SGRUB Quest ( AS and PS )

PS: ah.
PS: $hould be ea$y enough.

It was indeed incredibly easy in fact, as Velesi found all she had to do was walk through the area the gate was supposed to be in. It was rather eerie, assuming something was there without being able to see it, but Velesi knew she had to adhere to what her Vision showed her to be successful. She handled the strangeness of the situation with professionalism, but somewhere within she was a bit disturbed.

On the other side Velesi was almost immediately overwhelmed by an explosion of sound, she recoiled lightly but recovered. It was a waterfall, literally, a torrent of some great river deluging over a cliff and into the smog below. The rushing water was strong enough to clear the smog for some distance, revealing a plateau crossed by smaller rivers that fed into the waterfall. Mobs of creatures wandered around, with properties of ants and pandas, which all in all made them look enormously odd.

The mobs were keen on ignoring her for the moment, which meant it was up to Velesi to find a way to defeat all of them without too much danger to herself. She began to toy around with options in her thoughts, trolling Saturn further more out of idleness than any actual need to hear from him.

PS: what have you found now?

AS: there is avillage with yellow kitties and a godtier bed is here too.
AS: this place welcomed me.
AS: when the cats saw me they grabbed onto mylegs and toldmewhatthingsare.

Saturn pats the kitten's head and continued walking even though there were kittens clinging to his legs. He steps over some rocks and kittens surround him and they all start giggling.

"You are the Seer of Time Mr. Meow! " They all cheer in unison.

Saturn smiles again and walks to a stand with a kitten selling all sorts of food. It offered rice with cabbage to him on the house so he had to be polite and except. He sat on a rock where kittens had followed him and sat down in front of him as he ate. Their beady eyes stared at him so intensely it was like they were staring into his soul.

AS: thesecats really like me. X3

Velesi didn't pay attention to her coplayer's response at first. She was busily preparing a doozy of a plan to destroy the groups around her with both efficiency and economy in spades. She used her now large amounts of grist to purchase several items from her Stock Modus: several long lengths of STRONG rope- she wasn't sure why the word strong was capitalized in the product name but it seemed the best buy for her buck- a few STRONG poles, a normally strong generator, and several boulders. Thank goodness trolls of industry and hard labor used the Modus Stock Market as well as she did.

She tied several of the poles together into something approximating a net and she jury-rigged a pulley system for the net by driving two of the poles firmly into the ground and lashing the ropes that would hold the net into place around a third pole which she could use the heretic principles of Troll Archimedes to haul the net back up without too much physical effort on her part. Which she'd need the ability to do, since she filled the net with the boulders and sent it over the edge of the waterfall. The STRONG equipment proved true to it's name, and held firmly when the net fell out of sight into the smog.

Already truly exhausted without having even gone into combat, Velesi decided to take a breather to think and respond to Saturn:

PS: what do you mean by godtier?
PS: i have yet to meet friendly creatur$ in my land.
PS: i $uppo$e i may soon if your experience i$ anything to go by.

Velesi's Vision Diamondfold then chose that moment to tell her that something friendly lurked further into this plateau, out into the smog and past the creatures she had to defeat. When she was well and rested, it was time for action.

Velesi tied one last length of rope to an arrow to be nocked to her bow, noting with pride that she had bought exactly as much rope as she needed. Next she set about gathering the creatures to chase her about. Some of them were small, of similar stature to the one she had encountered out in the smog before, some of them were larger and more menacing in apparent threat. A horde of them, more than twenty in all, chased her. Part of her wondered how much of this was a test put in by the game in purpose to force her to think outside of the box.

She went over the waterfall with them following, an acrobatic move where she narrowly used her bow and arrow as a grappling hook to keep herself from falling while the creatures in chase tumbled over the edge and to their doom. She was more than a bit startled, for once she actually even felt fear, a strange and unprofessional feeling that unnerved her more than the fact that she was dangling over an apparently great chasm and was being soaked to the bone by a torrent of high speed water. Her grip on her rope was only just. Her Vision had told her this move would work, and as usual it didn't tell her by how comfortable of a margin. Velesi found herself momentarily vulnerable, a little teenage troll way in over her head cursing the forces that had brought her here.

Then she toughened up was was professional to do, and clawed her way up the rope to safety. Wasting no time she brought her makeshift pulley up, and found that her plan had worked: the monsters had all hit the boulders and died on them, so the recoup on her investment was returned when she hauled the boulders with the grist scattered over them back up to her level. She checked her return as she took another good rest.

