Guard was standing stiff-legged, she felt sore and exhausted just standing still, trying her best not to tremble, she was staring death in the face, The Tempest, she wrung her antenna nervously but refused to move from her post at the entrance to the ((SANCTUM)). She peered out into the murky waters as they raged against the Empress’ might. She stood strong so that her guards would see that there was nothing to fear, so that no ant would lose faith in the Empress. Guard did not have nearly as much faith in herself as she did in her Dungeon.
Most of the other ants were crowded along the back of the newly expanded ((SANCTUM)). Huddling together for warmth, comfort, and protection, you couldn’t see the walls or the roof, so tightly they were packed, just a squirming sea of brown and black bodies. The nearer you got to the door of the ((SANCTUM)) the smaller the crowd, mostly, it was her guards, who she had commanded to surround the ((CORE)), and the other leaders who were meeting as far away from the others as they could, fear of the water not penetrating as deeply in their named minds. Guard had no interest in joining in the petty arguments, she was a general, and the enemy was directly in front of her, when they needed her to march, she would be given her orders.
The Tempest swirled, and for a moment, Guard thought she saw something in the dark waves. She took a step forward without even realizing it, yes… there was something there, Guard strained her eyes as a large blob rushed toward the entrance, it spun in the tide and was only visible near pockets of the quickly fading light given off by the destroyed moss. She gave no indication that she saw it and steadied herself, it would vanish, just like everything else, it grew closer, Guard clenched her mandibles, the Empress would protect her, and she would protect the Empress. The object burst out of the water and the built-up pressure flung it into the tightly packed collection of ants in the back of the ((SANCTUM)). Guard spun around and hissed to her guard, letting out a heavy blanket of warning.
The crowd scattered and with a quick spritz of orders, the guards circled the foreign object. Guard pushed her way past the frantic group, the major’s large mandibles snapping at the terrified colonists, as she reached the circled-off area, her guards opened a way for her. She touched antennae with those she passed and it only made her more worried, she finally came into view of the foreign object. Guard lowered her antenna and stepped back; her mandibles hung open. She stared not knowing what else to do. The ant was bloated and scentless. Her abdomen was ripped open, thick hemolymph oozed out of even the most superficial wound, her fourth leg dangled and contorted, while a few others were missing entirely, and her antenna had snapped, cripplingly her for the rest of her life, even if she had survived, the ant would be unable to communicate properly. A rough jagged crack had formed right down the middle of her left mandible.
Guard clicked her mandibles nervously and she turned an antenna toward her guards who were holding the circle unsteadily, wanting to leave the scent of hemolymph behind them but not daring to disobey Guard’s orders. She turned to leave when she saw something out of the corner of her eye- she instantly turned around and took a step closer. The ant had twitched. It was barely a movement, and one fractured antenna moved. Guard stepped forward and reached out with her antenna, she felt the ant’s muscles twisting, and she felt the intense effort it took for her just to twitch her uninjured antenna. The ant’s ((MENU)) didn’t come up.
“SAFE ROOM!” Guard screamed, her scent glands excreting a thick mist of peril. Instantly the three ants materialized from the crowd, pushing their way through the dazed colonists, and dashing into the circle, they shared no scent with Guard and instead, the trio swarmed their patient.
Saferoom instantly addressed the large cut on the abdomen, she called her nurses to push the exoskeleton tightly in place over the insides. It was messy but the loose flap of chitin was soon pulled back into place to the best of their ability, Saferoom leaned over the cut and gagged, a thin line of thick white salvia dripped out of her mouth and onto the cut, it quickly hardened and glued the severed chitin back to the abdomen.
Saferoom repeated this procedure until the entire cut was sealed, the sticky hemolymph only reinforced the stitch, hardening when it touched the saliva. Nurse 1 gently realigned the patient’s mangled legs, while Nurse 2 sealed off her ragged stumps. Saferoom touched the patient’s antennae comfortingly, knowing that the antennae was too damaged to register the movement, and she clicked her mandibles.
Saferoom swallowed, she looked into the ants’ eyes- she could see that vague awareness that held the leaders above the other ants in those dim black beads. This was her little sister, and the first time she was able to meet her, she was going to die. Saferoom began to patch up the smaller wounds, but she knew that the thing that was really going to kill Stocker was the bleeding on the inside, her internal organs had been slapped around and smushed, and Saferoom didn’t know how to save her.
