Chapter Text
When Ghost and Grimmchild came back with a much lighter purse and a much heavier pouch, they entered the living room to find their family gathered around their guest, with Father dearest wrapped in a blanket and nursing a cup of something warm (probably tea).
He was the first to notice them both and said softly: “Hello. How was your trip?”
The strange warmth he said it with made Ghost want to scream and throttle him, but they didn't.
The Grimmchild, completely oblivious, squealed happily, flew a few laps around the group, nuzzled them (except for him) and returned to perching between Ghost's horns and purring away like there was not a single thing wrong in the world.
“Everything went fine”, Ghost answered their father's question out of civility.
Holly looked up and their eyes shone with such joy, it soothed Ghost's anger at him.
“Having fun without me, you all? I'm hurt!”, the Lord of the Void teased. Hornet blew a raspberry at them, Holly made flustered Void noises, while Mandiklo chuckled. Father just sat there with this weird thousand-yard-stare.
Ghost snuggled up to Holly and purred at them. Their sibling purred back and gave them head pats.
Hornet gagged in fake disgust (everyone could tell it was fake, because she proceeded to give the two and Grimmchild head pats too).
“So, what've you been doing?”, Ghost signed.
“Mandiklo here was about to tell us about his grandmother”, Hornet explained, “You never met her, but Holly and I did, because she stayed in Father's court for a few years.” She softened up. “I think you would've liked her.”
Ghost was interested. So they leaned further into Holly and focussed on the Locust doctor sitting on one of the wooden chairs.
Mandiklo smiled at Hornet. “I'm glad you think so. Most bugs found her hard to get along with. She could be extremely judgemental and confrontational at times, but she was never unkind to children, especially her family. When my siblings and I were kids, she'd entertain us with the stories of her travels and the people she met. But as I said, some of the stories she told us were really crazy.” He turned to him. “Is it true, that she told one of your courtiers to kill himself and got away with it?”
He waved a claw so-so. “Yes and no. If We recall correctly, he asked her a rude question and she asked him, why he hadn't jumped out of a window. Crass, but not unwarranted. He filed a complaint, but We had heard his choice words, so We felt …”, he took a sip from his cup, “uninclined to seriously reprimand her.”
Mandiklo laughed. So did Holly, albeit silently.
Hornet chortled, then caught herself and cleared her throat.
Ghost smirked on the inside. That did sound like a bug they would've liked (some of their friends were pretty rude after all).
“What was her name?”, they signed.
“Dolorosa. My siblings and her called her 'Nanna Rosa'.”
“Really? I called her 'Aunt Dolly', because Dolorosa was too long for me”, said Hornet.
Mandiklo cringed, which confused everyone.
“What?”, Hornet asked.
He clarified: “Calling someone a dolly is considered an insult in our tribe. I assume she didn't tell you?”
Hornet looked like she had been slapped. “No, she didn't! So I was insulting her the whole time and no one was going to tell me?! Father! Holly! What the actual fuck!”
Holly clicked their mandibles in outrage and signed they'd had no idea.
He raised all four arms. “Alright, firstly: language! Secondly: We knew not either! Why would We be familiar with Locust slurs!?”
“How the fuck did you not know?! You're a god!”
“That doth not mean We know everything about foreign tribes!”
“Stop using the royal 'We'!”
“Wilt thou stop using such foul language?”
“Never!”
“Then We shall continue to use the majestic plural, whether thou likest it or not.”
“I hate you!”
He folded his arms all unimpressed, which was admittedly funny. “Child, out of all the ills We've done, 'tis this that hath thee say thou hatest Us?”
“Fuck you!”
Holly frantically waved their arm to try and make them stop fighting.
Grimmchild cackled at the show and Ghost sighed tiredly.
Is this my life now? Instead of me getting to have a quiet life with my sweet siblings and my friends, we have to put up with this Pale deadbeat and try to resist the urge to kill him?
(“Yeah, looks like it”, sounded the voice of Vivi¹ in their head.
Shit, Ghost thought back.)
Fortunately, Mandiklo put them all out of their misery by interfering. “Everyone, please! Let's not fight over something so minor. Hornet, my grandmother probably didn't tell you, because she knew you meant it as a term of endearment. Would you tell a toddler, that their petname for you is an insult in your language?”
Hornet settled down, but continued to sulk.
Ghost shook their head fondly, rummaged through their pouch and handed her a plushie: the softest, fluffiest plushie their Geo could buy.
Hornet immediately lightened up and hugged her new toy.
Then she gave everyone the killer stare of murder. “Anyone, who breathes a word about this will be dead before dawn.”
Mandiklo chuckled: “My mandibles are shut.” (sealed, but he seemed to be avoiding that word)
“Nyeehhh! Nyah!”, said the Grimmchild.
Holly and Ghost both shrugged.
“Thou dost realise, that death doth not scare Us?”
Everyone turned to him and Hornet's killer stare intensified. He looked … oddly exhausted (maybe that was still from the death and coma?).
“Death is a sweet mercy, Our children. 'Tis foolish to fear it”, he clarified.
Wow. Way to just spit into our faces for saving your Pale arse!
Mandiklo frowned: “Let's not get into a philosophical debate about death, please. It hurts.” He played with a dark blue band on one of his wrists. “Don't get me wrong, as a medical doctor, death is an intimate companion of mine. But as a bug, I hate her for taking so many of my loved ones away. My grandfather passed of old age, my grandmother and mother died of illness, my wife and brother-in-law were murdered and the list goes on. I'm so terribly tired of losing everyone I hold dear, I cannot find death merciful.”
