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]

The City of Tears does not expect much thoroughfare, even after the infected stopped walking. And they have stopped, which is why Lemm aborted his instinctive lunge for a crowbar stowed by the curtain.

Within a blink, he is ricocheted back into survival mode and he feels foolish for putting his old caution aside. The metallic thud of weapons and the Hollow Knight's sudden move has Lemm cringe back with his arms held in front of his face.

His hand snaps out towards the switch again - but the Hollow Knight is outside the threshold. His reach never makes it.

Visibly shaken, he looks from the unexpected threat to the Hollow Knight's defense, and as his arms start to lower his hackles rise.

"What - you - now you mind your weapon! The items in here are fragile!"

Lemm dares a step forward, putting himself just behind the Hollow Knight's shoulder (he's not crazy, he's safer behind them), but his eyes are fixed on Hornet and he has managed to speed his way through healthy fear and skipped straight to outrage.

It is a mix of feeling his shop, his home, is threatened - and having someone much bigger than him so clearly rise to his defense. It is also the fear for their health that is now converting very unexpectedly into anger.

"Lower it, whoever you are!" he demands.

[impure_void]

Hornet stares up, eyes gone wide.

Were it possible, the Hollow Knight might have looked the same down towards her. The response was as mindless as coming to attention.

A pathetic part of them wishes to cringe away from her face, and the look upon it.

Proper thought jolts to the forefront before a chance to act on this can go through. The Hollow Knight is intended to serve the King; allowing the Princess to skewer an ally would be the opposite.

The Relic Seeker is behind the hilt of their blade and body enough to be guarded. The Hollow Knight does not change their stance.

Once again, Hornet hisses, a sudden sharp sound cutting off abruptly as her Needle-hand falls to her side.

She breathes in. "I've had quite a time looking for you," she says to her sibling, ignoring the other completely. She'd stayed her weapon to keep from injuring her sibling, not on the order of a bug she hasn't met. "Your ability to traverse so far from home this quickly was a surprise."

She does not raise her blade again. The assessing look she turns on Lemm is sharp enough.

[capitalcurator]

The fool isn't paying attention to him, that's not fair, this is his shop they're at and if there's a problem they ought to bother him, the Hollow Knight is not his hired guard-!

- From home, says Hornet, and several things fall into place.

She is not here for him. She is here for the Hollow Knight. From Deepnest, alright then. Lemm changes his mind about wanting to draw her attention just in time for her to look right at him.

He's still tense, but less aggressively so. Lemm breaks eye contact just once, to look at the Hollow Knight, and then straightens his stance into a bit less flustered and challenging. A bit.

He gives a light, back-of-the-hand pat to the most convenient part of the Hollow Knight, which happens to be their leg.

"Easy," he tells them, in the hopes they'll drop their defensive pose. And then he gives Hornet a curt, clipped nod. "Can I help you?"

Lemm is no friendlier, but she is not aiming a sharp point at him any more, and he knows enough now to dial it back.

[impure_void]

They do.

This process is slow. There is automatic scanning for threat; there is a matching throb through their full body, scrambled and dizzy with their sudden use of Void to end the battle before it could start.

They had always been more skilled with Soul. Those routes are burned away, leaving their ability stagnant and nearly useless. Void had done its job.

"I...was searching for i--them," Hornet says, wary, yet honest. Direct lies serve her little. "There was miscommunication of some kind. I've passed through the City before and was aware someone lived here. I planned to ask if you'd seen them nearby."

Her head tilts back upward. They are no longer staring her in the eye, hunched in a pose she's more accustomed to, when they weren't curled within their nest. Their working eye is fixed somewhere between Hornet and the bug behind them.

What were they doing in here?

"I hadn't...expected they would be here on their own," she says to the bottom of their mask.

[capitalcurator]

Lemm's eyes narrow.

"They're not," he points out. He is not a fan of being left out of her assessment. "But neither did I."

