“Why is it so important to connect the nests?” the hatchling asks.
It’s the manager who answers, stepping forward to address the hatchling directly.
“If we can connect all the nests using one gate network, then we will be able to spread much farther, much faster, without running the risk of being unable to support each other. It will be like every nest, no matter how far, will be no more than a few steps away from every other nest. We can never be trapped, and never be sieged, not by normal methods. If we can unlock this secret, the future of the Colony will be infinitely safer and brighter.”
“And nobody can figure out how they work?”
“Nope,” I chip in. “Not yet.”
“I will,” she announces. “I bet it’s not that hard.”
This hatchling…
“Right then, if you have that much confidence, let’s see you do it. I don’t want to hear boasting without results to back it up,” I poke her with an antenna. “There’s a hundred ants in here, all of them older and stronger than you, and they haven’t worked it out yet.”
And most of them are rather annoyed at this bothersome hatchling running around telling them she can do their jobs better.
“It’ll be fine, you’ll see.” She brushes my antenna off angrily. “I’ll be able to do it because I’m me.”
“If you like, we can start powering up the gate and you can take a look at it, Eldest,” the manager says.
“Oh? That’ll be cool. Let’s have a look.”
Once the manager lets the team know, they’re rushing this way and that to get things ready. When it’s all done, they trigger the array matrix they’ve constructed, monitoring and taking measurements as it slowly powers up. Then, with gathering speed, the matrix starts to draw in Mana at a prodigious rate, pulling in the energy from the air until the entire gateway is shining brightly to my Mana Sense. As more energy gets packed in, the gateway seems to hum, gradually lighting up from within, illuminated by the sheer power of the Mana coursing through it.
Eventually the matrix turns off, and the gate continues to release that sub-harmonic hum that rattles my mandibles, except it has nowhere for the energy to go, so it simply leaks back into the air at a slow pace until nothing remains within. When all is said and done, the gateway sits as it did before, devoid of energy or activity, a ring of intricately carved stone.
“Well, that was quite something. I’m amazed at how much Mana it can hold,” I say.
“Indeed. We estimate that spatial spells may take a prodigious amount of energy to cast. One of the current hypotheses is that the reason no ant has been offered the Skill is because none have a sufficient Mana pool to access it, regardless of the ranks of their other magic Skills.”
That’s not a bad theory, actually. It would make sense…
“I’ll make sure I max out my core as soon as possible and see what happens,” I assure her. “Who knows? I might get lucky.”
After all, my quest for the mythical Gravity Mana specialisation continues, and perhaps I’ve been denied that Skill for the same reason. Only time will tell. When I’ve mastered Mind Magic to a high enough point, I’ll be able to go shopping for the next level of magic to grind. If I keep pushing my way to more advanced forms of Mana, I should reach gravity eventually. Surely Gandalf won’t continue to hold out on me for too long!
“That was awesome!” the hatchling declares, hopping up and down with excitement. “Did you feel it? The power! The energy! How does it work? How did it happen? Why did it fail!”
She wants answers to her questions, but tough luck for her, she isn’t going to get them.
“None of your business and nobody knows. Now…”
YOINK!
“Hey! Put me down!”
“Nope! Time to go visit another place.”
Wiggling and struggling as she dangles from my mandibles, I carry the hatchling out, waving goodbye to the team with an antenna as I go. The little one is quite enraptured with the research work going on here, but there are still places to be and things to see. I get the feeling that the idea of being able to answer the questions nobody else can tickles her sense of pride, as well as the mystery of unanswered questions tugging away at that bottomless curiosity she has on her claws.
Perhaps a little mage has been born here today? We’ll have to wait and see…
It doesn’t take long for us to make our way to the mage training section where, as usual, I find Propellant monitoring the mages hard at work practising and honing their Skills in one of the many practise ranges. Fireballs, ice, wind, stone, lava, and all the other basic elements fill the air, being flung back and forth as ants practice dismantling and casting spells as quickly as possible.
Sure enough, Propellant is quick to notice us enter and rushes to see us, filled with boisterous energy.
“Eldest! Wonderful to see you, as usual! How’ve things been around the nest? Everyone looking after themselves?”
“As best they can,” I say. “It appears as though the mages are working as hard as ever.”
An explosion rocks the chamber, and we get covered in dust, which I quickly clean from my antennae. For her part, Propellant doesn’t even seem to notice. She’s apparently gotten used to it through her posting here.
“Mind if we watch your mages at practice for a bit? I’m giving the little one a tour.”
“Sure thing!” Propellant laughs. “There’s always something to see around here.”
101. Advanced Tactics
It does seem as though the mage ants have advanced in terms of their practice regimen. In larger areas, we find something I hadn’t seen them do before: squad-based competition. Ten mages per side, twenty in total, battling against each other in a dazzling display of coordinated spellcraft. Defence and offence on both sides operates at a furious pace as both sets of ants do their best to break down the other. The contest of Will is so fierce I can practically feel their minds arm-wrestling in the air between them as they tussle for control of the Mana.
“What brought this on?” I ask Propellant.
“Ah, this. This was inspired by a couple of things. One of the things we learned from Torrina and Corun when they arrived was the way that golgari Shapers train, as well as golgari in general.”
“You mean, in groups of three?”
“Right! The number three is sacred to the golgari for a few reasons, but the group training is also important. Mages being able to mesh their minds together in order to better coordinate is one of the fundamental Skills the Shapers and other mages around the world employ.”
“Huh… I wonder if the ka’armodo we ran into did a similar thing with the slaves they kept.”
“Most likely they did. Once our mages have reached tier four, as well as trained their basic magic Skills to the rank we need, this becomes their primary mode of training. Group combat. Their job is to mesh their thoughts with the rest of their squad and overcome the enemy. It’s highly competitive and the squads work extremely hard at it.”
“Do they always train with the same members?”
She shakes her head.
“No. This is somewhere that we differ from the golgari. They like to keep their groups the same in order to deepen their level of cooperation and fellowship, but we decided the mages should be ready to team up with any other group of mages in the Colony. We don’t even always keep the group size the same, forcing them to mix it up and adjust on the fly.”