It didn’t really hit me until my boots hit the ground.

It was hot and sunny, a bright blue sky overhead. Of course it was; we were on the edge of the desert, sandy fields and rocky outcrops stretching on far out in the distance. To the south lay the Niger River, its lush riverbanks a stark contrast to the dry surroundings. To the north lay the city of Timbuktu. But our destination was not in the city, nor the river. No, we were heading to Sanctuary 1. Sanctuary 1! I mean, I hadn’t really given it any thought before, but...

This was it. This was the headquarters of the Angels.

And sure, we were here because Nep and the others were in trouble for having taken me in without consulting them first. And sure, it was quite hot, thirty degrees in late November, far from great weather to walk across the sandy flats. And yeah, I was leaving my home and everything I’d fought so hard to save behind, and...

Why had I been so excited again?

“Things are different, now,” Vespa mused. If anyone had been excited to come here, it had been Vespa. But actually standing out on location now, my Symbiote was far less ecstatic. “It’s been a while, but I remember the city being much more lively 600 years ago.”

“I’m sure it was,” I muttered. Hold on. “Six hundred years ago?”

“Yes. It’s only been a few centuries, and yet things have changed so much.”

“Vespa—”

“Quinn.” Nep put a hand on my shoulder. “The Angels are very old. And to a symbiote like Vespa, a few hundred years isn’t much at all.” She, like the rest of us, was bundled up with loose, flowing robes to protect from the sun. At first blush, you’d be forgiven for thinking they were made of cotton. They weren’t. They were made of insect exoskeletons. Although in this case, it was far less creepy, looking for all intents and purposes just like ordinary fabric. Thankfully, Nep had a far greater command of her materials than Sarah or Heidi had.

I rubbed the fabric between my fingers. “I guess I just didn’t realize. Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize,” said Nep. She took a deep breath. “Just... be aware that you’re going to learn a lot of new things while we’re here.”

We continued along the way. Nep seemed to know where we were going, leading the way out into the desert. It all looked kind of the same to me. Glancing back, Sarah and Heidi seemed pretty disoriented as well.

Sarah seemed.... distracted. She kept glancing off into the distance, perhaps looking for something or someone. Of course, very little moved on the horizon, beyond the occasional bird flitting between the rocks and shrubs or reptile skittering through the dry scrub. On the flight, after a little prodding, she’d admitted that she’d been to Sanctuary 1 before. Given her hesitance to comment or share in the excitement, though, I wondered what reservations she had.

“Nep.” I tugged at her sleeve. “Is Sarah going to be okay?”

Nep chuckled softly. “Well aren’t you perceptive. Don’t worry about that. I’ve already talked to her. She has some valid concerns, but they are not your concerns.”

“What’s she so worried about?”

Nep put a finger to her lip, considering before she responded. “I think that’s for her to tell you, if she wants. But I think you’ll pick up on it soon enough anyways.”

Heidi, by contrast, seemed to be in a cheerful mood, taking in the landscape with a smile on her face. She had also been to Sanctuary 1 before, but was looking forward to the prospect of returning. She was excited to see some old friends, or something like that. I didn’t prod too much.

Nep... well, Nep was an open book. She was happy to return, for sure, but of course the brunt of the blame or discipline would be falling on her. And though she knew the Angels in charge of the whole organization, I got the impression from our conversations that they didn’t quite get along. Though perhaps I was reading too much into her on-flight complaints.

And that left Angelina. I rattled the chrysalis on my phone case. A piece of masking tape was laid over the surface, a small face drawn on in permanent marker. It helped remind me exactly what this was. Otherwise, I felt like I’d just forget. Looking back on the past few months, I’d been so scatterbrained. Perhaps it had been all that time spent with Thea. Having spent now nearly two weeks without seeing or hearing from her, I felt a sense of clarity descending on my mind.

And that clarity grew only stronger as we arrived at our destination.

At first it seemed like a mirage. But as the haze cleared, the monolith in the distance remained, a square tower rising up from the dusty ground. But as we approached, it seemed... small? The tower was barely a metre or two taller than me, the height of a tall lamppost. Its footprint was a square no more than ten steps wide. A single door was set in its clay facade. Nep opened the door for us, letting us into a tiny room. Despite the lack of windows, a single, frazzled-looking lightbulb hung from the ceiling, illuminating the room with a warm glow. On all sides were the same plain clay walls. Besides the light, the only real object of interest was a set of sandstone steps descending into the Earth.

“Welcome to Sanctuary 1,” said Vespa.

“It’s bigger on the inside, I assume,” I asked.

“Oh yeah,” said Heidi. Sarah chuckled.

We descended the steps, electric lights flickering on with each flight of stairs. The sandstone gave way to steel as we entered the first main chamber. It was the size of a large gymnasium, carved out from beneath the rock. Floodlights flickered on the ceiling above, which was supported by heavy metal struts. Beneath, the floorspace was split up with transparent dividers, with staircases bolted onto the walls, leading to a network of tunnels snaking off in all directions. And all through the mess were Angels. So many Angels. Women of all shapes and size milling about, some in human forms, others in various states of transformation. Above the crowd, a throng of insects buzzed, chattering almost as excitedly as the people below.

