{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://serpentsquiggles.neocities.org//posts/black-nerve/chimhop/27",
  "path": "/posts/black-nerve/chimhop/27",
  "publishedAt": "2022-09-06T00:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:ivoe7cntxuy6at7uzmxzs2ft/site.standard.publication/3mfk6cpprzt2t",
  "textContent": "::: subchapter\nOoliri stumbles forward, his sandaled feet dragging over the muddy\nground. A green tarsus holds his --- Quessa's foreleg is pulling the\ngray nymph forward.\n\nHe looks around this clearing sprawled outside Wisterun's walls, eyeing\nall the ant majors gripping weapons in their mandibles, and at the\nwhite- and black-clad ant intently conversing with the One Who Bites\nWater --- and at his teammates, Awelah and Makuja, stalking forward with\nall the determination of trained soldiers.\n\nThat should be me. Ooliri was the warden (aspiring warden, rather).\nHe'd been trained to defend the banes and bugs of the Windborne\nStronghold. Training neither of them had, and yet --- he couldn't even\nhold a baton straight, could he?\n\nWhat am I doing here?\n\nOoliri has stopped, and Quessa is tugging on his arm. She turns with a\nfrown.\n\n\"Is something wrong?\"\n\n\"Maybe it would be better if I waited here. I, well, I don't think I'll\nbe of much use on the hunt.\"\n\nThe One Who Shapes the Sky Below had been right --- that one is a wise\nweaver after all. He is an... annoyance. It'd been assumed that he'd\nfollow after the others wherever they went --- but had anyone asked him\nto come? Did their plans hinge on his capabilities?\n\n(Worsening the sting, he remembers a time before these sort of doubts\naccumulated without challenge. When Oocid was here, when there was\nsomeone to depend on, someone who could make him dependable. Yet even if\nthere were no reassurance to be found, even if his brother would only\nscold or tease him... hearing his voice again would be enough.)\n\n\"You're a vesperbane,\" Quessa says. \"You're already a step above any\nlaybug.\" Behind her, where the commander in white and black converses\nwith Bites Water, a blue clad ant glances over at the pair of nymphs.\n\n\"What if I mess something up?\"\n\nThe green nymph lifts antennae at that, palps parting in --- surprise?\nRecognition? \"You're worried,\" she says. \"Something's shaken you. I\ncould cast Calm Draft?\"\n\n\"No --- no thanks. I'm calm, it's just... the One Who Shapes the Sky\nBelow doesn't seem to like me. Didn't ask me to come. And that one is\nwise, you know? Maybe that one's on to something.\"\n\n\"The one who shapes... yes, right, that.\"\n\nHad she forgotten?\n\nThere's a chirping form beside her, now. The One Who Bites Water. Quessa\ncasts a light, and this one already has a message woven.\n\n\"The One Who \\[Shapes\\] has \\[distrust\\] of \\[bat-bug : all\\]. But the\none who is \\[Duskborn\\] has \\[adequacy\\] and \\[pleasantness.\\] Not like\n\\[others\\].\"\n\nOoliri frowns, thinking back to that headache of a conversation down in\nthe ant tunnels. \"I guess that one didn't seem to like any of us very\nmuch. But why?\"\n\n\"\\[Others\\] have \\[sourness\\] in \\[firstness\\] of \\[touch\\].\n\\[Judgment\\] has \\[spoilage.\\]\"\n\n\"Bad first impression? I guess Makuja didn't do us any favors.\"\n\n\"Nai! Not the one who is \\[knives\\]. The one who...\" Bites Water has to\npause here, reaching into their clothy folds to retrieve a tag.\n\"...\\[Boleheva!\\] The one who is \\[worst\\] of \\[bat-bug.\\]\"\n\nBefore Ooliri can ask for elaboration, a whistle sounds out from ahead\nof them.\n\n\"Right, that's the signal. We should probably start moving.