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Are you sure? Hollow watched Ghost. The small sibling was currently crouched at the edge of the pitch-black pool surrounded by their siblings’ broken shells. Ghost tapped the void. Little shades swam through the vast darkness, and their eyes peeked at the two figures.
It will help. Ghost’s hand sank into the void. They were at the Abyss—this time—because Ghost’s wanted to revitalize the void inside Hollow.
Hollow was never getting their full strength back. It was a fact they knew. However, at the very least, they hoped their connection with the void would improve. Ghost had witnessed Hollow’s strength thanks to their adventure in Godhome. Yet, the countless seals imposed on Hollow by the Pale King for their containment and the infection…
Hollow’s body was on its last straw. A void being without the void’s blessing. Ghost knew this since they had gone through the same when they couldn’t remember anything.
However, they hadn’t tried fixing Hollow’s body because Hollow’s mental state wasn’t in the right place. Facing the void could bring unpleasant memories or emotions—essentially, Hollow feared for the worst.
The pitch black stared, and Hollow stumbled. They’d talked about it on the stag beetle’s back, but entering the void was more nerve-wracking than eating Hornet’s food. While the small shades were enjoying the place, Hollow felt uncertain. The only memory they didn’t want to see...
They didn’t know if they could handle the memory of that gaze.
At first, the tip of their leg dipped into the void.
The void felt foreign. In particular, it was an overwhelming sensation. Darkness clung from their leg, and rushed upwards as another set of tendrils wrapped around the other leg. Every second that passed, a deep seethed feeling grew in their insides. Tendrils yanked their upper half, and dragged them inside the void. Hollow felt as if they were trying to drown them—no, it was drowning them.
The tendrils pulled them fully inside the looming dark, their white shell disappearing amidst the vastness. The last thing they saw was Ghost sitting at the edge of the broken shards, their gaze deep.
Minutes passed by, Hollow’s arm reached for the edge. As they pushed their body upwards from the bottomless murk, their mind felt unusually empty, no memory arose. What was their last thought? As Ghost checked on them, they both noticed that Hollow’s left arm wasn’t restored.
Despite this, their body looked fuller; their chitin was shinier and sturdier. Hollow felt how their body didn’t hurt when they moved. As the two siblings tried to distinguish any other difference, the void’s tendrils slowly retreated from their body back into the pitch black.
You look better. Ghost remarked. Their sibling wasn’t hunching as bad as before. Their proper stance resembled one of a tall and imposing knight. Actually, they felt like they had raised their head even more than before—
Do I? Hollow couldn’t tell. The act of being crushed and reshaped by the void was still fresh on their mind. It always feels like that when dipping into the void…? They asked meekly.
Always. Ghost didn’t deny. So, what did it give you? Ghost’s curiosity was gnawing at them. The void gave different blessings and they couldn’t really tell what Hollow could have gotten from it.
Hollow gazed traveled towards their missing arm; a couple of tendril appeared as if trying to reach something far from where Ghost stood.
Ghost stared at the couple of black tendrils above their head. That returned back… uhm… perhaps they should ask Hollow for a rematch. All for the good memories Ghost had from fighting them in Godhome—which they knew Hollow didn’t have a recollection of.
Hollow tilted their head, unaware that Ghost was remembering soul pillars that spawned from the floor, sudden soul runes filling the arena, and Hollow lunging from the air aiming for their head—It reminds me of the past… while it doesn’t look as an arm, at least it doesn’t feel empty anymore. The tendrils came out at will, and used their trunk’s void to appear, yet Ghost didn’t answer.
Little Ghost? Hollow picked them up. Are you okay? Hollow didn’t know, but their version up in Godhome was not exactly the kindest being to the small grub in their hand.
“Good—I was wondering where you two had gone, “ Hornet opened the front door, her gaze rocketing upwards. She sensed that something was wrong. “Did you get taller while you were out or what happened?” Ghost, who was in Hollow’s head, contemplating the nothingness startled Hornet. “And what happened to you—?”
To her eyes, Hollow beamed excitement; before she could blink they surprised her—a tendril came out of their body and stroked her in the head.
Hornet didn’t move for two full seconds, deeply shocked. With a sudden jump, she snatched Ghost from Hollow’s head, and twirled around; Hornet grabbed the collar of their cape and drew them close to her shell. “What did you do?” She whispered with her voice strict.
Ghost hung like a rag-doll. They looked abnormally hollowed today. One part of their mind was aching to ask Hollow to fight them; the other was busy pacifying their inner fight-mongrel to not do that because it could harm Hollow.
