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]

A Seer's work is to look, to untangle, to solve, and to channel. Sometimes it is to see to the grieving, the dying, the mad, the lost.

Sometimes it is to see. To do nothing but witness, so that someone might know they are witnessed. The Wielder-- the Knight - wrote to her, and though their situation is strange, not a word of it was unfamiliar.

Seer squeezes their paw lightly from beneath. The other slips out of the sandwich of hands and instead comes to touch lightly at their face, acknowledging.

She withdraws after a moment, practiced in not letting a moment sit long enough that it loses meaning. She stands before them, dips her head, and returns - creakily as ever - to her seat.

Lemm has witnessed this at first with a fierce protectiveness, and then with a respectful retreat. He stares down at his lap.

[focusedvoid]

They sit for a few moments, mind quiet as it is busy.

It's odd, to have this sort of moment with...anyone, really. Lemm is new. Their siblings' are new. Seer is just...even newer.

The Knight flexes their claws again as their arm slowly returns to their side.

Thank you, Seer. Being seen as I am has been rare. Although it's been happening slightly more often recently.

Not for the first time, they wish they could sigh. It's an effective tool to indicate moving on.

Still, apologies for interrupting. They wave their paw in Lemm's direction and start poking at their map again. Don't mind them, they're busy poking at Dirtmouth's pins for some reason.

[capitalcurator]

"You know where to find me, Wielder." Again it asks nothing of them, but it says a lot: she doesn't understand everything of them, and she isn't foolish enough to think so. That door remains open.

(While the Knight's head is down, and their attention on their map: Lemm gives the smallest nod across to Seer.)

...Lemm does sigh, because doing so comprises about a solid half of his personality. "Feels a bit much now, asking about old gods."

Seer just smiles.

"What can you tell me of yours? As she was, first," he clarifies, with a handwave. "She must've been something else before all this."

"Ahh, it was before my time... Still, I know what I've been told." Seer suspected this would feel strange. All of this was to be forgotten; she had firmly resigned to taking it all with her. Still, he is asking, and it is not so that it can be remembered, it is just... for curiosity. She reminds herself of this. "She was the Light; the dawn that breaks. She was illumination..."

"Esoteric," Lemm points out, rather flatly. "These are synonyms. Anything more solid to go on?"

Seer's tone shifts subtly, taking on the strangely playful note it sometimes does when she seems to know she's being cryptic. "Illumination," she repeats, this time with a look.

He stares at her. Then, with all the irony of the phrase helping to hammer home the point, it dawns on him. "Understanding."

Ah, he got there. "That's the way I've thought of it! Very vague, my lot, especially after the shift. I suspect a Seer's work is closest to it all... Understanding oneself, accepting fate and mortality, understanding the nature of things..." And the rest. She flags a hand. "Through Dream, sometimes."

[focusedvoid]

The Knight doesn't look up.

Understanding. She certainly had none, when it came to accepting death, or at least not destroying those who weren't involved in her attempts to escape it. That they weren't that Ancient Enemy, and perhaps wouldn't have been an enemy at all if there was a way to solve things without her endless attempts to kill them and their sibling, outside and in.

This is one of those times it's good they lack easy access to noise. The irony in Seer's voice would only spur them to agree with deep disgust. It's clear she didn't agree with the Radiance at all, but it'd still be fairly rude to cut in with.

[capitalcurator]

"Hard to think of her that way," remarks Lemm. "My experience of her's the bugs she had shuffling around dead on their feet."

Seer gives a meaningful little hum. She is almost as removed from that Radiance as he is. When she speaks again, there is something softer and more grave to her voice.

"We were her children, born of Her Light. My ancestors abandoned Her for another. Could you or I truly think we know the whole of it?"

She dips her head in something like - remorse, perhaps.

"Unfulfilled grief will twist the common bug out of shape, and many things turn to rage in the end. What might that do to a god?" Seer pokes her hand out of her wings and delicately turns it the other way up. "...The dawn that breaks," she says again, and it means something very different this time.

Seer gathers herself again quickly, shuffling her wings a bit. (Even as a fragment of her attention stays on the Wielder, privately.) "Ahh, but it's all in the past now, and all things end, and time is a cycle of mistakes and mercies! Some of us grow tired of it, and some of us become nosy historians."

