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]

"N..."

Whatever he was going to say dies so quickly he doesn't even get to no, I. Several things. One, he misread their discomfort as annoyance. Two, his first reaction is an unpleasant prickliness, because there was something there that was going to address him and he's got several likely-misguided ideas about that. Three...

Three is that they are uncomfortable here, as he suspected they might be. Lemm casts a glance at the dark shape of the Temple ahead, and considers calling this off. Doing it another time wouldn't improve matters a jot, though, would it? And it'd give a great deal towards the suspicion that he is, as always, incompatible with a travel partner. Lemm quietly shies away from that idea, selfish though that might be.

(Four: they are telling him about their feelings. It is such a clear explanation. No bad air. Lemm is grateful, because that was not his first instinct.)

"...I was talking to myself. Interrupt all you like." Half-true. He scratches his face sheepishly with one finger and turns back to the Knight. Might as well be honest. "Thought you were annoyed," he admits, and waves acknowledgingly at the paper to let them know they don't have to continue. His eyes flick to the broken marker. "At me, I mean. You - hm. I see."

Lemm fidgets with the bag strap for a moment.

"...Carry on."

[focusedvoid]

They still shake their head. Not so directly as that. Annoyed at their own self at not trusting him, at being so worried, at still having a sliver of wanting to put him somewhere safe. At him slightly for having them care, nonsensically and not something to fault him for.

Recently-unearthed history aside, the Knight knows themselves enough by now to understand this isn't about to change unless he pulls off a particularly devious and cruel kind of backstab. (Such as selling out their sibling, perhaps.)

They're still going to keep from interrupting quite so loudly next time. Or at least aim for less violently.

Greenhorn would be a better listener, if you're still willing to entertain their presence after the Temple. This note's handwriting is significantly cleaner.

[capitalcurator]

Lemm's fidgeting stills at that, though not because he feels any more confident - his hands cling tight to the strap as he tries to win over a sudden flutter of nerves.

"I'd -" love to, really "- be fine with it. I thought I was clear enough." It sounds a tiny bit like irritation at having to repeat himself. It is not.

But what should he say? It's different now that he's been given the task by someone else, and hasn't just... stumbled across a sibling by accident. This is a deliberate responsibility! Given to him on purpose. Lemm shifts in place, then clears his throat decisively.

"Anything I shouldn't-? I mean. You'll have rules, probably."

[focusedvoid]

Good to make certain. He seems tense. They don't think it's quite enough to be worth pointing out.

They stare blankly for a moment. Rules...? They conclude he might still be a little nervous about being face-to-face with Void, uncertain about what to do with it.

Nothing I believe you're not sensible enough for already. 'Do not push them into spikes'.

No, wait a moment. One thing to make very certain of. Just don't lead them near anything bright. They'll get upset and agitated.

[capitalcurator]

He studies their words with some intensity, clearly prepared to make mental notes. But there's not really much to go on. Mentally he reprimands himself, because of course there isn't - what was he expecting, a manual?

But there is something, and one rule is better than none. Lemm will take what he can get. A sigh. "...Alright." They'd been curious about lumaflies but - he remembers - not curious enough to want to see up close.

He turns to keep walking, but something stops him and he peers down at the Knight with genuine curiosity.

"S'that true of you, as well?"

[focusedvoid]

I also don't like being pushed into spikes.

The Knight gives him a long moment to look that over before shaking their head at the real question. No, they don't have any problem with it. If they did once, the memory of it long since faded.

Their Siblings fear it. So much that only Greenhorn, among their thousands, bothered trying even experiencing the world outside to avoid the chance so far. (The inside of their house apparently doesn't count.)

[capitalcurator]

He's gruff, but his response is only a little bit sarcastic. "Right. Well I'll try to keep my vast array of spikes to myself." It's... maybe a little bit a metaphor? Lemm realises it only after it's out, and turns away and starts walking again so he can wince about that without making it their problem.

"I didn't think you were, somehow! But the City's not exactly spotlit. Wouldn't know."

But they're nearing the Temple, he's got precious little time to be curious about all of that. Relic Seeker Lemm has work to do, and he hasn't forgotten. As they approach, Lemm prepares to switch back to Relic Seeker-related topics, but he does have one other thing to say first.

