Chapter 330 Musings (1/2)

I was blessed many times over for such events occur, not only in my lifetime, but in my vicinity, allowing me to take a direct hand in the magnificent triumphs that transpired. But that isn't what I value most, the thing I gained the greatest joy from. The understanding that was granted to me far outweighed any other considerations in terms of the impact it had on my life and the direction I took.

What is the System? Divine intervention, most would say, certainly in the human kingdoms where the Church of the Path is most entrenched. A power that was granted to the wise that they may defend the light of civilisation from evil and temper themselves in battle, that they might prove themselves worthy.

What is the Dungeon? Providence, they would say. A place of trial, where the gifts of the System are to be developed to fulfilment, so that the worthy might be discerned and given their proper due. That, was the Path.

But I was shown that it wasn't so. Even now I am surprised that it didn't shake me more, I had been diligent and faithful all of my life, trained with the priesthood with such zeal that I had graduated two years ahead of my peers. The masters at the Temple of Ways in Croninheim had antic.i.p.ated great things from me, but even they could not have antic.i.p.ated the insights I would gain.

I was shown a new way, a different path. The depredations and depravities of the church had blinded it to the truth of the world in which we lived. What is the System? A tool, nothing more. A tool to be grasped by strong hands and wielded by each individual to forge a path of their own. The Dungeon? It is not of the divine, but of the earth. It is a tool, nothing more.

I lost an arm in order to glimpse the true divinity, that creature who forged a path of compa.s.sion, of sharing, protection and purity with the tools that others made objects of their wors.h.i.+p. For that blessed realisation I was cast low by mortal hands, only to be raised high by the winds of the divine.

Excerpt from 'The Path Reforged' by Beyn Naligic the Apostate.

Tungstant, Victor and Mendant stood huddled in a small chamber awaiting the next round of scouting reports from the front.

”Seems as though the ambush went to plan” Mendant offered to her sibling.

Victor waved the compliment away with one lazy antennae and continued to click her mandibles irritably.

”What is so wrong with the battle going the way we wanted it to?” sighed Tungstant, puzzled by the att.i.tude displayed by one of the two generals of the council, ”Isn't that supposed to be a good thing?”

Victor clacked her mandibles a few more times before focusing her attention onto her two siblings. ”The ambush went well” she conceded, ”but I had hoped most of all to bait some response from Garralosh or the Lizard creature. Those two are the greatest threats to us and not having a clue of what they might be capable of is… worrying.”

”Perhaps they couldn't do anything? Maybe we just hit them too fast for them to muster a response” Mendant suggested.

The small healer had spent the last few hours tending to the wounded who had made it back to the fallback position. The ambush had been carried out with surprisingly few casualties but there had been many injuries suffered by the soldiers who had battled in the tunnels. Despite the scales being tipped so far in their favour, it was inevitable that a few legs would be lost, an antennae shorn off here and there. The few soldiers who had actually perished had simply been unlucky.

Victor clacked his mandibles derisively. ”We hit them fast but I doubt it was that fast. From the intelligence we have, we've been told that the Kaarmodo is to be considered a spell caster greater than the Eldest by several degrees. I refuse to believe that such a creature would be incapable of hitting us back in any way.”

”So what are you suggesting?” Tungstant inquired, exasperated. She liked to work with stone and dirt, concrete materials that behaved the way they ought to. The Generals and soldiers took so many variables into their claws it seemed ridiculous. How were you supposed to guess the mind of giant lizard?

”I'm not sure” Victor said and Tungstant slumped to the floor.

Mendant was more patient. ”Let's see what the scouts have to say before we discuss further” she suggested.

The three ants stood in companionable silence whilst they waited. The twenty members of the first generation were not often in the same room together anymore, but they quite enjoyed the companions.h.i.+p of those who had been born alongside them. The only ants to receive the direct 'teachings' of the Eldest other than Vibrant, they had gone through much together and those bonds still held.

It was Wills herself who came to report, rus.h.i.+ng into the chamber without appearing to be hurried in any way, which was her special talent.

”Waiting around for little old me?” Wills chuckled, ”surely you have better things to do?”

Victor was in no mood for levity.

”Give the report, scout” she ground out, ”how many of my soldiers died today?”

”Not many” Wills shrugged, ”you'll seldom have a better fight than this one.”

The scout settled herself unhurriedly before beginning to speak again.