#littlewritesstuff

He had barely come out of his workshop for almost two days now.

The White Lady knew that when her husband got obsessed over a project, he wouldn’t pay attention to the passing of time. However, he at least normally would listen to her when she asked him to eat something and not resist when she used some sleeping spores to finally get him to rest.

When she had it tried yesterday, he had downright hissed at her, taken her aback. It had been centuries since the two of them had threatened each other.

The few times he left his workshop, he normally wouldn’t stay away long and often come back with a fresh cup of coffee. That meant that he pretty much ran on no sleep, no food and probably fourteen cups of coffee now.

Needless to say the White Lady was starting to get very concerned, waiting for him to leave the workshop again, so that she could confront him. This time she wouldn’t let herself be stunned by any signs of aggression from his side. She would make sure that he finally rested.

She knew why he was stuck in his workshop. A new infection had started to appear in Hallownest. The both of them immediately recognized it as the doing of the Radiance, the god of the dream realm, which supposedly had gotten forgotten. The Radiance seemed to think otherwise though and in an attempt to get herself remembered by the mortal bugs, the infection had sprung forth.

The White Lady and the Pale King had discussed the matter right away and in the end, he had decided that a god of light would best be stopped by void and that was why he had locked himself away for most of the last two days.

He was experimenting with the void and forgot everything around it.

It was a very unhealthy way to live.

She knew though, that he wouldn’t stop until he would basically collapse and that was the reason why she waited for him to leave the workshop, so she could confront him.

Only that he hadn't left the workshop for hours. Surely he had to take a break somewhen? Or at least get a new cup of coffee?

As a tree, the White Lady was a very patient being, but when it came to the health of her husband, her patience ran thin and so she decided to not wait anymore and to enter the workshop. Even though that meant she had to destroy the door because it was locked from the other side.

The moment the door flung open after she concentrated a spell on it, she had expected for her husband to turn around with a bewildered look and scold her for not respecting his boundaries. Instead, he was sitting at his desk, not noticing her at all. She immediately knew that something was wrong, because he was moving slow and sluggish.

She should have confronted him much sooner. He looked horrible. His light was dull, his wings drooped and there were several dark stains splattered on his robe, she couldn’t say if it was void or coffee.

“My wyrm!”, she said, firm and asserting, “It’s time that you take a break.”

It was the first time he acknowledged her after entering. He didn’t even look back, all he did was murmur.

“Root… I can’t… not yet… I am close to a breakthrough… can’t stop… “

The White Lady moved closer to his desk and slammed a branch on its surface. “Wyrm, it’s enough! You haven’t eaten anything in over a day, you haven’t slept for almost two days, I haven’t seen you filling up your soul reserves, all I have seen is that you drink coffee. Fourteen cups by the way, I have counted! You are running on caffeine and still you don’t fidget or tremble! You are beyond exhausted and you need to go to bed!”

The Pale King was rather unimpressed at her outburst. “Root… let’s talk about this… later… I am so… close…”

He hadn’t even listened to what she had said. The White Lady let out a deep sigh. “I really didn’t want to do this.”, she said. “But you leave me no choice.”

In his sleep deprived condition he couldn’t defend himself against her attack. The moment it hit and he got staggered, she snatched him and wrapped him in several of her vines.

“Root… let me go… what are you doing…”

His voice sounded weak and strained and she barely could feel him struggling to break free.

“I am getting you into bed. Look, my Wyrm, I know the situation is dire, but it won’t get better when you work yourself to exhaustion.”

The Pale King went limp in her grip. For a good while neither of them was saying anything while she carried him to his chambers. Once she had stuffed him into his bed, she searched for the flow of his soul and found it to be dangerously low. While she started to share her soul with him, he started to speak again.

“Root… what have I done… the last few hours. I feel like I was in a haze…”

“Well, you worked for almost two days straight in your workshop, didn’t eat anything, didn’t sleep and had fourteen cups of coffee. I had to drag you away so that you would finally take a break.”, she replied, her voice trembling, she didn’t know if it was because of worry or anger. A mix of both probably.

The Pale King just looked at her for a long time and then murmured: “My apologies.”

“Just promise me one thing.”, the White Lady said. “At least eat one meal per day. And sleep at least one or two hours each day. You are not like me, my Wyrm, you can’t just survive on water and earth. And even I need some sleep. Just… don’t make me worry like this about you.”

He looked at her for a long while before he took one of her branches into his claws and very quietly, barely more than a whisper, said: “I promise.” (Author's note: PK destroying himself by not taking a break, hmmm, good stuff. I had fun writing this. Also, any normal person would be dead drinking fourteen cups of PK's coffee, they are basically double espressos with a shot of espresso.