I made mental contact with the Bronze eyed Blue that had let me through the wall. Communication between lower Blues is mostly mental, long-form spoken word was for the more precise thoughts of the higher Blues. Most of the mental communication took place in mostly images and feelings but if it was put to words it would look something like this.

What doing here, are ambush squad yes?* Lost scouts, powerful enemy, must report and more scout get for to more ambush* general disapproval, No need squad for report leave here with wall* grudging agreement, need Red for to carry move faster, back faster* take with, go now*

The large Red that carried me from the roof picks me up as I yield control of the squad to the other blue. Honestly, he could have just seized them from me, but it was polite to give them. As the Red took off running while carrying me artillery spells begin to explode against the magical defenses above the wall. Filling the air with a sound like two huge rocks slamming together at high speed. I could feel the sound waves in my pseudo-chitin.

As we moved through the alleys and avenues there are no other ambush squads around, it was too close to the center, instead, there are barricades backed by Copto troops of about fifty every seventy meters or so. As we got closer and closer to the center the barricades and even some trenches got closer and closer together until they formed an unbroken defensive complex. Glancing through the veil into the Mundane I saw lines of sand-filled bags stacked across the streets with humans in bright yellow running around in a panic. Interesting, the humans had Yellows too.

Moving through the defensive works slowed down the Red’s formerly rapid pace as we moved through crowds of Red and Yellow Coptos. The largeness of my chosen Red became a major asset as I had it push through the tightly packed Coptos. We made good progress until one of the Coptos almost fell over as my Red pushed past. I felt my mind being seized and looked around to find myself staring into a pair of black silver-flecked orbs.

Stern Rebuke* Humble Apology*

The Blue broke communication as we both went on our way. Clearly it did not have time to properly discipline such a lesser Blue. I had my Red be a little more gentle with its shoving and paid more attention to who exactly I was annoying. It was difficult to keep track of all the different Coptos now especially through the haze of pain that hung over my mind from the essence loss earlier. Finally, we reached the hazy dome that surrounded the Central command. We stepped though it without a problem. The dome was tuned to Copto essence after all no false Copto would be able to get this far without being noticed by a Blue.

The Central command was not a terribly impressive place. It was a four-story tall structure made out of concrete in a style that a human would refer to as brutalist ( or simply ugly). Still, this was the place that I had come into existence so I held a bit of reverence to the location. I had spent most of my life in here, where I and three other Copper Blues had, under the supervision of a Bronze Blue ran a small part of the Yellow assembly section.

I remember the simple pleasure of placing the different crystal orbs brimming with power together on an engraved slate slab, threading the lines of power between the different orbs and then covering the whole affair in blank essence that quickly turned yellow and condensed. Then I would give it over to the Bronze Blue for the final fine adjustments. That had been my life for most of my two years until I was sent out on this mission.

Now I had returned and it was time to find a quartermaster somewhere in one of the upper floors. I had never been outside of the ground floor and basement and now I had to search the upper floors. Between the swarm of blues of all stations scurrying around, the thinking Reds (signified by the blue stripes on their forearms) bulling about, and the constant pain from essence loss, I felt more than anything confused and lost.

I found myself and my Red in an empty corridor, clearly, I had wandered into a part of the center that was not vital to the conflict. In the moment of quiet, I closed and unfocused my eyes creating the closest I could get to a feeling of separation from my vision. I turned inwards and tried to calm my stressed and pain misted mind. After a few minutes, I found my self fully turned inwards. Slowly I saw the internal connections in my mind, thousands of connections of light and tiny specks of concentrated power forming the centers for the net. I noticed that some of the connections were weaker and sickly looking. I focused on them and they began to strengthen. Slowly the pain began to ebb until I felt something poke me right where my nose would be if I were a human. Furious I began the process of turning my attention back outwards. It was probably a thinking Red who was bothering me, they could sometimes be strange, they were a very new group. Ready to deal some discipline out my eyes refocus.

Yet instead of finding a pair of dull black eyes looking at me I found my self staring into a pair of human eyes with startling blue irises. Pulling back I started shaking in shock as I realize I am gazing into the eyes of the Maker himself.

He gazed down at me for a few more seconds before stating deadpan “My, you are a strange one aren’t you?”