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Tiso enters the Colosseum with a grin on his face. “Good evening, Little Fool!”
Little Fool looks at Tiso. “Welcome back, Tiso! Will you place your mark and begin a Trial or go down to rest first?”
“I'm going to rest up first.” Tiso hops down into the warriors’ pit, sitting on the bench. He doesn't know how long it will take for the Wyrmling to get to the Colosseum, so he has to wait.
He decides to check up on the audience and his friends. More of the audience is Infected, which he suspected but didn't want to admit. Benji is still sitting on his chair in the warriors’ pit having an existential crisis. “You alright, Benj?” Tiso asks.
“...Are we all fools…?”
“Yeah. That's what the Colosseum is. For us foolish enough to use it.”
Benji looks up and…
Ah.
His eyes are tinted orange like Little Fool’s. Only a bit, but it's visible through his visor.
“...Are we all fools…?”
Tiso curses his luck and prays to the Shade Lord that the Infection will end soon. “Yeah, we are.” He steps away, leaving his friend behind to the Radiance's clutches.
Haro is still in the hot spring and he glares at Tiso when he breaks the wall to enter. “I just fixed that wall,” he complains.
“And you're still hogging the hot spring to yourself. Move over.”
Haro grumbles but does so, letting Tiso sit. The Soul filled water rejuvenates Tiso and he grins. “Thanks for sharing, Haro. Have a good day.”
“Get out.”
Tiso laughs and leaves Haro to rebuild the wall. He climbs up to the Champions’ hallway and walks to God Tamer's room. He bothers her for a few minutes before she asks him what he's doing.
“There's a Wyrmling touched with Void, a Vessel of the Pale Wyrm’s creation for sealing the Infection,” Tiso explains. “They told me that they were going to come fight, but I have no idea how long it's going to take for them to get here. I want to fight them, see how good they are with their Void spells. They didn't have any at the time, but I want to know if they'll have any by the time we see each other again.”
“They could take forever, Void Thing,” God Tamer says. “We are far from the City of Tears and they would have to climb.”
“I can wait.”
Tiso bothers her for a few more minutes before God Tamer threatens him with her lance. Tiso raises his hands in defeat and leaves, off to check on Pale Lurker.
Tiso jumps down the gap, landing in the water below. He shakes off the water, shivering. He approaches Pale Lurker carefully. “Hey, Aw-”
Pale Lurker hisses at Tiso before she recognizes him. “...Void Thing…?”
“Yeah, that's me, Awairu,” Tiso says calmly. “Are you alright? Can I come closer?”
“...Do you have the King?”
The Pale Wyrm disappeared a long time ago. Tiso has no way to convince her without making her freak out. He's tried. “Still haven't found him yet,” Tiso says. Pale Lurker mumbles sadly. “Can I get closer, Awairu? I need to check your eyes.”
Pale Lurker lets Tiso approach and Tiso flips open her helmet. Her eyes are not orange. She's fine, just driven crazy waiting for the Pale Wyrm who will never come for her. “...Are you still searching for the King?”
No. “Yes,” Tiso lies. “If I find the King, I'll inform you.”
“Thank you, Void Thing.” Pale Lurker goes back to mumbling incoherently and Tiso leaves her be.
Tiso returns to the warriors’ pit. The Wyrmling isn't there yet. He wonders if they'll have a name by the time he sees them again. He decides to check in his room for a few minutes. (It's in the Champions’ hallway despite the fact he's never won the Trial of the Fool. Lord Fool really liked him that much. It's right next to God Tamer's and she hates it.)
No one has been in there. Good. Tiso hates it when people have been in his room. A lot of his stuff is older than Hallownest's stasis and it's hard to replace things over four hundred years old. He shuts the door tight.
The Wyrmling isn't very fast. Then again it takes hours to cross Hallownest, so Tiso is being impatient.
He sits on the bench in the warriors’ pit and nods off.
Tiso isn't sure how long he's slept, he can sleep much longer than a regular bug, being Void. But he wakes up when someone sits next to him.
