Chapter Text
The Scarred Pilgrim- that was what the tiny bug with the cymbal hat had called them- struggled against the wind. Despite the relative shelter of the rock formations, it still threatened to tear away their thoughts like the sand that pelted their mask, present just long enough to make an impact before vanishing. They had a goal, though, a purpose, and a purpose was not so easy to strip away. They had been raised on the concept of purpose; they knew how to hold onto it despite all assault from without and within.
The details may have been lost, but they knew there was someone they were looking for.
They dug their claws and pointed legs into cracks in the walls; climbing was tiring, but they did not lose their grip. Their limbs were strong and their claws were sharp. Preparing to leap from a wall was more difficult; on the occasions when they were able to think, they realized that positioning themself might have been easier if they had more than one arm. It did not matter, though; that wasn't something they could change.
Finally, they landed on metal rather than stone. They knelt and rested for a second, or maybe a few minutes. They had never had a real sense of the passage of time. They did not quite sleep; they would not sleep out in the open like this. But it was as near as they could get without losing awareness of their surroundings: limbs relaxed, heavy horns leaned against a wall, mind and will releasing their grip on their purpose for a little while, World Sense watching for threats while the rest of them took a break.
An explosion jarred them from their rest. The Scarred Pilgrim sat up instantly, reaching for a weapon they no longer had and glancing for the source of the noise. There it was; smoke and sparks still lingered in the air of the next room. And standing among them-
Red. Pointy horns. Sister.
They had forgotten their baby sister!
The Scarred Pilgrim attempted to sprint into the room, though it quickly turned into more of a hurried stumble, ending with them falling to their knees and skidding to a stop right in front of their sister.
She leaped to her feet, brandishing her needle.
Probably not a good idea to try to hug her, then.
Seconds later, though, she relaxed, sheathing the blade on her back again and letting her own exhaustion show. "Holly... why are you here?"
Carefully and precisely, they signed their answer. {F I N D Y O U.}
"Well... it seems that you succeeded." Then she leaned forward and hugged them, wrapping her dainty arms around their long, elegant neck. That was a similarity they shared; they both seemed delicate in some way, yet those arms and that neck had held strong under impossible weights.
They returned the hug, wrapping their arm around Hornet's back and leaning their head on her shoulder. They did not lean their mask's full weight on her, though it was tempting to; they did not want her to fall over.
They had found her. But what now? Why had they sought her in the first place; what else had they lost in the sand?
The Scarred Pilgrim- Holly?- looked into their void-space for the first time since they had entered the wastelands. Was there anything...
There. A locket, carved from shell and tied shut with black thread. They pulled away from their sister enough to retrieve the locket, and their World Sense told them that she took a step back when she saw their void moving. A good decision. They knew that they were caustic.
They fumbled with the string for little while before deciding that their little sister would be better at this than they would. They held out the locket to her.
"A memory locket?" She asked. "I had thought that Hallownest didn't know how to make those, or that the knowledge was lost at some point."
Holly shrugged. They didn't know anything about what Hallownest could or couldn't figure out.
"Are you asking me to open it for you?" She asked. "I do not think it will help you unless you open it yourself. I have opened others' memory lockets before, and it is I who receive their memories, not them."
"...Perhaps I can help you, though." She took the locket from them and held it in one hand. "Give me your hand?"
They did.
She guided their first-claw and thumb-claw to slice through the threads. Motes of void flowed up from the threads when they were broken.
Holly remembered.
Home / Dirtmouth / Hot Springs / Safety
Siblings / Holly / Hornet / Shade-Lord / Child-of-Oro / Shadows
Teach / Heal / Bind / Charms
Duty / Family / Protect / Repay / Love
Crest of the Paladin
Blue slot unlocked.
They had left their other siblings behind to find her. Shade-Lord would have no trouble protecting Oro's pupil and the shadows, and Hallownest had been free from infection for a long time. Hornet needed them; they had made the right choice.
{C A R R Y ?} They asked.
"It is not necessary," Hornet answered. "I can still walk."
...she was slouching in the same way that Shade-Lord always had just before their mask broke. To be fair, Shade-Lord had been able to walk and dash and fight in that state too- but then again, Hornet was only a demigod; she was not as strong as they were. Nor was she made of void; physical injuries likely impacted her more than they would impact a vessel.
Holly picked up Hornet and set her on their shoulder.
Hornet sighed, and held onto one of their horns.
Hornet's first impression of the Citadel was awe. It was bigger than the City of Tears and grander than the White Palace, constructed almost like a hive made up of pipes and tunnels. Domed rooves filled the distance like giant flower buds, and golden light bounced off of the fog; she could not tell if the Citadel was located in the hugest cavern she had ever seen, or if it was truly outdoors yet miraculously shielded from the wind.
The colors- the gold and black of the walls- reminded her of the dreams she had had just before the Infection ended, with Ghost of Hallownest challenging her again and again in that strange arena. Come to think of it, the faces in the audience had worn similar masks to the Judges, hadn't they? Maybe there was a connection here.
She wrote it down in her list of quests- Discover Origins of the Bronze Dream- as Holly carried her forward into the city.
...she realized that Holly had stopped moving.
