by Pirateaba
“We have gone through far worse battles. That the Hives struggle with each emerging threat—and ones in the future as the Hives continue to expand—is telling in itself.”
The Revelantor’s head bowed.
“Yes. It is regrettable.”
The Small Queen watched him carefully. She was observing Klbkch, just like he was analyzing her. Strangers sat together.
“It matters not. The Hives are growing despite these setbacks. But through these challenges, I have reclaimed almost all of my lost levels.”
Klbkch looked up in surprise. He hadn’t thought about it. It was only a dream for him to regain his former strength, as weak as he now was. But Xrn was different. She had only ever died once.
“If that is the case, the Grand Queen must surely be elated at the news. Having such an asset would also influence her opinion on declaring war a third time.”
“Possibly. But I have not informed her of my leveling for a long period of time.”
Klbkch froze.
“Why?”
Again Xrn ignored his question. She looked around Klbkch’s small room again. He had only a few objects in it. His chairs—chair; they’d had to get another one for Xrn to sit—his desk where he stored important files, and a new addition: a coatrack. It had no coats on it, but a black and red scarf had very carefully been wrapped around one of the arms.
“Klbkch, I came here against the Grand Queen’s wishes. She would have preferred to let one of the other two Prognugators to lead the group. Tersk, most likely. She is aware of Pivr’s…flaws. His numerous flaws, I should say. The Grand Queen dislikes that pestilential larvae as much as I do.”
Klbkch nodded, his tone souring. On this, he, Xrn, and the Grand Queen were in agreement.
“I cannot fathom why the Queen of the Flying Antinium deems his actions appropriate.”
“She is erratic. But no Prognugator created since coming to the continent has been anywhere close to adequate. You know this, Klbkch. You and I—and perhaps Wyrmvr—are the only competent Prognugators. The Grand Queen would rather you return to the Hive, but she is aware of your commitment. With that said, she did not want me to leave either.”
“So why leave?”
“Because it was the only excuse that would allow me to visit you. In truth, I do not believe the Grand Queen cares whether your Hive has created Individuals or not.”
That was an unpleasant surprise to Klbkch, and one he knew would deeply upset his Queen. He put his hands on his table and scooted his chair further under his desk.
“…I was under the impression our efforts were being recognized, even if they were not completely accepted by the other Hives. We have worked for years for this purpose. Surely you see the merits?”
“Tersk does. Perhaps his Queen will. But the Queen of the Silent Antinium doesn’t care. She didn’t send an envoy. The Grand Queen makes the motion, but the other Queens follow her lead. Klbkch, they may recognize the use of Individuals, but they do not believe such beings are necessary for the Hives.”
“They are wrong.”
Klbkch was surprised at the emotion in his voice. He stood up.
“If the Grand Queen does not believe, tell her about Anand and Belgrade. Tell her about Bird, and of Garry’s class! Individuals may be costly and irreplaceable, but they can contribute far more than a battalion of Soldiers if used the right way. The Antinium need leaders.”
“They would say that is what Prognugators are for.”
“You mean like Tersk and Pivr?”
Klbkch’s voice was cold. He nodded towards the open doorway. The other two Prognugators were still in the Hive. Tersk was no doubt observing, or aiding in battle against monsters from the dungeon. Pivr…was probably being a nuisance.
“They are not what the Hives need. Tersk is acceptable, but he is hardly high-level. And if he falls, an army is dependent on a distant Queen to control it. And they are not suited to war. The Soldiers need a real leader to take command. Multiple leaders, so they cannot be picked off like they were in the last two wars!”
He was emotional, he knew. But Klbkch had argued that very thing so long ago, and to hear the Queens had not changed—yet it was Xrn who was nodding.
“You are correct. But the Queens will not accept your statement, Klbkch. They did not in the past and their minds are difficult to change, with the exception of yours. The problem is, they did not know Galuc. Or rather, the version of him the Queens believed in was false. They do not think copies of him have morale. They treat the Soldiers and Workers as unbreakable, beings without the capacity for despair or fear.”
