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

What news of

battlefield is limited, and thus

the nameless one signed savagely. This cannot be allowed to stand. Give me the order, and I will hunt down those who spit acid in the

your inner rest, nameless one, the Acolyte signed, the order is not served by

icy calm

outburst, she signed, but the

we too few. We will take those we can, and remember those

I hear and obey.

them today, lest our sisters suffer and die for lack of care. There are several scouts who have spurned the Torpor chambers for several days. Capture them and let them learn the error of

and

This is well.

that wound throughout the great fortress like

now rested in the cells, their blatant violation of the Eight put to rights. There was satisfaction in that

turned away from the law of the Eldest at every turn. It burned in her gut, just as it burned inside every

would help relieve her frustration, and cleanse her heart of this rage. She was a

as she entered the grand resting chamber. I hope

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

rest, as did they all. Service to the mission was