They opened their eyes again.

They began walking to their daughters.

If only they could say goodbye to their other children…but there was no time. Almost two hundred sweeps, so suddenly cut short.

But wasn’t it that way for everyone, in the end?

They’d brought enough death. They ought to face theirs with dignity.

They poked their head into the dining room.

“Hello, my dears…I hate to interrupt, but Uunive, I need you. Something urgent’s come up.”

Their tone and expression must have made it clear how urgent it really was, despite their attempt to sound calm, because their older daughter got up and went with them, no hesitation whatsoever.

Quickly, they took her to another room and explained the situation.

“It will be very dangerous, and I may not return - ” (they internally winced at the half truth) “ - and…”

They trailed off as they noticed the limeblood wordlessly reach out to touch the cave wall, grab a chunk of it with only the strength of her hand, and then crumble it.

“I’m coming with.” Uunive said, in a tone that brooked no disagreement.

Despite everything, Tuuya couldn’t help a proud but nervous smile from stealing over their face. Their darling girl. So strong and grown-up now.

Grown-up, and about to be alone again.

No. No time for pain. They had to keep moving.

“All right.” They said with a nod. “If you could call Kamala for me, while I gather our weapons…someone has to watch Ailene.”

Their human daughter was still recovering from the loss of her arm. Fortunately, one of their moirails was a docterrorist.

Uunive nodded, and the worm swarm bustled away to review their stock and pack as quickly as possible.

Smoke bombs? Check.

Their laser pistols? Check.

Uunive’s knives? Check.

Superheated blades and a few other emergency items? Check.

They looked at their work outfit, slung on a hanger in their closet, the one they often wore when going on jobs for Chimer.

They’d already altered it once, to accommodate their current body type…and they would alter it one last time, because damn if they would go down without a fight.

As they rolled back their sleeves, white worm tendrils sprung from their arms to work in tandem with their hands, scissors, needles and thread.

A few minutes later, they nodded at the result, satisfied, and changed into it.

Normally they would decry this skimpier style as ridiculous and impractical. For them it was ideal to have more skin to let out tendrils from, and it still covered much of their skeleton and what few organs they had.

With a few swift scissor chops, they cut their hair. Less to get tangled by the other swarms or for them to grab onto.

They’d take along their fireproof armor too. It had certainly saved their skin enough times…and  they’d ask Uunive to use her luck psiionics to enhance their weapons too, just in case.

They could only hope they’d stay intact long enough to find and subdue Ozryel.

Hope, mused Tuuya as they went back to fetch Uunive and go, activating their small spaceship for the first time in ages.

Strange that they should have to give up hope that wasn’t even theirs.

That when they should despair, they instead felt calm.

What was there to worry about anymore?

—

Rivali pursed their lips as they saw a missed call from their old friend. Not an uncommon expression for the jade, but one currently laced with worry along with disapproval.

They tried to call Daudre, hanging up when it went directly to voicemail. Then they tried to call Vannyn.

“Rivali?” Said the worm swarm, surprised. “Ah - I’m a little busy right now, what’s -“

“Daudre called me, but left no message. Do you know anything?” They said curtly, cutting in.

Tuuya sucked in a hesitant breath. “Ozryel, Inshii, and Rhyssa invaded Hanhai cavern. Uunive and I are on our way.”

There was a moment’s silence.

“I’m coming too.” Declared the komondor troll.

“Rivali! I know you’re skilled, but you could di -“

The jade hung up on the undead’s panicked plea.

No one invaded their old home without them doing something about it.

Despite the miseries they had suffered under those narrow-minded old wretches, they were far from the only trolls there.

Daudre, the only friend they’d ever had at home. Ashwat, their lineage-mate, kept away from them for fear they’d be a bad influence on her.

Even the stuffy, rigid matrons who disdained their identity did not deserve to die in such a way.

They had fought Ozryel when she’d been in Tuuya’s body, and they had won.

As they checked their weapons and sent a message to Temasek cavern’s matron superior excusing their sudden absence, Rivali found themself eager for a rematch.

—

A short time later, the ship hovered some distance above the desert cavern’s entrance. Tuuya’s dark gray fingers adjusting and focusing the ship’s sensors to see if the other swarms had been bright enough to leave constructs to guard the entrance.

The answer seemed to be no, the pale sand below undisturbed by anything but the wind.

Still, Tuuya took them down slowly, laser cannons primed to fire. They weren’t keen on doing more collateral damage than they had to, but they also weren’t going to give the other swarms even the smallest chance to get in close.

They were glad of it when a massive wasp construct shot out of the sand, buzzing angrily as it got riddled with melted gaps from a round of white beams. The rest of it dodged and reformed before streaming further upwards.

Tuuya pulled the ship back up, g-forces pressing on the worm swarm and their daughter. They cooled the cannons; now it was time to use nature to their advantage.

They slowed a little, a tactic that would make most opponents suspicious, but Rhyssa hadn’t the brains the mother grub gave an ant. It only made her bear down harder as the small ship drifted into a cloud.

The lingering heat from the cannons caused gentle steam to waft around the vessel, cloaking it even further.

As the construct barreled within range on vast wasp wings, multiple wicked pincers extending from it, Tuuya released a little something they’d had Thrixe make for them.

Unfortunately, they didn’t have much of it. This would use up their whole stock.

The construct began to skitter and scratch against the ship’s windows, causing small cracks to splinter across the glass…and then went limp, helpless, rendered impotent by the fungus specifically engineered to feed on undead biological matter spreading through its tissue.

Tuuya smirked as they slowly took the ship down again, watching the massive white insectoid thing fall to the sand and scatter into pieces, going still as it died.

They landed, and satisfied nothing else would jump out at them, strode past the wreckage and the corpse riddled with gray fungus; fortunately, the substance became inert after it did its work, so neither they or Uunive were at risk.

“I cannot wait for the rest of you to perish.” They said lovingly to the splotched, broken body as they went by, stepping over a large segmented leg.

“I do so hope I’m there to see it.”

—

Hirudo panted as she faced down a room full of white butterflies, even though she didn’t technically need to breathe. If she got out of this, she was swatting every single one she ever saw again.

The fuchsia was covered in cuts, her already ratty lolita dress now basically in shreds, and Joey and Neffie were faring even worse as they stood behind her. One of the rustblood’s pedipalps had partially broken off, and Neffie was limping heavily.

Klirro had never arrived. Who the fuck knew why.

She felt their eyes on her as she hefted her heat gun defensively (it was nearly out of charge), but the swirling swarm didn’t attack.

Instead, it spoke to her.

“It would be a waste to kill you.” said some butterflies, pressed together with rapid constructs to make a faceless voice, but it still didn’t quite sound like a troll speaking. It was rustling and oddly-toned, vibrating at random moments and making some vowels in drawn out or overly clipped ways.

“You proved yourself useful to Rhyssa. She would have you dead for your treachery, but I think otherwise.”

Hirudo laughed sharply and without humor, the sound echoing against the stony cavern walls.

“You think I believe that?” She snarled. “You might be elders, but you turned even on Tuuya when they didn’t do what you wanted. I know what our lives would be like under you; I won’t do that to my coven.”

As she spoke, the leech rainbowdrinker swapped her heat gun for a grenade she pulled the pin from and flung at the ceiling in seconds, then grabbed her coven members and made a break for it.

She knew, as the butterflies dove for her in a massive fluttering of wings, she probably wouldn’t make it.

Either the rocks would get her, or the bugs would.

Maybe she could at least throw the others clear of -

A giant rope - no - a white worm tendril - snaked around her and yanked her to safety with sickening speed, pulling her out of the room in barely more than a second.

Barely conscious from the debris that had pelted her body, the razor proboscises that had freshly cut her skin, Hirudo wiped her face clear of blood and dirt with a shaking head.

She gazed up blearily at her rescuer as she was gently set down, Neffie and Joey tumbling out of her arms onto the rocky floor. They groaned as they slid down, Neffie hissing in pain from her bad leg.

Crashing and crumbling noises came from behind them, and while she felt the breeze of a few butterflies escaping, she could tell many had been crushed. The very floor of the cavern shook from the impact, and she knew it would be felt throughout the whole place.

Tuuya smiled down at her with that needle-filled mouth of theirs, and gave her an ironic salute. Uunive stood next to them wearing a hardened expression, prongs on her horns now, and the seadweller could hardly believe it was the same girl she’d kidnapped mere perigees ago.

Beetles hovered around her, for some reason. What…?

“There are matrons’ bodies in a room not far from here, ones we found already dead.” Said Tuuya with sadness. “Make use of them. Heal. Find Rhyssa and kill her, Inshii too if you can manage it. If my contact has succeeded in rendering the other swarms able to die…we will soon know.”

“What about you?” managed the highblood, coughing between words.

“I?” They said, amused, looking back as they already began to walk away, ragged crimson coat waving as they strode side by side with their daughter.

“I’m here for Ozryel.”

—

After the cacophony of the explosion, it was almost eerily quiet in the cavern. Inshii had fled elsewhere, not hanging around to attack the worm swarm and the lime drinker.

Jade blood lay messily spattered across the ancient sandstone passages Tuuya and Uunive descended quickly, heading for the mother grub - and something of equal value.

“The matriorb…” Tuuya said, picking up a conversation they’d had on the ship. Uunive had mentioned feeling certain that the mother of swarms would try to use it for some terrible purpose.

“I can’t imagine why Ozryel would want it, but who knows? I remember when I got ahold of it…it seems so long ago. At first I worried I might be getting tricked, but no, it was a real one. Real enough to earn you a place here…”

They sighed, looking around at the ravaged cavern.

“I hope there are still jades to save. I hope it dearly.”

“There will be.” Uunive said firmly, her beetles fluttering around her.

“Tutu, think. She invaded this place to do something. Maybe it had to do with me, but that can’t be the only reason. She has to want at least some of them alive.”

Tuuya nodded. They had no idea if that was true, but there was no point in arguing, and all they could do was try.