Hornet rubbed her shell in exasperation, and put Ghost down onto the floor. Her eyes settled on Hollow. “You look better,” She acknowledged. The tall sibling’s eyes gleamed, because a compliment from Hornet was as rare as Ghost behaving for an entire day.
It took ten minutes to explain to Hornet about their adventure. “So—you two went to the abyss because Ghost said so, they made you enter the void and… now you are better?” She recapitulated, to which Hollow nodded to all of her words.
“Well…” She leaned her back into the bench, visibly weary. Hollow and Ghost were on their knees in front of her, perhaps to appease her, or perhaps not. “If you are better, that’s good.” That’s the only thing she could say since they’d already done the trip.
The new change in Hollow’s body made them more lively and cheerful around the house.
Hollow started rising earlier from bed, far before Ghost could sneak off and Hornet could sharpen her needle. The grogginess of every morning was nowhere to be felt nor endured. Yet, that wasn’t the only part of their routine that had changed. When it was time to cook for Hornet, their tendrils would reach for ingredients on the shelves as their hand stirred the pot. Having an extra pair of hands really helped in their efficiency, especially when those hands didn’t attempt to stray far away of the recipe in a whim. Hollow stared at Hornet. Hornet stared back confused.
The tendrils came in handy not only when they were cooking but also when they had cleaning to do. Hollow would use their tendrils to pick up loose silk threads, dropped geo, and scattered small purple crystals, while their hand wiped the surfaces squeaky-clean. Oblivious to Hollow, Ghost felt like they could see their reflection on the bench at home.
All in all, their house dynamic changed. Hollow looked happy and functional, much less clumsy than before. On the other hand, Hornet took some time to get used to the aliveness inside the house. Ghost used to be the one that made ruckus inside, but now Hollow did too. Ghost, who had overcome their inner conflict the moment they saw their sibling enjoying their day more, started joining Hollow in the daily cleaning which resulted in going inside Hornet’s room to crash—clean it.
In a particular day, Hornet was spending time on the bench while Hollow repaired the ceiling’s scratches—made previously by Ghost and Hornet’s morning fights. —she was threading a silk lace.
Within a single blink, Hollow appeared at her side. The silk from her hands fell and she clutched her heart in surprise. “W—What?” She asked, trying to compose herself. Her heart was about to leap out from her chest.
Hollow lifted the fallen silk with a dark tendril while he pointed at it. Hornet was perplexed for a second. “What about it? It’s ugly or—?”
Hollow shook their head as if the world was about to end, Hornet’s design was intricate, and incredibly pretty to be treated as ugly.
Her head leaned forward trying to understand the signs of Hollow, which after passing the silk has been trying to recreate the movements of Hornet’s hands when she was twisting and braiding the silk thread. Their own hand and three tendrils couldn’t mimic the ability of Hornet. “Do you want to learn to do a silk lace?”
Hollow nodded, very interested. Because of the new tendrils, they had more leisure time than before, and they had been getting bored of sitting around the house staring at nothing. They weren’t like Hornet and Ghost who always went out and did their things, nor did they have a pursuit to do at home.
During these days, they had observed Ghost arrived with a suspiciously big amount of geo and Hornet would go out to Deepnest, or stay home lace-making a new cape, which she would use the two vessel siblings as living mannequins to her designs.
A single thought got stuck in their mind: They wanted to know more about what their siblings did in a day to day.
They wanted to uncover where Ghost gathered all their geo. They wanted to learn to lace make and sew like Hornet. They wanted to know why their siblings did that everyday; after all, they never had something like that for themselves.
Hornet hesitated, finding that the wall at her left was surprisingly captivating. It is not like she didn’t want to teach her sibling, however, she had never taught someone. Hornet peeked from the corner of her eye at Hollow. She was struck by a pair of gleaming eyes. They looked so round and shiny that Hornet felt like she was getting blinded from such gaze.
“S—sure.” She covered her eyes, fearing for her poor eyes. With a cough, she brought herself back.
Hornet stood up, and walked towards her room. Hollow only heard some crashing sounds and rumbles before Hornet came back. In her hands, a ball of white thread; this thread was different. It was thicker and seemed much easier to handle than the thin and fragile one that decorated the cape prototype resting on the bench.
Before she handed the thread to Hollow, she had disassembled one of her spikes balls to give a spike to Hollow to serve as their needle. She passed the thread into the spike and gave it to her sibling.
