AR Chapter 445

“We have been requested to eradicate your enemy. However, the Empire of the Saharliard has no pre-existing relationship with you, so there’s no reason for us to do as you commence without any incentive. According to the other ants that we talked to, we should be happy to do as you asked simply because your Queen would appreciate it if we did.“

She would appreciate it. Is that not a good incentive?

I felt my fangs grind against each other. The Misti Hawar saw us as tools and enemies to gather their people around, the Union considered us to be a solution to keep the Misti Hawar in line, the Veratocracy considered us to be pests that needed exterminating, and the Indlovu had wielded us as a jolly prank against their neighbors more than anything. The closest to any estimation as a people that we’ve gotten from any of the cultures or nations that we’d come in contact with was the Wilds, and only the Moonchildren among them. Much of that acceptance and becoming Fahvalo was entirely due to Bloodpriestess Ana finding me interesting. Now, we had literal ants that thought we should fall in line because their Queen said so. 

“And if Ashlani, our Zaaktif, requested that you deliver some of your people to be food for us, how would you react? Would your people desire to do what he asked of you?“

He’s not the queen nor is he your mother. There is no shame in that, Zaaktif, but you will never be a Queen, even if we allow you to call yourself one.

“And do your Queens care if we say that they do not deserve to be called Queens?”

The two Royals and the youngmother all bristled at that question, the same unease and anger very quickly spreading through the surrounding ants as the scent of pheromones exploded again and the ants took menacing steps forward.

Any who question the Queen’s sovereignty will be slaughtered.

“Yet you question the position of he who I have chosen to follow as the one like my Queen.“ Sybil’s answer was, in word, quite calm, but I could read in her body language the subtle frustrations and anger that had built up after years of our people’s underestimation and mistreatment by every culture we came in contact with.

He cannot birth you. He did not create your country. It is not the same.

“In most ways,“ Sybil disagreed, “he did. Yes, he did not lay the eggs of those who created the Empire, but the only reason why we yet live and have established a country is because of him. There was none before him that had laid the path to success, there was no guidance other than his own wisdom to bring us all individually from our squalor and into our current success, and at every step, he has been our guide. So, why would you insist that he cannot be a Queen? Why would you take from our people the ability to be people? Why would we subordinate ourselves to you off of ideas that you alone hold? Why would we not resist being allied with, to say nothing of being suborned by a people who disrespect our leader at every opportunity?“

The royals shifted, wanting to disagree, but they said nothing as the youngmother remained silent. After considering Sybil’s point for a short time, her voice returned to us.

I do not agree with you calling yourself a Queen, Zaaktif Ashlani, but I understand your people’s thoughts. I am told that many up on the surface think the same of us, and I have, regrettably, shown my own inexperience in the way that I have spoken with you. Forgive my ignorance.

My shoulders, which I had subconsciously hunched up, as if I was going into a fight, loosened and lowered as I listened to what the youngmother said. She was willing to ask for forgiveness from us, and I felt a surge of pride in my mate at being able to explain to this foreign species with values so different from our own why we need to be treated as something approaching and equal.

It was a miracle that I’d demanded that Sybil be present, as she took over the bulk of the initial negotiations between ourselves and the youngmother, smoothing communications greatly. Once a common ground was established, and the reality that we weren’t going to unilaterally become some vassel state to the colony that she belonged to (which we learned was the Violet Colony) was fully left behind, I stepped in. In reality, there wasn’t very much that we wanted from the Violet Colony in return for our continued efforts in killing their enemy ants, the Crimson. The bugs were good targets for practice for our young, and there was precious little else of that around here for them. Different from the swamps where I hatched, there weren’t dozens of types of animals that were available to be hunted by even the weakest of the keelish, or Kha as they were now.

Regardless, negotiations went longer than I wanted to, as the youngmother insisted on asking questions and clarifying things and then positively squealing and joy as she came to understand different aspects of what we wanted as the Empire. Despite the refinement with which she spoke, it was obvious that the youngmother was inexperienced, and further, that her colony didn’t want much that wasn’t more food and more space to continue spreading deeper and wider underground. One great tidbit that she shared was when I stated that we would require all of the bodies we recovered from the hunts we conducted.

That is no problem. We can eat the bodies of ants and other things we slay, but the vast majority of our food is cultivated within our gardens. We have no need to take note of the actions and comings and goings of your people. Do you not have your own fungal gardens?

Unsurprisingly, like with every talking point, that ended with a tangent that led on for several minutes while I allowed Sybil to answer the youngmother‘s queries while sating some of her own curiosity regarding the operations of the colonies. I had no doubt that my mate was gathering no insignificant amount of intelligence regarding this civilization with which we were bartering, but I didn’t pay any attention to that. Instead, I took in the bearings of the ants that filled the space, from the smallest and most insignificant that constantly fiddled with their antennae to the similarly diminutive other royals to the largest and most imposing soldiers, which I’d never seen before today. Perhaps they were the youngmother‘s guard, and if they were as simple minded as the other ants I’d come in contact with or if they were even more intelligent than the royals, I didn’t know.

“Then, I believe we have come to an agreement. Shall we continue to call you youngmother in any further communications or should we call you by a different name or title?” Sybil‘s question was as innocuous as any of those she made, though even as she bid farewell, she continued to dig for more information from and about the insects.

I am the youngmother. Was her simple reply. There are others, but any member of the colonies will recognize my touch. We do not have your names, if I correctly understand what a name is. There is an indelible impression each individual leaves on the mind of those they meet, and through this impression are we remembered and known. This was a fascinating conversation, Zaaktif Ashlani and Zaaktifi Sybil. Farewell, and perhaps someday we shall speak once more in my palace instead of in this rudimentary hole.

Even before she had finished the dismissal, the ants swarmed forward and pressed towards us in an effort to hurry us out of their domain. With my pride, I refuse to so easily give in. Making a calculated risk, I sent a faint hint of my magic to the tip of my tongue, and clicked my tongue from the roof of my mouth. The cracking sound of my clicked tongue filled the space, resonating off the walls and sending the ants into a brief panic.

“Yes, it was a pleasure to speak with you, youngmother. If we have any need of the Violet Colony once again, I shall make sure to remember the touch of your presence on my mind. Safe journey home.”

Directly after saying that and before the ants had fully gathered themselves, I turned on my heel and strode out in the same direction that I knew the exit was. We made our way forward, and I still kept it back from saying what I’d wanted to, holding my tongue until we were well and truly out of the colony's hole. Only once we strode nearly a quarter of a mile away from the exit did I finally turn to Joral.

“How much were you able to influence them while we were there?”