Almost even. Not bad.

Saturn walks to the north exit after finishing up in the village. He thought of coming back later. He walked along the mushy grey land that was just as thick as mud but didn't stick to your shoes. He took his strife specibi and swapped it out for his fist kind. He didn't want to waste the ammo he had just bought in town.

After walking for what seems like forever he runs into some imps and fights with great power that his weak and scrawny physical appearance seemed like a mere trick. His mentality stayed the same but his physical power seemed a little new, since he barely fought with his fists anymore. He smiles and closes his eyes, unaware of his personality slightly changing. His eyes darkened by a bit and he charged at each imp, punching it into the air and punting it across the small fighting space. He has a smirk on his face, carefully slipping off his shoes to fight, finding his movement much more faster this way. He dodges an imp that was flying at him and turns around, kicking it's legs out from under it. He licks his fang and punches it right into the ground. He does the same thing to many of the other imps in which all of them explode in a grist explosion. He smiles and goes back to normal, collecting the all of this grist. He gains at least five levels.

AS: i have leveled quitenicely. ^^

Saturn happily taps away at keys on the tablet, writing himself notes on what to do later.

PS: i would not know about that.
PS: there i$ much i am $till in the dark about.
PS: literally and figuratively.

Velesi eventually recovered and began the trek across the plateau towards her final destination so far as her Vision allowed her to know. She was a bit tense as she approached the cloud of smog, thick and oppressive, knowing that she would not be able to see for quite some time to come and might possibly run into enemies once more in the fog of war.

Thus she was more than a little surprised when she crossed through the barrier and found herself once more in the sun. She realized that the sound of the great waterfall she had just left had masked the sound of smaller waterfalls that cleared the air in this new area. Many smaller waterfalls, enough to dot the landscape for quite a ways up a great hillside, at the very top of which she could make out some strange stone monolith and a blurry figure that was her blood color. Her Vision was now silent, but Velesi only had to assume that she was to make her way up the hill.

There were many ant-like creatures wandering the landscape, their mandibles expertly carving furrows from the earth that Velesi quickly realized were projects of industry. The hillside deigned to resemble and Alternian rice farm, the canals the ants were digging were for irrigation, and it was possible that they had dug the waterfalls as well to clear the darkness from their lands. Velesi nodded to herself in approval of such industry, and wondered if they would be receptive to business from herself.

One ant soon caught her eye, as it was her antdaddy in sprite form, having somehow found his way over here before she had. He drifted over and proceeded to speak to her...

Spritelog

... Unfortunately lusus can't speak, and death didn't seem to change that at all. Thus all he really did was issue some high pitched squeaks and drift off again. Some things never changed, it seemed. Velesi saw one of the antpeoples who weren't her lusus, and this one seemed to have a voice.

Ant: hail, chief of our land.
Velesi: flattery will get you nowhere.
Ant: ah yes, forgive me for being unprofessional.
Velesi: of cour$e, bygone$.
Ant: we have been preparing for your arrival with many developments that may suit your business practices.
Ant: chief among them the development of currency.
Velesi: impre$$ive.
Velesi: you advanced a$ a civilization for my $ake.
Velesi: i am to reach the top, ye$?
Ant: of course.
Ant: it is your destiny as mage of mind.
Ant: however, you must bring our village to prosperity first, by investing wisely in our people.
Ant: only then shall we let you pass.
Velesi: ea$y enough.

AS: i forgot to wellyouigottooexcited.
AS: ask the friendly creatures anything.
AS: they will give you the answers.

Saturn blushes in embarrassment at his mistake of forgetting to tell what godtier was. He just was too excited. That, and he didn't know much because he didn't ask the cats much. He thinks of future and what comes to mind is him in a red costume with a gear on it. He wondered what that meant. One word came to mind : godtier. He smiled from ear to ear. He knew what it was now!

AS: i just found out what godtier is my friend..
AS: i can't believe i was sostupid..
AS: it gives you power in certainaspects determined by class.
AS: i'm a seer class and the aspect is time.

Saturn sits on the floor where the oily remains of the imps were splattered all over the ground. He and PandaSprite look up at the grey sky, the sound of ticking filling their ears.

PS: unprofe$$ional conduct, but i will di$regard it.