Hollow stared at the spike. Before they could even realize with what they had meddled, Hornet sat back on the bench.
“First…“ Hollow flinched and gripped the spike. Their focus was on Hornet’s instructions. “We are going to create a…” Hornet took a second. “A flower motif, the first part of it is going to have twenty-six loops for the center.”
Hollow blinked. Twenty-six?! Isn’t that too hard for them who had no idea of lace making? “What? Didn’t you want to learn?” She tilted her head in challenge. “Giving up already?” Hornet huffed in dissatisfaction. She wasn’t teaching a weakling.
Hollow shook their head. It seemed their sister really had more of the wyrm than any other sibling. Hollow, who was sitting on the floor with the bench in front of them, felt like they were seeing the Pale King in front of them once again.
“Like I was saying, you are going to held one end of the thread with two fingers, and then wrap the rest of the thread around your finger “ She was demonstrating Hollow. “And it has to make a cross, like this.” After Hollow saw how Hornet did it, he followed through. The thread was soft. “Right, remember to leave the thread in those two fingers with enough length so it can form the loops.”
“Now,” Hornet looked at the spike. “Pass the spike below the cross—make sure is below the cross or isn’t going to work.” Her gaze narrowed at Hollow when they only inserting the spike in one thread.
“Pull the spike up slightly.” Hollow’s tendril pulled the spike. “And now, the circle we have hanging here…” Hornet’s finger picked up the loose circle thread that created the cross and connected back to the spike; she squished both ends of the thread together and passed it behind the spike. She finished wrapping it around the spike until it passed to the front of the spike, and made Hollow pull the spike slowly, creating the first knot.
“Your turn, the next knot,” She looked at the Hollow’s finger and tendrils as they tried to recreate the wrapping of the loose thread. After some unsuccessful tries, Hornet stopped them before Hollow tightened the two knots together.
The two knots had two lineal strings of thread connecting them. Hornet pulled the thread above, as she tightened the thread below. It created a small ellipse between the two knots. “That’s your first loop for this round, now twenty-five more.” She clapped. “Same process,” She added, in case Hollow wasn’t sure.
Hollow failed at the second loop, they tightened the knots without letting some lose thread between them to create the ellipsis. With fear, they glanced up at Hornet who returned to her own lace making.
“Cut a new piece, and start over.” She didn’t even need to look to know that they had mess up, the pitiful gaze really told everything.
Hollow’s head dropped slightly, it seems training about needles was as hard as nails.
Two hours had passed by, and Hollow had finished the main circle—which was the center of the flower—and had twenty-six loops around it. They shoved it in front of Hornet, their gaze very serious. Hollow persistence was truly the reason they were able to pass the training of the Pale King.
Hornet inspected it. Not all loops had the same length—but she could ignore it. It was a messy and strange looking flower. She chuckled a bit, mostly because Hollow was absorbed, their shoulder stiffs as they waited for her evaluation.
“Well…” She decided to tease a bit her sibling. “I’m…” She saw Hollow’s lean closer; “duly impressed” Hornet patted their head. “I didn’t think you would actually finish it.”
Hollow’s soul returned to their body. Somehow—Hornet had her own path of pain and they had survive it. “So, did you like it?”
Hollow looked at one side and then the other. It was hard. It was terrifying. Hornet created harder designs, and in such thin thread! Although—they could understand, their gaze was on the small flower on their palm.
It felt nice. Warm, even. Something that didn’t exist before was created by them. It took effort and a lot of time, but their insides felt giddy with delight. Perhaps their sister felt the same when she stared at her own creations.
In the end, Hollow nodded, scratching their shell. Perhaps they wouldn’t ever be as skilled as Hornet, but them, together, while the thread unwrapped from the thread balls and the lace design appeared. Even that was fun.
They had never had spent so much time with Hornet without tragedy taking over, and that was as lovely as creating from scratch.
“Now, to the next part—“ Hornet saw how Hollow dropped the small flower in their palm because of the shock. “That’s just the center, the beginning of the lace… did you really think that was all?” She stared at them in disbelief. “Hollow…”
Hollow picked the center of the flower, a small nod signaled Hornet that they were ready to continue—when in fact, their heart wasn’t ready at all. Their gaze was downcast and their hand shook a bit as they tried to pick the spike back.
Hornet laughed. “You look exactly as Ghost when I ask for their cape—“ the laugh was strong and amusing.
Hollow tilted their head, not understanding. Hornet looked at the thread in her hands. “Ghost tends to tear their cape quite a lot.” She twisted the thread in her hands. “It’s a struggle to get them to give it to me to sown it.”
