Once, when the days could be counted, there was no Colony, and no Queen, and no floor that had been made for them. There was no Inside and all things lived Outside where they walked lightly between water below and sky above. There were no Gods Outside then in that time when the beasts were as large as trees and had no dangers to flee. The God Queen lived then, and she flew over the water with no labors to be doing.

She landed once upon a beast who had the armor of a beetle and the wings of a bird. On its back stood all the mountains of the world and all the trees upon them and between them. Without labor to keep her to her endless flying, the God Queen landed upon the beast, which was so large and so beyond danger that it did not notice her on its back.

Upon the beast, The God Queen drove her stinger deep between its crags and laid her eggs in that space she had made. She summoned her venom which was more potent than that of all the Colony's nest-keepers, and she squeezed it deep into the beast until she was weakened and nearly killed from the effort of it. The beast that was larger than all others fell still beneath her and moved no more, crashing into the water below to become the land, and was then after learned to be the land-beast.

From the God-Queen's eggs the Gods came, emerging from those places where the God-Queen's venom had flowed. They were hungry then, and they drove their jaws deep, and they ate the God Queen who was nearly killed from the loss of all her venom. They were made strong and quick by the food of her insides, and they hunted the other great beasts that then still flew above them. But they were not the only children of the God Queen, and many more eggs were hatched as the first daughters of the God Queen tended them . But these others did not have the flesh of the God Queen to eat, and their hunger made them small in shape and in the count of their days. They learned then to eat each other, and soon the land was covered by these, the beasts, the daughters of the God Queen who are not sisters and who are always hungry.

The first to be tended, the first softling of the God Queen, was she who was the God of Death and Eating. She was the first to grow old enough that her first learning came to her, and she learned much as she watched the beasts who seemed her sisters. While the other Gods learned of building and keeping and made their first labors, the God of Death and Eating watched only the beasts, and the Gods Inside have shared to us that she found evil learning in her watching.

Her evil learning caused many ills for the Gods in the seasons after, for while they strove to dig deep into the land-beast and build the Tunnels that Glitter, she hunted beasts and filled her stomachs with them instead. She shared her evil learning with the other Gods, and she made them unsettled, so that they were more comfortable to be away from her. They kept then the God of Death and Eating in a place Outside, and so they learned that they were Inside, and it was a first learning for many.

It was this story of the God Queen and the birth of the Gods that As-Atha kept within her as she led Skith to the Queen's chamber. She was afraid, for she knew of the power that the God of Death and Eating held that was greater than any sister of the Colony. When she had brought Skith to the other nest-keepers, she and Skith were shared food, and made comfort there in the chamber.

“We will speak with the Queen,” said As-Atha, but the other nest-keepers disagreed.

“With eagerness we would bring you to our Queen, As-Atha, but not while the worker Skith is following. The Queen will not now have workers beside her, for it is learned that they may carry many dangers, and Skith does smell of these. No evil may threaten our Queen now, for she must complete her labor in birthing the Soldiers who will protect our Colony.”

Now Skith was overcome with need. So strong was the Queen's scent about her and so long she had been apart from it, her life's labor to the Queen, that she raced for the chamber beyond. She climbed over the nest-keepers assembled opposite, and she climbed As-Atha without gentleness also. There was a great upset among that nest-keepers as they strove to hold Skith, but she was small beside them and could slip between their jaws.

As-Atha followed Skith into the Queen's chamber then, for she was still in the labor of leading her and did not wish to be separated. The nest-keepers drummed the walls in alarm, and the Colony was readied for danger when the tunnels below heard it.

“You will end your drumming!” called As-Atha, and she filled the chamber with her scent that had become sharp and potent. “I am a nest-keeper, who are learned to be wise, and in the doing of of my good labors, I will not have the worker Skith sent from our chamber!”