The Wyrmling looks up at him proudly. “Hello!”
“Ah, Pale Thing, you found the Colosseum.”
“My name is Ghost!”
Ghost. A white mask with black eyes. Obvious and on the nose. Tiso likes it. Now he just has to resist the urge to call them Sibling. “Well, Ghost, I see you found the Colosseum. I'll soon be entering the Trials. Do you plan on fighting?”
Ghost shakes their head. “Not right now. Just resting. Maybe later.”
“I see. I'm taking a moment's rest, then I'll be up into the battle. You seem a formidable opponent, and I wish to face you at my deadly best.”
Ghost tips their head. “That sounds neat!” They open a large piece of paper, their map. It’s bigger than the last two times Tiso saw them. They look out over then stand, bowing politely to Tiso. “See you later!” They leave the warriors’ pit, flapping two brilliant white wings then climbing up the tunnel to leave the Colosseum.
Later. Tiso can wait for later.
Tiso walks to the collection room and picks up his nail. He swings it a few times then climbs up to the Trial boards. He grabs a mark and places it on the board for the Trial of the Fool. The arena door opens and Tiso enters.
The crowd cheers loudly for him and Tiso bows for them cockily. It hurts to see so many orange eyes in the audience.
Tiso blazes through the Trial. He puts on a show, uses a little bit of Void magic. He wants to fight Ghost. The crowd loves the magic.
Tiso has never gotten this far, he's never really used his Void to fight before.
The Brooding Mawlek is new.
He can't handle the damage it deals. Tiso's armor cracks and Tiso liquifies.
The Void thing reforms in the collection chamber and the Champion Fool instructs the Fools to leave his nail and shield in the collection chamber and toss him over the cliff. He'll climb back up and reclaim his things once he recovers.
The unconscious body hits a ledge, sprawling out. The crack in his armor is very clear. A Hopper bounces on the ledge.
Several hours later, a Void touched Wyrmling climbs up the cliffside, clambering up the platforms. They see the body and understandably assume he's dead. They kill the Hopper then kneel next to the Void being, grieving. They will go up there and fight for him! They will!!!
The Wyrmling starts to climb again, not noticing that the Void being twitched slightly.
Tiso slowly comes to awareness. Ow. That was a bad one, for him to be out that long. He sits up, blinking away the brightness of Kingdom's Edge. Off the cliff? Really? They could have returned him to his room. Well, he did bother God Tamer for an hour. He kinda deserved it. Tiso groans, rubbing his side.
Laughter. Giggling laughter.
Tiso freezes.
A Void being climbs up the ledge, giggling nonsense to itself. The Collector. They cock their head and stare at Tiso. He laughs and says in Voidtongue, “Not bug! Void like me!” Same discovery she makes every time.
“Yep,” Tiso agrees. “I sure am.” What did the Pale Wyrm do to this poor thing? Did he make it? How? The Collector screams out a battle cry and Tiso covers his ears at the volume. The Collector snatches him by the hood. “Hey! Put me down!” Tiso lashes out with a tendril. He's a little weak, having just recovered from being dead. “Let me go!”
“Void Bug, stop moving,” the Collector chastises. “My love. A safe place! For you!”
“Oh Gods you're going to put me in a jar, aren't you.” Tiso struggles harder as the Collector hugs him to their chest with two arms. “Let me go! I don't want to be in a jar!”
“Safe! Safe! No more cliff! No more Col-seam!” The Collector hobbles into the Tower of Love. The door is unlocked. Who unlocked the door? Tiso was sure he had the only key. Unless some noble had a key and some adventurer wandered and found it on their dead body somewhere. It’s possible. There had to be more than one key, in retrospect. The Collector wanders her jar collection and looks for a jar big enough for Tiso, humming to herself and laughing at the same time. It's awful. It's horribly off key.
Tiso wriggles out of one arm but another arm wraps around him. Curses drip from Tiso's mouth in Voidtongue, the language sounding like ice. “May the Shade Lord disown you,” Tiso says sharply. “May the Lifeblood Creature withdraw her blessings upon you.”
