The Forgotten Kingdom

Chapter 13

Carina swallowed thickly, watching Grimm watch her like a hungry predator.  His eyes were glowing with an eerie scarlet light, that unnerved her. She suppressed a shudder as she watched him, trying to keep a distance between them. Grimm smiled slowly. "You don't have to be afraid my dear, we aren't going to hurt you, I promise." Brumm watched Grimm, wary, eyes flicking between the two. Carina took another step back, letting out an involuntary squeak as her back hit the wall. She panicked, eyes wide, Brumm stepped in, putting a hand on Grimm's shoulder, pushing him back a little, the troupe masters eyes losing their glow as he looked at the musician. 

"Brumm. What is it." He glanced at Carina. "You're scaring her too much master. She may try to run. And if she runs, we may not get her back here again. Please, try to contain yourself..." Grimm looked at him, then glanced at the beautiful young bug in his room, then grumbled. Brumm was right. If she panicked, she may try to do what got her out of his realm the last time, and he wasn't sure that if she hit the ground, she would wake in the waking realm. And if she didn't- 

He shook his head to clear away those thoughts. He looked at her, then had a thought. "I know, how about a little tour my dear? I'll prove that you are safe here. Alright?" He watched Carina carefully, then smiled when she nodded slowly, her head spinning with all the confusion and the oddly sweet smell that surrounded her. She slowly made her way closer, relaxing a bit when neither of them moved. She kept closer to Brumm than Grimm, finding the musician more inviting than the King of Nightmares. Brumm gave her a small smile behind his mask, nodding to her reassuringly. 

She relaxed fully, following the two as they left the room, watching Grimm closely from the corner of her eye, looking at Brumm. "I... I like your accordion... My great grandfather loved accordion music.... He tried to play once..." She snickered a little at the memory, her ears ringing just from the thought of the awful sound Cornifer had created when he attempted playing an accordion. "It didn't end well to say the least..." Brumm chuckled, getting the idea. His first experience with an accordion had not gone well either. Though a red haze kept him from remembering the full extent of his failure.

"It's not... A simple instrument like some bugs may think... It can be challenging." Carina smiled, at ease. The musician was kind, and easy to talk to. She hummed as she walked with him between her and Grimm. The horned king made her feel... Uneasy, and threatened, despite having done nothing to warrant this response. Perhaps it was his title. The Nightmare King. Anyone would find themselves uneasy around someone like that. She just had to get used to him. That was all. She jumped when he spoke, jolting her from her thoughts.

"This is where my Grimmkin and my dear friends live and practice for our troupe." Carina blinked. "Troupe? You mean like a travelling circus..?" Brumm nodded, Grimm grinning at her. "Precisely my dear. Every few years my troupe must be summoned and travel to dying or old kingdoms, to burn away the remnants, so a new kingdom may rise from the ashes. And the nightmare heart can persist, keeping our realm, and by association, us, alive." Carina looked at him. "Burn..?" Grimm nods. 

"Burn. The ritual is simple. When a bug lights the Nightmare lantern, they become the catalyst of our ritual. I give them a Grimmchild, a small piece of my being, taken a living, breathing form. Their job will be to seek out and defeat my Grimmkin bearing nightmare torches, and feed the child the flames. once enough flames have been collected, my body in the waking realm will be burned, feeding the child and the heart, the child will take form of another vessel." 

Carina frowned. "Wait... That means... You die. Right?" Brumm chuckled. "Not really. The ritual is one of rebirth. The vessel our king lives in is burned, feeding the child vessel so it can grow into a new one. But the flames also feed and strengthen the Nightmare Heart." Crarina nods, getting the gist of it, but still not really understanding. "What about burning the remnants of fallen kingdoms? Does anyone get hurt...?" Grimm chuckled. 

"No, we don't burn anything physical of the kingdom. Simply, the dark memories and fading whispers. The kingdoms memory remains, but the darkness and heartache left from its fall is burned away in our ritual, leaving room for new love and kingdoms to rise." The two watched her think. "What... If a kingdom had fallen, your ritual was performed in its shell, and the kingdom was restored? Would that work?" Grimm blinked. 

"Well. The original kingdom, its light and its darkness, will be gone, but the physical form can be restored and reused. Why do you ask?" He was glad to hear her sounding less afraid. She looked at him, and his heart skipped a beat at the determined look in her eyes now. "Have you heard of a place called Hallownest??" Both bugs stared at her now. "Hallownest? Yes. Actually, our last ritual was performed there, why?" She grinned. "That's where I am! My grandfather wanted me to restore it to its glory as his dying wish. I left home and found it, but I don't know where to begin. Its so cold, and sad there, none of the bugs I've seen... none of them seem to have any hope left. Its quiet, and empty, and lonely... And I've begun to think that maybe my task was impossible, but... Maybe... Maybe your ritual wasn't enough. Maybe it didn't take away all the bad. Maybe there's still some left..." 

She frowned, looking at her feet. "Maybe that's why it feels so cold... And dark." Grimm blinked. Hallownest was still empty? That wasn't right. By now it should have been bursting with new life, Beautiful, and booming. Not the cold, empty shell he had visited and explored as a Grimmchild. The sickly walking dead, the insane and crippled minds, the torn and tattered past. The black mark that destroyed the Pale Wyrm Kings glowing reputation as a god among bugs, when he was in fact, no different than the bugs he ruled. The lovely root who laid, hidden away and oblivious to the turmoil and pain her kingdom was suffering through, the slain knight resting eternally at her door, the ghosts of the past that lingered in limbo, unable to pass to the bliss beyond death. 

Dark. He frowned. He knew of the darkness of Hallownest. The creeping void, and the imposing creature he had followed. While he had been small, his power was terrifying, even to the heart itself. And then, without warning, one day, not long after the ritual, his enemy, The Radiance, the being of light who had so often pushed his realm to near extinction, had vanished without a trace. She was just... Gone. And it had left him wary. If she was gone, was he next? He shook his head, looking at Carina. 

"Darkness? That is... odd. Hallownest should have been bursting with life by now, alive and full of love, and light. Not cold, and dark..." Carina shook her head. "Not many bugs where I'm from even believe it exists... They think it was just a fairy tale told to little bugs so they could sleep... But... When I came to find it... I was blocked at first... By a sea of solid darkness. It attacked me when I tried to touch it... But it recoiled from the delicate flower my great grandfather had pressed into a journal..." Grimm felt like he had been punched. "Delicate flower..? That was..." He trailed off. That had been the little knights most challenging, but most rewarding task. The little creature had seemed so happy to have brought the flower to the lonely grave. After it had finished, he took a few, taking them to the abyss, creating a small garden in the darkness, the pale flowers seemed to flourish in the darkness, the little shades that infested the abyss had calmed with the coming of the flowers.

He looked at her. "Carina. Tell me. Did you happen to meet a small horned bug, that never speaks, and wields a pure nail..?" He watched her think, then frowned. "No. But, I have heard mentions of him. From a pair of bugs living in Greenpath. Hornet, and the Hollow Knight."