Chapter Text
Hollow stood in the hallway that it had been assigned to, nail pointed downwards, clasped in both hands, as still as any statue. The hour was late and no one was around. It was quiet. Peaceful.
The silence was then shattered by the patter of little feet. Little Sister raced through the corridor, coming to a stop near Hollow.
“Holly! Hide me! Hide me!” she called.
An order from the Princess of Hallownest could not be disobeyed.
Hollow swept open the long white silk cloak that Father had gifted them, inviting their sister to shelter within.
“Yaay! Thanks Holly!” cheered Little Sister, and she quickly scurried into the shelter of their cloak, hiding behind their legs.
Hollow resumed their position, letting their cloak cover their front. The cloak that Father had gifted them was floor-length. It should hide Little Sister from pursuers – as long as she didn’t giggle and give away the game, that was.
Soon, a pair of Royal Retainers came hurrying through the corridor, looking rather frantic. Hollow recognised this particular pair as two of the retainers assigned to Little Sister and the rest of the Deepnest delegation whenever they visited though Hollow had never bothered to remember their names.
“Pure Vessel, have you seen the princess?” demanded one of the Royal Retainers.
A mere retainer had no right to countermand a princess’s order.
Hollow turned their head to the right. The two Royal Retainers immediately took off in that direction, neither bothering to care to thank Hollow before they went.
It wasn’t really a lie, Hollow consoled themselves. It wasn’t as if they had said, “yes, I saw my sister run that way”. They had merely turned their head and if the two retainers had thought that that was a reply, then it was on them.
They wondered what mischief Sister had just committed. While she no longer attempted to eat the Royal Retainers as she had as a little hatchling, she delighted in playing pranks on them. Hopefully someone would speak of it in their hearing.
Little Sister emerged from underneath their cloak.
“Phew, that was a close one!” she remarked. She then looked up at them. “Holly, play with me!”
They were always happy to play with Little Sister. What game did she have in mind?
Little Sister brandished her shellwood needle. “I am the great princess-protector of Hallownest!” she declared imperiously. “And you, Holly–” she squinted at them as she decided their role in her game “-you will be my trusty giraffe-weevil steed.”
Hollow didn’t mind that at all. This wasn’t the first time they had acted as their sister’s mount and they doubted that it would be the last. They quickly sheathed their nail in preparation.
Little Sister climbed them to settle between their horns. She then pointed her shellwood needle in the direction that she wanted them to take.
“Now, ride Holly! Ride into adventure!” she ordered.
Hollow didn’t move at all.
Little Sister groaned. “Hol-ly! Ugh, you are such a worrywart!”
If “worrywart” meant being concerned for Little Sister’s safety, they would gladly wear that title. It wasn’t as if Little Sister didn’t know the unspoken rules for using them as a mount, after all.
Hollow then felt the light pressure of silk being strung around their horns as Little Sister spun her web.
“There! I’ve secured myself safely to your horns!” declared Little Sister. “Now can we go?”
Requirement fulfilled, Hollow started trotting in the direction that Little Sister wanted to go.
“Go faster, Holly!” demanded Little Sister.
They started trotting a little faster as they went down the corridor, bypassing Kingsmoulds and the occasional servant. The servants called out greetings to their sister, which she happily returned.
Suddenly, Hegemol emerged from one of the intersecting corridors ahead. “There you are, princess!” he called.
“No!” yelled Little Sister. She lightly kicked Hollow just above their left eyehole. “Holly, get past him!”
A princess outranked a knight, even a Great Knight such as Hegemol.
Hollow teleported behind Hegemol, delighting in Little Sister’s burst of surprised laughter.
“Hey!” yelped Hegemol.
“Well done, Holly!” cheered Little Sister. She waved her shellwood needle in front of her. “Now, run! Run like the wind!”
Hollow immediately obeyed their princess, taking off at top speed. Hegemol tried to pursue them, but Hollow was too fast for him and his heavy armour didn’t help matters either, and they soon left him far behind.
There was a giddy thrill about getting to run in the White Palace. Running in the corridors was forbidden, but no one had actually ordered Hollow not to run and so they could get away with doing so. Any shred of guilt Hollow felt was vastly overcome by their sister’s delighted laughter and demands to “go faster, faster”. How they wished they could run like this with her forever.
Hollow and Little Sister turned a corner, and was confronted with Father standing in the middle of the corridor.
“Pure Vessel, halt,” ordered Father.
They had been going fast enough that Hollow feared that even with the web to act as harness, Little Sister would be flung off their head if they stopped. And so they put their hands up to secure her while they obeyed their father’s command.