How much to say...? Again he's faced with the understanding that he shouldn't know this much. It doesn't suit him to lie either, but he has just had her physically threaten him. No need to show all his cards, at least until he understands what's going on.

"Miscommunication indeed," he haughtily agrees. "I don't see why I've had a weapon in my face today." This isn't what she meant and he knows it.

He might be more helpful in a moment. Right now he's got to assess her. He folds his arms and concedes only a minor argumentative inch.

"Relic Seeker Lemm," he tells her. And then addresses the Hollow Knight. "Friend of yours?"

[impure_void]

The Hollow Knight remains in place.

Her head lightly cocks before her verbal misstep is realized. "I hadn't expected them to be in an area with anyone alive," she says eventually.

There's no need to explain. It isn't his business, any more than the prickling guilt along her back is.

"...Hornet. I am--their sister." The words come with odd pauses that belay her steady tone. "I've been caring for them as they heal."

Speaking their weakness aloud tastes poison, but the crack through their mask and missing arm are obvious.

"They do not speak," she says, if he somehow hasn't noticed. "If you've caused them further harm, however, don't believe I'm unable to find out." She doesn't insert threat into her tone, but her Needle is held out diagonally from her side.

This, at last, spurs her sibling to respond: they shake their head.

Hornet pauses.

"...Though they aren't known for falsehoods." Her blade goes back as it was.

[capitalcurator]

Lemm's head instantly snaps back to look at her, expression suddenly studious rather than hostile. He knows that name, alright.

It is a good thing she spoke it before showing off her Needle again. He almost rises to it like before. But there is more nuance here than he thought.

"...Aye. But they answer well enough." Lemm is still guarded, because she's still pushing. But he can offer a small bridge to this gap, that does seem prudent. "Seems they were under the impression they'd no obligation to be anywhere."

He does not move from the Hollow Knight's side. Sister, and she cared for them, so says Hornet. The notes also say Vessel hunter. Yet the notes also seem to confirm her claim - Lemm is in a difficult spot.

...He might as well come clean to both of them. Seems like the only way to clear things up.

"I'm a friend of the Knight's," he declares finally. "The other one. You'd be hard pushed to find a bug in this ruin who isn't - but if there's one who wished harm on either of the two, it certainly wouldn't be me."

[impure_void]

This, too, the Hollow Knight confirms; their mask moves more obviously with their nod than their shaken head. The Relic Seeker is what he says. They wonder--

They needn't concern themselves with what their King wants. King-Knight.

...

They had believed Hornet and others were aware of Relic Seeker Lemm being an ally. A friend.

There's another awkward pause as Hornet internally reels.

She's technically aware of these things by now. She know they can write. She knows they've scoured the kingdom, and met many on the way. They're not the truly empty replacement a part of her had once hoped for, and against, and learned the latter was true and best.

There weren't many chances to interact with those bugs. She hasn't left Deepnest to do more than search for supplies her people--and they are her people again, when she has spent the fall thinking of herself as Hallownest's--require.

She's more wrong-footed than she likes.

"I see," she says eventually.

So he must know they're siblings.

Her cloak rustles as she turns slightly away. "I suppose I must give you my thanks."

She's no fool, still wary, but the Hollow Knight truly doesn't lie. Or at least, never lies intentionally. If they agreed he hadn't harmed them, they're physically no worse than before they were found.

"Herrah hadn't intended to send you away," she interrupts her thoughts brusquely, back to them. She'd nearly said cast you out, too cutting words to speak in front of a stranger to her. And still, she'll save frank assurance that this will never occur on the way back. "She was clumsy with her words, and passes along apologies she'll again give in person."

Hornet isn't given to falsehoods. The Hollow Knight--

--has no right to theorize why they would keep such a stain in the edge of their Den.

[capitalcurator]

Now they're on a similar page. Lemm was wanting an apology and he gets - he gets thanks? That's a little too far in the opposite direction and it catches him by surprise. Whether she means it or not he doesn't know, but the fact she opted to say it means enough for how this interaction can go.