A dying groan and wail came from the cavern ahead, and both undeads’ eyes widened as they sprinted toward it -

- in time to see Ozryel finish slitting the mother grub’s throat by dragging her claws across the exposed paleness, jade blood gushing out of the vast grayish white carapace. It pooled across the floor, flooding over toward the other two undead.

Tuuya wailed, a wretched noise more beastlike than troll, and Uunive yelled in rage.

Ozryel laughed as her strange wings lifted, bird-shaped yet diaphanous in nature. Of course the wretch had white hair as a troll, and pincers at the edges of her mouth. What a lovely family resemblance to her children.

Green eyes. Solid green, the same color as their own irises.

Tuuya’s hatred suffused their every worm as their insides writhed, the swarm eager to kill.

Not eager to die. Resigned nonetheless.

They lifted their laser pistols and began shooting at the ancient creature as she soared up and away, laughing mockingly as she dodged the daggers and laser fire.

–

Rivali had taken a juvenile roc lusus as transport, quickly rigging it with a saddle and throwing on a helmet paired with goggles.

Not strictly with cavern permission, but Hanhai desert was a suitable enough environment for one to spend some time in. It wasn’t big enough to do any major damage, and the local towns were scattered apart some distance from the cavern.

Besides, this was an emergency. They could apologize, do paperwork, and pay the fines later.

The real challenge had been getting the thing to put them down (mostly) safely, but a few bruises were an incredibly minor price to pay for the speed of travel; though at least Temasek wasn’t too far away.

They primly dusted themself off, the roc promptly ignoring them as it looked about for food.

Much as they longed to rush down into their old home, the komondor troll was wary as they entered the tunnels, ears pricked and eyes open for any wretched bloodsucking insects. At the slightest flash of white, they’d have their heat gun trained on it.

They hoped the creatures weren’t disguising themselves as trolls. They would be more difficult to identify quickly…but why would they bother? Much as Rivali hated to admit it, the lack of guards and no sight or sound of anyone so far probably meant the place was already in their grip.

They heard whimpering, and froze.

They peered around the stone corner.

A few jade wrigglers in gray and black uniforms huddled in a hall, and the oldest couldn’t be more than five sweeps, with the youngest perhaps three.

Above them hovered a small cloud of white wasps, making a low buzz.

Rivali waited, wondering why they hadn’t been attacked, then realized: insect eyes weren’t very good, and the light was low. The only illumination underground from the wasps’ own mild glow and the glass-encased torches on the walls, one of which had been smashed and damaged. They were already clad in their sleek white armor, lightweight to allow freedom of movement, but still offering some protection.

They couldn’t shoot at the swarm fragment right now, not with it so close to the girls.

So they picked up and threw a rock over it, the movement making the wrigglers jump and the wasps rise up in a small, angry funnel, zipping toward them.

Rivali fired.

The heat spread in a burst, melting most of the wasps into white drops dotting the tunnel floor. The few that escaped were dispatched by the flash of their blades, swiping the creatures apart and smearing the last one against the wall with a ringing clang.

The wrigglers huddled together, still scared, though the oldest held a knife in a shaky hand. She stood in front of the others to shield them.

“Wh-who are you?” She said.

“Rivali Tescin.” Said the older jade, not looking at her, already moving on. “Hide somewhere. This will take a bit.”

–

Outside the cavern entrance, one last being had come. Only to witness the curling strands of conflict, not to fight.

Still, she had promised her coven aid. This was not the time when they died.

There would only be two deaths today. She was fairly certain of it.

With red spiral eyes Klirro watched the solitary white butterfly that watched her in turn, and smiled with a mouth full of jagged teeth.

“Inshii.”

Others came to join it, making a throat and voice.

“Klirro.”

“You are not really in this with your whole feeling, are you?” She said gently, lovingly. “You spiral inwards and inwards, not even guarding your sister, letting my coven escape.”

“I assist my mother as she asks.” Said the butterflies in their flat, rustling voice.

“Only as she asks.” Murmured the horrorterror.

Spirals had already started to weave themselves through the tan grains, filling the sand with patterns between the tall, thin undead’s feet. Hot winds blew around and around her, stirring her short hair.

“I ask you, Inshii the butterfly: retreat.”

The butterflies stared at her with their myriad compound eyes, antennae twitching as their wings endlessly beat.

“If I refuse?”

Spirals of twisted, dried organs lashed out at the butterflies, holding them in the air, warping the air so it was solid, angled, like glass, then like liquid, pouring in on each other, physical laws breaking down with spirals of crimson energy.

Klirro laughed. A light, normal laugh, as she held out her open palms under the blaring light of the sun.

“Then you can never refuse a single soul again.”

Inshii, for the first time in millennia, felt fear.

The last of the DeVilles smiled wide, stretching the muscles and bones of the corpse she inhabited.

Yes, Ozryel might be an incarnation of death.

But the second worm had come, and death was due a reckoning.

Life was so simple. They went out collecting, they came back and tended to their daughter. There was nothing else to worry about.

They sewed even if their hands seemed to resist the old motions, as if they were drawing their sewing machine through thick mud, patterns and stitches no longer lining up like they used to. New clothes would help their child feel better!

It was a pity her body was still solid flesh. She wasn’t truly free, and they ached for her. But she didn’t want to listen to their sympathy, and they had stopped giving it. 

Never mind. She’d come around, or they’d make her -

Make her -

A sharp bolt of pain shot through their head, and they put a hand to their skull.

They blinked, looking down at their other hand, dark gray and bony. Were their fingers supposed to be thin, their wrist bones pronounced under meager layers of worms? No, they’d always been small, right?

Being lean was good, it made them look like -

Look like -

They glanced in a mirror and saw a strange, angular face. They closed their eyes, the pain increasing again.

When they opened them, their constructs had assembled containers full of blood - high-tech things that chilled the liquid so it didn’t congeal into dry uselessness. The containers laid on the grass outside the hive.

A cool breeze tossed their wavy hair around, hair that was shorter now. When had they cut it? They couldn’t remember…they’d gotten forgetful, lately.

They looked at the blood, several different hues, but something held them back. They weren’t supposed to eat much. It wasn’t for them…it was for - family. Yes, family.

Family that wasn’t Uuni -

They screamed from pain, and this time, this time -

This time the drinker gasped as they woke up, surrounded up to their chest by massive green worms.

You struggle so, murmured a voice. You show such hate. You truly have forgotten me. 

The voice was heavy with sorrow.

The drinker tried to struggle, but the worms held them fast, slowly writhing around them. They couldn’t think. Nothing made sense. How had they gotten here?

Why was there no sky, instead only a rocky ceiling above them?

I haven’t seen the sky with my own eyes in four thousand sweeps, second worm.

Terrible loss. Mourning. Regret. 

Resentment. She looked bitterly at her children, who brought memories of the sky she could never see for herself, who felt the wind and moonlight of the surface with their own bodies instead of having to experience it through someone else.

The worm swarm shook their head. None of this meant anything. Pure nonsense. They hadn’t gotten a bad trip off some blood, had they? The last time they’d been high -

The last -

They blinked, and there were no worms, though they were in the cavern. There was only Ozryel, drinking quietly from the containers. Strange to see a creature so large hunched over them so, her long proboscis darting in and out of her vast mouth as her first pair of forelegs steadied her. She shook slightly, and her green eyes seemed almost…glazed. Bleary.

A small animal ran past their feet. How odd.

She looked at them without recognition.

Who are you? You are not the first worm.

They tilted their head.

They were…

Who were they, again?

“I don’t know.” They said, hesitant. “I’m…Uunive’s lusus?” 

Yes. They were Uunive’s lusus. Were they someone else’s too? They couldn’t remember. Where had they been, before? What was their name? They’d had more than one, hadn’t they? 

Too many questions. Their head hurt.

She drank more blood as they stood in silence, then shook her head, massive teeth stained multiple different colors before her proboscis curled around them, wiping them clean.

But there were still stains on her face, stains she couldn’t get to with how her legs were positioned. As they moved closer, glow brighter so they could see better, they saw the dried stains of many sweeps…centuries, maybe.

They saw scars. Deep, ridged scars in the carapace, rough and grayish jade in the off-white. They reached out a hand in concern, only to yelp and snatch it back as she snapped at them and missed by inches.

“I was only trying to help!” They squeaked. “Please - please don’t hurt me.”

I do not know you! Withdraw! You could be one of the ten, back to kill me!

“I don’t know who those are! I don’t remember anyone!” The worm swarm pleaded, bright green eyes wide as they raised their hands in surrender. “I don’t know anybody except you and Uunive, I swear, I promise.”

She paused.

Uunive?

“My daughter.” They said proudly. “My wonderful daughter, raised her myself from a grub! Oh, Anders will be so happy when I tell him how accomplished she is - “ They cut off, blinking. 

Anders…the name had come out of their mouth without even thinking about it.

They tried to focus on it, but any further scraps of memory scattered like dandelion seeds in a breeze. Had they made him up? Had they gotten Uunive’s egg themself? From where? Their cavern hadn’t had a mother grub in centuries…

No, that was silly, wasn’t it? They’d never been in another cavern except Ozryel’s. This was where they’d come from. Uunive must have come from here too.

Strange how they didn’t have a name, though. Maybe they didn’t need one? As long as they weren’t one of the ‘ten’, whoever those were.

Ozryel watched them, uncomprehending. 

Then her gaze sharpened, and their ears went back against their head. Somehow, that felt like trouble. Like they’d done something wrong.

She shifted, turning away from them, and their feelings lurched as they craved her approval, but then she beckoned them onward with a shaky gray side leg. Her long wings rustled against her sides, the feathers dull and ragged from long disuse. She smelled of dust and decay, a hint of putrid rot beneath it all.

“You haven’t seen the sky in so long…” They echoed, a vague memory finally surfacing. “Why? Why can’t you leave?”

Trolls. They shot me down once. They would finish me if they could. Unlike my children, I cannot change shape to hide. Not anymore.

The bitterness and grief tore through their mind, and they put a hand to their head. Oof.

“That’s why you need us, then.” They said in wonder, in comprehension. Some things began to fit together.

