Xer-Shola was a mature princess of a good size, at least ten years older than Xicackna and Kol-Gaar. She had a class called “Healer”, previously unknown to the young princess… Although, some monsters might have had a similar class: she remembered having seen some capable of healing others.
The room she entered was filled with strange instruments, proof that Xer-Shola was not only using the System, but also engaged in normal medical research. She asked them to lie down on two stone tables, made soft by thick white sheets, and then she carefully examined their wounds. She then began to clean them before using her skills to speed up the healing, seeming to produce a golden light with each use.
While doing so, she chatted with the newcomer. She was much more cordial than the male, without being as impressive as the queen, and Xicackna immediately felt at ease in her company.
His injuries being lighter, Kol-Gaar thanked Xer-Shola and left the room, preferring to wait in the corridor until Xicackna was ready to follow him. She took the opportunity to complain about him to the caregiver:
“Tell me: is he always so unpleasant? I have never met such a disrespectful male in my hive. Even your queen, Xèl-tar-Lomenia, doesn’t seem to hold it against him when he talks back to her!”
“Ah, I see what you mean. You know, Kol-Gaar used to be quite nice… Before the Catastrophe…”
She fell silent for a moment, carefully observing the reconstruction of the little princess’s shell. While her powers allowed for instant healing, and any healing in excess of the total number of Hit Points regenerated the natural armor, Xer-Shola was a proponent of not going too fast when treating wounds. She had theorized that too frequent recourse to accelerated healing by the System could leave after-effects, although she had not yet been able to prove it.
But maybe her silence also had to do with the memories of the Disaster? Xicackna knew that she herself would never forget that sinister day. The dead in the streets, the unimaginable monsters emerging from their portals, death approaching in the form of a giant club…
“Before these events, Kolgaar had settled in our northern outpost, not far from the sea. He hoped to find a way to increase our fishing resources there. He was very enthusiastic and not the least bit aggressive, less even than the average prince: you know how they can be sometimes… Ah, he was a very cute little guy. At the time of the Catastrophe, he was molting. He had just wrapped himself in the cocoon he had woven in order to facilitate his metamorphosis, which of course had plunged him into a trance where he no longer knew anything about the outside world…”
Xer-Shola sighed, sadness piercing through all her eyes.
“He woke up in the ruins of our outpost… He was the only survivor. The outpost director, Xaz-Reka, covered his cocoon with her corpse. Faced with the futility of their defense, she had tried to succeed in protecting at least something…
“And the monsters had disappeared?”
“No, but they had stopped coming. The majority had killed each other after annihilating ours, while the survivors had dispersed, still infesting the region for weeks to come. At that time, the safest route was by air, and that was the one he took to return to the capital[1]. It’s a sad thing to fly for the first time without being able to enjoy it.”
Xicackna agreed. She only knew about flying from her brief aerial baptism, when she arrived in Xéméne, but it allowed her to guess the exhilarating sensations one would experience when flying by oneself. Although touched by the story, she told herself that it still didn’t justify his attitude:
“Yes, very sad. But that’s no reason to act rude!”
“Ha, ha, ha!” It’s true that he’s become rather incisive, but he’s still good at heart. I think he blames himself for having survived while the priority individuals of his outpost were all dead. A prince is worth less than a princess, because she represents an infinite number of future lives. Even though it’s not his fault, I think he feels that his place would have been to die defending the princesses present rather than transforming quietly in the shelter of his cocoon, unaware of the tragedy that was taking place. Since then, he’s worked very hard to ensure the defense of the hive. I haven’t seen him smile again after that day.”
Well, he was traumatized: okay. If he had insulted her, it was because her endangerment had scared him, she understood that… But that didn’t justify what he had said! She was determined never to forgive him, but there was no need to say it.
“There, I’m done. Your shell is as good as new now!”
Xicackna doubled over to observe with satisfaction that the pieces of torn off shell were there again, as if they had grown back.
She thanked Xer-Shola warmly and left her reluctantly, dragging her feet to go find Kol-Gaar. If she felt a little sympathy, now, for what he had experienced, she would have liked to be free of his presence and his gaze which seemed perpetually irritated or absorbed in some serious thought.
“Well, you took your time. I have other things to do than wait for you: I need to sleep to recover all the Energy Points you made me lose.”
Okay: she could easily forget about sympathy now.
“Oh, that’s fine, we were just discussing why you’re so annoying. I need to find out how to put up with you: I can’t imagine harder things during my stay here.”
Kol-Gaar grunted but couldn’t find any relevant retorts. He set off, making sure that the princess who followed him had a hard time keeping up with him. Given the difference in Agility between them, this little game was very easy.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
It was thus that, totally exhausted by a long walk at a fast pace, Xicackna discovered the observatory. It was the highest tower, overlooking the entire palace, far above the land. Large amber windows with rounded shapes filtered the sunlight of the fading day. The room was small and cluttered with shelves filled with tablets dealing with astronomy or relating observations on the movements of monsters in the surrounding regions.
A few workers were moving along the wires in the ceiling, tasked with collecting data. They were using strange metal devices that moved magnifying lenses of glass and amber. Probably a System for monitoring what was far away.
“This is the observatory,” Kol-Gaar announced, “this is where I sleep. This way I can be more responsive when a new door is signaled by the scouts. Apparently, I’m going to have to put up with you for a while longer, so this is where you’ll sleep too…”
Turning to his host, he saw that she had already collapsed onto the thick cushions that occupied the center of the room. She was already asleep.