“This really is something,” I muttered.

“And this is just the foyer,” Nep said.

We joined a line heading towards one of the desks. Through the crowd, I heard snippets of English and French, Arabic, Spanish, and even more languages that I couldn’t make out. But more than any of those, there was a sound? A sort of clicking, buzzing rhythm. I accidentally bumped into the person ahead. “Sorry,” I said.

She smiled, then said something I couldn’t understand, in a language I didn’t recognize. The buzzing all around grew louder, and then... I understood. “Don’t worry.” I still couldn’t make heads or tails of the words she was speaking. But I understood the meaning nonetheless. “It’s your first time here, isn’t it?”

“Yes.” She seemed to understand my response as well.

“What’s going on?” I whispered, hoping Vespa would respond. But she’d gone and joined the swarm of symbiotes above. Thanks a lot.

Thankfully, Nep picked up on my confusion. “Charming, isn’t it? You can communicate so freely with other Angels.” She tipped her head in greeting to the stranger. “It’s almost subconscious for us. It’s how a lot of insects communicate, though. Pheromones, that is.”

“Pheromones? Aren’t those... um...”

“It’s just a way of chemical communication,” Nep explained calmly. “Within your species, that is. Don’t make it weird.”

The line shuffled along.

We came to an Angel sitting at a desk. She wore a neat sailor uniform. But not the fun kind (well, depending on what one considers ‘fun’). It was a clearly military-looking dress, with a neat olive-green jacket and pants, and all manner of neatly-embroidered symbols on the shoulder and over the breast. On her shoulder sat an enormous cricket, which hopped around excitedly. She, on the other hand, looked very bored.

Her expression brightened ever so slightly as she got a better look at us. She raised an eyebrow and smiled. “So you’re the group from Sanctuary 73?”

Nep nodded, reaching into her backpack and pulling out a sheaf of papers, laying them neatly on the desk. “We’re reporting in, as requested. I take it the Archangels want to see us personally?”

The lady at the desk nodded, yawning as she swivelled in her chair to reach for the filing cabinet behind her. The rusty drawer squeaked as it opened, and she spent a good few minutes riffling through the files looking for the right pieces of paper. Finally, she laid a few neatly printed tickets onto the table. “Here you go. That’s for your meeting with them.”

“Thank you.”

“And these,” she continued, “are for your rooms.” She laid out a set of keycards. “Your room number is on the back of the card. The card also has general site access according to your Symbiote, role, and permissions.

Nep seemed pleasantly surprised. “Well, well, the site’s upgrading?”

“There have been a lot of changes in the past few years. Updating. Preparing for the inevitable. And the situation has been getting worse of late, is all. Now move along. Next!”

I took my keycard. The number on the back was scrawled in permanent marker. Room... 12952? Just how large was this place?

There was only one way forward from here, a short tunnel lined with electric lights. We emerged on the other side into an enormous cavern. The ceiling towered above, more than a hundred metres above the ground. The room stretched on so far that I could barely see the other end. Despite its size, the cave was well-lit, hundreds of massive floodlights illuminating the rock with a cool fluorescent glow.

Buildings of all sorts were carved into the rock faces, inset with glass and metal scaffolding. It was like an entire city carved into the stone. Wide steel causeways snaked across the open area, leading to a network of satellite tunnels that extended outward in all directions. In the center of the cavern lay a large, circular plaza, with smooth tiled pathways and benches laid alongside flowing canals and lush, verdant gardens. How they could grow despite being underground was beyond me.

And at the center of the plaza, most impressive of all, was a single, monolithic crystal. It was enormous, reaching from the base of the cavern to the ceiling, and maybe forty or fifty metres wide. The surface was smooth and shiny, not plain white but glimmering with all the colours of the rainbow. “What is that?” I asked, pointing to it.

“The crystal? That’s our anchor. It’s what protects us from the paradoxes of the Demons, and the source of Gaia’s power in us. There’s a little bit of it in every Sanctuary, but of course most of it is here. This is our home base, after all.”

“It’s very impressive.”

“Isn’t it?” said Heidi. “By the way, Nep, when’s that meeting with the Archangels?”

“You can run off to Elytra, Heidi. We don’t meet with them until tomorrow, okay?” Nep replied. At that, Heidi grinned before hurrying off down one of the steel walkways.

“I’ll be in my room,” muttered Sarah. “See you tomorrow.”

Nep leaned over to peek at my room number. “Need help finding your room?” I nodded sheepishly. She just smiled.. “Don’t worry. I know it can be overwhelming. But I’m sure you’ll adjust to your time here just fine. We shouldn’t be here for that long, anyways. Just try to enjoy yourself and relax.”

“Yeah, relax.”

“Vespa! Where were you?”

“Relax, Quinn. I was just chatting with some friends of my own.” She buzzed happily in my ear before landing on the back of my hand, nuzzling my skin with her mandibles. “It is nice to be back. I think you will enjoy your tie here. At least, I hope so.”

“Well?” asked Nep. “To your room?”

“Right.” I took her hand and followed.