Chapter 1721 – That’s Not A Thing

How were we supposed to know they would turn on us? After so long, fighting side by side, building up our communities together. We trusted them. They trusted us.

Even though they told me why, I still can’t wrap my head around it. It’s madness. The whole world is mad.

– Excerpt from the private notes of a lost brathian Satrap.

Nice to be back in the nest once more. A chance to stretch my legs and catch up on a little sleep, always welcome. I also managed to convince Solant to give me a little more support for this next bit of the plan, which is nice.

Well, I just walked up to a few battalions and told them to follow me, but I’m sure it’ll be fine. To be honest, if she failed to account for me doing that, I’ll be disappointed in her planning abilities. I also have the human priests working alongside the ants, providing their helpful aura buff.

“WE ARE NOT WORTHY OF YOUR LIGHT, GREAT ONE!”

It would be better if they weren’t so noisy. Beyn seems to get worse with time, not better. He by himself is bad enough, but of course, he’s never alone. There’s a whole chorus line of them, with their flashy robes, incense, mandible clackers and scarily intense gazes.

I’m just trying to sleep over here!

“We bow down in supplication!” the priests declare in a sonorous chant.

“THE TRUE PATH IS REVEALED BY YOUR GLORY! WE WEEP WITH JOY TO TREAD UPON IT!”

“Endless joy! Endless joy!”

They’ve been at it for hours now. I have no idea how their vocal cords manage to hold up for so long. Just another drawback of useless, vocal communication. Pheromone superiority has never been more apparent.

Well, while I’m ignoring them, I’ve decided to spend a little time working on the second of my new, mysterious organs. The Everflowing Well of Living Waters is a heck of a name for an organ. I’ve been reluctant to test it too much, since I’ve been a little nervous about the whole liquid mana thing. Like, is it even safe for me to have that stuff inside my body?

Better to check here in the nest where it’s safer.

Ignoring the never ending display of uncomfortable levels of devotion taking place nearby, I turn my focus inwards, onto my new organ.

It doesn’t look like much, a ring of blue-ish… almost spongy material. Sort of like a porous type of rock. It’s probably about the right size for a human to wear it as a rather unfashionable hat. Considering the amount of evolutionary energy tied up in the thing, I would have expected it to be much larger.

Tentatively, I extend a sliver of mana from my core towards it. I’m not sure what I think is going to happen when they make contact, but… here it goes!

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Inwardly flinching away, the mana swirls into the Well and… vanishes. As hard as I try to sense any activity from the ring, there is nothing going on. I can’t even sense the mana that I put in there! Where the heck did it go?!