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cryptidblue1 · 1 year

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Reversal of Fate (It is Never Easy) pt 9

Chapter Title: Created Fate, Created Choice

Chapter: 9/??? (Chapter Master List: Here )

Chapter Characters: Lavender (Pure Vessel), Poppy (OC), Mysha, Knight Isma, mentions of Basil (Lost Kin), Radiance, Pale King, the other Knights, unnamed vessels.

Chapter Warnings: Descriptions of a character in pain, Lavender's wonderful (We mean horrible) mental state, Lavender's non existent sense of self worth. Lavender is marking the entire month off as not a good time by this point.

Chapter Summary: When a rock is dropped into a pond, the ripples can not be taken back. Thus, an action causes one to have to decide to embrace the changes they have made.

Time had lost meaning in the haze in between painful waking and the tumultuous rest fueled by the pain and the worry they had not the strength to fully feel yet. The chime of the rings in their chest and the vague awareness of their siblings as they curled around them or moved to do something for Poppy family the only way they knew that despite the aches and fatigue that made them feel as if they had no rest, that time had passed. That they had slept.

Awakening did not help as they shivered and slowly moved to sit up and be more than a lump of pain and void in the nest. They just endured as fingers could barely curl around the cup or bowl as Poppy family and Basil sibling gave them poultices and potions meant to dull the pain and strengthen the body. They endured because the tink and chime of the rings in their chest was a reminder that time was moving, and soon they would need to decide before someone else decided for them. Knight Hegemol was far smarter than many realize, the one who had built and maintained that suit of armor he wore with no help from others, that mind would have seen and made a guess of why the threat they had gone to save others from had disappeared. Disappeared when he had been told it could not so long as She lived and commanded it.

They knew that when they promised to save their siblings who had enough will and strength to hatch and live, well they knew they would have taken away the plan that the King relied on. The plan meant to save so many lives if they had not been the failure they were. They had taken away hope when they had done so, and after what they had done, after they realized they could see the orange coated threads that lead to other areas. Other deaths they could stop. They had to decide if they could bear taking away this hope as well. Their siblings would say yes, but their siblings did not know or understand what it was the King feared, what many feared from Her. Only the thing that slept inside of Ghost had an idea and they would not wish it awake.

No, they were starting to understand. This was something they had to do, had to suffer through for not being what was needed. For needing Ghost who answered and came and devoured a god for the them sealed away and too weak to be of use.

They just wish they did not have to do so by seeing the King again.

The Knights would not stop, and even the King in his palace would notice if the infection began to leave, to stop appearing. Then those eyes would turn to their siblings who were precious and learning, and deserve to live and play in this sleepy hamlet. They would be seen and they did not wish to hide them away. To hide them felt a Mistake. Much like when they had tried to keep them all in the safe and the cold and the dark of the Abyss. They could not take away anything from their siblings who all deserved so much and more of this world. Yet, the fear of what would happen if they were found out, if they would have to see others fear them due to the void that made them who they were. Lights feared the dark, and they did not know if they could stand to see what would happen if the Pale King feared their siblings enough to see them as weapons.

Would they be able to leave their siblings alone? Leave them here with Poppy family and the shopkeepers that slip them treats when they think they are not looking? Leave them and not know if they were safe? If they were the only one to go into that place of old memory and hurt, if no one told the King of these siblings could they pretend to be alone and just a vessel of power for the King’s hope? It would not be the same as being empty, they had watched the guards when they had been a vessel, seen how many just did as told and then were left alone. It would be easier to be loyal that way and just make all think there was nothing else but a broken being that could chase away the infection. It would only need to be enough until something else was found. Until enough was gone that perhaps the King would be able to find a new way to stop Her this time. Would just need to be enough that if nothing else the thing inside of Ghost would not have to wake fully if their sibling if it had to face it when they are older.

There was a knock at the backdoor.

All in the shop turned their attention to the door, confusion clear as the front of the shop was easier to get to, and was very much open as Poppy family swept out some dust from the day of customers walking in. The backdoor was deep behind the shop, leading out into a path surrounded on all sides by other shops that one had to follow in a winding way to reach a main street. It was also a door not many knew of for where it was located both outside and in the shop. A wall had to be passed by a customer to the storage area before seeing the linen walls that marked the area where they and their siblings slept, had move around their nest and the crates they had stacked as an extra wall to the tiny path to said door. You had to look and know to realize there was another door in the shop.