The ant consort returned to it's labor, leaving Velesi to mull over both the idea of building the ant village up to it's full potential and the idea of her god tier. She could only assume she had been called the 'Mage of Mind' for a reason, and as she thought that she felt a hint of doubt. Perhaps, sometime a long time ago, some hapless female similar to herself had gone with potential unrealized, her Vision said. The winds of destiny had not wrapped themselves around this woman, but had simply been ripped apart by her presence entirely. She had been left in a void completely, unable to chose her path...

Velesi was perturbed by this sudden highly sentimental reflection onto some abstract concept whose gravitas she did not fully understand. Of all the things for her Vision to come to... was it trying to misconstrue something? Surprise and weaken her as it had sometimes in the past? Velesi left the urge to dismiss her sudden self doubt and concern aside as she had been able to do before. But something about her title, the Mage of Mind, it made her concerns imprint, burn into her brain as if by a blazing hot musclebeast iron. She found herself high and dry, as she had been when dangling over the great waterfall but a few minutes ago- well, high at any rate as she had actually been soaking wet.

Haunted by sudden uncertainty, Velesi was more than slightly slow at getting to her other train of thought, the building of a civilization. But when she got to that thought she felt calmer, less turbulent within with suspicion of her Vision. She sought the council of the ant people once more, choosing to speak to one working on diverting one of the village's many waterfalls.

Velesi: are there other$ of your tribe on thi$ world?
Ant Worker: ah yes
Ant Worker: but they are hidden, far far beyond the veil of the smog.
Ant Worker: we cannot move through the smog effectively, we must remain here within the clear air.
Velesi: ah.
Velesi: it i$ a matter of extending your range then.
Velesi: once the tribe$ are unified your natural capacity for indu$try under my admini$tration will certainly re$ult in a $ignificant advancement of your people'$ capabilitie$.
Ant Worker: that seems about right, great administrator
Velesi: did you ju$t come up with that?
Ant Worker: yes
Velesi: it i$ an excellent title, let me be known by it among$t your people henceforth.
Ant Worker: of course
Ant Worker: how would you propose uniting the tribes for the purpose of growth
Velesi: the gate$.
Velesi: are there any within thi$ area that you know of?
Ant Worker: ah, yes
Ant Worker: atop this hill
Ant Worker: but the waterfalls that clear our air also prevent us from returning to the gate
Ant Worker: it is likely that the tribe we are descended from lives through that gate
Ant Worker: as we are probably the newest tribe
Velesi: ah, excellent.
Velesi: a$ we progre$$ upward$ there will be more experienced worker$ then.
Ant Worker: indeed it would seem
Velesi: rally your people to me.
Velesi: i have a plan.

Velesi nodded as the ant worker scurried off and another almost immediately took his place. Excellent workers, the sort of employees any up and coming administrator would die to have. She was in a good mood, so she decided to speak to Saturn as she worked her way towards what she assumed would be the center of the village.

PS: i am the mage of mind, it $eem$.
PS: have your world'$ people ta$ked you with any duty yet?
PS: i a$$ume with $ome rea$on that aiding them will be critical to maximizing the return from playing thi$ game.
PS: not to mention that my world'$ people are admirably intent on becoming upwardly mobile.
PS: alway$ a noble goal.

AS: they have told me to levelupuntil i'm tired.
AS: my role is to protect the village from the inside and outside so far.
AS: they have not given me anyinformation on any other things yet.

Saturn stands, knowing what he had to do. He wasn't very far from the village and could help them right away. He put on his shoes and sprinted across the greyish mush of a floor. Carefully, he walks to a kitten, who turns around and clings to his leg with tiny little tears in it's eyes.

"Mr. Meow! Pwease help me. The other's make fun of me because of my pink ear mister. Can you make them stop? Pwease? " it begs, looking up at him with it's bright hazel eyes.

Saturn smiles and nods, making the kitten point over to the bullies. He walks to the group of cats, plotting to do something bad.

" Heyyou! Idon'twant youtopickon this little one alright? I will keep her in my watch allofthetime alright? " He says sternly.

The cats nod, looking like they had witnessed a murder. He walks away with the kitten still clinging to his leg.

"Do you mean it mister? " the kitten asks.

"Yeah.. I do mean it. I will keep yousafe little one. " Saturn confirms.

A cat with a top-hat, monocle, and moustache comes rushing out of a building. He must have been the mayor. He tugs on Satuurn's shirt and looks up at him.

