A Familiar Void

Chapter 31

Henrietta sat on her throne, her face stoic as she went through her usual duties to listen to complaints, requests, pitches from Nobles and commoners alike, and to deliberate on whether she should follow through with their request or not.

Right now, she was dealing with a rather influential merchant. A woman that who looked near older than her mother. She had an unpleasant scowl on her face as she read through the message.

"As you can see your highness, with the increasing immigration of the Insects from Hallownest the past couple of months, we may face an economic issue that we cannot recover from." She talked on.

Inwardly she agreed with some of the concerns, but she always found it weird how defensive some of them could be towards the Insects.

"Your highness."

Henrietta looked to the side, spotting one of her guards approaching her. She turned to her current speaker, thankfully she didn't seem insulted. Though she did look annoyed at being interrupted.

The guard reached her, gave a bow, jerked his head over his shoulder "Count Mott has returned your highness, and he says that he brings a letter from The Pope."

A gasp came from the woman in front of her, while she kept a stoic face.

She expected a response. Someone like him receiving a letter that was, by all means, a thinly veiled threat was bound to respond.

Truthfully some part of her told her that she shouldn't have given away the information, that it would've been safer if information about Louise's Familiar had been kept quiet.

Broken houses were all she could see.

The village, a small area that threatened no one but the animals that were being hunted, wiped out.

Bodies were strewn about all over the place. Some had been bisected by whatever weapon that had been used to kill them, swung hard enough that their two halves would be spread far apart. Then there were those that had massive gaping holes in their torsos and head, their blood leaking out as they tried to crawl to safety.

More than a few arms she saw peeking out from the buildings that they tried to hide, but were crushed underneath.

And then in the middle, in the remains 'main hut' she saw it.

Crouching as it clutched someone within its grip. She saw it turn towards her, and before her eyes it vanished.

No.

The letter was her admitting that she knew and that if anything similar were to happen, if any witness were to reveal to her about the 'Thing' that could've killed Louise.

Then she'd have someone to avenge her, and a target to take out.

She nodded her head "Thank you, bring him in after I finish with the diplomat."

The guard gave another bow, and then walked out.

Henrietta took a slow breath to calm her nerves, before she turned to face the woman in front of her "I apologise for the interruption, you were saying?" She asked, prompting her to continue.