"Some things - agitate you," he points out, "maybe not light, but - obviously. It's not in the job description to..." Lemm gestures up at the Temple, having trouble articulating himself. "If anything's too much, take a walk."

[focusedvoid]

The Knight agrees with a grave nod.

They aren't thrilled with the reminders of the King scattered about, though now they've steadied through pausing to explain. The Temple and the Black Egg are fraught enough for them to keep Greenhorn away, but knowing it no longer holds its eternal prisoner inside holds satisfaction to outweigh most agitation.

The first thing they do at the Temple is to walk past it and point to the distant doorway into the rest of the tunnel. I noticed long ago that it has Monomon's mask rather than all three. I wonder why.

[capitalcurator]

He's quick to take to the new subject. This, he's miles more comfortable with.

Lemm is not interested in the simple answer, which is I don't know, but I'll add that to the list of things to ask her. That one's not much fun - and would seem like it was pushing for a visit. He folds his arms and peers up at the arch.

"Could be she was the mind behind the operation, though that'd be assuming very little of the others. Wouldn't put it past the King to think that worth honouring." His head tilts slightly. "Or she had a hand in it herself. You said she had her own type of protection... Could just as easily be she wanted something to point to her specifically. If anything goes wrong with the Dreamers, seek that one. Something like that, maybe. I wouldn't commit, though."

He stares up at the stonework a bit longer, then glances down at the Knight.

"Good eye, by the way." He sounds approving.

[focusedvoid]

Lemm's theories are interesting. After learning of Quirrel and her mask, they considered one of them--she seemed innovative with bizarre concepts, and the Dreaming wouldn't be off base from what little they know. The rest never came close to crossing their mind.

Interpreting these is Lemm's profession, after all.

The nod they give hardly indicates how that compliment sank into them. They feel strangely off-balance without knowing why. This isn't the first of that sort of thing he's said to them.

They stand in place a little while before they can turn back to the Temple itself.

The 'eyes' (they aren't certain if this is truly the remains of something huge, like the Coliseum, or a strange emulation) are similarly damaged to the living Infected, with the bottom panels warped outward by where the orange had pushed and grown through it.

[capitalcurator]

Lemm rummages in his bag as he approaches the Temple entrance, and draws out a Lumafly bulb. It's the same one he took up before his trip to the Resting Grounds, and it does not have a handle - it's a hanging light, not a lantern, not that this seems to bother him. The existing light is bright enough to see by out here, but...

Lemm absently fiddles with it, turning it in his hands while the lumafly inside hovers unbothered.

"A great many made a pilgrimage here, that I know. Even I did, on my way down - not that I took myself very seriously. The reluctant one up there in Dirtmouth made it seem like the thing to do." He shakes his head and sighs. All that time staring up at the fountain, and you'd already stood right in front of the real thing without realising it. How very unsettling to know that now...

He coughs, lightly, and reminds himself what he's here for. "Well. Let's assess the place properly, then."

He steps under the imprinted Dreamer masks and through the door.

[focusedvoid]

The inside of the Temple isn't too unlike the last time he'd been there. There are a few parts with films of black curling down the walls, where the Infection had been crawling out and where the Lord of Shades had replaced them. The air has a new weight. Primarily from the Egg.

The Egg, standing as it always has, with the massive door simply gone. Open, as though it never were.

The Knight wonders if Lemm was noticed. The World Sense was something they found only echoes of. It must have been something more when their sibling had encountered it, or taken it, or whatever they had to have done. With the state they were in, doubtful.

They let Lemm examine the rest of the Temple at his leisure. They make their way to the Egg directly, drawn as they ever had been, no matter how they shouldn't be. The most important part of it is alive elsewhere, after all.

The Void itself is constrained inside. Now that they give it attention rather than a preoccupied run-through, it's pulling out of itself, toward them. They refuse to let it.

They can try when Lemm isn't here.

[capitalcurator]

He's... not reverent, Lemm has never been reverent, but he's oddly peaceful as he makes his way around the centrepiece in a wide circle, eyes fixed on it. Mostly he's just looking. He does not take notes. No need.

Temple of the Black Egg. Arcane, looks like. More details left out to obscure the facts. Which are...?

He comes full circle and halts quietly at the Knight's side, staring into the open doorway.

