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The Pale King straightened his robes and faced the Dreamers.
"Four Pure Vessels have ascended--"
"Three," Herrah interrupted.
The Pale King counted the vessels. The first ascended, the two-horned vessel, was sitting quietly in Lurien's lap. The other smaller two-horned vessel was on Monomon’s assistant and tugging at his bandana, the three-horned vessel with the wings had somehow ended up in Herrah’s arms.
One of his vessels was missing.
***
Said vessel was currently busy crawling through the greenery of the gardens looking for a mosscreep.
"Should you not follow your creator, vessel?" The White Lady said as the four-horned vessel toddled out of the few thornless vines and pulled themself up on one of her roots.
The four-horned vessel, surprised, turned to look at the entrance, and then scanned the entire garden for the Pale King and their siblings. Only to see nothing but a few mossflies and an aluba drifting nearby.
They were all alone. For the first time in their admittedly short and uneventful life, they could not sense their siblings or the Pale King. It was a little exciting, yet also made them anxious. Would their siblings come back? Would the Pale King come for them? A little unsure, the four-horned vessel tilted their head to look up at the White Lady.
"My Wyrm must have forgotten to give it an order. He has been most tired and distracted of late. Would it follow, I wonder, if I command it?" The White Lady made a move to unroot herself, but then stilled as if she had heard something. "Ah. The Gendered Child draws near."
The Gendered Child?
A bug, with a white crescent moon face and black limbs, stood in the entrance of the garden. The bug looked like them, but they wore a red cloak. The vessel had never seen such color on the other siblings, but still, they hadn’t check every sibling. How had they left the Abyss?
“Sibling?” They said uncertainly through the void.
"I am the Princess of Deepnest. Who are you?" The Gendered Child said.
Not a sibling, then.
“Vessel!” They introduced themself hurriedly.
She didn’t seem to be able to hear. They stared at each other for a long moment. The vessel waited for the Princess to say something else.
The Princess held up a long needle, pointing it at them.
"Intruder! I will protect you, Mother!"
There was a whoosh as the needle she held flew through the air. The vessel jumped as high as they could to avoid it, dashing through the vines.
But they didn’t do anything! They were sorry! Whatever they did. They wouldn't do it again! They should have followed the Light and their siblings, but they had been drawn to all the vibrance of life and the soft glow the 'Root', as the Light had called her, emitted. They had only lingered a little bit. They only wanted to see the flowers. But when they turned around, their siblings were gone. They regretted everything! Don’t hurt them!
"Sibling!" they called desperately, tears welling up in their eyes as they ran away from the Princess. Where were their siblings?
They tripped over one of the threads the Princess had set up. Falling flat onto the ground.
No!
They dashed again. Was this the end? But they had so much they wanted to see and do! They had to get to their siblings!
The Princess' red cloak flared as she raised all of her arms, her weapon held menacingly above her. The vessel could see white thread reflecting the light—they tried to dash one more time—
"SHAW!"
***
The White Lady watched through half-lidded eyes as the Gendered Child chased the vessel through her gardens. The vessel could make short hops in the air, but even that wasn't enough for the clever little spiderling. The Gendered Child had set up traps with her silk as she ran after the vessel.
Even though they dashed as many times as they could, the four-horned vessel finally fell into the Gendered Child’s trap and ran straight into her.
Already a master of Soul, she wrapped the vessel in a cocoon of Soul-Silk, leaving only their head free.
"I caught the intruder!" The Gendered Child's little red cloak flared as she spread all three sets of her arms gleefully.
"A wonderful hunt, Gendered Child," the White Lady praised.
"Yes! I need to show Mama and Father," The Gendered Child insisted, but after a few tugs, realized the cocooned vessel was too heavy for her to carry. They were roughly the same size.
"Why don't you go and tell them to come? Your prey will be safe here with me."
“Okay!” The Gendered Child chirped happily and skipped off to bother the Dreamers and the Pale King.
As far as the White Lady could tell from her roots, her husband was in trouble anyway. It might do him some good to actually look at his children.