" You must be wondering what you are to be doing here. Let me explain. You are to be our time hero, hence the title of this land, land of grandfather clocks and vortexes. You are our Seer of Time, meaning once you are ready, you will foresee the future deeper than what you can now. I will explain the eccheladder. So far your level is 10 paces away from Seer of Time, meaning you are at, "Can You See Me? "." The cat explains, going on and on about how the game worked and how his leveling and money worked.

PS: how $imple.
PS: you would probably be far more $uited for the job than i am.

Velesi let the messaging back and forth go for the moment and finished her trek into the ant village's center, where her consorts were already beginning to gather, chatting eagerly amongst themselves, seemingly impressed already by the troll in their midst whose arrival had been legend for centuries since their people had first begun to tame the darkness of the land. That darkness billowed overhead, perhaps too restless in the face of she who would change the planet forever.

Velesi nodded, sat down on a rock that was the closest thing to the chair that might be reserved for an executive, and began her brief, the ants hushing to hear her speak:

Velesi: your tribe$ are $oon to be united.
Velesi: i predict that your productivity will $kyrocket exponentially once the gate$ are traver$ed.
Velesi: i have crunched the number$ and determined that you are all worth the inve$tment.
Velesi: with the technology of my world provided by my capital, we $hall work our way upward$ to the gate$.

A round of polite clapping from the ants. They really were professionals stuck in the wrong time period, which Velesi intended to correct for the sake of progress and productivity.

Ant: great administrator
Velesi: word travel$ fa$t in your tribe.
Ant: indeed it does
Ant: our finest craftsworkers have prepared a gift for you
Ant: consider it an executive bonus

The ant produced a suit of black and white, incredibly well tailored and threaded and perfectly sewn to match her size. There was even a matching tie in a respectably sober red with her blood symbol on it. But what caught Velesi's attention most were the butterfly wings sprouting from the back. Velesi was at first inclined to say that such a touch was too strong a gesture for a corporate outfit. But the innate troll reverence for wings affected even her, and such a suit seemed to her perfection.

She reached out with a hand to accept the gift when her antdaddy lusus popped out of nowhere and flew directly into the suit. It seemed that her kernelsprite had more room, as it and the suit fused together into some kind of impeccable dressed, winged, ant lusus. Who still could not communicate with anything more than high pitched whines. Calmly, Velesi pointed at her lusus.

Velesi: you're fired.

To her pleasure two burly ant villagers hustled her antdaddy sprite out of the village square. It was ultimately no large loss, but such outright unprofessionalism had to be responded to. Velesi then began to go to work in earnest. Using her great funding from her earlier manipulation of the stock market, she purchased a plethora of construction equipment from the Modus Stock Market. Her plan, as she outlined it to the ants, was the construction of a great set of automated pulley systems that the ants could use to ascend the waterfalls to the gates.

PS: my own job i$ going well.
PS: how do you fare?

AS: i amdoingquite well.
AS: i am going to check up on the villageafter each battle, just to make sure.
AS: i guess i justworrytoomuch about some things.
AS: but i'd rather be checking than not, incase of emergency.

Saturn has a small smile on his face, telling the mayor who had finished farewell. The little kitten from before had jumped down and followed him. Suddenly he had an idea. It wasn't very smart, he knew but he foresaw it coming. This kitten would be part of Pandasprite. She was the main part of the mission and he had just started realizing it. He had no idea. Weather he took the kitten with him or not, it would die and be put into the sprite. He picked up the small kitten into his arms and set her on his head, where she lied on her tummy.

Saturn walked out with the kitten on his head and went with the safest option for her: tell her the plan.

" Um.. Kitty? Would you care if I were to sprite you?" He mumbles so the small kitten can hear him.

"Of course I wouldn't mind? Do you want me to do that for you? If it keeps me safe then ok! My spirit is fading anyway, for I am a figment of this world. Please sprite me." The small cat says cheerfully.

It falls back and lands on it's paws. Saturn nods and picks the little one up, and putting it into the sprite. A bright flash is seen and a panda with pink kitty ears is seen. The big button eyes were the same too, just green.

PandaKatSprite: " Hello Mr Meowz! Level up until godtier friend! I will guide yoooou!" it cheers.

PandaKatSprite gives Saturn a friendly hug with it's soft arm stumps. It made him feel comforted and like he could do anything.

