Chapter Text
They did it. The light was in them, now. At least their sibling was freed. At least they would be able to hold out longer. But it wasn't perfect. They would fail eventually, they knew. Surely they could have done something differently? Surely they could have found a way to bring the cycle to an end?
Something clicked in Ghost, something about the way time seemed to change whenever they sat on a bench, and suddenly they could feel it around themself. The void? Or something else? It was everywhere, and all they had to do was pull, rotate everything back, like rewinding a clock, like reaching out with a void tendril. Like the waves of the sea, curling backwards even as they headed forwards.
The void sea pounded in waves against the white wall of Ghost's shell, curling back and back and back. They weren't standing in the temple anymore, they were in the Dream Realm Kingdom's Edge Ancient Basin Deepnest Crystal Peak City of Tears Fog Canyon Greenpath Crossroads King's Pass. They were standing at the edge of the King's Pass, looking down at Dirtmouth, following their taller sibling's cry for help.
The second time, Ghost sought out their past, and Hornet showed up in time to help, but that only resulted in her getting sealed inside the Egg as well. The third time, Ghost avoided Hornet in an attempt to leave her out of it, but pursued the path the Seer showed them, upgrading the Dream Nail until it could break into even the mind of the Hollow Knight. But their sibling never left an opening for them to use it.
The fourth time, they put all the pieces together correctly. Finding and upgrading the Dream Nail, encountering Hornet everywhere they could (and fighting her twice), returning to their origin in the Abyss, and killing the Dreamers. And finally, they were able to kill the Radiance and put a stop to the Infection at its source.
But in living these events over and over, Ghost had noticed something. A few select people that didn't need to die, that they were sure they could find a way to save. Myla, Cloth, Tiso. Quirrel. Quirrel stood out in this list, as he wasn't killed by any outside force. He chose to die. (Well, either that, or all the years of his life caught up to him once he no longer had the mask and he'd turned to dust right there. It was a little ambiguous, in Ghost's opinion.) Either way, the only way Quirrel would stay alive was if Ghost never went to kill Monomon. But there wasn't any other way to get at the Radiance...
Unless there was.
Ghost had tried their best to forget about the lady with a kingdom in her head. As interesting as it might have been at first, she was mean, and her battles were pointless and crammed too close together. But if what she said was true, that every creature that had ever been worshipped in Hallownest had a place there, surely the Radiance was in there too. They could take her down without having to kill the Dreamers, and without having to inflict more pain than necessary on their sibling.
Ghost certainly wasn't thrilled about working their way up the Pantheon, but it was the only way.
The first Pantheon fell before them, then the second and third. They grew to look on the Godseeker with as much incredulous judgement as she looked at them: some of the mid-pantheon enemies were harder than the ones at the top, and most of the creatures could hardly be called "gods" at all- they were barely even symbolic! She must have had no idea what she was doing.
In the fourth Pantheon, Ghost was proven wrong. The Godseeker did know what she was doing. These lesser beings with their minute power meant nothing to her in themselves. But put together, the increasing viciousness and power, the array of ideas they represented- she was using them as a ladder, climbing them with her prayers, trying to reach...
Well. Considering the encounter at the end of this stairway was the Pure Vessel, last line of defense against the Old Light, Ghost had a pretty good idea of who they all were trying to reach. And if Ghost wanted to kill her, they'd have to go all the way to the top.
The last pantheon was like the others, but perfected. The Godseekers had found their ideal combination and put it together, and it was near-impossible to climb. To be completely fair, the fourth Pantheon had also been insanely difficult, but even the easiest enemies here had something different about them. The Winged Nosk, for example. And...
...The mawlek. Which wasn't itself a difficult enemy, but oh no. Tiso!
"...Why?..." Tiso's last thoughts echoed through Ghost's skull as they watched the Mawlek fall on top of him. They understood now- the Mawlek was part of the Trial of the Fool. He'd gotten so far, only to die to a Mawlek because he forgot to look up!
They couldn't put this off anymore. They would save all their friends, and they wouldn't come back until they knew it wasn't real: that Tiso would never be crushed, that Cloth wouldn't get herself killed on a quest for justice, that Myla wouldn't succumb to the infection.
So they climbed up to the nearest stag station and rode to Dirtmouth, and bought a few sheets of paper from Iselda. She asked what they were planning on doing with the paper, but they didn't want to take the time to figure out an answer. They dashed out of the shop and sat down on the bench to begin writing. A warning and a map for Myla, a tip for Tiso, and a word of advice for Cloth. There was an extra piece of paper left over, so they wrote something for Bretta, too.
Dear Bretta,
It seems you don't really understand who I am. I wrote this to clear things up.
- I am not tall. I am, in fact, shorter than you.
- I'm not a "stoic silent warrior". I just literally can't speak.
- I am not perfect. I lose battles more often than I win, I miss jumps for dumb reasons, and I break things when I'm bored.
- I can't read your mind by sitting next to you, and you can't read mine. If two people want to understand each other, they need to talk. That's why I'm writing to you in the first place.
These beliefs of yours are worrying. What you see is not what's really there. If I hadn't shaken away the orange myself, I would say you were still infected.
I do value your life and am glad to see you in town. I did go out of my way to rescue you. But you were not the primary reason I went down into Hallownest. There is something else I need to do here, and someone else I need to save.
Please stop fantasizing over a version of me that does not exist.
Sincerely, Your 'White Knight', AKA Ghost