Irredeemable

Revival

The door to the lonely room opened slowly. As it did so, an eerie creaking reverberated around the room. Twelve couldn't see the door, but they knew someone stood just beyond it. Finally, the voice at the door spoke.

"Even after all this time, I'm still finding more rooms. I know my father loved to keep secrets, but these rooms are posing a serious threat to this palace's integrity."

She sighed and entered the room.

"Let's see what the damage is in here."

Stepping around a slight wall, needle drawn, was a bug Twelve had never seen anything like before. She was clearly of weaver decent, although she was also similar to the pale king. Was he the father she had mentioned? That seemed unlikely. Twelve could hardly picture the king as a caring father.

As she looked around the room, her gaze rested upon the cage. While she mostly maintained a stoic expression, there was a subtle hint of horror and disgust as she realized what was in the cage.

"My Wyrm, they're still alive."

The cage was relatively sturdy. It was made up of thick slabs of wood, held together by thick steel bars like a bizarre sandwich. Yet, despite the cage's durability, the needle was sharper. In a flurry of quick movements, the top of the cage suddenly ceased to exist. They were free.

Twelve did nothing to stop their new acquaintance from reaching down and lifting them from the cage. It wasn't like they could've done anything anyways. With Twelve in her arms, she finally introduced herself.

"My name is Hornet. I'm going to help you."

There was something oddly reassuring in her words. It didn't matter who they were, or what they had done, whether or not she knew about it. She had simply pledged her help in recovering, no questions asked.

As Hornet carried them out of the room, she took a glass jar from her cloak. Untwisting the cap proved difficult, while holding a vessel, but she was eventually able to open it. Dumping the contents on the vessel, she clarified what she was doing.

"This is soul. It will allow you to heal the wound to your abdomen. I carry some with me since I often travel with your kind."

The soul swirled quickly around them before absorbing into the void that was their skin. A surge of power flowed through them. They believed Hornet's words. Focusing on the wound, Twelve willed the soul to repair the damage. Slowly but surely, the wound closed, with no sign it had ever been there.

Hornet put them on the ground. Now that they were healed, there was no reason to carry them.

"Now, who might you be?"

Twelve thought about it for a moment. They hadn't been taught how to convey their own name. As a hunter, they never needed to. As they pondered how to convey their name, Hornet realized that doing so would be difficult. As such, she offered a solution.

"Vessel, would you be alright with a different name? At least until we can find a way to express yours?"

Twelve thought about it. They realized that the rest of their peers all had informal names. Two had been known as Claw and One had called themselves Inge. Perhaps a new name would be ok for them too.

"How about, Gravel?"

Gravel. They thought about it. After a bit of deliberation, Twelve made up their mind. They would be known as Gravel now.

"I must ask, Gravel, how have you arrived here?"

After a bit of thinking, they picked up a few of the bars that once made up their cage. They held them against their head, resembling the natural crown of the king. It took a moment of confusion, but Hornet soon understood what they meant.

"The king?"

Gravel nodded, slowly.

"So my father put you here. I'm terribly sorry for what he has done to you. Please, follow me. I will make sure that you are well."

Gravel had stopped listening the moment Hornet referred to the king as her father. The king was bad. They needed to be avoided at all costs. Hornet seemed kind enough, but her familial relationship with the king was far too dangerous for Gravel. They slowly backed away from Hornet.

"Gravel? Where are you going?"

They turned and ran. Despite all of the years they had spent in that cage, they knew the halls well. With Hornet chasing quickly behind them, Gravel continued to make a beeline for the exit. As Hornet slowly closed the distance between them, they realized that they wouldn't make it to the great doors of the palace. Looking around, they remembered where they were. Rounding a corner, they quickly activated the hidden passage to the room of the hunters and slid in, closing the wall up behind them.

The crumbling walls and mossy floor showed that Hornet had not yet found this room, and that the king had not been here in quite some time. Still, they delighted at the thought of seeing Eleven again.

Rounding the corner and entering the massive room they all shared, Gravel was met with a horrible sight. The homes had all aged and fallen in on themselves, the floor of the square they lived on looked as though a mighty hammer had been taken to it, and broken nails littered the floor.

Yet, the worst sight was what hung from the doors to their homes. The homes of Three, Six, and Nine, were all now marked by their skulls, cracked and damaged, without a body. "Where had their shades ended up?" they silently wondered.

In silent mourning, they gathered the shells and weapons of their friends. They would receive a proper burial in the resting grounds. Praying that they would be graced with at least enough luck to allow their friends this right, they stepped out of the room.

Luck, for once, was on their side. Hornet was nowhere to be seen. She had probably already left in search of them, or simply given up. And so, Gravel made their way to the resting grounds. To their surprise, there were a decently large amount of bugs in the resting grounds. They weren't even infected. Perhaps the Hollow Knight had succeeded in its role.

Solemnly, Gravel constructed the three monuments. They consisted of a small circle of stones, only the finest stones, surrounding the firmly planted weapon of each grave's inhabitant. For a few minutes, they sat silently by their friends, one last time. What were they going to do now? Everyone they had ever cared about was gone.

Despite the centuries they had spent in the cage, they remembered something important. Inge had offered them aid if they were to ever escape. Better yet, they had no loyalty to the king. If they were going to survive, their best bet would be to find Inge.

That's it for this chapter. I'm sorry I've been taking so long on these chapters, I just haven't had as much time to work on them as I hoped, and I want them to actually be good and worth reading. That being said, I'll try to start getting these out a little sooner. I hope you enjoyed and I'll see you in the next chapter!