PS: nothing wrong with that.
PS: a healthy do$e of paranoia is vital for a $uce$$ful bui$$ine$ venture.

Velesi hadn't moved from her 'office' in the village center as it afforded the perfect vantage for administrative oversight, the largest of the village waterfalls directly before her which the ants were busily lashing the pulley system up the face of. In spite of not lifting a finger to exert any actual effort Velesi could feel some curious power rising within her, a sort of warm and comfortable feeling that made her feel more familiar with this alien world she had been taken from her home planet to build. It was her levels, her ascent up the echeladder echoing the ant's ascent up their mountain, though of course she could not know that.

She found it perhaps even easier than she had anticipated. She had provided the equipment, the ants had gotten to work, and now she had time to think to herself, her plans having been well drafted enough to where the ants did not need much actual supervision. As she thought that curious uncertainty rose to the surface once more, the one that had begun in earnest when she had learned of her title as Mage of Mind. As she had said, paranoia was critical to all successful business gestures.

But she couldn't help but wonder what success would entail. In a world so far removed from what she had known all her life- she had adapted quickly to be sure- she found herself for once wondering if she could possibly fail. There were simply too many unknown variables, and the vagueness of her Vision Diamondfold in showing her the future did not aid her in any aspect, only further throwing possible kinks into her plans. It was perhaps best to say that she found herself truly blind for once, as fitted the darkness of her world, which was an unsettling thought for the young businesswoman.

PS: indeed, paranoia i$ nece$$ary.
PS: without it greatne$$ cannot occur, only mediocrity.
PS: a poker game i$ won only by careful players.
PS: but then, they mu$t al$o know when to all in.

AS: well i guess so.
AS: my sprite is complete.
AS: the kitten was the key and sheoffered to sprite herself.
AS: paranoia.. i would haveneverthought it was healthy to a point.
AS: i guess it did make me successful since the kitten offered herself and all...
AS: well, i'm goingtogo level some more.
AS: i will alert you on any major progress. ^^

Saturn puts his tablet away into his sylladex and continued to walk. Imps began to instantly ambush him. He went into his defensive mode and began to fight, kicking and punching imps into every direction they had come from. The sprite swirls around each imp, confusing them and letting Saturn strike them down.

" Strike when they are confused! They will die and grist will go everywhere. Try to collect all of it's remains and the boondollars too. They serve as the main currency in this game. "

" Alright.. I'll do just that kitty. "

Saturn looks up to see a large clown-like creature with a terrifying face and a music box abdomen. Saturn's eyes widen and he runs behind a bush, taking out his sniper riffle and aiming for it's head. He shoots three times before it drops dead into thousands of pieces of grist. He collects all of the grist from the monster's now invisible corpses.

AS: it's quite alright friend.
AS: i forgive you for being " unprofessional " as you'd say.
AS: i just call it speaking your mind.
AS: i think this kitten had immortality in mind, in which it was granted as it chose to help me on my path to success.
AS: so far however, i do not regret my choice in letting this kitten sprite herself.
AS: it was quite a danger to her but she didn't mind to suffer for the price of living to see everything that happens in the world and never dying.
AS: that is why my theory on her choice to come with me sounds correct. however, i am just going off of my reasoning on this.
AS: don't you think that sounds about correct?
AS: i think it depends on if the person either does something out of the kindness of their heart, or for their own personal gain.
AS: for example, this kitty who had helped me did what she had just to become immortal, but found herself stuck with me.
AS: i guess your answer to your question just depends on the person who chooses to help.
AS: think, what type of person are they, and would they do this because of something for themselves, or because they care?
AS: if you simply don't know the person, get to know them and simply go off of what you learn.

Saturn finishes up his typing before he goes to his normal self.

PS: hm.
PS: you mu$t then con$ider that you may have picked the wrong coplayer.
PS: i am not inherently given to helping unle$$ i find per$onal gain within it.

Velesi looked up at the construction that was ongoing with an unreadable expression on her face. Her Vision was sending her conflicting images, of herself both fighting her way to her pinnacle of success on her own, and of her making the choices in the future to aid her coplayer whenever possible. To her, such thoughts did not make sense. If she were to go out of her way to help her fellow player, she would be wasting resources on something not needed for her progress. Unless...

PS: do you believe we will be meeting in per$on at any point during thi$ game?

Velesi was casually impressed by the rate of the ant's work. Already they had scaled half of the great mountain with the equipment she had provided them. Her future still uncertain, Velesi at least knew for a fact that she had made the right investment with the ants.