With the precious and secret learning that is kept among nest-keepers, As-Atha then found agreement from her sisters in the Queen's chamber, and the drumming ended. Skith climbed upon the Queen who was larger beside her by three and two times, and began to clean her, and her scent was joyful to match her need. The Queen was roused from her slow eating and she looked upon Skith and let down a feeler to her. Skith climbed upon the Queen's feeler and was lifted to the place where her head rested upon the walls that had been made strong and thick to support her.

“My daughter,” said the Queen to Skith, “what has brought you to my chamber where I am in the labor of birthing? What discomfort has driven you to bring this trouble to me?”

Skith's tongue moved across the Queen like a first-molted sister who has not learned patience. She said to the Queen, “I have long been without my labor to you, my Queen. I wandered through far tunnels and came across a great evil.”

“I can smell this upon you, daughter of mine. The God of Death and Eating who hates me and the Colony my daughters have built has walked among us. What evil did my enemy work upon you?” the Queen asked with a scent as sweet as the kissec that her keepers shared.

“I gave to the God Outside our learning of fire and flood, for I was overeager in my search for a labor to join, and so I shared much to her when she was welcoming to me. She will work the learning that I shared into curses upon us,” said Skith, and she trembled from the fear that was loosed from between these thoughts.

The Queen was slow to respond, because she was then managing fears that are larger than any daughter's. “My enemy's labor upon you was very evil. I do not think it has stained you, my daughter Skith, though I fear that you will be led again into imprecise sharing during your search for your labor, and so I cannot welcome you to clean me. Soon I will begin the birthing of the Soldiers who will make our Colony managed, steady enough to greater labors to be done, and it is the nest-keepers who must tend to me in this, not workers.”

As-Atha approached then from among the nest-keepers. “Queen, I have taken up the labor of leading this worker Skith. She will need new learning to find a new labor, and I can lead her to it, so that she does not go pathlessly into evil.”

The Queen considered this, and she agreed. “You will lead the worker Skith, nest-keeper As-Atha, though you will be burdened greatly in this. I have found a new labor for you, Skith—the unmaking of the evil that the God of Death and Eating has done through you. She has hidden herself Outside, away from the tunnels of the Colony. You will go there, and send the God of Death and Eating so far away that her curses cannot reach us Inside. I will make this new labor, and it will be Foraging, and you will always follow where the Gods Inside lead you in its doing.”

The Queen let Skith down from her feelers and her attention was then upon As-Atha. “You will now lead Skith, As-Atha, for I have long smelled upon you a staleness in your thoughts, and so you will find novelty in leading. May you both find joy in the completion of your labors Outside where there is much danger, and much strangeness to burden them.”

As-Atha then led Skith out of the Queen's chamber, past the other nest-keepers whose armor rang in the sharing of songs of sisters going Outside where many paths are ended. They passed the nurseries where the scent of kissec was strong. They passed the conduit-lines where the workers did not raise their feelers from their labor. They heard the sounds of digging from the lower tunnels as they went into the entrance halls where no murals had yet been made upon the walls, and they emerged into the spring-season's clear light. Skith became afraid then, for she was then Outside, and from the Queen she had learned that many dangers were around her there.

As-Atha led Skith through many strange places. Skith gathered learning, and as often as she gathered it, her learning was broken and freshly made again, or buried beneath much that was new and came to be great piles in her thoughts. She learned of shade and of its opposite light that slipped between rocks. She learned the scents of green places, and of the rotting things that were beneath them. And great among all her learning were the trees that were columns around her, with their bottom-roots that gripped into the dirt, and their top-roots that were reaching. She followed As-Atha closely, and together they learned well of the gleaming eyes that were watching from hollows and high places.

They came to a stream that made clouds of mist around them. As-Atha stopped to ask, “Why do you follow so closely, Skith? There is much learning here that we should gather for the Queen, and you will not find it walking so near to me.”

“I am afraid,” said Skith, and As-Atha tapped her head with her feelers. As-Atha was afraid also, but she was skilled in the management of hers and her sisters' thoughts.