Father gave them an odd look. Hollow’s Shade shivered underneath their shell. They hadn’t betrayed themselves by showing signs of having a mind, had they? Sure they had been running in the corridors, but one could say that they had only been obeying the princess’s command.
Little Sister stamped one foot. “Father! Hollow and me were playing!”
“Hollow and I,” corrected Father. “And it’s past your bedtime, Daughter.”
Hollow couldn’t see their sister’s face, but they could just imagine the pout as she insisted, “But I want to play with them!”
“You can play with them another day,” replied Father. “Now come down from there. It’s time for bedtime.”
Little Sister groaned, but made no move to climb down. Hollow still couldn’t see her, but they could just imagine her crossing her arms and scowling cutely down at Father.
Father sighed. “Daughter, if you come down from the Pure Vessel this instance, we will forge sawblades together in my workshop tomorrow.”
“Sawblades!” yelled Little Sister excitedly. “But I want a bedtime story too! A bedtime story and playing with the sawblades, or else I won’t come down!”
“Very well,” agreed Father.
“A deal’s a deal,” said Little Sister. “No take-backs!”
Father inclined his head in agreement.
“Holly, help me get down,” ordered Little Sister.
Hollow did as they were told and carefully brought their sister to the floor. She then walked over to Father’s side. How they wished that they too could have Father tell them a bedtime story, but alas, that would never come to pass.
“Pure Vessel, return to your station,” ordered Father.
Hollow turned around and started walking back to their corridor. From behind, they could hear Little Sister ask, “Father, can Holly come play with the sawblades with us tomorrow?”
“No, Daughter. I’m afraid that the Pure Vessel has other duties to attend to,” they heard Father answer as they rounded the corner.
Hollow wished that they too could help Father create his sawblades, but that was yet another thing that was barred to them forever. The closest they could get was accompanying Father in the workshop and passing him his tools whenever he called for it. At least they had letters from their siblings, and Little Sister would play with them from time to time. They would have to content themselves with that.
Hollow was practicing its nail in the training room, when it noticed a small figure in its peripheral vision. It was Little Sister, hovering near the entrance. She pulled out her shellwood needle, slowly waved it about and then tried to cover her head with it.
It took a while for Hollow to realise that she was trying to copy their moves. When they did, it made them want to clutch at their non-existent heart. They wanted to fall to their knees and pound the ground. Little Sister! Was! Trying! To copy them!! How cute! How cute was that?!
Hollow deliberately slowed down their movements and instead of flowing into the next exercise, repeated the same parry.
Little Sister tried her best to copy their stance and adjusted her grip on her shellwood needle.
Hollow internally nodded to themselves. That was better than before, but her stance was still incorrect and her grip should be higher. But they couldn’t correct her without revealing themselves to have a mind, not unless–
“Holly, am I doing this right?” asked Little Sister. “Can you help me?”
“Can you help me?” was more of a request than an order, but they’d take it anyway.
Hollow beckoned for her to come closer, and Little Sister immediately brightened and bounded over to them. Once she was a couple of feet away from them, she assumed the parry stance. Hollow carefully positioned her feet, pushing them wider apart and getting her to bend her knees more. They then adjusted their sister’s grip on her needle and stepped back to take a proper look. Hollow nodded. A needle wasn’t the same as a greatnail, but the same parry would work for Little Sister.
“Thanks, Holly,” said Little Sister. “Let me try it again.”
She assumed a neutral position and then tried the parry move once more. It was better than the first attempt – her feet were positioned properly now for one – but still not quite right.
Hollow gently pressed on her back so that she would bend her knees lower and adjusted her grip on her needle, which was now too high.
“Ah. Thank you, Holly,” said Little Sister. “I think I have it now.”
She went back to the neutral position and then assumed the parry stance. Her grip was once again too low, but before Hollow could correct it, she adjusted it herself.
“Holly, am I doing it right now?” asked Little Sister.
Hollow nodded.
Little Sister beamed. “Yaay!”
She then went back to the neutral position and assumed the parry stance again. She did this over and over until it was perfect.
But the blocking was only the first half of that move. Hollow demonstrated how to counterslash after parrying a strike. Little Sister watched them closely and then attempted to copy them.
Hollow corrected her and then watched her as she attempted the move once more. Their time together was limited. Someone would eventually appear either to whisk Little Sister away or to order them to attend to some other task, but in the meantime Hollow would enjoy spending time with their sister.
“Holly! There you are!” called Little Sister. She came to stand in front of them. “I’ve been looking all over for you!”