Standoffishness rather cleanly smoothed over, Lemm uncrosses his arms. She gets a very small head-shake in response.

He listens to her address the Hollow Knight, aware this is solely something between her and them and Herrah. But it's interesting to see he is not the only one who does not receive a clear response without asking for one.

When he judges it's been long enough to speak without risk of interrupting anything from the Hollow Knight, Lemm is far less prickly than before.

"I found them out in the rain and invited them indoors," he finally offers, to properly fill Hornet in. "They've been here of their own volition. And they've been polite company, as rarely as I keep any."

He steels himself, just in case.

"If I've made myself any trouble with Deepnest I hope you'll tell me now, Hornet. But I'll not involve this one or their sibling."

[impure_void]

There are worse bugs for them to fall prey to. (A sliver of her is still rankled by the surviving noble's comments. No doubt she either would have insulted them into a foolish command, or rambled about the Pale King, if their face-shape seemed as familiar as hers.)

Still, there's thankfulness, and there's trusting to the point of idiocy. The Hollow Knight hasn't shown much personal will, like the little Ghost. (Their responding along to a query that had been directed at them is something she'll be turning over in her head for a while.) She doubts there was much personal volition involved, and won't have the Relic Seeker know this.

There's, perhaps, an edge of bite to Hornet's next words. "If you harmed them, you would've met your end by my Needle already, and they've vouched for you. Even had you caused other trouble, Deepnest's beasts won't war over mild disagreement or insult." One arm folds across her chest beneath her cloak. It is insulting that such rumors of spiders' savagery still linger.

[capitalcurator]

"Pah! Mind yourself!" he retorts. Her tone is met with similar sharpness, but his... utterly lacks the conviction. She's almost had him skewered already. He knows where he stands.

This is going badly. She still suspects he'd lift a claw against them! Lemm is struggling not to fall victim to his temper, despite her threats. Because of them, perhaps. He catches himself bristling and looks away, abruptly.

The Knight would not want him provoking her. (Maybe the Hollow Knight neither. And they're here to witness it. Lemm doesn't want them to. This does dampen his fuse somewhat.)

"...We're getting off topic," he decides, which is one way of deflecting an argument, maybe? "Wanting to take them with you, are you? Is that why you're here?"

[impure_void]

"I speak truth, nothing more." He's no authority over her.

But fighting isn't needed here. Her thoughts align with his, somewhat, and she eyes the Hollow Knight, whose claws remaun clamped tight around the hilt of their Nail. She has the self-control to keep from attack, no matter what barbs the Relic Seeker might throw, but Hornet doesn't know if they know this.

"Yes." A sharp breath of air, cutting off before she can say more.

Looking into their empty eyes, she does wonder, abruptly, if they would perhaps give another response, if asked otherwise.

She can't. Not now. Deepnest has the binding materials to work on any wounds they may or may not have. Her mother wants them back. She does not trust the Relic Seeker as far as she could throw a building to take care of her sibling alone.

Her Needle is tucked against her back. "I'm sorry," she says quietly. Unless half-deaf, Lemm must hear her, so she doesn't continue. There's a significant list she hasn't thought to tell them.

[capitalcurator]

Lemm's quiet. And still. Mostly because - Hornet, daughter of Pale King and Herrah - he cannot afford to upset her. Not properly, anyway. Not without a damn good reason and this is... decidedly nothing of the sort.

The Hollow Knight came from Deepnest, and the Knight put it in a positive light: recovery, and so on. There should be no harm in them going back again. He's not even sure why he's debating it in his head. There's no question about this to begin with.

Lemm is jolted out of his thoughts. That was not addressed to her sibling, he doesn't think.

He is blank for a moment.

"I'm not," he answers conversationally. "I'd do it again." Lemm folds his arms in a far less haughty way this time and tilts his head. "Which way will you be going?"

