The poption of Xankeshan was about as high as things got within the Scarlet Alliance, as one of the cores that hade at the beginning of the alliance. It was almostparable in density to the Swirling Swarm in some ces. However, that poption was better managed. For one thing, they had proper infrastructure to deal with everything instead of just… throwing people everywhere and hoping they could fit in whatever buildings people bothered to put up.

    Madiha watched as Taj nervously moved through the crowds. She watched carefully, specifically looking for certain habits that she needed to eradicate. Habits that were excellent for survival within the domain of the Swirling Swarm would have the opposite effect here. The Scarlet Alliance wasn’t likely to harshly punish a youth that screwed up… but it would depend on how badly. If anything happened, it would be Madiha’s fault.

    Someone bumped into Taj. They were ready with a de- but at least remembered not to start a fight. That was something that held within the Swirling Swarm’s territory. Here, however, there just emwouldn’t/em be a fight. Not a serious one. Any cultivator that couldn’t control themselves during simple conflict simply wouldn’tst.

    Horst was doing a bit better, though he emalso/em looked nervous. His eyes never stopped. And yet, he’d never catch sight of a battle that he had to avoid. Nobody randomly targeting him just because he looked weak.

    Madiha had known a world embefore/em. The two of them were raised within the Swirling Swarm’s territory, so they were having trouble. Having myriad auras around them instead of one- even if that single aura had been oppressive and corrosive- kept them constantly on their toes. They would have probably been less nervous if they actually found any threats.

    Returning to the Alliance’s borders had been rather difficult. Not because nobody was going in that direction but because everyone on Heuromo had wanted to flee. The Fearsome Menagerie didn’t keep enough ships to transport their entire poption. Neither did the Swirling Swarm- they’d just forced the issue. The Fearsome Menagerie had precisely one Domination cultivator, and he hadn’t been involved with anything on Heuromo at all.

    It was good that Madiha had managed to snag some of the valuables from some of the Domination cultivators- really Augmentation. That allowed them to secure a position on one of the working vessels more easily. If none had been damaged in the assault, Heuromo might emactually/em have had enough vessels to take everyone easily. Not because of the number of ships, but theck of people.

    Things had been that bad. More than half of the poption died early on, especially those who were weak. They didn’t have to be targeted directly to die simply from being too close to a battle. Madiha didn’t know if so much death would traumatize the two she had with her or if they were already desensitized from their upbringing. They didn’t emknow/em any of those who died. She could handle it, but she was still mandated to visit a therapist. She was going to make sure Taj and Horst did the same, because they might not talk to emher/em.

    -----

    Taj awoke in the middle of the night, sensing something was wrong. But that wasn’t it. Madiha had just gotten out of her bed and gone to the restroom. The three of them were sharing one of the smallest apartments that Xankeshan had between them and it emstill/em felt too big. The void ants didn’t count for that because they only took up space the humans couldn’t use. Apparently void ants had eminfrastructure/em here, but also it was emnew/em? Taj didn’t quite get it because it had sounded like the void ants had been part of the alliance emforever/em.

    Sensing other people in nearby rooms was weird. Not because that wasn’t normal, but because their presences were more muted. Nobody in the Swirling Swarm included proper privacy for anything. Taj wasn’t evenpletely certain they built most of the buildings they inhabited. Some of them might have been stolen- and not by conquerings, but by actually ripping buildings up by their foundations. It was way less efficient than just learning to build, but the people of the Swirling Swarm weren’t always people. Sometimes, they were just a force. Especially at the end.

    Taj worked hard to go back to sleep. Apparently, there was something important in the morning that they had to do. Taj wasn’t going to let down Madiha, and neither would Horst.

    -----

    Apparently, the important thing that Madiha had to bring them to was ‘school’.

    “I don’t get it,” Horst said. “Haven’t you been teaching us things just fine?”

    Madiha chuckled. “There’s way too many things I don’t know. I can’t teach you everything.”

    “In that case…” Taj replied, “Why do we need to learn it?”

    “Because as much as I love you two young ones, I don’t intend to provide for you forever. You need to be able to stand on your own two feet. Get a profession of some sort.”

    “Can’t we be agents like you?” Taj asked.

    Madiha thought about it. “You can. But you’ll still need additional training. There’s about a million things you’d need to know to meet our minimum standards. Field experience is good, but the circumstances were emvery/em particr. And they won’t be urring again.” Certainly not if the Alliance could do anything about it. “You might also find other things that interest you. That would be for the best- because it will augment your growth. Feel free to take a few years to figure out a direction you want to pursue. But while you’re doing that… you need to learn math. And how to use aputer.”

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    “... Don’t you just talk at them?” Horst asked.

    “There’s far more than that,” Madiha dered. “You should also find what cultivation styles are best for you. It’s not toote to change. But even if you follow mine, you’ll want to explore supplementary techniques.”

    -----

    By the end of the war, the Alliance hadn’t received any indication that there were any ‘people’ left leading the Swirling Swarm. There should have been some Domination cultivators among them before the incident triggered, but nobody had picked them out. It was presumed they had perished. All that remained, to Prospero’s knowledge, were roaming bands of Swirling Swarm cultivators that were gradually being eliminated.

