Repentance

A New Duty

Ghost stared at your bent form. They never found it necessary to bow to anyone unprompted let alone kneel before them. But you were from old Hallownest and such formalities were expected when facing royalty. Would you kneel before Hornet as well? They hoped not; it would make her very uncomfortable. Moments passed with you not even lifting your head to face the queen. It seemed you hadn't realized she couldn't see you. Ghost shook their head then pulled you to your feet. They didn't know the nature of your relationship with the queen, but they hoped her weakened state wouldn't upset you so much.

As expected the queen only acknowledged their presence. Ghost pushed your hand against one of her branches. Your face blanched upon making contact. Ghost felt a spark of pity at your horrified expression. To you the White Lady was still a figure of power and not someone you can deal with so casually. To most other bugs as well, they supposed. Maybe they were more laid-back around her because she was their mother? But they never saw her as a maternal figure. She was absent for most of their childhood and when they met she was so quick to send them off to meet the same fate as their older sibling, as all the other vessels. Maybe they just didn't care for her at all.

But then why did it bother them when she greeted you with so much warmth? They remembered how dismissive she was of their existence again. So now she decided to be a mother. Why couldn't she talk to them in this same tone? 'Because you never bother to visit her' came the response from Ghost's irritated mind. Suddenly they didn't want to be in the chamber anymore. Ghost decided it was time to fetch Hornet. You would be fine on your own for an hour or so.

It was hard to pinpoint her exact location because she moved everywhere, especially now that she had to communicate with the different tribes in the kingdom, but they knew to always check the Distant Village first. Their shoulders sagged remembering just how dour of a place Deepnest was. Usually, Old Stag carried them to the village directly, but with the tunnels collapsing recently, they had to make the trek on feet.

Upon descending, Ghost was immediately hit with the odor of decay. The deadly spikes were covered with rubble, but the place didn't look any more welcoming that it was.

The weavers skittered about, sticking to shadows and only revealing themselves to leer at Ghost. Even after all those years, they remain hostile. Despite the shared heritage between the vessel and the Daughter of Hallownest, Ghost was still an outsider. One they begrudgingly came to tolerate due to their heroic act.

One weaver was feeling particularly mischievous. She shot a web just in time to trip Ghost before disappearing into the walls of Deepnest. In their younger years, Ghost would've chased the weaver just for the fun of it. Now, they would still chase that pesky weaver for the fun of it. But they had responsibilities to attend to, like finding Hornet and telling her about their discovery.

Ghost didn't like adding to Hornet's growing pile of problems, but with their mother's refusal to abandon her self-enforced exile, the kingdom was left without a ruler. That wasn't a huge problem before, but many travelers have found their way to the neglected kingdom and some of them weren't very pleasant. Their sister was the current authority in Hallownest and she had to know about this.

"Little Ghost, what are you doing here? Haven't I sent you to scour the White Palace?"

'Nice to see you, as well.'

The not so little anymore Ghost nodded before extending their hand, a gesture Hornet understood all too well. She let them take her hand -one of the few cases where she allowed physical contact- and awaited their explanation.

"I found someone in the dungeons."

"You've never spoken of any dungeons being there before." Hornet squinted, intrigued.