Frank crawled forward on his belly, glad for his leather armor, it protected him from the rubble beneath him. The scent of dust and decay lingered in the air as he moved atop the uneven pile. He avoided loose stones that would betray his presence.
Peering through a gap in the fallen stones, Frank surveyed the street beyond. The perpetual dusk of the city was enough to notice a subtle shift in the shadows. He silently waited for a better view.
His hand instinctively went to his daggers when he finally identified the source of the movement. It was a Brute, like the one they fought deep in the nest. It was a third monster of this kind that he has seen in the past hour of scouting. Looks like the Trade Bug didn’t lie after all.
Frank sighed, he could probably sneak by all the monsters but there was no way to bring others with him. He smiled when he imagined Hector trying to sneak through the treacherous rubble. He’d stubble within the first five minutes and bring all the monsters to them. It was time to go back to the others and report before the big man did something … rash to their new bug friend.
Frank started crawling backwards slowly, very careful to double check his footing before he transferred his weight. The others sent him out to scout while staying hidden in a room, he had reluctantly agreed, as it actually did make the most sense but he didn’t have to like it.
It was a dangerous job but one that suited his skills nicely and it turned out to be ninety nine percent patience and boredom and one percent pant-shitting terror. He shuddered when he thought back to that damn pebble he kicked. Fortunately no monster came to check out the noise.
It took him half an hour to get back to a small room where the party was hiding. When he entered the hideout he could see that Mia and Diana were crouched in one corner of the room while Hector stood right next to Hunter of Prey with his weapon drawn.
To say the situation was tense was almost comically inadequate.
“Wow, the situation is sure tense.” Frank said entering the room.
What greeted him instead of an applause was a bunch of humorless stares.
“Tough crowd” he mumbled to himself and noticed Diana roll her eyes.
“What did you find?” She said, getting straight to the point. With the corner of his eye he saw that Hector not-so-subtly shifted his feet to be in better position to strike Hunter of Prey. It wasn’t a time for jokes.
“The bug didn’t lie.” Was that disappointment on Hector’s face? “ I saw at least three Brutes and I didn't even bother counting the Abominations.” The tension seemed to leave the room after his report, there would be no violence at least for now.
Frank himself still didn’t trust the bug but he was against straight up killing him. It was clearly sentient and after weeks of fighting with mutated centipedes, Hunter of Prey didn’t send shivers down his spine when he moved. Almost.
“Is there a way to sneak past them?” Mia asked hopefully.
“Not for all of us, no.” Frank responded, sitting down on a large piece of rubble.
“So we have no choice but to use the secret passage?” Diana said.
“None that I can see,” Frank said with a shrug. “We’re not going on the ground level, that's for sure.”
“We don’t even know anything beyond ‘it’s a secret passage’” Hector said animatedly.
“Yeah, you promised us information,” Frank said looking at Trade Bug.
“Correct. What information do you need” the centipede sent, unfurling to his full size.
“Tell us about the secret passage,” Mia started. It seemed that she at least had enough exposure to the High Speech to understand it now, like he and Diana had before.
“Buildings are connected underground. But no all. There is only one way to the pyramid. It goes back to the ground level in the inner circle. The deeper tunnels are a maze on purpose. I know the way. You won’t find it without a guide. And even if you do you won't survive.”
“What do you mean?” Hector growled, raising his weapon a bit.
“There are dangers in the deep dark. Monsters dwell there that do not stray to the surface. Brutes don’t go there. They are afraid.”
“You can’t seriously want to go there” Hector said to Diana with eyes wide open.
“Let’s learn as much as we can first.” Diana responded calmly, not even looking at Hector.
“If what he's saying we would be totally dependent on this bug” Hector whined “All he would have to do was to leave us there”
“I realize that Hector, i’m not saying we should go.” This time Diana looked at the warrior. “But we should learn all that we can.” She turned back to the bug. “How do we know you don’t abandon us underground?”
