Chrysalis

The role of the Brood Tender seemed straight forward enough. It was mostly in the name, after all. The Brood consisted of the unhatched eggs, the larvae and the pupae that were the future generations of the colony and ensuring that they were cared for in as optimal a way as possible was the Brood Tenders primary responsibility.

"How goes the Brood today, Florence?"

"Theresant? Nice to see you! You’ve been at the academy for days! The darlings are busy little grubs, as usual!"

The two council members approached each other with gladness ringing from their antennae. The two ants had a peaceful and motherly disposition which was why they had volunteered to take up this role, despite the immense pressure involved.

"Are we going to reach our target for today?" Florence asked her sister, "two hundred hatchings, two hundred graduations?"

"I believe so," came the reply, "my people in the academy have assure me the current crop of hatchlings will be ready to graduate on time."

"Wonderful!"

"I agree!"

The two ants fell into a companionable silence as they moved to a brood chamber near the surface. The larvae needed warmth to accelerate their growth, so they were moved to chambers closer to the surface during the day as the sun shone and then deeper underground at night, where the heat remained trapped. With the wave at play however, the Brood Tenders were unwilling to risk their charges in the Dungeon proper, so they’d asked if some fire mage ants could assist in warming the chambers for the Brood.

The two siblings arrived and were greeted by their fellow tenders already hard at work in the chamber. The overlapping nourishing auras washed over them and gave them both a little shiver of joy. The aura gland was an expensive part of the evolution from worker caste to Brood Tenders, which seemed like a waste because the gland itself didn’t have a powerful effect. It essentially calmed and nourished infants of aura owner’s species, helping grow faster and stronger.

aura effect was overlapped with others however, the effect became more noticeable. When it had first been noticed that those hatched from chambers with more Tenders in them were slightly more developed, even having a

Brood Tenders.

onto the next chamber, doing the rounds so that they could keep an eye on

"Tenders, work hard today!"

Tenders? Can I

hatchlings are putting forth all of their effort, Tenders! We don’t want lazy ants

chance of that,"

were given space wherever they went, nothing was allowed to impede their work. The brood was the future of the colony, it was ingrained into ant nature to prioritise the rearing of the young above almost everything else and that hadn’t changed

only grown more thoughtful and calculating

brood chamber, where the pupae, those young in their final stage of development before they emerged from their cocoons, where being nurtured by large cluster of their

sisters" Theresant called to them as she entered the

"Greetings, senior" they replied.

further developments regarding

of the Tenders stepped

have managed to raise the Nurturing skill to the third rank, but

the test groups are kept separate. On different sides of the colony if possible. We need to ensure we can isolate the cause

senior,"

to unlock new skills, test skill fusion options and explore the benefits of ranking up skills

from egg to hatchling. Such a thing had been more likely back when there were fewer Tenders about, but it was still a complete fluke that no other worker had touched that particular larvae other than Florence right up until it spun its cocoon and then hatched. The skill granted knowledge and instincts when raising the young, turning the Tenders into almost

sure that there were further skills to be unlocked