In the time when the Queen was young, when the Colony had few daughters and few tunnels, when no fungus yet grew in the humid chambers, her daughters each and all worked great labors, for this was needed of each. The Queen, still winged, walked among them then, and shared her scent with all to ensure their labors would be done in eagerness and in comfort. One daughter was named Skith, and Skith had taken up the labor of cleaning her Queen. But as the seasons passed the Queen began to walk rarely among her daughters, for her labor of birthing had become heavy upon her. Skith then was without her labor and she walked the tunnels in a pathless searching.
She went to the places below where the tunnels were dug. She spoke with those who had taken up the labor of digging. “You who dig to places deep, are your labors heavy upon you? I would join you and dig with you.”
“Our labors weigh upon us, it is true. But we cannot bring you into them, for digging is filled with danger that must be learned of. None among us are skilled in the labor of unfolding our thoughts to you, and so we cannot welcome you to this dangerous labor.”
Skith left the tunnels below and traveled to the central tunnels where many daughters stood in their conduit line. She walked beside their line and sought to aid in their labor, the bringing of food from distant daughters who labored far from the Queen's chamber. She searched the veins of the conduit line and asked them, “You whose labor is the bringing of food, are your lines complete? I would join your labor.”
Any who she asked gave the same response. “Our lines are complete, for they must remain unbroken lest we doom our Queen and Colony. There is no room here for you, Skith, and this is a good thing.”
Skith walked to many more chambers with laboring sisters, and left each without a labor of her own. She despaired, as it seemed to her that her labor had become the search for labors. She feared that she would die with labors incomplete, and be unable to bring a joyful scent to the Tunnels that Glitter.
That is when the God of Death and Eating, in the shape of the worker Iki, found Skith, who had not learned of the danger she was then beside.
“How goes your search for your labor?” asked the God of Death and Eating. “My own is great and leaves me exhausted. Are you so eager to bear the weight of a great labor?”
“I am eager,” said Skith, “for without it I fear that I will be a burdensome sister in the Tunnels that Glitter after my killing. What labor do you struggle with? I will make it my own and share its weight with you.”
“My labors are my own, and difficult to join” said the shape-changer Iki. “and they are in service to the Colony. My labor needs true cleverness to be completed. You will demonstrate your cleverness to me, and if you have the skill for it, you will join my labors and be granted favor with the Gods Inside.”
Skith agreed without pause, because the labors of the Gods Inside are great and good. Iki stood before her and shifted her shape to that of rushing water that crashed against the tunnel walls. “What is my shape, and what is the danger I bring?”
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Skith answered, “Your shape is the flood that follows the rains, and you bring the danger of crushing and swallowing in an evil cleaning.”
Hearing that Skith's answer was correct, Iki changed her shape again and became a sparking flame that breathed choking black smoke over Skith's feelers. “What is my shape, and what is my true danger?”
Skith answered, “You are the fire that follows the storms, and your hunger cannot be ended. But your danger is your smoke, your killing scent that fills the tunnels and kills without jaws upon armor.”
Knowing that her evil labor was soon to be complete, Iki changed her shape a third time. She stood before Skith precisely then, as the God of Death and Eating. She tasted Skith's fear and was made bold by it.
“I ask you, Skith who has lost your labor: What is my shape?”
Skith thought long on the riddle, made longer by the terrible sight of a God Outside. Shivering with her thoughts rampaging, she answered, “You are the God of Death and Eating who is an enemy to me.”
“You are simple in the manner of your answer,” said the God of Death and Eating. “I am the end of all labors, for I strive to kill and eat the Colony and its works. I will have the Queen one day between my jaws, and see her armor emptied.”
So vicious was the trembling in her legs that Skith was trapped there before the God of Death and Eating. But Skith learned then that she was skilled in the managing of fear, and she said, “I have answered your riddles. Were my thoughts that I shared precise? Will I be granted favor with the Gods Inside, and join their labors?”
The God of Death and Eating twitched with eagerness, and said to Skith, “You have done much to aid my labors which are the labors joined by all the Gods Outside. The Gods Inside will one day no longer hide from their labors, and will be Gods Outside with us all. You have told me the danger of fire and flood, and with this learning I will work new curses upon the Queen and the Colony.”
Then the God of Death and Eating, no longer in the form of Iki, and freed of the need for walking and searching, sped away with the Wind God carrying her. The God who hates the Queen and all her daughters passed from the Colony as a waft of death-smell that rotted fruit and soured kissec as it passed. Skith was left with her fear and the terrible learning that she had brought suffering in days ahead upon the Colony and her Queen.
During this time, a nest-keeper had traveled from the Queen's chamber to the tunnels where Skith trembled alone. The nest-keeper was named As-Atha, and with the special feelers of the nest-keepers, she had smelled a fearful scent from the chambers beyond the Queen's. She found Skith then, having walked along where the terrible death-smell had passed. At first she raised her jaws in caution, thinking the smell had been made by Skith, and that perhaps Skith was the form of one who is shape-changed.
As-Atha said to Skith, “I find you here surrounded by death-smell, Skith who once labored in the Queen's cleaning. If you are one who is shape-changed, I will take up a labor of killing you.”
The smell of Skith's fear was quiet beside the cloud of death-smell that the God of Death and Eating had left. She said to As-Atha, “I was tricked into an evil labor by the Gods Outside. I fear I have brought suffering upon us, for the God of Death and Eating has learned of fire and flood and will make labors to bring these evils to our tunnels.”
In those times, there were no soldiers, and workers did their labors. With the cloud of death-smell around them, any who now live would not have had precise thoughts, and would have done the labor of killing Skith. But the learning of a nest-keeper that As-Atha kept made her wise. With her feelers that could sense much that a worker could not, she smelled Skith's fear and closed her jaws to it. Having learned that the Gods Outside do not fear, for they do not labor for others and cannot die with labors incomplete, she touched Skith's feelers and said to her, “Calm and comfort, Skith. You must come with me to the Queen's chambers where we bring this news of the Gods Outside, of whom the Queen is learned.”
Skith was eager to follow As-Atha, but her mind was still heavy with the loss of her old labor. “As-Atha, with your wisdom, will you tell me where I may find my labor to the Colony? I have searched long for it, and it was my search for some labor that welcomed the God of Death and Eating to do evil labors through me.”
As-Atha's scent was similar to the Queen's when she said to Skith, “It is true that the Gods Outside have done evil through you. I have not the count of days or the wisdom of the other nest-keepers, but my learning tells me that it is through this evil that you have been granted a new labor. This seems strange to me, but I have the room still in my insides for learning with strange shapes.”
Skith was made eager in hearing this, and she followed As-Atha who led her to the Queen's chamber.