“This reads ‘Plagueplain Doctor’. Are they really people with insect systems that let them turn people to stone using their venom mutations?”
“Yes.”
“Oooh. And this reads ‘Crystal Core’. It’s just their systems with a different name and location, right? Instead of their systems being in their necks like the rest of us, they have theirs in their hearts?”
“Yes.”
“And this? This reads ‘Mandellas’. It’s not the same faction as the Plagueplain Doctors, right? So you mean there are two competing factions defending the Plagueplain Front at the same time?”
“Yes.”
“Do they get in each other’s way when they’re fighting the Swarm?”
“Do not know.”
Ninmah, as usual, was happily scribbling his curt answers to her questions down in her notebook. They’d been doing this for over a month now. After dark, after dinner and finishing up their chores and the elders tucking all the children into their beds, only the two of them would retreat to the library to continue their individual studies side by side. Moonlight was their lantern, the books from the Attini Empire Front section were their material, and the snowboard was his writing practising tool—he didn’t exactly feel like he needed to know how to write as opposed to just being able to read and understand the words in his status screen, but Ninmah had insisted he learned the ‘full package’. He was skilled at teaching everyone the ways of bug slaying, so, in return, she wanted to be the one teaching him the ways of the learned child instead.
He didn’t mind putting in extra effort to learn how to write, of course. It’d surely be a skill he’d put to good use in the future. He’d simply been unable to fully concentrate or relax in the library—his new house where he laid to rest—ever since they left Wormnest three days ago with M1N-K1 in their arms, who was still showing no signs of awakening.
With Utu and the others’ help, he’d moved his bed from his old house onto the second floor of the library, right next to the window, while Ninmah had been sleeping with the scout on the third floor right above him. It was so she could keep a closer eye on the scout, Ninmah had said. Her bed was a wide double bed that could accommodate three or even four people if they really squeezed, and as a bullet ant soldier himself, Sparrow had shared narrow bunks with his comrades more than a few times when there wasn’t enough space to go around. Sharing a bed wasn’t an issue.
Sharing it with a stranger, though, was another matter altogether.
“... Jealous she gets to sleep with big sister and gaze out at the village together?” Ninmah teased, catching him stealing glances up over the third floor railing. He looked back down at her just as she flicked his nose, groaning and sprawling her arms across the table as she did. “She’ll be fine, Sparrow. The Envoy may not be very helpful when it comes to assisting us with the Swarm, but if there’s one thing you can depend on him for, it’s making sure things that go into his body come out of him stronger. She’s still breathing, isn’t she? Just give her another day or two and she’ll come around. Maybe I won’t even have to hand feed her anything–”
“I do not worry about her.”
Ninmah paused.
After another second, her teasing smile turned pensive, and she rolled her face so she was staring down at the table.
“She’s the same as you, you know?” she muttered. “We saved you knowing we were risking our secrecy, and you saved her knowing you were doing the same thing. I don’t regret picking her up. Nobody else does. Whatever happens from now on will simply happen, and as the worms of Immanu, we’ll just let it all move past us–”
“When I first learned you gave me a worm system, I stayed because I wanted to learn more about my new mutations,” he said plainly, leaning back in his chair. “I had planned to leave the moment I felt I had nothing more to learn from you, and I can guarantee you that every soldier in the Empire shares my sentiment—you are only as valuable as the information and power you can provide. The moment you are found lacking, you will be discarded. This is the very least we must do in order to stand a chance against the Swarm. The bugs have no emotional attachment to their losses; we cannot be attached to ours.”
Ninmah’s shoulders shook as she chuckled. “And you’ve had plenty of chances to run since we stopped being able to teach you much of anything. Why didn’t you go back to the Empire with those scouts when you sent them down the mountains? You can destroy our secrecy and force us to fight for humanity on the frontlines, can’t you?”
“...”
“What’s your plan from now on, Sparrow?” she said, turning so she was looking at him sadly “We had no ulterior motives. We just wanted to save your life no matter what you’d do with it, so we gave you our worm system. I’m sure the kids would love to have you stay in Immanu for the rest of your life, but if you stay, you won’t be fighting the Swarm and helping save humanity.” Then she feigned a gasp, pulling a hand to her mouth. “Oh, but could it be you’ve fallen for big sister? If that’s the case, then it can’t be helped. We’ll just have to let you stay for the rest of your life helping us with chores–”
“The Boreus nest is up here somewhere, and I will not leave until I see it destroyed,” he said, shaking his head a few times. “Afterwards… I will rejoin the fight against the Swarm, and I will do my best not to reveal the existence of Immanu to the Empire.”
A surprised blink was the response he got.
“But they’ll ask about where you got your worm system, right?” she asked.
“They will,” he agreed.
“They’ll ask how you destroyed the Boreus nest by yourself, right?”
“I will become strong enough that it will be a believable lie.”
“They’ll come looking for us no matter what you say, right?”
“I will rise to a rank high enough that Hagi’Shar will be placed under my name, and you will be under my protection.”
She stared back at him, her sombre and pensive smile melting away into an adoring smile. “And then you’ll come back every once in a while to visit?”
