Chapter Text
The room was tense before a word was even said, but finally, Hornet spoke.
"Why do you do that?!"
"Do what?"
"Laugh whenever the most serious situation presents itself! We just got done talking about Broken's funeral!"
"I can't help it-"
"You absolutely can!"
"Why do you care?! It was your hand that slayed that thing!"
"SILENCE!"
Hornet hissed at Lace in a way that resembled the pale monarch much too closely, and Lace gasped.
"I.."
Too much had been said, Lace turned around and ran out of Hornet's bellhome. Hornet did not give chase, fearing that such pursuit would be a provocation for even more emotion.
Hornet waited for Lace to come back. She waited. And waited. and waited.
A day passed, and Hornet finally decided that she was going to look for Lace, no matter how emotional the silken creature was.
Thankfully, it seemed like, on her way out, Lace snagged herself on the doorframe, leaving a few strands of silk behind for her to track.
The scent led west.
Hornet followed it to the end, which was the entrance to the blasted steps, which were much less perilous now that the judges were no longer bound to lethal duty.
She froze.
Music.
THAT music.
The song associated with that damn carnival she had been haunted by in Hallownest all those years ago, but it indeed seems like, as happy as the people and settlements in it may be, Pharloom had indeed fallen.
And where such things entail, the Grimm troupe shall always appear.
Hornet had no trust in this carnival, but the scent had gone dead, so she approached Brumm. Playing the same damned accordion he was playing the last time she saw him 30 years ago.
"You. Have you seen Lace? She has bright white eyes, soft, dark skin, and when her gloves are removed, she has bands of brass around her wrists."
"...This tent has had no such guest, Ma'am. But perhaps Satin can help? She's our jester, a delightful woman to be around, and she always has the perfect eye for faces. She's getting ready with Divine right now."
Hornet offered no thanks to Brumm and quickly darted out of the tent and into Divine's smaller one to find...
An unsettlingly similar, yet unrecognizable figure was awaiting her.
Her body shape and scent bore resemblance to Lace, with her particular silken form being what made Hornet certain this was her, but everything else fell apart at pulled seams.Lace Satin's face was adorned with a mask with two black lines running through the eyes, rosy cheeks, and a perpetually smiling face.
She once wore a headpiece, but that was now replaced with a less dignified jester cap with bells attached to it, or normally at least, because Satin was sitting demurely with her hands in her lap as Divine used her claws to comb and style Satin's sooty greyish black hair; her silk wrappings were gone. The sharp legs she once hid were now proudly on display.
But most unrecognizable was certainly her behavior, for when Satin saw Hornet, she smiled kindly and spoke warmly, both energies Lace rarely gave off.
"Welcome to our troupe, Ma'am! Did you find what you were looking for?"
"...I think I have."
“Have we met before? Your face seems awfully familiar, perhaps from a previous life?”
"That saying bears more truth than you know, ashen creature. Are you... here of your own will?"
Hornet held so much hope in that statement, and it was not utterly unfounded, for Satin became deeply confused.
"..My own will? Why.. Of course I am here of my own... will... Why wouldn't I?"
Satin did not say that teasingly; it seemed like it was a question that puzzled her as it left her mouth.
Suddenly, Hornet felt a shadow overtake her, and the master of this troupe appeared in the door of the tent.
"Red princess, it flatters me that you are this intrigued by my servants, but please do not distract Miss Satin while she is preparing for her show."
Hornet looked hopefully at Lace as Grimm did as well, but with a different emotion in his gaze.
"Satin, my dear... Is Hornet bothering you?"
"...Yes, Master."
Grimm gripped Hornet's shoulder and turned her around.
"Unless you want a role right alongside her, go."
"How dare-"
"Hey..."
Grimm smiled, and for a moment, Hornet felt drawn in. Like she understood why all of these bugs had given their lives and minds to this god.
"...I let you say your goodbyes, go."
For just a moment, Hornet looked back at Satin, and the jester was now smiling again, staring off into the distance, as though the previous interaction no longer held any passage in her mind.
Amazed and heartbroken, Hornet turned around and walked away.