Fila ran and caught her falling form before she collapsed. He didn't even know why he did it. Maybe it was out of instinct, maybe it was out of respect, but he knew he had to do it. For the first time Fila saw her face and body clearly. He placed her at around 60 or even 70 years old. It was hard to imagine that such an old woman had just given the display that he just watched.

Fila lifted her onto his back. She was so light and frail. He could feel soft breathing from her but it was slow and labored.

Fila looked at the corpses of kvesh, and got the urge to spend time searching for their mana crystals, but this place was too dangerous. He couldn't waste any time. He heard sniffling coming from behind him.

Nomada was sitting on the ground, in tears. He felt sympathy for the girl, but she had no survival instinct at all. These are the moments in life where one has to move, when everything is lost and only worse things seem to be coming. The only way to win is to outrun the bad. These were the lessons that Fila had learned surviving on his own, and is the retort he wish he could've made to the old lady when she was deriding him, but he did not think of it at the time.

"We need to go," he said.

Nomada looked up at him, confused, as if she hadn't been able to understand a word he just said. Fila sighed. He wasn't really the type to keep his promises, but one time wouldn't hurt. For the old lady.

He pulled her up, grabbed her hand, and ran into the tunnels. Again, the tunnels took control, its pressure pulling them past different caves and rooms. Fila really needed to figure out how these tunnels worked. The speed made things hard to see, but Fila did see that some of the rooms had kvesh in them, and this time he noticed new details. Flashes of a kvesh-- no a beetle playing with another beetle, a centipede wrapping itself around a baby centipede, two mantises casually walking with another.

The tunnels pushed them into a sharp left and they were spat out into a room. Fila banged against the floor, causing him to nearly drop Mellifera. He broke the fall with his elbow and a sharp pain spread throughout his body. This one hurt more than before.

He looked up and saw the reason why. The room was made of chitinous wood rather than silk. It was a small room able to fit 15 men, and had a table, a chair, and a bed with a mattress made of silk by the entrance. It looked like the abandoned bedrooms that Fila had stayed in during his time in the wilderness. He wondered whether the owner was human. Why else would they have a bed or a chair or a table, let alone all three. But he tempered his expectations, the *kvesh* now acted like them, maybe they found some practical use in the same things. But the room was empty so he could not gain any more information. He took one hand he was using to hold up Mellifera and checked the table for dust. It was spotless.

He brought Mellifera to the bed. Nomada scurried to her bedside, picking up the chair on her way and sat on it. She just stared at Mellifera's face, not even weeping, just looking at her with a hollow gaze.

How was Fila meant to work with both of them immobilized?

He paced around the room, playing with the cuff of his glove. What do you think I should do? Fila asked the devil.

"Fulfill your promise to Mellifera."

I meant about the Nest, obviously.

"I know, but this is your people we're talking about. I heard your thoughts when she told you to go to the Apis and you're clearly ambivalent about it."

If it will help me be immortal I'll go, if it won't I'll go somewhere else. Simple as that. The more time I waste, the more likely I will have to give my soul to you.

"The other sides of the afterlife aren't that fun, anyway. You think where all the good people go is going to be all that? You should be focusing on living instead of obsessing over your own death. Take Mellifera for example, you can tell that woman lived. She loved, she had pride, she made mistakes. What can you say about your own life so far?"

How can I go about enjoying living if I can't even stay alive? If I know, my fate is going to be eternal servitude, eternal suffering. What's their to enjoy? No I need to make sure that I escape suffering then I can focus on my happiness. If you're not going to be any help, I'll just block you out again.

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"Hey I helped with the fire in the ass plan."

Fila blocked him out. The limiting factor was information.. If he just knew what was up with this place, he could think of hundreds of plans, thousands of plans. He looked at Nomada who was just sitting there.

"What do you know about this place?"

"What?"

"About the Nest. Why did you guys come here? You must know something about it?"

"We did not come to this place on purpose. What sane person would?"

"Then why are you here?"

"We just finished building the Hives, finding and gathering the nearby families and villagers, and came to ascertain the condition of the capital. However, before we got there, we were ambushed by a group of Red kvesh."

"The same ones Mellifera killed?"

