Chrysalis

When the mana starts to drop, it drops fast. One second I’m up to my eyeballs in the stuff, absolutely drowning in energy, the next it’s receding so quickly I feel like I’m going to get swept down a stratum if I don’t hold onto the ground.

So. That’s it? Just like that?

Hanging from the top of my tunnel, I feel relieved and a bit… disappointed? Look, I’m not asking for the Legion to come knocking on the Colony’s door every wave, but I kind of expected something. This wave has ended with a murmur rather than a roar.

Ah well, it is what it is.

I drop off the roof, stretch out a bit, clean my antennae, then walk back into the nest. Time to go find something else to do, I suppose. Back in the central command chamber, the generals are running around like mad, as always. I find Sloan right in the middle of it all.

“Hey there, Sloan. What’s happening?”

“The wave is ending,” she says, obviously distracted.

I poke her on the head with an antenna.

“Yeah… so why is everyone so busy? Shouldn’t you be winding down? Slowing your roll a little bit? The wave is over.”

She sighs and turns to face me properly.

“The wave being over means the siege has ended. It’s once again safe to venture out of the fortress and into the tunnels.”

“Right. So?”

the lower sections of the nest

Ah.

we’ll come under attack? I hadn’t heard of any impending

forewarning of an impending attack, Eldest. Better to be prepared. If you’ll

Solant out there,” I tell her and the general

it, I go find a nice nook to tuck myself into, out

the Colony. I may be the only creature who gets to feel it like this in the entire lifetime of my family, which is a real shame. Others can see how well my siblings work together, the thousands and thousands who cooperate, seemingly flawlessly, at so

of individuals, each with their own vision, their own wants and needs, all working to better the life of the ant next to them. It’s beautiful. Truly, the ant is…. The

are there humans here? And

find a few threads that are ever so slightly different. Sure enough, when I take a closer look, I find out just who has come to visit. It doesn’t take long for them to find me, either. A procession of robed priests, each with antennae rising from their hoods, make their way into the chamber before

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don’t use any pheromones, so none of us ants are all that bothered. I decide to just ignore them,

now the wave is over, the humans have decided it’s safe for them to come and live at this level. That’s handy. Incorporating the ant priests and human

to put up with a bit of chanting and kneeling.

Time to

his enormous arms and shoulders. Crinis glomps onto me the moment she’s in range, moulding herself onto my

sense of satisfaction radiating from each of

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