“You don’t. The big one is right. I could leave you there. It would be easier to sneak by myself. But it's not just my word. I think you can help my” Frank felt Hunter searching his mind for a concept. “Faction.”
“That's all dandy,” Frank interjected, twirling his dagger” But first tell us about what was going on in the nest. Why did you want the whole place collapsed? Didn’t you care about all the lives lost?”
“I already said there were no Chtonarix in that room. They all got corrupted already. I was lucky that the pipes in my cage failed. They would turn into Abominations in time, they were already lost. Why should I care about them” Bug sent, and Frank for the first time could read the emotions in the message so clearly. The amount of pain and loss made his head spin a bit, Hunter obviously did care.
“What is even going on in this City? Can you tell us that?” Mia asked.
“Rude.” Was the only thing Hunter sent back.
“You said you wanted our help for your faction. Consider it an advance payment.” Diana interjected. Frank was glad the woman was on their side. Trade Bug scratched his plates against each other for a second before answering.
“It's a long story. A lot of information” he said reluctantly. “It's not safe here.”
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Can you walk and talk?” Diana asked, raising. “If yes then we'll talk on the way to our hideout.
Hector opened his mouth but when he noticed Frank and Mia were also raising he must have realized that this was a done deal.
----------------------------------------
Diana intended to squeeze as much information as possible out of the Chtonarix on the way home. Then she would decide whether to let him inside or not. However if he was telling the truth, and for now it seemed he did she didn’t see any other way than to trust him. The obvious artificiality of the city with its sharp edge and pyramid in the center made her think of it like a puzzle, or a test. The task was to get to the bottom of things and everything pointed to the glowing monument to be the next step.
She got pulled out of her train of thought by Frank who was leading their small party. He gestured for them to stop and be silent. Diana did just that and even as she watched the rogue he disappeared. His Shadow Dance has passed the threshold from blending with shadows into actual illusion magic some time ago. It should not be physically possible for him to become invisible the way he did. This was confirmed by her Sense Magic skill.
From behind the corner she could hear a sound, like someone spilled a bucket full of water. She knew it was not water that was being spilled there. It didn't take long before Frank came around the corner fully visible and whistling. He was shaking the blood from his daggers. She raised an eyebrow at him in question.
“Just a couple of bu… Abominations” Frank said. “Got rid of them quietly”
Diana nodded, such shows of strength could only be useful when trading with Hunter of Prey. She decided to use the psychological effect, or at least see if the bug thought similarly enough to humans for there to be an effect.
“Hunter of Prey. Start your story.” She said, short and to the point. They walked in silence for a couple of minutes, but she could feel the Chtonarix was thinking on how to begin.
“This goes far back. Chtonarix are not naturally social. It took us many generations to discover Trade. We are territorial predators by nature. Trade was our way to advance beyond a simple collection of hunters.”
“Holy shit this does begin like a long story” Frank quipped from the front of the column.
“Shut up, Frank,” Mia said, clearly irritated. “He might have answers to what's going on in here.”
Hunter of Prey ignored them and continued. “After many, many more generations we found ways to Trade more efficiently. We dug into the ground creating levels. Each level for a single Chtonarix. Each his own domain with one way up and one way down.”
“That would explain the ramp layout” Hector mumbled.
“How would you Trade if the Chtonarix right above or below you didn’t have what you needed?” Diana asked.
“We would send a request that would get passed as far as needed and then it would come back to us. After paying tax at each node.” Hunter of Prey sounded annoyed like he had to answer questions for an overly curious child.
“That sounds… inefficient” Mia said.
“It was the most efficient” the bug was clearly indignant that someone was insulting the highest achievements of his race. “It was the only way. The good way. The Traditional way.” There was more to the word than just the human meaning but Diana wasn’t fluent enough in High Speech to decipher it.
“You speak live the Collective, Human. They shunned all that we have achieved. The clear angles of Cthosarum, the beautiful mines of Cthonan and the great halls of Chtowan. They would shed tradition in the name of progress.”
“Wait, are those names of other cities?” Hector asked, surprised.
