Everything is… dark… dark and warm.

I try to move, but find I have nothing to move.

Did I die? …No, I doubt I’d be thinking if I did.

“Back again, are you?” A voice asks, shaking the void around me. 

I want to speak, but no sound comes. 

The voice chuckles, each laugh vibrating my consciousness. “Don’t strain yourself, you won’t be able to speak.” 

The voice is kind, gentle. 

A comforting pulsing wraps around my lack of form.

“Don’t worry, little bug, you aren’t dead.” The voice coos. “Although you are very close… Hence why you’re here.” 

I want to ask where I am, and who the voice is, but of course I am not able to. 

The voice chuckles again. “I’m sure you have questions… but I’m afraid we’re out of time, even if I was willing to answer them.” 

What do you mean? Out of ti—

────────────

I fall forward with a cracking sound, light flooding into my eyes. Tumbling onto the ground, I feel fluid rush off my body, cold air hitting my skin and carapace. 

“Mother!” 

“Cercei!” 

Several voices call out to me, but I can’t see them, my eyes still adjusting to the light of the room. 

Someone grabs me under my upper arms and pulls me into their own. Holding me in a princess carry, I feel the person carrying me start to walk. 

Blinking my eyes a final time, my vision clears, revealing my surroundings. 

Jack is carrying me, and we seem to be in a hallway tunnel. Looking down, I see green liquid drying to my naked body. 

“Whe-re…” I say, finding it strangely difficult to get the scent out.

Jack’s eyes lock onto me. 

“You’re awake?” He asks anxiously. 

I nod, too tired to speak. 

The elf lets out a long sigh. “Thank god.” He looks down at me, the relief in his eyes obvious, even for me. 

“You’ve been out for three days. I’m taking you back to your room now.” He explains, hugging me tight against him. 

“...I wasn’t… In my… room?” I manage to say, pushing through whatever is straining my pheromones. 

Jack shakes his head. 

“No, you were in the clinic.” 

I stare at him in shock.

“We… have… a clinic?” I ask, chittering out a laugh.

“Yeah, Cercei, for like… two weeks now.” He says with a snort. “Don’t you listen to Lenn’s briefings?” 

I look away from the blonde, pretending it’s too hard to speak. 

Suddenly we’re in front of the heavy doors of my room.

Jack pushes through with his shoulder, and a bit of difficulty. Once we’re inside, he carries me over to my bed, and puts me down gently. 

“What… a gentle… man.” I say, wiggling my eyebrows. 

He chuckles, sitting next to me on the bed. 

“Cercei…” He starts to say.

Suddenly the doors to my room slam open, and a blur of motion rushes towards me. 

“MMMMMMMOOOOOTHEEEEERRRRR” A voice shrills, barely reaching me before the speaker does. 

Claire lands with a thud next to my bed, her antennae twitching like mad. 

“You’re awake! I told them to tell me immediately, but it took them a whole two minutes to inform me!” She huffs, clearly irritated. “How are you feeling? Any aches? Are your senses all working? What about your appetite?” 

I stare at the girl, totally overwhelmed by her barrage of questions. 

“Claire.” Jack says firmly. “Slow down, one question at a time.” 

The tender’s antennae jerk to a stop, and she glances past me, and at Jack. 

“Oh, Father, you’re here.” She says, surprised but mostly uninterested. “Yes… Yes I should slow down…” She mutters, tapping her arm’s carapace rhythmically. 

“First… question?” I offer.

Claire looks at me. “Right… Are you in pain?” 

I shake my head. Nothing hurts, just a bit stiff. 

“Okay. Are you able to hear, see, taste, feel, smell?” She asks next. 

I nod, but then stop. 

“Hard… to release… scent.” I explain.

Panic pheromones waft off the girl. 

“That’s… that’s not good.” She says to herself. 

Without a word, she pushes my head back and looks under my chin. 