Us. Yes, they felt certain there was an ‘us’, even if they couldn’t recall the others.

She whipped her head around to snarl at them.

Don’t you gloat at me. You are merely a shadow of the first worm. If I could extract them from you, I would. 

Anger seared their thoughts, and they yelped. Ozryel paused, silent. Then she moved again.

Not knowing what else to do, they followed, ears still flattened. What had they done wrong? Why wouldn’t she tell them how to fix it?

Who was this first worm?

They hunched their shoulders and kept silent, not wanting to anger her further. After a minute or two of walking, they came upon…they weren’t sure what it was, actually.

Well, it was some sort of…hive? It was shaped like a beehive, big and carved from stone. Yet there were only a few scattered insects skittering about, centipedes and the like, and the cells were roughly the size of their head.

One of her arms extended slowly, carefully, to get out a very faded and threadbare green suit. Yet despite its woebegone state, it was of good make and had clearly been well maintained; their tailor’s eye knew the damage stemmed from age and frequent use, not carelessness.

Another went out to fetch a golden cane, scuffed but barely tarnished - they knew it must have a good deal of genuine gold in it. Worms of the same color spiraled around its length, except for the top. She laid these things on a rough stone table with surprising delicacy, its surface large enough for her to maneuver her limbs comfortably over it.

The last item she set down was a faded photograph, the glass over it cracked and the frame itself dull and worn. It had four trolls…were they trolls? Three sparked vague memories, and the fourth…

The fourth both was and wasn’t familiar.

The drinker was certain they’d never seen the angular face with spiky hair and a slightly mocking smile before. Yet it buzzed in their head as if they should know it, the knowledge fluttering just out of reach. Their ears flicked in frustration as they toyed with a strand of hair, chewing their lip slightly.

Ozryel watched them, then bowed her head, her great twisted horns dull orange-gray in their glow. Patches of lichen grew on them, trailing off into wisps of gray fungus.

You do not recall, do you. The wasp was right. The first worm is truly dead to us, and we do not even know why, after all this time.

I have seen memories of your former trollhood now, I accept you were telling the truth. It was the other one of your bloodline who had the worm…but they were mindless ones. My child would have never consented to be put in a flesh body that way. They would have fought. They would have eaten you. 

A vast, chittering sigh echoed from the wickedly sharp mandibles around the fanged mouth. It was a strangely weary, casual noise from so vast a creature. 

How, then, did my blood not kill you?

The worm swarm shook their head helplessly. They were getting a headache.

They closed their eyes only for a moment, but when they opened them again, someone else was there.

One of the faces from the photograph. A violet - no, a swarm. Butterfly. 

Too bad it wasn’t really a troll. Hunger gnawed at them, their insides writhing. 

They felt light - too light, in their body and their head. Un-anchored, drifting, as if they weren’t there at all. As if they were only watching themself stand there, clutching the table for support.

What are you doing here, butterfly? It isn’t your time to send blood.

Her tone was accusatory but not harsh as she loomed over the pair of them. Curiosity wove through her words as well. 

“We have a way to know the truth, mother. Right under our noses. We can access Lleios’s memory hives again.”

They looked directly at the worm swarm.

Lleios.

Lleios.

Yes, they knew that name.

They knew beyond a doubt it wasn’t theirs.

“I am not them!” They hissed. “I’ll never be them. I don’t know what you’ve done to me - why I can’t remember things - but I know I’m not Lleios.”

It was strangely comforting. This was something to start with, even if they couldn’t recall their own name. Something sure, something true.

Ozryel and the butterfly ignored their words, the butterfly picking them up with one hand by their neck. They struggled, but were far too small and weak to make any difference against the tall bulk and strong grip of the other swarm. After a few moments they went limp, exhausted even by that exertion.

The butterfly paused, then put them down again with surprising gentleness. The worm swarm wobbled as they stood, blinking. Their headache was worse, pounding in their skull.

“Mother. You haven’t been feeding them.”

They look better this way. More like the first worm.

“Don’t be impractical.” They said, a hint of irritation in their usually flat voice. “If they hibernate from starvation, then what will you do?”

Don’t you take that tone with me!

Ignoring her further protests and curses, the false seadweller took out a large canteen of blood from their sylladex and unscrewed the cap, offering it to the worm swarm.

They snatched it out of the other rainbow drinker’s hands and gulped it down before they even knew what they were doing. Tiny drops splattered on their clothes as their hands shook.

Inshii - yes, that was their name - raised an eyebrow, but took the chilled container back and put it away again. They desperately wished for another - for a dozen others - but they could tell from the other drinker’s unyielding expression this was all they were getting. They swallowed. At least they could stand on their own now.

“Come with me.” The butterfly said, and they followed, hating themself for being so meek, so obedient. 

But what else could they do? They were still quite weak, and it was better than being alone with Ozryel. They shivered at the thought.

They walked up, out of the vast cave into the rest of the cavern, skirting some fallen chunks of stone. Inshii looked at them with an unreadable expression, but kept moving. They passed murals, and Tuuya paused to look at a troll in one who seemed familiar, a canine lusus with ropelike fur by her side…but they couldn’t place her.

They passed another, depicting other, unknown swarms, and it tugged at something Ozryel had said.

“Inshii…who were the ten?”

The butterfly swarm stopped.

“Not now, Etuuya.” They muttered, before they kept moving. “Not when she might be listening.”

They nodded, mouth shut, but they couldn’t help smiling. Their name! They knew their name again. It was a bit of a mouthful, though. 

Tuuya, they thought. Tuuya sounded much friendlier. 

The two rainbow drinkers came to a beautifully carved stone case, several feet tall and across with mother-of-pearl and gold decorating its handles, swirling designs twining together almost like spirals…for some reason, it made Tuuya feel resentful. 

It was all so gaudy, too. It practically begged for attention.

“It’s very…bright.” They said, trying not to make their distaste too obvious as Inshii opened it to reveal…something. 

Spiderwebs? No, the white shapes were wrong for that, the structures more solid, with odd clusters in between the strands. 

The butterfly swarm snorted, their lips curling up slightly at the ends.

“My sibling didn’t have much in the way of taste.” They said dryly. “They were the youngest of us. Ozryel’s favorite. I am the oldest…not that it matters much, anymore.” 

They waited a few moments - for what, the worm swarm was unsure - then shook their head.

“Of course you won’t know how to work it. Still, if there was enough of Lleios in you to survive Ozryel’s blood, you can certainly manage this. Let a few of yourself out. Look back about two hundred and fifty sweeps. That’s when they died. See if you can tell who killed them and why.”

Hesitant, suddenly worried about what they’d see if they did this, Tuuya bit their lip. Yet they did let a few worms out of their hand, instinctively opened their small mouths to gently bite into the intricately woven white strands -

Back. Back so far the trees in the forest outside the cavern weren’t even saplings. Back so far they saw clothing that hadn’t been worn in over three thousand sweeps. 

Forward. They saw - Rhyssa, yes, that was her name, they saw Inshii, and Gallen - other swarms too, crab and flea and moth, several others -

They saw Ozryel, far more lively, her movements quick and darting despite her size. They saw her smile, spreading her feathered wings in a gesture of welcome to her children.

A rush of memories flooded past them, so many, so so many - they cried out, struggling, writhing, how could they do this? How could they find one point of time in this endless abyss of thoughts and feelings and recollections?

They felt a pressure, distantly. As if their shoulders were being covered with butterflies, wings slowly flapping and rustling. They breathed deeply. They could do this. They didn’t have a choice.

If they were honest, part of them wanted to know.

Slowly, they wiggled their way through the mass of information, searching for a time before they’d been hatched…but not too far back. Mere moments for Lleios, a decent chunk of life for them.

Sunlight. Beautiful green hills. 

A small hive with a jade microscopium symbol on the door.

Their breath caught.

Rhomox. Oh god, it was their ancestor, younger, with no gray in his hair, his horns shorter and with three spines like their own.

They were so shocked they withdrew, their perspective of the situation moving back, and thanked every divinity imaginable they did -

Because Lleios kissed him.

“Bleugh!” They said, jolting out of the memory in disgust, their worms recoiling and going back in their skin. “What - what the - what the HELL was that?!”

“What did you see?” Inshii asked. Their butterflies were no longer on Tuuya’s shoulders, a few flitting around the false violet’s troll body as their fins twitched.

“Your sibling KISSED my ancestor!” The worm swarm complained, hardly caring that they were being loud, arms curled around themself. Oh god. Horrible.

The other drinker looked slightly surprised, then shrugged.

“They were like that.” They deadpanned. “The amount of times I had to drag them away from bars before they tried to seduce half the trolls there…it was all a game to them. They were the only one of us like that. A side effect of their purpose, I suppose.”

Tuuya stared. What the hell did that mean? Was there an assigned job that turned you into a classless floozy? There was nothing wrong with sleeping around, but toying with people like that…how cruel and undignified.

Ozryel’s favorite child. Clearly the two had deserved each other.

“Go back in.” Said Inshii. “This is useful, but we need more information.”

The worm swarm folded their arms.

“If I have to see them kissing more, you are paying my therapy bills. Honestly, I’m just as shocked about Rhomox! The man never showed any interest in a single troll when I knew him, and I thought it was because he was too obsessed with his project.

Besides, he had all the appeal of rotten eggs. I’m disappointed in both of them, but on the other hand I suppose they were meant to be in their mutual horribleness.”

They paused.

“Oh god he WAS too obsessed with his project, oh god what - ”

“Go back in before you have a fit.” The false violet said, voice betraying a hint of impatience. 

Their mouth wobbled and stretched across their face, but they sighed, let themself back out again, and entered the memories where they left off.

This time they saw the two working together. Lleios offered their worms - offered? 

What? 

The first worm swarm had a wide, sharp smile on their face almost twin to Tuuya’s own (only lacking their buckteeth), handing themself over to the jadeblood willingly. They looked perfectly at ease, languid and confident as they laid back on a sofa in what they assumed was Rhomox’s hive.

He took them with a nod, and turned to a table full of scientific equipment they remembered from their youth. The surreal nature of it all made them dizzy.

