Chrysalis

Mother looks at me, a twinge of amusement in her eyes as her antennae continue to hover threateningly. I swear she gets far more enjoyment than she should by whacking me on the head. I'm not sure I've ever seen her hit someone else, to be honest. It's not fair!

"Mother. It's lovely to see you as always, I'm just surprised is all. I thought you were very comfortable in the main nest."

"I experienced some issues due to a lack of mana. It was tolerable and I was happy to remain, but now that a secure nest has been constructed in this stratum, there is no reason I shouldn't move down and take up residence here."

"The fact that the Colony is at war in this layer wouldn't have anything to do with it?"

The Queen isn't fazed by my question and replies forthrightly.

"Of course if my children are fighting then I should help. Isn't that normal?"

"I suppose it is," I sigh.

Though I doubt the rest of the Colony were happy with her decision. In fact, the guards crawling all around are throwing me dirty looks for agreeing with her. What do you want me to do? Nobody is going to tell the Queen what to do, least of all me! If I suggest she try and look after herself, all that's going to happen is I get smacked in the head. Still, I suppose I should try.

"Just… try to be careful? A bit? The family would be sad if anything were to happen to you."

"Of course, child. I do not intend to needlessly throw my life away, but I have the ability to help, so I shall."

She looks at me as if I'm a touch foolish to think that she would do anything else. I stare flatly at the guards who now pretend they were never glaring at me to begin with. You morons, now mother thinks I'm an idiot. That's what I get for trying to help you.

"Well, we've had word that there are tier eight demons beneath us. So we need to be careful. If they come up here, we'll be forced into a fight that isn't likely to go well for us."

"Good thing that I'm here then," the Queen declares. "The strongest of the Colony should stand at the ready to repel this threat. Isn't that why you are here?"

"Sort of," I scratch my head with an antenna. "I've got my own thing going on. We aren't expecting them to pop up here anytime soon, but fighting them without any tier seven members is going to be tough."

"Very well, then I will return to my hunt. Be well, child. Try not to cause trouble."

"What, me? When do I eve… yes mother."

Satisfied with my reply, the Queen pats me on the head once before she walks away, trailed by as many as a thousand ants who nervously skitter around her as if expecting powerful monsters to leap out of the air to assassinate her.

The Queen is always going to do whatever she wants, which is nothing less than she deserves after the service she's done for the family, but I wish she wasn't so comfortable risking herself. I know she doesn't think of herself as irreplaceable, goodness knows how many queens we have now, but were she to actually fall in battle the entire family would be plunged into mourning.

Even the ants who've never met the Queen speak of her with such reverence. It's kind of strange to think there's so many members of the Colony who haven't laid eyes on the Queen. Or me, come to think of it. It doesn't seem all that long ago there were only a couple hundred of us and I had to shepherd my less intelligent family members to the surface to avoid the wave.

Now there's thousands and thousands. Maybe even a million? Is anyone even counting? Where's Accountant when you need her? Actually, an ant named Accountant probably does exist.

With Mother gone, I turn back to the golgari with a sigh.

[So there's nothing anyone can do about this and I just have to throw myself deeper into the Dungeon until I'm either dead or a high enough tier that the Ancients accept me as one of their own?]

[Pretty much,] Granin confirms. [There's a little more to it, I think, in terms of what evolutions you choose, and what path you emphasise. From what we understand of the Call, it won't stop until you realise your potential, 'ruin' it, or die.]

[Well that's just… great.]

This sucks. Big time. I'm not interested in being yanked about like a fish on a hook, but it doesn't seem the Ancients are interested in giving me much choice. Unless I can find a way to mitigate this effect, then I'm just going to have to learn to live with it. Learning to live with things is my speciality!

I've learned to live with being an ant just fine, and when I was a human there was that time with the legs. Those bones healed up alright, the pain when walking was less than the hunger pangs, and I dealt with those!

Actually, wait, no I didn't, I died from hunger didn't I?

[Look, kid, I'm sorry I didn't warn you about this. It's out of our hands whether or not this happens, and I won't say we didn't hope for it, but for what it's worth, I'm sorry.]

[Granin, this is too much emotion from you. Don't make it weird.]

Corun huffs a laugh behind his triad leader and even Torrina cracks a smile.

[None of this is your fault, I get that. This is largely a problem caused by me being too incredible and the ancients being gits. Hopefully at some point down the line it'll all work out in the wash. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go bite something.]

[Make sure you check back in with us before you evolve,] Granin reminds me as I turn to leave, [you're going to need a quick rundown. This one's going to be big.]

[You said that about the last one.]

I cut off contact as we get further from the hill.

[Master? Will you be able to fix this problem?] Crinis asks anxiously.

I can feel her wiggling about on my carapace back there, she must have been worried.

[No fixes in the short term, but we might be able to come up with something in the future if all goes well. Invidia, keep your eye open and see if you can find something that is causing me this pain. With your massive brain, you might be able to figure something out I've missed.]

The green eye flashes with glee.

[Your painssssss, I will take itssssss!]

[Don't take it, get rid of it, if possible,] I grumble. I wouldn't wish this suffering on one of my friends! [Make sure I check in with Brilliant when we get back down to the fourth as well. She might be able to pick up on something we can't, given that she has nine hundred different ways to sense information. She's like an ant shaped laboratory.]

Which was exactly what she wanted to be.

[Alright, let's go see if we can help the Colony and beat something up. We're fighting all over the place, so surely there's somewhere we can pitch in.]