Wandering

A Grand Strategy

Entry #16

4th of July, 10:01

Location: Airspace, border between duchies Aurochs and Cante-Wirl

750m ASL, clear skies

Temperature 12º C, Wind Speed 5 m/s S

 “This is it, Martin.”

Elytra's sudden words made me slow down a bit, for the first time since our hasty takeoff that morning once I regained consciousness. I'd been out cold – I resent calling that manner of restsleep – for too many hours for me to like, and urged Elytra to swiftly continue with our flight to ensure we evaded any possible pursuers from the north.

Today she was flying on her old wings, staying close as to avoid pulling on the invisible tether that bound our souls together; either way, though, it was good to have a second set of eyes with me. My radar wasn't all too effective over distances like you'd have in any sort of aerial contact situation, and would likely just keep me distracted if I tried to extend its radius too much anyway.  So we'd spent the whole morning flying in a close formation, with Elytra optimizing her flying power best she could with spells of various sorts. She had blatantly refused to take on a pegasus shape, without me even asking – and after what happened last night, I don't blame her in the least.

Odd as it was; while the holed, chitinous changelings and their abilities were certainly more alien to my human standards, they carried with them heaps of positive connotations in the back of my head. Trustworthy. Loyal. Diligent. Helpful. A pegasus or unicorn was – color aside – not too visually different from any other earth animal, but to me they felt far more alien than anything else.

Well, aside from humans themselves, perhaps. I will confess, I've never really managed to figure out this mess of a species we are, even now; certainly not then, what with my very humanity being on the slippery slope of assimilation and whatnot. But that is a different story altogether.

“This is what, exactly?” I called back. We were close enough and the tailwind was weak enough that we didn't need to be all that loud to hear each other, and never mind the mind-sharing making conversation redundant to some point in the first place. Still, old habits die hard, as they say; and while not perhaps old per se, my 'flight voice' was one of the first things I'd picked up while traveling with the Swarm. Besides, there was some charm in just hearing another person's words in your ears, rather than inside your head. Once that strange, insectile vibrato was gone, Elytra actually had a pretty nice voice.

She gave me a serious look, and then gestured toward a towering, lonely mountain in the distant southwest before pointing at a small line of cleared land in the middle of the forest ahead of us that I hadn't spotted. “This railway runs along the border of Canterlot province. Once we cross it, we're in the heartlands of Equestrian territory. I'm...” Her resolve faltered for a moment, and pulse of fear echoed across from her mind to mine. “I'm scared, Martin. Last time – during the invasion – when we crossed this border from the south, I had scores and scores of my brothers and sisters with me. We werestill nervous about it, even then. Now they'll doubtlessly have increased patrols and trained their guards against changeling tactics, and it's just the two of us. It's...”

A memory shone bright in her mind, but I didn't bother looking; I knew perfectly well what it was. Celestia, the sovereign of the pony kingdom; locked in a cataclysmic magic duel with Chrysalis, who only managed to come out on top thanks to her immense amounts of stored magic. We had neither Chrysalis nor her massive magic stores this time around; and while Elytra and I certainly were no pushovers magic-wise, assuming we'd be anywhere near able to outperform an actual alchemist on her own home turf would be blatant stupidity.

Well, perhaps not that bad. I've nurtured a theory for some time that it was in fact Chrysalis' usage of the old magic, rather than the harmony-based version ponies use nowadays, that had let her overpower Celestia in the first place. Alas, my opportunities for empiric research on the matter has been, shall we say, rather few in number.

“Well, if that's the case there's certainly no use for us to remain here for any longer than we absolutely need to, now is there?” I arched an eyebrow at my changeling companion, and got an eager series of nods back. As we picked up our speed and speared through the sky once more, I slightly regretted the fact that we did not have a pegasus with us; with their control of the weather, the slight tailwind we presently had could easily have been transformed to a massive gale to propel us forth. But I digress. At least, it was a tailwind.