The Collector laughs, undisturbed. They pull down a jar and stuff Tiso inside. He shuts the jar tightly and seals it with Void. “No escaping! Safe place! Full of love!” She carries the jar under two arms and starts swinging through the tower.
Tiso is going to be sick. This is dizzying. It's fine, though. He's broken these jars before. He reaches into his Void storage and grabs a knife. He slams the point into the glass, expecting it to shatter. Nothing.
Of course it can't break from the inside. What use would one of these jars be if it could break from the inside? Then anyone could escape.
The Collector is crazy, but apparently it's not a complete idiot.
The Collector sets Tiso's jar on a shelf, adjusting him perfectly. They laugh, clapping all four of their hands. “Perfect!” he exclaims. “Perfect, little Void Bug! Safe! With me! My love!”
“You don't have any of my love,” Tiso grumbles.
The Collector laughs, patting the jar fondly, and scurries off to… Somewhere, leaving Tiso behind on his shelf to sulk. He mutters in Voidtongue, coming up with increasingly more outlandish threats. He stabs the glass with his knife a few more times to try to break it.
This sucks. He just wants to go home.
It's been a day. Tiso has not returned to the Colosseum. He always returns after being thrown off the cliff to complain about being thrown off the cliff. God Tamer sighs. He's gone missing and only she is allowed to make him go missing. She grabs her lance, slinging it on her back. She tells Little Fool to close the Trial of the Fool until she gets back. She then climbs down the cliff.
Checking the ledges Tiso could have hit, she finds one where there are large handprints that look like Tiso's. Tiso told her about the Void being that lives in the City of Tears, the Collector if she's remembering right, but she thought he was kidding. Then again, why would he kid about this? That would be a dangerous thing to joke about.
The Tower of Love is where Tiso said the Collector lived. God Tamer goes into the city entrance, knowing it leads directly into the Tower of Love. The padded door is unlocked and open. Usually it’s locked and shut tight. Tiso has a key, he’s shown it to her before. He said he had the only key and that he would never use it.
If he didn’t open the door, who did?
God Tamer enters the building quietly, making sure not to break any jars or the silence.
Giggling. God Tamer presses herself against the wall. A Void thing with four arms and no decoration swings by, laughing. The Collector? It has jars under its arms. It giggles and says something in a language that sounds like syrup, like water. Like Void. It makes God Tamer’s antennae twitch and her chitin tingle. The Collector’s voice is singsong and airy, like its laughter, like a playful rippling pond.
The voice that answers speaks in the same language, but full of anger. The watery tones feel less like the playful pond the Collector sounds like. They feel like a raging river about to flood its banks. The voice that answers is Tiso’s. Tiso’s reply makes God Tamer shudder. She doesn’t know what he’s saying but she doesn’t want it directed at herself.
The Collector responds with a chiding tone, tapping what God Tamer assumes is Tiso’s jar. Before Tiso can respond, it laughs and scurries off, humming off key.
God Tamer peels away from the wall, carefully going to where she thought the Collector was standing. On the top shelf, Tiso’s voice speaks in that Void language, the mumbled words sounding like a pot of steady boiling water.
How interesting.
God Tamer has never been one for linguistics. She’s always been one for fighting. But she can’t help but be interested about how all these words must be the same language, just with different emotions making the Void words sound different.
Perhaps some other time she can bother Tiso into telling her.
God Tamer draws her lance and vaults herself onto the shelf. “Tiso,” she whispers sharply. “What in the Wyrm’s name are you doing here?”
Tiso jumps, the jar shaking on the shelf. Tiso’s jar has chips on the inside and one of his knives on the bottom next to his leg. He tried to get out. It must be unbreakable from the inside. Tiso stares at God Tamer and says something in that language of watery syllables. He pauses for a few seconds, muttering things under his breath.
Hang on I'm not stupid I just can't remember what language you speak as I've been speaking Voidtongue since I woke up and I know way too many languages to remember off the top of my head
God Tamer flinches back at the sound of Tiso's voice in her mind. It’s kind of cool but also creepy at the same time.