Why? Why had Lleios done it? They’d always blamed Rhomox for his terrible, stupid idea…but it was this bastard’s fault too! How could they? Giving themself to a man like that? 

They flicked through other scenes - skipping past the intimate ones with disgust - but the two were just…a couple, even if a strange one. They went out together. Argued. Chased each other around their hives. Exchanged gifts.

Two sweeps. This had gone on for two whole sweeps.

Then…

A letter. Kaningård - the cavern Tuuya and Rhomox came from - threatened to cut off his funding. Despite everything, they wish they could have screamed a warning to the other drinker as they read it.

They knew all too well what that thoughtful, reserved look from their ancestor signified.

They slowed down the pace of the memories, all of them curled up and sluggish with dread, as it came to the inevitable conclusion.

Rhomox used some mist he sprayed to paralyze them. Lleios laid on the floor of their own hive, utterly still except for their mouth, yet…they weren’t angry. Their face only showed a sad sort of amusement. A kind of resignation in those ancient green eyes.

Their ancestor knelt down next to his partner. He stroked their face, their hair.

“I’m sorry.” He said, in a voice nearly empty of emotion, yet his brows knit together in the way they did when he was sincere, the rare times when he truly cared about what he was doing.

“I don’t have a choice. I need all of you, and I can’t risk you interfering. You could change your mind any time and choose to ruin me. I know how you feel about the caverns.”

“Ah, now why would I resent them so?” Murmured Lleios. “They sent me a way out.”

Rhomox paused, taking his hand back. His ears flicked in confusion as they continued.

“I’m tired, dear. Ozryel won’t let us go if we want to, did you know that? My siblings couldn’t have died any other way but by her own will. Maybe that’s what they really hoped for when they tried to kill her. Despite how I begged for their lives, perhaps they’re better off. I’m ready to see them again. This time I’ve spent with you…well, I do hope you don’t feel led on.” They said, cracking a half-hearted grin.

The jadeblood didn’t move. Lleios waited for a moment, then coughed.

“Rhomox…this only ends one way. Don’t tell me you’re getting cold feet, now. Not a good look for you. Kill me like you mean it, you rotten robber baron. You know you want to. Get whatever glory you feel you were so cruelly denied by those stuffy old broads.”

Their expression turned smug.

“Besides, I am better than anything you could’ve come up with on your own.”

Hesitant, but resolute, their ancestor took out a syringe filled with a dangerous-looking cloudy liquid. Something in its gleam instinctively made Tuuya very, very afraid.

“Aah.” breathed the first worm swarm. “So you did succeed…I suspected so.” 

They shut their eyes.

“Good day, love.” They said sleepily. “Make something interesting of me.” 

The syringe went down.

“He killed them.” They said quietly. “Rhomox…he killed them, stripped their mind away and took their body for science, but they wanted to die. He…he regretted it. If he regretted it then why did he do it?!” 

They yelled the last two words, slamming a fist into the stone container, not caring that it hurt, that their bones cracked slightly. 

“Why am I nothing more than the corpse of his lover and the meddlings of his wretched experiments?! Why couldn’t he have been fucking normal, and none of this would’ve ever happened and I never would’ve had to exist at all!”

“Stop.” said Inshii firmly, pinning their limbs back with clouds of butterflies. “Stop, you’ll hurt yourself further.”

“I DON’T CARE!” screamed Tuuya, struggling, unable to get free. 

“I deserve it! I’ve always deserved it, ever since I was hatched! Ever since I was a little girl, I was sick in my mind! No wonder, when that wretch spawned me! I was nothing compared to him!”

Their pupils were the thinnest of slits as they heaved, their entire body writhing under their skin.

“And Lleios! What the fuck was wrong with them? Why did they want Rhomox of all people to kill them? Why did they actually seem to care about him? The rest of you couldn’t give the faintest hint of a da - ”

They stopped, rigid. 

A side effect of their purpose…

They stared directly into Inshii’s violet eyes.

“Ozryel made them that way.”

The butterfly swarm had the grace to meet their gaze and nod slowly.

“Ozryel made them that way to collect blood for her more easily, so they could get trolls to trust them. That’s why they were the youngest, the last one. It went wrong, didn’t it? Oh, it all went wrong, they cared about a troll so much they let him send them down to hell, and she lost her favorite.” They spat. 

Then they went limp, eyes wide.

“Ozryel made them that way, and that’s why…that’s why…”

Oh, no. No.

Tuuya tried to cover their face in their hands, and found the butterflies let them as they wept softly.

“That’s why I can care.”

They’d always wondered why they’d only been able to develop empathy after losing their trollhood. It had never made any sense…until now.

This time Inshii picked them up carried them in their arms, and the second worm was too spent to resist.

Tuuya’s consciousness slipped away, and they welcomed the release with relief.

—

They gasped and opened their eyes, surrounded by massive green worms again. This had happened before, hadn’t it?

Ozryel loomed over them in the distance, even more vast than usual as she bared her massive fangs. Her anger surged through them, crackling like lightning, but they hardly cared.

You! You killed Lleios!

“Wrong Vannyn.” They muttered, tired and out of it. “Lleios died sweeps before I ever hatched. I ate Rhomox, you know. You should be thanking me.”

Even that thought didn’t bring them any of its usual joy. 

Ozryel paused, then shifted, turning around in disgust.

I don’t want to see your face. You look just like him. Murderer. Manipulator. 

They barked a bitter laugh at that, trying to shift in the worms, but they were simply constricted tighter.

“Please. Lleios wanted to die, and given how you treat the others? I don’t blame them! Only smart choice they ever made, even if we got me out of it. Terrible end result, I agree, and Rhomox was a bastard, but you might as well get over it.”

Ozryel hissed, but didn’t move. The large worms grew still around them.

“You’re never getting them back, but you won’t kill me, will you? Even their shadow would be gone then. You can’t bear to let the last piece of them go, even if I wear his face - and let’s be honest, you also hate Rhomox because they chose him instead. Ooh, you can’t stand that, hm? Your favorite chose a troll over you.”

For some reason, while they felt satisfied after giving their little speech, an odd sort of yearning coursed through them as well. Why did their last words feel so meaningful? Large chunks of their memory were still missing, blank spots whose size they could only guess at.

Ozryel was silent for a minute. Then she laughed, a harsh crackling noise.

Do you know what happens when you choose trolls? I hid this from you, for your own sake.

They saw a silverblooded woman, ripped open, her organs full of worms that also writhed around her ribs and the remains of her throat. A whiteblooded man, his fins chewed off, his sockets empty and ragged from his eyes having been devoured. A fuchsia-maroon cusp, hardly recognizable from the loss of her face to a mass of worms, her limbs overflowing with them. 

Kamala. Channi. Jaskir. Their quadrants. Oh god, they had quadrants!

Uunive, dead to a bite - Klirro’s bite, how had they forgotten? How had they forgotten the DeVilles and Rhyssa? 

Ailene, rotting alone in the forest, abandoned, her little body even smaller in death. 

Tuuya sobbed. The big worms vanished, but all the rainbow drinker could do was curl into a ball, arms wrapped around themself on the rocky floor.

It was hopeless. What could they trust to be real? Had everything…had even Inshii’s presence, Lleios’s memories been a hallucination? They couldn’t be sure. They didn’t know what they’d lose next.

Maybe…maybe it was better if they simply surrendered. If it was true, if there was nothing left to fight for, maybe they were better off just collecting blood for her for the rest of their nights.

Ozryel shrieked in pain, and they looked up, so surprised their ears flicked directly upward.

“Choke on your own entrails, hag!” Yelled a high-pitched, childish voice from above them. 

Something - someone very small - kicked the creature directly in her oversize teeth. Ozryel writhed, despite how much bigger she was, her pincer-like mandibles snapping. She twisted away like she’d been burned, but the troll kicked her again, and again, biting and clawing at her, until she crumbled to small green worms…which then crumbled to dust, blowing away into nothingness.

Tuuya’s jaw dropped open.

What?

They blinked, and the small, thin child stood a few feet in front of them. She was no older than four sweeps, with a green and white striped bow in her wavy hair. She looked at them mockingly, with a smile that, while lacking long needle-sharp teeth, was otherwise the same it had always been. 

Tuuya’s breath caught.

“Cestoa?” 

The name was a whisper in their barely parted mouth as they extended a cautious hand to touch her own. Afraid yet reverent, their ears flicked in long-buried shame as they stared at her face. 

She slapped at their fingers with mild scorn, a disciplinary swat. They took their hand back, chastened, as she walked a little further away before looking back with an amused, frustrated expression.

“Of course, stupid.” Came the high-pitched wriggler’s voice, scornful and self-assured. 

“Haven’t forgotten what you looked like, huh? Old idiot. Just like him.” She remarked dismissively, spinning around as her gray dress twirled with her. 

The stone around them rippled with the motion of the fabric, the cavern walls swaying like trees in a breeze. Tuuya could barely speak. 

Here she was, their own child-self, yet they were lost for words.

“Yes, you are kind of pathetic.” She said casually, as if plucking the thought from their mind. The mossy cavern walls shook and crumbled slightly.

“What’s the point of being a monster if you’re going to be so lame, huh? You’ve basically given up.”

They bared their teeth.

“I’ve fought her as best I can. I’m exhausted and I barely can tell what’s real anymore! For all I know - for all I know Uunive is actually dead, and she’s been tricking me the whole time. For - for all I know she really has m-made me eat m-my q-quadrants and Ailene is gone too.” They said, voice shaky, breaking into a sob.

“Whine, whine, moan, complain.” Retorted the jade girl airily. 

“If they’re dead there’s nothing you can do for them. If they’re alive you need to get back to them, I guess.” She made a disgusted noise, and pointed a finger at them accusingly. 

“You’re so soppy. I don’t get it at all. You could do anything you want and you fuss over mutants instead.” 

They ignored her remarks. She was an uncaring child; she didn’t know anything of hate or pity. She wouldn’t see the point for a good while.

“Cestoa, where are we going? How did you get rid of Ozryel? Where did she go?”

