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.

are welcome in

Acolyte. What news of

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, their carapaces remain unwaxed, their antennae laden

allowed to stand. Give me the order, and I will hunt

not served by your anger. Put it to

icy calm that served her so well in her long

outburst, she signed, but the Acolyte waved

There are simply too many, and we too

I hear and obey.

sisters suffer and die for lack of care. There are several

and relaxation before

This is well.

the

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

of violations continued to 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 this rage. She was a creature of the

Rest welcomed her as she entered the grand resting chamber. I hope

centre of the massive room, carved deep into the floor, waited the wheel, separated into eight segments. One portion already stirred as the ants resting there began

they all. Service to the