“Are you sure about this?” Bella asked, staring at her Queen in disbelief.

Absolutely. Her Queen replied confidently. It’ll be quick, in and out.

“With just the two of us?” Bella replied feebly. “Doesn’t that seem…unnecessarily dangerous?”

Has to be done. Like I said, I’m going to be blocking its perception of me, and we’re banking on it remaining coiled up on that statue. Honestly, the only reason you’re even coming is in case something goes south, and we need to run. You’re not going to enter the main room or anything, just…be on hand in case of the worst.

“I…understood. When are we doing this?”

Right now. I’ve got the guards for the cocoon ready to go, so we just need to walk over.

Bella sighed. “Alright. Let’s get going, then.”

The walk over was a tense one, at least for Bella. She couldn’t help but think about what would happen if something went wrong, if her Queen got hurt, if…if…if she died. It was a scary thought, and she resolved to do everything in her power to prevent it from happening.

All too soon, they reached the observatory. The Queen stationed the guards outside, then directed Bella over to the building’s side, where she had Bella open a window, pick her up, and get inside. They emerged into what appeared to be a classroom, and the Queen began to walk purposefully away, leaving Bella scrambling to catch up.

She led Bella through a series of corridors before stopping at a door. These are the stairs up. The Queen said. Once we’re up there, I’m going to lead you towards the main gallery. Hopefully the snake’s hearing is bad, and it doesn’t hear the door to the main gallery opening, but if it does, we bolt.

“Understood.” Bella whispered, opening the door. “Lead the way.”

The stairs were short, as was the walk to the main gallery. In no time at all, the pair were standing in front of the door to the main gallery, and Bella’s nervousness had hit an all-time high.

Just open the door and stay out of sight and we’ll be golden. Her Queen said. Ready?

Bella nodded, reaching up cautiously and opening the door, listening intently for any sounds of movement from within. There were none, so she waved her Queen on, and watched as she went into the room.

There was a tense silence, filled only by the Queen’s quiet footfalls and the seemingly thunderous beat of Bella’s heart. The moment stretched on and on, and Bella had to resist the mounting urge to peek into the room.

Finally, there was a whooshing, followed by the sound of something massive shifting, a thud, and then…nothing. Bella waited for a few more tense moments before, blessedly, the Queen spoke up.

We’re clear. She said. Come on in.

Bella came in to find an absolutely gargantuan cocoon lying in the center of an oval-shaped room. She walked forward and vaulted the railing of the balcony she was on, taking the ten foot drop in stride as she approached the Queen. “Were there any hang-ups?”

I had to get closer than expected due to the perception filter taking more Mana that I thought it would, and it started to uncoil once it got initially covered, but by and large it went smoothly. Do you want to grab the guards while I look at the conversion options?

“I will do so, but if there is even a hint of something going wrong, call me immediately.”

Of course. The Queen said. The exit is directly behind you, just keep going straight past the desk.

Lia looked at the towering cocoon in front of her, still somewhat in disbelief that she had managed to fully cover the thing. When the snake had started uncoiling, she was sure that the attempt had failed, but it seemed to have been too little too late, and now she had another soon-to-be subordinate.

She laid a paw on the massive thing, and began to look through her options. There was…well, a lot of different kinds of snake. Snake, venomous snake, constrictor snake, extra-big snake…well, they were all going to be big, but that last one was going to be even bigger.

But those all looked kind of…lame. Down at the bottom, however, was one that seemed interesting.

Lia wasn’t sure what all of that meant, or what things like radiation or space debris were, but it certainly sounded impressive. Plus, it looked to eventually evolve into something akin to the mythical Apophis, and that was something that even the gods themselves were said to have trouble with. So, even if it wasn’t immediately good, it would probably be great in the long run.

So, she got it converting at around the same time as the soldiers she had gathered for guarding the thing were led into the chamber. You lot make sure nothing happens to this while it’s converting. Lia instructed. If things get to be too much to handle, send a runner for reinforcements.

The troops spread out to form a perimeter around the cocoon, so Lia turned back to Bella. Our job here is done. She said. Let’s get back to base.

And that’s what happened. Lia said. Has Violet or Lily returned yet?

“Violet got back around ten minutes ago.” Rose said. “She is currently debriefing Chrys.”

“Lily seemed rather engrossed in her work when I visited her last.” Bella said. “I would not be surprised if she has yet to return.”

Well…let’s go pay her a visit, then. We’re kind of out of modeling wax after I took that last batch to deal with the snake, it took a lot of modeling wax. Hopefully she’ll have a bit from the renovations she’s making.

“Take me with you!” Chrys said, walking up to the trio. “I want to stretch my legs a bit more than this.”

“Ah, Chrys.” Rose said. “That shouldn’t be an issue, but give us your report first, please.”

“Really?! Thanks, mom!” Chrys replied, bounding up to Rose and pulling her into a hug. “Um…do you mind if I hear how Queenie’s heist went first, though?”

