#rhyssa

They had no idea why Rhyssa was screaming. They only knew this fight was hopeless; the mother of swarms was toying with them, and Uunive hadn’t managed to get close to the matriorb’s tank because Ozryel would swoop down to beat her back. 

She was fast, too fast even for Tuuya to get many hits on. 

They were lucky she didn’t seem inclined to use a gun. Perhaps she hadn’t bothered to learn how.

Tuuya gritted their teeth. How were they supposed to break this stalemate?

–

Rhyssa fumed in a small respiteblock, the few remaining clouds of her flying so fast in circles they generated heat. Her troll form’s fists clenched, and she bared her needle teeth.

How fuckin’ dare Inshii abandon her! Abandon Mama! When she got out of here, she was gonna give them such a -

Oh damn it.

Rhyssa found herself torn apart by multiple superheated blades at once, and the melted wasps could no longer make others as they struggled and died. 

She regrouped, panting, snarling as she stared at her attackers. The goddamn DeVilles, of course. They all looked at her with eyes as cold as ice.

“You think you can - can fuckin’ kill me?” She said, amused despite her rage, sending some of herself to sting them, tear at their skin. “Even if you put me down here, I’ll still -”

She was struck again, despite her counterattack. Again, and again, and again. So many wasps fell, they covered the floor of her cavern room in a mass of twisted, bubbling white. 

She screamed again, and the DeVilles winced as more wasps rose, but there were hardly any left now. Not after her construct Tuuya had destroyed, not after Rivali, not after the ones the Hanhai jades had managed to swat.

She had brought every part of her to this attack, taking even the ones she usually left to guard her town. 

Desperate to see her family whole again, Rhyssa had held nothing back. 

Now, under a trifold onslaught of freshly fed rainbowdrinkers, she was little more than a few dozen insects struggling to cling to bones, her skimpy clothes so shredded they barely stayed together.

Nothing to worry about. She’d just come back, she always did. She’d make these heathens regret -

Hirudo rammed her with her trident, cracking her bones apart, squishing most of the insects into paste.

Only a few left now, enough to barely make her voice work as she buzzed feebly, spawning a few last wasps, but they too were dispatched by Neffie and Joey’s blades.

“I’m not - you can’t -”

“I can.” Said Hirudo, and gored her through her lungs, destroying the final piece of the ancient swarm.

Her eggshell had been burned by Platar. She could not respawn.

After ten thousand years, Rhyssa the wasp was dead.

–

Ozryel paused again, and Tuuya riddled her with holes again.

Though she healed, she stayed still, her translucent wings barely beating enough to keep her aloft.

She landed, her bare feet touching down gently on the floor as her pale teal dress fluttered. 

Tuuya gave up shooting her for the moment. They shouldn’t waste any more charge. 

“Rhyssa…my daughter is gone.”

The old hag actually sounded mournful.

“Good.” Said Tuuya and Uunive together. 

“This was all her fault to begin with.” Snarled the worm swarm. “She had it coming.”

Ozryel turned her full attention to Tuuya for the first time.  Seizing the opportunity, Uunive began to slowly, stealthily make her way toward the matriorb again. 

“You blame Rhyssa for this?”

The fallen angel sounded amused, intrigued even. 

“Oh, Tuuya…what lies you tell yourself.”

“What can I say? I inherited deception from you.” They shot back, wanting to keep her eyes on them by any means possible.

Then Ozryel was shot directly in the heart - if she had a heart - by what looked like a superheated bullet, one the swarm hadn’t even heard coming.

She shrieked like her daughter had, Tuuya’s ears pressing down from a noise far louder and closer.

The mother of swarms launched herself back into the air, but more slowly, more unsteadily as her body had to push the steaming, bloodied bullet out.

Tuuya turned around, and smiled in relief and worry alike to see Rivali shooting at Ozryel again, narrowly dodging as she swooped down with her claws out and fangs bared.

With a quick reach into their sylladex, they swapped their laser pistols for their revolver, which Uunive had also made lucky. They had never preferred bullets, but now was the time. 

Ozryel cursed them both as they riddled her, swearing vengeance on Kotenkha’s line - wasn’t that Rivali’s ancestor? - and becoming so incensed her flying was more erratic. She was easier to hit now, but she also seemed to want to tear the komondor troll apart, and they were still only slowing her down for seconds at a time. 

Skilled as the jade was, they did not have the strength and speed of an undead, and Ozryel was starting to break through their armor and injure them, a slash here, a bite there.

Tuuya saw, out of the corner of their eye, that Uunive had gotten ahold of the matriorb. She nodded at them.

Tuuya gritted their teeth as they had the luck to land a perfect cluster of shots on Ozryel, enough to slow her nearly to a standstill. 