Guard didn’t Speaker her concerns about this being the first serious injury that the de facto medical crew had dealt with, instead, she turned toward her guards, away from the gory scene. She walked up the circle of majors and focused on walking in a straight line. As she reached the border the circle opened and Guard saw pandemonium, the entire colony was scattered around the ((SANCTUM)), dozens of frantic pheromones filled the air, and ants shouldered past and over other ants.
“Keep the circle up until they are finished, then mingle a bit, I don’t want to be caught by surprise again- understand?” Guard said, excreting more confidence than she felt as she addressed her guards. She didn’t wait for a response and simply began to scuttle with a purpose toward where she had last seen the other leaders. The idea of conversation suddenly much more appealing. Guard had to force herself not to run. She needed to get away.
The crowd scattered when she walked toward them, most of the colony had already started to huddle together again. Guard was surprised at how many runners she saw compared to the other two support classes, normally the runners would be dwarfed by the sheer size of the builders, and although only Gatherer really knew how many gatherers there were, she was certain that there were more than she was seeing. The crowd thinned as Guard got closer to the entrance, the colonists already starting to scurry away from the wall of water, the ring of guards was already lost to the crowd, the tight nit bodies at least blocked the metallic smell of the hemolymph.
“Guard! over here!” Runner shouted; she was a decent distance and the scent didn’t easily spread through the noisy air.
Guard turned and squinted toward the source of the pheromones then she began to follow it, picking her way through the overcrowded ((SANCTUM)), until she came to the point where her sisters sat in council, the worker ants avoided the spot out of respect and it was mostly clear of others, the five other leader ants were deep in conversation. Runner stood up and trotted up to her, offering an antenna. Guard reached out with her own and then she greeted the others.
The group shifted slightly and made room for Guard, she laid down next to Gatherer, allowing her large head to rest on the floor, her neck instantly felt relief, she had been growing lately, and her muscles and exoskeleton hadn’t caught up. She looked at her sisters, they had been growing as well.
“Why did you need Saferoom?” The nameless one asked, her abdomen seemed larger, and strangely, two bumps had appeared on her shoulder blades.
“You didn’t, see?” Guard said loudly, recoiling in shock, “An ant- she got shot into the ((SANCTUM)) through the wall of water- she was still alive… partially. She must have gotten caught in one of the other rooms, how she survived so long without drowning is unknown.” She slumped for a moment before straightening, images of the pale fleshy insides blaring in her mind. “I came here to inform you of the situation and to be debriefed.”
“‘ell, then, the headcount came up 17 short, now 16, I guess, mostly my girls. 9 of um, drowned, I guess- lost a few gatherers, and the new one is missing… I guess you wouldn’t know ‘bout her either.” Builder said, she shrugged and lowered her head, she seemed redder than before, thicker too, but stout and short.
Guard’s antenna drooped, that put the colony down to… 76? She wasn’t entirely sure. “New one?”
“There was an 8th,” Gardener said somberly, she looked a little green, although, she always looked a little green. “Poor dear, only a few cycles old, perhaps she was the one who made it.”
“Oh.” Guard said she didn’t meet Gardener’s eyes, she didn’t want to disappoint her, even if the 8th was the injured ant, Guard doubted that she would ‘make it’
“We need a plan.” Gatherer said, her mandibles twitching, she looked reddish, and her legs were thin and delicate, but there was powerful muscle in the joints, “The Tempest has claimed too many of our kin, The Nameless One said that the spawner isn’t working, we need to prepare ourselves.”
“Do we? The Empress will protect us, we just do what she commands.” Runner replied, tucking her long powerful legs under her abdomen.
“Gatherer is correct Runner; everything will be damaged once The Tempest subsides.” The nameless one said.
“IF it subsides, we don’t know,” Builder said, resting her head on the floor
“It will, I am sure of it,” Gardener said, fidgeting and cleaning her antenna.
“It might not, I know that you two are worried because your usefulness to the Empress is based on the Spawner and Moss, both of which have been Overtaken, but I guess, we may need to just start over… and be fully subterranean, it would be the only way.” Builder sighed.
Gatherer, The Nameless One, and Gardener looked at each other uncertainly, if The Tempest never subsided, they would all become obsolete.
“Well… where it come from? The Tempest.” Runner asked, changing the subject
“It fell from the Eternal.” Gatherer said, “My ants saw it, droplets of water, falling, there were so many it filled up the entire world and had nowhere to go but into the colony.”
“How’d it get into the "sky?” Runner said incredulously, that she had never left the colony and doubted that there was such a thing as the sky, even with Gatherer’s many testimonies.
