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[Hollow Knight] Radiance x vessel! Reader

You, were a vessel. A very, very empty vessel. But you were not the Hollow Knight, so you yourself were never seen as "pure." But of course, we know what that means. You were left in the Abyss to die.

Until, you escaped that horrible prison.

A hole in Deepnest allowed for you to find your way out and retrieve a nail from the Distant Village before turning to a life of hiding.

It was unfortunate for you though, that the Infection was still a rampant problem and the Hollow Knight had yet to be sent to contain that Light that seemed to call you.

That strange Light had taken an obsessive interest in you, seeing as you appeared more empty than the other, but did not have their purpose. You seemed to be a better match for the task, yet not the one called to do it. So the radiant moth had wondered WHY the corrupted Hollow Knight was the one who would be stuck with her. Why it wasn't you.

Of course, you had no idea of any of this. After all you had no mind to think of her or anyone else.

What you did know, was that the infected ones around you never seemed to attack you so to speak, pull seemed to test you, obviously not trying to kill you, as if their puppeteer was trying to figure out some way to bring you to her as well. Trying to figure out if she could was a better way to describe it.

So obsessive we're her ways with you, that you had to flee to the Queen's Gardens, where the grace of your mother, the pale root, protected you from the infectious grasp of that angered Higher Being.

Not that the gardeners were pleased to have a strong warrior who lacked the mind to tell good from evil in the flora they kept so well for their queen.

You were carefully avoiding all eyes as you moved through the greenery. You were keeping a look out for threats and those who seemed strange compared to the others, though there didn't seem to be any here. But something in you told you that someone knew you were there. And that always means danger.

The White Lady could feel you.

Well, she didn't know it was you specifically... but she knew it wasn't the child the King had claimed as Pure. She gazed off in the direction you were in deep in thought as Dryya stood with her.

"Are you alright, your Majesty?"

"Yes... I... Come with me for a moment." The root walked off to the place in her gardens that her child, you, seemed to be.

"Is there a danger?" The Great Knight asked the queen.

"I'm not sure if I'd describe it that way." The White Lady shook her head, "More like one who..." her regrets seemed to weigh on her as she tried to think of the right words to describe the wandering vessel to the warrior without giving her all the details of the royals' genocide.

You on the other hand, heard the figures approaching and tried to run, but it proved futile as you found yourself facing an ivy covered wall, with no other way to go than in the direction your pursuers were. As the figures drew closer, every instinct that existed within you prepared for the impossible fights you had grown so accustomed to.

"Just here, Dryya."

"I don't- Look out!"

As you leapt to attack the strangers, Dryya lunged in to defend your mother.

Both your nails met in the air with about equal force.

Though, Dryya was one of the Five Great Knights for a reason. She had years of experience and incredible skill with her weapon.

You learned how to fight by being threatened by mindless creatures who couldn't use a nail properly.

She easily overpowered you, but was surprised when the queen prevented her from killing the intruder, who was you.

"Stop. They will attack as long as you fight them." The queen says softly.

In the pause where you waited to be attacked again, Dryya managed to get a better look at you.

"A vessel? There were others?"

"Hundreds more, possibly thousands. I do not know how this little one escaped, but looking upon them makes me realize what little hope the one we chose has for success. This one here seems purer than they ever were." The White Lady gives you a look of sadness, "Let the child go to wander while they can. Perhaps that terrible Light will target the real threat to them and gives us the time to perfect the Hollow Knight before it grows too late!"

Dryya stood down and allowed you to run back off into the garden.

"Should I not tell the King?" Dryya asks the tall root, who shakes her head and closes her eyes.

"I do not want him to know that we have failed before we have even tried." She looks into the gardens after you, her pure child, "I do not think I can bear thought that our own actions have doomed us... I must stay here in the gardens. Perhaps I can give one as pure as them a gift to aid them in success."

"Then I will stay here beside you."

You had become somewhat of a danger and caused all to flee the Gardens of the now missing Queen. You felt nothing, knew nothing but battle, and yet had the power of one ruled by the strength fear brought. Perhaps you were afraid, but due to the never ending fear that resided within you, it was all you could feel.

It was just your luck though, when the Light that seemed to try to haunt you wherever you go managed to get a hold of a large group of mantis, and brought them to your current home.

She seemed angry that you had managed to escape her for so long, she no longer seemed to care if she killed you. But hiding had always been something you were good at, so the swarm of mantis that invaded brought little success in dragging you out of the bushes and thorns you hid yourself in.

You were beyond her reach, and she didn't like that.
You would be the greatest prize of all.
Infecting you would prove that not even a hollow being could withstand the Light.

It distracted her from the Pale King preparing to seal her away for good.

What finally forces you into her sight again, was when Dryya finally perished and all the mantis turned their efforts to destroying the places you could hide in, effectively managing to stamp you out into the open. The world became unfamiliar and the Gardens themselves seemed to change.

But there was something special planned when she finally found you.

Managing to hold your own against the former Mantis leader proved your full potential to her. So, in a moment of weakness, she finally dragged you to her directly.

Right as she was sealed in the Hollow Knight, trapping you with her forever.

"Finally!" The moth cried at the sight of your tired frame, "There is no where for you to run! I rule this Realm and everything in it."

You said nothing, your empty nature wouldn't allow you to speak.

This was how you were going to die.

Trapped in a never ending fight with the one who wanted nothing more than you to finally submit to her will and embrace her Light.

Something you could never understand.