Chrysalis

“Look, I said I’m sorry.”

“Don’t talk to me.”

“You’re being silly.”

“Oh am I? The traitor doesn’t like my attitude to their betrayal? I find myself not caring very much. Weird.”

At the word traitor, Cobalt flinched back but her determination didn’t waver.

“They were going to build all over the place even if one of us wasn’t involved!” she declared, antennae waving wildly. “Someone had to get involved to make sure there wasn’t any damage to the overall design!”

“That’s fine! I’m not worried about that! I assume they approached you a long time ago, probably when we were building in the second stratum?” she made it a question and Cobalt nodded. “And you’re right, someone did need to make sure the integrity of our projects wasn’t compromised, I’m not upset about that.”

Cobalt made an odd figure. She still lay in the ant ‘bed’ tucked in under a rest-promoting enchanted blanket with a soft plushie resting under one leg. Interestingly, it didn’t appear to be the one of the Eldest which Cobalt had seen most often, but rather of the guardian, Tiny. Clearly they had decided to branch out with their plushie range.

Despite her gleaming carapace, impeccably brushed antennae and alert eyes, Tungstant looked anything but relaxed. She was irritated, and worse than that, quite hurt by the behaviour of her sibling.

Cobalt squirmed a little. She’d hoped, naively, that this day would never come. Of course Tungstant would figure out what they’d been up to. It had only ever been a matter of time.

“Then what are you upset about?” she demanded.

Tungstant kicked off her blanket, eyes blazing with outrage. She maintained her grip on the plushie.

“I’m upset that you kept it from me! Why wouldn’t we do this together, just like we do everything else!?”

Her compound eyes glared a thousand times at her sister, who ducked her head in shame.

“I… I thought you wouldn’t… want our work compromised like this. If I took the burden on myself, then you wouldn’t have to worry about it.”

her

then it would still

where her sibling was coming from, Cobalt could only

shouldn’t have kept this

into her bed and pulled her blanket

I’m supposed to relax for another hour and you have a lot of work to

I will. I’ll see you when you

“Maybe….” came the reply.

exiting the chamber and into the pure dark corridors that they preferred to move in. She felt better that she’d been able to mend the bridge at least a little with her sibling. They did all their major projects together, and working with Tungstant was the highlight of Cobalt’s day. The thought that

received a few greetings from them as she moved through the tunnels but she didn’t return them. Rather than a fully fledged member of the organisation, she’d been an unwilling collaborator at best. From now

working on the modifications together. Despite everything, Cobalt believed wholeheartedly that they had the

they

nest, she shook off her negative mindset as best she could and marched back towards the design headquarters. Mana thrummed through the air, rising in density every hour, and the wave would break sooner rather than

to be

buffeted her antennae the moment she

need your advice on the south

“The digging teams….”

“Construction delays….”

“Materials shortages are making….”

“Spawns in the tunnels….”

“Steel reinforcement….”

“Dungeon vein removal….”

scents washed over her like a wave. Any normal ant would be left gasping by the onslaught, but she was used to such things. After a second to think,

the schematics in

coordinator report to me as soon

to me about delays, talk to me about the causes

in the third stratum and have them provide an inventory. Our

want them at least doubled. Speak

the steel technique? Don’t ask me a question you can get