There was a day left until they went to barter with the Evergreens, but Turi still had one last thing to do. He sat atop an enormous second-realm tree, gazing down at where the ants he’d been hunting a while ago had moved. It was a much, much smaller nest than before, but there were still roughly a hundred combat-capable ants, and, most importantly, there was a gigantic ant patrolling the outside.
Turi leapt off the branch he was perched on, his eyes lighting up as he became shrouded in darkness. He stealthily passed by a dozen ants and dove into the nest itself, rapidly making his way towards where the queen was. Soon, he darted into it through a tunnel- right into an ambush.
A dozen acid-spitting ants and Knight ants attempted to accost him, but Turi’s eyes flashed as he simply knocked all of the globs of acid aside by manipulating the air and flew out of the grasp of the knights.
“I am not here to attack you.” Turi said, but the spitting ants spat regardless. It was draining to dodge and block the attacks perpetually, and so he added, “But I will defend myself, if you do not stop.”
Soon after, the ants scattered throughout the room stopped, and he felt Andromeda reach out for his mind once more. After reinforcing his brain with essence beforehand, he allowed the mental probe to enter his mind. This time, Andromeda did not attack- she likely remembered what had happened last time she’d tried.
“What do you want, bird?” Andromeda demanded, very displeased to see him.
“I have come to offer you a deal, Andromeda.” Turi answered.
“Get on with it, then.” The queen snapped, and Ascenturi made his best impression of a scowl. He was seriously debating leaving or attacking, but having the support of Andromeda would be very useful to their negotiations.
“You understand the Realms, yes?” Turi asked, receiving an affirmative pulse in response. “I assumed so. We’re both of the second Realm, but the third Realm requires something more than simple strength and accumulation. To become stronger, we must know what, and there’s only one place we can get the knowledge: the huge group of humans that call themselves the Evergreens. To get a hold of the knowledge as well, we must work together.” Turi said, and then, recalling a term that Leo had used, continued, “United we bargain, but divided we beg. Come with me, and bargain with the humans for power.”
***
Around Turi stood a dozen beasts and seven humans, each well into the second Realm. Leo, Jeremiah, Aiden, Deri, Fox, Tort, Porgul and more were all there. The humans carried large bags filled with their trading pieces, as did a few animals that could have the bags tied onto them or hold them, like Porgul, the canine humanoid or Deri.
Not too far away was the Evergreens’ encampment, taking up a large fragment of the city- four or five blocks, at least- and extending well into the wilderness, where they procured food. With the large number of people and the greater strength that each individual human possessed, they had long since created a large and impressive town of sorts, surrounded by a solid wall of stone, with occasional gates guarded by second-realm humans scattered throughout.
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“Why have we stopped here, exactly?” Leo asked.
“There is another party coming to bargain.” Turi told the man, and he frowned.
“Who? And what?” Leo asked. Turi mentally sighed, knowing that getting them to accept the small legion of ants coming along would be tough.
“I managed to obtain the support of an ant queen, Andromeda. Thirty Knight ants and twenty spitting ants are coming to support our position, with a Lesser Queen to control them and to barter on the behalf of their hive.” Turi said plainly. The reaction was better than he expected, only a handful of humans and animals complaining, but he eventually managed to get them to quiet down.
A minute after the conversation ended, Jeremiah detected the miniature legion of ants. They stopped a dozen or so yards away from them, but the Lesser Queen came closer to introduce herself and such.
After establishing a weak mental link with Turi and a few others that accepted, she began. “I am Monotur, and have come here on behalf of Her Majesty Andromeda and the hive.” She said simply. A minute or so after everyone got used to one another, they moved out. Turi rode on Jeremiah’s shoulders, as he felt too exposed flying in the air so close to the human encampment.
It did not take long before their group, no longer hiding in the ruins of the city, was spotted. Flares were shot up into the sky, and he could hear shouting from a few blocks away as they mustered a response to what might appear to be an assault.
Too curious as to what they were doing to sit around in fear now, Turi took off and rose until he could see the vast majority of the encampment at once. Walls of people were rushing towards the gate they were approaching. There were numerous weapons and war machines being transported over here, but Turi steeled his will and they continued forward, stopping once he felt they were already pushing it. Frankly, it was a miracle that they were not already attacking their group- one caused, likely, by the fact that they had humans amongst them.
The beasts of Sanctuary and the ants held back while the humans approached, and eventually, Turi saw Leo give him a sideway thumb, which was the signal for him to approach, but nobody else- the expected but still less-than-ideal response.
Turi flew over, stopping a few yards from the small crowd of ten or so humans that had formed in front of the gates, walking the rest of the way to prevent alarm. As he approached, an unknown Evergreen woman spoke.
“This is the leader of the group of ‘civilized beasts’ you’re working with?” She asked, seeming confused. It made sense- Turi had not grown very much compared to most other animals, and was only as large as a pre-Ascension eagle or something- thus, he was small and, without his magic, pretty weak and definitely not intimidating.
“It is,” Leo confirmed. Turi stopped a foot or so away from the human crowd and introduced himself.
“Greetings; I am Ascenturi, the… mayor, I suppose, of the beasts of Sanctuary.” Turi said. Before he could continue, one of the Evergreens cut him off.
“And why are you here, beast?” A large man asked, clearly unhappy. Their responses to this sort of thing had already been planned out, so it was easy to respond.
“I was getting there before you so rudely interrupted, ape.” Turi responded, drawing a withering glare from the man, who interrupted once more.
“Show some fucking respect, bastard!” He shouted.
“I would have respected you if you had respected me.” Ascenturi responded as was planned, making it clear that he was deserving of just as much respect as Leo and the other humans.
The man looked like he wanted to respond, but the woman from before stopped him.
“Shut the hell up, Davis. Ascenturi, I am Yltra, and this,” She gestured to the third Evergreen- a dark-skinned man that had simply been watching the exchange thus far- “Is Hurbert. We’re the military generals of this place, but the Guadrian is on her way.” Yltra said.
While Davis fumed, Turi responded. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Yltra, Hurbert. I am not a fan of flowery speech, though- let us move this along. We have brought along many riches, and in exchange, we want to know what the empire that Earth is supposedly located within told your higher-ups- how to ascend to the third Realm, for example.”