Chapter Text
“GHOST!”
Said vessel shade-dashed away, a piece of fruit clutched tightly in one claw, their sister in hot pursuit. You would think the Lord of Shades, embodiment of the void, strongest higher being in Hallownest and potentially all of existence, would be able to outrun one angry half-spider. You would think wrong.
Pinning them down with a foot on their neck, Hornet yanked the fruit out of their hand. “You had your share, little ghost. Take mine again and I’ll web you to the wall.”
Ghost flashed back to that one time in Deepnest and nodded in surrender. “Sorry, ” they projected into her mind, an ability they had inherited from their father. Complex thoughts were… hard to convey telepathically. Many thoughts, emotions, and other tangents the mind went on got in the way, so they weren’t exactly capable of being very verbose. There were also some bugs that were just incapable of understanding them, most of the recovered nobility was like that, so they would usually use some kind of sign language as well.
She huffed and quickly scarfed down the fruit as she got off her sibling. “If you’re still hungry, go foraging.”
“Ghost done being a pain? ” Ghost jumped as Hollow dropped down from above, apparently having been following the chase. The former not-really-empty vessel had finally started “talking” only a week ago, and that was after months of TLC and recovering.
“On this one issue, yes,” Hornet replied.
“Mean, mean, mean. Sibling mean. Sister meaner.” Ghost pouted.
“If you’re bored, how about you find something to occupy yourself?” Hornet suggested.
“Bored, bored, very bored. No adventures. Bored, ” lamented Ghost.
“Void? Relaxing, quiet, fun? ” Hollow suggested.
Ghost hummed and chirped as they considered the idea. It wasn’t that the vessels were incapable of making sounds, but they were incapable of speech. Something about void and emptiness and yada yada. Hollow preferred to not make any noise at all, but Ghost had no such qualms. “Maybe… ” they relented.
“Come with? ” Hollow asked, tilting their head to one side.
Ghost happily nodded then glanced at Hornet with a questioning cock of their head. She shook her head. “I have business to attend to in Deepnest, which you have already kept me from with your shenanigans.” She paused, then added, “A part of me wants to thank you for that, but you don’t need anything more to feed your ego.”
Hollow let out a silent laugh, only noticeable by the narrowing of their eyes and the shaking of their shoulders while Ghost tried to playfully smack their sister, only for her to skitter out of the way. She nodded at them then swung away on a thread of silk as Ghost waved goodbye. Together, the two void siblings made their way down to the abyss, stopping at a few hot springs on the way.
Finally, they arrived at the top of the lighthouse. Hollow sat down on the top, staring out across the sea of void. Ghost glanced down at the empty abyss, then took a flying leap and dove into the inky liquid. They abandoned their form and let the void take them. The change was almost instantaneous, and once they were sure they had stabilized, rose from the sea. Liquid void dripped from their arms, tentacles, and horns as they towered above their older sibling. They remembered how alarmed Hollow had been when they had first seen this form, but then again, they didn’t know it was Ghost behind the eight glowing eyes at the time. Now, Hollow barely even reacted to the sight.
Ghost bent down and rested a pair of crossed arms against the edge of the lighthouse and laid their head in the crook of their elbow. Hollow reached out their hand and ran it down the Lord of Shades’s face. Ghost couldn’t help but purr in response and closed their eyes in pleasure.
Eventually, the strokes became shorter and lighter. Ghost opened their eyes again and stared questioningly at their sibling, wondering why they were getting less cuddles. Hollow was staring into nothingness, face blank as they sat deep in thought. Ghost butted their head against their hand, snapping Hollow out of whatever reverie they had fallen into.
“Sorry. ”
“Upset? Tired? What are you thinking about? ” Ghost pried.
Hollow hesitated to reply, but withdrew their hand and instead used it to rub the shoulder where their other arm had once been. “Father. ”
Ghost’s eyes narrowed. They had… mixed feelings about their father. They wouldn’t outright say they hated him, but they certainly wouldn’t say they loved him or even had neutral feelings. Hollow, however, still adored their father, which was beyond Ghost or Hornet’s understanding. They supposed it was because Hollow had actually spent their childhood with the king, whereas Hornet only spent less than half of hers with him and Ghost had never even spoken to him. Their mother, the White Lady, or Root as was her name, assured them that he was not a bad bug, that he had made mistakes in the name of saving their kingdom, but that did nothing to convince Ghost.
