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"I have another quest!" Hornet Wanderer sang, leaping nimbly up the ladder in the middle of town.
"A delivery?" Hornet Hunter guessed. "To where?"
"Songclave," Wanderer answered. "We've been there plenty of times, so it shouldn't be too hard-"
Hunter unfolded her map. "So, how do you plan to get there?"
It suddenly hit Wanderer that they'd only once traveled to the Citadel without using the Bellways, and that doing so had meant an arduous trek through the Blasted Steps. Furthermore, that would be a very long and roundabout route, frustrating for someone who prided herself on getting deliveries done quickly. "...right."
All four sisters met in their bellhome, huddled around the desk.
"Maybe here-"
"No, it doesn't connect, see?"
"Here?"
"We don't even have a map for that part yet."
"I was sure Greymoor would connect to the Citadel," Wanderer said. "It just makes sense."
"Like the City of Tears and the Ancient Basin at home," Beast noted.
"In Hallownest, you mean," Reaper corrected. "Is this not our home now?"
"Please, let's not start this again," Wanderer interrupted. "Who said we have to choose just one?" Admittedly, Wanderer would be happier without a home at all, a place that could be attacked and ruined or worn down by time. Remaining in motion was really the best option for immortal beings. But if they had to have a home, they might as well have two, maybe even more than that.
"We're getting sidetracked," Hunter said. "We were trying to find the best route to the Songclave."
"And it's starting to look like the best route is the only route," Wanderer sighed.
"I... might have an idea," Beast said. "It's going to sound ridiculous, but it's better than those cliffs." She flipped over the map and began drawing. "Remember that fly outside of the Greymoor Bellway?"
Yeah; they remembered it, alright.
"It was wearing the Citadel logo, right?"
"Not sure I like where this is going," Hunter muttered.
Beast sketched a picture of a Hornet (which looked a lot like a folded umbrella and a fortune cookie) holding a gift box, then drew a cage around her. "What I'm saying is, if one of us gets captured on purpose, they'd bring her to the capital. From there, you could break out and finish the quest." She drew a needle in the Hornet's hand, then an arrow to the other side of the paper, and another quick sketch of the umbrella-fortune-cookie Hornet setting the gift box by a large bell.
"...no. Absolutely not," Hunter said. "I am not getting into another cage, temporary or not. And that's my map you just vandalized, by the way."
"It's better than the cliffs," Beast insisted. "Just play dead long enough to get in, then break out and kill them."
"Shouldn't you be the one getting into the cage, since this was your idea?" Hunter asked.
"No!" Beast shouted.
"I really could just take it through the cliffs," Wanderer said quietly. "It's not that big of a deal-"
"I think the big door closed behind us after we beat the Last Judge," Hunter said. "Not sure we could get in that way again."
"Wait, you couldn't have said that sooner!?"
"I'll do it," Reaper volunteered, staring intently at the scribbled drawing. "I will kill them all. I bet that big fly has a lot of silk in it."
"You," Wanderer said, "are a vampire. My sister is a silk vampire."
"Don't compare me to Grimm."
"Alright; it's settled," Beast interrupted before another argument could begin. "Reaper takes the supplies and gets captured; we wait for her at the exit to the Slab so we can defend her through the rest of the trip."
Just before the remaining half-weavers were about to board the Bell Beast and ride to the Citadel, Reaper came sprinting into the station, out of breath and half laughing. "I- I may have messed up a little?"
"What happened?" Hunter asked.
"I may have gotten reckless and taken some damage from mites, and I decided I didn't want to start out with so little health and silk in the Slab, so I tried to grab some silk from the fly before letting it capture me. And I went a little overboard and killed him? And they're not sending any more; I went and sat down on the bench for a while, and I came back and there weren't any more flies waiting for me. Is- did I just lock us out of the Citadel? Did I mess up?"
"Wow," Beast said. "And you all say I'm bloodthirsty. I don't think I've ever killed anyone accidentally."
"If you're both insistent on committing to this bit," Hunter said, "I do not think we're out of hope. I've seen another, wandering around Far Fields I think? Or Hunter's March, maybe?"
"That's two entire biomes," Reaper pointed out. "That's kind of vague."
"I could still go up through the cliffs and see if the door's open," Wanderer said. "But... Reaper and Beast may have a point, honestly. We still need to access the rest of the slab if we want to add it to the map."
"Trying to impress Shakra?" Beast teased.
"I'm taking your side here," Wanderer pointed out. "I can change my mind again if you'd prefer."
"Alright," Hunter said. "Beast and Wanderer can take Far Fields; Reaper and I will take Hunter's March. Whoever finds the fly first comes back and lets us know. Even you, Reaper, if we end up separated."
