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AR Chapter 353
🕑 Added 2025-03-27 04:00:10 +0000 UTCMualtir di’Thnufir,
You will be returned to your post at Fort Thnufir, but your post as High Colonel has been stripped from you. You shall be placed as advisor to the new High Colonel, Behnal Alniyh. Please note that regardless of your position as advisor, you shall have no extant military rank beyond that of the typical infantryman, and if you overstep your position, the High Colonel will be within her rights to discipline and even dismiss you.
Thus decrees the Synod. Forever may the Gran Verat bless us with his wisdom.
-Final sentencing of High Colonel Mualtir di’Thnufir after being tried for the incident colloquially known as “the Humbling”.
[Sybil POV]
Everything was not going well. The brief respite that Joral could provide when present was only enough to allow a single battleground to rest. Casualties were rising, and fatalities were occurring. No longer could every keelish that sustained a serious wound step back and allow time to heal them. The ants just. Kept. Coming.
“There must be something to placate the beasts.” Sybil grumbled to Shemira. “They seem innumerable, and even if they were not, we lack the numbers sufficient to continue like this.”
Shemira grunted in response, though she didn’t say anything. Sybil continued, “Must we retreat and endeavor to hold the city? What should we do with the herds at that point? They must be fed, and every keelish has been pulled from every other duty in the hopes that we can subjugate the Nievtala-forsaken ants, and we have done nothing.”
“I think you already know what we need to do.” Shemira responded, leaning down on Sybil in her overly-familiar way. “I think you just feel like it’s admitting defeat to the ants, and so you’re reluctant.”
Sybil glared up at her friend, but Shemira showed no hesitancy or reprimand. “You’ve almost never faced a situation in which you have to truly give in. Now, you’re losing to ants. Not even smart ones, just giant ants that number in the tens of thousands already slain. Even so, despite your planning and strength, they don’t fear you, they don’t pull back at your strategies, and every step of progress you make, they return by throwing more and more bodies at you.”
“It simply does not make sense!” Sybil replied as she walked forward and out of Shemira’s grasp. “There is no way that the creatures can number so many and be so strong and present and not have destroyed everything that exists here! We should see so many more than are here, if it is that they can throw so many of their number at us. It just…” Sybil trailed off.
“You don’t understand.” Shemira summed it up, letting Sybil pace. “I don’t either, but you’re used to being able to understand everything in front of you. You’re angry about that. More than angry about being unable to understand, though, you’re enraged that your pride has been challenged, and now you’re losing.”
Sybil, tired and frazzled as she was, nearly turned and growled at Shemira’s impertinence. The much larger female didn’t care, simply looking at Sybil as she displayed more emotion than she ever did. As they met eyes, Shemira held her hands out to the sides in an inviting gesture.
“If you need to get violent with me, you can. You’re a Keel and much stronger than ever before, but we know which of us will win the fight.”
Sybil snarled and resumed pacing as Shemira laughed. Less than a minute later, Sybil whipped her hands through the air in a dismissive gesture.
“I am not in a state to lead the retreat. You have my blessing to do whatever is necessary to draw the stationed keelish back to the walls as safely as possible. If you would, please call a Kou’Tal to come to discuss the treatment of the herds once we retreat entirely.” Seeing Shemira’s accusing glare, Sybil raised her hands in surrender. “Afterwards, I will rest to ensure that my mind returns to its usual alacrity.”
“Very well, Zaaktifi.” Shemira bowed her head in only slightly teasing acceptance. “I will do as you have commanded.”
Sybil sighed, but before Shemira left, she called out, “Thank you, Shemira. I appreciate it.”
At the thanks, Shemira turned, came back, and nuzzled at Sybil’s head. “Of course. You’re a brilliant female. And a fool, sometimes. I’m here to help you.”
Then, without allowing Sybil to respond, Shemira darted out of the little structure they’d made for all commands to originate from. Sybil smiled wryly, and Yamal walked in.
“Is Joral still out on his attempts to quell the insects’ rage?”
“Yes.” Yamal flared her frills. “Do you want me to recall him?”
“No.” Sybil sighed. “We will want to work with him as we pull the squads back, though. Perhaps we might best send a messenger to let him know of our plans to retreat. For now, though, find a Kou’Tal that is focused on the treatment of our herds, so that we can decide exactly what we will do moving forward.”
“As you command, Zaaktifi.” Yamal said. Different from Shemira, Yamal spoke the title with only the most sincere respect and sincerity. Sybil couldn’t track down who exactly had begun using the name to refer to her, but there was no reason to discourage its use, for now at least. If Ashlani were to return and find it displeasing, Sybil would be on the forefront of those encouraging the cessation of its use.
Sybil felt the weight of rule on her shoulders, and though it was heavy and more unpleasant than she’d thought it would be, it wasn’t uncomfortable either. More than anything, she trusted herself and her mind more than she trusted the rest of those keelish around her. Perhaps even more than Ashlani’s if she were to be honest. His thought process was too linear and stiff, too focused on the immediate fallout of decisions made. Sybil, instead, was more able to follow the threads that connected to each other when pulled. If she was honest with herself, that same intelligence was almost certainly the primary reason for her frustrations with the ants. After all, she’d been able to predict most of the possible outcomes of whatever decisions were made, even the Inkulu’s attempts at the usurpation of their herds had been a possibility she’d considered.
But for the ants to number in the hundreds of thousands? That was pure foolish speculation more than anything else! How could any reasonable being expect to find an effectively limitless number of enemies under the damned mountains? It was, at best, unreasonable, and that in and of itself was pure stupidity!
As she waited for the Kou’Tal to be brought to her, Sybil realized that she was, again, working herself up into a frustrated tirade. That was unacceptable, regardless of how little rest she’d had of late. She forced herself to recline on the couch made with the most intact furs that remained from their flight to the east. The more she forced herself to act calm, the more the emotion truly settled over her, though she recognized that her handle on her own rationality was slipping. Rest was necessary. It had been at least six days without any sleep, and that was, evidently, the line at which Sybil felt that she’d reverted to a more primal form of herself instead of the leader she needed to be.
“Enter.” She called as she heard shuffling outside of the makeshift curtain they’d hung at the doorway of the headquarters.
“I never thought you’d be so quick to hear!” The excitable khatif said as she walked in. Her name… Chra, was it? Yes.
“I must confess I do not know to what you are referring, Chra.” Sybil said, and as the unremarkable khatif perked up, Sybil knew she’d recollected correctly.
“The birds!”
As the Kou’Tal and another Sik’Tal came in to explain their findings of the reason for the shadow wyrms’ elevated activity, Sybil realized she might just have a solution to everything that was troubling her. But, since she’d made the promise to herself, that would have to wait until after she rested. Then, at last, she could fix this ant problem permanently.