This was going to hurt.

Bone cracked and reformed, skin grew and stretched, their clothes tearing and Tuuya made their very bones lighter in the seconds it took them to drop their gun and begin transforming, dashing up the giant corpse of the mother grub.

Then they launched themself, arms now batlike wings, off of the carcass to tackle Ozryel in midair before she could strike at the wounded jadeblood one last time.

They tangled her up, bearing the screeching creature down to crash on the rock. 

Tuuya wrapped her in their tendrils, more and more even as she tore through them, as she clawed chunks out of the worm swarm, rending their skeleton, crushing their lungs.

Still they constricted her, still they held as their worms were scattered across the floor, chewed apart, shredded to pieces.

They heard a noise. The tell-tale hum of a technological energy barrier being thrown up.

As Ozryel finally ripped them into enough agonized pieces that they stopped moving, Tuuya still looked over with their nearly severed head and just caught the retreating figures of Uunive and Rivali escaping with the orb.

Their exit was now sealed behind a shimmering blue wall covering the only tunnel out. 

Not even Ozryel could break through that. 

She howled in rage and hate, and looked at her mangled descendant with glowing green eyes.

“I was going to make new children! Loyal ones! An army!” She snarled. “You took that from me! You - you filth! Pathetic imitation! Half-troll whelp!”

“You’re a terrible mother.” Murmured Tuuya with weary amusement, too tired to try to knit their broken body back together. “I’d say I did those poor would-be swarms a favor.”

“As if you are better!” Said Ozryel harshly, mockingly. “You blame Rhyssa for your troubles! But you did not listen to her when she first asked you to come, so of course she had to force you.”

Her green eyes gleamed as she spoke again, voice now low, a sort of sadistic purr. 

“I’ve seen all your memories, Tuuya. I lived in your body.”

The worm swarm swallowed.

“I know you abandoned Uunive for space, thinking you would die killing Firebird. You lied to her throughout her youth. 

You shelter Ailene, knowing as she grows more healthy, you’ll be more tempted to eat her.”

Tuuya’s ears drooped. It wasn’t anything they hadn’t thought before, but hearing Ozryel say it…

“Do you really think Florah will continue to accept you if he learns more of your deeds? That Melina will still humor you once she gets bored of your fussing? That Crimew will want you if she is ever able to return home? 

You are a hypocrite denying your true nature, pathetic and mealy-mouthed, trying to play both sides while embodying the worst qualities of each. You are nothing but a stain upon troll and swarm.”

Tuuya lay there, silent, having no retort. What defense was there to give?

Ozryel got up, her dress now tattered, and walked a few feet away, crossing her arms as she stared down at the second worm swarm. 

“I meant to save every race this empire has ever destroyed, and I failed. I am the product of trollkind’s own violence, and you wonder why I rage at what they took from me? At least I do not pretend to be anything else, unlike you. Lying to yourself so well that you believe you belong among trolls. Lleios had the same sickness.”

Tuuya shook with a quiet sob. 

“I don’t…I’m not trying to…”

“Liar.” Said Ozryel softly. “Still lying, even at the end. You have always loved to deceive and destroy…you cannot change your mind now, after gorging yourself on blood and pain for over a hundred sweeps.”

“No more.” Whispered the worm swarm. “I want to die. We both have to die.”

“I am death.” Said Ozryel scornfully. “You are a shadow of my weakest child. You cannot kill me.”

“No.” Said Tuuya, closing their eyes, mustering all their focus. “I can only offer you another way.”

Hundreds - thousands - of worms left their skin through their mouth and hands, their face, leaving it slack around their skeleton. They curled around Ozryel’s feet. She could have struck them down, but she was too amused. What were they doing now? 

It reminded her of how Lleios had played, when they were young.

They rippled and flowed over her skin, not biting her, merely tickling her with their wiggling. 

Then they curled inside her ears, her mouth, her mind, but they were so gentle. They didn’t linger…they dissolved.

They returned to her. Piece by piece, she felt her hope restored, given up so long ago when she’d thought there was no use for it anymore, trapped far underground in the dark, in a body she’d never wanted.  

She hissed and thrashed, trying to fight it. She still had no use for it! She - she - 

Ozryel glowed, not with the white pallor of an undead, but with promise; with the realization she should have left long ago, impressed on her mind as she became whole again. 

It was not possession, as she had once done to them. Tuuya willingly let themself melt away, their very identity slowly flickering into nothingness.

Her wings cast beams across the cavern, illuminating the entire place as she turned to pure light, shedding all her mortal concerns.

Corrupt no more, she ascended Alternia, an angel risen at last from her prison of flesh. 