“Maybe it climbed,” Guard said, deciding to reenter the conversation, she glanced toward where Saferoom was.
“No, the sky must be made of water, it is blue after all, nothing else is blue." Gatherer said, "It was only a matter of time before it fell down i suppose."Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!
“Not if it climbed from outside of the world.” Guard tried again, she didn’t care how it got into the sky, but she needed to take her mind off the injured ant.
“There isn’t anything outside of the world, the rock stretches up until it gets cold and it turns into Eternal,” Gatherer said, standing up.
“Have you sent any gatherers over the world border?” Guard asked.
“I tried to myself! But, I couldn’t because it gets too cold! I couldn’t see anything but clouds.” Gatherer lied, she had never climbed the border herself, in fact she only sent one patrol partway up to look for new forage, but they found barely anything and complained viscously of the cold so she never bothered with further exploration.
“Clouds.” Runner scoffed. “You want me to believe that there are giant white floating things in a giant blue veil supported by mountains. That do nothing?”
"They most likely do something." Gatherer said, "I noticed a fair amount gathering before the sky fell, they were darker, and large."
"Ah, so these ''clouds'' have majors now?" Runner said,
“Maybe it flew into the sky?” Guard asked, absent-mindedly,
“You could always go look for yourself after this is all over Runner!” Gatherer growled ignoring Guard and instead focusing on the battle she knew she could win, standing up, her six legs finding solid ground and bending slightly.
“If it ends,” Builder said, curling into herself and closing her eyes, there was a deep ache in Builder’s heart she had lost so many.
“Builder is right- I mean, at least I won’t be obsolete when we have to expand down,” Runner said, leaping to her feet, her head low and mandibles scrapping the floor.
“Sit. Down.” The nameless one said, her pheromones hovering dangerously in the air, Guard stood up and flexed her large mandibles, the major looked at Runner, then at Gatherer, for just long enough to make them uneasy. “We are all a little stressed from being cooped up in here; we don’t need any infighting, understood?” The nameless one hissed.
The two leaders sat, and for a while that is all they did, waiting in silence for the nameless one’s eyes to drop. Guard looked up and turned her head, she spotted some of her guards mingling. “I’m going to see Saferoom and see how things went.” She said and quickly scuttled away.
Gatherer nodded and waited for a blink, The Nameless One rolled her eyes and clicked her mandibles, Gatherer slipped into the crowd, Runner tensed up and curled her antenna, but then sighed and sat down. Before she got far enough away, she Guard whiffed her say, “Well if the sky is blue... maybe it is made of The Tempest,”
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She was tired, but it was a strange exhaustion, as if she had been asleep and had slept well, but wasn’t ready to wake up yet. As if Dungeons could sleep, at all. Well, this Tempest was probably the closest thing she had gotten to sleep. The constant but diminishing intake of ((MANA)) from the flood waters was rapidly expanding her ((MANAPOOL)), but Empress didn’t know what to use it on if she even could. Her mind flashed to the empty scar in her ((CORE)), as she grew, it did as well. She shivered, her ants were getting well… antsy- she forced herself to relax, allowing her ((GAZE)) to expand and envelop the whole room. The world grew hazy and out of focus, but it matched well with this… bloated feeling that came from her accumulated ((MANA)). Empress wasn’t sure why she felt so calm- she really shouldn’t feel calm right now, in fact, the more she thought about it the more she felt strange, she should be panicking- but instead she just felt numb, incomplete almost. What had woken her up?
She pulled her ((GAZE)) together and floated above her ((CORE)), one of the ants had been injured and Saferoom was tending. Empress could tell from one glance that the ant would not survive. She floated closer, the spawner was offline, and she didn’t know if she would be able to repair it. Saferoom looked at her ((GAZE)). These were the last of her ants, she couldn’t afford to lose any. Empress reached out with her mind toward the injured ant. She grimaced as she entered the ((CODE)).
Numbers, millions of numbers, each one meant something, each one quantified magic and life bit by bit. The ((SANCTUM)) was just blocks of empty numbers, and the ants were just fragments of Empress. She squinted at the injured ant, the numbers were crumbling, turning into dust, and colliding with the fragments in the air that turned into numbers that turned into Empress. The water exploded as it tried to enter the ((SANCTUM)) turning into billions of specks of blue that quickly turned gold, then became Empress.
