The elder thri-kreen motions for me and Kamar to go down.

Reluctantly, I start walking down the steps into the dark depths of the pyramid.

There is a strange musky, sweet smell that wafts up from the darkness. I wrinkle my nose as it washes over me, reminded of the smell of mold. I squint my eyes, but am soon completely unable to see anything.

I continue taking steps down into the pitch black, the sounds of the elder Thri-kreen, Kamar and the warriors echoing behind me. The mantis warriors don’t seem affected at all by the darkness.

I stumble as my foot comes down on flat ground, expecting another step.

Regaining my balance, I stop moving. Listening to the others moving about, I can feel Kamar’s large presence standing next to me.

It is rather unsettling listening to the clacks and hissing of the Thri-kreen, without being able to see them and hearing them coming from all sides. My instincts tell me to run, and I have to force them down, knowing that there is no place I can run to.

There is the sound of clawed feet scraping against the stone scaled floor, the Thri-kreen walking around us. Then a dim green light appears, swaying and bobbing in the elder Thri-kreen’s claw.

He clicks his mandibles, offering Kamar the torch. The asper takes it, and I inspect the strange torch closer.

It is a stick of wood, a glowing blob of fungus on the end, it dimly lights up the hallway, about 20 feet illuminated. The compound eyes of the mantis warriors glint with the green light as they bristle, weapons still at hand.

The elder turns, motioning with his arms to follow him. Kamar glances at me, his face now calm, then he follows the elder. I am a few steps behind him, the group of warriors surrounding us.

I guess the terror arua wore off. From how Kamar no longer looks like everything around him is a danger, it is my best guess. He now has his characteristic slightly frowning, neutral expression on.

Kamar and I follow the elder mantis warrior down a long corridor, the sides riddled with hallways that lead further off.

The elder’s pace slows as we approach a door, it is layered with the tarrasque’s stoney scales, giving it the impression of being melded with the walls. Two of the largest thri-kreen I have seen yet stand on either side of the double door. They are dressed similarly to the ones that stood guard outside, only these are draped in purple robes.

The elder thri-kreen hisses, motioning with his claws at the large guards. They jolt to life, no longer statue still. They move in erie cirinization, bracing their armored arms against the door, and pushing.

The doors open with a heavy groan, swinging open from the combined strength of the purple cloth wearing guards.

Once the door is open, they stand back at attention, not glancing in our direction.

The elder thri-kreen hobbles through the doors, leaning on it’s staff. Kamar and I are prodded forward by the other thri-kreen hunters.

The room is rather open, and that musty mold smell is unbearably strong. There is a large open space in the shape of a crescent, a cliff edge dropping off from it. Pillars of carved tarrasque scales hold up the ceiling, the green glowing moss meshing in the lines of the carvings, giving them the appearance of having veins.

The elder thri-kreen stands to the side, chittering and pointing to the edge of the cliff. The warriors start herding Kamar and me towards the edge, their weapons prodding.

They’re going to throw us off the edge! It is a panicked thought as we near the edge of the cliff. Whatever was down there, I didn’t want a close up look at it.

My mind is racing as I start trying to come up with a plan to force the warriors back far enough that we can escape. Can I summon Vengeance again?

No, he needs time to recuperate and I don’t have any blood on hand.

I glance at Kamar in desperation, my eyes meeting his startled and worried eyes. He can’t use his immense strength here, the thri-kreen are being careful to stay far back from him, using their distance advantage with their polearms. He he tried to charge them, he’d be impaled several times.

My muscles tense as I prepare to throw myself at the warriors, ducking under their weapons and hoping to disable one.

They stop forcing us to the edge of the cliff, about 20 feet from it’s drop off. The thri-kreen warriors take a few steps back, bringing their double headed spears to their shoulders. Their chittering falls silent as they crouch down, kneeling, with their heads bowed.

I can see the elder thri-kreen in the back kneeling as well, not looking up.

There is a scraping sound that makes me turn my head back around to the cliff. A large, dark shape pulls itself over the lip of the cliff.

In the low light, I find it hard to make out details of it. But I can tell that it has a hard, chitinous exoskeleton, much like the thri-kreen, only darker. There are four legs, a large abdomen hanging off the side of the cliff. Two scythe like blades protrude from the upper part of its body, connected to long, thin arms. A head with spiky protrusions in what looks similar to a crown mounts this giant body.

A giant mantis… It looked like a large praying mantis, but with various other differences, like the lack of wings.

The thri-kreen queen bends down to look at me and Kamar, her compound eyes glittering in the moss light. It makes quite chittering noises with its mandibles, inspecting us.

