Chrysalis

Rassan’tep looked back at the still burning mountain, his eyes gleaming with interest. The warmth he could feel, even from this distance, was pleasant on his scales, and he didn’t mind indulging himself in a little basking every now and again.

[Master, we should leave,] Ammon’sil urged him. [This place is not secure.]

The Old One flicked his tongue to taste the air. Smoke and ashes came through powerfully, expected, given the circumstances, but underneath was that vibrant riffle of energy and life so common in the fourth stratum.

The Colony would rebuild that mountain, he was sure. It likely wouldn’t even take long. With tens of thousands of mages to create and shape the rock, they’d be able to make it bigger and better than it had been before in a matter of weeks.

In attempting to push the ants down, the ka’armodo had only made them stronger.

He huffed in displeasure and the Set’sulah pulled back from him, concerned they had drawn his ire.

Hubris had been the downfall of many among the old races, and so it continued to be. The assumption that they were the highest, greatest and strongest on Pangera, simply by virtue of their birth, simply because they were first, was deeply flawed.

The place at the top was not a birthright, but a constant struggle.

The ants understood. They fought and strove every minute of every day to carve out a place for themselves. If the ka’armodo had displayed a fraction of their drive over the past two thousand years, his people would be the undisputed rulers of this world.

[Master,] Ammon’sil urged him again, [we must away. I am not confident we can keep you safe if we remain.]

The great lizard turned an eye toward his favoured servant.

[Peace, Ammon. A few minutes longer. The winds blow quickly here, sands are shifting beneath our claws. I wish to observe this change with my own eyes.]

[Is it worth risking your life? They will kill you if they find you.]

Rassan’tep closed his eyes.

[It is.]

[As you wish.]

perimeter, to watch with eyes and sense with minds for

toward the mountain once more. Not long ago, it had been teeming with their enslaved termite colony. A vast operation that had been guided and controlled by just a few

of it gone

who had cast the spell that destroyed the nest. A haul of experience like that may push the

in his senses alerted him to something approaching. He focused, using his prodigious Skills and experience to peer through the glamour they had shaped around themselves. One look inside, and he

his servants. [We will

so powerfully, but he restrained himself. He knew they were

his own arrived on the

pleased to see you were

looks of it. The ka’armodo looked more than a little singed. In several places, her scales had been burned black. She must have lost one or more Set’sulah whilst escaping the mountain. A terrible blow for any

eyes and dipped

your loss,]

locked onto his,

[You,] she growled.

of the day had been more than she could bear. Even so, he

grown physique allowed him, his upper arms

slowed her at all,

fumed, [everything was going well before you came. The plan was proceeding according

declaration was almost

you of them, which I did. I can hardly be

Oolan’tep hissed at him.

rage of his Set’sulah rise to boiling point at the

long stride forward and struck his junior across the face with