They walked along for a minute and their younger self didn’t answer.

“I’m not really you.” She muttered, and by now Tuuya wasn’t surprised she could sense their thoughts. 

She was only some construct of their damaged mind anyway; they were, thankfully, still sane enough to recognize she couldn’t be real. 

“You wouldn’t exist without me…but I’m more like the slurry going into the mother grub that’ll make an egg, not the egg itself. Troll Tuuya wouldn’t be here. Troll Tuuya would never have done anything with a lime grub but rip her apart with their bare hands.”

They had to laugh a little at that, darkly and dryly. 

“I’m not all that different. I still love to be vicious when it suits me…I was more honest as a troll. At least I didn’t pretend I could be good.” They said sadly, ears drooping.

“Even if I can return to my quadrants…how do I look them in the eye now? After I let Ozryel use me? I won’t blame them if they leave me once I explain what happened.” Their voice had dropped to little more than a whisper.

Cestoa turned around again and pretended to gag, sticking her tongue out.

“Enough mushy crap, or I won’t help you. We can only get where we’re going if you stop being so wet.”

“Oh, you’re helping me? That’s news.” They muttered, then felt a pang of guilt.

Cestoa laughed.

Mockingly, but not harshly. It was a high-pitched bubble of slightly vindictive joy. 

Tuuya blinked. They’d always remembered their wrigglerhood laughter as creepy. Bitter. Off-putting, like the matrons had said. Unmannerly like their terrible smile and strange fascination with death and decay. More creature than child, they’d once overheard a jade say, and the others had agreed.

The jades must have been right, all of them, because look what they’d become. Better culled as a grub; Kaningård’s matrons would still be alive. 

Cestoa had stopped.

They were deep in the caverns now, standing in the dark passages where many lusii lived before taking charges. Except here there were only scattered bones. Chewed, but the marks were small, as if from tiny, sharp teeth…

Teeth like their worms’ own.

But…they didn’t attack caverns. So why…?

They felt a chill as they noticed all the skulls had the same horns, dull colors in the low light. They curved closely over the skulls’ backs, coming to a point, spines on the tops.

Vannyns.

Cestoa knelt down and picked up a yellowed skull, large and unwieldy in her small gray hands.

“You stopped the project from killing any more, Tuuya.” She said quietly. “You stopped the empire from having a weapon and a spy network. Rhomox won’t hurt anyone ever again…and neither will Lleios.”

“Our bloodline deserves death.” They said harshly. “It would be better if we’d all never existed.” Their clenched fists trembled by their sides. 

She looked up at them with bright green eyes, clear tears like the ones they had now leaking out, the color lost along with their blood.

“So what if you’re terrible?” She demanded. “You think you’re the only one? You’re not special, Tuuya! At least you have people who love you! Don’t you - don’t you dare tell me they shouldn’t. You can’t make anyone love you…and you can’t stop anyone from loving you, either. It sucks, not having control.” she said, sniffling. 

“Sucks not being able to tell people to leave so they don’t get hurt, because duh, they will, right? Sucks because you don’t have control over whether you get hurt…much as you wish you did. Monsters aren’t supposed to hurt, we thought. Monsters are immune. Shows what we knew, huh?”

Their breath caught in their throat. 

It didn’t matter if someone like them suffered. Did it? 

It was better if they did, it was right, it was completely deserved.

“Maybe.” Cestoa said quietly, putting the skull down. “But your quads don’t agree. Your kids don’t. Ailene…I bet even she misses you, the dummy. Even if it’s just ‘cause you protect her.”

The little girl walked onward, and the cavern sloped up sharply, yet they didn’t feel winded climbing it at all. Granted, of course this wasn’t real, so they shouldn’t…and they didn’t feel as hopeless as they had before. They were still weak and hungry, but the headaches had gone.

“I guess my suffering doesn’t actually help, does it.” They murmured. “Despite everything, there are trolls who don’t like to see me in pain. It’s not nice to them, I suppose…”

Cestoa didn’t speak, but the moss on the walls glowed more brightly. 

They walked some more, and the sun blazed down as they reached the surface. Tuuya sighed in relief from its hot rays, their insides wriggling contentedly. 

Then they saw…they saw Rivali in the distance. They saw Ozryel snapping at them, ducking, weaving with frightening speed, her wings spread as she tried to bite them in two.

“Yes, they’re actually here.” said Cestoa casually. “Inshii brought you back hive. I didn’t really make Ozryel go away for good, she’s using your body to fight them right now. You’re going to have to wake up, rip your own brain apart and kill her worms to get rid of her. Full regeneration. It’s the only way.”

Tuuya swallowed. They’d figured it would probably take a measure that severe.

They turned to look at her, their pupa-self. She looked up at them calmly, her lips twitching slightly in amusement.

The rainbow drinker knelt down and hugged her. The young jade stiffened, but after a few hesitant moments, she relaxed.

“I’m sorry no one loved you.” They whispered. “I’m sorry that I still have a hard time accepting it.” 

She huffed, but there were tears in her eyes again.

“You were just a child.” She said. “Remember that.”

She melted into worms, white worms that flowed back into their body, filling them with resolve. 

“You and me, Rivali. Just like old times.” Tuuya murmured, watching the jade continue to fight their wretched relation. They waited for their chance, eager, leaning forward.

How funny, that what they wanted most in the world was for their old captor to take them down.

“You can do it, jadepup.” They whispered. “You knock me out, then you and me and Uunive can have some tea. It’ll all be all right. You followed me before, didn’t you? Even if it was more out of spite than anything. Look at you now.”

Rivali’s blade slashed down to land a wicked, destructive blow on Ozryel’s neck.

No one took any notice and Rhyssa laughed and waved a hand.

“Eh, they used to be a troll, don’t be too hard on ‘em! But really, Tuuya, ya could just grow some more spine. Ya already filled out a bit! Good job.”

“Barely.” Retorted Inshii. “Are those supposed to be hips? You’re still short and half starved.”

Putting their hands on said hips (which were just fine, thank you) Tuuya pursed their lips.

“Absolutely thrilling as hearing your thoughts is, and by the way I’m not judging you on your appearance but instead the fact that you are a prick who clearly devours far more trolls than you need to, why are you here? I assume it’s not for your delightful company.”

Rhyssa tapped her chin with a claw.

“Yeah, Shii, we weren’t expectin’ ya. Ya almost never come ‘less it’s your time for offerings. I brought Gallen for company, ain’t like this is a big job.”

Their eyebrows raised, and they gestured with their head at Tuuya.

“I want to keep an eye on you. You know how mother might react.”

Concern? From this creature? Maybe they weren’t completely a sour bastard.

Rhyssa’s mouth pulled back tightly, and her shoulders slumped. 

“Yeah, I know.” She mumbled. “But what are we gonna do, for crying out loud? We’re it. I have to know. Lookin’ at another…however long it’s gonna be, just us. I’m tired, Shii, even if you ain’t. I’ll roll those dice.”

They rolled their eyes.

“I’ll be ready if she gets aggressive. I’m there now and at the moment, she’s asleep.”

A distant rumble from beneath shook the ground, and Inshii looked at the case part of Gallen carried.

“Though perhaps it’s wise you brought that, given what we came for.”

Then the false violet eyed Tuuya again.

“Are you going to come willingly? Or do I have to carry you.”

The smaller swarm snorted, trying not to show their fear over what the hell that vibration had been. Some sort of tiny earthquake?

“I’d like to see you try.”

Truthfully, they knew they were far, far outmatched by the presence of the other swarms. Rhyssa and Gallen would have been bad enough, but Inshii as well? Their chances of escape were basically in the negatives by this point, and even if they could, Rhyssa would simply slaughter Uunive. They were utterly trapped. 

Inshii stepped over and picked them up before throwing them over their shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

Tuuya shrieked in protest and kicked at their back.

“Put me down!”

They heard Rhyssa crack up but ignored her in favor of trying to bite the butterfly swarm with some worms - realizing their mistake when Inshii bit back with razor sharp proboscises, shredding some of them into loose segments and teeth.

They hissed and stretched themself out, wriggling out of the older drinker’s grasp before launching themself off and landing (with a slight wobble) on their feet and dusting themself off as they put their troll form back to normal. And now their clothes were disheveled as well as damp! Honestly.

Rhyssa was absolutely losing it and Gallen had a hand to his face that was clearly covering a smile as he shook with silent laughter. Tuuya huffed and crossed their arms as Inshii’s gaze swept over them all disapprovingly.

“Oh shoot Shii, looks like they’re still too slippery for you! You’re old!”

‘Old and creaky’, signed Gallen. They understood that much at least.

“Soooo creaky.”

Inshii gave the two of them a judgmental look, fins twitching as they turned in the other direction.

“I’m turning off my hearing aids until we get there.” They deadpanned, and did so with a gentle tap to one of the silver sinews of the device.

So they too lacked something, though unlike the others they’d found a way to compensate. Why hadn’t Rhyssa and Gallen done the same?

The wasp swarm nudged her brother with her elbow and giggled, and Gallen flipped off Inshii behind their back.

“Speaking of - good job being better fed, little sibling, look after yourself more often!” 

The pleased tone to her voice immediately made Tuuya disgusted with themself. It was tempting to let their extra weight dissolve to spite her…but they might need those worms. 

It was a sickening thing to do, wasn’t it. Consuming more dead trolls and live blood to maintain a softer body. They deserved to be thin and starved, barely getting by. That was the only way to be truly moral. 

Watching the other swarms reminded them what kind of creature they really were. Greedy, selfish, and disgusting. Unfit company for anyone.

“And how are we getting past this?” They asked with derision, gesturing at the wall.

Rhyssa and Gallen looked at each other and laughed, the latter silently. They grinned as one and looked remarkably alike with their needle-toothed smiles, despite the different faces and builds. Tuuya hated the resemblance to their own expressions.

The pair stood side by side and both posed, Rhyssa as if she were dancing, Gallen more solidly as if he were blocking a blow.

A vast swarm of white wasps and isopods flew and crawled out of the holes in the wall, and then the wasps began pulling it. 

