The sound of scratching and clicking crawled up and down Inta's spine, there was so much more of that noise at ground level, and the reason why quickly became evident. It wasn't just the noise of the ants crawling everywhere in single file lines, it was the eggs.
Fields and fields, endless rows of white ant eggs laid out like crops in single file lines. They were like the rows of corn or potatoes on any human or elven farm, but these? They 'wiggled'. The white eggs were wobbling a little with the stirring of the lives within. Inta's red eyes shone in the dark like red candles when he stared intensely into the white outer layers which protected the growing ants inside. It was easy enough for his eyes to penetrate the thin substance and make out the shadowy figures inside.
Ants in long rows were carrying larger eggs away, while others brought small ones in to take their places. Each spot on which the ants lay had a small channel gouged out of the rock, almost like the irrigation systems in the Sorcerous Empire, but each channel was broken up every few paces with a pair of rocks which kept the ant eggs from wobbling out of place, trapping them where they were laid.
"These are the ones set aside for eating, each ant hatched can feed one of my kind for over a month. Spiderpeople need more food, so they take most of them." Their guide explained as he took them down the long rows, "They will eat four times a day if there is food enough, but if there is not, they can last weeks without food. However they can do little work and so food is carefully managed so that we always have more."
"And these aren't intelligent, you say?" Inta asked, he could feel Entoma's eyes on the back of his head when he asked, but the guide obliged him as they walked past the rows of skittering ants.
"No. They are only able to gain true thought when they come together in vast numbers, they are each as intelligent as…" The scorpionman thought it over, his claws clicked a little faster, and finally he answered, "An ordinary snake, or less. A snake will not walk itself to death following the one in front of it. These," he pointed to a passing ant, "are dumber than the dumbest of dumb animals."
"I see." Inta answered and glanced over his shoulder at his mate.
"You do not approve?" The scorpionman pressed.
"I-I don't know how to think about this if I'm being honest." Inta answered his guide, "If they're capable of higher thought but only collectively, isn't depriving them of that… unreasonable?" He asked.
His guide gave no answer, though his clicking claws went silent, and then he picked up where he left off in his tour.
"These are for fighting." The guide went on, the eggs were larger, rather than coming up to his knee at the greatest size, these came up to his waist and they moved with much greater vigor, wobbling back and forth as if determined to fight their way out of confinement to join the larger world. "We keep few because they do not work well, but when needed we can breed many and field thousands in a matter of weeks. If we did not manage the ants, their colonies would overwhelm the world in time."
Inta wasn't sure if this was meant to defend their ways or just more information, but it was Entoma who filled in the quiet gap. "Fascinating. And when they die, do you eat them too?"
"No, they are too toxic." The guide said and the clicking of his claws resumed.
From there it was on to the workers, "Here we have the workers growing, they will hatch from eggs that grow to the height of your thighs, our tunnels constantly expand as we go from one of the great chasms to the other that dot this land, each one in time will become another city for our use, each in turn to be governed by father and mother of our races, and which will exist in harmony under the ways of the Binding Web."
"The Binding Web?" Entoma asked with sudden interest.
"Our code of laws. In the deep time, mother web and chasm father's people clashed often, our armies fought claw and web, web and claw, we burned their webs, they bound our children. But then the beastmen settled, far to the north, driven away from the south by some terrible being's wrath. They killed and ate us both, and we were driven from our homes in the greener chasms to the lands of the desert, forced to join forces to survive. The Binding Web is the law laid down by Lycurigan. None know what he was, spider or scorpion, but the story goes that he crafted laws for both peoples to try, and ventured to the south to seek the monster's aid in fighting the beastmen. Each of us vowed to hold to those laws until he returned to us but…"
The clicking claws stopped, "He never returned. Some say this was his intent, that he took his life far away so that we would be bound to obey the Binding Web forever, as he would not come back. Others say the monster slew him. Nobody knows. After years and generations, our law is law, and his will is secure, and we are two, but we are one." The clicking of the claws went quick as the strumming of a swift tune on a stringed instrument, and Inta couldn't help but think that if this one had a more human shape, he'd have practically skipped along his path.
'A history lover, I suppose. Nice to see he has some personality at least.' Inta thought, while at his back, Entoma nodded with approval.
"A noble figure, sacrificing himself for his own that way. Your people are very impressive, you should be proud." She said, nodding as she looked around at the neat and orderly pathways. The lines of ants ahead began to narrow, however, and were coming together at a central point.
"We are." The guide said and the ants cleared out of his path as he strode toward a dark entrance.
"This way lies the Queen, she has 'some' intelligence, but no attachment to her young, she exists to mate and breed more of her own, and in return she is kept safe and protected from the outer world. Our society depends on this balance of interests." He explained as they went down the long tunnel path.
Then his clicking stopped, and his legs picked up speed, his steady constant pace became a run.
"What's wrong?!" Entoma asked as his pheromones went wild. She took off after him at a sprint, her long legs eating up space under her feet, she saw Inta fall in beside her, his fangs bared and the claws of his hands out and ready for use, even without the ability to detect pheromones, he could tell something was amiss.
Their guide stopped dead at the entrance. A puddle of liquid lay in front of a pile of eggs, but that was all.
"The Queen… the Queen is gone…" Their guide said, his tail came up, ready to fight and claws opened up, ready to clamp down on something, anything…
Entoma went to the puddle of purple liquid and crouched down, her golden finger ran through the thick substance, "Liquid pheromone… to hide the loss…"
Inta however, had only two words come to mind. 'Oh. Shit.'