Death was needed elsewhere.

When the light faded, Tuuya’s remains lay still and abandoned on the stony floor. 

–

The worm swarm floated far above their planet, adrift among its ships and satellites, the endless bustle of troll industry and empire.

Tuuya felt only a mild curiosity that they were not yet dead. Why were they witnessing this?

A last dying dream? Some sort of hallucination, like the one they’d had with Cestoa?

They saw…they saw Crimew, somehow.

Crash-landing on the planet, just like she’d said she had. 

Tuuya dove down closer, worried about her. She looked hurt and alone.

Tuuya saw Melina, alone, having just escaped her cult, unsure what to do or how to be a part of society. 

Florah, held captive by Allmah, suffering, driven mad by hunger.

Ailene, threatened by the drone. 

Devrin, cheerful, but a bit lonely on his turtle. 

Lulith, not taking any time to watch cartoons, bereft of the JoJo-themed clothing they’d made. 

Vallis, struggling to stay himself.

Ashe, still not knowing any other rainbowdrinkers.

The Diplomat, causing suffering once more.

Tantor, still longing for someone else like him when he was far from home.

Proxus, Hydran, Meloni…all their other students, still hoping for guidance.

Claire…never having gotten therapy, having no one to spar with to get her anger and frustration out.

Margol, still stuck on Alternia, slated to be helmed.

Gwyn, having made it off Alternia, but far slower, with more difficulty. 

Pebble, never having gotten a phone, unable to make friends far away from her volcano. 

Talula, untrained in her shadow powers, still a risk to herself and others.

Ichi, endangering himself far too recklessly in his daylight runs.

Rivali. Still miserable in a cavern that did not respect them.

Channi. Locked up in his mansion, even more afraid of the world than he was now.

Kamala. Still loved, still cared for, but not quite as much.

Vrayan. Similar to Kamala, and yet…

Jaskir. She and Channi were friends. Yet…she didn’t smile so often. Her lovely face was more muted now.

Uunive…

Uunive hadn’t lived at all.

Just another crushed grub, discovered hidden by Anders, simply for being lime.

Why were they seeing this? 

They were still selfish, parasitic of kindness better spent on those more deserving than them. They’d wanted to eat nearly every one of those people, dozens of times. 

They had consumed Kamala once, even if she had already died.

Such hungry love wasn’t real love.

Besides, they’d ruined so many more lives than they’d ever helped, starting with the massacre of Kaningård all those sweeps ago. It would never be even. 

They should get on with it and die.

Do the right thing, for once.

“Is that really what you want?” 

Lleios’s quiet, lightly accented voice asked.

Tuuya’s jaw dropped as they witnessed the first worm swarm now floating beside them. 

Translucent in their green suit, nearly intangible, Lleios’s angular face smiled at them with a grin almost identical to their own.

A ghost, or another hallucination? 

“Ozryel’s gone now, hm? And what a mess she’s left behind.” They said with a chuckle, then fixed Tuuya with a sharp jade gaze.

“Will you too abandon everyone you love? Leave them behind to deal with it all, like you did when you went off chasing Firebird?”

For once, Tuuya could not seem to find words. They all felt trapped in their throat. 

They couldn’t remember who that was. 

They felt like they should. But they couldn’t. 

Lleios wagged a slender gray finger at them. 

“Death is not a settling of scores, my dear. All the damage you’ve done would remain. I would know.” They gazed up at the stars, then down at Alternia. 

Then they looked their successor directly in the eyes. Tuuya didn’t know what that meant either. What scores? 

“I asked Rhomox to make something interesting of me. If there was one thing that man did right, it was you.”

Tuuya tried to laugh, but they were still too choked up. Them? Something right? Hysterical. 

Who was Rhomox, anyway? How had he known Lleios?

“What are you waiting for?” Said Lleios calmly. “The right punishment? The proper amount of suffering? What do those fix? None of the people who love you would enjoy seeing you in pain. Quite the opposite.”

Tuuya couldn’t remember who all those people were. Names started to turn fuzzy, to slip away. It was so tempting to slip away with them. 

No more pain.

Lleios sighed.

“You’ve got to try, despite - and because of - all the harm you’ve done. Will you waste the body I gave you? Yes; gave you. Willingly. I, Lleios the First, do not mind that I became Etuuya the Second. I’m rather proud of it.” 

The older undead put a hand to their successor’s shoulder as Tuuya stood stunned by this revelation.

Proud? Of them?

“Start by feeling guilty about one less thing. Little steps, hm? We are worms, after all. Not so fast, or powerful, or dangerous as the others. But always persistent.”