"Some of them, I think. I believe there was a mantis and lobster missing from the group. As well as a centipede."

"A lobster? There are lobster kvesh? I thought they were all insects."

"Lobster are related to insects, but are not quite insects. What we know is that the kvesh arise from organisms that already have exoskeletons, but how they arise and why we have never known. Now I suppose we have more questions than ever."

Fila felt refreshed. This was the first time they had a conversation where she hadn't yelled at him. Maybe this was what Mellifera meant about her usefulness, you just needed to get her in a state of mourning first.

"So assuming all their Reds attacked you guys, there are only three left," Fila said.

"Two," a new voice said. It sounded slightly metallic, but was clear. Fila looked up from his glove and saw a green mantis standing in the room. His soul nearly jumped out of his body.

""Why weren't you watching the entrance!" He screamed at Nomada.

"I'm watching over my grandmother, you ass, what's your excuse!"

"I'm thinking of a way to get us out of here!"

"I'm Bug," the mantis said. "Nice to meet you Watching Over My Grandmother, You Ass, What's Your Excuse and Thinking Of A Way To Get Us Out Of Here."

Fila and Nomad stared at each other in confusion. Fila raise his glove at the mantis.

"This is a glove that can create fire. If I smell anything coming from your body or if you try to turn around and escape to the tunnels I will burn you alive," he commanded.

"My apologies, I was told that this was how humans introduced themselves. I am followed by their name."

Fila stared at Nomada again. She shrugged.

"Who are you?" Fila demanded.

"I'm Bug as I just said. Sorry I got that across. I'm not doing very well am I. This is not my first language."

"Why are you here?"

"Well, this is my room, so I suppose I'm returning to it. I'm the one who invited you in the first place."

"Again why?"

"I heard there were humans here and I had to get to know them. This has been my only chance to speak to a free human, let alone three! Normally the humans I speak to are either imprisoned or being tortured for information. This is a much nicer environment I think."

The mantis delivered every sentence, every word in the most cheerful tone Fila had ever heard. Fila could only pity the ones whose last moments were heard hearing Bug.

"So you're not here to kill us?"

"No! But everyone else here does, unfortunately. You've killed the queen of the butterflies, of the spiders, of the crickets, of the beetles, and of the dragonflies. You also stole their mana crystals preventing them from rising a new one. They want your blood to paint the walls and line the floors. I would want the same if you killed my queen of course."

Fila frowned. "I didn't take any of the crystals besides the spider's. What do you mean, we stole their mana crystals?" Nomada stared daggers at him. "When did you do that?"

"I don't have to justify myself to you. My kill, my spoils."

"No, it was my grandmother's kill, and by laws of inheritance it should be mine."

"Not even in the grave and already fighting for her inheritance? How uncouth."

Nomada pursed her lips. "Hey Bug, tell the kvesh they don't need to bother. I will make his blood rain on this mountain myself."

"Okay!"

"No! Don't actually do that, or I'll burn you."

"Okay!"

"It's like dealing with children," Fila mumbled intentionally loud enough for both to hear.

"You're younger than me," Nomada replied.

"And yet I'm the mature one, do you see the problem yet?"

"Bug--" she started.

"Stop!" Fila interrupted, "This isn't the time for jokes. Bug you were saying that there are only two Reds to worry about?"

"Yes, the Red Lobster and the Red Centipede. My queen is out hunting. The kvesh have been stuck in a web lately, our population is expanding quickly and there is no food in the lands as the skies are killing most things. We are not affected by the skies, but we are affected by their consequences. You," Bug said pointing at Nomada, "Were meant to be our first good meal in months. An interruption to having to eat the corpses of our dead." Nomada shuddered.

"The centipede is guarding the entrance of our home to prevent your escape, while the lobster is searching the tunnels. They already have your scent, but I've masked it with my own, so they won't be able to find you."

"Why?" Nomada asked.

"Why what?"

"Why are you hiding us if your entire species wants us dead? Why is this room made of wood? Why do you speak Nitich perfectly? Even the Red Spider wasn't as good as you? Why is this happening?"

Bug paused to think. "I believe all these questions can be answered in one. Because the *kvesh* are becoming more like you— human."