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Hornet was in Greenpath, squinting at the scrap of parchment in her hand. Hollow was still recovering and Jiji, who had been helping the siblings through the healing process, had given Hornet a list of herbs that might help. Unfortunately for Hornet, Jiji’s handwriting was absolutely terrible. Hornet stuffed the parchment into her cloak with a huff. This was impossible, she had to go back and get more specific descriptions. Light green herb? This was Greenpath, literally everything was some variation of Green, it was kind of in the name.
She turned around, stalking back through the thick shrubbery retracing her steps. It was easy to get lost in the maze of overenthusiastic plant life. Eventually she found a familiar clearing, stepping onto the cobblestone floor, her breath caught for a moment.
Something was watching her; she was sure of it. She glanced around as nonchalantly as she could, looking for any darting shadows, or a branch that shook a little too much. She saw nothing of the sort, met only with the still greenery and the soft sound of the nearby stream. The uneasy feeling in her chest faded as quickly as it came.
She moved on quickly, the princess of Deepnest wasn’t afraid of anything. If any bug suggested such, they would get a needle to the face. She had places to be, that was all.
Hornet skirted around the empty shell of an Elder Baldur as she stepped onto the bridge that linked Greenpath and the Forgotten Crossroads. As soon as she did, the feeling of being watched returned in full. The sheer amount of the dread that settled in her gut almost knocking the wind out of her.
This time she forewent all subtlety, frantically looking for the danger her instincts screamed was there. Hornet didn’t survive this long in this rotting corpse of a kingdom by ignoring her instincts. She gripped her needle tightly, convinced something was going to leap out and attack her.
“Who’s there? Show yourself!” She said, with well-practiced faux confidence. The air was still and silent, unnaturally so, like something was eating up every sound.
There was an intense chill, that crept up her spine, she had to supress the urge to shiver. Her mind was screaming dissonant cords of panic, making it hard to focus. It was the same irrational nagging fear she discovered, staring too long into that wretched abyss, except amplified tenfold.
Nothing emerged, there was no movement. Just like the last time, the sudden terror faded, leaving hornet cold and confused. She shuddered trying to shake the awful crawling feeling out of her chitin. The princess of Deepnest wasn’t afraid of anything, but she did hurry back to Dirtmouth with a little more haste than was technically necessary.
The obnoxious rambling of Zote was an almost welcome relief from the unnatural silence of the dead kingdom, almost. She hurried over to the house on the edge of town she and Hollow had decided to make a home in, at least until they recovered.
Hornet entered the house, Hollow tended to shy away from too much light, so they kept the house as dark as possible. It didn’t really bother her, those born in Deepnest didn’t need much light to see.
The living room was completely still, the only indication that the vessel was there at all was the ever so slight wheezing emanating from the pile of soft blankets and pillows on the floor.
As soon as Hornet entered the room proper, the blankets moved. The Hollow Knights head emerged from the makeshift nest; blankets tangled in their impressive horns. They let out a trembling chirp, to greet their sibling.
“Hey Hollow, sorry, I wasn’t able to find those herbs.” Hornet sighed
She flopped onto one of the unnecessarily soft pillows they had ‘borrowed’ from Bretta’s old house. Hollow let out a resigned little trill, Scooting closer to her. To Hornets credit, she managed not to tense too much when they leaned into her this time.
The two siblings sat in the dark for a good few minutes, not a sound between them. Hornet let herself feel safe there, slowly leaning into Hollow as much as they were leaning into her. It had been two months since ‘the incident’. The infection just up and disappeared, and so did the little vessel.
They weren’t weak, Hornet had watched them fight through almost all of Hallownest, and she had confirmed their strength twice herself. They could handle themselves, but no-one had seen any sign of them since the kingdom was kicked out of its stasis. She had to wonder what finally got them. Maybe it was those Primal Aspids they always had so much trouble with.
She hadn’t had much time to mourn the death, she was kind of busy worrying about losing her other remaining sibling. She closed her eyes, shutting out everything but the chill of Hollow’s arm clutching her close. Neither of them had much experience with physical affection, but they were making do.
Hornet opened her eyes again when Hollow tapped her on the shoulder. She looked over startled by the sudden movement, Hollow raised their trembling hand, and pointed frantically at the door. Hornet looked at them, completely lost, but got up and approached the door anyway, Hollow getting up to follow her.
It was odd behaviour, but after hanging out with them so long she had come to expect the unexpected, as well as trust them when they were trying to tell her something.
