Chrysalis

Solant knew, of course she knew, how could she not? But the task before her didn’t change, no matter what was going on behind her back.

“Focus your fire forwards! Don’t pay any attention to what’s going on behind! Hold the line!”

The fighting was still intense, though it had slackened, thankfully.

“Are you sure, general? Things are… rather dire back there.”

“Leonidant, I don’t care if the fortress collapses behind us, we will achieve victory here, in this tunnel, at this chokepoint!”

“But the fortress may well have fallen behind us, Solant! We don’t know what’s going on back there!”

For over an hour, reports had flooded to those fighting on the front that any and all communication with the central planning chamber had been lost. The fighters here in the tunnel had been cut off from central command completely.

That didn’t bother Solant so much, she had a job to do, as did every other ant here, and if there was a problem in the nest, that was for others to deal with. The Eldest was back there, for The Queen’s sake! If the Eldest couldn’t deal with it, she assuredly couldn’t.

And so, the fight had gone on.

Then the reports had changed. Not only was the central command chamber enshrouded in darkness, but the shadows were advancing down the tunnels.

Solant had glared at the scout and told her to get back to fighting.

“Rotate!” she demanded, and then twitched when she realised that the next line of soldiers was gone. There was no one to rotate forward.

Instead, all that lay behind her was a black wall of shifting shadows.

“Well… that’s not ideal,” she muttered.

“Yeah, don’t stress about it,” came a familiar scent, followed by the giant head of the Eldest. “You did a good job holding the line. Well done.”

She was pleased for the compliment, but felt it wasn’t deserved.

“We only held because the number of monsters encroaching on our position diminished significantly. If it weren’t for that, we would have… lost.”

tapped her on the head with

at the darkness behind them, “and I’m also the

sure what

it a second, they’ll

monster that came down the tunnel as the remaining troops, those not swallowed by the void, rested and healed

tunnel, as a mix

called in a favour from that stupid tree to cover the nest for us while everyone catches up on their sleep,” the Eldest said, waving at the

specimen of a tree waved back before

even if their mother is a bit of a jerk. Alright, they’ll take things from here, you lot can come with

are we going, Eldest?” Leonidant

do you mean? Straight into this infinite void of darkness and shadow,

“What?!”

in making sure you hit

replied, serious. “We were taught

of yourself, then your work gets sloppy and all the ants around have to pick up the slack. Extra work for everyone. When too many ants are working exhausted, the mistakes snowball and we

rounded everyone up and cheerfully

there are those who routinely push the limits, who skip a torpor period here and there, or go for multiple days without resting. When that happens, someone needs to make them see the error of

that what’s happening here?”

The Eldest laughed.

The entire fortress is getting put into torpor. Way too many ants not doing the right thing. The whole

midst. Then, suddenly, shockingly, they were through it, emerging out the other side into the central

Solant saw something unbelievable taking place. Ants were everywhere, crawling

adrift in torpor. Thousands upon thousands of them. As they drew

a new bed, they would carefully uncover the ant within and apply the contents of their containers to special cloths that they then rubbed over the slumbering ant’s carapace, leaving it gleaming. Then another ant, a carver, would go over the cleaned area with another specialised material, running it back and forth with their front two legs, until the carapace

it all. How

course,

you don’t take your rest on time, then you get the full treatment. So much time and effort spent rejuvenating you.

ants continued to work without making a sound or a scent, collecting slumbering members of the Colony, tucking them into beds, cleaning them,

this happening all over the fortress?” Solant asked,

course. Everyone is getting

them?” Solant wondered, indicating those