“Now that I mention it—“ The door busted open. It was Ghost with their bag of geo, once again. “Ah—welcome back.” Hollow waved at the small vessel. “Again in the Colosseum?” Hornet sighed.
Ghost settled the bag beside the door and sprinted towards Hollow, with a jump, the settled on their shoulder. Hollow patted the head popping at their side.
What are you doing? Ghost asked to Hollow while they stared at the messy flower in Hollow’s palm.
Lace making. I asked sister to teach me. Hollow showed closely to Ghost’s their achievement.
It’s pretty. Ghost’s head was nuzzling Hollow’s shell.
I wanted to ask you something too…
Ghost stopped nuzzling. It was something unseen, unexpected, and incredible! Hollow was asking for something! They were so surprised that their head snapped at Hollow.
I wanted to see the Colosseum too—. Ghost stood in their shoulder, their hands holding Hollow’s shell. This was the best day of their vessel life—no, maybe the second, or perhaps the third? First was freeing Hollow from the Radiance, second sitting on that bug’s throne… Anyways, they could bring their siblings into the Colosseum.
“What are you two doing—“ Hornet didn’t know what they had talked about, but now she was staring the entrance of the Colosseum, Ghost pushing her and Hollow inside.
Hollow stared at the three masks hanging above the different stones. It seemed their sibling really was appreciated inside of the Colosseum. Hornet stared at Hollow’s nail.
“Why did you bring your nail?” She asked. Just Ghost’s was enough to clean their path in case of any danger.
Hollow shrugged their shoulders. Ghost had pressured them to bring it. As Hornet sightsee with Hollow inside the Colosseum. Ghost was behind, passing some geo to the hanging bug.
“Ah—a new warrior dares to take upon the challeng—“ Ghost stuffed their mouth with geo. It was trying to keep their antics in silence.
Hollow. Ghost walked towards Hollow’s side. Stand there until the gate opens. They pointed at the entrance to the arena.
That’s how you enter? Hollow asked surprised. What a fascinating entrance.
Ghost nodded in mischief. How could Hollow blame them? They knew deep down Hollow missed fighting. That’s why they wanted to come to the Colosseum, it was obvious. And the first trial wasn’t hard for someone as strong as Hollow, at the very least they knew they couldn’t be harmed.
While gripping Hornet’s cape, Ghost dragged her all the way to the audience seats. Hornet found strange that Hollow wasn’t at their side, but perhaps they got distracted at the bench below, surely they would appear before the daily fool ready to fight inside the aren—
Hornet saw Hollow in the middle of the arena. Hollow looked meek, unaware.
Hornet glared at Ghost, who was hanging from the edge of the wall, trying to observe at Hollow. Hornet was speechless. Did her sibling really set up Hollow into a fight?! Oh, she was really going to fight Ghost when Hollow’s fight was over. Until then, she was worried for Hollow. The very same that was waving at them innocently.
The cheer of the audience exploded. It was time.
Hollow stared at both sides, startled. The first opponent entered the arena. It took a couple of seconds for Hollow to understand. They were fighting.
Oh. Little Ghost?! Their gaze went directly onto the audience. Ghost was being held by Hornet. Ghost was raising their arms.
Before Hollow could hear Ghost’s answer, the shielded fool got closer. The height difference was quite the sight. Hollow stepped back, avoiding the slash. The attack was slow and easy to avoid. This opponent didn’t appear to be as difficult as they were used to. At the very least, their little sibling hadn’t set up a difficult fight.
With the advantage of height, Hollow could hit the shielded fool without any trouble. Sometimes the shielded fool would step back and avoid the slash, but their other two consecutive attacks still reached them.
Eliminating them took three nail slashes. They thought that was the end of it, until two of them appeared again. One at each side. Hollow decided to focus on the one of the left first. As Hollow’s slashes droved one of the fools into a corner, the other fool attacks were interrupted by one of their tendrils.
Their shields were proving useless against their slashes. They were far too weak for the strength of Hollow’s slashes. They were defeated quickly.
The next set of enemies surprised Hollow: Two small Sharp Baldur. They were tiny and looked inoffensive to them. One rolled towards their legs, but because of the size difference… Hollow stared at the two rolling bugs in their legs, crashing again and again, yet unable to damage o move them. Hollow peeked at Ghost, who was smaller than the two bugs in their legs, perhaps it was their imagination, but Ghost’s seemed to be squeezing their hands.
