Hollow Knight Oneshots (Requests open)

Soul Master x Eternal Emilitia

Requested by @Minkle. The scholars are not Infected yet.

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Emilitia PoV:

I softly giggled to myself, once again thinking about how I outlived my caste. Serves them right, for throwing me out. But I still kind of missed my comfortable past. Not that my life was terrible now, but still. I heard that there was a certain "Soul Master" who resided in a place called Soul Sanctum. It must have been recently built, otherwise I would have heard of it sooner. Or perhaps I somehow missed a great deal of information during my time with the upper ranks. It would be nice to poke around in it. 

Before setting out, I carefully tended and watered my beautiful red lilies. A few hours ago there had been a bug who had offered me a flower. Ha! As if the small white plant could stand a chance against my lilies and the King's light! 

"I'll be back soon," I promised my flowers with a laugh. Walking out the door, I highly enjoyed the sight of my once fellow bugs wandering around mindlessly. As I slipped past a few of them, I saw a husk that I recognized. It lunged at me, arms flailing.

"Lost your grace and dignity, haven't you, Lavya?" I asked. I just jumped over it and continued, shooting a smirk back at the still-charging husk. After taking several wrong turns, I sighed and pulled out my map. "Where is this Soul Sanctum, anyway?" I traced my finger along the map until I saw a section of it labelled "Soul Sanctum". It didn't look too hard to get to. According to the small sheet of paper, I should keep going and then make my way up and to the left, then keep heading up. How complicated.

At last, I finally reached an entrance with a silvery arch over it. Looking down at my map, I knew that I was heading in the right direction. Soul Sanctum looked... nice, even in my high standards. I saw a huge fancy window with intricate designs on it.

"Nice..." I murmured, putting my hand on it. Further in, a strange bug just teleported out of thin air and started firing orbs at me. I drew out my weapon (yes Emilitia has a nail) and used it to block the homing projectile. Unfortunately, two more appeared to help. 

Suddenly a voice demanded, "You three! You're supposed to be helping the Soul Warrior with his experiment, not attacking newcomers!" The new arrival had a scarf thing around his neck and a cloak, along with three opals on his head, and four legs. 

"But sir, we-" The new bug glared at them. The three bugs muttered an apology and teleported off. 

"I do apologize about the behaviour of the Sanctum's Soul Twisters," said the bug after a while. "I am Soul Master, by the way." I didn't reply. "Who are you, and what brings you here to our cozy little home?"

"I am Emilitia. Eternal Emilitia," I clarified. Soul Master looked at me with interest.

"Eternal," he murmured. 

"I am simply here to explore. Do you have a problem with that?" I noticed my voice got slightly higher. Soul Master chuckled.

"No." I sheathed my nail, but only partly. "Well, you are welcome to stay, but please do not disturb the experiments, or go near them. Accidents can be nasty, sometimes." I nod, wondering why I was listening to him at all.

"Well, I'd better be off." Soul Master just teleported away, leaving me standing there.

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Soul Master PoV:

I thought about Eternal Emilitia as I glided silently through the Sanctum. Everywhere, scholars turned and greeted me, although I didn't pay them much attention. I hoped Emilitia, no, Eternal Emilitia, would stay. I really would miss her if she didn't, though I didn't know why. Perhaps it was her name. Eternal, like I wanted to be.

"Eternal life would be wonderful, wouldn't it?" I asked myself quietly, then gave a small laugh.

I slowed down as I reached my home (idk if his arena is where he lives or not but whatever). I sighed, looking around, realizing how... drab it looked. Until now, I had never cared what my room looked like. I thought for a moment, then drifted off to grab some paint. 

I selected my desired colors and started working. Nothing too drastic. I just brightened the blue a bit and added some white. As I hovered there admiring my work, I heard a commotion outside. There was a crash, the sound of breaking glass, and a bunch of swears.

I went to investigate. Apparently, it seemed as though a Soul Twister's homing orb had smashed a Soul Cache (the glass jars with Soul in them). Eternal Emilitia was standing off to one side, watching the scene looking supremely unbothered. A Soul Warrior was yelling at the Soul Twister, but quickly stopped when he saw me.

"What happened here?" I demanded.

"She startled me," complained the Soul Twister. "It wasn't my fault the orb broke the Cache." It did nothing to cool the Soul Warrior's anger. 

"The Soul in the Cache was Soul that I gathered myself! Do you know how long I took to collect that much?!" Soul Warrior raged. 

"Well, I'm SORRY." I stepped in before Soul Warrior could skewer someone. 

"You two, cut it out. Soul Warrior, retake your position at the upper level. Soul Twister, go back to where you came from, and didn't your comrades tell you to leave her alone?" I indicated Emilitia. Both of them left the scene, grumbling.

"We meet again," Emilitia observed. I nodded, not knowing what to say.

"Did they bother you?" I asked. Eternal Emilitia looked at me in a funny way.

"They didn't, not really anyways. Why do you care?" She suddenly giggled, as though she had remembered something hilariously funny.

"Why shouldn't I care? I'm not heartless, you know." Emilitia gave me a skeptical look.

"I guess not..." I pretended I didn't see her slight blush. Did she really...? I couldn't hide it from myself any longer. Despite her... interesting personality, I liked her. The I-think-I'm-in-love-freaking-out kind. How would she feel if I told her that? I hoped it wouldn't ruin anything. I hoped.

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Eternal Emilitia PoV:

Soul Master seemed embarrassed by something. Indeed, he seemed deep in thought and didn't notice as I left. I hesitated at the exit of the upper level, and looked back at him.

"I should leave," I said after a moment. It was unlike me to bid someone farewell, but Soul Master didn't seem like other bugs. He seemed to care about me. Why should he? But then I remembered his words: Why shouldn't I?

"So soon?" Soul Master asked with a small sigh. I nodded. "Well, safe journey then." He floated off, looking very slightly dispirited. 

"Bye," I whispered, but he was long gone. 

As I reached the exit without running into anything, I turned to look at the fancy archway. A part of me didn't want to leave. It didn't want to leave Soul Master. But somehow, I knew that this wouldn't be our last time. I would see him again. Probably. Hopefully.

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I hoped you enjoyed!