The tonal whiplash draws a surprised, awkward little laugh out of Lemm. What.

[focusedvoid]

They're almost in the middle of things, so they're obviously listening. Their map-poking is largely for show that this part doesn't involve them. (Although they do take the opportunity clean a little bit under their oldest pins, where little bits of dust and dirt and leaf managed to wriggle under there, well before Lemm's map protector.)

So they just barely tip their head at the Seer's words, first. Hers was a piteous situation. One the Knight won't be dwelling on. They have no desire to, any more than they do the Pale King.

At the end, though, their head pops up to Lemm, to Seer, back to Lemm.

Exaggeratedly, they shrug one arm at him. She's right!

[capitalcurator]

Alright, alright, they get a flat look. He isn't annoyed, just... bewildered. He's not used to light teasing - ugh, they know that quite well. And Seer looks like she has figured it out, which may prove inconvenient.

"I'd read your kind were custodians of the Resting Grounds," he tries, hoping very much she'll take the topic change.

Seer nods. This one is easier than the rest. "We took to the task of tidying graves and minding their visitors quite well, and so our role under the Pale Light was decided. Work I still carry out to this day," she adds. "Though for me it is penance more than pride..."

"The metalwork outside - the railings. Symbology's the wrong shape," he points out. He holds out a hand, crooking his thumb to make a four-pronged vertical shape with his fingers, more for his own thought process than anyone else's reminder. "How'd you get away with that, then?"

"I don't suppose you get into much bother for your questions, do you?" Nosy historian indeed. "Ahh, but that's no crown at all, you see. It is the glow of the moon, or the stars. It is just spikes, same as everywhere in Hallownest, or... What did my grandfather say...? Moth feathers," she explains, and bobs her antennae slightly.

"Aye, right. Well just so we're clear," he replies, "I came in through King's Pass. There's quite a view up there."

Seer, more amused than she was, tilts her head. "I'm sure there is."

"You can see right across the dustbowl, if you're keen to look."

"It sounds very scenic..."

He gives up. "Moth feathers, then," he agrees to disagree.

Seer smiles again. "My tribe has lived in Hallownest a very long time... and we were very good caretakers." She dips her head resolutely. "That's enough for the moment, I think. I'm starting to think you might actually retain some of this! My, but for someone who isn't a historian you ask some striking questions, Lemm."

Lemm does not quite manage to look apologetic. He does flip his bag closed over the top of the re-wrapped Arcane Egg.

[focusedvoid]

Isn't acting as historian, they're tempted to write. Being a historian is as much of Lemm as being a Knight is to the Knight.

But that's not needed. Lemm agreed enough. Instead it's mulled over for their own curiosity. Seer is oddly adamant about not wanting anything about the Radiance recorded.

...Or not so oddly, if they understood the implications of the Peak's statue correctly. The Knight glances up towards the fluttering lumaflies, as if they'll see through, all the way up.

If you worry she might return, to spread the Infection again, I can say that won't happen, they offer, in case that's her fear.

[capitalcurator]

"It is kind of you to keep an old groundskeeper informed."

This is true, and it is appreciated; there's a tinge of gratitude to her voice, and relief at having it confirmed. But her placid bearing doesn't change; it is clear this alters very little for her.

"It is better that She is gone from this world, now, Wielder. I thank you for it... But as long as our shared past lingers, Hallownest rests uneasily..." A nod at Lemm, as well. "When you hold relics in your hands again, I trust you'll keep us out of your business."

She is staring at him, expectant. He breaks - because the alternative is anger, and he is trying to be some kind of diplomatic. His shoulders sag and he averts his eyes.

"...Aye."

"Thank you both for humouring me."

[focusedvoid]

Seer doesn't want to discuss this. Putting their own curiosity aside, it still seems important to know.

The Knight's quill hovers. Politeness versus practicality.

Practicality wins out. If remembrance is a problem--any at all...

Is that something I should be concerned about, as Wielder/connected to dreams? My knowledge of the Radiance or your people is low, but that's still more than most.
We can discuss this privately if necessary.

[capitalcurator]

She casts a thoughtful glance at Lemm, then shakes her head. There is nothing of this she considers imprudent for the common bug to know, or at least not any more so than the Wielder. She has answered more difficult questions today.