With pity, Hollow stabbed the two rolling bugs and that took them out of the combat. But the surprised didn’t end there for them, a new set of platforms appeared with more Sharp Baldurs on them. However, the outcome was the same.
Before the guilt inside surged, a new fool appeared. The sturdy fool. They had an interesting armor, and their weapons were it even more. Hollow hadn’t seen such crescent-shaped blades before. During their analysis, the sturdy fool had thrown their weapon at them, which Hollow stopped with a nail slash. They had to concentrate in the fight.
Apart for the spinning blades, there wasn’t anything dangerous about them. Hollow’s nail took them down with ease. The next sturdy fools to appear were defeated by merciless slashes.
As platforms rose again in the arena, two distinct bugs appeared. Hollow had heard about them because of Ghost. Ghost told them how awful and difficult opponents they were. They were called Primal Aspids, and Hollow didn’t think they looked as awful as Ghost had complained during their nightly talk.
Before the Primal Aspid at their left could spit a blob of venom, Hollow’s slash had finished them. With a single strike. Their weak body couldn’t handle the downwards strike.
The other aspid suffered the same destiny, and with relative ease. After all, their nail and height shortened the distance in a blink.
Hornet had been staring attentively at Hollow’s fight. There wasn’t any opening in their fighting style and with how easily they were able to disarm their enemies without moving too much—her sibling really was strong. Too strong, to the point her mental image of the kind and fragile Hollow was vanishing as the rounds progressed.
Ghost, on the other hand, was becoming restless by the second. There they were their nemesis. The awful spitting bugs and the rolling ones yet as those bugs could ran away from them and even push them around, Hollow only had to move their arm a little bit and they were knocked out—
How envious, they felt. They hadn’t ever thought about it before but… ᵀᵃˡˡ. ᵀʰᵉʸ ʷᶦˢʰᵉᵈ ᵗᵒ ᵇᵉ ᵗᵃˡˡ ᵗᵒᵒ. How wonderful would it be… having the strength to drove enemies into a corner? They could only do that when they used a specific charm for it, same with their slashes’ range. Yet Hollow had it without any of those things… truly envious.
Ghost’s leaned into Hornet. They really were being an awful sibling. Perhaps their own mischief of putting Hollow’s inside the arena was their hidden envy they felt went they saw Hollow’s recovered body. But they weren’t this sort of sibling; they refused to keep fostering such feelings. They would cheer for Hollow and apologize when the trial was over.
The next rounds for Hollow startled them. The Colosseum really was an interesting place. After the first round of Primal Aspids, the shaking platforms and the dust rising from the ground, signaled for them to go above into the platforms.
The spikes below looked ominous, and the aspids’ venom almost touched them. Hollow focused in eliminating the aspids as they saw the platforms change around again. Two new sturdy fools appeared.
They were in the platform above their own, and the spinning blades didn’t wait to appear. To take them down easily, Hollow took the decision to push them towards the spike. The slashes were less about cutting and more about pushing. They took a fool down because of it, however another one appeared in the platform below.
The fools walked away from the edge, fearing for the same destiny, yet either by spike or by the slashes, they would be defeated. The platforms shook again, prompting Hollow to climb to another.
A new set of platforms took over the arena, and known foes were again deployed inside. Primal Aspids and Sharp Baldurs, which for Hollow had more trouble reaching the platforms to defeat them than actually defeating them.
Hollow felt like the Colosseum’s fight was long. They hadn’t counted how many enemies they had defeated, but it didn’t seem to be over yet.
Some of the platforms disappeared and with that new enemies were dropped inside, four Vengeflies. They were so weak that Hollow felt they didn’t belong inside the arena, but then understood—they were the bait. A Vengefly King Appeared. This opponent was bigger than any of the previous one. Their attack pattern was simple, very simple. The fly opened its jaws and swooped, trying to eat its foe.
Useless. Futile. An attack that was innocuous to bigger creatures. Hollow waited until the second attempt of devouring them. They went to the edge far from the fly, their stance changed. Hornet recognized that stance. Hollow was preparing for a lunge. The moment the Vengefly King opened its jaw and flew straight towards Hollow’s body, the nail of Hollow skewered its body. The Colosseum’s audience gasped. The silence was deafening.
They had never seen such attack. It took a few seconds, and the Colosseum exploded in acclaim. They were seeing truly a gruesome and spectacular warrior.
Hollow was slowly taking the body of the fly out of their nail, unaware of the commotion they were causing. The next wave was easy and unmemorable. The audience attention still was hooked in the previous wave.
