Chrysalis

As nice as it is to sit down, eat tea and cake with our neighbours while discussing the inherent superiority of ant-made goods, there is still a wave going on. It's not like it's a big deal, there's just this globe-spanning disaster in the form of endlessly spawning monsters, savage and berserk, desperate for Biomass and experience.

So, with the ink barely dry on our trade deal, the brathians returned to the waters of the lake, vaguely promising that less monsters would assault us from the shoreline and promising to return when the wave ended. Which was all well and good, there were a lot of ants pulled from the frontlines to help with the negotiations and they needed to get their abdomens back into the fight.

I decided to chat with Enid for a while before she went back to her rooms.

[I can't believe you got them to agree to such terms,] the old woman shakes her head.

[What?] I reply, indignant. [We're practically getting robbed! We fight the monsters in the Dungeon and control the territory necessary to collect the raw goods. Then we process it all ourselves, then we do all the work shaping it, turning it into something of use, and enchant it! If that's not enough, we agreed to bring everything to the fourth stratum, AND pack everything according to their standards, AND drop everything on their doorstep! What else are they after? Blood?!]

[I think, technically, you don't have blood, you have ichor. Which they would want if they could get it, yes.]

Enid lent back in her chair and chuckled. I leaned in a little closer to inspect the old woman, she really didn't look well. The talks had drained her, she was as shrivelled as a prune.

[I'm not saying the Colony doesn't do a lot of work, but transportation and access to markets are expensive. Most producers are lucky to see thirty percent, if that.]

[For thirty percent, I would have told them to get stuffed and set up a market on the shoreline. They're dreaming if they think the Colony can be taken advantage of. There's no war we can't win, even an economic one.]

[You're probably most dangerous in an economic conflict,] Enid observed, her tone heavy with fatigue. [There's going to be millions and millions of you soon, so many workers, who effectively work for free…. You can afford to sell so much cheaper than anyone else.]

Hmmm. That's a good point. The workers in the Colony don't draw a salary, as such. They get housed, fed, educated, provided resources, but don't have anything like purchasing power of their own. I mean, they're ants, they don't feel the need for any reward, they work for the betterment of the family. If I offered them some sort of reward, cores for example, as payment for their work, I honestly think they would just donate them to the hatchlings.

[This is a problem,] I told Enid. [The workers of the Colony should get some sort of reward for their efforts.]

Enid shook her head.

[There's nothing they would accept and we both know it. I don't see anything wrong with what the Colony is doing. The workers don't get paid, but it isn't as if they're being exploited. The profit, if you want to call it that, of their work is accumulated by the family, not any individual.]

I wasn't satisfied, but what she said made sense.

[Well, thank you very much for your time, Enid. I can see that this wasn't easy for you.]

The old woman sighed and tried to push herself up from her chair, but failed.

[Damn. I feel so weak. No, don't fuss!]

She snaps at me as I approach, concerned, but she only waves me away.

[It was fun. I haven't engaged in a proper battle like that for many years. Were I twenty years younger, my blood would have been boiling after such a defeat, but I'm just tired. I'll need a lot of rest after all this.]

[Lots of rest is the least you're going to get.]

[What do you mean?]

Enid's face begins to change as understanding of what I mean starts to dawn on her, but it's too late. Her chair is seized by a team of ants and lifted into the air while she's still on it. Maintaining perfect balance, they begin to carry her away, to the medical ward if my guess is right.

[Anthony! Where are they taking me?!]

[Quick medical check, I expect. You can expect only the finest treatment after all you've done for the Colony today.]

[I don't want this! Just send me back to my room!]

[Sorry Enid… the mental… connection… appears to be… breaking up!]

[That's not how a mind bridge works!]

[Oh. In that case, sorry, I can't hear you, I already cut the connection.]

[YOU'RE STILL TALKING TO ME!]

[Damn, you're sharp. I'll catch up with you soon, Enid! Rest well!]

Still squawking indignantly, Enid is carried away to the hospital by her personal team of dedicated healers. As if we won't take good care of someone who works so hard for the family.

Well, this was all an interesting distraction, learning about a whole… conglomerate of brathians living in the lake next to us. We've barely scratched the surface of everything that's going on in the fourth stratum, but I guess we'll have more time to worry about things like that after the wave is finished.

It's not the right time to be adventuring all over the place. We have a wave to deal with, I have a little champion to train and there's three pets who need to evolve.

In fact… if the gate is operational….

I head down into the nest and find the gate-room. Sure enough, it's crackling with energy, a rather lethargic-looking Brilliant stumping about the place, poking at this and that with her antennae.

[Hey there, Brilliant! You actually did it! Working gate technology. This might be the single biggest contribution anyone has made to the family! Are you happy?]

She barely turns towards me.

[You doubted me? It was simple, I'm… Brilliant… or whatever.]

She's so flat! Where's her usual energy?

[What the heck is wrong with you? This time?] I loom over the tiny ant and prod her with a foreleg. [Where's your get up and go? Your gusto!]

[I'm just feeling bored. We had the gate thing pretty much figured out a week ago. There's a ton of fine tuning still to be done. It'll be months before we get our mandibles on all the little efficiencies needed to minimise the mana requirements.]

She sighs and kicks at a pebble.

[There's just no adventure in it. It's not exciting to me anymore.]

I look at her, confused.

[So… why are you still doing it?]

[I have to!] She throws up her antennae with a hint of her old vigour. [There's nobody else as good as me at working with dimensions, only I have the evolutions and mutations that allow me to see the weave!]

[Do you have to have those abilities to do the fine tuning? I thought you had a whole team helping you up in the second stratum.]

[I do, but they aren't good enough to do the work without my supervision,] she groans. [They just aren't…]

[Brilliant,] the two of us say together.

I tap her on the back.

[Yeah, so you start up a second team. One group can work on smoothing out the gates, and the other can work on something new. Mana cannons. Or enchanted rocks that walk around and smash things. Or creating islands that fly. Or short distance teleportation devices. Oh! Do you think you could create something that makes scouts invisible? That would be cool and save a ton of evolutionary energy. Self-repairing nest walls? Ooooo, could you siphon power from those other dimensions? And you're like a Dungeon Seer, right? You should train up a team of those and see what you can learn about the Dungeon. There's tons of things the Colony doesn't know about, which we really need to know about.]

The more ideas I pelt her with, the more Brilliant begins to vibrate, intense energy building up inside her carapace.

[But… but… so many…. So many ideas! I must pursue them all! I MUST UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING!]

[In that case,] I tell her, [you should set up more teams.]

[I will! And I will lead them all! Because I'm BRILLIANT!]

[Of course you are.]