Chrysalis

It was a long time before my sister was out of range of the Vestibule. The last flickering embers of her Will reached me hours later. How many hours, I honestly can’t say. Unable to do anything else after my failure, all I could do was sit and listen as she Willed for freedom, Willed for escape, Willed for it all to be over.

When at last the range was too great, or her Will was too thin, or perhaps she had finally experienced release, I swear I felt something inside of me break.

Once again, I triggered the healing gland once it had filled up. The flames of the Phoenix lingered within my carapace even now, trying to chew through my body, refusing to be extinguished. I didn’t see what I could do about it other than heal myself over and over again until finally they ran out of juice. It’s painful, but nothing compared to what my lost sibling was forced to endure.

The ants on the expedition are not filled with jubilation and triumph, as they should have been after such a successful outing. Once word of what occurred spread across the ships, there has been a simmering fury bubbling away inside the Vestibule, a grief and an anger that only serve to magnify my own.

Normally, I’m not a huge fan of the Vestibule allowing the Colony to affect my thoughts and emotions, but this time we are united, and our feelings are perfectly aligned.

With a silent command, I reach out through the Nave and contact the individual I’m seeking. She appears shortly after, popping into reality with a burst of energy and landing nimbly on the deck next to me.

“Have no fear, Brilliant is he—what the heck happened to you?!”

It takes a little while to explain what had occurred, and when I’m done, she’s just as furious as the rest of us.

“Why didn’t you call me, Eldest? I could have wiggled my way in there, no problem.”

“Too risky. It’s impossible for us to say what kinds of defences they might have had against that type of intrusion. If you’d been caught, we’d be mourning two lost siblings right now instead of one.”

Brilliant simply scoffs.

have found my way in and out.

confidence is one of the things that makes her who she is. There’s no point

you have a lot on your plate,

little mad scientist snaps

“I’m intrigued, go on.”

literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see

eating habits, all

Brilliant as I go on. She’s

to the diplomants and historiants to figure out. That hardly calls for me

“I want you to look into every site

of the captive was locked in

some strange sort of spell. Some magic that I don’t understand. They were

the top of her head

sister…. Well, I don’t have a reason to doubt you, so I’ll investigate. If there’s something there, then there’s something there.

chomps her

kind of research leaves a bad taste in the mouth. I’d rather be looking into something else altogether. Did you know that they asked me to help them look into the mana of the fifth stratum? It really is different to every other type of energy I’ve ever seen. The way it propagates itself, the virulent properties it possesses. It’s almost as

is

to keep on that, but make investigating the Church of

and the monsters of the fifth are enemies of everyone, and we will need to overcome them if we want to push deeper into the Dungeon. The Church though, they are only enemies to monsters, and have clearly announced their intentions towards us, and

shame that after an escapade in which we made so many

peace between the Colony and the Cathedral, not