Symbiosis

Chillushrith moved across the expanse on her seven remaining legs, looking around and beholding what she hadn’t witnessed for a long time, her eight eyes easily piercing through the darkness enveloping the place.

When she had first stepped into the cave, looking for the foes invading the nest and for the target she had been sent to retrieve, she hadn’t really had the time to be surprised at the sight of the environment she had explored as a hatchling so many molts before.

Now, however, with the biggest threats to their present survival eliminated, the memories of that past were coming back to her as she trod anew her path of old, still fresh in her mind despite the time that had passed.

Back then, she reminisced, looking at the wall to her left, those grubs were barely present. I remember how tasty they were if you managed to get one without getting zapped, so pleasantly sour. I wonder if I should go and get some? This time their power shouldn’t be an issue… She briefly glanced at the hobbling two-legs below her and then sullenly moved her attention towards the entrance to the nest already in sight. No matter.

I honestly don’t know how it can be possible, but this A-lis creature is even more annoying than the little one. Chillushrith thought to herself as she cut apart those few creatures that had yet to understand their position in the food pyramid, which was below her.

She repressed a pained hiss as a particularly wide thrust of her spears towards one of the rushing enemies caused a couple of her wounds to open up once again, the small trickle of blood marring her gleaming exoskeleton.

On top of that, her spikes kept sinking in the softer stone, forcing her to raise her legs higher and generally straining her still healing body.

That power actually works though, even if slowly. Once again, she stole a glance at the creature, now busy repeatedly lighting up different spots on its body as it walked.

Her mind went to the previous day, to the moment the creature had placed its warm feeler on her body, somehow forcing its magic through her defenses as if they weren’t there, eagerly moving within her flesh to repair the damage she had sustained.

It had been worth it, obviously, with its help she had been able to heal more in an hour than she would have been able to in days upon days of rest; that didn’t mean she hadn’t been relieved when A-lis had collapsed from the strain, the intrusive feeling finally fading from her body as the feeler moved away from her exoskeleton, only to be replaced by a deep hunger that hadn’t been there a few minutes before.

It must use the food within us to speed up the recovery. She realized. I don’t think that will work with Mother, but maybe it has more powers at its beck.

She scanned the area once more, focusing on the faint outline of the crevice that would lead them to the now deserted nest.

I wonder what she wants from there.

As they walked, Alice had started experimenting on her body once again, this time exercising her fine control on her bioluminescence.

In the previous weeks, she had already discovered some of its characteristics; the cells could only produce so much light before reaching their threshold and, as the brightness increased, so would the cells’ consumption of her resources, even if the problem was now mitigated by the metabolic skill she had obtained.

Now instead, Alice focused on the way she controlled those features by turning repeatedly on and off the luminescence in different spots on her body, sometimes simultaneously and often in patterns.

At the same time, she regulated the cells’ brightness, repeatedly dimming and brightening them. She had been particularly proud of the winking smiley face she had made appear on her belly and had soon started designing a couple of patterns that would have probably granted her entrance in any rave party on Earth. She only stopped when she started blushing too much.

Just as she was shelving the glowing tattoo art for a more relaxing time, the girl felt a different, more delayed feedback coming from within her own body. Intrigued, she tried to locate the strange spike of energy, searching inside of her flesh, organs and nerves, traveling through the main blood vessels and neural pathways without finding it.

They had just sighted the entrance to the nest when she finally traced the source and delved deep to inspect it.

Within her stomach, somehow floating in the digestive acids as if they were in the freshest spring water, were hundreds of Lumen globules. To her surprise, the glimmers were not the mutated cells originated by the magical fusion of the Lumen with her own basic components, but the actual, original particles she had found in the pool many weeks before.

How did they get in there? Did I swallow some of the water by mistake?

She had to stop, stilling in front of the crevice that led to the lair and ignoring the world around her to focus the entirety of her attention on the unwitting life forms living within her system, sustained by her body.

Completely engrossed, she broke the barrier holding off her power and extended a tendril of magical energy towards them, easily forming a connection with each one of the tiny beings.

As a test, Alice sent them a simple order: glow. They did. Stop. They stopped. Move. They floated in the direction she had chosen, coalescing in a glowing macula within her abdomen, waiting for a new order.

“So that’s what that meant. Symbiosis.” She murmured while blankly staring forward. “At least I have a second option if the first one doesn’t work” she mused.

A sharp something suddenly poked her in the side, causing her to jump with a shrill cry of fear. She turned to glare at Skitter, batting away one of his spikes before stomping inside while muttering to herself.

“Peasant. Not a single shred of interest in science” she proclaimed, a tittering noise coming from behind her.

Without any more issues, they moved through the winding corridors of the nest until, a few minutes later, they reached their goal.

Her positive mood instantly dried up at the sight of the wretched hallway that had made her go through so much pain, terror and suffering.

Alice took a deep breath as she stepped through the opening, trying to avoid looking at the tattered remains of the webs that had failed to hold, at the scarred floor coated in gashes and at the dry ichor painting every surface in black.

Resolute, the girl moved forward, with only a few steps, she reached the rubble surrounding the demolished crevice leading down to the cave that, for more than two days, had been her personal circle of Hell. A weak green light was shining through the opening.

At least I know I was right.