“Okay, I got it,” Tiso whispers. “Hi, hello, um, I got collected, could you help me out here?” His voice has a strange syrupy accent, likely from the “void tongue” he mentioned. “I assume that’s why you came by.” He picks up his knife and slams the sharp point against the glass. He chips it, but nothing else happens. “...How did you know I was here?”
“The handprints on the cliffside,” God Tamer says. “They were next to where you could land and I reasoned that only something big could make them. The only thing around the area that could is the Collector you mentioned.” She takes her weapon off her back. “Back up, I’m going to smash the glass.”
Tiso’s eyes widen. “No!” It’s at that moment God Tamer realizes that Tiso is not wearing his armor, only his hood and the cape he can pull down from it. “The Collector will hear you. It has a very keen, uh, very good hearing. They’ll hear the glass break. He also stole my armor. I don’t know where she put it.”
Why did Tiso just refer to four different people? “Tiso, I thought there was only the Collector here. Why did you just refer to four people?”
Tiso blinks. “I didn’t- Oh!” He rubs his neck sheepishly. “The Collector is a pronoun hoarder. It will take any pronoun it hears and claim it as its own. I find it easiest to just use four. If it confuses you, I’ll try to stick to one, but no promises.”
“Hmph.” God Tamer examines the jar. “Well, do you think I can get the lid off?”
“It sealed it shut with Void, but I might be able to loosen it enough for you.” Tiso presses his hands to the lid and the black seal liquifies slightly. “Now hurry up, before they come back.”
So much for sticking to one pronoun set. God Tamer takes a knife from her hip and begins prying the Void seal apart. “How long?”
“...He's in the tower somewhere, but not near. She could be here at any moment.” Tiso closes his eyes. “Gosh, the Pale Wyrm did a number on it.”
“Hm.” God Tamer continues loosening the lid.
“Hey, Mansa?” Tiso says. “Thanks for coming to look for me.”
God Tamer, Mansa, rolls her eyes. Of course Tiso would get all sappy when she’s saving his life. Calling her by her name. Not even her full name. “Of course, why wouldn’t I, little warrior man? I love the new accent, by the way.”
Tiso’s face glows lifeblood blue, the way it does when he’s embarrassed. “Listen, you didn’t know how to talk your native language the moment you're born. Sometimes you forget what language you’re supposed to speak when you learn so many. It’s the Voidtongue accent.”
Mansa snorts and continues loosening the lid, narrowing in on the task.
“...amer! Mansa!” Tiso yells at Mansa mentally, kicking her out of her stupor. “The Collector is coming! Hide!”
“What?” Laughter. Giggling laughter of the Collector. “No, I have a little time.”
“Oh, for the Shade Lord’s sake, do you have any idea what it's capable of? Get down, hide! If they spot you, run!”
Mansa carefully jumps down, landing in a roll. She doesn’t have enough time to hide before the Collector enters the room. She stares at it, frozen like a tiktik facing fire.
Tiso smacks his hands against his forehead and says something in Voidtongue that’s probably a curse. The Collector chastises him. Mansa unfreezes and bolts, replacing her lance on her back. She doesn’t get far before the Collector lets out a scream of joy, a battle cry. She covers the sides of her head where her eardrums are but the sound is louder than that. She crumples, ears ringing. The Collector hops over to her, crooning quietly. It picks her up with one hand, flipping her helmet open and poking her stomach.
Tiso yells at it in Voidtongue. The Collector holds her tight to its chest, responding in a hurt tone. Tiso pauses, considering his next words carefully. He says his words slowly, in a calm and curious tone. He’s manipulating the gruzzer. Oh, Mansa taught him well. The Collector holds Mansa upside down at arms’ length, holding both of her legs, each in a different hand, the other two under its chin in a thoughtful pose. The Collector laughs and seems to agree with Tiso, hugging Mansa to its chest.
