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

news of the waking world do 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

to stand. Give me the order, and I will hunt down those who

the order is not served by your anger. Put it to one side, and think

one pushed her anger down and sought the icy

signed,

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.

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

shall experience luxurious rest and relaxation before

This is well.

one set out through the dark tunnels once again. Narrow passages and secret pathways that wound throughout the great fortress

three she had delivered. Those scouts now rested in the cells, their blatant violation of the Eight put to rights. There was satisfaction in that knowledge, a quiet joy that warmed the nameless one from the inside. But

Eldest at every turn. It burned in her gut, just as it burned inside every other

of this rage. She was a creature of the shadows. Patience and cold, ruthless

the Acolyte of Rest welcomed her as she entered the grand resting chamber. I hope your work has been

carved deep into the floor, waited the wheel, separated into

for her chance to shuffle onto the wheel. She needed this rest, as did they all. Service to the mission was always difficult, but in this place, and at