He couldn’t give her a resolute nod. “If time permits it–”
“Promise me.”
She offered him four fingers pressed tightly together, like a handshake without the thumb extended, and his perplexed expression made her chuckle again.
“Slow learner,” she teased, grabbing his hand and making him curl his four fingers around hers, bending only the first two joints to make a ‘locking’ gesture. “A Brightworm has four teeth as its crown, so when we lock our fingers together, it is a binding vow between two crowns—with their mouths now joined as one, there is no way for anyone to shoot their core. They have become invincible, and will remain so for as long as the vow holds.”
“...”
“Surely a soldier would want to be invincible in battle, no?”
She wasn’t lying—none of the Worm Mages ever did—and while this sort of sincerity was surely just something they made up generations ago to teach their young not to break any promises, he couldn’t deny the idea of being invincible in battle sounded tempting.
So he let her toy with his hand, shaking their lock up and down before breaking away; she sat up straight in her chair and picked up her book, pointing at the next paragraph with a wide, shining smile on her face.
“This reads ‘Corpsetaker’ bug,” she said, as he looked up at the third floor railings once more, half-distracted by the gentle snores overhead. “The book says it’s a type of water bug that kidnaps people and sticks them onto their backs, using them as hostage shields. Are they actually real?”
Stolen novel; please report.
“Yes.”
She whistled, shivering lightly. “Terrifying. I can’t imagine what it feels like being a hostage.”
----------------------------------------
By the time Sparrow finished his early morning warp through the village the next day and returned to the library, a massive crowd of forty children had already formed outside the front door, staring up at the dome where sunlight reflected off the glass in blinding, striking rays.
He had to squint and focus for a little bit, but very quickly he picked out the silhouettes standing at the very top of the dome and scowled; it was exactly as he’d thought what would happen one of these days.
“... She’s doing what you did to Ninmah three months ago,” Utu observed, the Worm Mages in no way panicking as the elders warped next to Sparrow, nodding in quiet understanding. “That must be an Empire greeting, right? Pressing a knife against someone’s throat? You people on the surface must be extremely tough.”
…
Sparrow’s face stayed scrunched for a moment longer, and then he warped up to the ledge on the third floor window, climbing the rest of the way up to the dome. The second he pulled himself over the edge, the scout holding an obsidian-edged knife to Ninmah’s throat took a step back, bare feet almost slipping against the glass. The dome was curved, after all—it was already a testament to her skill at traversal that she was not only maintaining her own balance, but Ninmah’s as well while her free arm held the village chief in a chokehold.
Slowly, steadily, he pulled off his bayonet rifle and rolled it in his hands. The scout didn’t say anything, and it was all the better for him as he spied at her while pretending to inspect his weapon. Much like him, her short hair was wild and unkempt, and her skin was a whole palette darker than everyone else’s—that wasn’t saying much considering ‘everyone’ meant the Worm Mages—but her face was significantly more weathered than his. The scars over her eyes and cheeks reminded him of Utu’s own scar. She was his exact build, if not a bit taller and more muscular around the thighs, but she also didn’t seem too bothered by the fact she was wearing the same thin white cloak as the Worm Mages. Being barefoot several thousands of metres above sea level meant nothing to her tough skin; judging by how tightly she held Ninmah in a chokehold, what little warmth she was getting from the usually freezing village chief was enough to tide her through the early morning temperatures.
For a second, he felt like clicking his tongue in irritation—he’d been here three months and sometimes still heard the call to put on some shoes—but then he gathered himself and shook his head, making a big show of lifting his rifle in the air.
The scout glared at him with sunken, bluish-white eyes for a second longer, and then decided to nod. He tossed his rifle at her. She flicked her knife into her cloak and caught the rifle in the same instant, but instead of releasing her hostage, she merely raised the bayonet against Ninmahs’ throat and continued glaring at him.
… Well.
The General did tell all of us to do that in this exact scenario.
He would’ve done the same thing, so he didn’t feel too irritated. Ninmah, on the other hand, chuckled softly as her eyes flitted back and forth between the two of them, likely wondering why neither one of them was saying anything.
“We’re not going to hurt you,” she said, keeping her warping voice low and controlled; Sparrow couldn’t help but get irritated at that, because she most certainly didn’t do the same for him when he was in the scout’s position. “Your name is… M1N-K1, right? That’s a mouthful. Don’t you have a nickname to call you by? When Sparrow came, he was quiet just like you, but eventually I coaxed into drawing a really poor bird–”
“Let me descend and return to my battalion or I’ll kill the girl,” the scout snarled, sounding slightly feverish. She was sick, and he figured about as much. His aches hadn’t completely disappeared even when he’d first woken up after the Envoy healed him.
So, he took a step up the dome, getting closer—the scout tensed visibly and pressed the edge of his bayonet deeper into Ninmah’s throat.
“All of you stay where you are,” she growled, stealing glances at the crowd below as she did. “One more step and I’ll kill her. Let me descend, and once I am out of your line of sight, I will return your hostage. You have ten seconds to back up before she dies.”
