Swarming Sovereignty

Fetching the bed was as simple as Lia had anticipated. Lia and Bella just went to the first room they found, slaughtered the undead inside, and then Lia stored one of the beds in her Dimensional Storage.

As such, they reached the camp only a couple of minutes after Rose and Chrys, and found the two in the clearing in the center of camp. How’s she doing? Lia asked.

“Fine. She’s still sleeping, and I’ve been watching over her to make sure things don’t get any worse. Were you able to get the bed?”

Yup. I’m thinking of placing it down in one of the stalls, to give her a little bit of privacy.

“Sounds good to me.” Rose replied, shifting her grip on Chrys and standing up. “Lead the way.”

Lia walked away from the center of camp for a bit, looking over the stalls until she found one that seemed good for what she wanted. Once there, she unloaded the bed from Dimensional Storage and gave Rose a nod. This look good?

“It should be more than adequate.” Rose replied, gently laying Chrys down and pulling the blankets up over her. “People have slept off worse in accommodations much less friendly.”

Did you happen to see if Lily was here or if the bee troll finished converting? Lia asked. Just out of curiosity.

“I have not seen either, but I’m guessing Lily’s still working in the biology building, and the troll…well, no clue on how that’s going, but I’m willing to bet you’ll level up at least once from its conversion, so it probably didn’t finish either.”

Fair enough. Bella, will you go check out the biology building for me, make sure everything still going fine?

“Of course.” Bella replied. “Would you like me to deliver a message to Lily while I am there?”

Just…check and make sure they’re not overworking themselves. I don’t want anyone else collapsing from exhaustion.

Bella nodded. “I will see to it.” She turned on a heel and strode away, leaving Lia and Rose alone with the sleeping Chrys.

Let’s give her some privacy. Lia said. I want to check out the options for the banshee, what do you think?

Rose hesitated, looking down at Chrys with an uncharacteristic expression of worry. “I…can do that.”

Do you want to stay by her side? That’s fine too. Lia said. I can go mess around on my own for a bit.

“Is that really alright?” Rose asked. “It’s…not productive.”

Sure it is. You’re both putting your mind at ease about your daughter and making sure she doesn’t take a turn for the worse. We’re in a place where we can afford to relax for a few hours, it’s not going to kill us to push forward immediately.

“But…your family.” Rose protested. “Aren’t they…”

In a bad place? Yes, but they’ve been there for this long, a day or two more isn’t going to change anything. As poor as Amelia’s judgement may be, she’s not going to let them die, so it’s not a pressing issue.

“If…if you say so.” Rose said. “Just come and ask me if you need anything, alright?”

I will. Lia replied. Actually, since you won’t be directly seeing the options, I figured I might as well ask now, but I was thinking of making the banshee into a scout to work under Chrys. Being…you know, a ghost, seems like it’ll have some applications in that regard. Does that sound good to you?

“A scout is a fine use of a ghost.” Rose confirmed. “We have no need for assassins or the like at the moment, so I think that should suit it perfectly.”

Alright, I’ll go get to it, then. Thanks for your input!

“Anytime. It’s what I’m here for, after all.”

I’ll check up on you two every now and then, so I’ll…see you around, I guess. Lia said, hesitantly beginning to walk away from them.

“You…can stay too, if you would like.” Rose offered. “I could use the company.”

I…might take you up on that. Lia said. But only after I get this banshee converting and check up on the troll. So…yeah. Lia fully committed to leaving, walking off quickly. She didn’t want to drag it out any longer, because she was afraid she would end up sitting there with Rose, and she didn’t want to do that until she had set things in motion.

So, she left, walking through the camp until she reached the place where they had left the troll cocoon converting. Once there, she placed the banshee cocoon on the ground, went to check her options, then hesitated. She needed to find a rat first, so she could get a boost to the conversion’s strength. It didn’t guarantee one, at least not if the troll was any indicator, but it couldn’t hurt to put that in her options.

Just as she was leaving to go find the rats, one dropped out of the air in front of her, no doubt courtesy of Amelia. Lia quickly cocooned it, added it to the banshee cocoon, and paused again. She knew she wanted a scout, so…why not add in the smoke ball and spyglass like she did for Chrys? Fortunately, she still had enough Blood Money to afford that, so one quick shopping spree later she was finally ready to really look at her options.

The first basically did nothing to the banshee but give it rat features and make swarm creatures immune to its shriek, which Lia decided to keep in the back of her mind; if none of the other options were…scout-y enough, it would certainly do.

There were a series of options that made the banshee living again, and Lia dismissed those out of hand. They all made the banshee corporeal, and none provided good enough compensation to make that trade worth it.

And that, aside from the option to make the thing a drone, left her with two options.