Finally, they spoke again. “Why do you think about him? ”
“I miss him. ” Hollow’s grip on their shoulder tightened. “ I want him back. I miss him. I want him back. ” That train of thought continued for a few more seconds before Hollow cut it off, but void was now spilling from their eyes.
Ghost brought up a tentacle and used it to pat their sibling on the head, as their hands were far too large for the task. Hollow had not taken the loss of their father well when Hornet and Ghost had told them. Their grieving was not yet over, it seemed.
Hollow remained silent for another few hours, then finally stood up. “Have to go. Make dinner. Come home when ready to eat. ” Ghost held out their hands and Hollow jumped into their cupped palms. They slithered out of the sea, the lower half of their body a serpent-like tail. They let themselves grow as they reached the opening of the abyss until they were tall enough to reach the platform to the basin. Hollow stepped off, their feet clicking against the metal, then left without a thought. Ghost watched them leave, and wanted to go back into the comfort of the abyss, but something stopped them.
Their thoughts went to the palace grounds, and that broken kingsmould containing the dream of the White Palace. The king’s body lay within those imaginary walls. No gravesite, no monument, just abandoned in the throne room. That couldn’t be easy for their sibling to think about. Maybe if they could bring the corpse into the real world, if they could hold a funeral, maybe it could help their sibling move on at last. But in order to get there… just thinking of it brought shivers down their spine. Forget the grand kingdom of Hallownest, the Pale King’s true greatest legacy was instilling a crippling fear of buzzsaws into the void itself. But if it was for their older sibling, they could suck it up.
Ghost grabbed the edge of the platform and focused. The immense void entity compressed into a small, swirling ball of void, which quickly shaped itself into the shape of a small horned vessel. They dashed the whole way to the spot of the doorway of the vanished palace. The kingsmould hadn’t changed at all from when they were last here, unaware of what awaited them. This time, they knew what would happen, what they would have to go through. They let out a sigh as they pulled out the Dream Nail and wondered whether or not they would prefer to kill Absolute Radiance again compared to this.
…
Absolute Radiance. Definitely Absolute Radiance. Absolute Radiance five times in a row. Maybe not the rest of the pantheon, but just her would be fine. Of course, if they went head-first into a buzzsaw one more time, that opinion might just change.
So incensed they were in their own mind, they didn’t even notice when they fell into a room with two dead kingsmoulds, slain by Ghost’s own nail. They could have cried for joy. They dashed the rest of the way to the throne room, only stopping once they were in the doorway.
The Pale King’s corpse laid where Ghost had left it. Well, left it after stabbing it a few times in vengeance for having to go through his unholy abomination of thorns and buzzsaws. With some hesitation, they approached the form. They pulled the Pale King up and set him back upon his throne. The body slumped and fell over, so Ghost had to pull him upright again. It took a few tries before the Pale King was balanced again. They rested a claw against his face and stared into the empty eyes. He didn’t look so powerful like this. Certainly nothing like the imposing figure he presented himself as.
Ghost had no idea how they were going to get him out of here. They hadn’t even stopped to wonder if it was possible in the first place. But they had killed the Radiance, they had saved their sibling, and taken the essence and power of the freaking void into themself. “Possible” was a word that had long since stopped applying to them.
They glanced down at the Dream Nail. Maybe if they hit him with it while holding him, they’d leave together? Last time they had just gotten an imprint of his desperate, pleading hope, but it was worth a try, at least. They charged it up and let it swing. Essence exploded from the Pale King and the world went white.
When the world cleared, the scene had changed. They were still in the White Palace, but it was brighter, cleaner, no thorns, and definitely no hum of buzzsaws. Ghost stared around at the shining grandeur, confused. Eventually, they started walking down the hallways. They didn’t know where they were going, but something had to be around here, right?
They had been walking for a while when a sound caught their attention. It was soft, but in the silence of the palace, it sounded almost deafening. Ghost dashed toward it, taking a few wrong turns as they tried to triangulate the noise, before they finally stopped in the doorway of what looked like a training room.
The first thing they saw was a small Hollow fighting a dummy. They struck the armored sack with their nail over and over again, not appearing aware of anything else. The second thing they saw was the figure staring at the memory of the vessel. Ghost froze.
The Pale King, looking very much alive, rested his head on his claw, tail coiled around his feet. Ghost didn’t think he even noticed their presence until, after a while, he spoke.
“Leave us be.”