Chrysalis

In times of war, or great peril, many things are put aside. Morality, order, law, hierarchy, respect, such things are often cast away in order to ensure the one thing that matters most to a sapient creature: survival.

We are not that way. Our mission is sacrosanct. Our law is woven into the very fibre of our beings. There is no life, without the mission, there is no future, without mission and there will never be a present, without the mission.

Though the world should burn around us, we continue to serve.

- Excerpt from the ‘Dedications of the Nameless’

The nameless one executed the eight-fold genuflection and stepped within the Sanctum of Sleep.

To be embraced by the pure darkness was like being held close by the Colony itself. It was home. Guided by scent alone, she manoeuvred through the narrow and twisted corridors until she found who she was looking for.

The Acolytes, still as a sleeping ant, stood in a loose circle around a dim light sunk into the ground. There, they kept their vigil until the second eight of the day had passed.

The nameless one approached and genuflected once more. The Acolyte to her left, the Acolyte of Shadows, signed subtly, and so she approached.

The Eldest rests, the Acolyte began the ritual greeting.

Eight hours a day, the nameless one replied.

You are welcome in

of the waking

difficult. The number of transgressions against the Eight number in the hundreds each and every day. Our ability to snatch the heretics from the battlefield is limited, and thus they escape our wrath and righteous cleansing. They do not sleep,

be allowed to stand. Give me the order, and I will hunt down those who spit acid in the Eldest’s

is not served by your anger. Put it to one side, and think on what

the icy

for my outburst, she signed, but the

on edge at such rampant and widespread heresy. There are simply too many, and we too few. We will take those we can, and remember those we cannot. They will have their time in

I hear and obey.

breaks to overcome the shortage in numbers; we shall overlook them today, lest our sisters suffer and die for lack of care. There are several

experience luxurious rest and relaxation before this day is

This is well.

the great fortress like insidious tendrils of truth. There was no place she could not reach, and her quarry would not escape her

Sanctum. Three targets she had been given, and three she had delivered. Those scouts now rested in the cells, their blatant violation of the Eight put to rights.

climb to catastrophic levels. Members of the Colony turned away from the law of the Eldest at every turn. It burned in her gut, just as it burned inside every other member of the

relieve her frustration, and cleanse her heart of this rage. She was a creature of the shadows. Patience and cold, ruthless logic were

one, the Acolyte of Rest welcomed her as she entered the grand resting chamber. I

wheel, separated into eight segments. One portion already stirred as the ants

wheel. She needed this rest, as did they all. Service to the mission was always difficult,