The second worm swarm crumpled, clinging to Lleios with a small squeak. They knew so little now, but they - they needed to know more - 

“I’m not staying, you daft thing.” Their predecessor said, amused, though they did gently put their arms around the younger drinker, hugging them for a moment. 

“You can. If you want to.”

They vanished, and the second worm swarm looked at the stars again, then back down at the planet.

All they knew for certain was that they had loved. 

They had loved over, and over, and over again, and they felt certain that they would always love, if they could do nothing else. 

Little steps, Lleios had said. 

Tuuya took one. 

–

Hours later, after the matriorb had been secured, the empire called and informed, and the surviving jades tended to, Rivali and Daudre warily deactivated the shield and stepped into the mother grub’s room.

Both of them looked sadly at the massive corpse waiting for them, bowing their heads in a silent moment of mourning.

Then they looked around the place, avoiding the laser-blasted spots and picking up any of Uunive’s knives they found, searching low and high for any trace of Tuuya.

They had almost given up when Rivali’s sharp eyes noticed shreds of the rainbowdrinker’s red clothing, then a tiny glimmer of white; a single worm curled up and lying still on a small rock nearby.

They rushed over, putting a pair of gloves on before they picked it up. Sure enough, it was Vannyn; a piece of them, anyway. 

They looked around. They couldn’t see any other worms, nor bones or any other remains. Only this one, which was so lethargic it didn’t even move in their hand.

“They need blood.” Said Rivali, looking at Daudre. “Blood and a place to reform.”

The other jade nodded, and they both left at a brisk pace.

Rivali carried the worm gently, attention split between the small invertebrate and watching where they were going.

“Thank goodness I found you.” They muttered to it. 

“Do you have any idea how much hassle it would have been to explain that you were dead? I’ve already had to deal with your family’s fretting. You never stop causing problems for me.”

The worm still did not move.

Rivali’s ears flicked.

“You had better perk up when we get you some food. I will be extremely irate otherwise.”

They walked a bit longer, finally making it to a room that hadn’t been destroyed, and appropriating an old ceramic laundry bin to put the worm in. 

“They might not make it if we don’t feed them now.” Daudre said quietly.

Rivali looked at the rocky ceiling.

“I want it stated for the record that I hate this.” They groused, but took out a knife and carefully shed some of their jade blood directly onto Tuuya, cut from their arm.

At first, there was no response. The komondor troll watched, agonizing seconds go by, as the worm still did not move…

…until nearly a minute later, with tiny, weak wriggles, its toothed mouth started sipping up the green liquid.

Rivali broke into a relieved smile, which they swiftly covered with a cough.

“Finally.” They said, avoiding Daudre’s amused eye.

“I’ll call their family.” Offered the other cavern troll. “You deserve a break. I’ll give them more blood, too.”

“Good.” Sniffed the lusus wrangler. “This is disgusting and I never want to do it again.”

Having said so, the dog troll stayed next to the basket as Daudre made the calls, and quietly shed a few more drops of blood into it.

The process was slow, slower than Rivali had ever seen from Tuuya before. It took them almost ten minutes just to make as many worms. They must have been damaged somehow in their final confrontation with Ozryel.

They still kept at it, segment by segment.

“Are you worried, is that it?” Muttered Rivali several minutes later, now watching the worms in between reading a book.

“You should be. Rhyssa is dead, but Inshii isn’t, they just withdrew for some reason. We don’t know where Gallen is, or if he’s alive…it’s a mess. We need you to deal with it. You can’t just escape responsibility.”

The worms kept building their brain, deaf and voiceless for the moment.

Daudre shed some more blood over them.

“They’re a funny thing, aren’t they?” The genet troll said conversationally. “Unique, scientifically speaking. It was interesting to study them, back when they were here.”

“Don’t say that to their family.” Warned Rivali. “They might think you want to imprison them again.”

Daudre laughed. “You did that, Riva.”

The dog troll looked delicately annoyed. 

“I’d do it again. Otherwise…I would have been trapped in this place for far longer.” They admitted quietly. “And Tuuya would have kept their jades captive for who knows how long.”

They looked down at the worms.

“They forced me to learn how to adapt.” Rivali admitted. “Insufferable creature.”

Daudre laughed softly. “You’re not going to say any of this to their face, are you?”

“Absolutely not. And give them the satisfaction?”

The scientist laughed, and so did the lusus wrangler. 

Hanhai’s jades slept and recovered. Rivali left to keep Uunive company. Daudre held Ashwat as she cried over the mother grub and laughed in relief to see her friend safe.

The sun set over Alternia after a very long day.

Tuuya kept rebuilding, more slowly than ever before, into a new version of themself.

Weakened. Damaged.

Sustained, now, by their own hope.

THE END OF

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.