Krivax was feeling distinctly uncomfortable as he followed behind Vizier Hadix as the two of them made their way through the hallways of the Queen’s ziggurat.

Never before had he seen a place more intensely guarded, not even the underking’s residence; the entire building was covered entirely in Warriors and arachnathids who were watching his every move. There were also many skitterers throughout the building who were constantly carrying food, but Krivax knew that they would not hesitate to turn into a devouring swarm if he was deemed to be a threat to any of the Queens.

Krivax had informed Masruk about his upcoming elevation to the Vizier caste and his friend had been extremely happy for him. He’d tried to ask Vizier Hadix what Masruk would need to do to become a Spiderlord, but the requirements were nothing that could be easily accomplished in the short term, sadly. The Vizier had simply said that Masruk would either need to perform a great service for the kingdom or display such extreme martial skill and leadership ability that those in power would consider it a waste not to raise him up.

Trixie, Malzie, and Oscar had not been happy once they learned that the friendliest nerubian they had met so far would be busy up until the expedition was ready to leave, but they had no other options other than to accept it.

Oscar, at least, was placated after he was handed over a spatial bag filled with a ‘pittance’ to pay for the delegation’s travel fee aboard their ship. The way the merchant’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head was quite hilarious. You just simply didn’t see such reactions in nerubians.

Krivax just hoped that things wouldn’t get too bad between his people and the foreigners while he was gone and that Masruk could smooth things over.

Still, being elevated in caste was a boon that he had hoped for, but not truly expected so soon. Not only would his magical capabilities benefit significantly, but the increase in societal prestige alone would make things much easier for him.

Thankfully, it didn’t take very long for them to reach the room that Queen Mel’ras would be using for his caste elevation.

The first thing that stood out to Krivax as he followed Hadix into the room was the gigantic nerubian eggs that he could see around the edges of the room. He could tell that these eggs were much larger than the one he and his cluster mates had been born from and likely contained nerubians destined for the higher castes.

Krivax was a bit confused about why they would use the same room where they stored eggs in for the caste elevation process, but he wasn’t particularly concerned about it so he put it out of his mind. What was more concerning was the surprisingly large number of eggs that he could see throughout the large room. Krivax didn’t know exactly how many members of the leadership castes were usually produced by Kilah’kuk, but something told him that this was more than what was normal.

“You’re here early,” said Queen Mel’ras impassively as she inspected one of the eggs and pointed lazily to a certain portion of the room that held a circle of arcane glyphs spread across the floor. “Good. We will begin the process as quickly as possible. Go take your place in the ritual circle, Initiate. I'll see to you in a moment.”

Krivax glanced at Vizier Hadix, but his mentor seemed to be unconcerned about the matter so he quickly did as the Queen instructed.

Surprisingly, as Krivax looked down and examined the arcane glyphs of the ritual circle, he could tell that it was actually nothing particularly complicated. Its only real function was to allow liquid to flow into the circle while preventing it from leaving a predetermined perimeter. He was glad to see that there were also portions of the circle that would allow him to breathe despite being submerged in liquid… and concerningly portions that would prevent him from feeling pain.

How exactly does she intend to use this for the elevation process?

Krivax felt like there was no particular harm in asking, so he decided to do just that.

“Queen Mel’ras, what exactly is the process for a caste elevation, if I may ask?” Krivax asked politely.

“The process varies greatly depending upon to which caste the subject is being elevated,” said Queen Mel’ras offhandedly, not even turning to face him. “For an elevation to the Vizier caste, I will first begin by completely submerging you in alchemically modified amniotic fluid before using my magic to convert the outermost portion of the fluid into a substance similar to the one that composes our eggs called ‘Shp’Aqyt.’ The thaumaturgic processes that I will perform after that point are both secret and far too complicated for you to understand.”

Krivax found himself conflicted by the Queen’s description of the process.

On one hand, he wasn’t about to be strapped to a table and treated like the victim of a mad scientist. On the other, he was about to be put back into an egg so that the Queen could completely reshape the body he had spent the past few years getting used to.

Krivax wasn’t quite sure how to feel about that.

I suppose I know now why they chose this room. It's definitely the most convenient place to store me. I hope they put me to sleep for this. Incubating was boring enough the first time.

“I can see that you have things well in hand, Queen Mel’ras,” said Vizier Hadix. “I will depart and begin making my preparations for my journey to the Eastern Kingdoms. When might I expect the process to be concluded?”

“I will send a messenger to inform you once it is done,” said Queen Mel’ras shortly. “You may leave.”

Vizier Hadix bowed politely to the Queen and made his exit without further comment.

