Never

Chapter 43: Loyalty and Love

"It is not fair for my tribe to pay for a mistake that I alone made." In a desperate maneuver, Cris tried to take all the blame so that the tribe would not be affected, but that would be counterproductive.

"So... You admit you had something to do with the kidnapping of my children."

"What? Not! I mean... I didn't kidnap anyone, I was just trying to escape the civil..."

He fell silent suddenly, it was reckless to reveal the delicate situation of the tribe to the spiders, but at the same time he had no other way to justify his presence in Deep Nest, he tried to think of a decent answer, but Hornet did not have time to wait for it.

"They have already decided their fate, this is war. However, we will have a little more decency than you and instead of attacking vilely from behind, we will make a formal statement."

"You can not do this! My people have nothing to do with it!"

"I'm sorry mantis, but I have more proof of your guilt than of your innocence."

Cris had no way to reply to this, dejectedly he went to the back of his cell where he huddled in a corner to regret his existence.

...............................

"Princess, princess. Did you miss me, princess? Did you miss you beloved caregiver who loves you so much? How is the most beautiful princess in the whole kingdom?"

Silky laughed happily in Ania's hands, she at least had no bad memories of the maid, unlike her siblings who were in a corner as far away from her as possible. Ren was curled up crying silently, while Chester stood in front of her protectively, grunting in disgust.

There were two other individuals in the room, a locustr with a scarred face and an arachnid dressed in the finest clothing to be found in Deep Nest.

They both looked very upset, but it was the spider who looked particularly bitter, he was irritated by the silly face that the female did to entertain the baby with whom she was playing.

"Ania please! Do you want to shut up? We are in an important meeting finalizing business."

"But Clay, the princess is bored."

"I don't give a damn if she's bored, we're not her personal clowns to entertain her."

"But how can you say that! She is the heir to Deep Nest! We must protect her and take care of her..."

"Correction, she was the heir to Deep Nest."

"What do you mean?" Ania brought the girl closer to her body in a protective attitude.

"I mean that this girl must be eliminated."

"WHAT! YOU CAN'T DO THAT! I understand that you want to kill the other two, but she is the princess!"

"Of course I can! Why do you think I kidnapped these brats? To kill them and pressure the queen into having new offspring with another male." Ania gave him a disapproving look.

"And why do you think Hornet would have children with another arachnid? It has already been proven that this pill bug can breed spiders."

"True, but if I can convince the community that it is dangerous for an heir to be the offspring of a pill bug by the enemies it would arouse, then Hornet would be forced to breed with a pureblood spider. And guess who she'll pick! There is no better candidate than me, a spider of high rank, from one of the most important families in Deep Nest."

"I don't know, if I were the queen, I'd look for someone with more brain."

"What do you mean?"

"This plan to kidnap these children doesn't seem very brilliant to me. Hornet will be devastated, I do not think she will want to have children in a while, also what are you planning to do with the babies?"