She cautiously touches around my throat, searching for… something. Eventually she touches something tender, and I let out a creaking cry of surprise. 

“Is that sore?” She asks.

“Yyyyess…” I reply, finding that releasing my words is even harder than before.

Claire’s face turns serious.

“I… I think your scent gland healed badly. It seems… malformed.” She tells me flatly. “I’m… not sure what to do.” 

Anxiety rushes through my chest. 

My voice is broken? How will I communicate with everyone, with Jack? How will I soothe my children when they’re upset?!

“C-c-c-cer-c-cei!” Jack yells, snapping me back to reality.

Claire is standing in front of me, her carapace off colored. The girl is shaking violently, her eyes full of fear. 

I glance to my side, and see that Jack isn’t in much better shape, his skin even whiter than normal. His teeth are chattering, and his breathing is ragged. 

“Y-y-y-yoou n-n-need-d to c-calm d-down.” He stammers. “Your-r-r scent-t-t.”

Right! I try and calm myself, focusing on closing my scent gland. A sharp pain radiates from under my chin, and the two start to calm down. 

Jack slumps into the bed behind me.

“Jesus…” He murmurs. “You sure her scent gland is in a bad shape?” He asks blithely. 

I tap my mandibles together in annoyance.

It's not really fair that I can release my emotions on accident, but struggle to talk, is it?

So what do I do? Usually when I’m hurt I just… wait to heal. Or go into a cocoon. But I’m not injured, just… malformed. So what now? 

…I guess I could rip it out. But everyone would have a collective meltdown.

What about cutting it out? But who would be able to do that? 

Claire maybe? She does have that soapy substance she makes.

I glance at the girl’s hands, and see that, despite being sufficiently dexterous, they’re somewhat bulky compared to a human’s. 

She’d probably struggle to use delicate tools… So not a caretaker. 

What about a strider? They have bladed fingers… except those are huge scythes, not exactly scalpels. 

A crafter, maybe? They have wonky eyes that can magnify, and they have really dexterous hands…

But we don’t have any tools… 

I hiss in frustration, startling Jack and Claire both. 

If only there were a medic caste…

Wait! 

I focus my mind on opening my menu, and a small, green window appears in the air. 

That one! The editor! 

The green menu shifts, becoming slightly larger, the words rearranging. 

Create new, I mentally command.

Hmm… Starting from scratch sounds like it’ll make things a lot more complicated, but I’d get exactly what I want. But I don’t really want to figure out the entire system right now. Are there any castes near what I need? 

Crafters? I just need to give them some way to cut, stitch, and cauterize. Let’s try that.

I mentally select the crafter caste, and the menu shifts yet again, growing even larger. The words vanish, replaced with a detailed diagram of a crafter drone.

Except… it looks off. 

Instead of walking on two legs, with the front part of their body raised similarly to a mantis, the insect in the diagram is low to the ground. Their forelegs still have dexterous hands, but they’re clearly legs, not arms like my children have. 

Why is the diagram wrong? 

The system seems to hear my thoughts, words appearing below the picture.

Ah, right. So this is what the Queen’s children look like. Maybe I can make it match my brood? 

Again, the system reacts to my thoughts, the image shifting with words written overtop.

After a few seconds pass, the image clears up again, and the words vanish. The new diagram is much more accurate, looking just like Belle.

Now… How to edit.

I reach out and touch the arm of the image, and it highlights. A small secondary window opens, and starts to fill with hundreds of optio—

“Cercei… What are you doing?” Jack asks, startling me.

I jump in surprise and let out a small screech of fear. Looking around, I see Claire and Jack both looking at me in bewilderment. 

Feeling my face heating up, I grab my blanket, and hide in shame. 

I forgot they were there!

ms.terra

Sorry for missing last week! I suddenly got pretty sick, and I was bedridden for most of it. That's also the reason this week's chapter is so short, as I'm still dealing with the back half of whatever I caught. Anyways, thanks for reading!