The shiver they felt was justified when Poppy family bustled past them to open it. Broom in hand and all of their siblings obediently hiding in the folds of blankets and pillows until none could be seen. Their own frame wobbly and still aching moving to block any curious eyes from looking and maybe seeing movement within the mound.

“Ah, Poppy. Sorry to bother. There’s someone that really needs to talk to Lavender, and well…I think they should hear ‘em out if they are willing.”

The voice had them perk their head up as they remembered that Mysha had been there as well. Had been the one to ask for help in making certain no one got taken or hurt from the infection in that area. Asked them for aid because of how often they and Basil sibling went there for herbs and plants many of the shops could use and would happily buy from them. Mysha was good, and wouldn't let anyone touch their siblings without losing their entire hand. It was the only thing that kept them from bolting when Poppy family, wide eyed and stuttering slightly, stepped aside to let in Mysha and, and…

Oh, oh it was too late to decide.

There was Knight Isma. Knight Isma who was always so kind to the bugs around her. Who had tried to not sound as uncomfortable with training something they were told was an object of void when around them. Knight Isma, who Lavender could remember only once having gotten fed up enough to show why she was one of the Five Great Knights, and making them even then vow to never do anything to make her become vexed with them.

She had looked over at them instantly, without any sort of surprise in her eyes, but curiosity and hope, and so much worry that it hurt more than if she had glanced over them like they were meant to be glanced over. How did she not know? Knight Hegemol had to have told them and the King and so they should know, yet she was looking at them with concern as if they were any bug she would come across. This didn’t make sense; she and the other knights should know, should be able to tell.

Something in their chest clanged and they remembered that this Knight Isma would have never seen a vessel. May not know what a vessel was or could be. They didn’t know what had been told to others before they had climbed out of the Abyss and been declared the Pure Vessel. Didn’t know if the King had silently believed no vessel survived and thus did not give false hope regarding that plan.

This made this even more terrifying.

They did not know what to do if they had to not be a vessel for Knight Isma. What would happen if they were seen as too off and the King was told of them. Did the King even know? Did the King now wonder and contemplate why they and their siblings had supposedly never stirred when he had shone his light pale and new above the abyss?

“Greetings Lavender. Please be at ease. I wish only to speak to you.”

It was the tone and the look that Knight Isma always used when speaking to those she was trying to comfort and soothe. To make one feel at ease when one was too nervous or afraid of the company they were found in. They had never heard it directed at them before and something in them ached when they realized how much they had wanted to be talked to in such a way before when they were just Vessel. Ached at the fact they hadn’t realized until now with Poppy family and the shopkeepers that being directed like a Kingsmould was all they had known and accepted in those times that will never be now. It hurt to wonder if the Knight Isma of those times that were not would have ever spoken to them that way; if she had known they were not Pure. Or would she have recoiled and turned away to know they were a failure before they had ever been Sealed. Would this one stay kind or become wary if she knew they and their siblings were void?

Those were the fears they couldn’t afford to find out. So trembling, anxious, yet always blocking Knight Isma’s sight from the nest and the curious stares of siblings they knew in their void had popped heads out of folds and from under pillows to watch and listen better, they nodded.

They tried not to feel the ache in their void when she smiled in relief and kept treating them like they were any other bug. Be empty chanting in their head, because at this moment they could not allow themselves to feel the clawing fear and emotions that could get in the way of them protecting their siblings from the King’s gaze and from Her.

Be empty and accept the suffering their choices would make.

#Blue writes #Reversal of Fate AU #RoF AU #Hollow Knight #fanfiction #Lavender (PV) is still not having a good time at all #Literally got the power to bend Time and Space over their knee #Still think they're some sort of failure and not holding the key to the good ending in their hand #self confidence and self esteem of a wet tissue paper #You can take the idea of Isma being terrifying in battle from my cold dead hands #let the kind ones be absolute beasts when they finally have to fight

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