"I'm not just going to get captured without warning you first," Reaper said. "I don't even have the supply package right now; it broke in my hurry to get back."
As it turned out, the fly was not in Far Fields. Nor was it in Hunter's March, though in hindsight Hunter thought that should have been obvious; the ants would have already killed any flies that managed to get in.
"Maybe it just left?" Wanderer suggested when they met up at the Far Fields Bellway station. "I can't imagine continuing to patrol one area for so long-"
"-City of Tears," Reaper pointed out.
"Well, but the city had a lot of room to leap around," Wanderer pointed out. "And I never stuck around the city as long as Hunter did, anyway."
"Is there an area we might have missed?" Beast asked.
Hunter opened her map, and Wanderer almost giggled at the sight of Beast's bad drawings still on the back of the paper. Beast and Reaper, the two tallest (though only by a little), loomed over Hunter's shoulders to read the map.
Eventually, Wanderer moved closer to look at the map as well, sitting right next to Hunter and leaning on her. Wanderer was clearly aware of how annoying she was being, but Hunter refused to push her out of the way- maybe to spite her, or maybe because she actually appreciated the contact. It was impossible to tell; she never looked away from the map.
"...Deep Docks?" Reaper said eventually.
They thought about it for a second.
"Deep Docks," they agreed.
After much climbing through ice-cold cliffs, sneaking around ledges and stealing keys, Reaper made it to the room where her belongings were kept. She peered down from her perch at the large fly wearing her cape and hood and twirling her reaper's staff like the leader of a very amateur marching band. "You're dying first," she muttered before she pounced.
Within seconds, all the flies in the room were dead, and the Reaper's spool was full once more. She adjusted her hood, wiped the blood from her shell, and began poking around the room for the Songclave supply package, as well as anything else she could take. Grindle had been right; she was a thief. They all were. But they were thieves with purpose, and Reaper would not let anything go unused.
Ah; there was the Songclave package, sitting in the corner-
utterly trampled in the carnage.
Reaper screamed in rage.
"Quit it," Hunter said. Beast and Wanderer were both pacing anxiously, Beast marching across the cold metallic floor and Wanderer running circles around her with those anklets she liked so much. The tapping of claws and swoosh of silk was bound to alert someone before long.
"She should be in the Slab by now, right?" Wanderer asked.
"I'd assume so," Hunter answered. "And she should have broken out of the cage by now, too; that is, unless-"
"Spells," Beast growled. "They must have put spells on the little cage too! Why didn't we think of that!?"
"Oh, no," Hunter said quietly. "We put her in actual danger."
"I never should have suggested this." Beast dug her claws into a crack in a wall, hoping to find a way to break through.
"I should've just gone on my own," Wanderer said.
"Alright; we need a plan to get her back," Hunter said, sitting down and spreading out her tools in front of her.
"A plan?" Beast asked, grabbing a handful of Pimpillos. "How about we tear this place apart?"
"And risk collapsing it on her?" Hunter asked. "As much as I wish for retribution against this place, we must not hurt her any more than we already have."
"How else do you hope to get in? We have no keys, and no idea how long it would take to find them."
"Wanderer, do you know how to pick locks?" Hunter asked.
"I wish," she answered. "Grindle has yet to actually teach me, but I shall get him to someday."
"Someday doesn't help when our sister is in danger now!" Beast shouted.
Reaper dropped into the room behind them. "Hey."
The other three Hornets turned around at top speed.
"Reaper!" Beast tackled Reaper in a hug, outrunning even Wanderer for once.
"We were worried," Wanderer said.
"We did not doubt your capability," Hunter clarified. "But we did underestimate our opponents. I am sorry."
"I went to jail for you all," Reaper said. "I want you to remember this. You should buy me a nice warm cloak out of gratitude for my sacrifice."
"You volunteered," Beast pointed out, with what was definitely a little bit of judgement. "You were excited about it."
"And I regretted it. I had to go out in the cold. The cold! And the package broke again on top of all that. You're buying me a nice cloak."
"It broke." Wanderer put her face in her hands. "Of course it broke. Of course they wouldn't be careful with it. We're so stupid..."
"I mean," Beast said, "It was a clever plan; it just failed because we didn't know about the spells. And at least we can fill out the map now," she reassured her.
Reaper retrieved a map from under her cloak.
"Is that written on a dead bug's shell?"
Reaper shrugged. "It's resourceful."
"And it can't be sewn onto the parchment," Wanderer pointed out.
"We can get some blank parchment and draw it in later," Hunter said. "For now, let's get out of here."