\"\n\nQuessa, still clasping Ooliri's tarsi, starts toward the ant in black\nand white, and he is tugged onward. Bites Water falls into step beside\nOoliri, rubbing this one's head against him.\n\nAhead, before they can set off, the One Who Hungers for Spears is\napproached by a tall major. Rather than a weapon grasped in his\nmandibles, it's a furry form. Ooliri makes a guess --- he'd seen small\nholes in the tunnels, saw traps set and waiting. Confirmation comes when\nHunger grasps the form by the tail and brings it to a torch, where the\nfur burns and the skin bubbles. But with that brief illuminated glimpse,\nOoliri identifies it as a rat.\n\nToo far away, Ooliri can't read or hear the conversation. Is it a\ncomplaint about rats in the tunnels? Bafflement as to why the major\ncaught one and dragged it out?\n\nOoliri averts his eyes as the poor thing burns. Other lights catch his\neye. Strapped to the majors' thorax (or is the word mesosoma?), there\nsit long, oil-doused torches burning. The wavering lights summon\never-shifting shadows beyond the ferns and bushes that line the path.\n\n\"Spooky,\" he says. \"I should be used to the woods at night... but I\nguess we didn't have torches. Or maybe it's just because I know there's\na direbeasts out there, close by.\"\n\n(Ahead, another whistle sounds, and legs start moving.)\n\n\"We have a troop of ants and the vespers to protect us,\" Quessa says as\nthey follow the marching ants. Walking in front of him, leading him,\nOoliri can't see her wan smile, but can clearly imagine the subtle curve\nof her palps. \"I think we will prevail.\"\n\n\"Still, I wonder what it must be like to live out here, with none of\nthat.\" Ooliri thinks of the Fisher, whose complaint is how they knew the\ndirehound remained near the town. \"It must be scary.\"\n\nAs if reacting to something in his tone, Bites Water bumps a head\nagainst him again. Ooliri reaches over and scratches the ant in between\nthe ocelli, and this one gives a higher pitched chirp.\n\n\"Bites Water, you were saying something about Boleheva, weren't you? Why\nis she the worst?\"\n\nWaiting a moment for Quessa to cast a light, the ant starts, \"The one\nwho \\[Shapes\\] the \\[Sky\\] of \\[Below\\] has \\[knowledge\\]. The one who\n\\[knows\\] had \\[knowledge : always\\]. The one who is \\[Boleheva\\] also\nhad \\[knowledge!\\] \\[Knowledge\\] of \\[threat!\\]. \\[Threat\\], yet no\n\\[prevention\\]. Nai!\"\n\n\"What was the threat?\"\n\n\"The one who is \\[Quessa\\] has \\[remembrance\\] of \\[message\\]? For\n\\[pleading\\]? \\[Recollection\\] of \\[inquiry\\]?\"\n\n\"It was,\" she hesitates, \"about a clan and... world-scars? I don't know\nthe specifics.\"\n\n\"\\[Knowledge\\] of \\[threat!\\] \\[Prior\\] to \\[wife\\] of \\[fisher\\] having\n\\[drowned\\], the ones who \\[deliver\\] did \\[depart\\] for \\[conveyance\\]\nof \\[inquiry\\]. The one who \\[Shapes\\] the \\[Sky\\] of \\[Below\\] gave\n\\[warning\\] to \\[bat-bug : worst\\], \\[warning\\] of \\[resistance\\]. The\nones who \\[deliver\\] had \\[future\\] of \\[death!\\] \\[Death\\] from\n\\[assassins\\]. \\[Wife\\] of \\[fisher\\] had \\[future\\] of \\[death!\\] Yet\n\\[Bat-bug\\] gave \\[refusal\\] of \\[protection\\]. \\[Cause\\] of \\[death!\\]\"\n\nOoliri put the pieces together. \"Shapes the Sky figured out that there\nwas someone dangerous in Wisterun.\" He glances at Quessa, slotting in\nher words into his model. \"Someone involved with a clan? Or a\nworld-scar? Shapes the Sky didn't have all the information needed, and\ntried to send an inquiry to another colony, but the messengers were\nkilled and she didn't get the info in time. Fisher's wife drowned,\nsomehow, which could have been prevented with the info?