The shrieking poltergeist was…well, it was interesting, but it seemed like a pretty useless race. She didn’t need the scream or for the ghost to be able to interact with objects. It would be nice, sure, but if she really needed the ghost to do something physical like throw a lever, the ghostwalker would likely do just as well. And if the ghostwalker wasn’t capable of doing the task…then Bella would probably be able to do whatever it was that needed doing.

There was a possibility she’d be sending the ghostwalker into an airtight place where Bella couldn’t get in, but…that was an edge case. So, she decided that the ghostwalker was the best choice, and got it converting. Once that was done, she decided to go walk back to Rose. The troll seemed like it would still take a bit to finish converting, and she wasn’t doing anything else, so relaxing with Rose seemed like a fine use of her time. So, she set off back towards Rose, ready to wait the next bit out with her.

---

“Mom?” Chrys groaned, opening her eyes and looking around. She was…on a bed, a decent bed, too. It seemed to have been wedged into one of the market stalls in their fortification, and she wasn’t quite tall enough to see over the edge of the counter.

She sat up, allowing her to see outside of the stall, and a moment later she caught sight of her mother, slumped over on the counter, eyes closed. On her lap was Queenie, curled up into a ball. The two seemed to be asleep, so Chrys carefully got up from her bed and began to try and extract herself from the stall without making any noise.

She had been making good progress, and was nearly out of the stall when she was stopped in her tracks by her mother grabbing her arm. Where do you think you’re going, missy? Her mother said sternly. You need to be resting.

“But…I feel better!” Chrys whispered. It was…mostly true, she was a little tired still, but it certainly wasn’t anywhere near as bad as she had felt directly after the banshee had grabbed her.

Sure you do. Her mother replied, clearly unconvinced. What were you going to do, anyway? You don’t have a task right now.

“I was gonna…I don’t know, wander around a bit, see if I couldn’t find something useful? Queenie’s family, they…well, they’re in a bad place, right? She’s…done so much for us, bringing us back together like this, I want to repay the favor!”

I said the same thing, but she said that her family’s waited this long, they can wait for a day or two more, Amelia won’t let them die. I’m sure she’d much rather you don’t get yourself killed or seriously hurt by going out when you’re not at one hundred percent.

What’s going on? Queenie asked, yawning. Oh…Chrys, you’re up, how are you feeling?”

“I’m feeling as good as new, Queenie.” Chrys said, no longer whispering now that Lia was awake. “Ready for a new job!

Good to hear. Your new job is to rest until Rose says you’re fit to do something else.

“But–”

No buts. Lia said firmly. I really don’t want you getting hurt because you were pushing yourself. If you really want to do something, you’re going to have to wait until the banshee finishes converting. I’ve made it into a scout that will work underneath you, so you can manage it once it finishes converting, but no leaving the fortification.

“I told you so.” Rose said, smiling faintly. “I know you want to get out and do things, but you really shouldn’t be moving much. In my experience, people who were drained of as much of their resources as you were shouldn’t be up and about for at least two days.”

“But I actually do feel better, and I was only drained for a couple of seconds before you guys dealt with it!” Chrys protested.

“And that couple of seconds was enough to drain over half of your resources, if my estimations are correct. I will admit that our constitutions are likely much different now that we’re monsters, and you may well be feeling completely better, but I simply do not feel comfortable sending you out so early. Once it has been a full day since you got grabbed, we’ll reconsider things, but I won’t budge until then. We just don’t know enough about our new bodies to say anything for sure, even if we feel fine.”

“Fine, fine.” Chrys grumbled. “But I don’t want to just wait! There’s like…nothing to do here!”

Rose and Queenie shared a look. Sorry. Queenie said. I’ve kind of been entertaining myself by talking with Rose and/or conquering new places. I know we don’t have much right now…um…should we go and try and grab some books from the library for you?

“Um…yeah.” Chrys said. “I guess that would be nice.”

Any kind you want in particular? I don’t know if fiction books were really a thing when you were alive before, but we have a pretty large collection of them now.

“I…think there used to be one or two of them. Um…I don’t know if I really want to read those, though. I want to read about how the world is like right now, I want to know what new places people have found and how many new countries there are and…well, I’m just…curious, you know?”

“That’s understandable.” Rose said. “I’m rather curious myself. We’ll go grab those books for you, then. You just rest here until we get back, okay?”

“Yes, mom.”

---

So, you said the library was filled with worm monsters? Lia asked, hurrying to keep up with Rose. She wasn’t small enough to be effortlessly carried anymore, and she didn’t want to tire Rose out before they reached the library.

Rose, noticing Lia’s predicament, slowed her pace. “Yes. They…aren’t really very threatening, though. They don’t seem to tunnel through the ground at all, nor do they secrete caustic substances or…well, do much to damage the area. They’re basically just giant punching bags that thrash around. Honestly, I don’t get the point of them.”

