Any Price Paid

by Astr0_fail

Summary:

The Radiance attempts to read the mind of the little vessel that's challenged her. Ghost takes the opportunity to have an anime-esque "i fight for my loved ones and will continue to do so" moment

Notes:

heyo!! i have realized that my strength in writing is oneshots that are all contained in the same universe, because multi chapter fics tend to get a little lost in my brain's mental checklist. so expect more of these fun little babies!! not on any specific schedule, or even soon, but i swear on my singular kraft mac n cheese cup that there will be more of this and if there's not?? bully me

The little shadow, Her ancient enemy, challenges Her once again. No matter how many times She has torn it apart, has sent it right back to the beginning to face each challenge over, it climbs back up to face Her. She has seen it take out that nail of dream, a creation of Her dear moths. She has seen it swung at Her, seen it drawing soul out of the air it’s crossed, and felt the little vessel prying at Her mind. It is not exactly subtle.

She figures that if the little thing can pry into Her thoughts, She might as well return the favor, though She knows well that it does not pay to be blatantly obvious.

Though the void is her opposite, all that She is not and could never be, She has learned from Her imprisonment how to peer into that empty abyss and glean what lies inside. The Hollow one was hardly hollow at all, a testament to its sire's folly, and their torment had greatly amused Her on duller days. She had learned well, and at the peak of Her power She had no difficulty scraping the surface thoughts of the tiny creature locked in battle with Her.

“For Siblings… Any Price Paid…” It was struck by Her blade.

“For Friends… Any Wound Withstood…” It dodged away to a lower platform and began trying to heal.

“For Children… Any Battle Fought…” It leapt back up with its nail already drawn.

“For Kingdom… For Home…” It launched a spell at Her, and She barely teleported away in time.

She sought to dig deeper, to perhaps find the core of it and crush it under Her blinding Light, but it suddenly and swiftly pushed Her out, as though She were nothing but a curious grub poking around another bug's belongings and not the Goddess of Light and Dream.

She realized, then, that perhaps Her prying did not go unnoticed. Then, She wondered why it so freely let Her see into its thoughts for as long as it did. To prove its determination? To attempt to intimidate Her? To distract Her from the battle?

If that were the goal, it succeeded, for it distracted Her just enough for the little thing to fire off another void-tinged spell and have it hit. So She fled to the highest point in the Dream, and waited.

Notes:

radi get out of ghost's head they're having a no cost too great moment cause they think winning will kill them permanently and they're too focused on that and the battle to keep kicking you out

originally there WAS actually one more thought which was "no cost too great" and radiance would get distracted by trying not to laugh at the irony of the pale king's creation thinking the exact same thought with entirely different motive behind it but i realized that 1: matpat and his insanity does NOT need any food from us no i have NOT forgotten that shit, and 2: ghost is currently of the mind that punching tpk's corpse should be a professional sport and would actively avoid being anything like the king, as any reasonable person would, hence the dancing around explicitly thinking "no cost too great" despite that basically being what they're feeling because quoting a bad person is no good in their book

also who are the children?? they're grimmchild and the weaverlings next question

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 1 of Forgotten Kin Au