But an unexpected thing had happened. During wave ten, the ceiling dropped! Hollow had to crouch impossibly low. Almost crawling. The next enemies were the rolling ones. Hollow felt a profound relief, the position they were in made it impossible to attack properly and if they were actual foes—they could have gotten hurt.
“That looks awful.” Hornet gripped Ghost’s body. “Did you know about this?” Hornet gazed at her small sibling. Ghost had forgotten… since this wave was actually pointless to them. They were small and the enemies weren’t that dangerous. Oh—perhaps their height wasn’t that bad.
Hollow did their best in slashing with such constrictions, and thankfully their thoughts were heard. After defeating them, the ceiling rose again, just enough for them to stand properly.
Again, there were new enemies. Volatile Gruzzers. Their movement was random and they were in the range of their slashes. Hollow didn’t move enough and only stroke back when they got too close. They only moved around the arena, when the Volatile Gruzzers exploded in venom because of their demise.
Hollow was about to relax, feeling like this was the last round when the crowd cheered once again. It seemed it wasn’t over yet.
By the crowd’s rowdiness and gasps, they could tell this was the last wave. The last two enemies were Gruz Mothers. The only remarkable attack of them was the wild slam.
With such attack, Hollow preferred not trying to attack them head-on. If they had their two hands, they were sure they could stop their slamming around with their strength but that wasn’t the case anymore.
When the slamming around ended, Hollow used their slashes and because of their range, the Gruz Mothers had little space to get away from it. During all the fight, Hollow remained cautious, their attacks alternating between the two.
When one of them wandered far too close, Hollow would use their tendrils to push them away as their focus remained in finishing one. A Gruz mother died because of the persistent slashes, the other one, alone, suffered just like the fly from being skewered and cut in half with a wide slash.
When the last Gruz Mother perished, the crowd cheered, their bodies jumping around and grabbing the edge on excitement. From their hands, geo were thrown into the arena, falling at the legs of Hollow.
Hollow stared at aliveness of the audience. Hornet was cheered for them too and Ghost was being moved around by Hornet since she couldn’t contain her excitement. Ghost was dropping geo from their body as Hornet shook them.
Hollow found that endearing.
The siblings reunited back in the lobby of the Colosseum. Ghost looked meek and Hornet was beaming excitement.
“That was… incredible.” Hornet tapped Hollow. “Your fight… you’re really the strongest knight.”
Hollow blinked. A memory settled on them. Hornet’s expression was the same decades ago. Her tiny self, absolutely impressed by their training as she claimed that she would also become a strong foe that would defeat them. It was a young and tiny Hornet, but those words, at that time, had buried itself in the deepest part of their mind.
Hollow patted them. Somehow, those happy days had returned just like that.
Ghost nudged on their cap. Sorry… They transmitted to Hollow. I shouldn’t have made you fight without your permission.
Hollow crouched and reached for them. I was surprised. Hollow didn’t lie, picking up their small body. It was fun.
Ghost’s eyes sockets were focused on them. You should be mad at me like Hornet and don’t talk to me. Ghost squirmed around.
Hollow blinked astonished. Being mad… didn’t feel like a possibility. Yet…
“Let’s get out of here.” Hornet interrupted their thoughts. “I’m hungry.” She stared at the two vessels, which looked awfully stiff.
So? Did you forgive Ghost? Kin asked, in their tendrils a tangle of thread. Hollow had gone down to the Abyss to teach them about lace making. But in their teaching, somehow they had blurted out their experience on the Colosseum.
I… Hollow felt strange. They never had been mad at someone, not even for a second. Not even towards the Radiance. Yet the words of Ghost had been wandering around their mind, in a loop.
I made them sleep with Hornet for three days. Hollow finished their thought, creating a new loop in the thread wrapped in their finger.
Kin dropped the thread. Isn’t that a punishment for sister? Their tendrils reaching their head in disbelief.
Sister was more bewildered than angry. Hollow remembered. Ghost was hanging from the ceiling, wrapped in silk as punishment from misbehaving. After that, sister spent the three days teaching Ghost how to silk lace without any mistakes.
Green stared at the horrible knots in their tendrils. Th—Three days without resting? Green had experience twenty minutes of silk threading and they had wanted to give up, yet their pride made it impossible to stop learning. They couldn’t be defeated by Hornet’s abilities. This was also something they had to do to defeat Hornet.
After that Ghost promised to never do that again. Hollow finished the last loops. Being mad at someone is truly strange. I still don’t get it. They added.