It finds a jar for Mansa and opens it with a laugh. It takes her lance and throws it aside. It lands somewhere in the pile of jars. The Collector carefully sets her in the jar and puts the lid on it tightly. Unlike Tiso’s, her lid has holes in it. She’s not sure how to react to that. The Collector pats it proudly and returns to place her next to Tiso on the shelf. It adjusts them on the shelf then scampers off into the unknown.
“What did you tell it?” Mansa asks Tiso.
“I asked if you could be put next to me because you seemed so lonely.” Tiso slams his knife into the glass. “I mean, now we’re both stuck, so…”
“If you had let me shatter the glass, we could be out of here and on our way back to the Colosseum.”
Tiso scoffs. “No, he would have caught us and put us far away from each other. Be glad I managed to convince her to put us near each other.”
“Hm.” Mansa points at Tiso’s lid. “Why doesn’t your lid have holes in it?”
Tiso looks at her lid then back at his. “I didn’t notice. I don’t have to breathe, technically, it’s something I prefer to do. It probably removed the holes so I can’t seep out.”
“Can you do that with such tiny holes?”
“I've never tried.”
The two sit in silence.
“Who's going to come for us now?” Mansa says.
Tiso shrugs. “The spider?”
Mansa laughs. “That would be hilarious. I doubt it.”
Ghost finishes the Trial and Crystal Dashes out of the arena, stopping next to Little Fool, pride in their posture.
Little Fool looks at the arena then back at them. “You can pay to unlock the Trial of the Fool, but God Tamer is out looking for Tiso, so you can't fight her.”
Tiso? But Tiso died? They saw his body! Ghost tips their head and quietly says, “...Saw him dead…”
“Ah! You can speak. No, he wasn't dead. He would have recovered easily from that. By this point.” Little Fool wiggles in his chains. “Do you think you can go find them?”
Of course! Ghost nods vigorously. They will always go looking for their friends. They change their charms on the bench then descend Kingdom's Edge looking for the two.
Well, Tiso really. They've never met God Tamer so they don't know what she looks like. Will she look like Tiso? Hornet? Quirrel? Any of the ghosts in Spirit's Glade? The possibilities are endless.
Ghost wanders Kingdom's Edge, looking for any sign of God Tamer or Tiso. Tiso's body is gone, and in his place are handprints. Ghost looks at their mitten fingers. They don't have handprints like that. It looks cool. Maybe this is what took Tiso and God Tamer?
They enter the doorway underneath the ledge that leads to the City of Tears and the Tower of Love. Maybe this leads to Tiso and God Tamer! They just unlocked the door when they came by, they didn’t go in.
Before they do go in, Ghost goes to the King’s Station bench and sits for a moment. They return to the Tower of Love and head in.
Hm. Perhaps they should have changed their charms to a battle set? Then again, they have no idea if there is a battle in here. There’s just laughing. It’s fun. They like laughing. Ghost laughs a little to themself.
“Pale thing!” Ghost looks up in surprise. Tiso! It’s him! There he is! Ghost claps their hands. He’s in a jar. That bug in a jar next to him must be God Tamer. “Look out! The Collector!”
Look out for what?
Something big and black drops from the ceiling. It rears back and lets out a joyful battle cry. Ghost hunches their shoulders at the noise. Loud loud loud loud loud.
They should have changed their charms to a battle set.
The Collector leaps back, laughing. They jump back into the ceiling, dropping a jar with a vengefly in it at them. Ghost hits it with their nail, turning to face the Collector, only for the Collector to return to the ceiling.
Tiso yells something Ghost doesn’t understand but gets the feeling they should. It sounds like the Void water in the Abyss, not like the water in Blue Lake or the City of Tears. It makes their Shade shift in their shell slightly but not uncomfortably. They turn toward him in confusion, tipping their head.
The Collector jumps back onto them, knocking them off balance. They laugh, grabbing at them. Ghost dashes through them, brandishing their nail. They attack, the Collector making a sound similar to the Siblings and their Shade when they hit them. They heal when the Collector jumps into the ceiling, slashing at the aspid dropped at them. They miss the baldur at their feet and it knocks them off balance. They get back up, swinging blindly. Bad bad bad bad bad.
