he's settled on a number.

While he thinks about that, his fingers clink lightly through the pins, and he picks a couple up for examination with an oddly appreciative air.

[focusedvoid]

The name Collector briefly twists their head towards Lemm before they realize.

Not that Collector. Her.

Friend's name is Myla. She is unlikely to be alive, but if you see her I'm please let her know I've been looking.
Toll collector is Millibelle. If she swindled your Geo I will get it back. Fake bank set up on that side now?

Recalling her pushes the Knight from their melancholy directly to annoyance. Knocking her about for their own Geo and a further return was distinctly cathartic. Stopping her from tricking more travellers is an easy moral choice on top of that.

(The pins aren't factored into the receipt. Those were the Knight's choice.)

[capitalcurator]

While he waits for them to write, Lemm idly pins one to a piece of paper just to see how it looks. Good, is the result, judging by his lingering glance when he lifts the sheet up to the light. He's momentarily too distracted to hover.

"She has a reputation! Urgh, so she was fibbing!" he snaps, and taps another pin against the counter for emphasis. "That jealous hardshell, she's enough to make me want to go knocking on doors! No, you can leave the neighbourly grudges to me. There can be one rip-off in this city if there's any at all."

He does take a second to study the little drawing again, and then re-reads the name.

"Myla. I'll remember," he's about to be harsh, "but bugs disappear all the time in Hallownest. Even the settled ones." Ah. Maybe he shouldn't have said that. Lemm watches hard for their reaction.

[focusedvoid]

His calling himself a rip-off draws a spark of amusement. They didn't think he was quite as offended as he earlier appeared.

The frank words about Myla get no response at all. They expect she ran somewhere when Infected or just after to die in private, or perhaps dashed herself in one of the many crystal pits around. Ugly deaths are all about Hallownest, but the rare surprises--such as the Nailsmith--count enough that they had to mention it, now that they have a rare chance to try.

They continue about Millibelle. Her last scheme was a bank in Fog Canyon. The secure vault she claimed to have was her own shell.

[capitalcurator]

He looks a little relieved that they seemed to move on from his faux pas fairly smoothly.

"Mm. More room in there than you'd think. If I were so blessed I'd keep my relics that way and have no need for a shop." A curt little hmph. "She scammed you too, I'm guessing. Won't that be a good thing to bring up when I give her what for."

Seems Lemm's a lot more confident arguing than he is at making nice. But he glances across at the notes they've left for him so far, gathering in a little pile on the side of his counter (he's kept them all, even the conversational ones). As his thumb smooths back and forth over the pin his self-righteous irritation ebbs noticeably.

"I haven't tallied for these. Or your account so far." Ball's in their court, now.

[focusedvoid]

The response to that is their Pure Nail clanging a sharp note against the counter's edge. Indeed they were, and they're still deeply insulted by it. ...Embarrassed as well.

(Lemm hasn't noted their own incredible carrying capacity. It's doubtful he hasn't noticed yet. Attempt at politeness, perhaps?)

Those I bought. If you have use for them, yours to keep. If not, I can. Not that they actually need more markers for vendors or Lifeblood, but they're nice in look and feel. Iselda is skilled.

I don't know how much my information is worth. They'd be awfully easy to rip off again... We can work it out later on, if you like.

[capitalcurator]

A flicker of very unimpressed not-in-my-shop fury for a second as he flags a hand over the counter in the direction of their Nail. "Away with that! There are delicate things in here."

(He's not brought it up, no. The question was somewhat answered for him when they melted all over the Storerooms and a separate entity came out of their shadow and signed themself up for life lessons. Lemm isn't about to question the physics at the moment. Not his department!)

At the I can Lemm's hand automatically snaps out to cover the pins even before they take the pen off the page. "No," he says quickly. "There's nothing wrong with keeping something for its aesthetic, as I've said." They're a gift. And a thoughtful one, if he's feeling optimistic. He does not receive many, and he's feeling rather possessive suddenly.

"As it happens your information is..." okay okay he'll say it but he won't like having said it later he's sure "...potentially worth enough to clean me out. It's been on my mind, believe me. Finding myself a bit stuck there." A sigh. "Later, then. If it suits you to wait. I'll... tally it all at the end."