Tuuya’s jaw hung open slightly as they realized the whole thing was a massive hive.

A hive doubling as a pair of doors, pulled by the isopods as the wasps circled and flittered out of its holes. Rhyssa laughed, her arms outstretched to embrace the rest of herself as she brushed her own little pieces, two parts of a whole enjoying their unity. 

Tuuya knew that feeling. Nothing could compare to that kind of joy in oneness yet being many. 

They looked away from her, watching Gallen instead. He was more even as the wall parts of himself clustered around his feet and on his skin after opening the door, but he still smiled.

They shouldn’t be happy. None of them should be happy.

A troll couldn’t, shouldn’t ever trust a monster who was happy to be a monster. Because if you were happy to be strange and dangerous and unsettling who knew what you might do? If you were miserable, if you were restrained, at least it showed you were self-aware.

Unlike you, they were hatched this way. They never had a choice. A voice in their head whispered reproachfully.

The worm swarm entered the mouth of the cave with the others, hearing the massive doors swing shut behind them as they walked further in, going deeper into the earth.

The cave itself was too even and regular to have not been shaped by troll - or swarm - hands. Tuuya wondered which it was. Could these wretches actually create anything on their own? Or were they solely parasites, always stealing and mimicking from those they fed on.

Patches of luminescent moss provided dim light to see by, but it wasn’t a lot - Tuuya turned their glow on, then realized the others had already done so, looking at them in amusement. They felt, stupidly, slightly embarrassed but also defiant. It had been two sweeps now since they’d lived underground -

Their foot hit something and they looked down and noticed, under the dirt and dust of ages, tiles. They nudged some dirt aside, squinted…and gasped.

They knew that style of tile, the curling grub design on it, knew the civilization it had once belonged to, withered to nothing countless sweeps hence.

They looked up sharply.

“This was a jade cavern.” They said accusingly. “A long, long time ago.”

Inshii wasn’t paying attention, hearing aids off, but Gallen and Rhyssa exchanged looks.

“Well, yeah.” The wasp swarm said, sounding slightly baffled. “What else was it gonna be?”

The worm swarm had no retort to that. They kept walking, the light of the four of them casting sharp shadows across the floor and walls as the passages grew wider, some splitting off in other directions, but always the other three led them deeper down.

They came to a room bigger than the others so far, a room that unlike everything they’d seen so far was clearly well maintained.

Well maintained and covered with unbelievably gorgeous art.

Tuuya looked over the giant murals on the walls with wide eyes, walking closer. They were painted in a hundred colors, no, a thousand. Every surface had delicately carved textures, they saw as they walked closer - the veins on leaves, the grooves of wood, the rough-scraped texture meant to represent sand.

On a stone dais in the center of the room, fifteen circles were carved. One in the center was a skull-like face with horns. In each of the other fourteen smaller circles, an animal was carved with incredibly fine detail. They wandered closer, curious.

Crab. Flea. Fly. Mosquito. 

Worm.

They looked over at Rhyssa sharply.

“There were others.”

A statement, but one that carried the expectation of a question. 

Rhyssa, Gallen, and Inshii all looked at each other, then turned their heads as one toward the worm swarm.

“There were others.” Inshii agreed, flicking their aids back on, voice for once lacking any hint of superiority or disdain. Was that sadness? Remorse? Their fins drooped, their expression unreadable. Then their voice hardened.

“We must hurry.”

Another rumble came, but this time far louder. Tuuya nearly fell over as the floor shook beneath their feet, and a bit of dust fell from the ceiling. It was over just as quickly as the other, but their ears pinned back. 

Just what were Rhyssa and Inshii so urgent about?

They all moved at nearly a run now, winding their way downward, through one room of broken eggshells, bizarrely enough - how had those not decayed? - and finally, they slowed, entering a vast cave, chill and dry. 

Blearily, they looked up, and their ears flattened as their eyes grew wide.

In the dim light of the glowing moss they could see the outline of a vast, coiled shape. It was…white. Segmented.

They shivered.

Feathered wings lay folded along its sides, and while they couldn’t clearly see the head from how the body lay, they glimpsed a pair of horns.

Horns that reminded them of a warped mother grub’s.

“No.” They whispered. “Please, no.”

Rhyssa looked at them with an odd tilt to her mouth as her wasps buzzed, confused yet pitying.

“There’s one way to test if you really are some sort of…descendant of our sibling, Lleios.” Inshii said, sounding both skeptical and vaguely disgusted, as a few white butterflies hovered around their troll form.

“Drink Ozryel’s blood.”

“What will that do?” Tuuya asked flatly, wearily. Their initial fear was tapering off, and all they felt down in this dark place, facing this creature who should have never existed, was resignation. 

Inshii shrugged.

“If you are our kin, you’ll live. If you aren’t, you’ll die. Only her children can dine on her and survive.”

Rhyssa was practically leaning forward in eagerness, while Gallen looked intrigued but more reserved. 

Oddly, Tuuya found they now hardly felt anything at either prospect. What did it matter if they were related to these monsters or not? That didn’t make them family. Rhomox hadn’t been their family.

Their family was Uunive. Their family was Channi and Jaskir and Kamala. Their family was - even though she shouldn’t be - Ailene. 

If they died down here, it wasn’t much of a loss.. 

They only regretted that their quadrants would never know what happened. Uunive would be happier with them gone. She must hate them, as she deserved to. Ailene would move on, find someone else sympathetic to protect her, like Faerin or Claire. She was a tough little survivor.

Everyone else would also move on. That was the point of them. To be replaceable.

“Mother.” Inshii said, loudly. “Wake up. We brought the worm…possibly.”

The giant creature stirred, then shifted - slowly as she scraped and shuffled against the rock and dirt - until she faced them. Her visage resembled a mother grub’s, just like her horns. Yet no mother grub had ever had such a warped, skeletal face or feathered wings instead of insectoid. No mother grub had three sets of eyes, wickedly long fangs, or - they saw as they lit up - glowing jade spots along each segment of her body. 

The worm is dead, she insisted.

Tuuya felt her voice in their head rather than heard it. Made sense - how could she possibly talk physically? 

Have you woken me for nothing?

She clicked her fangs together in threat, snapping them only inches away from the butterfly swarm’s face. 

“Lleios is dead.” Corrected Inshii, who hadn’t moved an inch, seemingly unbothered by this behavior.

“This worm has none of their memories. But they could still technically be our kin, if Rhyssa is correct.”

The false seadweller cast a look at their sister, who put her hands on her hips in annoyance, pouting.

“An offering, mother.” Said Inshii, several butterflies fluttering around Gallen now.

Ozryel didn’t wait - with one outstretched leg she yanked the case away from her son, opened it, and drank the blood within it in seconds.

Not enough. But I will hear you out for now.

“Please test them, mother, so we can know.” The tallest child of Ozryel sounded bored and impatient, as if this was a mere inconvenience in their night.

The creature’s great head tilted slightly, and her sixfold gaze turned to the smallest swarm.

Do you feel you belong here, foreign worm? Is any of this familiar? 

Tuuya shook their head. It wasn’t. Yet…part of them did feel comfortable deep in this abandoned place. Part of them couldn’t ignore how much they looked like this abomination, or the way they resembled the other swarms.

But how could it be true?

“I was made in a lab.” They said quietly. “My ancestor modified a thoughtless rainbowdrinker parasite into a thinking colony, one using a troll as a pattern for its shape. I told Rhyssa this.”

So why did they respond to her wasps unconsciously, as they had in the forest? Why could they both make constructs the same way?

Ozryel leaned in closer, enough so that even in the dim white light of the swarms’ bodies they could see deep scars marring her face, cloudy cataracts across all of her faintly glowing eyes. Her fangs were yellowed but wickedly sharp, and she smelled of dust and decay. A shudder ran through her vast, pale body and the ground shook slightly. 

They wondered just how ancient she was, if her children were at least four thousand sweeps. 

You are honest, she decided. The worm was always honest with me too. The most true of all my children.

Inshii’s lip curled, and Rhyssa buzzed in what they guessed was resentment. Only Gallen seemed untroubled by his mother’s words.

I will give you my blood.

She arched her neck and bit down on it with those massive fangs, but the gush of fluid Tuuya expected didn’t happen. Instead only a few slow, hand-sized globules came out, a dark and foul-smelling hue of jade that made even them want to gag. They were tempted to put a hand over their nose, but knew there was no point. They might as well get it over with.

Taking a deep breath, they stepped forward as Ozryel dipped her spindly gray foreleg into the viscous matter and held it out to them. 

They held up their own hand to let some of it drop on their palm, wrinkled their nose, and licked it off.

Immediately they felt nauseous and aching, falling to their knees on the cavern floor. They coughed and hacked, their head feeling like it would split open with agony. When Firebird had nearly burned them to death it had hurt almost as much, and back then they hadn’t felt like they were going to come apart worm by worm, chewing at their own skin to get out.

The torment grew so high they screamed as they had at the clinic, throat raw from their own voice.

Tuuya longed to die just for relief, any relief, just to not exist anymore writhing in this forgotten place, far from anyone they’d ever loved.

As minutes passed, the pain slowly began to lessen. 

First bit by bit, then to the point where they were aware of their surroundings again, seeing Ozryel’s children all standing over them with varying expressions of shock and disbelief.

“I knew it.” Breathed Rhyssa, awestruck and euphoric. “I knew you had to be one of us.”

Gallen nodded and signed, ‘It seems you are our little sibling.’

Only Inshii quickly covered their surprise with a cool expression. They examined their manicured claws as they spoke with derision. 

“They aren’t pure as Lleios was. Something has corroded their true essence. Some sort of genetic engineering, I’d wager, if what they said about their ancestor is true.”

“Oh shut up.” The wasp swarm snapped, several of her rising in an aggravated thrumming cloud around her head and shoulders.

“You’re mad cause you were wronger than a donkey walking backwards into a briar patch!”

Inshii once more did not move, the few butterflies they had out flitting about with no urgency as they stared back at their sister as she tore off her bandanna to show her hollow eye sockets crawling with wasps, needle teeth bared. 