The Collector slashes at Ghost, knocking them to one mask. They stand shakily, Void leaking from their shell.
Tiso is yelling at the Collector in that strangely familiar language. Ghost heals but then gets knocked back down to one mask by a baldur.
The Collector smacks Ghost, cracking their mask
Pain pain pain pain pain
Their shell cracks and their Shade emerges with an empty scream
Tiso slams his fists against the jar, screaming in Voidtongue. The Collector ignores him, continuing to attack the Vessel.
“Tiso, what's wrong!?” Mansa asks.
“It's going to kill them. They're going to kill them. They don't have the same connection to the Void and Lifeblood we do to heal.” Tiso slams his body into the glass, trying to knock it off the shelf. He yells in Voidtongue, trying to get the Collector's attention.
The Collector's arm smacks the Vessel and the Vessel’s mask cracks, their cloak and shell dissolving. A Void thing appears from their body, tendrils trailing from its core. It looks in pain for a few seconds then floats there, confused. Tiso's heartbroken wail is a sound Mansa never wants to hear again. It makes the air ripple, not by its volume, but by its power and proximity. The Vessel's mask hits the ground, resting there for a few seconds before disappearing.
Mansa stares at the Void thing that just came out of the Vessel. A nail made of something grey rests on its back. The Collector pokes at it and it screeches at the Collector. The Collector grabs it and puts it in a jar. The Void thing slashes against the glass for a few seconds then hovers, dipping its head, like a puppet with cut strings.
Tiso snarls and speaks in Voidtongue. Or something more ancient and deep, because somehow Mansa can understand him and that terrifies her. “Pray that the Lifeblood Creature and the Shade Lord shall have mercy upon you because I will give you none.”
The Collector chides him and sets its new prize near the door, dashing into the tower to care for something further inside.
Tiso stares at the Void thing. “Tiso,” Mansa says slowly and softly, trying to be kind. “What is that?”
“A Shade. I’ve never seen one last this long away from a Void sea.” Tiso pauses, trying to figure out his words. “Think of it as… A proto-Void being. It’s not ready to be alive yet. I’ve never seen one so well defined and stable. The Wyrmlings should not be Void. Seeing this, my best guess is that the Shades were stuffed in the Vessel shells by the Pale Wyrm and the White Root, leaving nothing but regret behind that was stabilized by Void.”
He’s rambling. Mansa knows Tiso. He is a good fighter and she’s aware he’s holding back with his Void powers. He could tear the Colosseum in half if he wanted to.
(There are rumors he killed Lord Fool and the Pale King.)
(Tiso had killed Lord Fool. Lord Fool was Infected. Tiso had cried.)
Mansa knows Tiso. She’s known him for hundreds of years. Tiso rambling means he’s shaken. He hasn’t been this shaken since Pale Lurker went missing a hundred or so years ago. They found her, of course, but it’s frustrating when you only have one person to talk to and he’s having a breakdown because your friend is missing.
“Tiso, I need you to snap out of your breakdown and talk to me! Crying isn’t going to make the Vessel any less dead!” Mansa is not a very nice person. She knows this.
Tiso looks at her, Void tears on his face. “...I know. Just… I know.” He pulls his hood over his face and looks away from her.
Mansa feels a little bad. “...Sorry.”
“...Yeah.”
They wake up on the bench, thoughts muffled.
They had died.
They were rescuing Tiso from the Collector and they had died.
Hmm.
They need to get their Shade back.
They do not know if their Shade is in the center of the room or near the door.
They change their charms. Yes. These are good for a battle set.
They get off the bench. They head towards their Shade. It is not far.
Their Shade is in a jar. Odd.
A voice. Two voices. The voices may be directed in their direction. They are not certain.
They approach the jar with their Shade in it. They smash it with their nail. Their Shade snarls. It lashes out at them. They fight it, slashing it a few times before it returns to their shell.
Ghost shakes their head, their thoughts no longer muffled by their absent Shade. They blink, looking around.
“Ghost, oh Gods, you're alive, oh my Gods. I can't believe it.” Tiso presses a hand to his face. “I thought you were dead.”