-/-/-/

As we proceeded southward it became apparent that Elytra's foreboding of increased patrols were quite justified, but it was not until late in the afternoon that we were forced to actually halt our progress. We'd had to dig down into lower altitudes to avoid detection several times, and our course had been pushed steadily westward to avoid running straight into a pack of roaming pegasi. While initially this hadn't been much of a worry for either of us, we were now in the looming shadow of Canterlot Mountain. A lone, gargantuan spike of a peak that pierced into the heavens above like a stone imitation of the  World Tree itself; situated in the middle between two minor mountain ranges, but not part of either of them by a wide margin. For some reason, that little detail seemed important.

At this time a band of civilian pegasi – workers, from the looks of it, possibly a weather patrol – had complicated matters enough that we'd been forced to take to the ground, and hide in a small forested area. Elytra's fear was threateningly apparent at this point, and it was beginning to take a toll on her. For the less magically inclined, I suppose I shall have to explain; the emotional energy of love, which largely fuels changeling magic and biology, is effectively neutralized by its fear-based counterpart, just like sine waves of opposing amplitudes neutralize each other. At a fundamental level, fear is rejection, while love is desire; polar opposites of the same nature, unlike the complementary variations in nature that the different elements have. In short, she was dangerously close to experiencing the same thing as Chrysalis had when I first confronted her. A power leak; or as the changelings call it, an emotional breakdown.

I leave you to decide which term you like better.

Our saving grace was of course, now as always, my connection to the scholarly changeling's soul and our constant sharing of generated power. That, and the fact that she was hanging on for dear life to every bit of bravery and indifference I could supply her with; this prevented the situation from becoming critical and the young hiveling starting to cry liquid love, but we were by no means in the clear. The group of pegasi were still milling about above us – I could sense as much with my radar – and at regular intervals they were joined by what I assumed were guardsponies.

We were, for all intents and purposes, grounded. And despite me not having had my wings for even a week, it made me feel terribly inadequate. For a moment, at least – until I realized letting such emotions rule me now would be risking a horrible fate for my companion. So I did the next best thing, and latched on to my eternal ally: anger. “I guess we're hoofing it from here on, then.” Elytra frowned but nodded all the same, empowered by my burst of emotions. Anger is like adrenaline to those guys, I tell you. Even now, their species never ceases to amaze me.

In short order we were marching onwards, scanning our surroundings with our respective empathy radars to see if the, hm,heavy weather would be letting up any time soon.

Naturally, it didn't.

Two hours of trekking later twilight was approaching slowly, but more importantly, so was the edge of the forest; a small gathering of minds spread uniformly across two levels of altitude hinted at a two-story mansion of some kind, right at the far end of my radar's range, and judging by its size it was likely to be surrounded by vast widths of farmland. There'd be no sneaking through that until dark was well upon us, which meant another night's worth of wasted sleep. Just thinking about it made me groan. However, despair was soon replaced by curiosity as I noticed a certain...oddity among the mansion's minds. I didn't know how to describe it at the time, and there certainly is no real way to convey it simply through words. So at a loss was I that all I said to Elytra was the following:

“Elytra? Are you feeling this?”

My companion frowned at me, shaking her head slightly. “Nothing in my range yet. You're stronger than me in that regard. What is it?”

I wrinkled my nose slightly, shaking my head. “I don't know. It's...I can't describe it. For some reason it's like I'm being,pulled or something, in that directi- wait, where are you going?” At my words, Elytra had suddenly set off in a dash straight for the mansion, and keeping pace with her on foot was such a struggle that I had to use my gravity spell to keep up; jumping between trees like a hybrid of a squirrel and a ricocheting bullet. The chase continued only for a few seconds, until we reached the very edge of the woods; before us were, as I'd predicted, a vast swathe of farmland, and a lone, massive two-story mansion.

“Now I can feel it,” Elytra breathed, panting slightly from the exertion. Note to self; Changelings still require oxygen to breathe, despite their otherwise mostly magical metabolism. I'd assumed so in the past, but this was the first time I'd gotten actual confirmation of the fact. “I can feel it,” she repeated, hanging her head down trying to catch her breath, and what I felt of the burning pain in her chest and legs were well enough clue as to how much physical exertion the scholar was used to. “But...how...”