That bit also caught Diana unaware.
“Yes. Have you not seen other Chtonarix cities?” surprise leaked through the message.
“No, the city we are in has a clear edge, like someone took a giant knife and cut the whole place out of the ground and placed it above a weird fog.” Hector explained. Diana barely managed to stop her hand from hitting her forehead. Was it so hard to remember that this was a trade of information in the most literal sense and not a casual conversation. Hunter of Pray was obviously not above accepting freebies and he didn’t seem to have the same idea of gratitude as humans did.
“I can sense the anvils of Chtonong even now. What you say is impossible. Why do you lie? Why do you lie so badly?” Hunter sent his antennae tracing weird patterns in the air. Was it confusion?
Diana was also confused for a second. Then a thought struck her, she grabbed Hector by the arm and whispered into his ear. “Looks like the inhabitants are not aware of the edge. Let's not push the issue.” She didn’t know if the Chtonarix heard them or just chose not to react.
The bit about sensing distant anvils made her ask another question. “What do you mean you sense the anvils?”
“I feel the vibrations in my legs. I hear them” bug sent a bunch of feelings over the telepathic connection.
This information made something click in her mind and changed the way she looked at the previous vision when Hunter of Prey ’introduced’ himself. Now she realized that he ‘saw’ using echolocation and that his actual sight was pretty weak. With his senses configured that way it was no wonder he could sense some distant workshops.
She looked around at all the weird angles of the city and the sheer surfaces. Like humans adding lighting to their cities to see better, the Chtonarix built their cities with echoes in mind. That's why sound carried so well throughout the city. Probably also the reason for some weird room layouts they have seen, maybe it was a bug equivalent of a fancy lamp? Or an art installation. Probably not a lot of paintings in their culture. Maybe some 3D way of writing like Braille? They would have missed it in all the decay. It all fit together, her certainty that the bug was not lying went up a notch. As did her curiosity about the definitely alien race.
But all that could come later, it was time to get back to more immediate problems.
“You mentioned the Collective?” She prompted.
“Yes” Hunter of prey didn’t send anything further. Yes definitely alien.
“Tell us more about them”
“They are the reason for all the corruption around us. They watched less developed insects and presumed to learn from them. They too thought our current system was inefficient.” He shook in annoyance. Reading body cues on a giant centipede. Diana sighed internally, when did this become her everyday life?
Hunter continued, unaware of Diana’s internal thoughts “They proposed something they called a Hive Mind. As a single Chtonarix was a master of its domain, they wanted a single Chtonarix to have the domain the size of all our lands.”
With a wet sound two giant mandibles protruded from the head of the Chtonarix. Hector immediately reacted and swung his war pick at the bug. Diana shouted. “No! Stop!”
She began casting slowing rune right below Hector, hoping to at least slow him down, even though she knew she would be too late. Frank however surprised her and, before she even finished her spell, managed to grasp the situation, run towards Hector and trip the warrior before he finished his swing.
Hector fell with a heavy thud and Hunter of Prey scuttered away but stopped near the next corner.
“What the fuck Frank?” Hector shouted, standing up. “The bug was about to attack us and you let it escape.”
“Hector, goddammit, think for a second.” Diana said exasperated at the turn of events. “Its a fucking alien, it didn’t move to attack. It was talking about his enemies. Hunter of Prey was probably just angry.” She pointed to the Chtonarix. “Look he’s back to normal, not ready to fight.
It was true. Hunter of Prey retracted his mandibles back. Hector cast an angry glance at him but nodded and even mumbled an apology when he was dusting his armor.
“Is it safe to go back. Will the large one attack?” Hunter sent.
“It is safe.” In a spike of annoyance she added. “You have my word.”
The bug scuttered back into his place in the column. The hideout was not much further. They would soon have to decide what to do and she didn’t get everything she wanted out of the Chtonarix yet. She sighed. Diana also made a mental note not to make an enemy out of Frank, he could probably kill her before she finished her first spell. She would have to work on her own defenses.