Klbkch nodded. He had known Galuc. The Queens had known of him as well, but not like Klbkch. Galuc the Builder had felt great emotion. But he had never broken, never given in, even at the end.
Xrn went on.
“However, their notion is largely correct. These…fragments have his strength of mind. Yet they are only flawed replicas of the original in body and personality. The Queens believed that there was no merit in imbuing fragments with individual identities, if that was even possible.”
“As did you.”
Klbkch leaned forwards in his chair, remembering. He stared hard at Xrn.
“You were of the same mindset and voted against the attempt. Have you changed your mind?”
Xrn shook her head.
“I did not vote against the measure for that reason.”
The Antinium never called each other liars. There was no point, no reason to. Klbkch clicked his mandibles together sharply, the equivalent of taking a deep breath.
“Explain.”
“I believed there was no reason to give the dead names. I thought we would conquer this continent in the first war, and then the second, and fulfill our duty years ago, without creating individuals. I was wrong.”
There it was. Klbkch sat down hard. Xrn had just justified all the work he’d done, conceded the argument that had torn them apart for over a decade.
“I was correct.”
She smiled at him, lifting her mandibles. The Antinium did not hide the truth when they were wrong.
“You were.”
But then she grew silent, pensive. She stared at Klbkch’s desk, which was engulfed in a war between the elements. Xrn waved her hand, and the fires, the ice, the water and lightning—all vanished in a moment, leaving behind a distinctly weathered wooden surface behind.
“You were right, Klbkch. These individuals are valuable. If we go to war a third time, they may well change the outcome of the conflict.”
Klbkch opened his mandibles, eagerly pressing the second part of his old argument.
“If we need to go to war again. As I have said—”
“Yes, if. If we must take the continent, oust the Drakes and Gnolls and Humans to begin with. I am starting to come around to your thinking on that point as well.”
It was everything Klbkch had wanted to hear, what his Queen had wanted to hear. And yet—why was Xrn talking to him here and not telling his Queen this? He paused.
“Why? Why do you believe this now?”
Xrn paused a third and final time, and Klbkch knew they were coming to the heart of the matter. His blood raced a bit quicker throughout his body.
“…Do you know how long it has been since we came to this continent, Klbkch? No—do not answer. It is a pointless, Human way of asking. I know. Over two decades. And in that time, we have rebuilt our Hives. And yet, Klbkchhezeim. And yet. After all this time, no new Queens have been born.”
Klbkch’s heart paused. He looked carefully at Xrn.
“None?”
She shook her head.
“Not a one.”
Klbkch tried to come up with a response.
“The Queens have time. If they continue their efforts to discover—”
“That is not the problem, Klbkch. It is not that they are trying to create new Queens and failing. It is that they have given up trying altogether.”
The words knocked Klbkch ba
ck like a blow. He sat back in his chair hard and nearly overbalanced.
“No.”
Xrn’s eyes were steady, darkness and hints of blue and gray the only colors.
“Yes. They have not tried.”
“But surely they know—”
“They do not want to try. Or they are afraid to. This entire time I believed the Grand Queen was prioritizing the issue, as you were. But I have learned she had given up attempting to recover that knowledge. There are no new Queens, Klbkch.”
“But there must be!”
Klbkch sat up, outraged, afraid. He stared at Xrn.
“We cannot expand if there are no new Queens! The Hives have a limit to expansion, especially with only one Queen and no sub-Queens attending her! And without a Unitasis Network our armies—”
“Are flawed. Slow. I know, Klbkch. I have argued with the Grand Queen on this point countless times. But she refuses to try. She is afraid.”
“Of what? Failure?”
“Success. Of being replaced, I think. Or perhaps—no, I cannot fathom all of her reasons. But it is enough that you know.”
It was. It changed everything Klbkch had assumed about the Hives. He lowered his head and spoke quietly.