I gave my panting companion a few moments to get a hold of herself, before raising an eyebrow toward the mansion. “So what is it? Good or bad?” Discerning individuals out of the mass of people in the mansion was a bit easier now that I was closer, but it still took a lot of concentration. Scout-caste hivelings are supposedly extremely skilled at using their empathy radar, and Harvesters are gifted with more accuracy in picking out the emotions of particular individuals; Warrior-castes or Scholar-castes like Elytra don't have any of those strengths, however. I wonder: seeing as I got my powers from her, does it stand to reason that I received her Caste enhancements as well? Sometimes magic can be just as logical as any other science, if you just apply the right mindset to it.

It took a few seconds before I got any answer out of her, and I couldn't make heads or tails out of the mishmash of thoughts whirling through her head. So I waited – impatiently – until she raised her head and gave me a very strange look. “That...is a hivelord. And judging from...the strength of this, one with practically no hivelings at all linked to her.”

This reasoning was not one I understood, and I raised my other eyebrow as I turned my head to look at her. She drew a few deep breaths before continuing. “Changeling society requires balance on all planes to function. For a...Sovereign, like Chrysalis, this also includes making sure her hivelords are reasonably on par with each other in terms of power. Any hiveling linked only to the Sovereign, or not linked to anyone at all, will instinctively gravitate toward low-population hives and hivelords.” She turned her eyes, gazing toward the mansion with a frown on her face. “We were probably pulled in this direction ever since we crossed into Canterlot province. For this feeling to be palpable is...”

She trailed off as her emotions swirled again, realization flaring up from nowhere. “I think I know who this is. No, it couldn't be anyone else. Hivelords don't simply plant themselves in the heart of Equestria for no reason, they're too valuable for that...” Her voice turned to a mutter as she started steadily marching toward the mansion, clearing the last bit of forest  left around us and exiting onto the open field. I hesitated to follow her – there were likely still pegasi nearby, even if I couldn't sense any at the moment – but in the end, I had little choice in the matter. Dallying would only bring pain for both of us, as the bond between our souls struggled to force our physical bodies back together again. Thus, crouching low and trying to find as much cover as possible in the high-arching stalks of wheat and rye, I followed Elytra onto the field.

I anxiously scanned the sky as I struggled to catch up with her, but couldn't spot anything; thus I threw caution to the wind and stood up, running to her side. “Gods, Elytra, would it kill you to wait for me before rushing off? What if you'd been spotted, looking like that?”

She stopped for a moment to look at me, before turning back around and marching on – though her pace was a bit more sedate than before. “Not here, I wouldn't have been. She wouldn't have let it happen – moreover, I doubt she'd let the guards remain here for long in the first place.” She paused for a few seconds, and I could feel embarrassment simmering in her mind. “Also, the feeling gets stronger now that I know what it is. It's...hard to stop myself. I suppose it's easier for you, since you weren't a changeling to begin with, but for me...it's like fighting gravity without wings. Hard.”

I was a bit puzzled by that comparison, but there wasn't much I could do than nod and accept it. What really stood out in Elytra's words, however, was something else. “So,” I began, not entirely sure how to keep going. “Her? Who? The one inside the mansion? You know who it is, then?” I leaned to the side for a bit, brushing some wayward wheat stalks out of my way as I kept following my companion.

Elytra nodded eagerly. “Kassandra Megaea. She's pretty famous, actually. As her name indicates, she's the progeny of our previous Sovereign, King Megalos. A Scholar-caste of great power, and when she was raised to Hivelord she became one of the greatest mages in the history of the Basileal court. She guarded the capital from a great vassal rebellion, so she became pretty popular with most every changeling in Hermaima-Allagion overnight...” Her voice cut off, and awareness burst to life inside her as she started looking everywhere around her all of a sudden. Then, to my surprise, she started using our telepathic link instead of talking.