Lemm already knows the Knight will not react well to him trying to step inside. Last time he tried (and he did, because a Relic Seeker's curiosity is their worst trait) it felt like his whole body was falling asleep like a numb limb. Infuriating, because he'd love to know. To see.

Lemm takes a deep breath. Maybe they know, but it won't be the same.

"What's it like in there?"

[focusedvoid]

They don't understand for a moment. Couldn't he--?

No, of course not. Void is dangerous. Even inert, it pulls at life. This Void, held back enough to strain itself, loose enough to, presumably, help the Vessel assist in the Radiance's slow smother--could possibly be worse.

The Knight is still for a long, long while.

At first, they're considering explanation. And then...

They take a few steps inside. Lemm might notice the floor's spellwork glow, barely. Stepping in is cutting through a veil in itself.

They stare forward and, not unlike they did with the Arcane Egg, reach.

[capitalcurator]

He goes still as they move in - but of course, of course they're fine. Void in Void. (This understanding doesn't stop his arms from tensing at his sides like he wants to pull them back out of there.)

It did not glow for him, as most things don't. Lemm is no more remarkable than anyone who might have lived in the City of Tears back in its prime, and there are certain words that are not for him, certain places that do not open before his command, certain things that do not recognise the common bug.

Lemm doesn't need to be aware of any of this to know that the Knight is fine, standing where they are.

"Be -" they will be, this is a futile thing to say. He has this thought and forges on anyway. "Be careful. What are you doing?"

[focusedvoid]

They're unmoving for a moment that might feel stretched far longer.

They touch this Void and, rather than unleashing it or bringing it physically into their collective here and now, they settle it. Settled as they had with Siblings, before they knew how to call them, to truly be with them, a force united rather than merely focused. The Knight gives it focus now, to push it away against and into itself. The heavy air stops feeling quite so bad.

When they turn back around, they're not quite as they were. Still the right shape, mostly. They're a larger presence without having physically grown.

Guide and guard, they said. This is something, they and they alone, can guide through and guard from.

At the edge of the dark, they hold out their hand.

[capitalcurator]

Primal instinct screams at him not to go. Lemm doesn't have much of it, though. He's modern enough that that stuff is buried pretty deep. He shakes his head.

"I can't go in there..."

He sounds sure about that. But his legs take him forwards anyway, tentatively trudging up to the entrance to the Egg and lingering at the threshold. Lemm eyes their outstretched hand and debates, with a lot of doubt, the wisdom of crossing over.

As varied as they are, all Relic Seekers share a basic sense of curiosity. Lemm also happens to be helped along by a little bit of pride and arrogance, which does not aid in the decision making process. He would be the first academic (?) to step in here. And, for it, all the more capable of putting Hallownest's history to rest. Maybe others wouldn't attempt this - maybe the risk would be too great.

But the Knight seems confident.

...Lemm's hand sweeps forward, passing through the doorway in a wide horizontal arc, like someone passing their hand through a candle flame. It does not fall off, which is encouraging.

Eyes locked on the Knight, he brings his hand forward to place it firmly in theirs, and he holds on tight. He steps inside.

[focusedvoid]

The proffered paw was mostly to indicate he could come in--they can't be sure their writing would even be visible without stepping from the eggshell--but it's immediately clear to the Knight it was the right thing to do. The natural color of Lemm highlights when the Void still folds over them both as fog they hadn't noticed, and they push at it again until they have an area of space absent of Void that isn't them.

They realize, functionally, they're not unlike Isma's Tear.

Next, they wait to see how Lemm adjusts, or if his desire to explore falters. They can't blame him if it does. The Egg and its seemingly-infinite blackness is still somewhat intimidating to the Knight, too.

[capitalcurator]

Normally one might say of a dark, claustrophobic place that the air is clinging. It does not cling here. Nothing does. (And it clings.)

He shudders involuntarily, and he knows the Knight can feel it. He does not let go.

Lemm also does not turn back. There is too much gravity to this, and he has too many questions. For a moment or two he looks around, horns tilting this way and that, but the realisation sinks in quickly that there's no point in looking. There is just the soft glow beneath the Knight's feet, and the Void, and Lemm in the middle of it all. He might as well not be here.

He feels like he isn't. It's terrifying.

The Knight might be agitated to know that the feeling that rises in Lemm's chest is excitement, so maybe it's best they don't.

