It stretches from horizon to horizon, never faltering, never ceasing.
The mortal coil is its footstool and its playground, never caring.
The Tower pushes all mortals down, always watching, never loving.
Where a benevolent overseer would guide and protect, it is never nurturing.
Prepare yourselves, always watching.
Care for yourselves, always nurturing.
-Warning to all supplicants at the Blackened Sanctuary
The stone that the keelish threw at me fell to the ground and I snarled up at the tree. As soon as the sound left my throat, the tree above me rattled, leaves falling all around.
"Come down." I commanded, compelling the small keelish to clamber out of the tree's branches and towards me. She was long and thin, her arms scraping on the ground underneath her, though if she'd stood upright, they would only reach past her waist to her thighs.
"Who? You? Big. Scary."
Compared to the archaic and refined minds of those in Tala, this keelish left much to be desired. Her eyes darted back and forth, cautious and fearful.
"I'm Ashlani, and I'm gathering all the keelish to a city where I can keep you safe and feed you." I said, focusing on what I thought she could understand.
"Safe? How?" Her head cocked and tail twitching, the female looked up at me.
"Walls, and plenty of keelish around to keep us safe. Now gather your pack and come." I made the command, though to her credit, the female didn't immediately fall in line. Instead, she asked another question.
"No shiny? None eat?"
I thought I didn't understand what she was asking, but I connected the dots. To be sure, I asked, "Do you mean the ants?"
She didn't understand. I knuckled at my forehead. "Someone find an ant and bring it here."
Silf set off immediately, only to return a mere two minutes later with an ant in his hands. As soon as she saw it, the nameless female screeched in fear and dashed up into the tree.
"No! No bring! Not here! No! No!"
She descended into further hysterics as I looked between Brutus, Silf, Farahlia, and the rest of the keelish nearby. None understood why she was so afraid of the creature that was her own size, if a little smaller. The corpse hung in Silf's arms, not even twitching. Was there something else about it? No, I could tell that it was, for all intents and purposes, an entirely ordinary ant carcass.
"Why do you care? They're not delicious, but they're good food. It's dead, so it can't do anything to you."
"Smell! All smell! All come! Come eat, come fight!"
"Other keelish will smell the ant and come fight us for it?" I scoffed. "I'd like to see them try. We're fine."
"No!" The female's fangs smashed together so hard that I suspected they'd crack. "More shinies!"
As soon as she said it, I leaned closer to the ant body and sniffed deeply. I'd never thought to pay attention to the particulars of the scent of my prey, only if it was pleasant or not. When I breathed deep, I smelled a faint odor that I'd subconsciously connected with the ants, which meant that they all had smells like that, I'd just never consciously thought about it. Now that I considered the specifics, though, I realized that the smell grew more and more acrid as time passed, and I could smell it from further and further away. Given the female's fear, that smell was what drew more ants in. If that was the case, and killing one of their number would drive the rest into a frenzy, that made sense why she didn't want to kill them, and why, every time we engaged in ant slaughter, they didn't stop coming.
But the nameless keelish that'd survived in this place had to have a way to feed and survive. They were in the trees when I came here, and though they'd marked their territory at the regular height, they seemed at ease up high. That meant that they didn't live on the ground, and no evidence of burrows solidified that. If the ants lived here, then that made sense. The massive insects would destroy anything they found without hesitation. So, the keelish needed to find somewhere outside of the ants' immediate reach to live. They weren't able to get far enough away to escape the reaches of the ants, so they climbed the trees. I suspected that the ants could climb there, but the keelish would surely be able to see the ants coming and escape, if the massive insects located everything through smells.
The thoughts crashed through my mind, coming immensely quickly. Less than a minute had passed, and I realized that we were covered in the scent of the ants and they'd pursue us right now. I didn't mind, and couldn't consider the creatures a threat, but the weakest of this swarm accompanying me on this journey would. Silf chirped out a warning, saying something was approaching, and I knew it was more of the ants, even without looking at anything.
"How many?" I demanded. Silf hopped into a nearby tree and scaled it for a moment before calling back.
"Just under one hundred."
"I'll dispose of them, then we'll drag the bodies to the nearest river to wash off the worst of the scent. Where's a river?"
Silf cocked his head, scenting something on the air I couldn't. It didn't take long before he pointed uphill.
"About a mile that direction. More ants are gathering further off, but they're not following the distress signal yet. I suspect it won't be long after the deaths of these ones here."
"Then we'll be fast and develop some strategies to ensure we don't get swarmed by the Nievtala-forgotten bugs moving forward. For now, our focus is quick destruction and then cleaning off the scent. Clear?"
The dozen keelish around me nodded, and I stepped forward. "I'll kill them all myself, and I'll be quick. You all stay back, I don't want you to get caught up in it."
Brutus grumbled his displeasure, but he stayed back with the rest. Chjell looked back and forth between me and the rest, his face completely confused. Brutus grunted as he explained, "Our Zaaktif is the best in the Empire for destroying enemies like this. Just watch."
With that confidence in my power, I couldn't disappoint and grinned as I jogged forward and drew on [Spear of the Many] until my Magic had doubled. With the distance between me and most of my followers, doing so took me twice as long and at least four times as much effort. Nearly immediately, I felt the strain of the [Skill] on my body, my head throbbing in discomfort, but nothing unmanageable. Even so, I hurried forward, my steps taking me much further than they regularly would have been able to. Less than half a minute later, I saw the first ants' bodies shining in the light of the afternoon. I grinned and launched myself into the air, leaping twice my height.
I landed with a thud in the middle of one hundred ants, but before they could react, I howled loud and long. With [Murderous Melody], I saw my magic sweep over my surroundings, the leaves shaking uncontrollably all around me, most yellowed and falling under the influence of my magic. More impactful than the sudden rainfall of leaves, though, were those of the ants–their bodies falling insensate on the ground as my attack washed over them. With the enhanced potency of my magic, every single ant died even before they could move, and though I smelled some of the scent of their distress, I also noted that there was much less of the smell this time. As [Spear of the Many] faded from me, I grinned widely and disregarded the pain that swept through my body and mind.
"I believe it is made evident that our Zaaktif surpasses whatsoever expectations we may have levied against him." Chjell's awed voice carried over to me as my companions came forward. He bowed as soon as he drew close to me, his posture more respectful than ever before. As a further indication of his subservience, I felt him be added to my number of true followers. I rolled my shoulders, the stiffness from drawing heavily on [Spear of the Many] making me groan.
"Gather up the bodies." I said. "We'll see if this can convince our little female to get her fellows to follow along."