Khenal
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Peek: Queen, Mad Alchemist, or Both?
🕑 Added 2022-08-28 21:23:34 +0000 UTCMoving parts... so many moving parts. Denizens, invaders, mana... her. The nuptial flight is just a blur, but the new queen ant has time to gather her thoughts as she rides the rat scion towards the core. She can feel the attention of the Emperor upon her. He must be an Emperor, as there is no other rank above hers. He even has a vital task for her: guard his core.
While she is a queen, she is still so very new. Is she up to such a task? His previous Guardian is surely better suited to fighting off invaders? Her confusion doesn't wane as the rat stops near a patch of fungus, and she quickly gathers some of it to help her grow. At least the Emperor understands her needs as a leaf cutter. Perhaps it won't be so difficult to fight off invaders?
Once she is shown the Secret Sanctum, though, she understands the Emperor's will, at least in this task. The wall is simple earth. As her colony grows, she'll be able to excavate into the earth and hide the core even better than simply behind this bit of wall. She sneaks out to get something to help the fungus grow, and once she returns, she plans as she prepares the meal for her smaller charge, enjoying the light of her Emperor.
Days pass and her workers hatch, and earth is moved. It's difficult to move the core, but she and her ants are up to the task! She feels uniquely privileged to be able to bask in the light of the Emperor as she works, and so she works hard to show her appreciation.
She is confused, however, when she feels his attention on her tunnels and chambers. One suddenly manifests a scrap of paper, and she can immediately feel this is not paper to feed the fungus. She can feel a change in the other chamber as well, and her control of a couple workers slips as the Emperor gives them an order. She can't divine anything through the bond as to his intentions, but the scrap of paper has a clue.
Ochredill +Spell Spore = ?
Her workers soon return with the listed things, and start chewing and mixing as best as they can. She's fascinated when the mixture starts to softly glow yellow, and once it's fully complete, it's only the Emperor asking her to test it on a few workers that keeps her from sampling it herself.
What has her Emperor done? She must find out! She sends more of her workers to gather the ingredients and process them into this strange liquid, even as she has more workers and a few majors drink the rest. They change very quickly, and are soon doing everything quickly, too. She's relieved when the Emperor doesn't keep her from making more. He never told her to, after all. But he is merciful and rewards ambition and curiosity.
More days pass and the core is moved. Many brave ants die in the fight with the mole, but she commands her ants properly and soon the foul invader is a smoking corpse, thanks to her lightning majors. She stays with the core, but she grows nervous.
She's become an Alchemist, rather than a Guardian. The Emperor was merciful when she tested her boundaries and made more of the liquid, but will he be so merciful once he notices she's gone directly against his plan? She was to be his new Guardian! She doesn't believe he's noticed quite yet, even as her first batch of alchemist ants pupate and get to work. Surely his trust of her has blinded him to the signs of her accidental betrayal!
It only takes one more day before she feels the weight of the Emperor's attention upon her, and she wonders if that will be the last thing she ever feels. However, instead of rage or disappointment, she feels... humorous resignation, and a hint of self-deprecation? Did her Emperor suspect she might become an Alchemist instead of the Guardian he had been grooming her to be?
Instead of him attempting to force the issue, or destroy her and try again, she feels him nudge her towards the lab, rather than keep her near his core. And yet... she doesn't want to go. Not yet. She can direct her experiments from here, and the Sanctum is more centrally-located, so she can direct and help the herbalism nodes easily from here, too!
The Emperor doesn't force her to leave his orange light, and she is both relieved and resolved. She may be an Alchemist, rather than the Guardian he was hoping for, but she can still help the dungeon as a whole, and protect the Emperor's light! She just needs to come up with some more alchemical solutions to the problems. With her new title, she can even feel more knowledge seeping through the bond... a strange series of boxes, arranged in a way that makes no sense to her, with symbols in each box?
She doesn't know what it is yet, but she intends to find out. The Emperor seems to think it could hold the secrets of alchemy, and so she will investigate and experiment. After all, not only is she an Alchemist, but she has an army of test subjects at her command.
Comments
Lin Asora
Hail to The alchemist Queen
Undead Writer
Thanks for the chapter!