“There is much danger beyond the Colony, this I have learned” said As-Atha, “but the Gods Inside are with me, and so these dangers are a burden shared. You are following, worker Skith, and skillful following is done when a sister gathers much leaning. Learn now that I have been given wisdom in matters Outside by the Gods Inside, and I will not lead you into danger.”

Skith began to follow less closely then, and As-Atha was comforted to be often waiting to feel Skith's touch to begin leading again. In that time Skith learned of beasts that could hide while being seen. She learned of the smell of foods that were not kissec, and she learned the many tastes of leaves. In her following she learned of walking silently, and of balance with which she could walk upon thin paths high above danger.

They made the crossing of the green lands that are rightwards of the mountain a labor, and so they were joyful to come to where the trees were not gathered. But As-Atha then stopped, and she drew Skith's feelers upwards towards the heat from the sun above.

“Learn precisely of the sun's watching, worker Skith, for it is upon you always Outside.” As-Atha told her of the sun's labor, which was to watch all who left the Colony.

“The sun will give learning to the Gods Outside, and may do evil for them, for there is danger in the warmth of this labor. But learn now that the sun has always walked the same path, and it is a path that will lead you to the Colony if you are lost. The sun is a strange and sister to the Gods Inside, and is silent among the Gods Outside, having not been shared their hatreds.”

Skith asked, “Will the sun ever escape the Gods Outside and come to be beside us in the Colony?”

“Never,” said As-Atha. “The sun's watching is a labor that will not end its harshness. But the sun is also gentle in the labor of leading, which is my labor also. The moon follows, and its light is gentle, and shared to all, even the beasts. It is learned that the moon will one day join us in the Colony when it is no longer following.”

Skith became eager to see the moon then, but the sun was still high and would not come to rest for some time. She resumed her following, and learned of flowers, for there were many in that place where trees did not stand over them. Some bent the sun's light into bright colors and had sweet scents, and others were dark and lined with sharp teeth and had evil scents. During her learning in the flower fields Skith strove to be skillful and precise in her following while the watching sun was warming her armor.

In their leading and their following, As-Atha and Skith were watched also by a beast who flew above them. As-Atha raised herself high upon her legs when its shadow was upon them. Skith's learning held her still, for a beast had found them, and she had learned of how movement is the language of beasts. The shadow grew larger and the humming of its flying was around them.

“Who walks in my flower fields?” came a voice from the shadow above. “Nothing may hide from my eyes that gather from ground and sky. You are strange to me, and I would ask what you are searching for here.”

As-Atha said nothing, and the beast came upon the land-beast before them. “I am the flower-fly and these are my fields. These flowers are precious things to me, and I would learn why you are strangely here among them and not together in your dark places below.”

“We are passing through in our labors,” said As-Atha to the flower-fly. “You will not disturb us, and so we will summon no venom against you.”

The flower-fly did not leave, and Skith became afraid when she saw its stripes that were black-and-yellow, for she had learned that these are a killer's colors. She asked the flower-fly, “What are your labors in this field where there are many flowers?”

“Labors? I am a beast, and so I have no labors here,” it said. “These are my fields, for the flowers hold the nectar that I drink. I am no danger if your labors will not discomfort them.”

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The scent about As-Atha was sharp and sparking, and she said, “You wear the colors of danger, flower-fly. You warn of danger without sharing it.”

“My stripes are for greater dangers than you, small thing,” said the flower-fly. “If it is my colors that give you warning, be comforted, for I strive only for eating and stillness here among my flowers.”

As-Atha was calmed then, and they spoke with the flower-fly who asked where they ate and where they lived, because these were things of which it had learned. Skith watched eagerly as the flower-fly flew in loops and twirls above them. The flower-fly shared to them of what it had seen with its eyes that watched ground and sky, and Skith gathered learning from it in turn. When As-Atha told it of their labor to drive away the God of Death and Eating, the flower-fly then hid among its petals and said to them, “My flowers suffer from her curses. I will share what I have seen of the God of Death and Eating.” And in this, the flower-fly did join the labors of a Queen's daughters.

