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.”

Eldest tapped her on

who arranged that,” the Eldest pointed a leg at the darkness behind them, “and I’m also the

sure

they’ll be

two waited, the Eldest swatting the occasional monster that came down the tunnel as the

of movement down the tunnel, as

tree to cover the nest for us while everyone catches

before they turned

even if their mother is a bit of a jerk. Alright,

going, Eldest?”

mean? Straight into this infinite

“What?!”

have been diligent in making sure

“We were taught to always

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

order, the giant ant had rounded everyone up and

period here and there, or go for multiple days without resting. When that happens,

happening here?”

The Eldest laughed.

many ants not doing the right thing. The whole place could

of the Eldest in their midst. Then, suddenly, shockingly, they were through it, emerging out the other side into the

light and deepening the shade. Inside, Solant saw something unbelievable taking place. Ants were everywhere, crawling over every surface, on the room, on the walls, but even more than those ants who

beds formed of shaped stone filled the space, each occupied by a member of the Colony, adrift in torpor. Thousands upon thousands of them. As they drew closer, Solant could see that each was tucked in with a thick layer of cloth, a small… toy or doll tucked

carrying containers in their mandibles. When they reached 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 luxury of it

Eldest, of course, noticed her

take your rest on time, then you get the full treatment. So much time and effort spent rejuvenating

making a sound or a scent, collecting slumbering members of the Colony, tucking them into beds,

over the fortress?”

course. Everyone is

about them?” Solant wondered,