Throughout his explorations of Akrys, Three Squeaks had seen many things. Quite often he was able to peacefully meet with local individuals. More often than he had to fight them- though that was only counting those with sapience. Getting attacked by random animals with a bit of natural energy didn’t count. Either way, most conflicts were resolved swiftly. The Lower Plains Alliance had some small knowledge of ‘tactics’ from Anton, but ultimately most fights involved sending everyone’s warriors at each other until one side died.

The thing was, most groups hadn’t grown particularly large. Most had territories they could walk in a day. Some, it took several. There wasn’t really anything more than that. Difficulties of interacting with different species and simply limitations of time had caused that. Except… there was one group that Three Squeaks eventually came across that possessed a much larger territory… sort of. Certainly, they claimed a lot of land, and they protected it. It was even weeks of travel to get across it… from their perspective.

They weren’t aggressive, or at least not so much to directly attack. However, Three Squeaks found that they drew out everything, including efforts to become more friendly. The Tortoise Triumvirate was just… like that. And he was quite annoyed. They spoke slowly, took days to deliberate positions, and were generally unwilling to give straight answers to simple questions.

Three Squeaks had spent a year just to get to talk to their heads of state, and another year trying to get anything out of them. And then just as he was about to give up, he got a better idea.

He honestly couldn’t tell the difference between the Triumvirate, so they were numbered one through three in his head. And that was just based on the direction he had to look a particular day.

Number one spoke to him, of course annoyingly slowly. “Little rodent…” Three Squeaks had already informed them he was not a rodent. “Your… people. Too far. Too early. We do not need to speak.”

“I think you can be convinced otherwise,” Three Squeaks said. The idea was already forming in his mind. “I just need to… bring a friend. It won’t take long.”

“How… long?” Asked number two. Unless they’d swapped positions? No, they weren’t that speedy. Probably.

“... Just a few months,” Three Squeaks said.

“Very… well. The Triumvirate will… remain in session. Return with your… friend.”

It wasn’t actually the slowness of their speech that bothered him. No, he’d dealt with that plenty. It was the attitude combined with it. After all, he had his own individual of slow speech, who might somehow be even worse than them. But Meep was neither slow on purpose, nor otherwise bothersome. He had his focuses.

And while Three Squeaks didn’t like to make difficult work for his friends, someone had to talk to these guys eventually. The world was rapidly growing smaller- not in an absolute sense, but as various awakened individuals grew in power, the rates at which they would have naturally encountered each other expanded. Three Squeaks had already pre-arranged some meetings- along with others, of course, but he was the one who chose to travel the whole world. Giving both sides some warning had almost certainly resulted in better outcomes, and when Three Squeaks ran into aggressive individuals he could simply run, as he had no territory to protect.

-----

The one detail Three Squeaks had not considered was that, upon his return with Meep, he would still have to be there. In short, this was a perfect time for him to train his meditative skills, and his patience. This wasn’t interminably boring, it was a test.

Okay, no, it was. But he could at least try to grow. Man, how did cultivators sit in one spot for a decade? Oh right, most of them didn’t actually do that. But it also wasn’t unheard of, at least in stories. In practice, that was a great way to hit a dead end and run out of insights.

The reason he was so focused on this place, however, was that he was getting close to full exploration of the world. Okay, so, maybe he was at like… ninety percent. And maybe that last ten percent would take just as long as he’d spend on the first ninety percent. But he couldn’t consider the area properly explored until he’d been everywhere, and the Tortoises didn’t like it if he just sprinted past them to go look at their rocks and trees and sand and stuff. The only thing he was fairly certain about was that there were no other sapient species in their modest territory.

He… really wasn’t sure what he was going to do once he actually finished his goal. Spend more time back at home, perhaps. It would be nice, to get back to more group meditation with the sect. Not every meerkat was gifted with the same amount of cultivation talent, and sharing some of his own power with others would help raise others up.

He supposed it would also be good to focus on the Order of One Hundred Stars. He had learned so much from Anton… he wanted the world to have more people like that. And a cultivation filled with light and growth went a long way towards that.

Then, of course, there was the far future. At the end of the cycle, would their planet be invaded? Or had it simply been seeded with life and forgotten, many cycles before? It honestly didn’t matter- because Three Squeaks wanted to be ready to fight regardless. If Akrys didn’t need it, surely others in the lower realms would.

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Looking down upon Nidec, Devon truly wouldn’t have thought the results they got were possible. Not only had they avoided a civil war, they actually had access to more information about the Exalted Quadrant’s sects. What the lower realms individuals had, at least. It wasn’t really that much, which was part of the reason they were so relatively easy to convince.

If a decade long process could be counted as quick, at least. Perhaps… perhaps it was, on the galactic scale. It wasn’t as if Nidec was suddenly fully integrated into the Lower Realms Alliance, but they would at least be available to trade and to exchange knowledge. That included Vrelt, which was almost neighbors with them, just a few systems away.