    There had been some rare individuals not yet integrated into the Swirling Swarm. When the sect’s numbers began breaking down they returned to their individual existences, though ultimately they didn’t have arge impact on the remnants.

    The final thing was the most depressing in a way. Swirling Swarm members that just… stopped. They stopped fighting, they stopped emdoing/em anything. The few the Alliance had investigated seemed to have fried their brains to some extent, losing executive functions. They acted more like animals- some violent, some tame. They kept some of their ability to control energy, but they weren’t a threat unlike the few remaining pockets of active Swirling Swarm.

    Prospero could probably annihte an entire fleet if he ran into them- any Domination cultivators had already decayed. Fortunately, none of them had reached a stable state. They hadn’t even seemed to think about constructing an anchor… or making themselves into one, as it appeared the first of them had done.

    He emcould/em destroy a fleet, but he hoped not to. He wasn’t hunting them down. Instead, he and those with him were not nning to engage in any battles. Theirrge ships were stuffed to the brim with things of little value- to pirates. However, it meant everything to the people they intended to meet- any that had been raided by the Swirling Swarm. Food, seeds, and low level medicine.

    Prospero’s position was still important not because it was of great value to cultivators, but because it was leverage over regr people. The Alliance was handling all of their own transportation so that nobody could try to wrest control overs they should not. Some might try- if there wasn’t a Domination cultivator waiting for them.

    Those who could deal with a Domination cultivator didn’t need to control the flow of food to assert dominion over people. Ultimately, in the short term it was best for people to find themselves under the care of any sect stable enough to have a Domination cultivator. Even the Fearsome Menagerie, for all the conflicts they had with the Scarlet Alliance, was known for treating their own people well. That included outlying systems for the most part.

    Yann was ignoring them. It wouldn’t do him any good to get into a fight with Prospero or anyone else at the current time, and the Scarlet Alliance ultimately made emhim/em look good. After all, every shipment had to be done with his blessing. The Alliance also brought necessary supplies everywhere they could- at least a few ships to every. But thergest shipping vessels that could make an actual dent in a healthy’s consumption rated a Domination cultivator to protect them.

    Partially for propaganda. Quite a few people wanted to me the Scarlet Alliance for what happened with the Swirling Swarm, and they weren’t entirely wrong. Internally, they had discussions on how to avoid such issues in the future- if such a thing were even possible. Even now, they couldn’t say it had been possible to foresee the results. If their n had worked as intended, they would have saved centuries of strife.

    As it was, they had unfortunately elerated some of it. But they weren’t going to wait until the Swirling Swarm was half the size of the Trigold Cluster to act. They hadn’t been even close to half, but a good few percent that had been growing year over year. It depended exactly how they were counted. The size of their territory was far more if counting their central deads. Obviously there wasn’t any proper census data to work with.

    Regardless, they were already active trouble for their neighbors. The Scarlet Alliance had been working to make the Trigold Cluster see that, and then taken steps they thought necessary to avoid problems reaching emthem/em. They had still thought it would be good for the locals.

    It was hard to say that to the scoureds. But though it hadn’t happened all at once, the Swirling Swarm had been pretty consistently doing something simr the whole time their agents were embedded among them.

    The Scarlet Alliance still had some things to prove to their neighbors, and to themselves. They couldn’t do anything about those who were gone, but those who were still around was a different question. The Trigold Cluster wasn’t set up forrge scale charitable efforts- at best each sect would have the ability to handle a few systems in dire straits- but the Scarlet Alliance was willing to convert some of their vessels for the task.

    There was another matter that the Scarlet Alliance wouldn’t have anything to do with, and yet absolutely had to do something about. Void ants. They would probably be picking some up this trip. Thoses that had been hit and survived often had some void ants mixed in among the Swirling Swarm, either brought along by their agents or independently throwing themselves at the excursions.

    Some had been wiped out afterwards. From the information avable, they had just let it happen. Others had gone into hiding. None of them attacked humans outside of the Swirling Swarm.

    That was just those that had ended up on others. There would be huge colonies still on the Swirling Swarm’s homes. Eventually, people from the Trigold Clusters would be looking to take thatnd. In fact, Prospero wouldn’t be surprised if the efforts hadn’t already begun somewhere.

    People wouldn’t want void ants on theirs- even if they had only been seen fighting for them. Few enough individuals would have actually noticed during the course of the war. Afterwards, they might not hold any gratitude. So someone would have to pick up the void ants… but at least they didn’t take up much space. As long as none of the queens chose to continue growing their colonies but instead kept simr numbers to before the war, they could be extracted easily enough.

    There would be more than had been there at first- obviously. They developed their own colonies on. However, the Alliance would have far less trouble justnding ships without the Swirling Swarm or anyone at all to spot them. There was no more mission to screw up. Except maybe the aid, but people shouldn’t object to leaving food behind and removing a source of their fear. Not that they should notice most of the time.

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