Holly did not see the grand city before them; their focus was fixed on something much more immediate. Lanterns lined the path forward, each one containing a lumafly that illuminated the area around it with the soft glow of dawn as it flapped its wings. Each one a miniature image of the Radiance.
Holly braced for combat. They would not kneel again, not now, when they had a sister to protect. They would go down fighting, giving her a chance to escape.
Dawn / Feathers / Suffocating Warmth / Singing
Day / Explosions / Gleaming White / Pain / Mocking / Anger
Dusk / Cold / Fear / Dark
Burning / Too Much / Bright / Broken / HER
Crest of the Paladin
Red slot unlocked.
Glass shattered. Holly leaped high into the air.
When they realized that nothing was attacking them, they looked around to apologize to Hornet; she must have been thrown off of their shoulder when they startled. There she was; she was just sheathing her needle, standing next to a broken lantern.
...All the lanterns were broken now, actually; not one of them contained any lumaflies. The fog was darker and gloomier, but it no longer carried that soft rose-gold that heralded the arrival of the oldlight's overwhelming presence.
Did she do that? For them?
{T H A N K Y O U,} they signed.
"Perhaps... we should rest for a while before continuing."
Holly agreed. They curled up on the floor, adjusting their torn wings to use as a blanket. Hornet sat down and leaned on them, as though they were a bench. They still didn't like being so out-in-the-open, not after needing to deal with the threats of the Wastelands on all sides, but at least they were on solid ground now, and there was no wind.
And they and Hornet could protect each other, after all.
The interior of the Citadel was lit in a more comfortably dim shade, and was as expansive as the White Palace had been, with just as much decorative metal. Holly found themself walking more upright as they passed through the grand walls, as though they needed to blend in with the ornate and cobweb-covered pillars. They were halfway there already, really, with the dark green-gray on the outside of their wings and the soft brown on the undersides. They were, however, entirely too drab and dusty and torn for such a grand place as this; their only hope for camouflage would be to stand in the background and be overlooked entirely- perhaps blend in with the torn curtains that hung from every doorway. If someone recognized them as a bug, they would know that they did not belong.
They expected servants- they almost saw the ghosts of servants slipping quietly in and out of the room, carrying silver dishes and folded white robes. They almost heard the whispery sounds of uniforms dragging on the floor, wings fluttering, nobles gossiping as they glanced at the vessel and then glanced away. But they were not there.
Why was it so empty?
Hornet paused to pay a machine for a map; Holly wondered where the original cartographer had gone. They knew of death and of dead kingdoms; of course they did. But if that had happened here, where were all the corpses? Dead bugs did not just vanish.
Where had they gone? Who had moved them?
Or, if the bugs were still alive, why did they avoid this place?
They did not know if they would ever find the answers to these questions. Still, it made them uneasy.
Finally, they found a large elevator, spacious enough for even Holly to fit comfortably in it, though they still had to duck under the doorway. Hornet struck the lever with her needle, which felt familiar, though they hadn't used an elevator on their own before. Maybe it was something they had seen through Shade-Lord's eyes; it was impossible to tell, the memory both eroded by sand and distorted by infection.
Hornet struck the lever again; the metal of the elevator screeched against the walls of the tunnel. Holly folded up, ducking their head so that their shoulders nearly wrapped around the tip of their mask. It was an awful sound.
Hornet struck the lever a third time. Holly heard the sound of something metallic landing on the floor.
Oh no.
With a deafening screech, the elevator fell.
Pain flared in the scar across their mask.
"What just happened?"
That was a very good question, so Holly looked around to assess the situation. They were lying on the floor, and Hornet was wrapped in their wings. The elevator was in pieces behind them. And there was a smudge of something black on Hornet's mask.
...Oh. They must have grabbed her and teleported without thinking.
This could be a serious problem.
Holly hurriedly wiped the void off of Hornet's face with the edge of their wings. Not all of it came off, but at least the worst of it did. {H U R T ?} They asked.
"Just disoriented, I think," Hornet said. "One moment we were in a falling elevator, and then there was darkness, and now we are sitting here and half my face feels like it's been dunked in freezing water."
{S O R R Y,} they said.
"You- did you do that?" Hornet asked.
Holly nodded.
"Do not apologize, then;" she said. "You may have saved me. I just hope that the void exposure does not interfere with my silk storage..."
Because silk storage was what she was worried about, rather than not dying. Holly gave her a look.
"...I don't stay dead. I may be part void already. Void killing me is not a concern; I would just come back."
Holly's stare intensified.
"Alright; I will try not to die. It is not enjoyable, anyways."
And then she stood up to get moving again, like she hadn't just told them that she was part void too, that they were siblings by more than one parent, and that somehow they had never sensed this and she had never thought to mention it to them before.
Unless she had mentioned it before, and they just didn't remember? That was possible too. Still, it was quite a revelation. And hang on a second; what did she mean maybe? Was she not sure? Or was that just the softening of language that bugs used when they were hesitant to say something?
Hornet turned to face them again. "Were you injured at all?"
Holly shrugged again. Their landing had hurt, but they weren't sure whether they took any real damage.
"Let me see." She knelt by them and examined their mask. "I think the crack looks worse than before. I will mend it once I find some silk to use. For now, just stay behind me."