That’s all interesting, she thinks, still at a certain remove from the whole affair. Novel sequences, assessments, swarm, Zerg - it all begins to compose a kind of sense. She’s never needed to be handheld to her conclusions.

The other insects are still hard at work. Soon, they’ll be boring into the meat they’ve secured themselves, following the unusual pattern of behaviour she has been observing. She should care about that, too. She should care about quite a few things.

“It’s variable.” She does not hold out her arm for inspection. “Which is another way of saying inconsistent. All the samples I’ve taken would induce death, if ingested, but applied topically, they act as a numbing agent - and evidently, they interact differently with Palebloods, but I’ve yet to get my hands on one to test that out myself. Is a Zerg what you call yourself?”