[focusedvoid]

They're perfectly careful, Lemm, it's not near anything important! Still, the Nail's gone in a flash.

His acceptance is given a nod, which doesn't come close to showing how truly pleased they are about it.

Hmm. As much as they teased, they have no need to be pushy. I can wait/Sell at a discount. I don't require so much Geo now.

[capitalcurator]

He does wonder what they've been doing with it all. It's the 'now' that makes him curious. Not that it's his business, though, so he doesn't quite ask.

"...We'll discuss it when it comes to it." It is a worry. The first-hand account of a lifetime in a kingdom with such lacking records is... he fears it might be worth more than he has. And that's not accounting for the trouble of recounting it all, which is not something he's ever thought to consider.

"Will you be ready to continue, if that's the case? I'd like to get to the bottom of something."

[focusedvoid]

Later. Much later, if they can manage it. They're not about to be bringing it up offhand.

They tap the paper expectantly. Yes, they're ready. More now that their earlier mood's been partly settled by simple annoyance and their offering being taken. And curious, now.

[capitalcurator]

"Good."

He pulls out a sheaf of notes - written very small and to the edges, to make use of the space on his last few pages until the Knight returned from their supply run. He moves the Arcane Egg beside it.

Then he lifts one of the new quills. In miniature to fit in the limited space, he draws a circle with a freehand spirograph-like symbol inside it. It sits neatly over the top of one of the few parts he couldn't directly translate, like a little asterisk.

"Sleep-Light-in-something-something. Not familiar enough with the sentence structure, so I'm working with the literals." He skips a couple of words (if they're words at all) and points to the next translation with the nib of the pen. "This bit means 'grudge', or something like it. Seems not everyone forgot this Higher Being you mentioned. Or at least, the written word can't forget."

He pauses unsure.

"I was wondering where I'd seen the Moth symbol recently. It's not something I see a lot of, but I know it when I see it." A... markedly suspicious squint. "You waved something at me, didn't you?"

[focusedvoid]

The Knight tips their head to the drawing, thrown off guard. They were more prepared for more Void and Shade-related talk. Evidence of the Radiance is a surprise--though on reflection, she shouldn't be.

And early.

...She called them ancient enemy when they read her with the Dream Nail. In the rare moments they tried, often through moments of frustration alone. They tried enough that by the end it was still a decent count.

They summon it and set it directly beside his spirograph.

[capitalcurator]

"Hm."

The thing is, he's coming to understand that rumours of Moth involvement with dreams and the dead are not entirely exaggerated. Lemm's hand scoots over as if to touch the thing, but--

--he's not the Wielder, and Lemm doesn't bridge the last inch to touch the handle. He just takes his hand back and looks thoughtful. Doesn't even seem to notice his own change of mind.

"Looks well-kept, whatever it is. Though I don't know if waving it at me was supposed to be good luck or something more insulting." He skims his own handwriting, then picks up the Arcane Egg and double-checks something with a lens. "...Sleep-Light-in... drown? Ah. You might explain that, actually," he gestures to the talisman, "while I clarify a few things."

He'll mutter a fair bit more to himself as he reads. It's hard to keep track of - the words keep feeling like they don't exist whenever he's not directly looking at them, and often his only reference for what he just read is the fact he heard himself say it.

[focusedvoid]

Lemm taking his time is helpful for them. Shuffling the information they have into understandable words takes time. Explaining what it does without blatantly admitting they've been reading his mind also takes time.

-Dream Nail: Allows the wielder to cut through the veil between dreams and waking. Can be used to reveal hidden dreams or open gateways.
-Essence: Remnants of wishes and dreams. Can be obtained from Whispering Roots --they grab one of those pins to set on the paper for visual reference-- Spirits and, rarely, living beings.
-Use: Assists in collecting Essence and Soul from opponents. Can read the general intent and consideration of anyone with nearly anything with mind. Example: the Infected's dreams were primarily blinding light, attacking the dark, and simple fear and hunger. Can also set Dream Gates for teleporting to a single place, using Essence as fuel.
-Seer: the last of her tribe, a Moth that lives at the top of the Resting Grounds. Gave the Dream Nail and encouraged me to collect Hallownest's secrets through Essence. Once a certain amount were collected, she offered rewards, one of which was an Arcane Egg. I do not know where or how she came to have it first.

