No Emotions to Feel

Ch 7 : Siblings Sealed

The quietly chatting crowd hushed as the vessel and Quirrel took their places. Both stood alongside the royalty, knights, and dreamers.

Besides The Great Five, everyone was in a pair; Pale King and Queen, Lurien and his assistant, Herrah and her daughter, Monomon and Quirrel, vessel and vessel.

The ceremony was at hand.

The King stepped forward to make a speech, no doubt about how this event would forever change history, however the small vessel did not hear it.

It didn't care what The King said right now, all the small vessel wanted to do was be with its sibling. It had been forever since they last saw each other.

Unable to physically look up with everyone there to see, the small vessel used soul to feel its sibling's presence. The world dimmed and everyone gave off a soft white glow, however the vessel focused in only on the one standing next to it.

A bright glow, only dimmer than The Pale King and Queen themselves, stood next to the vessel. The brightness was highly contrasted by the void visible though it's eye-sockets, a darkness that the glow couldn't touch.

It was really hard not to physically look. The vessel never had the need to do something this bad before, not even to complete orders from The King.

It suddenly experienced something prick its chest. A sickly orange color appeared where its heart would be, and started to slowly spread out.

The vessel focused back to reality, forcing itself to be nothing. To be an object waiting for commands, and waited as the ache subsided. It could've been caught, had the vessel waited any longer the infection might have shown through its eye-sockets.

Its vision faded back into seeing Soul, and saw that the orange in its chest had shrunk down to a tiny dot.

The crowd of bugs surrounding the temple suddenly burst into applause, snapping the small vessel out of it. The King gestured for The Pure Vessel, looking to the small one to follow its sibling.

The Pale Queen, the Dreamers, and their companions followed suit. They all walked deeper into the temple, leaving the knights outside. They watched as everything became darker, too dark to see anything. The only thing illuminating their path were the pillars of magic and seals that pulsed with soul.

They finally reached the end chamber, The King telling the taller vessel to stand in the middle of the room. Garbed in pale ore armor and white robes, The Pure Vessel was chained up with four additional seals.

The small vessel stared into its sibling's 'eyes', the pain in its chest resurfacing as it watched it get lifted from the ground with the chains.

The Pale King walked up to his chained child, and spoke to it in a quiet voice. The Pure Vessel did not seem to react to the words of praise, comfort, and justification, yet there was still something there.

The small vessel saw the void in its eyes flicker slightly, what was near-impossible for the others to see was possible for a being made of the same material. And it told the vessel that the taller one was not comfortable being chained up, no matter how diligently it followed commands.

The two held a silent conversation with their eyes, one that didn't need words to say or a mind to think. Even when The King had everyone bow to The Pure Vessel, now officially called The Hollow Knight, their stares did not break.

Only when The King called for the small vessel to leave and close the door behind them, did their last moment together shatter. After locking his sacrifice in the room, The King turned to the vessel.

"It is now your turn" he pulled a small item from his robes and held it in his open palm. Sitting there was a tiny black stone with engravings on it, an empty glass mask resting in the middle.

He then looked to Herrah for something, nodding in thanks when she gave him a small glass jar. The King popped the cork out and turned to face the vessel. It could now clearly see that the jar was filled with void, though it sensed the presence of it earlier.

He tilted the vessel's head up, "a necessary precaution I'm afraid" he said, before pouring the void into its eye-sockets. The overflow caused streams of excess void to fall down its face, dissipating into the air before it could hit the ground.

The vessel seemed as if an unnecessary clutter had just been cleared. The need to see its sibling again vanished, it didn't bother to glance at anyone now that its focus was only on The King.

It was empty again, just as it should be.

The King's hand started to glow with Soul, the charm and vessel starting to glow as well.

The vessel waited for orders, there was no need for it to expect or want anything else after all.

Yet despite that, its focus shifted slightly. It saw Herrah's child and Quirrel behind The King, looking at the vessel with mixed expressions.

Both held looks of guilt, sadness, and longing. The girl was hiding her expressions a bit better than Quirrel, despite him being a young adult and her a child.

And so the flicker returned. The same flicker that made the vessel cling to its sibling's side. The same flicker that made it join Quirrel and Monomon despite not needing to. The same flicker that made the vessel kneel to The King at their first meeting, just as it would now.

Sweeping into the same kneeling bow, the vessel kept its focus on the two.

The King sighed, before nodding in acceptance and spoke, "may your loyalty serve me again"

The mask on the charm glowed brightly, the vessel matching its intensity. Drops of Soul and Void started separating from the vessel and flowing into the mask.

A sickening crack filled the air as the vessel's mask split down from the right eye-socket. The King, Quirrel, and child flinched, despite The King having expected the vessel's body to somehow give out.

The vessel suffered as if it was getting ripped apart from the inside, a horrible mix of a searing burn and suffocating ache. It was struggling not to shake in pain as bits of its shell started turning into Soul, before pulling away and getting absorbed by the charm.

However, it continued to stare at the two behind The King. Both looked horrified by what was happening, barely trying to hide their expressions anymore.

The vessel was almost gone, yet it couldn't look away. It was losing focus, everything blurring besides Quirrel and the young spider.

And suddenly, it realized something. It didn't like seeing them so upset. It had to say something- no, it wanted to say something.

Everything was fading to the point where only their expressions were clear, it was almost out of time.

Mustering any scrap of itself it had left, its will to say something intensified. Tiny flickers of dreamcatchers appeared in the corners of its darkening vision, as the girl and Quirrel's expressions changed to shock.

The charm stopped glowing, an empty space filling where the vessel once knelt. The King ignored his guilt, pocketing the charm and leading everyone to The Temple's exit.

No one noticed the princess and Quirrel rushing to mask their expressions, or saw dreamcatchers fade from sight.

Both heard one word. Something that wasn't said in any audible voice. A non-existent echo of whispers surrounded and covered their thoughts as one word got imprinted in their minds.

❁✺... remember ...✺❁