Ghost straightens, pride in their posture. “I'm t… Ten… Tenacious! That's what Hornet called me. I will rescue you! I just need to defeat the Collector.”
“Good luck,” Tiso says. He says something in that strange language that makes Ghost feel ready.
Ghost steps further into the room and the gates shut behind them. The Collector jumps down from the ceiling and screams in laughter. Ghost hunches their shoulders. Loud loud loud loud.
The Collector leaps away and Ghost gets ready to fight.
The aspids are by far the worst of the group. Ghost can fight off the baldurs and vengeflies easily, but the aspids spit Infection and fly away. Ghost uses their Abyss Shriek to get rid of an aspid that’s out of reach of their nail and Tiso and God Tamer jump at the spell.
The Collector staggers at one point and Ghost Dream Nails them for Soul to heal. Their thoughts are ragged and confusing and give Ghost a headache. Ghost doesn't like it. The Collector gets back up and leaps into the ceiling before Ghost can attack them.
After another minute, Ghost is getting really tired. They don't want to die again! They have to free Tiso and God Tamer! They have to! They promised Little Fool! The Collector laughs and swipes at Ghost. Ghost swings their nail HARD and the Collector leans over, clutching its stomach. Ghost gets rid of the baldur and the vengefly then cautiously approaches the Collector. They smack them with their nail. When the Collector doesn't stand back up, they continue, determined.
The Collector rears back and lets out a hysterical scream of laughter, trailing off when they liquify and sink into the floor.
Ghost straightens proudly then focuses, filling their Masks. They climb up to Tiso and God Tamer, flapping their wings once on the shelf to keep their balance. They smash God Tamer’s jar open then step past her to smash Tiso’s jar. They bow to the two then jump down, leaving room for the two on the shelf.
“Mi’lady,” Tiso says to God Tamer cheekily. God Tamer smacks him and grabs the edge of the shelf. She swings down, dropping to the floor next to Ghost in a crouch. Tiso laughs and jumps down, landing on his feet. “Well done, Sibl- Ghost!” He holds out his hand and Ghost gives him a high four. “That was fantastic!”
Ghost bows their head, looking at the floor, embarrassed. “Thank you.”
“Yes. Very well done,” God Tamer says. “What do you go by?”
Ghost looks up at her, straightening their posture. “Ghost of Hallownest. That’s what my sister Hornet calls me.”
“Hornet is-? You know, that makes sense, not gonna ask,” Tiso says. “I’m going to go check for my armor and your lance, Ma- Tamer.” He walks away, looking through the jars.
“Well, Ghost of Hallownest, who sent you here? Or did you come here on your own?”
“Little Fool! He said Tiso wasn’t dead even though I thought he was because I saw him lying on the ground and he said that you went looking for him and he asked me to look for you guys and I always look for my friends!”
God Tamer snorts. “You think that?”
“Of course!” If Ghost had a mouth they would smile widely. “I’ve only met Tiso four times and he’s a little weird-”
“Ouch,” Tiso says. If that’s from broken glass or Ghost’s words, Ghost can’t tell.
“-but I like him!”
“That’s amicable.”
Ghost tips their head. “What’s that mean?”
Tiso comes over carrying a long weapon. “She means that I’m a cool person and you have good taste.”
God Tamer does a funny shape with her hand. “Don’t do this hand sign, Ghost.”
“Yes, ma’am. But I don’t have fingers to do it anyway.”
“Aw, look at them, all polite, ma’am God Tamer,” Tiso teases. “Here’s your lance.”
God Tamer takes the weapon from Tiso. “Thank you.”
“Wow… That’s really big!” Ghost thinks her weapon is neat! They then realize all the jars look familiar and gasp. “Wait! I recognize these!” They run further into the Tower, leaving Tiso and God Tamer behind confused.
Tiso follows them, grabbing them with an arm that stretches a bit too far, just like the Collector’s. Creepy. “Where are you going, Pale Thing? The Collector liquified, but that doesn’t mean it can’t recover quickly.”