Xicackna woke with a start, the image of a tiger leaping toward her still etched in her retina. She shook her head to chase away the nightmare and looked curiously at her surroundings.
The dome was dark and the stars twinkled in the sky, forming familiar constellations. It seemed as if the opacity of the amber had mysteriously faded to complete transparency through some feat of engineering.
The workers were still working, in total silence, moving nimbly across the ceiling, apparently avoiding passing in front of the windows.
Slowly breathing in the fresh air that came from the vents, Xicackna calmed down completely, bathed in this reassuring environment. Even the foreign pheromones were more attenuated in this isolated height, allowing her to feel the familiarity of Zcarbbs' presence without feeling oppressed by too much of the foreign hive's odor. Only the workers' odors, faint and few in number, slightly disturbed her sense of smell. Perhaps this was planned by the queen when she had assigned her this place.
Turning her head, she observed the form lying next to her, sound asleep on the edge of the cushions. Kol-Gaar no longer looked so awful now. As with all males, his scent was pleasant even while retaining the mark of Xéméne and thus did not disturb Xicackna’s senses.
Standing up silently, she went to the shelves and began to study the information there, reading in the darkness the pheromones impregnating the tablets and discovering the state of her homeworld.
When Kol-Gaar woke up, his bad mood returned immediately as soon as the confusion of sleep was banished. Fortunately, he refrained from any comment and with a silent agreement they began the descent the grand staircase of the observatory. The prince, probably in a hurry to get rid of the princess, even carried her into the air to speed up their descent. Once again, she enjoyed the aerial journey and felt her eagerness to grow up increase.
Arriving in the royal chamber, Kol-Gaar greeted the queen then curled up in an empty shelf, determined to continue his recovery of Energy. Xèl-tar-Lomenia greeted them enthusiastically and carried the little princess in her hand, delighted to be able to tell her the History of the world.
Focusing all her energy on her memory, Xicackna patiently recorded the real or legendary events of the past, concerning the Humans, as well as the names of the destroyed hives, the new ones built as well as the major events and the organization of the planetary alliance. The queen also told her what they had discovered about the System, for example the possibility of creating experience potions, which instantly gave XP, by grinding mana stones and other ingredients according to a complex process. Xicackna also gave as many details as she could about their own discoveries.
After a long and fruitful exchange, Xicackna thanked the queen deeply:
“Thank you for all this information, Queen Xèl-tar-Lomenia. All this will be very useful for the Dungeon... I mean Xolona... It's horrible: we end up adopting the vocabulary of this monstrosity of a System! In any case, thank you very much for everything: I will now use my return stone to go home...”
“So quickly? No: you still have a lot to learn.”
Suddenly, a Zcarbb flew through the air, so fast that Xicackna didn’t realize it had passed until it was in Xèl-tar-Lomenia’s other hand. It was a mature male dressed in strange dark clothing, probably from the System. She couldn’t see his level or other information. The mysterious newcomer was placing an object in the palm of the royal hand, an object that looked like… No: it was it!
“My return stone!” Xicackana cried furiously. “Thief!”
The queen burst out laughing as she dropped off the mysterious Zcarbb, keeping the tiny stone in the palm of her enormous hand.
“Ah, ah, ah! Thief, indeed: that is the name of his class.”
“W… Why are you doing this? Give me back my stone! It's mine and I want to go home!”
“Like I said: not right away. It would be criminal to send you away like this, when there are still so many things to learn here.”
“Wha… What do you mean?”
No! Xicackna was starting to panic. This queen was completely insane: she was probably going to keep her prisoner here until she had learned by heart the entire history and myths of the world! The stone, her only way out, so close but separated by an abyss of emptiness that she could not successfully jump… Even if her life was not in danger, a terror filled her, similar to the one she had felt when the Xyry-Yria outpost collapsed, when the bridge had collapsed, leaving only a gigantic chasm in front of the exit…
“Ah! Ah! Ah! Don’t make that face: it’s for your own good… I understood that the limited resources of your Dungeon did not encourage you to level up. I think that experiencing the other side of a Dungeon would be very instructive for you. I can’t decently send you home before you have reached at least level 10. Kol-Gaar will accompany you and protect you: he will know how to find the most appropriate Dungeons for you…”
“HUH? What? Ouch!” Kol-Gaar woke up with a start, hitting the shelf above and a series of stone tablets broke on his head. The queen grimaced:
“Good thing we always keep copies of our archives.”
“There's no way I'm taking Xicackna to a Dungeon! She's just a kid, she's not even an adult yet! Plus, it's way too dangerous! I don't want to put a princess in danger! It's out of the question!”
“You're going to go and I'm ordering you to! Besides, don't you think it would be more dangerous to send her away like that? Didn't you say yourself that she was too weak and shouldn't put herself in danger? What do you think will happen, with her current level, when she's home? If a horde of Humans were to burst into her current location and she was killed, wouldn't you feel responsible for not helping her improve?”
The prince looked away, ashamed. If he didn’t verbally confirm his surrender, he accepted the mission through the hive mind, in a way so clear that Xicackna understood too. Her worst opponent in this place was her only support in this decision, but he had just given up?
Sighing, Xicackna accepted as well. In any case, from a logical point of view, she had no argument: she did indeed need to improve.
----------------------------------------
[1] The term "capital" is used here because the outpost, even if distant, was part of the same colony. If he had come from a daughter colony, the term mother colony would have been used...