Silent City

3. The Servant

 The seven foot tall woman, her feet falling lightly on the cement under her, was walking with the flow of traffic down the sidewalk. She stood tall above all of the other people on the street, who didn't really pay her any attention— they were all too focused on their phones. But occasionally there would be someone who would glance at her, and look away quickly. She could sense all the movements around her, every falling footstep. It felt good to be back, but she couldn't help but survey the surroundings with disgust. What had happened to it, to the great Kingdom of Hallownest? What had happened to her civilization? She would have done anything to see even a fragment of the old kingdom. She would have been delighted to see the city of tears, or hell, even the white palace. Just a simple remnant from the past was all she wanted, but there was nothing.

She wasn't exactly opposed to progress, but this... this was something unreal. It felt as if everything had just been buried and replaced. This couldn't have been the Pale King's doing. If anything, he was dead. And nothing that she could see looked even remotely like something he would design. No. This was something created by people with no regard to Hallownest's history, to what lay beneath the surface.

It had been a very long time since the Radiance had manifested into the mortal world. In fact, this was the very first time since the moth tribe. She preferred the dream realm— it wasn't so easily corrupted by humanity's radical change. But the Radiance hadn't really existed for centuries, in the dream realm or the mortal. She had been vanquished by one of the Pale King's vessels, one who had united the void against her and slayed her inside the Hollow Knight's mind. But she never really left. It was centuries before she was able to return, a small manifestation in the dream realm. But that was really all she needed. Slowly, she returned to her old power, and was able to find her way back into the Hollow Knight's mind.

And then she manifested within the mortal realm.

She wasn't entirely within the human realm though, she still drew power from the dream realm. There were features in her human form that still showed her connection to the dream realm— a dull glow she constantly emanated, her glowing eyes, her incredible height. She hadn't left her old self— and she wasn't someone new, not like the Nightmare King had become. She was still the same, the god of light, and there was no way she would ever dare give up that identity.

The Radiance could feel a familiar aura around her. Ah, it was that man from the bar she had visited, the one who had spoken to her indecently. She couldn't help but smile— she started running through the ways she could torture him in her mind. The pathetic man's pleas for mercy. She closed her eyes and savored it. But no, she could use him in a different way, a way that might be beneficial to her.

She spotted him not too far away, about in his mid forties, a messy mop of hair and a sad, half-assed moustache that could only barely be considered one. She quietly walked up from behind him, and placed her hand carefully on his shoulder. He gasped and stopped walking, a few people ramming into him.

"What the hell?" the people muttered as they walked past him. The Radiance dug her hand into the man's shoulder, and began to practically drag him with her. He had looked up at her, initially going to cuss at her, but shutting down as he looked at her face.

"Walk with me." The Radiance said, a small smile forming on her face. The man took a shaky breath and went with her, his strides not as long as hers. She didn't speak at all, the man walking quickly to keep up with her.

"Excuse me ma'am, my building is down that—"

"Don't worry about that." She said, speaking slowly. "You'll have much more to worry about in just a moment."

The man's eyes darted around him. He wanted to yell, but he couldn't seem to find the courage.

"Tell me... how many women have you accosted within the last month?" The Radiance hissed, her voice deadly, but somewhat soft.