"Hmm... I couldn't possibly know every outcome! It may not be surprising to hear I don't see the future." But - she knows that wasn't the goal. "Ah, but I shouldn't think so. I sensed nothing of Her in you, Wielder. I would guess that your memories are nothing but your own..."

She is quiet for a moment.

"...I have no way of taking those from you." Her tone is normally difficult to read, guarded as it is - but for this it sounds deeply apologetic.

[focusedvoid]

Then I'll hold off worrying. No use in that, when they feel they've erased all that made her dangerous--when they've erased her, in a way that Higher Beings rarely are. Even the Pale King held an echo of himself in his White Palace dream.

For a moment, they wonder what happened to the Godseekers' gods, to disappear them so.

The Knight finally decides to be plain. And Seer, do you have any lingering questions? I have no concerns about stirring histories I'm involved in. They pat the Dream Nail, their Pure Nail, and the ripple of their Shade Wings. They've experienced miseries too close to be considered history, and are prepared for current threat.

[capitalcurator]

Seer is less reluctant this time; she is getting a feel for what kind of a god the Lord of Shades really is, now, and it seems the main descriptor is reluctant. The way it felt like they were baiting her before really was harmless. They just want to be asked, there is no trick.

Still. Indulging her own mild curiosity, now... is there much point?

(Lemm is staring at her again. If this is disinterest he thinks he might explode - internally if he can help it.)

"...Hmm... Two come to mind." Because obviously they do want her to ask something. It would be impolite not to. "I do wonder... Where have you been?"

Seer knows now that there were multiple Vessels - many, if that brief examination is any indication - but she also knows that she only ever heard there was one. Where, then, all this time?

[focusedvoid]

Many places. Hallownest was never 'the last and only civilization' despite what was claimed. The Knight considers this obvious, but they might as well be extremely clear about it.

Lacking any true goal, I wandered a great amount. If you'd like a full list of my travels, I likely won't remember them all.
The most recent was the Cicatrice Fortress. I wasn't allowed inside, but only their termites are. It was half as tall as Crystal Peak aboveground, built from their own clay.

This is an answer for Seer and a few details for Lemm, as well. It was an impressive place, no matter how dull it got staring from afar.

[capitalcurator]

"Pah. I'll wrest all of your stories out of you yet," Lemm mutters, faintly amused. "You're not off the hook just because they aren't about Hallownest." It's an empty claim, mostly - he doesn't really expect them to remember everything - but it feels right to remind them he's interested. (...Also, that they've already told him so much is something he's proud of, and Seer might as well know about it.)

Either way, he appreciates extra detail.

"Ah, all the way out there..." Seer is less fussy about the where. "I've spent my life here, though I knew there was a world outside this place... You aren't the first to pass through the Resting Grounds of Hallownest, and you won't be the last. I am glad to hear you took in the sights."

...She does entertain the mental image, if only for a moment. Perhaps, if circumstances were different, she would invite them to tell her more. A long time ago, she would have liked to hear such stories.

Things change. As it is, she has only one other question quite pressing enough to bother asking.

"What of the other?"

Lemm's poker face here may actually be kind of impressive.

[focusedvoid]

Lemm gets an overdone bow. The Knight's perfectly fine with that, though information of Fortress in particular likely won't be interesting. They really did just stare at it for...around a month. Though he might enjoy the minutiae of their patrol routes, for some reason.

They nod. They suspected she'd know.

And then they pause.

Their tallest sibling lives. Their tallest sibling lives and is well--or at least stubborn--enough to be wandering.

Keeping them entirely secret from one of the few that knew of them isn't necessary, they decide.

They've been freed from the Egg, though not without sustaining grievous injury.
And at least one of the Dreamers from their sleep, they eventually write. May as well be honest there as well.

[capitalcurator]

Lemm minds himself very carefully. One of the few things his awkwardness does not get in the way of is maintaining a good lie - it's only when the Knight lets the secret go that the mask drops.

"Goes without saying, but this isn't something they'd appreciate spread about, not that I'd expect you to," he adds, aimed at Seer. "Deserves not to be pestered about the whole thing. I'm certain you agree."

