When Carina and I look around the hive, we see a few of the changelings walking about in the halls, but not much is going on with them. Some look quite worried, like Correal said yesterday, but others only seem to be minding their own business, although one looks to be flying higher into the hive, faster than I’ve ever seen another fly. As the two of us look at the nest rooms, all of them appear to be open and empty.
“Alright, Carina. It looks like everyone’s awake. This would probably be the time we'd have to tell Thorax, according to Correal.”
“Let’s just hope we don’t run into her or Cervix again. Can’t have a good speedrun if you have more than a hurdle.”
“Uh, where’d you get that from?”
“Never mind; you’d never get it.”
“Yeah. Whoever you live with must be familiar with that. It just flew over my head.”
As the two of us keep walking, there appears to be progressively less changelings around us, walking around. By the fifteenth minute, there’s no telling on how we feel.
“Ugh, is there some sort of meeting going on somewhere that we should be at? Like, seriously, I don't get it.”
“Not to my knowledge. Why don’t we take a break at our temporary nests, Carve.”
“Okay. We can do that.”
Carina and I head from midway up the hive to near the bottom, where our nests are.
However, this entire portion of the hive looks so empty. No changelings are around this area, almost as if the hive had been evacuated and abandoned within an hour.
“Oh, come on! Correal said the hive was getting crowded! This has to be some prank!”
“I don’t know, Carve. Maybe they’re simply in the upper levels.”
Suddenly, we hear a buzzing sound coming by.
“LE CONO!!! Tehinterin Patelor!!! Tahot nata ze le!!!”
Two changeling guards burst into the nestroom we’re in right now. While Carina is just confused, I couldn’t feel more scared.
“WHAT?!? Carina, what did we do?!?”
“Not much actually, but-”
“HALA NI MONA!!! Ze valmat ro za!!!”
“Carina, we better follow them. Otherwise, we’ll be exiled from the hive.”
“Well, you know Lingo better than I do. Right behind you.”
So, after ten minutes of traveling up, Carina and I find ourselves in a particularly large crowd of changelings, standing all about the room, and not just on the floor. The guards that led us head to the opposite side of the room from us. When all of the changelings see me and Carina, they start hissing. Well, all of them except for the one that’s directly in front of us. Said changeling stamps his left forehoof seven times.
“OLDE!!!”
The command silences every single changeling in the room.
“Aro. Calev i Calina valnorat en cono.”
“What is he saying?”
“Just follow my moves, Carina. You’ll be fine.”
I nod to Carina as we walk. I turn my head back forward and get closer to the leading changeling.
“Tahot.”
Carina and I stop.
“Le uhedo lohan hala te lecan za tahet?”
I nod.
“Si. Calina riva omepal Ecuhestelihan. Ve valseya fu alada lenare ga vi le pere omepal.”
And just like that, all of the changelings laugh in response to the hidden, or in this case, not so hidden request, only to be silenced with a second utterance of the previous command, followed by the changeling’s stamping hoof.
“OLDE!!! If the defendant so chooses to make a request, this room will follow it. For this time being, I will speak Equestrian for Carina, and so shall the plaintiff.”
“NUTA?!? NI!!!” Shouts a changeling to our right.
“YOU WILL SPEAK EQUESTRIAN FOR THE REST OF THE SESSION!!!”
The changeling just sighs.
“Okay, Lace.”
“Let’s begin. Moph, you, the plaintiff, found Correal on the twenty fourth level, right?”
“Yes. Lying in a small crater.”
Carina turns to me.
“Oh no. Did she...”
“It sounds like it, Carina.”
“CARVE!!! CARINA!!! What happened this morning during sunrise?”
“Well, Carve and I woke up at the same time when suddenly, Correal was calling for us in the hall. When I came out, I saw that Correal was pinned down by Carve. After Correal pushed her off, we decided to tell King Thorax about the wake up call. That’s all we did.”
“Moph. What had driven you to conclude that Carina and Carve were the changelings that led to Correal’s unfortunate circumstance?”
“When I found Correal last, I saw a nearby note carved onto the wall next to the crater she was in. It read, ‘va cutera Solaz.’”
“They sent Thorax? Who’s they?”
“That would have to be me and Carina, Lace. If this note said anything, then Thorax clearly talked to Correal like we requested. And knowing Thorax, he isn’t easily provoked, regardless of who he talks to.”
“Moph, you said you felt the floor shaking when it happened, right?”
“Yes.”
“Carina, Carve, where were you two after you told King Thorax about the wake up call?”
“We just headed to the bottom of the hive, to our nests. Carina and I didn’t feel anything, so we had no idea about Correal’s situation until just a minute and a half ago.”
“Very well, you two. Carina, Carve, you may go, in exchange for King Thorax.”
“WHAT?!?” Carina, Moph and I all shout.
“But Lace! Thorax didn’t do anything wrong! Not even Carina and I did anything that could cause as much heartache as Correal apparently had! Nothing like this has ever happened in the hive before! You have to be-”
“Lace, think about what you’re doing VERY carefully right now! Should Thorax be walking in here, only to be bashed for something nice he was trying to-”
“OLDE!!!” Lace shouts, interrupting me and Carina’s simultaneous complaints. “You will leave now, and get King Thorax in this room!!!”
“But, Cari-”
“NOW!!!”
Carina and I scramble out of the room. However, just as we get out, we both trip and fall forward. Looking down at us right now is Thorax himself. He simply smiles and waves to us.
“Uh, hey girls.”
“Hi, Thorax. Apparently, Lace ordered me and Carina to get you.”
“Um, okay. Is it about the whole Correal incident?”
We nod, prompting Thorax to sigh.
“Alright. I might as well get this over with. In the meantime, why don’t you two go to the twenty fourth floor and check on the results if you want to see for yourself what happened.”
Thorax enters the room we tripped out of as we head up to the twenty fourth floor like Thorax suggested.