“I feel that”, Hornet muttered and hugged her plushie tighter.
Ghost nodded sombrely and thought of Quirrel and Myla.
Grimmchild let out a soft whine and nuzzled Ghost's horns. Whether it was to comfort, or because he was thinking of his father Grimm, Ghost didn't know.
Holly was rubbing their side and Ghost wondered, who they were thinking about.
The Pale bastard dug his claws into his robe. “We apologise”, he said quietly. “'Twas a tactless thing of Us to say.”
Damn right it was, Father!, Ghost thought angrily, but refrained from expressing that openly.
Holly seemed to feel their anger, as they gave them an affectionate nuzzle, making them purr (they loved their sibling so much, they'd kill for them).
Then the former Hollow Knight reached across the table, took their new friend's hand and held it firmly. To comfort him? To calm him down?
“Thank you”, said the Locust warmly. “Can we … can we just go back to talk about my grandma again? Remembering her has always comforted me.”
The others nodded, all glad for a way to end the depressing topic.
So Mandiklo went on to tell about how his grandmother had pushed everyone's buttons at the Pale Court for the shiggles, how she had doted on Holly and Hornet and called them 'little stars' (which Holly and Hornet confirmed) and how she had always gotten into arguments with the Pale King (which he confirmed).
“This reminds Us”, he began (Ghost wanted to tape his mandibles shut), “She never told Us how she knew what We had done.”
She had known? Was that why her grandson knew? Because she had told him?
Mandiklo blinked. “She didn't tell you?”
“No, she did not.”
The Locust hummed. “Strange. She never made a secret out of it in our Tribe. Well, there is no harm in telling you: my grandmother was the prophet and willing vessel of Our Lady of Judgement.”
Ghost felt the Void crawl under their shell.
“Not in the way your Vessels were intended to be”, Mandiklo continued. “Her body, mind and soul were perfectly intact. When Nanna Rosa was very young, Our Lady of Judgement asked her to be Her mortal vessel and my grandmother consented. For the rest of her life, she shared her mind with The Merciful and Merciless One, had Her protection and insight into Her knowledge, in return for allowing the goddess to speak and cast judgement through her. She knew everyone's good and bad deeds, because Our Lady let her know. Of course becoming the vessel of the goddess of judgement came with a life full of hardship. But Nanna Rosa was strong and so incredibly brave. Few would dare to openly disagree and argue with a Higher Being, but she did. Maybe that's why The Merciful and Merciless One deemed her worthy.”
“Why would a Higher Being choose a mortal vessel?”, asked Hornet.
Why indeed. Ghost wanted to know that too. Then again, the Void had never had a mind or emotions of its own, until Ghost had embraced it and ascended. They were the Void and the Void was them, although it maintained its nature as an all-devouring force. Their Shade Siblings were now one with them.
“I actually got to ask Her that once. When She spoke through my grandmother. She explained to me and my siblings, that in order to judge mortal bugs, She has to understand them and for that, She had to see the world through our eyes. Dolorosa was like any mortal bug. She just happened to be strong enough to handle the presence of a Higher Being without her mind shattering.” Mandiklo sighed. “As a grub, I wanted to be just like her. She told me that was stupid and that I should be me instead. I'm … still unsure, if I have lived up to her wishes. I wonder if she's proud.”
No one expected Holly to sign yes excitedly.
The Locust smiled fondly. “You're such a sweet child. No wonder Nanna was so willing to throw hands with your parents for you. Though to be fair, you could've been an absolute gremlin and she still would've fought the gods for you with no regard for her own wellbeing.”
Holly giggled in Void and Ghost grinned on the inside: their sibling had been adopted hard.
He made a weird noise, sounding somewhere inbetween a choke and a grumble, and clicked his mandibles.
This made Ghost laugh. Like, full-on belly laugh. No one could hear it, but they knew it was obvious from the way they were shaking and doubling over. Like, seriously! Was he for real?! To get jealous, because Holly had found a parental figure that actually really loved them like a good parent would?! Fucking hypocrite.
After that, Mandiklo went on to tell about his grandmother's life after her journey to the Pale Court.
“Some time after her return, she married a Silk Moth from an offshoot of the Moth Tribe. Or rather, he married her to spite his own parents. But they ended up falling in love and that's how my mother, uncles and aunts happened. Our uncle said that Nanna Rosa was a wonderful mother, but also a busy one, because … well, being a prophet is hard work and she put her all into everything she did. She had to travel between the clans of our Tribe to do the will of the Goddess. Once the children grew up, Nanna and Nanno travelled together. But one day they returned from one of those trips and found my mother had married my father in their absence. Suffice to say, they weren't happy. Especially, when they actually met my father. Nanno mellowed out a bit, after my siblings and I were born, but Nanna Rosa hated him.” His face fell and his voice grew quiet. “I hate him too. Not because he hurt me, but because he hurt my little sister and brother. Nanna did all she could to protect us, but she fell terminally ill, when we were still kids, so there was little she could do but provide guidance and words of comfort. Then she passed on and Nanno did shortly after of old age. Father refused to let us visit our uncles and aunts, so we were all alone, until I was old enough to get myself, my sister and brother out of there.”
Ghost's heart sank. They understood that sentiment all too well. Had they been the only one to get hurt, their resentment wouldn't have been so great. But they had been one of many victims of his fucked up plan. And now the damage was irreversible.
Hornet laughed, but it sounded bitter: “So you and your siblings have daddy issues too, huh? Then welcome to the club!”
Mandiklo snorted.
He sighed tiredly, but said nothing.