Chapter 445
“We have been requested to eradicate your enemy. However, the Empire of the Saharliard has no pre-existing relationship with you, so there’s no reason for us to do as you commence without any incentive. According to the other ants that we talked to, we should be happy to do as you asked simply because your Queen would appreciate it if we did.“
She would appreciate it. Is that not a good incentive?
I felt my fangs grind against each other. The Misti Hawar saw us as tools and enemies to gather their people around, the Union considered us to be a solution to keep the Misti Hawar in line, the Veratocracy considered us to be pests that needed exterminating, and the Indlovu had wielded us as a jolly prank against their neighbors more than anything. The closest to any estimation as a people that we’ve gotten from any of the cultures or nations that we’d come in contact with was the Wilds, and only the Moonchildren among them. Much of that acceptance and becoming Fahvalo was entirely due to Bloodpriestess Ana finding me interesting. Now, we had literal ants that thought we should fall in line because their Queen said so.
“And if Ashlani, our Zaaktif, requested that you deliver some of your people to be food for us, how would you react? Would your people desire to do what he asked of you?“
He’s not the queen nor is he your mother. There is no shame in that, Zaaktif, but you will never be a Queen, even if we allow you to call yourself one.
“And do your Queens care if we say that they do not deserve to be called Queens?”
The two Royals and the youngmother all bristled at that question, the same unease and anger very quickly spreading through the surrounding ants as the scent of pheromones exploded again and the ants took menacing steps forward.
Any who question the Queen’s sovereignty will be slaughtered.
“Yet you question the position of he who I have chosen to follow as the one like my Queen.“ Sybil’s answer was, in word, quite calm, but I could read in her body language the subtle frustrations and anger that had built up after years of our people’s underestimation and mistreatment by every culture we came in contact with.