The king was coming out from a annoying meeting... he wished for alice to be with him for it... but she was tending to other matters at the moment... she always told him... if I can help you by doing some pesky jobs here and there it less work for you and more time to spend with the family...

You were god send... you had to be... only a god would send someone just as perfecto as you to help his sorry ass... your weird and insulting ways of speech are rubbing on him... but they were such a delight to say specially if they brought about such a smile to your face...

He wishes that his relationship with her wife would be as half as nice as it was his relationship with you... she was fervent and not wanting to be by his side again... secluding herself in her gardens... at least he knew she was safe for the moment and not lost in a dangerous place... Alice told him not to seek to be his husband just yet, to first win their friendship ... and he accepted, after all ... they had children together...

He contemplated his surroundings... the castle hade more color not just white silver and tones of black and grey... colorful flowers in the bases... each corridor had a different color lining in the flags... at first it was a suggestion to help Alice not to get lost around the palace... red markings meant that it was near the knights and warriors... light green meant garden area, light brown was for the kitchen, brown was for storage, light blue was the medical area, purple lining meant only royal family grounds (areas where Alice could freely be without a mask), purple and pink meant her work area, so her private office and library and small garden, silver meant pale king work area so his office, work studio and laboratory, and golden and silver together meant for the areas where everyone in the castle could be form the palace workers and knights to the special guests... the palace felt more alive than ever... (And orange meant dangerous areas like the labs or any area that could contain infection)

This was certain very different that in the past... in so many ways... Many will wonder what has happened in all this time, because the plan followed its course ... they decided to wake up the sleepers once everything was ready ... it was Alice who went on a trip to wake up the sleepers together with Ogrim ..

Lurien was the closest and that was awakened by the king himself, while Alice left on her journey where she found ... three insects... a traveler named Quirrel and a little Vessel ... who was delighted with Alice ... so like all mama bear ... she adopted him ... little savage really sheeshh ... then they traveled through hallownest and when they reached greenpath they found Isma... the poor thing went in to a depressed state that she literally almost become part of the greenpath... seriously, she almost becomes a tree... also Ogrim was very happy to see her...

Alice: -"I ship it"

And with their help we were able to walk through the acid and reach monomon, where they woke her up ... and when they sought to return they found two small injured vessels ... and well, Alice's bleeding heart returned to act and took them with her to the castle...

While Monomon, Lurien and the King created a kind of containment tube for the radiance drops to be the containment capsules for the infection and take the place of the hollowknight, Alice left with little ghost and Ogrim to deepnest. .. Where they found smaller vessels in a Nosk nest...

When they arrived at deepnest they found the princess of the place ... hornet, who guided them to where Herra was ... carefully they woke her up and took her to the castle

on the journey back to the castle ... they were attacked by the treacherous mantis and it was where you could see how far ghost was a savage and Hornet was not far behind ... God Quirrel was crazy to... and that was where they met an ally ... a friend of ghost ... the hunter ... who was making eyes at Herra all the way to the castle as he did the favor of escorting them...

Alice: -"so much shipping"

With the help of a shaman moth who had a secret token from the nightmare king, they were able to transfer the radience influence out of the hollowknight into the tubes and save it... his son... when he stood in front of him... the hollow knight throw himself to the pale king's arms...

they have never been a doubt that the hollow not only was faithful to the king... but he also...love him... he always knew he was his father... and to make his father happy he would go through any hardship to make him happy... such a loyal son... in his mind it has always been their father beside him... always him...

his recovery was slow and full of problems but not unsuccessful ... apparently having his siblings, especially ghost, made him develop more personality ... over time more vessels arrived but not all grew, some stayed small growing up which was a normal rhythm, but some vessels developed metamorphosis ... to grow up like the now called "HOLLOW" because he refused to respond to any other name...

hornet was a recurrent visitor of the palace even after her mother was healed up and returned to the deepnest to restore order to it... she and ghost always had such a strange relationship... it seems as they knew from before... they are always fighting around because ghost was such a carefree soul not showing that he gives a fudge about anything and that gets hornet on her nerves

ivy thinks it's hilarious and groot is a worrywart who gets stressed when those two play fight... ivy is like me I found it hilarious, ghost it's also like me, I'm a little care free and give no s#it about annoying stuff... hornet is too much like the pale king always worrying and want to everything to be precise, also like herra because she does not take kindly about not receiving the attention she seeks when she wants it...

After many days and even months of searching around hallownest some of the people that the king use to trust had pass away... like some of his more trusted knight and ever from the 5 great knights, words came that unfortunately one of the knights died called Hegemol and Ze'mer refused to be a knight again, not after his partner died ... shortly after, she died as well, once she was helped to visit the grave of his deceased partner... something very sad indeed...

one day a visitor came to the palace... it was another of the great five knights... it was dryya... bringing words from the white lady to inquire the truth about her surviving children living in the palace and her wish to see her children and so to bring them to her location...

it was hell of an awkward situation... she was clear in her resolution to remain in her shelter in her garden... the pale king beg her to come back but she was resolute in her wishes... so after avoiding making a bigger scene Alice suggested a truce... and faced the queen for the first time...

and her protective instincts were haywire... she was so blunt and so forward to tell the king at his face that she wanted to keep all the children with her, because he could not be trusted to raise them properly or keep them safe, not with all the pain that he put them through...

