AR Chapter 447

After checking with my two companions, I learned that the ants were fairly non-responsive to any of the sneaky attempts that’d been made in an attempt to sway their opinions of us.

“The way their feelings function is different from ours.” Sybil explained. “I wasn’t able to change the way that they felt or perceived at all. Maybe it was stubbornness, maybe it was something else entirely, but the royals remain heavily resistant, as before, while the youngmother seemed entirely immune. There’s no telling if the reason for that is due to her physiology or due to protections, there was no tell. Perhaps I could learn more, but I didn’t dare to use too heavy of a hand.”

“Have you ever dared to use ‘a heavy hand’?“ I asked. “So far as I’ve seen, you’ve only ever attempted to be subtle with this.”

“You have seen me use a larger portion of my strengths, that is not true. It is an action of desperation, though. Regardless, I feel that revealing the entirety of my capacity, especially while we are still such a fledgling nation, is a mistake of the highest degree. To me, it is most terrifying to be confronted with the possibility of my mind being usurped from me. I suspect that there are many who will share my sentiment, and if they do, upon learning of my existence, there will be a crusade to ensure that, not only are we as a country destroyed, but that I specifically am eradicated or enslaved. As such, I refrain from using any significant portion of my magical potency.”

I flared my frills, agreeing with the sentiment. If I knew I had Sybil going against me, and not just for her intelligence, I would put all of my effort into ensuring that she was dead sooner rather than later. If the Misti Hawar understood that we had many more tools than they expected to turn their followers against them, the Nyust’Taa wouldn’t have given us so much time to continue to gather and strengthen ourselves. Every day, I was more grateful for the foolish leader’s pride and her attempts at seeing the long picture. She thought that her Principality would be able to use us as a whetstone for the blade she wielded, but we were working to ensure we would instead be a stone that found the chip in her knife and shattered it.

“Do you have anything to add, Joral?” I turned my attention to the Kou’Tal, who clacked his teeth in denial.

“What little success I felt was more of a feeling of allyship than subordination, obedience, or anything like that. Considering what their original goal was regarding us, I can’t say that Sybil and I did affected anything more than to get a read on their intentions as they were entering into negotiation. I’m sorry, Zaaktif.“

I flicked my tail dismissively as I turned and gestured for them to follow me. The movement made the open chested robe I wore flap in the wind, and the movement and sound graded on me. For years, I’d accustomed myself to living as a keelish, and they lived naked. Now, as a Zaaktif attempt attempting to legitimize the Empire of the Saharliard, I needed to take advantage of every trapping of civilization that I could to prove to the bystander that our violence was a tradition, our bloodthirst was a religion, and our personhood was a given. Our only hope for that in the long term was that we’d seen that there were other countries made of violent, nearly warmongering people. With that in mind, so long as we could get the acknowledgment of enough other civilizations, we could leverage that perception against our enemies.

And so I stood in a robe dyed purple with the juice of berries found infrequently throughout the Shandise. So much of what I did was calculated now, not in the hopes of levering conquest against other members of my people, but instead in service of establishing the Empire. In the long-term, I could feel that there would be an implacable hunger for more, to let my people raise hatchlings and destroy those who would destroy us in turn, but for now, I was more than content to hide my blade while we stockpiled and trained for that eventuality.

Walking through the streets of Nievtra, the sounds accompanying and due to the growth of the city filled the air. The beginnings of commerce filled the city, though most of my people simply did as they were commanded and were given all they needed in return. Some measure of trade for certain materials, like raw ore, fresh meat, and good pelts, were desired if not hotly haggled over, but day by day, the sounds of negotiations filled the air more.

The Kha and Khatif continued reproducing as quickly as they could manage, though the Khatif hatchlings grew so much slower than the Kha that I knew only the eldest generation would be in a position to be able to actively participate in the war as it began again in earnest come the end of summer. As the little ones returned from the day's skirmishes, excitedly screeched conversations about new tactics to implement in the next day's trials fill the air. Occasionally, strategists and Alphas would attempt to hush their broodmates, but to little success. In fact, it was common enough that the leaders themselves were those who got carried away in excited conversation to the point that it began to carry on the wind to their “enemies.” Rudimentary espionage was attempted as some small ones slunk closer to their opponents, only to be chased off with shouts and threats.

Twice, the threat of violence between the little ones arose in the streets, only stopped by their Alpha’s that came in and dragged their hotheaded subordinates away by the frill. Seeing that, I was reminded of Wisterl, the one who trained me, not the new, younger one I’d named in her honor. During and after many a practice duel, she twisted my frills, and it was a surprisingly agonizing experience. I almost preferred the time she kicked me into a tree and mocked me.

Almost.

I briefly thought of what those older keelish who’d been unable to survive the journey would have done here in Nievtra. Rulac would still be chasing Took, I was sure. Would she have given him more attention than she gave Brutus? I could see Wisterl spending every day in the sand pits, challenging everyone, and when there were no willing challengers, forcing others to battle her. Redael, could he have humbled himself and become a general here? Or would he have directed the training efforts of the hatchlings, as the one who’d organized and maintained the systems that’d raised our swarm beyond mediocrity?

Shaking my long–dead father’s name from my mind, I remembered the nameless. The hundred who died in combat against the Speakers outside of our first den. The older female who looked me in the eyes before turning to die ignominiously to the ufudoluk controlled by the Speakers. The old male who was the first to sacrifice himself to feed us in our escape.

Oncli in the jaws of the terrorbird.

Treel shot through the heart by a scouting party.

Through the tempering of the sacrifice of our lives are we completed. I remembered the fallen fondly, and I could mourn them if I wished, but I instead found no small measure of comfort in their willingness to die not as a mindless keelish but as Saharliard. And if hundreds more lives would need to be sacrificed to ensure that this Empire could stand, I would sacrifice everyone.

I strode forward, calling my elites together to continue in another planning session regarding the beginning of the war, and how we would return it to our terms. Each day that passed drew us closer to the inevitable war, and we would be ready.