...He says nothing. But he gives the Knight's hand a small squeeze.

[focusedvoid]

Nervous, possibly. Outright panicking or becoming terribly ill doesn't seem to be on the table.

The squeeze is taken as confirmation. They nod. After a hesitation, as it's not needed (but they want to), squeeze back before they begin leading him onward.

[capitalcurator]

(When they return the squeeze, his thumb covers the back of their paw, just to hold on more comfortably. That's all.)

Lemm is quick to move when they do, falling into pace easily enough. He instinctively sticks close, keeping inches from their side and just a half step behind theirs. He can't see the floor unless it's lit by the white under the Knight's footsteps, so it's best to stick like glue.

The first time a spell-monolith looms out of the dark, Lemm flinches - but it's not long before he's peering up at the light in profound interest.

As they pass by the subtle glint of chains and the broken edges of more Arcane substance, Lemm is even less eager to say anything. The initial rush of Relic Seeker's eagerness for understanding is fading fast, and it leaves behind a cold, unpleasant feeling in his core.

Parts of the pieces light up at the Knight's approach. Lemm does not try to parse them - just by looking he knows he can't. He'd need to study them, and he knows this must be too short a visit.

When he catches the faint outline of a doorway in the dark, Lemm slows, pulls the Knight slower with him, and peers down pointedly. Whether this is safe, whether they want to or not - it's up to them, and it suddenly feels important to check in.

[focusedvoid]

They're interested to later learn what he might think of the glowing shapes in the dark. Related to the Pale King, obviously. Made of the same spell as Seal outside and hidden in Deepnest with significantly different shape. They don't stray from the path to try touching.

They look back up and tip their head to confirm--yes, they can go on. They knew they would be as soon as they offered. The center of the Egg is a place that...well, did haunt their nightmares, in truth. A place that they caught a glimpse of when their sibling broke.

But for the Knight, that was unease. They can handle unease, no matter how deep it might go. The victim locked away inside is no longer.

They first lead him to the egg-within-an-Egg to pause for Lemm's eye, steadfastly ignoring the Pale King's whispers crawling out at them from the tablet.

[capitalcurator]

He slows to a halt along with the Knight, and he looks. He looks long and hard.

There are - well, first of all, he is squinting at the jagged shell as if he's doing complicated mathematics, so this is obvious - there are a lot of pieces being shifted around in his mind. Similarity does not equal likeness and comparing one unrelated relic to another just because it's shaped the same is a fast track to silly mistakes and vital misunderstandings of which pieces of history are tied.

But there is no room for error here. It is an Egg, it is Arcane in nature, it is in pieces here in the heart of the Kingdom's past and Lemm knows there must be a reason. The Pale King knew more about Void than anyone. Than anyone.

He does not know why he's seething, suddenly. But this time Lemm is the first to start moving; he takes a step, ensures the Knight is agreed in it, and will move on.

[focusedvoid]

The whispers already gave them what it had. They wonder what Lemm might be getting, or more likely hearing, with how displeased he appears.

He tugs them onward, and they move without hesitation.

The glow and smell of sickly-sweet rot isn't present, and yet there's a sense it should be. It may be Dream, lingering. More likely it's their own imagination. Their unoccupied hand reaches back to grasp the hilt of their Nail regardless.

The chains increase going forward. Inside, more and more.

They suspect the floor might've been completely black at the start. They can't know more than that the Pure Vessel's battleground in Godhome was. Now, it's all a tarnished shade of brown.

Only after do they spot a particular set of chain hanging high above, catching the eye by the dangling half-pauldron and ragged cloak it's still tangled around.

[capitalcurator]

Lemm moves on with a kind of dogged determination. He does not move with any haste and not with much confidence any more either, but he moves. This may be above him, but... it can't be above him. He won't let it be above him. And the Knight wanted him to kn- to record.

He stands in the deepest chamber of the Black Egg Temple and he stares at its contents, evaluating and tying threads together and drawn, darkly, to the chains that held the Hollow Knight.

The loose lumafly bulb does little to illuminate anything in here, but he holds it tight in his free hand and gestures silently with it as he looks down at the Knight and knocks his bag implicitly with the light, and his fingers loosen around their hand. Can he study, or will letting go be a bad move?