It’s probably Amelia making a bookworm joke. Lia said. I can’t think of what else it would be.

“Bookworm joke?”

You know…actually, was the term bookworm even in use back when you were alive before?

“I don’t think so. What does it mean?”

Um…someone who likes books a lot. I don’t know why worms, but it just is what it is, I guess.

“That…does make the worm thing make more sense.” Rose admitted. “Otherwise, they’re simply there to make things slightly more annoying.”

How big are they?

“Roughly my size, if I were to lay down.” Rose said. “So not particularly big, as far as worm monsters go.”

Let’s bring a bunch of extra foot soldiers and drag back a couple of them so we can see what they convert into. They could possibly make for good burrowers or something. Plus, the foot soldiers can be used to carry more books back.

“Very well, I’ll take a quick detour and grab ten or fifteen. Have you refilled your store of modeling wax?”

No, I’ll do that now. Meet you at the front entrance?

“I’ll meet you there.”

A few minutes later, Rose and Lia set out, a contingent of foot soldiers in tow. Lia led them to the library, where they took a moment to peek through the windows and make sure the entry was safe before going inside.

Reference books and maps should be somewhere on the second floor, if I recall correctly, and I know the history books are on this floor on the left side. We should just need to hit up those sections to get everything Chrys wants. So…just follow my lead and we’ll be in and out in a jiffy.

“Very well, then. Take the lead, and be careful so you don’t get surprised by the worms.” Rose said. “I’ll make sure nothing sneaks up on us from behind.”

Thank you. Lia replied. With that, she began to pick her way towards the history section, keeping a careful eye out for any worms. She didn’t spot any until she was halfway to the history section, when she caught a glimpse of motion out of the corner of her eye.

She stopped and took a peek down the aisle the motion had come from, and, sure enough, there was a giant worm…thing inching its way through it. It…well, looked like a worm with thick, black skin that looked more like leather than the rubbery skin of a worm.

Spotted one. Lia said, turning back to face Rose. How do we want to deal with it?

We’ll have the foot soldiers gang up on it and encase it in modeling wax. Rose replied. Shouldn’t be an issue, they’re too slow to do much against fifteen of them.

Very well then. You heard the lady, foot soldiers, go mob it and cover it in modeling wax.

At her command, the fifteen foot soldiers leapt into action, rushing at the worm and beginning to coat it in modeling wax. It thrashed for a few moments before it became covered enough to stop struggling, and a few moments after that it had been completely cocooned.

Five of you, take that back to base. Lia instructed. If you get attacked, put the cocoon down and fight back. If you can’t win, just leave the cocoon and escape.

Five of the foot soldiers crouched down and picked up the cocoon, then began to take it back the way they had come. The other ten fell back in line between Rose and Lia, and the group set off once again. They reached the history section without further issue, at which point Lia led them towards where they kept the more recent books.

“Actually, can we stop for a second?” Rose asked part of the way through the history section. “I saw a few books that caught my eye.”

Sure. Lia replied. What are you interested in?

“Um…well, they were about me.” Rose said sheepishly. “The old me. It seems to be a series titled ‘A Critical Analysis of the Ruby Emperor’.”

Oh, those. Lia said disdainfully. Almost everyone agrees that those aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on. They’re riddled with misconceptions and guesswork, and seem to be more about painting you in a negative light than they are about any sort of actual historical discussion. I wouldn’t waste my time on them, if I were you.

“I…see.” Rose said. “Still…it is important to read dissenting opinions. Is it alright if I take them anyway?”

I’m not going to tell you not to, but I would highly advise you take some other books to use as reference. I recommend the “Life of the Ruby Emperor” series by H. Alois, he’s a highly-respected historian that lived through much of your reign, and he’s often considered the last word when it comes to topics relating to you.

“That feels…it just unbelievable.” Rose said, shaking her head in embarrassment. “It feels weird having books written about me, especially enough of them that there’s someone who’s the ‘last word’ in on the subject. But…I see the series, I’ll grab it too.”

She picked six books off of the shelf and handed them to a foot soldier. “That’s all I needed, we can continue.”

Lia nodded, and continued on her way to the section with more recent history.  Once there, she guided Rose in picking out a handful of books that seemed relevant or interesting, then led the group to the stairs and up to the second floor. It took her more time to find the section for maps and travel, during which they encountered a few more worms, but they were no big threat.

She had the second one they saw cocooned and brought back to base like the first, but the others she just killed. That proved a little more difficult than just covering them in modeling wax, due to their tough hides, but they weren’t able to inflict much damage, so in the end they were only a little trouble.

But, eventually, she found the map section, loaded up on world maps, region maps, travel guides, and anything else that looked interesting, then began her trek back. Fortunately, now that she knew exactly where her destination was, getting there was a quick process, and soon they were on their way back to their camp, a bunch of books in tow.