AS: idon't mind who i playwith.
AS: as long as they don't makefunofme.
AS: i do believeitis possible we may endup meeting in person.

Saturn began to wonder too, thinking about what might happen if those events were to occur. He had nothing more to do except fight some more, so fight he did.

"Over there! " The PandaKatSprite says.

Saturn nods in the direction the imps were coming from, coming at them with his hands in his pockets. He runs and runs and finally strikes at them, making them agitated and confused, trying to scratch at him. He kicks at one and sends it flying into another, causing them to topple onto each other and burst into grist. The other imps try to run away but Saturn kicks their butts and they all die. He went up a few more levels and he smiles to himself.

PS: tea$ing i$ unprofe$$ional and a wa$te of time.
PS: re$t a$$ured i will not be engaging in it.

So they would be meeting. Her Vision was correct, and ultimately that was all that mattered. Her choices were already made for her, and that disturbed Velesi more than slightly, but for now she was able to ignore her perturbing feelings as something far more positive presented itself to her: the sweet spoils of an investment gone well.

Ant: we have almost done scaling the mountain, great administrator
Velesi: excellent.
Velesi: prepare the tribe to move through the gate.
Velesi: i will purcha$e a caravan for the journey.

Indeed she actually was able to purchase a complete caravan with wagons and supplies- again, there was no accounting for the oddities of what was sold on the Modus Stock Market- and Velesi spent some calming time organizing the stocking of the caravan with foodstuffs- mushrooms which the ants apparently grew- and the careful transport of the wagons up the pulley system.

In an hour or so Velesi had turned a village with almost nothing in it into an upwardly mobile force- literally. She had to admire her own skills for just a moment. Just a moment of course, as excessive ego had ruined many a business transaction she had observed before. Moderate ego primed and sharpened the mind however, and Velesi's tempered pride was just perfect. She was one of the last to ascend.

When she reached the peak of the mesa she was momentarily distracted from the caravan filing through the gate by a closer look at the monolith she had seen from afar earlier. It was some kind of stone slab, with a curious three-pronged symbol carved into it.

PS: have you seen any $trange $ymbol$ in your progre$$ion $o far?

AS: i am gladyouthink teasing is unprofessional friend.
AS: i have only ran into two symbols but i didn't find them strangeatall.
AS: it was the gate symbol and a symbol like mine, representing oneofthe human solar system's planets, saturn.

Saturn types in all he could remember, taking a deep breath and calming himself from that up-beat fight. He liked training, and to him this was just like it. He thought back to the symbols, thinking of meanings and everything else. Finally it hit him. The symbol of time.

AS: i may have left this out but after thinking it over i had foresaw the symboloftime.

Hopeless, he was hopeless. He knew he shouldn't be leaving out the smallest of details since they could be important but he couldn't help himself. For once, a frown is put onto his usually happy face, making him look like he was going to cry, almost shifting personalities, but stopping himself after he felt his brain start hurting. He thought to himself that he was indeed hopeless, until he reminded himself he could do anything if he tried.

PS: hm.
PS: the $ymbol of time.
PS: i a$$ume it ha$ $omething to do with our title$ given by the native$ then.
PS: in that ca$e the $ymbol of mind re$emble$ a three pronged $tar.
PS: or $omething along tho$e line$.
PS: creativity in de$cription i$ not my $trong point.

That said Velesi decided to leave the monolith for the moment. Doubtless it's purpose would be revealed at some point or another, perhaps if she asked the ants in the next village.

The next village was indeed more glorious than the previous one, built at the base of an even taller mesa than the last; so tall the smog shrouded its peak. There were actual structures erected, homes and shelters and... fortifications, apparently. There was even a pulley system already in operation, but it was hardly capable of transporting an entire tribe. And it was right between two sets of fortifications that Velesi could see were pointed at one another. There was some kind of war going on.

The caravan had emerged in a small valley between the two fortifications, what appeared to be a dry riverbed. Soldiers from both sides looked down, first in mistrust, then in no small awe.

Warrior Ant: the great negotiator has arrived!
Other Warrior Ant: our tribes may yet reunify!
Velesi: great negotiator.
Velesi: not a$ good a$ great admini$trator, but it will do.

Negotiations, indeed. A different, but equally welcome test of her skills. She wondered how Saturn was doing with his trials.