Seer nods, gravely. "You needn't worry - I won't be passing anything on. I am well practiced in being discreet..." That, and there is a rather limited pool of bugs she might speak to in the first place. "...You have my gratitude for telling me, but more than that... My deepest apologies, Wielder, for the whole of that grim duty. I understand none may ever be enough."

[focusedvoid]

Lemm said something similar about the very same subject, peering down at the Hunter's Journal. His was more of thanking than an apology, but they find the sentiment near enough. Their sibling deserves it more. Perhaps they'll pass something like that along.

The Knight bows to Seer, not half as deep as she tried to they--or their dramatic one at Lemm. Hopefully that they weren't being respectful to him but are to her is clear, they think belatedly.

[capitalcurator]

She solemnly bows her head in response, so - it landed, at least.

When she straightens up again, something about her bearing has changed subtly. For a long moment she just stares at the Wielder, completely unreadable.

Her thoughts have been brushing up against the facts for a while now. The Radiance is gone, and Hallownest rests; with the Dream Nail passed to a rightful Wielder, her duties are few. And something about the telling of it all, that the Lord of Shades (and Lemm) witnessed the truth of it, has her feeling just a notch lighter.

Yes. What's done is done.

Her attention turns to Lemm... Too volatile, that one. They did establish that privacy was an acceptable thing to request.

"Lemm," she addresses him. "May I have an audience with the Wielder alone?"

He had been wondering why she was looking at them like that. Unsure, Lemm looks to the Knight in a silent question. Is that acceptable?

[focusedvoid]

They nod to Lemm. They're fine, and they already agreed queries in private are acceptable. If Seer wants to ask something without a Relic Seeker, that's particularly fair, no matter that the Knight doesn't understand it.

There's a bench in the Stag Station to the east, a little way down, they say. That'd be comfortable to wait on for them, and they don't think he's allowed in the Spirits' Glade. Perhaps they'll ask after that in private.

[capitalcurator]

He gives them a nod and quietly gets to his feet. Theirs is not a bad suggestion, even if his curiosity was piqued by that open door across the way... With a pause to fix his beard, he considers saying something else - no, probably unwise, nothing he can think of would be anything but rude to the Seer.

Instead, he stoops to put a hand on the Knight's shoulder on the way past. And - belatedly - he just about remembers to flick a hand up in a last-second wave over his shoulder as he exits.

Seer waits until Lemm is gone and his climbing hook has been shaken off the edge - and then a moment longer for grace's sake. She is patient.

"...Wielder," she addresses them eventually, cordial and apparently earnest. "What comes next for you?"

[focusedvoid]

They pat Lemm's hand with their paw, pressing it down into their shoulder for an instant. They're grateful he came along with them.

Patient as her, they wait for his presence to fade.

I'm going to visit my sibling, and then return to Dirtmouth. Myla is up there, in a dwelling that is mine. Did they need to include that? They don't care. I'll further consider my options of helping her after.

They suspect there was more to that question, but the Knight answers straightforwardly. Goading Seer into asking further somewhat, but that is their plan, and an important one.

[capitalcurator]

"Dirtmouth," she muses. Nothing wrong with that choice, in her opinion. "A comfortable place it was. Ah, and it may be still... I send nothing but solace to you and your sibling, and to Myla. It's benevolent of you to think of others!"

Their answer is very pragmatic. Seer gives a soft, good-natured hum. She wasn't specific enough, that's on her. And the details she got were not unwelcome.

"And then...? What of your future, I wonder?"

[focusedvoid]

It was cold and empty when I came, with Elderbug alone, but it's since filled with several, from Hallownest and outside both.

They dip their head, softly pleased with her wishes and question both.

I don't fully know. I'm going to trying to build a life here, whatever that may mean. I'd never had a chance to.

[capitalcurator]

"It is good to hear of new life being breathed into that old town."

She would have accepted any answer to the question of their future - far be it from her to decide what's best for them - but their choice is a pleasant one. It's... nice, that they're staying. Seer gives an encouraging nod.

"We must all seize our moments, and what shape those moments take become us! ...Or so it's been said." Possibly just by her. Seer watches them with a meaningful glint in her eyes. "What shape will Hallownest take, as the era of Light passes and one of Shade begins? It's not for me to wonder, but perhaps it is for you to think about."