[capitalcurator]

He pulls a fresh piece of paper from the pile of recent purchases and begins scribbling the new version of whatever he's working on. There are, as with all of his notes, a lot of crossings-out and arrows to mark words that should be swapped out. The end result is something like: drown the Light in (the) forever sleep(?) of the Void / else bright (that) blinds / dream (of) numb warmth unwaking

The grammar isn't good by a long shot. Lemm sits back, makes a faint urgh noise and rubs at his eyes. He swizzles the translation 180 degrees and swaps it for the Knight's notes, pulling those towards him instead.

These are much easier to read. He examines the Whispering Root pin with some vague recognition, and frowns as he realises he's going to have to start suspending a lot of disbelief.

"...Doesn't look much like a Nail," he concludes after a moment. He casts the thing a long, wary look. "I admit I don't see how a little talisman would be capable of all this. I don't disbelieve you outright, mind you, but that's a lot to answer for."

[focusedvoid]

Throughout their writing sneak a glance at Lemm's work once or twice. Something about it clings to their thoughts. It distracts enough that they choose to wait.

It glows with a Nail-like shape when I use it. You can't see it?

...Upon reflection that's not too strange, with how many invisible, intangible concepts it makes visible and tangible to its Wielder. Why wouldn't the Dream Nail itself be similar?

The Knight plucks it back up and sweeps it through the air, to see if he might notice anything. Then they scoot closer and swing it through him for the same reason.

[capitalcurator]

At the question Lemm just plainly shakes his head. When they start swinging it around, he looks thoroughly unimpressed.

"If you bludgeon anything with that artifact, don't turn to me to fix it for you."

He really doesn't disbelieve them, exactly, but it's hard for him to take the thing seriously when it looks like that. It doesn't even look like a blade hilt, given the circular part - just like a strange dowsing instrument that isn't doing much of anything.

Unbeknownst to him, his thoughts come through loud and clear.

"Wagging around an artifact like a grub with a noisemaker - should make a Relic Seeker sick through.

Hope I'm up to this."

The Dream Nail is saturated in a dull, hopeful ache. Clings like old webbing with the threat of wilting off.

Lemm shakes his head, outwardly just as disgruntled as ever. "No Nail, just a stick and a circle."

[focusedvoid]

They carefully pick their next words. They likely shouldn't be too specific, and that emotion...is not one he wants projected, clearly.

While I might not hold quite so much respect for Hallownest's relics, I'm going to be more careful with this one than a grub would. ...Good enough.

They hunch and try a quick sketch of what they see. It still looks like a stick and a circle, with a scribbly point with flecks floating around it floating off its edge.

I couldn't see many dream-related subjects myself until I held it, such as the Whispering Roots' light, or Spirits. Nor could I reach the Dr

The Knight halts abruptly as they realize...he doesn't know anything about the Dreamers. Nothing but their function as a Seal for the Hollow Knight and Radiance.

This is why they rarely bother with the intricacies of communication. They attempt to get a concept across more complicated than 'yes' or 'no' and they have to go back and do more. Letting others make assumptions is simpler.

Letting others make assumptions is simpler when it doesn't matter to them. They signed up for this. This specifically.

The Knight dips their quill in ink, though it doesn't need it.

Dreamers, who had spellwork dream shields of some kind. Anything physical couldn't reach them.

[capitalcurator]

It takes Lemm a second to register that the thing he just thought was addressed on the page, and then he tenses stiff as a board and stares at the words like he's been poisoned by them. The subtlety helps, but Lemm is mortified regardless.

"I-" so gruffly "-I'm sure you will."

He rests his elbows on the desk and folds his hands together in front of his face and stares gravely down at their pen still scratching. Maybe if he doesn't react it won't mean anything. (He is not reacting! Except that not reacting is incredibly obvious and telling.) He taps the drawing.

"...Dream... Nail, then. And the Dreamers..." He draws three masks, quickly and with slightly inaccurate strokes, because he's moving on - "An unappealing task, for Herrah the Beast to bargain so heavily and so well." Lemm taps the stack of saved notes from their last Q&A. "And this... Dream Nail let you through?"

