Chapter 1759 – Crest the Wave

Solant sipped her tea, then turned her head and nibbled on her biscuit. The taste was just how she liked it, with a hint of citrus and a pleasant, not overpowering sweetness that sent a quiver running through her antennae. Of course, it went without saying that the tea was delicious. Strong, earthy notes that gave way to a subtle blend of flavour on the palate. Solant had lately preferred to take her tea without milk, preferring the more potent taste, though sugar, of course, was a necessity.

Thanks to the ever-growing supply lines connecting the fifth to the world above and the Colony’s ever-growing farming capacity, tea and sugar were no longer the rare commodities at this depth that they had been before. Clacking her mandibles with satisfaction, the little general leaned back and allowed herself to enjoy the moment.

“You look relaxed,” Leonidant observed from nearby.

“I am always relaxed,” Solant replied coolly.

Her sister waggled her antennae in derision.

“Oh sure. Others might not be able to tell, but we can. You’ve been stressed out of your mind waiting for the Eldest to return and we all know it. Why else do you think we’ve been working this hard?”

It was true. Although she may be excellent at concealing her emotions from most ants, her nineteen closest siblings, those who hatched alongside her, seemed to see through her mask no matter how well she fashioned it.

“Because I asked you to?”

“We’ve been going above and beyond what you asked of us and you are well aware of it.”

This was also true.

“Well, the Eldest is back now,” Solant noted. “So our situation is a little less dire than it was before.”

“That’s one way of putting it,” Leonidant said.

They both had seen the updated map in the morning. It wasn’t a huge visual change, but what it signified was tremendous. It had only been a week since she had tasked the Eldest with destroying the four outposts that locked the Colony in.

Truth be told, the bulk of the Eldest’s time had been taken up with travel. Moving around the four different sides of the captured territory was a significant distance, after all. Once arriving at the front, the Eldest had generally annihilated the Krath, captured some of them, then undone their modifications to the tunnels in less than a day.

She didn’t know just what had happened during the last evolution, but clearly it had helped their strongest ant adapt to the environment of the fifth. Having smashed the obstructions that had thwarted her for months, they were now heading down to the depths to attack the blockade there.

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“Do you think the Eldest understands how dire our situation really was?”

“Probably,” Solant said, taking another sip of her tea. “It is always difficult to figure out just how much our senior really knows. They are… unpredictable.”