She pushed back her nausea and closed her eyes as she walked over the rotting remains littering the passage, feeling the dark sludge coat the soles of her feet as she stopped only a step away from entering the hollow.

For a few seconds she debated turning back, not opening her eyes to the scene in front of her and simply forgetting about the things she had had to endure in the tight space.

For a few seconds.

The light shining through her eyelids was too enticing not to open her them and stare. So she did just that.

The entirety of the pool was a coruscating ocean of blazing green particles.

The blood, carcasses and filth that for days had accumulated in there were now nothing more than a glorious feast for the monocellular saprophytes that had finally managed to break through the makeshift vessel that had been holding them.

Her wineskin had been consumed and the glimmers contained within had spread and multiplied.

Everything was being digested, turned into energy and new life as she wordlessly stared at the spectacle.

Behind her, Skitter stopped on his tracks, also stunned by the display, while in the hallway Eleanor kept clicking, probably asking for information she was not receiving.

On an impulse, Alice knelt, her hand coming into contact with the glowing surface as she, instinctively, broke through her veil once more, her power flowing through her body and into the gruesome fluid, inundating the glowing swamp with every ounce of magical energy she could offer and receiving the same feedback she had experienced a few minutes before.

“Glow”.

The Lumen glimmers glowed, their radiance causing the unaccustomed spiders to recoil, her own eyes trying to adjust to the sudden blaze they were witnessing.

“Move”.

Every single particle within the gleaming multitude started flowing, leaving behind the food they were consuming in order to move towards her in a shimmering wave of green that started slowly scaling her arm, every sparkle climbing on the other, defying gravity on her orders until her entire limb was coated in a thick, drooping and dazzling gel.

She made to move away, taking a single step towards the exit before suddenly stopping, her gaze turning back on the now dark pool of congealed blood, towards a particular spot in its center.

“Well. This is it I guess.” She said, feeling a bit stupid talking to an empty cave “the bad guys are dead, most of them. Their leader is for sure at least. I know you didn’t really care but you still managed to save me and I’m grateful for it. I really am.” Alice sniffled a bit before continuing “I want to believe a bit of you has turned into this.” She said, raising her still shining arm “and that it will be able to help me, and your mom as well. I guess I’ll do my best to make sure it matters. Goodbye Band-Aid”.

Her vision slightly blurry, Alice turned back and left, ignoring the alarmed clicking of Eleanor and batting away the already poking spike of Skitter.

She was almost ready.

Under escort, Alice moved back to the pool, ignoring the tiny flickers of pain coming from her leg as she walked, entirely focused on keeping together the glowing, gelatinous ooze clinging to her arm.

While her good mood had definitely been abated by the visit to the small cave, Alice found herself ready to jump back into experimenting with her newfound powers.

“I know it’s coping but do I care?” she said to herself as she let most of the glowing particles flood the dark waters of the basin, slowly propagating in the pool like a petrol spill in the ocean.

After throwing in the water the scraps remaining from the previous day’s butchering of the screechlings; the young woman sat down on her favorite, and only, seat and started closely inspecting the tiny amount of luminescent slime she had kept in the palm of her hand.

At a glance, the substance seemed homogeneous, formed of thousands upon thousands of Lumen particles continuously sliding on each other as they fought against the force of gravity.

This continuous action, as she had discovered during her journey back to the pool, was extremely costly in terms of energy, her expanded well having severely depleted in a relatively short period of time.

Nonetheless, Alice was pretty sure the toll on her magic was not following an exponential curve but actually the opposite.

Her opinion was given by the fact that, while the current amount of energy she was expending was surely less than before, it was not so by the incredible amount she had at first expected when releasing her hold on the majority of the glimmers.

Intrigued, the budding microexplorer followed the magical energy continuously flowing from her almost bottomed reservoir, accompanying it as it left her skin and sank into the amorphous blob, her consciousness diving into the viscous bubble together with her power.

After descending in the slimy droplet, her magic did not spread to its insides as she had thought, instead, it would only coat the most external layers of organisms, ignoring all the ones contained deeper in. Afterwards, a minuscule amount of the energy inside each one of the glimmers would be consumed to keep it alive in the dry environment it was in, the energy taking the place of the usually necessary water.

Once every glimmer had been fed, however, the remaining amount of mana would be used by the particles themselves to viciously fight the external forces of gravity and momentum trying to loosen them. The tiny globules would continuously move towards the more internal layers, while their dying siblings within would be moved to the exterior, taking their spot in exchange of life-granting energy.

That is the reason! She exclaimed in her head. They are literally forming a membrane that contains the rest. A lot of energy saved, even if the amount of force they can resist is very low.

Experimentally, the girl closed her fist and lightly squeezed the gelatinous orb, its membrane almost instantly ripping and the contents sadly falling down her extended hand onto the ground.

“I could probably do better with a bit of time but now it’s not the moment”.

She stood up and let the last remains of the gleaming substance fall into the pool.

Just as the first hints of a headache started creeping behind her temples, a yawn broke through her mouth, her body and mind equally exhausted after the continuous exertion she had subjected them to.

“Tomorrow I’ll take care of improvements” she promised herself as she crawled into her alcove and closed her weary eyes.

*****

This chapter is officially sponsored by Enaz the great!