The flower-fly shared with them if where it had watched the God of Death and Eating. “It is a foul place that you will enter in your searching. Beyond the last of my flowers you will come into a swamp where danger has learned to hide skillfully. Worse still will be your crossing of the mountains where the season is always winter. The God of Death and Eating flies from the other side, where the ground becomes red and dried by the young sun's eager watching. You will meet spiders there that are larger than any who live here, but with all their power they are fearful always.”

As-Atha led Skith quickly away from the flower field, because with her nest-keeping wisdom she found no comfort so close to any beast. Together they walked into the swamp of which the flower-fly had shared. The air was foul there, and it was made from many kinds of death-smell, and it clung to their feelers and brought upset to their insides to gather from it. Beasts with wings like the flower-fly's drifted in black clouds and seemed unburdened by the stench. The rocks upon which they walked became living, and leapt across the pools of broth where the death-smell was most potent. They sent out their strange and soft jaws that were long and could grip tightly, and Skith heard them crushing armor in their mouths which was a fearful thing to her. And always As-Atha led her through danger with her feelers held high, precisely tasting all the swamp's foulness for what safety could be found between its parts.

“It seems to me that you have learned the struggle of our task here,” said As-Atha when they had found comfort in a dry hollow that smelled of young trees. “We are in the lands where the Gods Outside go in their evil doing. There are no works and no labors here in this ugly place, save for those we have carried from Inside.”

Worse than the swamp and its foulness was the mountain where the season was always winter. Skith learned of no beasts there, and she saw only cold whiteness that shined like crystal. The air was silent and still, and so it carried no scents. But Skith was not afraid, for there were no beasts and no trees or grasses to hide them. Skith strayed far from As-Atha in her following, but she felt no eagerness, for the cold stole the want to learn from her and left her as silent as the air. And for As-Atha, Skith's distant following was a terrible discomfort, because it was there in that always-winter where her fear was most potent in her thoughts.

A slowness came over Skith, and As-Atha as well, for they had never before felt such cold so far from the safety of the Colony. They found little warmth in the dark stone beneath the cold where they pressed close for warmth, and Skith said to As-Atha, “I have lost my eagerness. I would return to the Colony to be warmed with our Queen, for this cold will surely steal our thoughts and our lives away and make them as still as the whiteness.”

“My thoughts also reach far, to be with our Queen again,” said As-Atha, “but this place has a hidden learning that it can be a labor for us to gather. See here what will be left if we do not go and repel the God of Death and Eating—a place where everything is killed, and nothing is left uneaten.”

“It seems not so fearful here as the foulness of the swamps behind,” said Skith, but As-Atha was not comforted, and she disagreed without sharing.

“My fear here is made worse by my wisdom,” said As-Atha. “The Gods Outside are not present here where all is quiet. To be lost here would be something that is not our killing, and it would be a strange end.”

“Our smell is here, and the quiet will leave it undisturbed, so that it can be precisely found again,” said Skith, and As-Atha was comforted, learning then that Skith's thoughts could make wisdom also.

When at last Skith had followed As-Atha to the dry lands that are leftwards of the mountain, the third and final place that the flower-fly had shared of, the season seemed to change from a winter one to a summer one without a spring-season between them. The land was not lush like the flower-fields, nor was it fouled like the swamp. The air was clear like the mountain but was not so quiet. Beasts that drifted on rattling wings circled in the sky and leapt between the spine-trees with long sharp shadows, and danger seemed hidden in the mounds that rose above them.

They came across a spider, which the flower-fly had warned of, and it threatened them with its bristling legs.

“Who walks unburdened in this place?” asked the spider. “There is nothing here so small that you could eat it without eating yourselves. You should leave and not return, for none who walk here under the sun are safe.”

“We have managed many dangers,” said As-Atha to the spider. “We have crossed the swamps where killings are many. We have passed through the cold where nothing lives and eating is forgotten. To bring threat to we who have managed these dangers would be a risk to you.”