Hollow, who had been tasked to stand in the corridor earlier and had been doing just that for the past two hours, could only stare mutely at her while inwardly they were filled with elation. What did Little Sister want with them? To play a new game with her? Or did she want to show off her reading skills? During one such reading session, Hollow had slyly snuck the book Ghost had gotten them all those years ago into her pile and to their delight, it had become one of her favourites. She had once enacted the Battle of the Blackwyrm with her stuffed toys as companions while having Hollow to act as the Blackwyrm. That had been rather fun even if they had been hindered by only moving when they were commanded to.
They wouldn’t mind playing that game again, if that was what Little Sister wanted.
Little Sister reached up to tug on their cloak. “Holly, come with me.”
A princess outranked a knight and so Hollow sheathed their nail and let Little Sister take them by the hand.
Little Sister led them to an area of the White Palace in which Hollow had visited only once in all their years of living in the White Palace, and that was only because they had been accompanying Father when he had suddenly gotten a craving for a late-night snack. The kitchens.
“These fools dare to think that they can thwart me by putting the cookie jar up high,” grumbled Little Sister as they neared their destination. “Well, I’ll show them.”
She carefully opened the door just enough to peek within. She then looked up at Hollow.
“Just as planned, no one’s around at this time,” she told Hollow.
Little Sister then pushed the door wide open and climbed up to her favourite spot right between their horns.
“Forward march, Holly!” she ordered.
Since Little Sister had already spun her web, Hollow obediently walked into the kitchens. True enough, there was no one around. The cooks and their assistants must be out on a break or something.
“There, it is. Our prize!” declared Little Sister as she used her shellwood needle to point to a jar placed on top of a small cupboard nailed to the wall.
The baker had chosen his hiding spot well for the cupboard was nailed high up on the wall. Too far up for a little spider-wyrm child to reach. Not too high for a baker with wings though. And not too high for Hollow, which was why Little Sister had commandeered them here.
Little Sister directed them towards the cupboard and Hollow reached out and grabbed the jar. They then passed the cookie jar to their sister who squealed with delight.
“Victory is ours!” she announced. “Now, let’s get out of here before someone catches us!”
Now that order, Hollow was only too happy to comply with.
Little Sister directed them to a courtyard and had them sit behind some flowering bushes. No doubt this was one of her hiding spots and while it hid her well out of view, even sitting down, Hollow was head-and-shoulders higher than the bushes. Oh well, they hoped that no one would come to order them away while they were spending time with their sister.
Little Sister jumped down from their head, still clutching at her ill-gotten goods. She sat down on the grass next to them, unscrewed the lid and triumphantly pulled out two cookies.
“One for me and–” she put one of the cookies in Hollow’s hand “–one for you.”
Hollow examined the cookie. It was light yellow in colour and was shaped like a hexagon with a smooth surface.
“Holly, aren’t you going to eat your cookie?” asked Little Sister as she chewed on her cookie.
Their last growth spurt had given Hollow a mouth. Still no voice though. The most sound they could make was the softest of sighs. Father’s experiments had shown that while they could now taste and eat ordinary food, they still had no actual stomach to digest it. Any food that they consumed was dissolved in their Void.
Father had never given them a honey cookie to taste during his experiments though.
“It’s really delicious, Holly,” insisted Little Sister. “Try it!”
The Princess of Hallownest and Deepnest had given them an order and thus they would obey. Hollow popped the cookie into their mouth and bit down. It was as delicious as Little Sister claimed.
“Tasty, right?” asked Little Sister.
Hollow could not respond, not even to nod, for that would be an admission of thought. And so they remained silent.
Little Sister seemed to accept their silence as assent, because she reached into the cookie jar and pulled out two more cookies.
“One for me and one for you,” repeated Little Sister as she put one of the cookies in their hand once more.
Now that Hollow knew what was expected of them, they quickly devoured the cookie. It was just as delicious as the first one.
“One for me and one for you.”
Put cookie in mouth. Eat.
“One for me and one for you.”
Put cookie in mouth. Eat.
“One for me and one for you.”
Put cookie in mouth. Eat.
“One for me and–” Little Sister rummaged around in the jar to find another cookie “–uh-oh.”
None for Hollow, supplied Hollow internally. That was alright though. They had been fortunate enough to get as many honey cookies as they had.
Little Sister broke her cookie into two and handed them one half. “Here, Holly. We’ll share the last one.”
What a generous sister they had! Hollow popped the cookie into their mouth and chewed slowly. Little Sister did the same, both of them savouring the last honey cookie.
What a pity that Hollow’s siblings couldn’t be here with them, enjoying honey cookies as well. Then again, even if they could be here, they wouldn’t be able to eat the cookies anyway since none of them had grown enough to develop a mouth.