[focusedvoid]

The Knight nods and firmly ignores an itch to fix Monomon's upper eye-holes. Moving on it is.

Sleep and dream forever to seal the Radiance and Hollow Knight away. They may have hoped to wake if she was consumed/forgotten again? I do not know. They held no such expectation by my arrival. They hold their empty hand in the general direction of out, indicating Hallownest and its ugly state as a whole.

I was under the impression I had to kill each to reach my sibling. Lurien fell before I found a potential alternative(this for later discussion please, the details are many and I will become too frustrated to continue).

I cut through the shield and into their dream a dream/Radiance's? It was full of gold/orange light and clouds, with several dark spires.

They sketch the great jagged things that look not unlike the Hollow Knight's horns, terribly stretched. Or even their own, with too many prongs.

[capitalcurator]

His own page begins to fill with grouped notes. His attention flicks up to keep up with the Knight now and then, adding to his page accordingly. The drawing in particular gets a long, hard look, as does the bit about Lurien. Instinctively he glances toward the window, but the Knight said later and so it goes no further than that.

"Dream against Dream," he muses. "I've never cast a spell in my life, of course, but four giving their waking lives to the making of one feels like a massive undertaking. And yet it didn't work, as we know."

A pause, then he makes an irritated noise and adds a rushed Hollow Knight above the Dreamer masks and links them with a line. Another little Moth-symbol-used-like-an-asterisk.

"Dream against Dream and Void against Light. Contained on all sides at the cost of -" he stops and starts again "- at a cost like that. And yet it took you to - what did you do, exactly?"

[focusedvoid]

We

They stop and stare down into the paper This...was what they were attempting to avoid bringing up this time, truthfully.

I

Another pause, quite long.

A great number of steps had to be taken. I do not know or understand all of them.

I hunted clues and keys. The Kingsoul, a charm in halves, one from the White Lady, one held by the Pale King. The King's Brand hidden in the wyrm's body. Hornet was tasked to guard it?
The Brand allowed me into the Abyss. Bringing the Dream Nail was necessary. I used it on my egg myself? I recalled my beginning, pulling the Void together with that dream/memory from inside out. The Kingsoul was engulfed into the Void Heart. The Void became united in will and focus. It had been broken Pale King divided it by splitting and containing it in Vessels?

I chased her from a different Dream.

-The Godseekers: people foreign to Hallownest from the Land of Storms. They fled that place after the death of their Gods? A sea of minds that hid away inside a single body and dream.
They brought a tool called the Godtuner to 'resonate' with others as replacement.
They attempted to 'tune' to more and more powerful beings in Hallownest, with the Radiance as their end goal through dreams' sacred combat. I used this to ascend to her.

All of the Void joined me at her weakest because I willed it. Our rage became the 'Lord of Shades' together. All our power united was needed to consume and destroy her fully.

-Lord of Shades: Title gleaned from the mind of a fossilized bug at the edge of the Abyss. I do not know if this was an ancient pre-existing title or something remained of that bug enough to notice the Voidheart.

The Knight sits back to reread their own writing. They're not entirely certain how much sense it makes, even to them.

[capitalcurator]

Lemm begins taking notes on that one, but it quickly becomes apparent that he's going to have to pay his full attention here if he wants to understand. There's a lot to process. He switches to an even more condensed shorthand and stops looking at what he's writing.

"Kingsoul," he says distantly. His pen spits out a vaguely tree-like diagram. "Void united - yes," Lemm reaches his hand over to their page and mimes striking-out a couple of the Knight's question marks, though he doesn't make contact with the page, "With what you're describing I'm willing to commit to that. The Arcane Egg refers to the - to y- to the Void as a collective noun we don't quite have in modern dialects-"

His pen is threatening to drip ink onto their page; he retreats his hand in time for the droplet to land on his instead. He spends a second watching the blot sink into the paper and brushes the quill thoughtfully against the side of his face.

"The Pale King had it backwards. I'm seeing the irony, now. Or the arrogance maybe. In any case, if all these accomplishments are true, you'd have to be..." Staring at that ink dot. "Ah."

Lemm looks up and studies their familiar little mask, suddenly quiet. It's not quite eye contact, he's just - looking them over.