A well-delivered threat. He would’ve made the exact same demands, but back then, he’d gotten a very rude awakening call very, very quickly.
He tilted his head at Ninmah, staring at her in silence, and ever so slightly—her lips shifted into a faint, apologetic smile.
She willingly leaned into the scout’s bayonet and warped behind Sparrow, waving at the crowd below to go away and get on with their morning chores. While the scout sucked in a sharp breath and stumbled a step back, he heard Utu and a few elders shouting up at them, asking if they needed help calming her down, but Ninmah simply told them to start hunting Boreus—just the two of them were enough to handle the scout in all her befuddled disarray.
For his part, while Ninmah continued shaking her fists and nagged the younger kids to stop staring, Sparrow walked up to the top of the dome and shared the relatively flat section with the scout. The scout didn’t back up any further; she was well-trained enough to know she couldn’t give up the high ground even if she was the only one with a weapon.
“... You cannot leave,” he said slowly, consciously trying to do what Ninmah did by suppressing his warping voice. The scout wasn’t wincing as she scowled at him, so he was probably doing a good job. “This is Immanu, the village of worms. There are only children here. The girl you were holding hostage is the village chief, and she does not lie. You will not be harmed, but that does not mean I will allow you to leave right now.”
To her credit, the scout’s defiant look never wavered as she swung her rifle in, pointing the barrel at his chest.
“What will you do with me?”
“We gave you a new system. You can check afterwards. Your old silver ant mutations should still be present for a little longer, but from now on, you will have an entirely different set of mutations to unlock,” he replied, practised. “So we will teach you how to control your new abilities. Then, you will help us exterminate the Boreus from Hagi’Shar. If everything goes well, you and I may leave together.”
Her eyes twitched. “You… gave me a new system?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Worm ate ant.”
“Poor explanation.”
“Yes.”
“I will not help you. Either return me to my battalion or execute me. I will not be a prisoner.”
“I would kill you, but if I did that, the children of Immanu would be unhappy. Therefore, you must live here until we exterminate the Boreus. There is no other choice.”
“... You are not one of them,” she said, biting her teeth after a moment of silence. “You are a soldier of the Attini Empire. What are you doing here?”
“I was ordered to stay behind and distract the Boreus after the failed establishment of a forward outpost at the base of the mountains three months ago.”
“Are you disobeying your orders?”
“I am not,” he said curtly. “The General’s final orders were ‘exterminate every insect I see’. I can only exterminate the Boreus up here. I will complete my mission before leaving Immanu.”
“I understand,” she replied brusquely. “But my orders are to determine the location of the Boreus nest and return to the border outpost immediately. I have determined the location, but you stand in my way of returning to the General. My mission–”
“Will be completed by the other scouts who were with you,” he interrupted. “Four of them survived that Boreus patrol. I sent them down to the General. Your mission is over.”
A fleeting expression washed over her face, brisk as the winds, and he felt it might have been ‘satisfaction’ from knowing her mission was most likely completed, or maybe simpler ‘relief’ from knowing some of her comrades made it down the mountains alive—but then she tightened her grip on her rifle and aimed down the iron sights, her stance unwavering.
“All the more reason for me to return to the General,” she whispered. “I have no purpose. I require a new mission.”
“I will give you one.”
“On what authority?”
“I outrank you, M1N-K1 of the First Silver Ant Battalion. I am designated Sparrow of the Eighth Bullet Ant Battalion, and I hereby order you to assist me with the extermination of the Boreus as a fellow worm system user.”
“...”
She pulled the trigger, but no bullet came flying out. The Worm Mages had picked up the rifles dropped by the Silver Ant Battalion four days ago, but he hadn’t had the time to reload his own yet—Ninmah whirled around after successfully telling everyone off, then, to see him cracking his neck, stretching his wormic bones for the second time this morning.
M1N-K1 did the same, tossing his rifle back at him and pulling out her obsidian-edged knife as she did.
“... You guys are from the same Empire, right?” Ninmah said nervously, tapping his shoulders from behind. “Hey, just talk it out, okay? I don’t know what all this tension in the air is, but if she’s just hungry, give her a few snack worms and a slinky to play with. She’s only fifteen right? I’m sure she’ll–”
“We are lowly weapons of the Attini Empire in humanity’s never-ending war against the Swarm,” K1 said, flipping her knife into a reverse-grip as she lowered her stance, bending her knees. “We are weapons created for war. We are weapons to be wielded by a soldier.”
“And the weapon yields to the superior soldier,” he finished. “If I win, you will assist me with my mission. If you win, you will be allowed to leave. Agreed?”
K1 nodded promptly. “Agreed.”
“Alright, wait a second, guys,” Ninmah said, trying to worm around him to get between the two of them. “There’s no need to fight. This is Immanu, the village in the sky. The only fighting we do is snowball fight, and, at worst, sometimes we slap each other with our slinkies–”
He warped five paces forward, intending on driving a straight kick into K1’s stomach to knock her out.
K1 warped six paces forward, dodging his kick while sending one back.
… Huh.