welcome to bug town

she brushes a leaf away to find hornet sitting on the ground, cradling something in her arms out of view, twisted to protect it with her body. choked sobs spilled from her fangs, and her whole being shook.

no, this wasn’t good at all.

shakra did her best to announce her coming, allowing her footsteps to fall heavier than usual, rustling the foliage to announce her presence, but hornet still startled when shakra softly called her name.

she turned to shakra with huge eyes, puffy and wet with tears, a look of sheer *fear* that shakra had never seen on the spider’s face before, and it shook shakra to her core.

“….hornet wielding needle? what…” shakra couldn’t think of a single thing to ask. hornet wasn’t okay. hornet needed help. these did not need to be said aloud.

“… what has happened to you?” she asked instead, lowering herself to rest on her knees and look at hornet levelly, trying to hide her rapidly beating heart from betraying her worry.

hornet’s mouth opened and shut without a sound. she sniffed, a sound that made shakra’s heart tear in two. she had never seen hornet wielding tears. it scared her to her core.

hornet said nothing. instead, she turned her body enough to show what she had been hiding in her arms the whole time.

it shone with soul, bright enough that shakra had to squint and wince against the light. when her vision steadied she froze.

it looked like a small, downy spider, with six wide teary eyes and six nubby limbs, pure white and gossamer like silk.

beneath, on the ground, was a broken silk spool, one shakra recognized as the weaver spools hornet used to carry her silk reserves.

hornet choked back another sob.

“i don’t… i don’t know… i didn’t mean to, i don’t how i did this, i dont know-“ she doubled over again, fresh tears spilling, claws tightly wrapped around the silken grub.

shakra was shaken. she knew of the tales - the truths, of the white knight’s origins, now. thanks to hornet, who had brought Lace Wielding Pin to the town of Bellhart and had told only her the circumstances of Lace’s birth, spun from fragile silk thread, made to be her goddess mother’s perfect child soldier. she had shook with rage then, promising Lace her loyalty, for a friend of Hornet was a friend of Shakra. Now, she shook with grief for Hornet’s suffering, and shock at what had transpired before her.

Hornet had given birth.

In an unconventional sense - but still born of her body, her silk. however unintentional it may have been, this silk-child was here, now. Alive.

Shakra reached out her claws, gesturing at the babe. Hornet recoiled, eyes wild in fear, in a similar fashion to a new mother terrified her baby may be taken from her - a look she had seen many a time in her travels, but never one she imagined seeing on Hornet’s face. it was crumbling her already broken heart into dust.

“i will not harm the babe, Hornet.” shakra spoke low, as calm and comforting as she could. she let a rumble smooth from her throat. hornet breathed deep, but her shoulders unclenched, just a little - but enough for her to shakily allow shakra to take the grub from her hands. she cradled the babe in her arms, as she had been taught long ago with the wasp’s delicate grubs, and couldn’t help but marvel at how soft they were, how bright their little eyes shone up at her, as innocent as they would ever be.

she didn’t look away from the baby as she spoke, saving hornet the pain of eye contact, for the moment.

“what happened?”

hornet took another deep, shuddering breath, and spoke. how angry she was to be denied a family - by her mother, who gave her life in exchange; her father, who ran like a coward; her siblings, who sank away back into the eternal sea - and now from the goddess she had slain, for cursing her bloodline, cursing her with never having the chance to be a normal bug with a family of her own - and that’s when it had happened. in a flash of silk and soul, suddenly she had pulled a crying tangle of silk with six nubby limbs out of her silk reserves, living and breathing.

it was like instinct she recalled, weaving the grub its eyes, a proper mouth, the senses to hear and smell. it had ceased its wailing, but left hornet questioning everything she was.

“what have i done, shakra?” she whispered, holding herself tight, staring down at the ground.

“… that seems self-evident, brave hornet. you have created a child.”

hornet heaved a silent cry. shakra cursed herself for her own unrelenting honesty. what else could she say, though? everything was right there, shiny and tender in her arms.

“i have woven something like a child… why? for my own selfish desires?” she spat venom at the ground. “is this what the Grand Mother has decreed? her last act of revenge - to make me become just like her…” hornet balled herself tightly, holding her forehead to her knees, claws digging into the cloak around her shoulders so tight it had begun to tear.

shakra wasn’t thinking when she grabbed that claw tearing into her shoulder and lifted it, holding onto it tightly between them. hornet looked up at her with a shocked expression. shakra knew better than to be so bold with another warriors claws - but right now, hornet was not an adversary. she was a friend, a hurting soul in need.

“listen to me, hornet of weavers.”

hornets gaze held steady.

“you are nothing like the Monarch.”

hornet tried to protest, but shakra refused to let her.

“you have proven time and time again you are nothing like the pale beings you share as kin - for you are kinder, stronger, far more worthy of respect for you do not demand it, but earn it!

“i have never seen a pale being walk amongst us like you, talk to us as peer and friend, listen to our worries and wishes. you are better than them, hornet.”

she shifted her body closer, laying on her hip rather than her knees, to bring hornet’s hand back to where shakra cradled the grub in her other elbow, to set her hand against the softness of the grub’s silken fur. hornet shook, but did not pull away, eyes locked on the grub’s, who chose that moment to yawn and blink sleepily.

“if anybody can end this cycle of suffering… you can.”

“how could i, when it’s all i know?”

“because i know you would never want to inflict what you have been through upon another.”

hornet brushed her claws against the grub, feeling the silky texture.

“i don’t know how.”

“nobody does, Hornet Wielding Hope.” Hornet snapped up to look at her, surprised by the new title.

“all mothers fear that they cannot give their offspring the future they deserve. no bug is capable of guaranteeing that.” she looks deeper into Hornets eyes. Scared, confused, and sad, a deep sadness that stretched for generations of aunts before her.

“You told me your mother gave everything to give you a future.”

Hornet nodded, numbly.

“Then here. Remember that sacrifice. Honor it.” Shakra placed the silken babe back into Hornets arms, manually moving her to hold the baby comfortably. Hornet could not look away from its sleeping face.

“Even if by accident, this one now lives. There is no going back. You have this responsibility now.”

Hornet gasped. “i can’t do this alone.”

“you won’t. you have all of bellhart-“ shakra gestured in the direction of the town- “you have the bugs of the citadel shrine, the pilgrims of the refuge settlement. you have Lace, and me, and every ally you have made in this kingdom.”

Hornet looked at her like she had never realized this fact until now. Shakra held her gaze and nodded. “by my word, my friend. we are by your side.”

hornet nodded back. she still shook, tears still spilled from her eyes, but she leaned into shakra and shakra let her, cradling her head to her chest and setting her chin upon her crown.