Chrysalis

Coolant looked out from her perch next to the upper sally port of the great gate and felt nothing but confusion.

"Do you want to go tell him, or should I?" she said to Sloan who was clinging to the wall next to her.

The general shook her head, bewildered.

"I mean. They have to know, right? There's no chance that they don't know."

"I assume they know. I mean, what are the odds the two forces aren't communicating to this extent?"

"Almost none, surely. Such a lack of organisation in our foes would throw our plans way out."

"Hasn't this thrown them way out anyway?"

Sloan hesitated.

"That's… true."

The two of them looked out in silence for a few more moments at the totally unexpected scene before them.

"What do you think we should do?" Coolant asked, her scent as calm and unruffled as it always was.

"I don't know!" Sloan fretted. Why would these idiots perform this sort of moronic action now of all times? It didn't make any sense!

over them, rippling through the ambient mana in the air and into

here, or this one, a friend of that creature, will

point whilst an elaborately armoured figure reclined in a chair next to him, watching all that occurred with an expression of detached boredom. Next to them a trio of mages worked together, supposedly sending

could they possibly want?" Coolant

the Eldest isn't here. There is almost a zero percent chance that they don't know that! Surely!" Sloan said. "… We have to

the golgari wanted to kill another golgari for some reason, why not let them do it? One less for them to fight when they made a push for

at play that we don't understand," Sloan sighed. "Anytime something weird happens, it's usually to do

true. For whatever reason, the Eldest gobbled down trouble like a Queen taking in Biomass. The end result was something good, but the appetite appeared to be

to reach out to them?" Coolant offered. "I'll need to move a little closer, I don't

"I'll arrange an escort."

ants ready to escort the mage closer to the

you think a thousand may send the

"What do you mean?"

"eight golgari over there. If we walk closer with a thousand, might they think they are being

antennae. A thousand didn't feel like many to her. Then again, she was an ant. "I'll send

Sloan had considered things carefully and the delegation contained a healthy mix of mages, for raising shields, scouts, for detecting foul play, and soldiers, to hold the line in the event the others needed to retreat. Once they had covered half the ground toward the first gate,

of the Colony,] she started off formally, [I have come to clarify

communicated with each other for a long moment before a

the High Blade Balta. He wishes to expunge the shame the creature has cast upon his house

the way out here chasing the Eldest? For what? Some imagined insult? She couldn't possibly comprehend the meaning behind such actions, but she didn't