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AR Chapter 307
🕑 Added 2025-01-23 04:00:02 +0000 UTCThe city of Nievtala is both more majestic and disappointing than I’d hoped. Its tall parapets have obviously been reinforced over the existing walls that remained from the ruins, and they’re staffed by Saharliard of every caste and age. As a side note, I find it to be especially interesting to speak with the grayscales of the Saharliard. Before the establishment of this New Empire, no keelish in human or other civilized lands would ever be permitted to survive much longer than the day of its discovery, and, beyond that, the swarms were so barbaric and bloodthirsty that there was no possibility for the infirm to live long and serve as a drain on the resources of the swarm. That is not to say that the grayscales are permitted to retire in peace to some quiet community, as I have been assured. Their place is teaching, and I have been even more impressed with their schooling system than I’d expected to be. Oh, but I find myself enraptured in a side tangent again, as always.
Suffice to say, the Saharliard have been busy in restoring Nievtra to and beyond its ancient splendor. Their architects are hard at work, though I must say that their aesthetic sense has yet to be developed. More disappointing, disheartening to the level of heartbreaking, I would say, is that they have shown no respect for the relics of their ancestors! Their restorations have defiled, disgraced, and destroyed the remains of that once great civilization in search of establishing their own. I must confess that I couldn’t hold back my tears as I stepped through the city and witnessed the destruction of history that had so brazenly occurred.
-from a letter home by Eldara di’Frandara during his self-funded travels to Nievtra
We debated among ourselves about how exactly to approach the raging Shandise. It, or they, as Sybil said, were somewhat mollified by her promise to assist, but the ants continued biting and harassing the creature, so though its tantrums were greatly reduced in scope, the gargantuan beast continued to try to dispose of the ants whenever they made themselves known. When we were a mere hundred or so feet away, we all stopped without needing to say anything to the others. As we’d suspected already, it was at least 40 or so feet tall, and each of its hands would easily crush me.
“Wait here.” Sybil commanded, her face a calm picture of concentration. She obviously said something to the giant, and had to repeat herself several times as she subconsciously flared her frills in confirmation as it seemed to ask her clarifying questions. Then, after a small army of ants crawled up its legs and began biting down, it stepped out of the crater that slowly grew under its stomps. Each of its surprisingly quick steps carried it towards us.
“Ashlani, please use your magic to dispatch them quickly.” Sybil requested as the Shandise approached. I didn’t ask any questions as I gathered my magic in my throat and allowed it to condense. Though there were no fewer than ten of the creatures swarming each leg, I’d learned how to shape my [Murderous Melody] and, after a mere five seconds’ hesitation, I shouted out a wordless cry that blew over the giant’s legs. As the magically amplified waves washed over the stonelike surface of the Shandise’s flesh, a cloud of dust puffed from its flesh in my magic’s wake.
When each ant was struck by my attack, they stiffened and fell from the leg, laying on the ground with their legs twitching.
“Will it hurt us if we pull the ants out of there?”
“No.” Sybil responded, her tone sure. I didn’t hesitate to rush forward myself, the rest of my elites following suit. With my claws and fangs, I dispatched a half dozen of the ants before the rest reached us, though Brutus was vicious in his attacks, brutalizing whatever ant he came in contact with. I swiftly received the answer of why he did so as, once the ants were all slain, he grabbed two, tossed them to me, and then half escorted, half pushed me away from the immediate reach of the Shandise. Though a small part of me resented the care he took of me, feeling as if he were treating me like a hatchling, the much larger pragmatic part of me understood my importance to the swarm as a whole and him individually. Finally, the part of me that would surely evolve to become a Zak’Tal, a royal caste, enjoyed the sense of importance his care for me provided.
The rest of my subordinates also refused to stay any longer than necessary and grabbed the rest of the corpses and hurried around a nearby corner. As soon as I turned around, I realized that we could see one of the Shandise’s pairs of curious eyes peeking over the ruins of the wall we’d retreated around. Sybil remained in her previous stance, her mind obviously focused on the creature that stood before us.
Though I desperately wanted to ask her what it was saying, or what news she might have, it quickly became apparent that, either the creature was slow to respond or difficult to communicate with. Perhaps both, or something else, but Sybil’s tail twitched a couple of times in poorly concealed impatience that, for her, might as well have been a stomping screaming fit. As it was, Sybil’s body frequently twitched in subconscious displays of our own body language that we understood but the Shandise obviously took no note of. The massive giant’s voices harmonized in a low, grinding sound as it vocalized something as it responded to Sybil’s communications. After several minutes of her talking with the Shandise, it stepped around in a circle for a moment, allowing each of its heads to look at us.
“I believe it understands that we are willing and able to help it, and I also believe it understands we probably cannot ensure that there will be no more ants here. I cannot say what else it understood or what it plans to do specifically, but I am hopeful that it understands that if it stays here, the ants will continue to attack.”
“So you tried to tell it to leave to stop getting bitten?”
“And that if they leave them to us, we will hunt them and keep them from biting the Shandise again.”
“Then, if you’ve been successful, we’ll have ants to eat and the Shandise will no longer be our problem?”
“I vaguely understand it to be as you have said, Alpha. Do remember, though, that their minds are not wholly in concert, and they might forget about us, but for now at least, we seem to be a mere curiosity that merits no further investigation.” She flicked her tail in uncertainty. “Their minds are far less developed than the Indlovus’ but more so than our herds’. The complexity of their thought process might be underestimated or misunderstood.”
I was about to respond when the Shandise stopped looking at us, groaned a long, low roar in its now familiar harmony of three, and started walking away. On the far side of Nievtra’s ruins, the wall had collapsed, and before long, the Shandise stepped over the pile of rubble that remained and walked with an awkward, if constant and distance eating lope. We watched as it scaled the mountain, rolling between each torso as one seemed to tire.
“Thank you, Sybil.” I grinned widely, knowing the emotion was more menacing than gently approving. “Now, we have a much easier source of food, too.”
