Chrysalis

The moment this Wallace guy revealed the locations of the gates, the Colony sprang into action. I could hear orders being snapped out as ants began to gather in teams, flooding away towards the fort on the outskirts of the city. Even my heart skipped a beat. This could be a major blunder! We'd anticipated the gates would be here, in the centre, and so they were, but we didn't foresee that there'd be more around the edge of the city! Almost all our forces are concentrated here for the final push! If those gates open and those Legion nutters come pouring out…

"One of us should go," I tell Mother, "those Legion soldiers are no joke, as I recall."

Though I was super weak back then. I have no idea what their relative strength would be now, realistically.

"Which of us should it be?" she asks me. "I'm willing to go where I'm most needed."

I hesitate. I need to stay here to help communicate, but I'm worried that the fort will prove to be the more dangerous of the options.

"Go to the fort," I tell her reluctantly, "as soon as I'm done here, I'll head up there as well, just in case. Make sure you take a few members of the council up there with you. If it turns serious, we'd rather have more firepower than we need than not enough."

The Queen's antennae twitch.

"What about you, child? Will you be alright here?"

I suspect she thinks I'm taking on too much here.

"Not to worry," I assure her, "I alone would be enough."

rushes to join the flow of ants marching into the distance as I focus back

dismantle that gate as soon as possible,] I urge Beyn,

smack this thing down fast enough, then maybe I'll be able to make it over to that fort in the event something nasty starts up over there. I think Beyn

or we'll

wall. The people are unlikely

but I can understand what the captain is worried about. If a riot breaks out inside, where I imagine people are densely packed, then

not our problem. If his people can't control themselves then they

other behaviours I would expect, he looks as if he's about to laugh before he turns back toward the walls. We give him a single minute to let the people on the other side of the wall know we're

The Colony and I stand around, impatient as the seconds

they'll let

know what's good

the wise is slipping into our brains? Something to chew over later. Just to be careful, I task my sub-brains with whipping up another

we find masses of people, huddling together amongst truly elaborate buildings, terrified of the monsters that they find in their midst. The ants outside the wall move closer,

heat for us! I appreciate your sacrifice. Several large buildings loom within the square but the Captain wastes no time (for once) and directs us to the largest. Even though the centre of the city has become packed with people, this single building appears to be completely unoccupied which may have something to

we don't find a horde of enemy soldiers pouring through active gates, but rather three large archways, unpowered and dormant. Enchantments and runes built into the gates appear to be collecting mana and storing it, which leads me to believe that the gates need to be charged before being opened.

everything they see and break the gates down into segments, shearing the stone with clean bites so it can be reassembled and studied back at the nest. Mission accomplished; we turn to exit the square as quickly as possible. I don't want to expose my family

that's when it

enough to know that us monsters had done something bad, but not enough to realise what provoking us might mean. I could see his face amongst the crowd, screwed up in

reflexes, there's not a chance that it will hit me, and honestly what could it do, even if it did? I understand all this, it's common sense for

family who lack my level of understanding,