Completed without issue. Lia said. The boss is converting as we speak.

“Good work!” She paused, looking at Bella. “Are you…okay, Bella?”

“What?” Bella asked.

“You look…sad.”

“I…suppose I do.” Bella said. “I…find myself missing my own family. I…did not even remember I had one until now.”

Do you remember what they were like? Lia asked. I can try and bring them here too, like I did with Chrys. I can’t guarantee I’ll be successful, but I can try.

Bella frowned, placing a fingertip on her chin. “A husband and four children, I believe. I’m afraid I cannot recall their names or faces, nor can I recall my own. Any other details are hazy, too. I’m…still piecing things back together.”

That’s fine. Lia said. Hopefully I’ll be able to help you out.

“I appreciate the effort.” Bella said. “Thank you.”

“In the worst case, you always have us.” Rose said, giving her a gentle smile. “We’re there for you.”

“Yeah!” Chrys said. “You can be like my cool aunt or something!”

“Thank you both.” Bella replied, smiling in return. “But I have distracted from things for too long already. What did Violet have to say about the classrooms, and where is she now?”

“I sent her off to explore some of the other buildings on campus.” Chrys said. “I figured we might as well, since our eventual aim is to occupy this whole place, right?”

Yes, good thinking. Lia said. I take that to mean she found a boss?

“Yup! It’s a harpy. Patrols the classroom with a ruler in one of its wing hand things, but doesn’t seem to leave, even when it caught sight of Violet outside of the room. There are a bunch of sheep monsters in there too, and Violet said other sheep monsters roam the halls.”

Probably representing my teacher and fellow students. Lia said. Bit of a rude analogy, but whatever, I guess.

“Rude or not, I doubt we will have much of an issue with this boss.” Rose said. “Harpies are rather hamstrung without the ability to fly, and I doubt your classroom is large enough to allow for meaningful flight.”

It’s not, not unless Amelia changed it.

“I don’t think she did.” Chrys said. “Violet said the harpy didn’t look like it had room to fly about.”

A sitting duck, then. Lia said. Perfect. Now we just need to get the modeling wax we need to cover it, and we’ll be set.

Rose nodded. “Let’s be off, then.”

The four left camp and made the trek to the biology building, which was in the midst of a drastic transformation. Already Lia could see that the front rooms had been scrubbed of hive and were looking remarkably similar to how they had when she was a student. They entered in through the door, and it didn’t take them long to locate Lily; all they had to do was follow the noise.

The noise in question was the sound of cracking and chewing as the hive walls were taken down, and Lily was at the center of it, giving orders and writing on her clipboard as large pieces of hive wall were taken away.

Lily, how are things going? Lia asked.

Lily jumped, turning around to face the group. “Things are proceeding well, my Queen.” She said. “Is there anything in particular you need?”

Lia paused, thinking on that for a moment. Yes, two things, actually. First, do you have any extra modeling wax around here? Our stores at the camp ran out due to dealing with an exceedingly large boss.

“Yes.” Lily said. “Two doors behind you, on the left. We have a decent amount stored up, though not as much as we potentially could have. I’ve been only converting about half of the hive material and saving the rest, as you instructed. Would you like me to increase the production of modeling wax?”

Yes, that would be nice. Maybe up that to about seventy-five percent material converted?

“Consider it done. What is your second request?”

I need you to come back to the camp and get a proper night’s sleep. You haven’t been back in a while and I’m starting to worry that you’re overworking yourself.

“I’m fine.” Lily protested. “A little drowsiness is nothing.”

Too bad. We have an actual bed back there now, and you’re going to get at least eight hours of rest, and that is an order. Actually, take the workers here back with you, too, have them rest as well. Understood?

“But–”

This is not up for debate. Lia said flatly. Begin the process of rounding up the swarm that’s here and sending them back to camp.

“Yes, my Queen.” Lily sighed.

Lia watched for a moment to make sure Lily was obeying orders, then turned to the group that had come with her. Go fill yourselves up on modeling wax before I put the rest into storage. Lia instructed. We leave for the classrooms as soon as we’ve got everything.

“We’re going now?” Rose asked. “Didn’t you just get back from a trip?”

I did, and my Mana is still regenerating, but it should be more than enough to deal with this. Honestly, you and Bella could probably do this alone, but…the more the merrier, you know?

“If you insist.” Rose said. “I suppose we should get to it, then.”

Fighterman481

I ended up flipping back and forth on this chapter, rewriting and then undoing the rewrite and going back to what I had before and then undoing that before eventually going back to what I had before, which is what we have here. I had two distinct ways this chapter could have gone, depending on how successful the heist went, and I eventually settled for this because I wanted to play with snek conversion.

Anyway, next time we'll be finishing off this dungeon, so look forward to it!

And, as always, thanks for reading!