I try to control my trembling but can’t, flashes of Inik appear in my mind. This reminds me of that encounter far too much, and I can feel my fear creeping up from deep within me.

There is a weird buzzing sensation in my chest, and explosion of warmth. I blink as I feel something similar to my connections with Hala and Vengeance form. It is a thin strand of a strange katra, not my own. I can tell I would be able to travel along it, to go to the other end, but I can also tell that I would meet hard resistance all along the way.

‘I welcome you to the Va’ura hive. I am Queen Anva.’ It is a voice that echoes with power, coming from all directions and yet inside my head. It’s like how Inik talked.

Kamar bows, and I follow suit, both of us hastily kneeling. He says, “We are most honored to meet you, Queen Anva.”

I don’t look up, keeping my head bowed, as is appropriate in edicit. I can’t help but be reminded of my days in the village, of bowing and being subservient to everyone.

The thri-kreen queen’s gaze shifts to Kamar, and she speaks again. ‘It has been a long time since we have had outsiders here. You are the first to come in several generations, and from what I have heard, in a most spectacular fashion.’

I speak up this time, suppressing the tremor in my voice, “We are terribly sorry for that, but we were escaping slavers. We had no intention or knowledge of this… place.”

I start feeling the need to pray that the Queen decided to not kill us. I hold still, waiting for her to speak.

‘Do not worry, we shall not harm you. You must forgive my warriors, they were only protecting the hive. Your fellow crew members will not be harmed, and have only been incapacitated till they are transferred to their rooms.’ There was a reassuring tone to this, one that was filled with a bit of understanding.

I glance at Kamar, and bow my head even more, saying, “This one thanks you very much, your highness.”

How do you address a thri-kreen Queen? I’m just going to go with what would be used for royalty.

‘I will make this clear now, you are welcome here, but not for long. When Kalleo goes back to her slumber, you will be escorted away. Till then, you are my guests.’ This is projected down the strange mental link with confidence and a strong will.

Kalleo must be what they call the tarrasque.

I bow deeper, “This one thanks you, your Highness.” There is a slight tremor in my voice.

‘We do not have appropriate accommodations for your kind, so you will have to settle for what we have. You may go now.’ With those final words, the strange connection breaks and she climbs back down the cliff.

I continue to bow till she is completely out of sight. Letting out a breath I hadn’t known I was holding, I climb back to my feet.

Glancing over at Kamar, I can see he is stony faced.

The elder thri-kreen wobbles up to us, the warriors leaving through the door. He motions with his right pair of arms to follow him.

We walking through the doors, the two guards pull the door shut with a loud groan and bang.

Following the elder thri-kreen back the way we came, walking up the stairs. We don’t talk, both me and Kamar staying silent.

Turning left, we follow the elder down twisting and turning hallways. The green glowing moss torch Kamar holds throughs our shadows on the walls, twisting them.

The elder stops at the mouth of a dead end hallway, doors on either side lining it. Two of the red clothed and armored Thri-kreen stand guard at either side of the hallway, looking at us silently. Their antennae twitch every few seconds, but otherwise, they don’t move.

The elder thri-kreen clicks and hisses, motioning with his clawed arm to the hallway.

I open one of the old, wooden doors, looking inside. It is a small room, a raised platform, that I assume is both a table and a bed, sits against the left side of the room with a chair. An alcove in the bricks of the back wall holds a jar of glowing moss. A chamber pot rests in the other corner of the room.

It’s very… spartan. Even compared to the room I had while training in the Talri clan, it is pretty bare. I don’t even see covers on the table/bed.

I look at the elder, asking, “Uh… do you have any sheets?” I glance down at myself, my clothing gritty and dirty, it smells quite ripe from not being washed for a long time. I feel a twinge of regret that I was not able to recover my backpack from the room on The Sky Fisher. “And clothes?”

The elder thri-kreen rubs his mandibles together, hissing. He holds out his hand, asking me to give him mine.

I hesitantly hold out my hand, and the elder takes it gently in his claws. Using his second set of appendages, he starts tracing out Common on my palm.

I mutter the words as he traces them, “Will bring reed mats, weavers will make clothes, bring food as well. When other humans recover, will bring here too. You stay, no leave, guards will stay here.”

Nodding, I take my hand back. So we are stuck here till the tarrasque decides to go back to sleep.

I look at the guards, thinking. Maybe once the crew of the Sky Fisher get here, we could overpower them.

I dismissed the idea. Where would we go? I have no clue the way out of here, much less how to get past all the thri-kreen and off the tarrasque.