“Grubs! The Collector collected the grubs and put them in jars! I got to grab them!” Ghost pulls Tiso with them through the tower. The second part of Tiso’s sentence registers and Ghost turns to look at him. “What about the Collector recovering?”
“The Collector is Void like you and me, they can recover from their injuries over time,” Tiso says nonchalantly, as if revealing he’s made out of the same thing Ghost is isn’t a big discovery.
“You’re WHAT?” Ghost says.
Tiso freezes. “Oops.”
“Nice going, Void Thing!” God Tamer yells from the other room. “Go on, have fun! I'll look for your things in here!”
Ghost brightens in posture and tugs Tiso deeper into the tower. They start asking Tiso a lot of questions about the Void and how it works, Tiso trying to answer them almost as fast as they ask. Which is very fast, they’re really curious! Ghost lets go of Tiso’s hand and climbs up the wall when they reach a collapsed ramp, or maybe it’s a collapsed staircase? Ghost has never been able to tell. They land at the top, flapping their wings once to catch their balance.
Tiso climbs up after them. “Careful, the Collector might reform.” He mumbles something about how he’d like to fight it, show them not to mess with children.
“But the grubs!” Ghost dashes along the hallway. They spy three grubs in jars. They smash the jars and the grubs cheer before burrowing into the floor. They’ve never been sure how that works. They’re inside a building, how do they know how to get home? At the end of the hall is a desk. Ghost examines the desk and sees a map. It has grubs on it! “Ooh…” They lay out their map of Hallownest and take the Collector’s map. They lay it on top of their map. “Look! Grubs!”
“They sure are,” Tiso agrees.
Ghost takes the Collector’s grub pins and puts them on their map in the exact same locations. “Hm. I don’t have that map yet…” They close the Collector’s map and stick it in their Void storage. They close their map and do the same. “I’m going to free everything that was collected!”
Tiso mumbles something about the Collector again. “You know, just for you, I’ll make sure once the Collector reforms, it can’t go recollect the grubs for a long time. Or collect anything else either.”
“Really?” Ghost looks up at Tiso in awe.
“Yeah. Just for you.” Tiso grins, baring fangs that he definitely didn’t have earlier. “Don’t worry about your grubs, kiddo. Or yourself. The Collector won’t bother anyone for a really long time.”
Ghost distantly wonders if they should be worried about the Collector.
“Void Thing! I found your armor!” God Tamer yells. “Come get it or I’ll leave you behind!”
Tiso picks Ghost up, who wiggles in his grasp, and walks back to the collapsed staircase. He jumps down and sets Ghost back on the ground. “Thank you kindly, Tamer.” He takes his armor from God Tamer and puts it on, holding his cape up. It has a big crack in it.
“Thank you again, Ghost,” God Tamer says. “Come join us in the Colosseum if you so choose. That was a wonderful fight.”
Ghost bows gratefully. “Okay! Goodbye!” They dash out of the tower, off to find new things to discover. They’ll go back for the Trial of the Fool later.
Mansa thanks the tiny Vessel and they bow, happy for the praise. They dash away, leaving her and Tiso in the Tower of Love.
“Well, God Tamer,” Tiso says. “I think it’s time we return home.”
Mansa, God Tamer, agrees. She has had enough of listening to the rain.
The two Colosseum Fools leave the Tower of Love and climb up the cliff back to the Colosseum of Fools. God Tamer returns to her room to care for her beast and prepare for challengers of the Trial of the Fool. Tiso sweeps through the Trial of the Warrior and the Trial of the Conqueror like he usually does before returning to bother the other Uninfected Colosseum Fools.
God Tamer is glad to be back to the Colosseum and out of the Tower of Love. Less tiny jars and only one annoying Void thing. She's not going back to the City of Tears for a long time. Her job is to run the Colosseum of Fools alongside Tiso and Little Fool and not much else.
So when a few days later, Tiso tells her he's going back to the Tower of Love for some unfinished business with his fangs bared in a grin and returns buzzed like he does after a large meal of Void, well, that's none of her business, is it?