A thousand? But why?
“I heard the same,” Victoriant confirms. “I think they conquered the whole thing in two hours.”
Yeesh, they really were getting carried away.
“How many members of the colony are there right now?” I ask. “The number can’t be that high, can it?”
There’s a moment of reflective silence as the three gathered Queens ponder my question.
“You know, child, I’m not exactly sure,” Mother answers. “I haven’t been keeping count… Perhaps the Brood Tenders on the council might know?”
The two younger Queens both echo the sentiment—they’ve no idea. I can get a rough sense of how many are in range of the Vestibule, but I can’t count them precisely.
“I’ll ask as I move around the nest, someone must be keeping a count.”
Ah well, can’t put it off any longer. I limber up my legs and make my way up the wall.
“Heading out, child?” the Queen asks, barely concealed amusement peppering her scent.
“Yes, Mother. The work never ends, as well you know.”
“An end to work? What a terrible thought,” she muses before turning back to pat Aphy.
Hah. I’ve only just gotten back and already a vacation is starting to sound nice. No! Bad Anthony! Stay firm! Alright then, time to head over to the core shapers, then I’ll check in with the mages and teach them a few things, then the carvers and their plans. Maybe there’s some engineering or building knowledge tucked away in my head somewhere… Unlikely, but maybe I can describe a few cool buildings and see if it inspires them?
I need to find who’s making all these carvings of me as well. And the statues! Enough is enough already!
After that… council, I suppose, then surface. Yeesh, so much to do. I might need to try and slip some torpor in there somewhere, just in case I need a mental break. Full of determination, I follow the scent trails to the core shaper workshop and find both Bella and Ellie hard at work. It takes a few hours, but I’m able to demonstrate the new techniques I’ve learned and share all the knowledge of monster builds that I picked up. The two council members are giddy with delight at these gifts and declare they must be committed to the library immediately!
“Library?” I ask, puzzled.
“Of course!” Ellie proclaims. “We need to preserve this information for further study.”
“Yeah, but how? Since when do you have a library?”
“Oh! You haven’t seen one yet? The carvers got the idea from the humans, I think. A way to store information. Check it out!”
She rushes to the other of the busy chamber and returns with a metal plate grasped gently in her mandibles.
She places it on the table, and I peer at the thing closely. It looks like a page, but instead of lines of text, it has grooves filled with a clear, gel-like substance. I’m a little nervous that it’s going to shout something at me like the one I found in the tunnel, but I bring an antenna down to smell it.
“Core experiment #424. Attempting to make something useful out of the centipede variety of monster has proven to be impossible. A more hopeless, failed concept of a monster is yet to be—”
“You’ve found a way to preserve pheromones?”
“Indeed! It’s very useful being able to ‘read.’ Saves a lot of time around here, let me tell you,” Ellie assures me.
“Efficiency is way up,” Bella confirms.
The rate these ants are developing is out of control.
“Well, good luck with what I told you. I hope it helps out a bit.”
I make a hasty farewell and totter off to my next meeting. Books? Ants with books. I guess it makes sense in a way, I just didn’t think they’d get going this fast. How long until they put an ant on the moon? Neil Antstrong may be just a few generations away!
22. Upturning the Applecart
After my visit to the core shapers and taking in their own advancements, I hustle off to find Propellant and Coolant. I track down the two mages busily training their own Skills and overseeing the progress of their fellow caste members in the ‘mage training area.’ Appropriate, I suppose. A rather large, enclosed place that puts me somewhat in mind of a bowling alley. Long, straight lanes to the left and right on both the floor and the ceiling, each ending in a carved, enchanted target which the ants hurl spells at.
The noise is deafening. Roaring flames, shattering ice, splashing water, crunching stone, and rushing air are all around, the sounds mingling into a shattering din. Luckily, hearing has nothing to do with being able to talk when you’re an ant, so I manage to find who I’m looking for by asking around.
“Hello, eldest,” Coolant welcomes me. “How do you like our new training facility?”
“It’s looking good!” I congratulate the two of them. “Presumably, you’re seeing some good results?”
She flicks an antenna with authority.
“At the moment, we have three separate training areas that are being assessed. Each of these mages report daily on their MP used, number of spells cast, and Skill gains. Hopefully, we’ll have some hard data soon and can adjust our training to be more optimised.”
Already conducting experiments and trying to optimise the training time? They grow up so fast… Also, three separate locations? Looking around, there must be at least a hundred mages in here! I keep forgetting how many of us there are now. Focusing on why I’ve come, I tell them about my experience with the golgari Shapers, the ways of training, different levels of magic, the various elements and combinations thereof, and the extraordinary power of Mind Magic when combined with high stats.
It’s a lot for them to digest, and I leave them to it after letting them know I’ll be hosting a council meeting later on. With that job ticked off, it’s time to chase down the carvers, Tungstant and Cobalt. They prove much harder to find. Neither are working in the forges, enchanting chambers, or even in the statuary.
Yes. A statuary. I know I wanted to let the ants do whatever they felt called to them, let them find their own way in life… I just didn’t expect statues!
Sigh.
Just let it go. It makes them happy, what’s the harm? I’ll just move on. Before I leave that particular chamber, I ask very politely if they would consider other subjects for their works. I’m not sure how well they listen to that suggestion, most appear to be taking my measurements with their antennae whilst I talk.
I gladly hustle my way out of there and track down the two I’m looking for in a ‘design sketching chamber.’ Upon entry, I don’t see them drawing anything, but rather talking to each other as they fuss over an intricate 3D model of carved stone.
“Looks good!” I say. “Is that the layout of this nest?”
They startle a little, so engrossed in their discussion that they don’t notice me squeeze into the room.
“Oh, eldest!” Cobalt greets. “No, not at all. This is the proposed design for the third nest.”
“What do you mean, proposed? I thought this was accepted!” Tungstant protests.
“With this tunnel layout? Please.”
“You have to compromise somewhere, Cobalt!” the other carver fumes. “The stone in the third quadrant is too soft. Proper design has to be shaped to suit the environment, not forced on it!”