She looked at her ((GAZE)) which was nothing more than a higher concentration of Empress. She willed herself back into the ant, the glowing numbers mocked her. Empress hissed in frustration; the ant was degrading quickly. She reached into her ((CORE)) and drew out some of her ((MANA POOL)) the moment it left the ((CORE)) it disbursed and jumped into parts of the ((DOMAIN)) that were significantly less Empress than others. Empress hissed again and reached back into her ((CORE)) she focused on the ((MANA)) and held it tightly, it wiggled and parts of it leaked out of her mental grasp. Empress brought the ((MANA)) to the injured ant, but when she released the ((MANA)) there was hardly any left.
The ((MANA)) flowed into the injured ant, new numbers formed, and the old one’s crumbling slowed. Empress sighed, she didn’t know if the ant would live or not, but she couldn’t lose anymore ((MANA)), even if it felt good it spend some. The trio of Saferoom ants surrounded the injured ant and Empress turned to look at The Tempest, the waterfall of numbers and dust was slowing, only slightly, but Empress could tell.
She pulled out of the ((CODE)) and bobbed toward The Tempest. She pushed her ((GAZE)) through the wall of water. She flinched at the strange feeling, her vision was murky, although, so was the water, and she felt cold, and once again wondered how she could feel. She pushed forward trying to make out her ((DOMAIN)), but the clouded water was messing with her ((GAZE)). There were flashes of light from the uprooted Lummi moss but it wasn’t enough to see properly, to make matters worse, Empress found that the water had eroded parts of the colony. The tunnels and rooms were larger, and she couldn’t tell where from what.
She sighed and turned toward the glowing light of the ((SANCTUM)). She pulled her ((GAZE)) into her expanding ((CORE)) and unfocused her vision. Time passed, how long? She didn’t bother counting and without the spawner, it was impossible to guess, she focused on her senses; The Tempest was waning; she was sure of it now. The water pressure that throbbed against her mind, against her ((CORE)), her ((DOMAIN)), was fading.
She sighed and focused her ((GAZE)), she turned toward her ants, there was something strange about them, they were… different, not that they hadn’t been different before, but now they were changing, she circled around the room until she spied Gardener. The ant’s eyes were larger than before, and they were a deeper black, her body had grown into a soft grey-green, and her legs were thinner and more delicate, but Empress saw the immense amount of muscle, Gardener touched antenna with one of her gardeners and Empress noticed that their mandibles looked like they could click together like puzzle pieces.
Empress blinked, she searched the ((SANCTUM)) for one of her other leaders, her ((GAZE)) fell upon Guard and Empress bobbed up and down. Guard’s mandibles and head were large and pronounced, which was to be expected from a major, but her sheer size made her stand ? an ant above the other ants, her legs and abdomen were heavily armored and her antenna were thick and short. Why had her ants changed? Empress was puzzled, she thought about vocalizing her thoughts, as she had when she just achieved existence what seemed to her like a lifetime ago, and, in a way, it was. Empress glanced at her ants, the longer she lived the more it seemed that they could hear her, and Empress wasn’t sure if she wanted to have someone to talk to.
Her ((CORE)) had changed, before it looked like a golden speck of an egg, barely visible on its pedestal, now it was a shining teardrop, multifaceted and almost teetering off the edge of its pedestal. Is the ((CORE)) an it? It is Empress, as much as her ((GAZE)) is Empress, in fact, it is more Empress, but it feels like it is less, the ((CORE)) does not see, it does not feel, it simply is. Empress hesitated for a moment, wondering if other beings had these sorts of problems, do ants wonder if their heart is their being, then she forced herself to focus. The ((CORE)) grew, because… why? because ((MANA)), that is natural. Empress grew, the ants are little pieces of Empress, so then, the ants would grow- yes? Grow, is different than change, they changed.
Empress stopped bobbing, and began a lazy circle around the ((SANCTUM)), did Empress change? The ants changed and didn’t seem to notice, did Empress change as well, did the Tempest change her? She floated closer to herself and stared at her ((CORE)). Empress stared into herself and was unnerved. She did not particularly understand or like what she saw, the golden crystal with floating orbs of ((MANA)) inside it, the small dark crack inside of the ((CORE)).
She did not know herself, and she did not know if she had been changed.
Did it matter? Was she still herself, even if she wasn’t the same self that she was before? If she had changed at all in the first place. Empress felt lost, she knew that her ants looked up to her, that to them, she was the highest power in the world. She knew that they were wrong. She was terrifyingly aware of her ignorance. She didn’t know who was above her, The One was highest, the ((SYSTEM)) was ever-present, but where in that order did she land? Empress whispered something aloud, her ants all perked their antenna up, it was something between a song, a prayer, and a battle cry.