Not that there hadn’t been conflict. It was just that the ones who were most likely to act openly and violently were also the ones with the most positive response to being browbeaten into agreeing. And funnily enough, it was in a way that was more likely to last. The Hardened Crown Sect was weird like that.

“You did good work,” Devon complimented Aerona. “You and all the others.”

She smiled, “You did your part as well. Sometimes, you need to punch someone in the face for proper diplomacy, I suppose. But I’m still going to let other people handle that.”

“It would be nice, if everything could be resolved this way.” Devon shook his head. “But I don’t believe it can. Would we even be willing to negotiate peace with the upper realms instead of forcing it out of them? The Exalted Quadrant… well, they’ve caused us quite a bit of trouble. They still might be someone we could live with, but we really have little experience with the upper realms. Except that whole thing where they took over a sect in the Scarlet Midfields to skirt around their ceasefire. And the part where they tried to kill lots of other people. Though Chikere was the provocateur for some of that.”

“I’ve only heard stories about her,” Aerona admitted. “Was she like they say?”

“Yes and no. The crazier the story, the more accurate most likely. And yet… if she was seeking out a grand swordmaster for a duel, even if she had conflict with many cultivators along the path, that was probably what all of them wanted.” He shrugged, “Or maybe that’s just me wishing that my friends can do no wrong when clearly they can, sometimes. Then again, without that incident we wouldn’t be here. Not so… successfully. Because she helped free another friend of ours, and a previous Sect Head of Ceretos’ Hardened Crown branch. We wouldn’t have even known one existed without that. And it shows they are unwilling to accept people who want to not be a part of them- for no real benefits, as far as I am aware.”

“Except some techniques to give them an edge over the local populace,” Aerona said. “I’m not saying that’s sufficient. Just that they saw a reason to begin with.”

“Too bad they’re outdated now. I wonder if the Exalted Quadrant even knows that. How many more outposts do you think they have?”

Aerona frowned. “More, probably the further we go west. That’s closer to their proper territory, after all.”

“We’ll have to keep watch. Though our explorations, at least, have led to no inhabited system in a decent buffer zone.”

“I wonder if that is intentional too. Or just a coincidence.”

“I doubt we can ask them,” Devon shrugged.

-----

The colony was developing well. Crossed Antennae was proud of her work. And, of course, proud of the others. Though they were not yet worthy of names, they were developing rapidly. Bounty was developing nicely. The only thing it really needed now was… more queens.

That was where Crossed Antennae was hesitant. She was spawned from the Great Queen herself, as all of the queens in the lower realms. As it should be. No, she knew better than that. She had been raised to have a sense of independence. It was only natural that each queen should produce another.

It was just… what if she was no good at it? What if they came out wrong? Crippled or underperforming she could blame on herself, and replacing them would merely take time and resources. But if they were not willing to go along with the plans she had, what then? Would they fight? Colony against colony?

It was not something that had happened in living memory. The Great Queen managed everything, and all was aligned. But she wasn’t here, and Crossed Antennae realized how many things she didn’t know. Certain ants might always follow their queen, but other queens had to be more independent. Otherwise, they could not function.

The threats of battle were what worried her the most. She was not Fearsome Mandibles. Her sister chose that name, knowing her own heart. And here she was, barely even understanding her own thoughts. Her name… perhaps it wasn’t even a name so much as a response.

What if she died? Crossed Antennae was aware of her own life as something she valued, but more than that she had others she was beholden to. The Great Queen. Allies in both the upper and lower realms. All were counting on her.

Yet every time she thought to form an egg containing a princess, she could not bring herself to do so. Instead, her main colony grew larger and larger. Soon, it would be unmanageable. Something had to change. She knew that. But she kept hesitating.

She had no real way to contact anyone, asking for guidance. So instead, she did something foolish. Not the sort of thing that would topple her reign as queen. No, instead, she simply took time away from her colony to go to the woods alone. It was truly difficult, to find a place where she could be alone. Even pheromone trails of danger would draw attention, given she was the queen. But still, she could find some precious moments to herself.

Crafting life was something that came naturally to her. She’d even created a strain of fliers now, so that the void ants could cover their territory more efficiently. But doing it manually, by hand? It wasn’t really life. It was something much sillier.

A collection of leaves, twigs, and bark. She formed them into… friends.

“Good day, Grand Counselor Autumn,” she said. Obviously that wasn’t her full name. Autumn Twigs of the Beech was the proper name, but too much of an antennaefull to sign repeatedly. “And to you, Grand Counselor Bark.” Bark of the Oak in Winter, as was obvious from his looks. “I come once again to seek your guidance.”

They said nothing, of course. But just pretending that they did made her more relaxed.