As she reached the door and went to open it, the irrational dread from earlier seemed to slam right back into her chest. She gasped slightly, skittering back on reflex as if the door had bitten her. As she did there was a polite few taps.
Hornet definitely did not want to open that door, something deep and instinctual telling her whatever was on the other side was absolutely not friendly. A low hiss bubbled up in her throat as she backed away. She didn’t want to open the door, but she was also excruciatingly curious. Whatever this thing was, it had been watching her, she desperately wanted to know what it wanted.
Before she could decide what to do, Hollow moved chirping happily and opened the door. Hornet tried to choke out a warning but was stopped short at the sight of the bug in the doorway.
Little Ghost, or something that looked very much like them, stood awkwardly in the shell wood frame. They looked slightly different, slightly blurry, but they were the same vessel she had chased around Hallownest, no doubt.
She wanted to rush forward, maybe hug them, maybe stab them, but she still felt the dread, an awful wrongness radiating off their form.
Of course Little Ghost never had any concept of boundaries, and so they wandered in like they hadn’t been missing for two months. The Ghost of Hallownest chirped an excited hello to Hollow, who replied with another happy chirp. Ghost then looked towards Hornet, still keeping her distance from the little vessel. They at least had the decency to look a little guilty, as they approached. Waving tentatively, as Hornet stared.
She didn’t know what to do, muscles locked. She slowly pulled herself out of the defensive stance she had taken up. Looking at Ghost was giving her a headache, and relaxing around them felt impossible.
Ghost brought their hands up to sign a shaky little,
‘Hello’
The stalemate between the siblings was broken and Hornet threw her hands in the air.
“Hello, that’s all I get hello! You’ve been gone for months Ghost!”
‘Sorry’
“Sorry is right! I thought you died; You were just alive this whole time!”
‘Sorry’ Ghost repeated.
” What have you been doing for the past two months?” Hornet wasn’t really angry; anger was just the most productive emotion she could use right now.
‘Ate Infection, was scared, Hiding’
“What do you mean you ate the infection?”
‘Fighting moth in dream, was angry, felt weird, body changed, bigger, ate moth.’
Hornet paused, bringing a tired hand to her mask.
“Ghost did you eat the Radiance?”
Ghost hesitantly nodded.
“Okay, okay, okay that’s fine. That’s fine. Why were you hiding then.”
‘Body, bigger, didn’t want to scare sibling’
Hornet looked at Ghost, they looked the same as always.
“What do you mean?”
Ghost looked down at their body, as if just noticing something.
‘Follow’ Ghost said before trotting out of the house.
“Ghost, wait don’t- “Hornet cut herself off with a groan and followed her smallest sibling, shooting Hollow an apologetic look as she passed them standing lost next to the door.
Ghost was waiting for her outside. They were fidgeting nervously with their cloak.
“Ghost, what?”
‘Show you’ Ghost signed, not elaborating as they continued walking. Eventually the two of them made it to the outskirts of Dirtmouth. Ghost turned around to face Hornet.
Promise, you won’t be scared.”
“I promise?” Hornet replied, not really sure what else to do.
Ghost nodded happily as the strange blurriness around their form seemed to increase. Their shell melted away. And the inky void that made up their body bubbled up and grew, and grew, and grew. The mass of void blocked the sky, and eight huge, blindingly white eyes opened, to stare at Hornet, expectantly.
Hornet, stood there, for a good few seconds, trying to wrap her mind around what she had just seen.
“Ghost?” She choked out. The entities presence was quite frankly terrifying. Her muscles had locked again, she wanted desperately to run, but she had promised Ghost not to so…
The entity let out an awful echoing trill, she couldn’t help but flinch back violently. As she did the void creature reared back, as if she had injured it. Its body quickly shrank the illusion of a mask and a shell knitting itself back over it’s now smaller shape, into Ghost’s familiar form.
Ghost was shaking void dripping off their body forming a small puddle of the eldritch substance at their feet. It leaked out of their eyes as well, making the little vessel look like it was crying, or maybe they were, Hornet realised guiltily.
‘sorry’ Ghost shakily signed for the third time now. Hornet approached Little Ghost, ignoring the warnings her mind was shooting her way. She hesitated slightly before enveloping Ghost in a tight hug. Ghost tensed, shaking harder, before latching onto to Hornet, gripping as tightly as she was.
“It’s okay” Hornet whispered, the void was freezing against her chitin, but she didn’t care.