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.

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[focusedvoid]

The Knight tries to get their rest.

It isn't as hard as they expect, though they delay when they pass by their Lost Kin, to delicately shift them into a more comfortable-looking position. Though it's not important--they themselves certainly wouldn't care--settled against the wall seems better than laid flat on the floor.

They aren't there, in the Void, when they reach. It still feels like the correct thing to do. The Knight takes the Dream Nail out and see if it has any affect, just in case, and continues on when it doesn't. They're too tired to wonder.

The pale beams that lit the statue where they found the Monarch Wings has gone dark. They settle there, and fall asleep almost immediately.

They sink into Godhome.

There, they immediately leap into the bronze-tinted water to escape Godseeker's adulation and swim until they reach the black clouds at the dream's edge to disappear. And get actual rest.

For a time, they do.

Then their Siblings come creeping through the darkness, nudging their floating form until they can't ignore it. Maybe they should've went to the bench--but they can be found there if tried.

The Knight is obligingly tugged along, until the water turns to Void alone, until they're walking, to--

--singing. Again.

Familiar dread and fury rises, and they beat it down. This is not the Colosseum. This is the dark, with their siblings, who love the singing just as much as they did, and they follow the single sound ringing out until they reach her. Myla is clamping her hands on her still-worn and glowing helmet.

They didn't know, again, and the world roils, gets even darker--no. No. She's here. She's here, and...she's safer. Shades are watching, floating in loose lines at a distance. There are flickers of intrigue, annoyance; yes, she's been here, they were trying to say, but the lights made it too hard.

Guilt washes through the Knight, and away just as quickly. They need to help. They could have earlier, and this isn't the first time they've been late. They need to do what they can now.

Myla responds better when they walk up to her than she does awake. She recognizes them. She doesn't throw the pick-claw that materializes in her grip. She allows them to take her by the elbow and guide her off, between their siblings, leaving them to trail behind.

...To Godhome.

There's no exit in Godhome anymore. They don't know how to bring her out.

The Knight is--displeased. But they bring Myla up, creating black-stained stairs with their mind; when they realize this, they try to create a way out, but the whole of Godhome shudders and upsets Myla from her bewildered awe. Later, then.

They wait with her by the more private bench and spring.

The Knight pulls out paper, and explains what they can. This is less than they'd like. She's present, here, more than awake, but her concentration skitters away from the paper often, and she mentions hearing another's humming--Cornifer, they eventually realize. Myla is both here and there.

They manage to explain that their Siblings are safe, only curious. (They reach through the Void and tell everyone to point her way back to Godhome if she ends up in the dark again.)

And they apologize. Several times.

They aren't sure if she knows how much they mean it.

They promise they'll help. They promise to wake her. And she's happy to wait, here, happier than in the unending darkness. She's fascinated with what she's seeing. They guess there's nothing in Hallownest like it. It seems she can hear more, too, of the tuning than they know how to.

The Lord of Shades makes very, very sure the Godseekers won't bother her too much.

And, eventually, they do need to wake up.