Chrysalis

My hope gleams in the darkness, a diamond shining in the night.

My hope is a builder, a shifter of earth and stone.

My hope is a seer, who glimpses that which is yet to come.

My hope is a speaker, their words know no boundaries.

My hope defends, protects and shields, a barrier between the light and the dark.

My hope bears the weight of the world upon their carapace, and controls that weight.

My hope sleeps, but will rise again in glory.

- Excerpt from ‘Prayers of the Faithful.’

That cake, seriously delicious. I’m pleasantly surprised by how nice it tasted, to be honest. I don’t know what I expected, whether my monstrous body would just reject tasty things, or if I lacked the ability to taste sweet. There’s been a distinct lack of it in my food thus far, I have to say!

It truly is shocking just how quickly you adjust to things. When I started out, the idea of eating Biomass was almost unbearably disgusting. Monster remains are not pleasant to eat, or look at, or smell, or generally be around in any capacity. After a while, though, it’s just what you eat, so you get used to it and move on.

Now, I’ve learned that, apparently, the Colony has a thriving baking industry! Not to mention this delicious tea!

on the dome are also enjoying a tea break. It’s a little more difficult to manage, since they’re upside down, but somehow they’ve managed it, deploying some sort of pulley system to manoeuvre

tea, just how many ants are dedicating themselves to the production of tea

you need to feed an ant colony: protein, for the grubs and the queens, and sugar water, for hydration and energy. When I could afford it, I’d give my own pet nest a treat and let

that colony in a long time….

take care of. Even better, I’m in it!

the Endless going to dig into their cake? Right now,

a gesture of goodwill, but I may have offended them by

be a disaster! I’d better check what’s going on over there, that way, I can gracefully head over and take the cake back,

Let me see….

Hmmmm. Ah. Oh. Hmmmmm.

cake! I would never have expected a member of my family to break the rules looking for a way to win! I wouldn’t say that the Colony is honourable, per se, it’s more like

deception create yet another, metaphorical cake,

for it to do anything. Regardless, the

for the Eldest

~~~

Eldest knows now,”

sure?” Leonidant

giant standing across the pitch from them. She could almost feel the seething energy