She was one of Chrysalis' closest friends, well before she took the throne. Basically, Kassandra had no interest in succeeding her father. There's a reason we Scholars don't often land one of our number as Sovereign – we're just not that interested in running a country. She took on a sheepish tone as she said this, but continued despite the brief spike of embarrassment. So when Chrysalis gained prominence and was Included into the court, they struck a fast alliance with each other. Megalos favored her greatly as well, and she gained popularity pretty fast – he appointed her as Diadochi, his heir, you see – and Chrysalis' growing popularity among the hives made her a likely candidate of being elected thus, as well.

In a matter of seconds, I was – much to my surprise – being treated to alarge serving of changeling politics. Habit from my previous Q&A sessions with Elytra made me instinctively cross-reference everything she mentioned with her own memories, but the sheer amount of material available – being from the capital, the scholar had seen or lived through virtually all of the various court intrigues she was talking about – made it a difficult struggle indeed. Seeing how bad it was for myself at the time, and the fact that I, writing skill notwithstanding, lack the ability to wholesale transfer my memories to people through text, I'll spare you the less vital details revealed on the matter. This is not, after all, a university course on alien sociology.

So instead of miserably failing at piecing together quotes from Elytra's long, scholarly telepathic rant, I shall give you a more or less sufficient summary on the famed lady of the mansion we were approaching. Well, the rest of it, at least.

Kassandra Megaea held the position of Court Magi in Hermaima-Allagion, served as the capital's regent twice during Megalos' reign, as well as during the electoral interregnum following her father's death. She was raised to Hivelord after the first regency, where she successfully defended the capital during her father's absence during a massive insurgent rebellion among the Changelings' vassals. While Chrysalis had, under Megalos' reign, been a close confidant, and hiveling, of the otherwise mostly hiveless Hivelord Kassandra, their roles switched after Chrysalis' coronation, with Kassandra becoming the new queen's Court Magi and most trusted advisor. Apparently rumors had circulated of a love affair between the two as well, and from what I could see of Elytra's memories on the matter it didn't seem all too far-fetched of a theory either. Amidst these rumors were, at least, the fact that Chrysalis in the second year of her reign favored her councilor with an additional name secondant,Kalliste – which if Elytra's knowledge on what I'm sure is greek serves me right, means something like “the fairest” – and the various implications of that whole business.

Then, of course, things had turned sour for the alleged lovebirds, with Kassandra growing bolder and rasher in her attempts to protect and further the interests of the Changeling kingdom. Elytra hadn't paid too much attention to the deeper scope of her downfall, but the large of it was that Kassandra felt Chrysalis was acting too rashly, and when her majesty didn't listen to her she conspired with the rest of her court clique against the queen to put a stop to her plans. Her confidants were banished to other hives, and Kassandra was sentenced to ten years of exile, stripped of her favorable name and instead branded asErisea, “the strife-sower”.

Oh, and apparently she's also clairvoyant and/or a prophet. Just when I thought I'd mostly wrapped my head around magic, this comes along and slaps me in the face. Thanks, Murphy. You asshole.

All in all, Elytra promptly marched through the fields and up to the mansion's immense – and unguarded – doors, with me closely in tow. And while she steadily grew more and more confident the closer we got, I couldn't help but feel suspicious about the whole affair.

No, actually. I'll admit it. Not suspicious; afraid. Because the closer I got to the mansion, the more I too started feelingthe pull. As if there was an iron collar around my neck, and someone inside – this Kassandra Megaea Erisea – was waving a huge electromagnet around, trying to draw me close enough to snap a chain on.

If you know me decently well – which you should do, after all this – you should be well aware that of the few things I both loathe and fear in this world, being bound is by far the greatest of them all. And so, while Elytra eagerly barged through the oaken double doors without a single second thought, I stood on the porch in wary doubt for half a minute before my resistance crumbled and I hasted after my companion. As the doors closed behind me, I could not help but glance at the last fleeing bit of daylight shining through, waning as the crack in the majestic wood creaked shut.

For inside the long, winding corridors of the mansion, not a single window was uncovered as far as I could see – only the eerie light of green-clad lanterns illuminated its viridian walls. I swallowed hard, and entered the exiled Hivelord's den.