“They’re weak, Rhyssa. They’re barely any use to us.”

Gallen knelt down and picked Tuuya up with his broad, strong arms, carrying them away from the bickering siblings before he sat down on a nearby mossy rock. Still raw from their misery, they had no will to resist him, limbs limp as a rag doll.

Ozryel said nothing, but they saw her dip her head to watch her arguing offspring, listening to their words.

The isopod swarm took out a phone and tapped on it, then showed them the glowing screen.

It’ll get better. They always fight like this at first.

“Do they now.” Mumbled Tuuya. They were starting to feel slightly better, but best to act like they were still weak. 

Always have. Maybe a couple centuries where they didn’t, but that’s not much.

They almost laughed. Oh no, not much at all. It sounded like something Channi would say.

“What about you? Do you ever fight with anyone?”

Not really. Never seemed worth it. I endure. I don’t sting or stick a proboscis into my problems. 

“What a polite fellow you are.” They said, still making sure their tone sounded drowsy. 

Gallen became stiffer and they looked up slowly to see Ozryel had shifted to look at the pair of them instead. Inshii and Rhyssa had gone quiet, both pointedly not looking at each other and staring at the other two swarms instead.

“Well don’t all tell me what’s happening at once.” Mumbled the worm. “I hate feeling so included.”

They could have stood up on their own by this point, but the isopod’s arms were comfortable and they had a charade to keep up.

The butterfly says we can’t trust you, and the wasp regretfully agrees. Ozryel said. So I must watch you until you learn to be loyal on your own. 

Tuuya kept their ears lowered with effort. That didn’t sound good. 

“What is it that you want me to do?” Asked the rainbow drinker casually, though they were pretty sure they knew given how they’d first encountered Rhyssa.

Gather blood. It was always the worm’s duty to bring me offerings, harvesting trolls to make up for their weakness. The wasp tells me you are clever as the first was, and know many trolls already. This will be easy for you.

They almost let their feelings show in a snarl, in a stiffening of their body. But they had to play along, or who knew what would happen to Uunive? So they buried their fury under a mild expression of curiosity.

“Maybe. Not all of them know I’m a rainbow drinker.”

Though nearly everyone did, and most knew what they truly were. 

You will do fine. I have faith in you, but after what happened once…I must be sure. I am curious to finally see the outside world for myself, thanks to you. 

“Hm? What’s that now?” They replied, tone casual as their mind raced furiously. What was she going to do to them? It sounded like - like what they’d done to their cavern jades. 

Gallen gently stood up and deposited them on the ground, then stepped back. 

Ozryel bent down, and out of the same foreleg still coated in now-dried blood, a small worm pushed its way out. 

It looked - it looked like them, segmented, about the same size  - and yet not. It was pale green instead of white, and as it opened its mouth it had no teeth. 

It had multiple tongues curling from its maw. Tendrils. They stepped back in fear. What was this warped mirror of them? 

Be not afraid, second worm. It won’t hurt if you don’t struggle. 

It coiled up and sprung into their eye, drinking in the jelly as it wriggled into their socket, seeking the brain. 

The false worm burrowed deep into their gray matter, feasting on the worms nestled within, replacing them with silk spun from its tendrils to keep the organ together. 

Tuuya thrashed and struggled, glowed blindingly, screamed so loudly that Gallen and Rhyssa covered their ears as their faces scrunched up in pain, that Inshii turned their hearing aids off.

They lay there again, still, as Ozryel’s fluke finished its work.

Then they rose to their feet slowly, stiff and unnatural. Anyone who knew the rainbow drinker would have said they didn’t move as they usually did, limber and free with their gestures, their ever-changing facial expressions. Instead they looked blank and slack, their ears still, staring straight ahead. 

Then they shook and settled into a more relaxed position, almost the same once more, with a gentle smile of wonder on their face.

Uunive shifted again, her long strands of hair splayed across her chest and shoulders. They remembered when she had just barely pupated, growing them out for the first time, so proud of her newfound girlhood. They had felt ready to burst with happiness alongside her; not a son, but a daughter! The most lovely daughter in the world.

Would she be a drinker when she woke? It seemed likely, though who could say what Klirro’s intentions had been - if she’d had any at all, damned senseless horrorterror. 

They prayed Uunive would be able to subsist on blood, with no need for flesh-eating. It would be hard enough for her as it was.

What would become of her dream to sneak mutant and lime grubs to safety? 

No. They couldn’t think about that right now. 

They sighed, running a hand through their wavy hair as they felt leaden with exhaustion. More immediately, what were they going to tell her cavern? Her superior matrons must be wondering where she was. They hadn’t even tried to contact Daudre yet, and their main phone was currently off in case the DeVilles were tracking it. They’d have to find another burner one to use, they’d only had one spare on them. 

They made Uunive a cup of steaming passionfruit hibiscus tea - her favorite - and left it on the day table next to her in case she woke up soon. 

They nearly tripped on a slightly warped floorboard while walking out and shook their head blearily, arms out to right themself as their feet struggled to cooperate. Stupid. Clumsy, even. 

But it was hard to give even a passing thought to their hunger when all they could think of was Uunive.

A knock from the door.

They went rigid. No one except Chimer was meant to know they were here. 

Then they forced themself to untwist from the knots they’d started to tie in themself, for their limbs to relax. There could be any number of explanations.

Yet most trolls wouldn’t visit as the sun was coming up.

They peered out a window and sighed as they swore softly in Svenska. 

Of course it was Rhyssa.

They couldn’t fight her. They were no match for her on a normal night, not without heavy weaponry and ideally backup, and right now they doubted they could win a scrap with a half-rotted zombie.

With a groan, they reluctantly plodded over to the front door and opened it.

Rhyssa wore a wide smile, empty eye sockets covered by her usual bandanna, and held her arms open. Tuuya squinted at her. They were never going to accept her hugs. 

Especially not now, when they had a pretty good idea of why she was here.

She dropped her arms after a moment, looking slightly disappointed.

“Let me guess; you were involved with the fucking DeVilles.” They spat, arms crossed as their glare pierced her covered face. “I shouldn’t be surprised! They’d normally never have the guts. Honestly, I’m just unimpressed you didn’t have the gumption to do it yourself! I don’t know what stopped you, we both know I’m weaker.”

Silence curled around the two swarms as the younger creature’s accusation hung in the air.

Then she shrugged, the wasps outside her main body flicking their clear wings. 

“There was no other way to get your attention, sugar. I didn’t know it was gonna go so sour, promise on Mama they were told not to touch your little lime. You want revenge on that terror of theirs? I can help. She’s strong, but she’s cracked.”

They stared at her, bright green eyes hateful and deadly serious.

“Why. Did you not. Do it yourself. Why play games with me, Rhyssa? Did you think you could get away with it? What was your plan, exactly? Blackmail? Did you hope I wouldn’t know it was you? Did you think I’d ever give up trying to get my daughter back? Fuck you.” 

They tried to close the door but she grabbed it and held it open. They let go, arms trembling. 

“Tuuya.” She said, just as serious, and the wasps hovering around her buzzed darkly, low pitched as their antennae twitched. “I didn’t wanna have to do this. I don’t want you to hate me, honey, not more than you already do. But it ain’t just about want anymore.” 

Her mouth pulled into a grimace, and for a moment Tuuya believed she actually regretted this catastrophe. That she felt some sliver of remorse about her actions, that some force beyond her made this an act of necessity.

Then they snorted at the very thought.

“I repeat unto thee: fuck you! You killed my daughter - “

“You mean the one lyin’ in there slowly turning into one of us, real delicate all the while?” said Rhyssa casually. “That daughter?”

Tuuya went cold, cold as their moirail’s icy blood.

Of course she knew. It wasn’t as if the hive was proofed against things like her and them. They’d just proved how easy it was to slip into the DeVilles’ clinic. Wriggler’s play for a swarm, and unlike them, Rhyssa had wings and eyes on every part of her.

“What do you want.” They said, resigned. No matter what, they couldn’t risk Uunive dying for real. Whatever the wretched woman asked for, they had no choice.

She broke out in a wide, needle-toothed smile they knew and hated. Their ears pressed against their wavy hair in dread.

“Aw, it's easy! We’re goin’ to meet Mama. We say hello, see if she likes ya, and then we’ll figure out the rest.”

Tuuua stared at her with pure disdain and disbelief, lip curling. If this actually wound up that being simple and painless, they were a fuchsia. 

“Fine, whatever. Take me to Ozryel.”

—

Rhyssa had a car.

A clearly very old car, given the signs of wear on the paint and tires, but despite those it seemed to be in very good condition. Tuuya’s ears flicked in surprise. 

They paused, looking at her half-covered face.

“How do you even drive?”

She pouted, hands on her wide hips. 

“Y’think you’re the only one that forms constructs? Just ‘cause I can’t do troll eyes no more doesn’t mean I ain’t able to make a bigger one of me to look ahead.”

Tuuya blinked at her petulant tone. It figured, they supposed. They’d just done their best to ignore her as much as possible until now. So if she’d mentioned it before they’d certainly tried to forget.

“Right.” They said, trying not to dwell on how hungry they were. They dearly hoped she wasn’t going to take them near any trolls; they weren’t sure they could control themself, even if they took a suppressant.

A sharp pang ran through their body and they shuddered, every part of them aching for blood.

Don’t be stupid, they thought at their individual worms savagely. I don’t deserve to eat. I ought to starve for what I let happen. If I just dropped into hibernation -

Rhyssa’s hand closed on their shoulder and they jumped, but barely, not having the energy.

“You need food.” She said in a soft voice, a voice they hated even more than her smugness. They twisted away from her - they could still do that at least.

“Unlike you.” They snarled. “I can deny myself. I will deny myself as punishment! As much as I blame you for this, as much as I blame the DeVilles for listening to your wretched self, I know damn well it’s my fault too for failing her! It’s my fault for taking her in to begin with!”

