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Chapter 17: Marital Problems

The huge doors of the archives were opened that night to receive a long-awaited visit. After three days of absence Hornet finally deigned to appear at the site. Her walk was proud and haughty, like a queen must be, but who was a good observer could tell how exhausted she was.

It was not physical exhaustion, she had actually slept properly all these days, what she had was mental exhaustion, anguish and fear. Things had not been easy these days, she had long faced the intrigues and uprisings of her people, normally that was not something that complicated her much, she remembered that her mother used to talk about the constant problems that a queen had to face. Power was something that seduced and destroyed those who did not have the strength to endure it. But now her detractors seemed stronger.

The spider sighed overwhelmed, she was not mistaken in thinking that she was having more difficulties to reign than her mother had. Herrah as every ruler had her detractors, but those who supported her were more. That was due to her enormous size often intimidated those who were against her. In Deepnest ruling was a delicate balance between diplomacy and brutality. As a rule, large bugs tended to be obeyed, the Pale King had been an exception, just as she was, but Hornet did not have a divine aura that intimidated everyone. In many ways she was extremely normal and that made them underestimate her.

At the end, thanks to many battles and displays of bad character, she managed to earn the respect of everyone, but that was exhausting, however she could obtain some peace in her life, and for a couple of years, she was able to govern without major difficulties enjoying the support of all. But now, with the issue of her offspring, again her enemies appeared and she was very busy trying to crush anyone who opposed her. Seriously that angered her, even with the good work she had done in recent years they could not accept her. It seemed that being a small crossbreed had more value than her talent to govern. But no matter, she would do whatever it took to bring peace to her kingdom and ensure a happy childhood for her children, she had already decided it.

All these thoughts crossed the mind of the crossbreed as she headed towards her husband's office. She had many problems, but she did not want to talk about them, she just wanted to be able to relax for a moment, if it had been for her, she would have gone directly to her home to rest, but it had been too many days without visiting her nest, she needed to clean the eggs. At that time she hated herself for being such a bad mother leaving her children abandoned, it was good that she had Quirrel to take care of them, otherwise she would be overwhelmed.

When she entered the office, she saw the sleeping pillbug leaning on his desk. She felt a little sorry for the bug, he should be curled up on his makeshift bed in the office instead of lying on the desk like that. She was going to wake him up, but then she changed her mind and headed straight for the eggs, took out one and started to check it carefully, then noticed that it was perfectly clean, Quirrel had done an impeccable job with them.

That was a relief, she would no longer have to spend more time in that place and could return to her home, tomorrow she had a meeting with a group of spiders that lived in the ruins of the failed tramway. There were plans to resume that project but she did not want to do it without consulting the opinion of her people. Again she found herself rambling as she headed for the door, she was so focused that she didn't notice that Quirrel had woken up and was talking to her.

"Hornet!" The pillbug finally shouted, making himself heard.

"Quirrel? Oh my, you're awake. You shouldn't fall asleep at your desk, then your back will hurt".

"And is that all you have to say?" There was a certain tone of disappointment in his voice, but Hornet ignored it.

"No, actually I wanted to thank you for taking care of the eggs, you did an excellent job and saved me a lot of time. I would have liked to visit them before but my occupations did not allow it, but since I count on your support I can be calmer".