\" Then he\nremembers what he heard earlier today, in the lobby. \"Then the bees\ncame. Being able to fly, they got a message out without getting\nassassinated. The colony sent back a response --- but being unfamiliar\nwith Entcreek, they got attacked by a dire-anteater.\"\n\n\"One which \\[Bat-bug\\] could have \\[killed : sooner\\].\"\n\nOoliri frowns. \"That's a lot of mistakes. I can understand being\nfrustrating but... well, I don't think Boleheva's a bad bane, certainly\nnot the worst. She misjudged the threat to the messengers, of the\nanteaters... but it seems like she's trying?\"\n\n\"\\[Misjudgment\\] of \\[bat-bug\\] means \\[death\\] of \\[many\\].\n\\[\\[Inadequate!\\]\\]\" Bites Water taps this word many times.\n\n\"That is true, but... still.\"\n\nBites Water looks ahead on the trail, then back to where the other troop\n(behind them, Awelah and Makuja) follow. Closer to Ooliri, this one\nconveys, \"This one may \\[share\\] of \\[secret\\]?\"\n\nOoliri nods.\n\n\"The one who \\[killed\\] of \\[messagers\\] was \\[bat-bug\\]. The one who\n\\[drowned\\] of \\[wife\\] was \\[bat-bug\\]. The one who is \\[threat\\] is\n\\[bat-bug.\\].\" Heartbeats later, Bites Water in untying and scrambling\nthose tags. \"\\[Bat-bug\\] who is \\[Duskborn\\] is \\[okay\\]. But\n\\[bat-bugs\\]...\" The antennae glides along a thread to a blank spot,\nand Bites Water seems to pause wondering what tag to put there.\n\nOoliri glances backward, to where he imagined beyond the shadows and\nhulking majors, Makuja strode forward with a tarsi on a knife hilt. He\ncouldn't wait to share this, see what she made of these revelations.\n\"There's another bane,\" Ooliri concludes. \"Some other force in Wisterun,\nacting from the shadows. Maybe they sabotaged the zipline. Maybe they\nrevived the direhound!\"\n\n\"Maybe there's no other bane,\" Quessa suggests. \"And the root of it all\nis the same one who's been making it so easy for them.\"\n\n\"Boleheva is a warden,\" Ooliri counters. \"The bad guys, the ones who've\nbeen trying to kill us, they're mercenaries. Mavericks with no loyalty\nto a stronghold.\"\n\n\"Yanseno is a maverick.\"\n\nYanseno might've been hired by the bugs trying to kill us.\n\nBut that's just speculation --- the world has to be larger than that,\nright? Not everyone they encountered could tie back into some grand\nconspiracy.\n\nOoliri says, \"Yanseno seems nice, but... there are more laws, procedures\nwith the wardens. Boleheva has responsibilities --- once we make her\naware of the dangers, she'll have to do something!\"\n\n\"\\[History\\] of \\[refusal\\].\"\n\nThey cross a log fallen across the path, and Ooliri thinks of his\nresponse as they climb over it. The wet wood is soft, crumbling to mush\nunder their feet.\n\n\"Did you make a formal appeal? If you commission protection through the\nright channels, the wardens will have to address it.\"\n\n\"Why should it take such formality?\" Quessa asks. \"If she wanted to do\nsomething, she could have done something, she's a vesperbane. There's\nsomething Yanseno says sometimes: strongholds are as fast as a\ndictatorship, and as slow as a bureaucracy. All the rules and procedures\ncan be skipped with a word if they want to do something, and must be\nfollowed to the letter if they don't.\"\n\n\"\\[Possibility\\] of \\[bat-bug : worst\\] giving \\[listening\\] to\n\\[bat-bug : fellow\\]. Not \\[ant\\], not \\[dismissed\\]?\"\n\n\"Maybe,\" is all Qu",
  "title": "To Trap Your Hunter"
}