Her voice was soft and nearly silenced by the Tempest.
Her voice drifted off and she grew silent, she pulled herself into her ((CORE)) and she waited, and perhaps, if you would like to think this, she slept, the closest thing that she could’ve done to sleeping at least. Perhaps she even ‘dreamed’ in a way, she ‘dreamed’ of loud sharp cries and thundering rain. She dreamed of voices, of shouting, the sound of metal striking metal, the sound of a wolf’s howl, or the closest thing she knew to one. She dreamed that she tasted blood in the water that flowed into her ((SANCTUM)), and she dreamed that she ate a dead man.
Empress suddenly felt the flow of ((MANA)) change, at first it gave her one quick jolt of incredibly highly concentrated ((MANA)), she ‘awoke’ frantically, and she reached for the ((SYSTEM)) to check what she had absorbed, but it was gone and the only sign she could see of whatever had flowed in was a slightly darker patch of water that was quickly gone, then, the flow of ((MANA)) slowed significantly and she turned to the entrance of the ((SANCTUM)) the water was still rushing in, but now when she looked, she could see a gap between the roof and the Tempest. There was a wild thrill in Empress’ ((CORE)), she suddenly became aware of just how much ((MANA)) she had- and what she could do with it. It wouldn’t be long now, then she could truly begin- She needed more rooms, maybe traps?
She hesitated for a moment, before deciding that she could get Builder to make her whatever she needed and that she didn’t need to worry about it. She turned toward where she had last seen Saferoom, the injured ant lay still on the ground, Saferoom and the others close by, Saferoom let the injured ant rest her head on her and Empress flicked into the ((CODE)) for a blink to see if the numbers were still degrading, they had stopped. She sighed in relief and a dark cloud that she didn’t know was hovering over her ((CORE)) seemed to fade a little. For the first time Empress felt… hope.
Empress had a strange feeling like she was being watched, although, that was preposterous, the water still blocked the entrance to her ((DOMAIN)) and she knew that she would feel any foray into her Dungeon, even through aquatic means. She didn’t know how she knew, she simply… did. It was a calming and familiar feeling. She looked passively at the Tempest, there was plenty of space between the ceiling and water now and it seemed to rush in more slowly, she floated her ((GAZE)) above the water. Her rooms were significantly eroded, the moss hallway was almost round instead of square, and this followed through into her other rooms, the spawner room had several divots in the roof where the water had eroded patches of some softer earth, perhaps sand or clay, the hallway jutting out from the storeroom had been deepened, going downward at an angle, slowly lowering in height as the water weakened, leaving a narrowing downward slope. an ant would have no trouble crawling through even the smallest point with room to spare, but a Biped, from what Empress knew, would probably struggle, but the room with the most damage to it was the storeroom.
Before the storeroom had many purposeful alcoves carved into the walls and pits in the ground, to properly store things, but the Tempest had smoothed these over, just giving the dirt room a rather uneven look. The room needed to be completely redone. Empress focused her ((GAZE)) in concentration. She mentally reached out to the water trying to force it away, numbers flashed and she hissed, the water was slippery, not like the spawner or her ants.
She tried to grasp one drop of water and change it, to rearrange the numbers with her own. She could see the ambient ((MANA)) in the room writhe as she pulled on it, she pushed the ((MANA)) toward her target droplet, and it began to rush into the water, ((MANA)) condensing the droplet flashed gold, then it was washed away in the Tempest.
Empress growled. She floated away seething, toward the entrance, and she noticed that the water levels were sinking quickly. She reached the entrance, and the water level was lowering quicker and quicker, the closer to the entrance, the faster, the water no longer spilled over the little cliff and made its way downward toward the ((SANCTUM)), and light, dim as it may be, flowed into the cave, Empress stared at it for a long while, her ((GAZE)) adjusting to the higher light levels of the entrance, she couldn’t see past the wall of white, but she could feel the ((MANA)) pouring in and out of her ((DOMAIN)) no longer hindered by the Tempest, air flowed in tired and drained, then Empress absorbed it, and ((MANA)) floated throughout her Dungeon, and then it left, refreshed. Whatever had happened was over.
Empress suddenly felt much better, she wasn’t sure why, particularly, but she knew that things were okay now. Empress wondered how long she had existed, it felt like an eternity now, but she knew that it wasn’t. She watched the waters fade, and she relaxed, her ((DOMAIN)) relaxed, the ants relaxed. The threat was over. Now they could go back to normal, whatever that was, they just needed to wait a little longer. Then they could go back to existing. Whatever that meant.