“Let me talk to my Queen. She can try—”
“Against the other Queen’s directives? She has no resources. They were denied to her by the Hives. I am surprised she managed to alter your form, let alone resurrect you.”
Klbkch hesitated. This was a deep secret he was about to share, but Xrn was laying her secrets bare. He felt obligated to do the same.
“The necessary reagents can be…obtained. It is difficult, but possible. If I purchase from [Alchemists], perhaps—”
The Small Queen was shaking her head.
“That is an unlikely outcome, Klbkch.”
He felt a spark of anger. It was hot and fierce. But it was burning on despair.
“What then? Are we to give up on our future?”
“Not at all. Why do you think I am here? No, Klbkch, it is because of our future that I have come here, using the Individuals as an excuse. In fact, they are the reason I have come. If not, I would still be in the Grand Queen’s Hive, trying to create Queens on my own.”
“You tried—”
“Repeatedly.”
Xrn’s voice was tired. She traced a finger on Klbkch’s desk, leaving a trail of fire behind.
“I burned what I created. I cannot do it. Perhaps your Queen can, perhaps not. You should tell her either way. But my idea is more direct. We must have more Queens, Klbkch. We must stop running, stop focusing on pointless battles here. We have been here for two decades and barely a handful of Hives. This was not the plan.”
“No, it was not.”
Klbkch felt tired. They had failed. But Xrn’s eyes lit up, and a spark of white, golden light filled them. Hope flashing in the darkness.
“We cannot stay here, with flawed Queens who remain fragmented. With no hope of rebuilding our people. We must return home, Klbkch. We must recover our lost knowledge.”
“You don’t mean—”
Xrn’s gaze nearly blinded Klbkch. The purest blue light of unwavering determination blazed in the depths, mixed with gold and the orange glow of fury.
“Yes. We must go back. To Rhir.”
In the minutes that followed, Klbkch thought over a thousand different responses, from denial to incredulity to acceptance. In the end he simply asked one word.
“How?”
Xrn smiled. She stood up, and placed hands on Klbkch’s desk. The wood began to change, and small figures of colored lights began to rise out of the wood, marching, assembling as she spoke.
“A strike force. A few thousand Soldiers and Workers—elites if they can be acquired as well. But most importantly, a group of Individuals that can lead and fight on their own. Remember the expeditionary units of the past?”
Klbkch nodded slowly. How could he not? He had led so many, as had Xrn…
“Yes.”
And then he put the pieces together. Klbkch’s mandibles clicked together sharply.
“So that is your reason for coming here. You want the Individuals my Hive has produced—”
“More if possible. And higher level, of course. I can secure the specialist elites of other Hives, perhaps persuade other Prognugators like Tersk. He may be persuaded to listen, despite not knowing the truth yet. But I still need those with levels. You would not be enough, Klbkch, weakened as you are. And Wyrmvr—”
“You sent Zel after him. If he dies, or if Shivertail dies trying to avenge General Sserys it will be war—”
“Perhaps. But I think Shivertail would win, and it would not be war if I speak to the Grand Queen. I think a death might bring Wymvr back to his senses, which is why I told General Shivertail.”
Klbkch paused.
“Why? What is wrong with Wymvr?”
Xrn looked calmly at Klbkch.
“I think he has gone insane. So has his Queen. But that is not the issue, Klbkch. The Queens, the Hives—all the Antinium on Liscor are not the issue. Going to Rhir and coming back with a Queen or the knowledge of how to create one—only that will save us all.”
Klbkch looked at her. He put a hand on his sword’s hilt, gripping it tightly.
“You still think they’re alive, don’t you?”
“They swore to fight for a thousand years if that was what it took. I believe they have continued to do battle, believing in us. We failed them, Klbkch. Now we must go back.”
“Across the ocean. Where we lost everything.”