[impure_void]

"Not--" Her words weren't intended for him, but she'd need to explain the list of subjects she should apologize for. What all of Hallownest, in its decay and before, should. She only shakes her head.

"This isn't likely to happen again. Certainly not from the same way it--they came," Hornet says, vaguely, to him. To her sibling: "I know a significantly less intense way down on the western side, near the tram station."

If this is her intent, the Hollow Knight is not chastised. They succeeded in the climb. Their route was the most direct from the Palace. That they had erred in comprehending command--only that may be worth some shame.

[capitalcurator]

He's honestly just content she put her weapon away. In the course of this strange conversation he doesn't care much about whether he's getting anything right - only that he is managing to keep his cool. It is not for his own benefit. (Mostly for the shop full of relics behind him. Partly for the thin reputation he is learning to remember to care about.)

"One might hope it wouldn't happen that way, no." Dust and splinters indeed. Finding them wet and still and directionless indeed. Lemm is not forming an opinion, but he is toying with the beginnings of one.

He cocks his head to the side and considers what basics he can understand of the route - mostly just the way out of the city. A finger taps restlessly on his arm. Wouldn't take them through the square, then. Good.

He could tell her about the service stairways he knows. About jarring the chain if a lift sticks. Lemm suspects neither of these would be particularly helpful.

"Don't suppose you'd need a Tram Pass, would you," he muses flatly, just to finish off that line of thought. "Hollow Knight - a word?"

[impure_void]

"No, but I have one." Naturally. She rarely uses it, giving up bothering after Vespa quietly sealed off the Hive, but she kept it. Sentimentality. "They can fit inside the car." Mostly. They'll need to sit on the floor.

There comes a thought that another type of person would offer one, if possible. She's not that type, and it isn't. The Pale King authorized their use. Discovering Ghost had found one was significant enough to startle her.

Hornet goes rigid at the request, and then forces herself to relax. It doesn't quite work.

The Hollow Knight is her responsibility. Her sibling.

Her misstep with them--multiple missteps--came from previous assumption.

They do not lie. She can question if the Relic Seeker chose to order them to do something dangerous after.

"Hollow Knight. Meet me on the ground floor after," she says. To Lemm, tone cold: "Do not keep them long."

Her Needle flashes; she disappears from his sight, though not theirs. The sound of the elevator's descent follows.

The Hollow Knight stares after her.

Thoughts had gone to dull cobwebs. The words were heard better than they once would have. Still, they had only partly paid attention, fading into the background while remaining between them both.

With Hornet's exit, the sensation of cobweb cedes itself to swirling liquid.

It takes several moments before they're present enough to shuffle around and face him.

[capitalcurator]

He flags a couple of fingers dismissively at her answer regarding the Pass. He's got nothing to offer her, in that case.

Though he is mildly surprised when she clears off. He blinks at her disappearance, and when the lift clunks he thoughtfully taps his chin. Lemm hadn't cared one way or the other whether this took place in private, but it is rather interesting that she'd let it. He doesn't reckon for one minute that it's down to trust.

On with it. Lemm takes a breath to speak, but they're - not looking at him. He holds his words and waits. Did they hear him-? ... Ah. Yes, now, then.

"I meant what I said. I'd have you here again, if it's ever... convenient, again. Never mind how unlikely." They get a nod, marginally less curt than the one he gave Hornet. "But let her know where you're headed, or it seems I'm like to get my shell rearranged."

Lemm hesitates to eye their Nail, though for different reasons this time. The next part stutters out a couple of times before he belatedly settles on the phrasing.

"Not that I can't... hm. She... Thank you, I - appreciate the assist." Is what he ends up with, after grappling his pride out of the way. "Steady enough to take your hand off your Nail?"

[impure_void]

He keeps thanking them. As though cleaning a few objects is worth so much. As though it's worth their return after dampening his shop and leaving him concerned about their state and comfort.

The Hollow Knight does not understand.

They don't need to.