Perhaps one day in the future, when Ghost finally figured out how to kill the Radiance, they all would be able to sit together and eat honey cookies. In the meantime though, Hollow would share this memory with their siblings in their next letter.
Hollow had just finished its last lesson of the day and was walking back to its room when Little Sister approached them. At first Hollow perked up, eager for any new activity or game that Little Sister wanted them for. But something was wrong. Her steps were hesitant, showing little of her usual boldness and she appeared somewhat nervous?
Had someone made fun of Little Sister? Bullied her, maybe? If that was so, Hollow would… be able to do nothing since they were meant to be pure. Still, while Hollow couldn’t take revenge on their sister’s behalf, they could provide a listening ear if Little Sister wanted to complain. They’d leave the revenge-taking to the White Lady and Queen Herrah who would definitely come down hard on the perpetrators.
Little Sister stopped a few paces before stopping. She faltered for a moment but then she squared her shoulders and looked up at them with determination.
“Holly, the Lady said–” Here, Little Sister faltered again before restarting. “The Lady told me that you’re a machine. That you’re programmed to obey orders from anyone of higher rank. That you only play with me because I order you to. That you can’t– that you don’t actually love me.”
“But that’s not true, is it, Holly?” continued Little Sister. She looked up at them with eyes filled with hope. “You do care about me, don’t you?”
I do, I do! Hollow wanted to cry out. I’ve loved you ever since the day Father put you in my arms!
They wanted so badly to kneel down and hug their sister, to affectionately nuzzle her mask as they had with Ghost and Kin. To show her that they did love her, that they always had, but–
No mind to think.
It was almost time for Hollow to finally do the job they had been training for all their life. They were now fully grown and all their teachers agreed that there was nothing more to teach them. There were only a few preparations left before Hollow could enter the Black Egg. All of Hallownest – including Little Sister – was depending on them to successfully seal away the Old Light once and for all. While they weren’t actually pure, they couldn’t afford to stumble and give away the pretense when so many lives were depending on them.
Also, the corridor was too open and there were other bugs around who could see and carry tales if Hollow responded to their Little Sister. And then what would happen with the Hollow Knight plan if it was revealed that they were impure? All of their siblings were either dead or fled or just as impure, so if Father wanted a new and improved Pure Vessel, he would have to start again from scratch and how many more bugs would die to the Infection in the meantime? How many more siblings would die before a second Pure Vessel was chosen? No, the Hollow Knight could only be Hollow. The plan was far too important to mess with.
Not even for Little Sister.
And so Hollow remained silent and stared mutely at their sister. They watched as the hope faded away and her eyes began to brim with tears. She turned around and dashed away, sobbing as she ran.
Hollow watched her go, feeling like the lowest bug, like the worst criminal in all of Hallownest. They had made Little Sister cry! All she had wanted was a single sign – even a tiny one – that her love for them was reciprocated and they couldn’t even give her that!
They could do nothing to comfort Little Sister and so they slowly trudged back to their room, their Shade knotted up within like a tiny ball of regret and sorrow. Once there, they sat down on their bed and pulled out a sheet of silk parchment.
They told all of this to Ghost, of course. They were the only person in all of Hallownest who could understand, after all. They didn’t know if there’d be time and opportunity for Ghost to send them a reply, but it made them feel slightly better to pour their heart out to their sibling, even if it was only in letter.
Once they had finished their letter, Hollow slipped the sheet of silk parchment into their Voidspace and flopped down on the bed. They were not supposed to hope, they knew, but yet they hoped that things would be better tomorrow.
Little Sister never sought Hollow out after that. If they ever passed each other in the hallways or encountered her when they were with Father, she would turn her head away from them and pretend that they weren’t there.
There were no more games together, no more climbing on them, no more shared cookies, no more tiny arms around their legs as Little Sister hugged them. Little Sister would no longer sit with them and hold one-sided conversations where she’d tell them about playing with her spider friends in Deepnest or how her training under Queen Vespa was progressing.
Hollow mourned every bit of it. They would regret hurting Little Sister for the rest of their life. But. Perhaps this was for the best. Soon, Queen Herrah would go to her rest to Dream forever. Even though Little Sister had been prepared for it, it would still be painful for her to lose her beloved mother. She didn’t need to grieve for an older half-sibling on top of that. Which was why they couldn’t blame or be upset with the White Lady for her role in this matter. They knew that she loved Little Sister like a daughter – she just wanted her to be spared some pain. Better a little hurt now than to grieve more later on.
…They still wished that things could be different though.