“Give her a normal life, I thought, raise her to be a regular troll - ha! Stupid. All I did was make everything worse. I didn’t know anything.” They muttered. “Uunive deserves so much better. She’s going to hate me so much. She’s going to -“

“Food. Now. C’mon.” She said, bundling them into the back seat and shutting the door behind them. They made weak noises of protest, but had no strength to resist, or even to talk much more.

They didn’t feel much of an urge to remain conscious. They didn’t ever have to sleep…but why bother staying awake? The worm swarm slid down on the worn, comfortable back seat that smelled of honey, eyes closing.

—

They woke up feeling full, and a hand to their belly confirmed it: their form was laden with blood, worms curling contentedly under their skin. 

They groaned, and their eyes fluttered open. Where were the no doubt numerous skeletons - oh.

There weren’t any, only various bloodstained containers scattered about on the car seat and floor. They were still in the car, and Rhyssa had put a blanket on them. They had stopped, and the wasp swarm was nowhere to be seen. . 

So how…?

They sat up, adjusting the blanket around their shoulders (It was soft, okay, and it also smelled like honey). 

They were far from where they’d started - Tuuya didn’t recognize this place out of the car windows at all and the sun was much higher in the sky. They pressed a hand to a cold pane, wishing they had breath to fog it up and draw in with a finger like trolls did, but all they could produce were a scarce few droplets. 

Stupid dry insides. 

They got out, looked around, and spotted Rhyssa’s large white wasp lookout she used for driving hovering ahead. Ah, that explained it, they hadn’t really thought she’d leave them unattended.

Why had she fed them that way? They were perfectly capable of eating in their sleep, goodness knows it had happened before, but Tuuya had assumed her utter disregard for troll life would mean a bundle of slaughtered bodies.

“Hey.”

There she stood, and they’d swear she hadn’t been there a few moments ago as they spun to see her.

“Where did you get that blood from?” They said, not outright hostile but with an edge to their voice.

She yawned. “Buzzed around, gathered blood from sleeping trolls with no harm done. Borin’ as watchin’ paint dry. Figured you’d rather that, though.”

They nodded, thrown by her consideration. Then their eyes narrowed.

“Did you just kill and eat them yourself after?”

She snorted.

“Sugar, I ain’t a total idiot. Why get rid of good blood? I mean it’s more filling, ain’t no doubt, but can’t always eat ‘em whole. They take time to get big enough to be decent grub, and breathin’ means meals again later.”

Ah yes, good of Rhyssa to remind them why they hated her.

“They aren’t cattle.” Tuuya hissed. “They’re people. I’ll be the first to admit they’re delicious! But their feelings and lives matter just as much as ours. I know I won’t convince you of a damn thing - I say this to remind you that I don’t care how you treat me, I am not your family, and I will never be on your side.”

Rhyssa shrugged. 

“Sure.”

They bared their teeth in annoyance, but what could they do? Get back in the car, that’s what. They had no doubt she’d left some of herself at the hive with Uunive in case they didn’t cooperate.

They drove in silence for a while. Tuuya knew that even properly fed, she had them cornered, fighting was pointless. Besides, they’d probably need it for facing Ozryel. Who knew what that creature was going to do to them?

The woods and fields changed to a wild shore, with only a few trolls and hives around as the car frequently dipped and bumped on the unkept road. Likely there were few drones out here to maintain it. 

Rhyssa drove them over to a strip of beach that seemed abandoned beneath the harsh red sunlight. As Tuuya’s eyes adjusted they noticed the white isopods scattered on the shore, scuttling about, and they glared. 

The wasp swarm huffed at them.

“Be nice. Gallen ain’t never done nothing to you.”

“Give him time.” They retorted snidely. 

The pair stood there in silence, and Tuuya stretched. At least it was nice and warm, even with the sea breeze tossing their wavy hair. Where the hell was the rest of the isopod swarm, anyway?

Rhyssa took out a phone she looked at, sighed, and knelt down to look - well, the wasps around her looked as her troll form knelt down - at one of the white creatures.

“Get up here, lazybones. We ain’t got all day. She’s not doin’ so good.”

The isopod’s antennae twitched. Then it shifted and sat on a wasp.

Rhyssa snorted.

“You think you’re real cute. Come on, or I’ll swim down there myself and you know I hate gettin’ wet. I’ll be fit to be tied if you make me drag you up like a sack of potatoes.”

Something burst out of the water and drenched the two swarms in salty spray - Tuuya hissed and let out worm tendrils, ready to fight, until they noticed Rhyssa already stinging the perpetrator…who was silently laughing, a massive, hairy man around seven feet tall nearly bent double in wordless mirth. She shoved him too, but he didn’t budge, instead elbowing her as she stung him more, but it didn’t seem to bother him at all. 

Hm. If Rhyssa had no troll eyes…did he not have a voice? They had assumed her inability to make them was just a random defect, but if he was also flawed this way, were the two problems related somehow? Why couldn’t they regenerate themselves properly as Tuuya could? 

They knew so little about them.

They shook their head, scattering droplets as they retracted their extensions. The less they knew, the better. 

Good lord he wasn’t wearing a shirt. Just a pair of rough knee-length swimming shorts. As if Rhyssa’s tacky cowgirl getup wasn’t stupid enough. 

“Do you have a shirt anywhere, or do you just go round hoping no one bumps into that heaving chest of yours? Honestly, I weep for both of you. And you just soaked my clothes, you’re lucky these weren’t a nice set.”

Rhyssa turned to look at them and frowned.

“Rude! Be nice. Doesn’t cost ya a beetle. You’re so polite to trolls.” 

The sheer bitterness in her voice almost made their ears flatten, but they tipped their chin up haughtily. They would not let her shame them.

Gallen waved a hand in dismissal. He started signing, and they knew some of the Alternian Standard form of the language, but he did it so rapidly they couldn’t tell what he was saying.

Rhyssa put her hands on her hips.

“Well, if you’re not fussed, Gal…I guess we should get going. Where’s the rest of you?”

On cue, a bunch of isopods dragging ropes came out of the waves hauling what looked like a…refrigerator? Why.

Rhyssa exhaled heavily.

“Yeah, I guess we should bring that…security’n’all. And if we have snacks on the way over ain’t neither of us tellin’ her.”

Gallen raised a hand solemnly and Rhyssa high fived him as the pair of them got it into the car. 

Tuuya pointed at them both with an accusing finger.

“I know I can’t remotely stop the pair of you, but I can promise most sincerely you’ll have to knock me out or gag me because I will not shut up if you idiots kill trolls on our trip to wherever the hell.”

Gallen blinked at them, then looked at Rhyssa.

She sighed.

“Y’see what I deal with, Gal? Y’see this shit? I don’t deserve this.”

Tuuya laughed so hard it hurt.

“You ABSOLUTELY do! You deserve so much wor -”

“Does your little lime deserve it?” She interrupted coolly, and Tuuya promptly shut up.

They hated themself for bowing so easily. For getting in the car obediently, ears pinned, throat choking up. For staying put as not too long later, Rhyssa and Gallen stopped, went out, and after a time their troll bodies came back, Rhyssa chattering cheerfully about who she’d eaten whole and who she’d left alive.

It was some kind of game to her, and from Gallen’s mild, sometimes indulgent expression, he felt the same way.

Tuuya hated themself because they knew they were just like the other swarms, despite all their trying. At their core, they were the same.

No matter how much they wanted to be different.

 They were silent during the rest of the drive, unbroken except by stops for fuel. They couldn’t find it in them to chat online or even play games on their phone. 

All they felt able to do was stare out the window as the sky grew darker again, evening coming on, as they worried about Uunive and how she was doing. Had she woken? Would she be hungry? 

They had left some blood for her in the fridge just in case, but how long would that last? How long would they be gone? 

Would they ever see her again? 

They hardly noticed when the car came to a stop for a final time - Gallen had to prod them on the shoulder to get their attention and they nearly slapped his hand away, but fear for Uunive stopped them. He hauled the container he’d brought with him out, several isopods carrying it behind the three of them as they walked together.

They’d reached a forest now, one with tall, dark pines and firs towering over the swarms’ heads. The moons had come out, both merely crescents, their thin light of little use as they followed the wasp and isopod drinkers into the trees.

How long they walked, pushing branches aside and trying not to trip on half-rotted logs, Tuuya could not say. An hour? Two? It hardly seemed to matter. They saw many animals from a distance, but all gave the parasitic creatures a wide berth. 

Except for the crows and vultures. No need to wonder why.

Tuuya recalled that Rhyssa had once said she and her siblings were at least four thousand sweeps old, probably with a few added centuries. How long had this forest seen them pass? How many generations of beasts had learned to be wary of things that looked like trolls, but did not smell or act like them? 

Rhyssa stopped suddenly as they neared the edge of the greenery.

“Gal.” She said, voice cracking. “D’you remember? D’you remember when - when we first saw the trees? We all…we didn’t know what the hell they were. Mama couldn’t tell us.”

She looked at Tuuya, and her next words sounded on the verge of tears.

“You…they…”

Gallen touched her shoulder gently. She sniffed, leaned into him.

Tuuya’s mouth twisted. They couldn’t afford any sympathy, and her words were odd. Why hadn’t Ozryel known what trees were?

Just what was she, this creature that had spawned such monstrous children? Where were they going?

They kept walking, and not long after, they slowed to a halt. The isopods dragging the refrigerated container caught up with them, now scuttling alongside the trio. 

A massive wall waited for them. It was an odd structure, uneven in shape, and they could not tell what it was made of. It looked too organic to be stone or metal, worn and weathered by time into a rough texture. Yet it must also be maintained somehow, for still it stood, despite the dips and holes in its surface. 

They thought they saw something flicker in one of the cavities, but it vanished before they could get a good look.

A fat, elegant seadweller in colorful silks waited for them in front of the wall.

They were dressed so fashionably that for a stupid, happy moment Tuuya thought it was a troll. 

Rhyssa and Gallen seemed surprised to see them at first, until Rhyssa ran over to them with a smile and Gallen followed at a slower pace, which brought the sinking certainty of who this really was.

The fourth and final drinker swarm, the one Rhyssa had once described as the oldest and most knowledgeable of troll affairs.