It wasn’t too long before I gave up on trying to figure out which of the humans I’d briefly encountered had been the [System] user. Frankly, it didn’t matter now, since we were hundreds, if not thousands of miles away from their homeland, and they hadn’t crossed the Samutelia to follow us. Instead, I focused on the possibility of meeting one in my travels, and what exactly an [Upgrade in the System’s authority] would entail. It had remained stubbornly in the camp of [The Administrator has deemed it unnecessary to divulge that information]. Nor would it elaborate on what the difference was between “the Administrator” and “the Administrative Body”.

“Swarm Alpha, if I may.”

“Of course Iituli.” The formality of my son made me sigh and laugh in equal portions, but I made sure never to respond with anything less than respect and understanding.

“How did you learn how to use your magic the way you did before?” His face nearly glowed with the enthusiasm as he plied me with questions, “What exactly did you do? How did you think of it? Do you think that I can do that with my magic?”

I couldn’t help but notice Isnanna and Ishtar listening surreptitiously while pretending to be in conversation. Khara was trying to enter their fake conversation, but Ishtar snapped at him and scared him off as I began to speak. “Well, short answer is that I figured it out.” I paused, then continued walking as if that was all I had to say.

Iituli struggled, I could hear his stuttering attempt at continuing the conversation, but the confusion at my abrupt and uncharacteristic brusque answer held him back from pushing for an answer. Finally, Ishtar jogged forward and cut me off. “Look, Alpha, what do you–” She cut off once she noticed the barely contained laughter on my face. Her jaw dropped, her scaly face slowly recognizing she and her siblings had been tricked. Then, ever quick on her feet, she joined in.

“Oh, you know… I don’t use magic, so it doesn’t matter if I understand what you were talking about anyways.” She shrugged, and with a sway of her tail just like her mom’s, began to saunter off. Sometimes I forgot how much they took after Sybil, but in little gestures and actions like this, I couldn’t help but grin. My girl had the same “I’m so pleased with myself” strut that her mom did. I began to count myself lucky that Ishtar wasn’t quite so bitingly clever as her mother… but then I remembered her sister. Yes, no escape for me.

Meanwhile, said daughter immediately caught on to her twin’s change in behavior and calmed herself back to her normal stoicism. Iituli, however, stood gaping, wondering at how what I’d said was meant to be any sort of an answer. I glanced over at him and smiled softly.

“Iituli.”

“Yes, Alpha!” He stood bolt upright.

“Relax. It’s a joke.” Iituli slowly nodded.

“So I’ve gathered. How so?”

“I’d always meant to tell you three the answer, I just wanted to get a rise out of you.”

“Oh, of course!” Immediately, Iituli began to laugh, forced and uncomfortable. I shook my head and reached out.

“No, Iituli. You don’t understand. None of you three do, really.” I gestured to the sisters, standing slightly more aloof. Sideeyeing each other, they slowly approached. “I think all three of you are great. I’m not sure what kind of a father I am, but just because you were born in an incredibly difficult time doesn’t take away from my pride I take in your efforts to be productive and powerful.”

Isnanna slowly spoke up, “I do not want to argue with you. That just does not seem to be the case with keelish as a whole, and caring about your young seems to be an inefficient leader’s mindset. Would it not be better to stick with the same mentality that keelish retain towards their young? The strong survive and raise the swarm as a whole.”

“Frankly, my feelings towards you three, and your mother, and several other members of the swarm, aren’t based on efficiency or anything like that. I care because I do. If you want to look at it in a strictly utilitarian fashion, I’m sure you could rationalize it to be something along the lines of greater bonds serving the whole, but that’s not how it is for me. I think life is better if you have people you care about, and I care about you. I think you’re all impressive, even if I’m not really that much older than you. I don’t know how fatherly I have been or will continue to be, but I would hate for our relationship to devolve to something so cold as just leader/subordinate.”

Silence slowly spread over the small group, and it quickly became uncomfortable. I was about to say something, anything, to break up the painful quiet, but Ishtar surprised me by speaking up.

“Father?”

“Yeah?”

“How do you… know what to do?”

“... In what way?”

“Just… in general? There are so many ways that things can go wrong in general, but you seem to generally be self-assured in what you’re doing.”

“Well, two things. One, I have a little feeling, I think it’s something special, and I generally follow that little feeling and try to make it reality. Two, I have Sybil, or rather, your mother, and she takes care of most of the logistics for me. She does much more to the continued management and cohesiveness of the swarm than any other three members of the swarm, myself included. And, generally, most of the time, I just don’t think too deeply about it. If I let the reality of what I’m trying to do settle over me, then it becomes much heavier.”

“Wait… you don’t think about what you need to do, like all the time?”

I laughed. No, I didn’t think I was much of a father, but maybe I could be.