Swarming Sovereignty

Chapter 35: The Library

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. 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?”

“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.

“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.”

Lia asked.

“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.”

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

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

Lia said.

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

Lia said.

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

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

die

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

Lia replied.

“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.”

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

Lia said, hesitantly beginning to walk away from them.

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

Lia said. Lia fully committed to leaving, walking off quickly. She didn’t want to drag it out any longer, because she was afraid she 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 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 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 ready to 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.

Swarm Ghostwalker (Ratkin):

The Swarm Ghostwalker is a ghost that has been made part of the swarm and then further specialized into movement. Ghostwalkers require less Stamina to phase through solid objects than other ghosts, and are able to briefly turn themselves invisible. Ghostwalkers, however, have very few ways of interacting with the physical world, and even the most basic of manipulation requires Stamina expenditure.

Swarm Shrieking Poltergeist (Ratkin):

The Swarm Shrieking Poltergeist is a curious race that combines properties of a banshee and properties of a poltergeist. They possess a weak scream which deals minor damage to all non-swarm creatures near them, as well as the ability to freely interact with objects as if they were corporeal, while maintaining the ability to phase through solid objects and fly. Aside from these traits, however, the Shrieking Poltergeist is unremarkable, with relatively low stats and little combat utility.

The shrieking poltergeist was…well, it was , but it seemed like a pretty useless race. She didn’t the scream or for the ghost to be able to interact with objects. It would be , 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 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 , 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. ? Her mother said sternly.

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

Her mother replied, clearly unconvinced.

“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!”

Queenie asked, yawning.

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

“But–”

Lia said firmly. reallyno

“I told you so.” Rose said, smiling faintly. “I know you want to get out and do things, but you 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 two days.”

“But I actually 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 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 fine.”

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

Rose and Queenie shared a look. Queenie said.

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

“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.”

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.”

Lia said.

“Bookworm joke?”

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

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

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

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

“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.

know

“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.”

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.

Lia said, turning back to face Rose.

Rose replied.

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.

Lia instructed.

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.”

Lia replied.

“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’.”

Lia said disdainfully.

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

“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.