They don't need to, they grasp at again and again. Do not--do not-- they--

Standing is something they don't need its assistance for. Their Nail is now for walking. They bend a little further, leaning the blade against the wall next to the Relic Seeker for closer examination.

[capitalcurator]

They put it near him, and he's tempted. He might not get the chance to examine it again, but - no. They never agreed to cleaning it back in the shop. It's not an ownerless relic lost in a ruin somewhere, the owner is in front of him and he never got permission. And now is not the time to ask with an impatient spider girl waiting downstairs.

Lemm keeps his eyes on the Hollow Knight and extends a hand.

"It's been - nice," he settles on. "Meeting you."

Awkwardly put, but least it avoids hyperbole like it's been an honour or a pleasure or whatever else that just doesn't feel like the right thing to say after fishing someone out of the rain, no matter who they are.

[impure_void]

It isn't for the Nail.

They know, somewhat, what this is, but they freeze and stare at the proffered hand as others would stare at an aimed blade.

Shaking hands involves agreement. Appreciation for meeting, of which the Relic Seeker has expressed multiple times.

He's their King-sibling-Knight's ally. And, as Deepnest and the Hive were to each other, and the Great Knights' bonds, their friend.

In one fast, clumsy movement, the Hollow Knight's claws wrap around his own, not knowing the proper form. They're careful not to cut or squeeze.

[capitalcurator]

He wasn't sure they'd want to, with his strangely motivated attempts at career-bragging earlier that fell so woefully flat. Worth a try, though, he'd thought.

He stills as the Hollow Knight is quick to envelop his hand in theirs - huge, someone like this could tear him down the middle, but so could the Lord of Shades - and it brings a strange sweep of pride with it.

He remembers he's supposed to be initiating a second later, when the odd rush passes, and gives them a firm, rather businesslike handshake - it requires a little more effort than he was prepared for with the weight of it but he's quick to adjust.

Hasn't managed to mess this meeting up completely, then. Hornet notwithstanding.

What would someone else say? Take care? ... Lemm decides not to bother saying anything. Vessels get away with it. He just nods politely, then jerks his horn implicitly in the direction of the elevator.

[impure_void]

Their claws stay wrapped around his longer than strictly necessary. How long a handshake is intended to last is something they never gave attention to; yanking away could catch and cut through his shell.

Releasing him, after another moment of staring, the Hollow Knight bows, claws now in a fist against their chest. Not as deeply as old urges point them to, as they recall the Relic Seeker's own discomfort.

The wordless dismissal is understood.

Nail taken once more, they turn to slowly head to the elevator.

There will be a few new scars in the floor marking the way.

[capitalcurator]

He finds himself staring back. They might not meet again, as far as Lemm knows. He has no reason to believe so especially strongly. But they've met, now, and he takes his chance to memorise their face properly, as well as its differences to the statue outside.

They - they bow - Lemm is paralysed for a second, it's all very well knowing in theory how these things go but he is not a court bug and even the handshake was rare -

They have already turned around by the time Lemm thinks to bring his hand halfway up, and aborts the movement with a small flash of embarrassment.

He retreats just inside the door, leans on the wall, and sighs with the collective emotion of the entire visit.

Lemm stays quiet to listen to be sure the lift works smoothly, but after that he flips the door switch and goes to collapse in his seat.

It had been so hard not to say anything about the Knight. Even with them both their siblings Lemm suspects the Knight would not have wanted him to share that information. (Maybe they have! But he wouldn't risk being the first.)

Lemm puts his face in his hands and decompresses for a long time. Met the Hollow Knight. Met Hornet. Discovered to his absolute dismay that he is still fully capable of trying too hard, even after all this time. But it hadn't gone terribly.

...Back to waiting, now, strange as it feels. Lemm runs the point of his thumb down the side of the polished vase still on his desk amid the rest, suddenly more anxious than he was. The Knight had better be fine. Lemm has things to tell them.