Never

Chapter 34: Consequences and punishments

The attitude of a person can say a lot about themself, their maturity, their social status, their state of mind, if they is sick or... If they wants to kill someone.

When Ania saw the queen enter, she knew immediately her intentions, the strength with which she was holding her needle, her furious gaze, everything spoke for her.

Partly driven by her survival instinct, she adjusted her legs in a position that would facilitate her escape, but secretly, any suspicious attitude would bring the blame on her and she still had hopes of convincing Hornet of her innocence, after all, she was her loyal servant.

"Welcome home, Your Majesty. How is your daughter?"

"Why did you did it?" Hornet replied in a voice of suppressed fury.

"Why did I do what?" Ania looked so shocked that if Hornet hadn't had hard evidence even she would have doubted.

"Why did you do that to Ren!"

"What are you talking about? I have not done anything, I have taken good care of her, as I was ordered."

"Do you think that taking good care of her is leaving her with the thread of her accumulating to the point of getting sick! Ren almost died from it!"

"I'm sorry my queen, it was just an oversight, it won't happen again."

"An oversight? And why didn't you neglect Silky!? Why is Ren the one who has had to suffer all this!? Why Ania!"

"Your Majesty, please don't be upset." Ania recoiled in fear.

"How do you want me not to get upset when you almost killed my daughter!"

"Those are serious accusations, I've never done such a thing. It's true that I forgot to remove Ren's thread, but it wasn't on purpose."

"And the blows she has weren't on purpose either? Is her poor feeding of her just a detail?"

"What are you talking about?" Ania kept trying to keep her facade of innocence, but it was already falling apart.

"Stop pretending Ania! You... You can't hide this anymore. The midwife checked her, Ren was abused, beaten... Maybe it is not seen with the naked eye but she detected it... Why Ania?"

Although Hornet's voice still denoted fury, a certain sadness and disappointment was also detectable, she was hurt by the betrayal of a person she trusted blindly, she didn't understand why all this had happened and in her stubbornness she wanted to think that there was a good reason that justified Ania's action, although her logic screamed at her that what she did was unjustifiable.

On her part, Ania began to feel sorry for her queen, her intentions were never to harm her, she only wanted to remove from her and the princess an element that in her eyes was harmful, assuming that in the end she would appreciate. Her discreet plan had failed for reasons that she never imagined, to tell the truth she no longer made much sense to continue pretending, she only had to appeal to Hornet's understanding and friendship.

"It was for the princess's sake..."

"For the princess's sake!? But what the hell are you talking about!? What harm is Ren going to do? She is a grub only a couple of weeks old!"

"She will affect her development! The princess should not be raised with other critters that are not weavers, as she is heir to Deepnest she must maintain the culture and traditions of the place."

"And does that have to do with her growing up with her siblings? I will teach the culture and traditions to everyone! All three will learn to weave, all three will learn to brandish a needle, all three will celebrate our parties."