Chrysalis

Down in the darkness we plunge. It’s strange. Normally this kind of environment would be so familiar, so welcoming to me, it’s a social insect nest after all, but it just… doesn’t. Instead, it feels alien, and twisted from everything it should be.

There are no comforting pheromones of my family spread across the walls and floor, no warm messages or encouragement or friendly reminders to get some rest or they’ll come for you. Instead there’s an omnipresent, suffocating stink that coats my antennae and makes me twitch in discomfort. The design of the nest is also not what I would expect. Despite being similar(ish) creatures, the construction of an ant nest isn’t all that similar to a termite nest, depending on the variety of termite and ant you choose to compare.

The flow of air through the tunnels isn’t what I would expect, the complex ventilation systems these cockroach descended mugs build are all about temperature control, ensuring that exactly two places inside their fortress are always kept at the perfect temp: the fungus garden and the queen’s chamber.

Which means if I follow the warm air current… I should be able to find the royal family…

And of course, the other unwelcoming and disconcerting aspect of this nest is the neverending hordes of termites and their desperate attempts to rip me limb from limb. Naturally, that goes without saying.

The four of us continue our push, advancing steadily into the nest and refusing to allow ourselves to get surrounded. With the Colony warring on the surface, the termite forces are divided, allowing our small team, with its overwhelming, concentrated power, to dive deep without being overwhelmed.

[Crinis, do you sense anything?] I call to the writhing mass of tentacles flowing along behind me.

[I sense too many of them to be sure of anything. They’re all around us, the disgusting filth! How dare they lay a single claw on Master…]

[I mean… we are trying to kill them.]

[Our cause is just!]

[Going to leave that well enough alone. How about you Invidia?]

[Thisssss wealth. I shall havesssss it all!]

Are you

eye glitters,

[Yesssssss.]

time to eat! We need to

them too,] he

for concentrations of mana,

He looks

You’re

and continues to do just that. I know I can’t depend on him for anything requiring any more brainpower than that. I swear to goodness I’m going to force him to raise his Cunning to 30

something, another hundred metres down, on

what

be sure, but it feels heavily warded. I can’t stretch my shadow sight into the chamber. Perhaps the ka’armodo

find the ka’armodo themselves. I’m

words for

Pull

with a flex of my will. The small sphere of slowly rotating doom howls down the tunnel, dragging

mana for the time being,] I warn the others. [I spent almost all of it

virtually endless amounts of stamina and replenishing my other organs, such as acid and regeneration, is

rush forward. To try and get some depth. I don’t want to

all their secretssssss,]

the panicked chittering of mandibles can be heard. We cling to the wall, our claws, tentacles and fingers

throwing ourselves out into the almost vertical shaft and plummeting through the air. The termites behind us thrash wildly,

again, our huge mass causing us to carve deep grooves