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.]

others to form a perimeter, to watch with eyes and sense with minds for

ago, it had been teeming with their enslaved termite colony. A vast operation that had been guided and controlled by just a

of it gone in

who had cast the spell that destroyed the nest. A haul of experience like that may push the monster all the way to tier seven if it was close enough. If so, he might

slight twitch 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

his servants. [We

his Set’sulah for allowing their emotions to echo so powerfully, but he restrained himself. He knew they were relieved for his sake, not their own. In short order, they had climbed onto his back,

moments later, one of his own arrived on the hill he

am pleased to see you

had been burned black. She must have lost one or more

his eyes

grieve for your loss,] he

locked onto his, fury

[You,] she growled.

surprise. She was clearly emotional, the repeated catastrophes of the day had been more than she could bear. Even so, he expected her to retain her dignity. She was

grown physique allowed him,

status and posture that declared him her elder slowed her at all, she

your fault,] she fumed, [everything was going well before you

was almost enough

of them, which I did. I can hardly be faulted if the design you and your team created was not

Oolan’tep hissed at him.

Set’sulah rise to boiling point at the

forward and struck his junior across the face with