After a few hours of answering Belle’s simple but numerous questions, I have Lenn lead me to the most important people in the hive at the moment.

The mageants.

As soon as the door to their chamber opens, I’m hit with a wave of weirdly tingly air. Lenn leads me into the dark room, and I’m shocked by the sight inside. 

The entire space is lined with screens. Floating rectangles of light hang all over, each displaying a different image or block of text. In the center of the room is a massive construction. Half a sphere, made of blue glass, with intricate runes written on its surface, pulses with a deep blue light. As I watch, one of the runes flash, and a new screen opens near the room’s single occupant. 

The insect looks similar to Lenn, in both size and body shape, but has several significant differences. Unlike Lenn’s large, feathery moth antennae, this bug has thin, wispy antennae that flare out into feathery tips. They also have much sharper mandibles than Lenn. I walk up to the bug, who seems totally unaware of my presence. 

“Hello there, have we met yet?” I ask, as gently as possible. 

Unfortunately, nothing I could’ve done would’ve stopped the engrossed insect from being surprised. They seem to jump out of their carapace, almost falling over in shock. It doesn’t take them long to recover, however.

“M-Mother! What are you doing here?” they ask, panicked. Their small eyes flit over the room, their scent embarrassed. “Also, what did you ask?” Their tone is anxious.

I unconsciously release a dose of relaxing pheromones as I repeat myself. “I asked if we’ve met yet?” 

The bug shakes their head, their oddly small eyes gleaming with worry.

“So you need a name, then?” I ask, a little excited. As tired of naming people as I am, it's still something special to give one of my children a name. 

“Oh, uh, yes,” they chitter. “I’ve just been going by Mage Two.” 

“Chk chk chk,” I giggle. “Well, I can’t have that! From now on, your name is… Wait, what gender are you?” 

The bug blinks in confusion. “Ah, right, hmm, I haven’t thought about it… Can I be none? I don’t really care.” 

I shrug. “Sure. Then your name will be Vlint.” 

Vlint smiles with their mandibles. “Thank you, Mother. Is that why you came to see me?” 

I shake my head. “No, I came to ask some questions. Well, a lot of questions, actually. The hive has been waiting for the first mageant for a while now.” 

Vlint nods in understanding. “I am the correct insect to ask questions, what do you need to know?”

I smile. “Well my first question is, how do you know things no one else does?” 

They blink at me in confusion. “I don’t.” They quickly walk past me, towards the large object in the center of the room. Patting it, they continue, “This does, however.” Their mandibles wiggle in amusement. “This is our connection to the central hive, and its main information storage.” With a small motion of their hand, and a flicker of blue magic, the half sphere projects a small globe into the room. Dots litter the model planet’s surface. “Mageants know how to make and power this device instinctually. With it we can find out anything that us Arikka know, as well as add to the communal information pile,” they explain, sounding a lot like a teacher speaking to children. 

My mandibles go wide. These bugs have… internet? And basically Wikipedia? This is insane. “So, we can learn anything we want from this?” 

Vlint shakes their head. “Only if another Arikka knew the answer, and then shared it.” So they’re basically saying yes.

This is amazing. We have the internet, insane numbers, biological adaptations, magic. No wonder the Baron was so scared of my hive. I severely underestimated my new race. 

“Well, I guess I should start asking questions, then.” 

************************

With Vlint’s help, I quickly learn a lot about my growing family. Most of the information is practical, such as how to care for eggs, what Arikka need to grow well, things like that. But some of the information was more basic. Like what each caste is for.

Most of the castes are pretty simple, workers are good at manual labor, mageants can do magic, soldiers fight. But others are a bit more complicated. And some are a bit… depressing.

“The next castes are the two sac castes,” Vlint explains. “They’re both biological storage units that use their bodies to hold vast quantities of mana and food. They can’t move, of course, since they get so bloated. Then we ha—”

I cut the mage off. “Wait, they can’t move? Are you serious?” I feel myself starting to get upset.

“Well, of course they can’t, I’d like to see you move hundreds of pounds of nutrients around,” Vlint says, somewhat confused. 

That’s… that’s fucked. 

They’re people, not objects, and they can’t move? At all? I won’t allow it. I don’t care if that’s how Arikka work, I won’t let my chi—

“Mother,” Lenn says quietly, pulling me out of my angry thoughts. “It’s alright.” 

I go to argue, but he shockingly cuts me off. 

“Entertainers exist to spend time with the nutrisacs, so don’t be upset. We check to make sure they’re okay. And Arikka choose their castes themselves, so if they’re a nutrisac, it's because they’re okay with it.” The boy grabs my hand and gives it a slight squeeze. “I’ll make sure that my little siblings are okay.” 

I feel my worry and anger evaporate. “Alright, Lenn. I’ll hold you to that.” 

The small insect just nods. 

“Nutrisacs and manasacs have opposite problems,” Vlint continues, completely ignoring everything that just happened. “Nutrisacs get too heavy due to the food they’re carrying to move, where manasacs become much too light. Mana is lighter than air, so when their bodies are filled with it, they start to float. That’s why they have hooked feet, so they can anchor themselves.” 

They begin to drone on, explaining that crafters make things that other Arikka need. That striders are the long-legged farmers of the hive. Manants produce mana by converting food into raw magic. 

Food that the striders grow is fed to the nutrisacs to change into an efficient, nutrient-dense fluid. Which in turn is fed to the manants. The mana produced is then given to the manasacs, who hold onto it until the mageants need it. And one of the main drains of mana that the hive has is the false sun that is used to grow crops underground. It’s all a self-contained cycle. 

I don’t last much longer before I bail out of the information dump. As I leave the room, I swear I can smell Vlint’s relief. Like they’re the one being overloaded with information! 

With a small internal sigh, I head back to my room. It doesn’t take long to reach it, since the mageant’s chamber is so close. Once I’m safely inside, I feel a weight lift off my shoulders, and I start to relax. 

And then I see Jack, laying in my bed.

ms.terra

Sorry it's so short, but the next section is steamy and I wanted it to have its own chapter!