Chrysalis

It takes a little while to find Solant, because she is doing what she always does, running around the place sorting out everyone else's problems. She’s like an industrial strength iron, running over the military operation beneath the nest and pressing out every tiny wrinkle she comes across. Actually, the more I consider the image, the more it seems to fit. Solant is inevitable, a tide of logistical efficiency that no problem, no matter how small, can hide from.

As we move from chamber to chamber, tunnel to tunnel, we find nothing but an extreme example of pure ant organisation. There are troops training, running drills with the single-minded, relentless focus of insects. Supplies are being stockpiled, inventory constantly checked. Construction is everywhere, barracks chambers, hospitals, the works. The deeper we go, the more common it becomes, until at last we find the little general herself, overlooking a force of ten thousand ants running some sort of tunnel drill along with what looks like a hundred wuffers.

“What in the name of heck is going on here?” I ask, trying to figure out what the complex movements might be for. The whole battalion shifts forward, backwards, some ants hopping over others, some slipping underneath, then they rotate, making it seem as if I’m staring into a horizontal whirlpool as streams of my siblings swirl around the walls. It's dizzying!

“It’s about managing the movement of mana,” Solant says shortly, watching the drill underway like a hawk. Members of her personal squad are with her, as always, watching alongside, some annotating into a scent-book, literally taking notes.

“I’m going to need more than that. Don’t we use mages to manage the movement of mana?” I ask, still confused.

Solant sighs and I resist the urge to thwack her.

“In the fifth, our greatest opponent is not the monsters we will face, although they are mighty and dangerous indeed, it is the mana itself. It is impossible, even for us, to produce enough mages to manage the flow of energy through an entire stratum. Even for small scale incursions, we have to do everything we can to reduce the burden on our wuffer auxiliaries, and the ant mages, to ensure they don’t burn out.”

“That all makes sense, sure, but I need you to explain the trippy scene in front of me. I feel like I'm getting vertigo.”

“We are monsters with cores, so we absorb mana constantly.”

“I get that much.”

“Which means, our movement is capable of influencing, in a small way, the flow of energy in an area.”

So if there’s enough of us

Solant nods, satisfied.

wuffers in the centre of the formation, we can draw it in without exposing ourselves. When the wuffers have purified all the mana around them, we can push that clean energy out into

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

would be. The campaign hasn’t even started yet, but her out-of-the-box

the troops together. It’s time to

actually huffs a little as she clacks her

time

is ready

[Show her, Tiny.]

about, but the ape doesn’t fail to deliver, raising one

“See?”

I’ll get everything ready as quickly as I possibly can, but it will take some hours. Why

mother unleashed upon me. I’m seeking to transfer

fine. We’ll meet you

I won’t be

THWACK!

mean you

Eldest, was that