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The Radiance and the Pale King spend too much time together. the Pantheon wasn’t inhabited by the other higher beings full time after all. They were the only ones without a corporeal form trapped forever in the bright, ethereal realm. Which meant in the meantimes between meetings to help the Shade Lord restabilize the dream realm and control their powers, they were both alone.
And it was numbingly boring
The Pale King was used to always be working, one of his pairs of hands twitched aimlessly clacking at the marble table the other held his head heavy with thoughts and no scape he felt heavy, tired and like exploding at the same time, and he was reminded of his lasts days after running to the dream realm once the infection took hold of his kingdom for the last time. Minutes and hours blended together in the realm, where nothing was real and yet it was at the same time in his palace of pure white, the sound of buzzsaws gently humming in the background, the perfect trap, the perfect prison, he’d been fine with the aimless boredom that time, accepted it as part of his punishment and in fact he didn't remember having this restless energy at all.
This time however, after being brought back to life by th Void, he didnt simply accept the endless boredom, now he had things to do. Help The Shade Lord. But there was no laboratory in the dream realm, so he was left with nothing but restless energy
He stared at the Radiance that sat across the table, she looked upwards at the empty soft golden sky above them. The Pantheon was a beautiful building, the sort that could only be created in dreams, it was a soft white not unlike the former White Palace, but without its harsh edges, instead the building was pearly and soft. The main room where they now sat was mostly empty save for the marble table and chairs, each chair for one of the gods present, the largest one, once pale white now, was an opaque black, a sharp contrast against the others in the room, signifying its new owner.
His eyes glazed over it now, it belonged to him once. It also did belong to the Radiance as well. But now both its previous owners sat on the edge of the table, the weakest of all gods, the void had stripped them of all power and left only the bare minimum allowing for an immaterial form.
“it has always belonged to the dark” the Radiance voice calls him from his thoughts
“what” he asked again
“the chair, this pantheon, your Hallownest. It always belonged to the dark” she repeated bitter “before my arrival, it was the void domain, and now it belongs to the lord of shades once more”
He nodded, the Chair ominous standing out against the white around it , it emanated a presence not unlike its current owner, engulfing the light around it.
“how futile it is don't you think” she continued “we both tried and failed to control the darkness below but it remained beyond our touch, and now we live only because they allow us to”
The Pale king said nothing. He rather not dwell on it, no doubt his crimes against the void far surpassed her. The motives behind the Shade Lord mercy for both of them still eluded the king.
“don't you find it unfair?” she asked again
“no i do not” he finally spoke, his voice was low where hers was loud.
“you died once too, you understand the pain” she insisted
“if you’re looking for sympathy you’ll find none in me” he said acidic standing up straight in his chair “i will never forgive you for what you forced me to do”
“forced you?” Radiance seemed to grow brighter in anger “ do not push your sins to me Worm, all i wanted was to be remembered! you started this when you stole my people”
“And i stole no one” he growled back wings flaring in anger “they chose me over you, all you had to do was accept it!”
“How can I accept! how can I accept when my own creations, my children chose…chose some worm over their god!” she gestured at him with dismissal and hatred “when all i did was for their well being, and all i asked was their love they left me, they forgot me, but i can't expect someone as heartless as you to understand”
He stared at her, wondering what she wanted him to say. In the past he wondered what he did to incite her ire, after all he didn't know the state of how things worked on the Moth tribe when he first arrived, simply giving minds to the bugs he encountered and gathering them under his rule. It was simple, and in his thoughts, if the moment they became self aware they chose to leave the Radiance it meant not all was as well as she remembered.
Except he understood, on some level, now after everything.
His kingdom fell just as hers did, his people the remaining ones forgot his name, his children the remaining ones, had no love for him. The difference, though, is that it was beyond him to ask for any of it, he understood his sins, his failures… were too big to demand their forgiveness. His pride blinded him once, now his light had faded to dim embers and he could see it. And he despised what he saw.
The Radiance seemed to still be blinded by her own light, unable to face her own failures.
“do not call me heartless Radiance, for is because i have a heart i regret my failures” he said “unlike you, who is perhaps still to blinded by your own light”
Perhaps calling her heartless was a stretch, he could clearly see Radiance was moved by emotion, anger mostly, and perhaps that anger was only to maintain that stubborn resistance against accepting her fate, because accepting it would mean facing the horrible crimes she committed. And he knew, oh he knew how easy was to turn a blind eye to it, to tell yourself that you’re in the right and the things you did were justified, for years while raising the Pure Vessel and before it , no it was wrong they as the Shade Lord had said, before they were broken, he maintained this mindset, and once the infection started again, once his failures were incontestable.
Only then he accepted what he had always known.
It was amusing how similar they both were, he thought bitterly.
The Radiance was quiet for once, her expression morphed into one of sadness, her faint light dimmed and the Pale king looked away, why he did so he couldn't understand himself, he shouldnt afford this fiend an ounce of sympathy. But maybe because how he saw himself reflected in her the king felt compelled to do so.
“i had a heart once” she said voice melancholic “ but i had to squash it to survive, how could i live with this betrayal, knowing all that i did was for nothing” she hesitated “that perhaps…they never loved me anyway”
The silence this time was heavy, he didn't dare to look at the Radiance, almost as if afraid of what he might see.
“all i ever wanted was their love, their attention i would do anything for that” she repeated again as if it was a mantra, no cost too great his mind whispered back “was that so wrong of me”
They remained in silence. Only the gentle clack of his claws against the marble table, he finally turned back to her. The Moth had wrapped her wings around her body as if for comfort, looking down at the ground beneath them.
The room felt oppressive and mocking all at once, two failed gods still standing beneath the golden sky
“and was it worth it”
“no” was her only reply, breathless and almost inaudible.
“Neither for me,” he said and it was the closest to sympathy he could offer her.