The elder thri-kreen holds up his hand, motioning for us to stay put. He backs off slowly, then turns around, walking off. The resounding sound of his staff hitting the stone fading into the distance.

I look at Kamar, and his giant bulk. His travelling clothes are just as dirty of mine, his brown tunic gritty with sand.

He blinks slowly, and I notice that he looks exhausted and tired. In his low, baritone, he says, “I’m going to go rest.” He walks off, ducking and squeezing through the doorway of the adjacent room to mine.

I nod, mumbling, “It has been a long day.”

Walking into my spartan room, I sit down on the hard, wooden chair. My feet barely touch the ground, this chair clearly made for thri-kreen and their increased height.

I look at the jar of strange glowing moss. It is made of a murky glass, probably made from the sand here. I sit there for a while, just gazing into the dim light source.

I let out a sigh, resting my head in my hands. It’s been a long day.

There is a knocking on my door and I look up as a thri-kreen walks in. This one is wearing thin pale red robes, and carrying a wooden tray of food, rolled up matts in it’s left arms.

I stand and move aside for the thri-kreen, letting it set the wooden platter down on the table, along with the mats.

Bowing to the servant thri-kreen, I say, “This one thanks you.”

The servant chitters a little, and nods, walking off through the door and closing it.

Moving back over to the table, I look at the food on the tray. There is a cup of what looks like slightly orange glowing juice. A bowl filled with a variety of fruits, all glowing dimly different colors. On a plate, with a wooden fork and sharp metal knife, is a slab of steaming meat. It looks to be of some kind of beef.

I strangle a gasp in my throat, choking on it a little. Those are spirit fruits!

Sitting down in the chair, I stare at the meal. My mind is still trying to comprehend what I am seeing, there must be a dozen of them there.

Either this is special treatment, or all of the thri-kreen eat like this. Unholy gods, they must be at least at the Silver ranks!

Even if these fruits were not high in katra content, it wouldn’t matter much. All of these would be enough to boost me up into the middle of the Steel ranks.

I pick up the fork and move the steaming piece of meat, muttering, “This is probably sacred beast meat too.”

Glancing in the cup of juice, I think, And this pulverized and squeeze spirit fruit.

Sitting back, I mumble, “Is it really okay for me to eat this?”

I glance around at my spartan room, it’s bar walls and orange scale brick. There is no one else here. This has to be a mistake.

Slowly, reverently, I pick up on of the spirit fruits from the bowl. It looks like something between a mix of a apple and a pear, a blue color. I can vaguely see through it, and it is squishy and soft.

I slowly bring it to my mouth, opening wide. I chomp down.

A explosion of sweet tangy flavor assaults my mouth, the juices running over my tongue. I can feel a rush of katra from that one bite. I quickly move it into my shattered channels, starting up my cycling technique.

It’s so good!

I start eating more of the fruit, savoring each bite. I can already feel the katra working on my core, a tingling sensation running through my body.

I continue eating, barely stopping to breath. Taking swigs of the juice as I eat the steak, which tastes slightly beefy, but is tough and gamey.

Before I know it, I have completely cleared off the plate. With a creak of wood, I sit back in the chair. My stomach feels like it is about to burst and my fingers tingle with the flow of katra mixing in with my Gray katra, being converted.

Closing my eyes, I can’t help but fall into a deep slumber.

There is a strange buzzing filling my ears, and it feels like a wave washes through my body.

My eyes snap open, and I find myself back in the strange space. The Origin and its ever shifting runes above my head.

There is the same sensation of a wave running through me, like diving straight into water. My entire body tingles, a buzzing in my ears.

My eyes focus on an image before me, floating words.

Congratulations!

You have started your Bonding process!

Due to a influx of extra katra, you have completed this process earlier than was intended. Your body has not fully adjusted and must be modified.

Scanning and preparing body for Integration...

[WARNING!] Foreign influence detected! Categorizing…

Category: [DEMONIC]

Starting Protocol 303 [Elimination]

What… is this?

I look up from the words, a shape taking form a few feet away. I watch in fascination as Gray katra spirals up from the floor, molding itself into a humanoid shape.

Clothes form on it, a face slowly defining itself out of the katra. Dark hair grows from it’s head, forming long bangs.

I take a step back, confused. “What?”

The person before me opens their eyes.

The irises glow with Gray katra.

It grins a disarming smile, spreading its arms out to its sides, saying in my voice. “Hello, Kardin.”

My double ganger’s eyes unfocus, staring at words forming before it. It hums for a second, then swipes at the words, disappating them.

My mind is racing, and my instincts screaming at me to run.

The doppelganger's smile turns into something vicious. He says in my voice, “It looks like I have to kill you.”