The spider stepped back to move its legs away from where Skith and As-Atha waited. Its front-most legs were still raised, and the spider said to them, “I too have survived many dangers here where death walks with the sun's watching upon it. It comes to those beasts that it has chosen and takes them away to a place from which none escape.”

Then Skith asked of the spider, “What of your venom? I have learned of spiders, and of their venom that is potent beside ours.”

“My venom is potent,” said the spider, “but it is only for my kind, for the death that flies here has removed all other beasts. It has left only spiders for its food, and so we eat each other until we are taken. The death that flies in sunlight has chosen me, and so I will soon be taken. But I will go hungry, because filling my stomach would give greater gifts to my killer who will surely eat me when it takes me to the place from where none return.”

Then As-Atha, remembering what the flower-fly had shared, came upon a bold learning. She said to Skith, “This death in sunlight seems to me the God of Death and Eating for which we are searching. I have learned that this spider will lead us to the end of our labors, and so we will wait until it is taken and follow the taker.”

Skith, however, who had learned much of flying things in her following, disagreed, and said to As-Atha, “It is a clever learning, such is the wisdom of the nest-keepers. But surely we will lose the path, for the spider has said that the taker will fly, and so will not leave a path for following.”

As-Atha agreed despairingly, and it seemed to her that their labors would not be completed. But together, she and Skith came upon a learning that was beyond each of them alone. With As-Atha's wisdom and the learning she had of the Gods, together with all that Skith had learned with her thoughts that had been wandering eagerly in her following, they made a new labor which they brought to the spider.

“Spider,” said As-Atha, “learn that we have a labor to complete, one that involves the death that will take you. We seek to repel that death, who is the God of Death and Eating that has threatened us with curses that would destroy our Colony, in the manner of your burrow.”

Before the spider could answer, Skith spoke, for her part in this new labor was equal beside As-Atha's. “We cannot save you from the taking, but you are part of our labor. If you would let us open you and climb into your stomach un-killed, we will wait there and hide beneath the attentions of the God of Death and Eating.”

The spider agreed, for its hatred of the death that would take it was such that it would be a willing part of Skith and As-Atha's labor. Together they used the cutting-song on the spider's tough armor, and they climbed inside, becoming food for the spider that was not killed. Together they held closed the spider's body so that it would not spill them from it.

Under the sun's watching, death soon came to the spider. The God of Death and Eating had taken on a most familiar shape, with two sets of shining gold wings. It descended upon the spider with eager, jumping feelers.

The spider stood high upon its legs then, and said, “Come and take me, you who bring death without fearing it in turn. I will wound you in the taking.”

But the God of Death and Eating could not be harmed by the spider's venom. Instead, the God of Death and Eating drove its stinger deep into the spider's body, and the spider fell still after a terrible trembling. With its strength that was taken from the God Queen's, the God of Death and Eating lifted the spider and carried it high in its flying.

And while the spider hung with its legs folded by pain, As-Atha in her wisdom spoke with the Queen's words to the spider who had joined the Colony's labors. “The Gods Inside have brought you into their works,” she said. “You and I will have a place in the Tunnels that Glitter with the sisters of the Colony.”

The spider could not reply, in its agony, and As-Atha gave it some of the food she had kept in her sharing-stomach, that the spider might have some comfort. She then shared the rest of her food to Skith, and her sharing-stomach was emptied. Skith who had trembled with fear since climbing inside the spider then asked, “Why have you emptied your stomachs, As-Atha? I am small beside you and cannot share enough to satisfy your hunger for our return.”

As-Atha made to clean Skith then, and she said to her, “The Gods Inside give many gifts, and not all of them bring comfort. I was gifted with learning of this first foraging, worker Skith, and I have learned that you will return to the Colony alone.”

