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 the head

the one who arranged that,” the Eldest pointed a leg at the darkness behind them,

not sure what you

second, they’ll be here in

swatting the occasional monster that came down the tunnel as the remaining troops, those

tunnel, as a mix of large and small tree-people came into sight.

called in a favour from that stupid tree to cover the nest for us while everyone catches up on their

waved back before they turned and settled in to defend the

is a bit of a jerk. Alright, they’ll take things from

going, Eldest?” Leonidant

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

“What?!”

in making sure

Solant replied, serious. “We were taught to always get proper rest in

you don’t take proper care of yourself, then your work gets sloppy and all the ants around have to pick up the slack. Extra work

the giant ant had rounded everyone up and cheerfully led them into

you well behaved members of the Colony, there are those who routinely push the limits, who skip a torpor period here and there, or go for

happening here?” Solant

The Eldest laughed.

into torpor. Way too many ants not doing the right thing. The whole place could have

together around the hulking form of the Eldest in their midst. Then, suddenly, shockingly, they were through it, emerging out the

the air, smothering the light and deepening the shade. Inside, Solant saw something unbelievable taking place. Ants were everywhere,

in torpor. Thousands upon thousands of them. As they drew closer, Solant could see that

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 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

luxury of it all.

of course, noticed her

giant ant observed gleefully, “if you don’t take your rest on time, then

collecting slumbering members of the Colony, tucking them into beds, cleaning them,

happening all over the fortress?” Solant asked,

is getting

about them?” Solant wondered, indicating those who were