Xrn nodded. She and Klbkch paused, remembering. Remembering the disaster, the storms—her fingers twisted and water splashed down, but the shimmering figures were safe, protected by a bubble of air on the tabletop.
“We learned from our failures. This time we will learn to sail, and I have studied spells to guide us across the ocean. If we land on Rhir—”
“We will have to fight our way down there. Past the Blighted King and the Demon King.”
“If necessary.”
“And then—then if there are still survivors, we take a Queen?”
“A younger one with the necessary knowledge, yes. If we could escort her back—”
“The odds are terrible.”
Klbkch stared at the plan Xrn had outlined on his desk. She nodded.
“But it is possible, Klbkch. More so with your Individuals. The [Strategists] you have helped to create—Belgrade and Anand—they will be invaluable. I was intending to use the Prognugator copies the Grand Queen had created instead, but these Individuals are far more original, far more capable.”
Klbkch stared at Xrn in shock. He’d met the Prognugators sent to guard her. They were created as Ksmvr had been, but like him they were incomplete, deeply flawed versions of what they should have been.
“You encouraged her to repeat those experiments?”
“It was my only option at the time. This our only hope, Klbkch. I will pursue it with any means at my disposal.”
Xrn was not defensive. She simply explained. And she looked at Klbkch, hope shining in her eyes.
“It will take much preparation, Klbkch. Years—perhaps another decade if a war breaks out. But this is the only way I see to survive. I place my plan in your hands. Will you join me, or will you stay here?”
Klbkch paused. He stared at his desk, and then looked up at Xrn. He felt emotion building in his chest, and felt the two swords hanging at his sides. He shook his head slowly. Xrn stared at him, crestfallen. But that wasn’t what Klbkch meant.
“No. It will be sooner than that. We will make the journey, Xrn. In time. With more than just Antinium. Perhaps—yes, perhaps there is more we can add to your plan.”
Golden fire. Xrn’s eyes lit up like the first time Klbkch had seen the sun. She placed a hand on his shoulder as he stood and joined her. Klbkch stared at her, and realized he was more whole than he had been in a long, long time.
Two of the Centinium
stood together. One had changed in body, and the other not at all. But they were different than they had been. Different, and yet not. Because they remembered. They hadn’t come to this continent to live and die here. The knowledge was a scream in Klbkch’s soul. The Queens knew they had not come here to simply dig Hives and create mockeries of what they had been! They had come here to go back! They had retreated to fight!
“We will return.”
It was a whisper, a promise. Xrn looked at him.
“You said more than Antinium? Do you actually have allies you would trust with our secret?”
“At least one.”
Klbkch thought of Ryoka as he turned to Xrn.
“But even if we do not have allies, we will have more Individuals.”
“How? I am still uncertain about how your Hives produces them. Your Queen did not give me a straight answer.”
“That is because she does not know. And I do not either.”
Incredulity, a greenish strip of color languidly weaving through the gold.
“How can you not?”
Klbkch smiled. He sat back down, motioning for Xrn to do the same.
“There is hope. Things have changed. These recent developments, the Individuals, all of it stems from one person. If your plan is to succeed—if we are to have hope, we must focus on one person.”
“Who?”
Xrn stared intently at Klbkch. He looked up, towards the ceiling, towards the sky.
“It all starts and ends with a young Human girl. You have met her. Her name is Erin Solstice and she comes from another world…”
—-
Erin Solstice sat in her inn and stared at the Antinium in front of her. She was a Level 30 [Magical Innkeeper], the sole proprietress of The Wandering Inn, her home, and currently, very confused.
“Let me get this straight. You like birds.”
Sitting across the table from her, Bird the Antinium nodded. He was sitting awkwardly on the edge of his chair, a short bow and a few homemade arrows sitting on the table. Erin eyed both. Apparently the Antinium didn’t use ranged weapons much, and so Bird had taken it upon himself to manufacture his own gear.
She looked back at him.
“But you kill birds. I mean, you hunt them.”