Chrysalis

Ah, the sea. Lake. Sea-Lake. I hate it. Once again, I find myself aboard a large tub, surrounded by ships, basically trapped and unable to shift myself, lest the boat tip over. It’s unpleasant, obviously, and it feels a bit vulnerable. Well, it felt a bit vulnerable, before I had a fleet of anti-monster soldiers bearing down on me at all times.

Now it’s downright unnerving.

The Legion remain close by, relatively speaking. Their fleet maintains a reasonable distance from our own, given that fleets of ships take up a fair amount of space and need room to manoeuvre and all that. Abyssal Legion ships, as bulky and intimidating as the troops, keep pace, a couple of kilometres away from the brathian fleet.

[There’s no need to worry,] Marzban tries to assure me, despite looking extremely worried. [If they were to make a move against this fleet, it would be construed as an act of war by the Island Conglomerate and the Folk. Possibly by the Mother Tree as well. They wouldn’t dare go that far.]

[Don’t they hate all of you guys anyway?]

He hesitates.

[That’s… somewhat true. Even so, I don’t think the Legion is interested in stirring up that kind of trouble right now. With the repeated waves, they’re stretched thin and have much bigger fish to fry than some ants on a trade mission.]

He certainly hopes so.

time?] I extend the bridge over to Eran, who is leaning against the railing, glaring at the distant

turns to me with a

Basin, the most prominent mountain occupied by the Sand Empire, followed by Greystone, then the Wandering Isle, and finally the Silver City. All of these are major trading hubs, but you are correct, they are all, at least to some degree, hostile to outsiders, and especially to monsters. The Old races tend to be more… set in

really blame them. If an Ancient arriving can turn every single ant in the Colony into a wild killing machine, then it’s going to

seem so unconcerned with that possibility. Even the Mother Tree seems to have discounted it, letting us move in right next door to her, or perhaps she has some other plan? Come to think of it,

aware that it has

into some mindless soldier of a bigger, badder monster isn’t sitting very well with me, I have to say. The more time passes and the more I think about it, the greater my irritation becomes. If

… I hope.

thoughtful as she considers me.

If mana levels return to what they were during that Cataclysm, is that even enough to support the Ancients in their current forms? Perhaps, perhaps not. If mana levels rise that high, and if the Ancients are able

be? We aren’t like the bruan’chii, we are genuine

power should make it

influence of other monsters. Demons are almost totally immune, for example, untameable. Otherwise, the various empires would have raised powerful monsters to help subdue the third stratum and impose some level of order on that wild place. Similarly, the Krath are known to be extremely resistant to monster domination.

which sends a shiver running over my carapace. They already know. Somehow, someway, the brathians are confident the Colony will be able to resist, at least to some extent, the influence

did they test us? How did they