°°hell no, no you don't just say that to him...heck no missy this won't do...°° said Alice in her head

Alice was not happy at all about how she was literally berating him for something he regrets doing, and that pains him more than anything... she always knew that she will have this conversation with her someday... but she never expected that it would be so soon... well... let's get the dice rolling...

Warning: Alice is about to school the white lady... minding that she is the cutest root ever to exist...so she is going to try and be polite... but cutting the shit out like ripping a Band-Aid, its hurts but it will be fast...

Alice was standing before the queen, -"arguing will lead to nothing, both have different desires and very big resolutions ... but both share two things that they cannot deny ... they still care about each other and above all they wish the best for their children" said Alice

Dryya pointed her lance at her -"who are you?"

Alice swatted the point of the lance away from her face -"I'm the Amethyst Lady, the king's minister, I have come from faraway lands to help the pale king restore this kingdom"

The queen stared at the masked purple robed bug...???...creature??? Her sight was very bad now that she has being secluded in this dark cocoon of hers...

-"you speak the truth outsider, but I can't let him keep the children, not after all that he have done" said the white lady... the pale king grabbed the front of his robe... it hurt... it hurt having that be throw at his face... by someone he cared about...

The masked bug let out a chuckle –"pretty words coming from someone who is as guilty as him" said Alice...

-"HOW DARE YOU?" screamed dryya, and throw and attack but hollow was faster and protected Alice...

-"my child why?" asked the white lady...

-"because after everything, he still loves his father and wishes to stay by his side... don't you see he endured all that pain for his father until the very end... do you know what was the first thing he did once he was free from the radience?...it was hug him"

Hollow swatted the nail of dryya's hands, and the rest of the small vessel rapidly took it, hissing at dryya when she went to retrieve it... they will not let no one try to hurt... the nice lady who take care of them and his father...

Well the truth is that they think something else of her (new momma... purple momma) but no one knows this because they still can't speak words... so shhhhh don't tell....

-"do you hate the pale king?" asked Alice

-"........no ... I do not... I still care about him... but it was too much for me to see what was of the fate of our children and then the one it grew in the castle only to lose it" she said crying

-"good, because hating him will mean hating yourself to, because as I said you are as guilty as him"

-"SHE DID NOTHING" screamed dryya

-" exactly, you didn't do anything ... when he suggested the idea, you didn't suggest anything else ... when he was making his plan, you didn't stop it ... when your son was sacrificed to save the kingdom, you just saw it happen ... you didn't do anything ... you didn't do anything bad ... but you didn't do anything right too ... in my land there is a saying, so guilty is the spider that weaves the web that catches the fly, like the insect that sees the fly fly to the net and remains silent" said Alice with resolution.

-"I never wanted to this to happen to them, for them to suffer"

-"but it happened, do you think he wanted to submit his children to it to?... do you think it did not hurt him?... not because he does not shows it easily means that he does not carry the guilt... don't you see, he had to keep al his pain and sorrow, he had to swallow his regrets his own hopes and dreams... to keep the whole kingdom from crumbling... they needed hope so he had to keep everything inside of him... even when it was eating him inside, a pain that consume him every single day... don't you dare to think he did not suffer about this, you both lost several of you children in this hellish place... but he was the one who watched them die" Alice said

The king hold her hand with his trembling one... he was getting in shock... he was about to have a panic attack...

The white lady started to cry –"I am so sorry, wyrm, I'm sorry for leaving you behind I'm sorry"

-"its ok... I don't blame you... ali.... I mean lady amethyst told me that sometimes people deal with pain in different ways... you just choose the one who will pain you less"

Alice took one of the roots of the white lady and place it in the pale king's hand...

-"What is done can never be undone... you just can do better and wish for the best"

-"I don't want to lose my children again" she said holding tighter the pale kings hand

-"neither i... I want to be better for them..." said the pale king looking at the white lady in the eyes...

-" Let's be honest look at this place, even with your power and your knight, you won't be able to protect all the children ... you don't have enough shelter to keep them safe from the dangers of this place, and also they also want to be with their father, would you deny them that? "Said Alice

-"no, but what can we do?" said the white lady

-"may I suggest a solution?" said Alice

-"please do" said the pale king

-"in my land there are situations similar to this, when two parents do not live together they make an agreement called ... shared custody ... the children will have free access to both parents with regular visits to both ...."

-"dual parenting?" said both of the monarchs

And so she explain them the term and they discussed the custody terms: Dual parenting/ share custody, so both share parenting rights... the kids live in the palace because it was bigger, but they went and visit their mother freely... specially the small ones... the first tier vessels that Alice considered toddlers/kids.... The second tier ones, like hornet were considered like teens... and the third tier ones where considered young adults in human spectrum will be like in between 18 years old and their early twenty's... but...hollow was the eldest, he was a fourth tier vessel... so he was a full adult between his middle twenties or early thirty's...

Some vessels liked to stay with their mother in the queen's garden ... others liked more to stay in the castle ... even so they visited both places...

Over time Hallownest began to improve and life began again in that once almost dead kingdom...

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