As-Atha shared no more of her learning to Skith, whose fear was made greater by it. The God of Death and Eating flew deep into a great burrow with only one tunnel, and left the spider on the floor of the chamber at its deepest place. The God said to the spider, “I will share to you now of your killing, spider, who strove to wound me in my labor. My venom has made you still, but you are not killed. Never again will your body move to harm me or my daughters whose eggs will hatch within you. While there is life in your body, you will be eaten, and your death will come only when nothing but your smallest thought remains, which I will joyfully eat.”

Unable to bear her fear any longer, Skith spoke aloud, such was her discomfort at hearing the voice of the God of Death and Eating who was the subject of her labors. She spoke with the spider's voice, for she had learned to speak in the manner of spiders from inside one. “Come to me, you who kills with the sun's watching. If your labor is my killing, I would have a last glimpse of your golden wings.”

The God of Death and Eating stood in a beam of sunlight from a window in the burrow's roof. “In the sun, see me glimmering, and you see the beauty of all things which are built by Death and Eating.”

“You will come closer,” spoke Skith with the spider's voice, “for your venom that has made me still has left my sight imprecise. Come closer that my many eyes will be filled with your beauty before the pains of my slow killing.”

The God of Death and Eating in her winged shape wrapped her legs around the motionless spider, and said, “I will share this to you, for I am eager to share my learning of Death and Eating.”

Then together Skith and As-Atha tore free of the spider's insides. They came upon the sight of the god's golden wings, and for a moment, As-Atha became thoughtless, for the smell that came from the God of Death and Eating was like to a Queen's. The god brought her jaws that were lined with razors down upon them, and only Skith had the speed then to avoid them. As-Atha's head fell free of her, and she was killed.

Skith leaped upon the god's head, and drove her jaws deep between her enemy's feelers. The god thrashed in surprise, for she had not before learned of pain. She wheeled and dove through the air and smashed herself against the burrow's walls, but Skith did not open her jaws. In her thrashing, the god broke her wings which fell about the spider's body, and were then a golden place around the spider's corpse.

“I have followed you,” said Skith between her jaws, “from the Colony, where your shape was that of the worker Iki, across the swamps that you have fouled with your labors, across the mountains where it is the winter-season always. You have killed my leader, but I carry both of our labors, and I will now complete them. You tricked me, and now I have tricked you.”

The God then shape-changed, becoming once again a howling flood, but Skith held, as she had learned the tree's roots hold the flood. The god became a hungering fire, and Skith held on even as her jaws and her feelers were burned, for she had learned of the sun's heat. And when the God of Death and Eating, in desperation, took the form of a sister named Iki again, Skith had the strength to tear her jaws free, bringing the God's head with them.

Skith, with her feelers burned, fell stunned to the floor beside As-Atha's empty armor. The God of Death and Eating who could not be killed flung then a vicious curse across the walls of her burrow.

“You cannot kill me, for I have learned all of death and eating,” said the God. “You have broken my armor, which I will break apart further into as many pieces as there are pieces of sand. I will live in the air and in the dirt. I will fit into every crack and do my labors inside you and inside all things around you. Forever I will gnaw at what you have made, and my pieces will be so small that you will never find them to do harm to me again!”

Skith was very afraid then, for while her labor to repel the God of Death and Eating had come to its end, she did not know how she might return to the Colony to share to the Queen of its completion, and of the struggles that would follow. As she crawled free of the burrow, alone and with her feelers burned, she felt the God of Death and Eating's curse within her. The food she had been given, the last gift of As-Atha, began to rot within her as she wandered pathlessly over the dry land Outside.

But As-Atha had not only left Skith with the last of her sharing-stomach's food. While Skith had followed her, the nest-keeper As-Atha had left behind scent-lines that she could follow. Skith followed the trail and let the nest-keeper's scent that was not unlike the Queen's quiet her fear.

She crossed the mountain that was always winter alone, and where she had once feared that lifeless place, she found some comfort, for she knew that the God of Death and Eating's pieces were not around her. She heard As-Atha in the scent-lines, who whispered to her words of wisdom that gave steadiness to her legs.

