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 antennae

on the adjustments together, then it would still be our

coming from, Cobalt

I shouldn’t have kept this from

leaned back into her bed and pulled her blanket

as you understand,” she huffed. “Now go away. I’m supposed to relax for another hour and you have a lot of

when you come out?” she

“Maybe….” came the reply.

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.

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 on, Tungstant likely would

be delighted to have both of them working on the modifications together. Despite everything, Cobalt believed wholeheartedly that they had the

if they

the normal sections of the 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

had to

of scent buffeted her antennae

your advice on

“The digging teams….”

“Construction delays….”

“Materials shortages are making….”

“Spawns in the tunnels….”

“Steel reinforcement….”

“Dungeon vein removal….”

gasping by the onslaught, but she was used to such things. After a second

meet you by the schematics in five minutes,

the digging coordinator report to me as

to me about delays, talk to me about the causes

touch with our suppliers in the third stratum and have them provide an inventory. Our knowledge of available

want them at least doubled. Speak

you consulted our manuals for the steel technique? Don’t ask me a question you can get from the plans. Or