But the scent-lines were not so easily followed in the foul air of the swamps that were filled with death-smell and the refuse of much death and eating. The bodies of beasts that once lay in heaps to be eaten were rotted and host to many evil growths that spewed fouler air still into the swamp's reek. The black clouds of flying eaters were larger and darker than ever before, and the great beasts that once plucked them from the air were instead made to cower beneath their count. Skith faced many dangers in that swamp, and she felt her labors grow heavy upon her as the last of As-Atha's food was rotted away within her.

When Skith came again into the flower-fields, she did not think that she would reach her colony. The flower-fly found her then, and watched her from the petals above. “You have returned,” said the flower-fly, “but you are no longer following. I hear much among my flowers, and I have heard of the God of Death and Eating's final curse upon the lands Outside. Where is your leader who was wise and skillful?”

“Nest-keeper As-Atha was killed in the doing of our labor,” said Skith, “and I have walked alone in fear since. I have no food to eat and I think that I will not reach the Colony,” she said. “You, flower-fly, who have no labors of your own, will likely see me killed here among your flowers. If others are sent to forage in this land, will you share with them of my success, that the Queen will hear of my labor's completion?”

The flower-fly descended from its petals and stood before Skith. “My flower-fields are not a place for death and hunger. You will climb upon me with the last of your strength, and I will give you the nectar that is a flower's precious and secret thing.”

Skith did as the flower-fly asked, and drank of the flower's nectar which was sweet and filled her with vigor. This was a learning that she had lacked the skill to gather, and when she left the flower fields, she brought the learning of nectar with her to the Colony.

Skith stepped into the entrance halls that would one day be filled with murals. She passed the conduit-lines where the workers did not raise their feelers in welcome. She passed the sounds of digging from the lower tunnels and entered the Queen's chambers where the nest-keepers played songs of welcome on their armor. And when she stood before the Queen, she said to her, “Queen, I have returned alone from the First Foraging. The God of Death and Eating was repelled, but her final curse is upon me and the lands Outside.”

The Queen put her feelers upon Skith, and her scent had a shadow of discomfort within it. “Your labor of foraging is completed, worker Skith, and the Colony will do greater labors because of it. But where is my nest-keeper As-Atha who I sent to lead you? You have brought troubling news of the God of Death and Eating who hates me and all my daughters. It would be a comfort to have As-Atha's wisdom here with this curse soon to be upon us.”

“I alone survived the hatred of the God of Death and Eating, my Queen,” said Skith, and the telling of it brought a weakness to her legs. The Queen stepped away into the darkest corner of her chamber and stood in silence while her feelers scraped the walls in discomfort. Skith then might have been led away by the nest-keepers, but she instead approached the Queen, for she had learned much of discomfort and the soothing of it in her time with As-Atha in the First Foraging.

Skith climbed atop the Queen and began to clean her, as she had done in her earliest days. Strong upon Skith still was the scent of As-Atha, and she spoke with the nest-keeper's voice to the Queen. “My Queen, hear and smell what remains of As-Atha now, for I have learned much of her in my labors Outside.” And Skith told the Queen of As-Atha's wisdom in their travels, of her fear of the endless winter in the mountains, and the learnings that they had found together. The Queen felt great comfort in Skith's words and in the cleaning that she was given, for her labors in birthing the soldiers that would secure the Colony's safety had left her weakened and covered in foulness from her insides.

And in all her following days, Skith returned to her labor of cleaning, and was welcomed to walk the Queen's chambers alongside the nest-keepers who gathered eagerly of her learning from Outside. And Skith's cleaning labors were done until her last day, and these labors were to repel the tiny pieces of the God of Death and Eating that sought to creep inside her and all the Colony.

Forever after, the words that Skith brought from Outside were put over the Entrance Halls, where they would be joined by many murals.

Beyond is found Outside, where the Sun watches all things; with danger and distance your labors are tested. Whether by leading or following, the Colony waits for your return, and great labors will come from the learning you will gather.