Krivax waited patiently as the Queen finished her business, trying his best to push away his nervousness. Finally, the Queen seemed satisfied with her inspection and she turned her full attention to him as she made her way over to the ritual circle.

Krivax was extremely grateful that he had grown used to nerubian features over the past few years because he would have made a fool of himself as soon as the Queen began to loom over him otherwise. Not only was Queen Mel’ras much larger than him, but her facial features were actually much closer to an actual spider than the facial features of a Spiderlord.

Krivax remained silent as the Queen examined him and made minute alterations to the ritual circle. As far as he could tell, she was adjusting the volume of liquid that the circle could hold, most likely to account for his body mass.

After a few moments, the Queen seemed satisfied and she directed the skitterers who were crawling along her body to bring her one of the nearby eggs.

What is she going to do with that? Krivax wondered as the skitterers placed an egg that was actually larger than he was outside of the ritual circle.

His confusion must have been obvious because Queen Mel’ras seemed to take pity on him and answer his unvoiced question.

“This egg was nonviable,” said Queen Mel’ras dispassionately. “While the experiment that created it proved to be a failure, it can still be useful.”

With surprising speed, Queen Mel’ras tore open the surface of the egg with a swipe of her clawed hand.

Krivax cried out in surprise as a stream of amber-colored liquid poured out of the egg and streamed into the ritual circle. The liquid slowly climbed up an invisible barrier that surrounded the boundary of the circle. Krivax was suddenly very glad that he could not feel the viscous texture of the liquid through his chitin, otherwise this would be much more disgusting than it already was.

Queen Mel’ras ignored him as she waited for the circle to finish being filled and instead turned her attention to removing whatever creature had failed to incubate in the egg.

Whatever the thing was, it was far too malformed for Krivax to have any hope of guessing its intended purpose. All he could tell was that it was extremely large for something that had not even been born yet and that it had far too many limbs.

“A shame,” muttered Queen Mel’ras. “I suppose I’ll just have to try again later.”

Soon enough, Krivax was doing his best not to panic as the viscous amber-colored liquid started to rise above his head. He only started to calm down after it became obvious that the ritual circle was functioning correctly and he was still able to breathe.

“I will now begin introducing the alchemical solution,” said Queen Mel’ras. Krivax was more than a little surprised to find that he could still hear her perfectly through the fluid. “It has many effects, but one of them is to induce the urge to sleep in the subject. I suggest you do not fight it. While the circle will prevent you from feeling pain, the process is not one you wish to be awake for regardless.”

Krivax believed her, so as he felt the urge to sleep grow as a strange silver liquid was gradually poured into the mix by a group of skitterers that had brought over a large basin, he did nothing to fight the urge.

The last thing he heard before darkness overcame him was the Queen's encouraging words.

“Yes, that’s right. Go to sleep and allow me to remake you,” said Queen Mel’ras, sounding pleased. “The next time you open your eyes, you will be reborn anew.”

Trixie Tinkwrench sighed in exasperation as, for the third time in a single day, she watched one of the sailors argue with Captain Prescott about the spiderpeople. It turns out that the human sailors very much did not approve of being forced to sail with giant spider creatures and bring them back to their homes, no matter how much they were being paid to do so.

And having seen the inside of the magic sack that Oscar was so protective of, they were being paid a lot.

I’m not sure why these idiots are arguing. Do they really believe that we have a choice in the matter at this point?

It was rapidly becoming apparent to her that diplomatic relations between the humans and the spiderpeople were not going to be smooth sailing. The human sailors reacted much more negatively to the spider people than her, Malzie, or Oscar did, which wasn’t particularly surprising given they had neither the greed of a merchant nor the curiosity of an explorer.

It didn’t help that most of the spiderpeople that she had met besides Krivax or Masruk were as arrogant and dangerous feeling as elves.

Trixie warily eyed the massive Spiderlord that was currently being tied down to the deck of the ship with nerubian silk. According to Masruk, the Spiderlord was some kind of bigshot by the name of Anub’rekhan that reported directly to their High King.

Apparently, they intended to drug the creature with magical elixirs that would put him to sleep throughout the months-long journey and then weave a cocoon around him. They stated that they were doing it because it would be easier for all involved than an attempt for the massive being to handle the journey the conventional way.

She could sort of understand their perspective given that the massive creature would be barely able to move around on the deck, and there was a risk of him being thrown off during rough seas, or knocking off a sailor, or just plain old getting bored, but it still seemed really weird to her.

It didn’t make very much sense to Trixie, but she was starting to get the sense that the spiderpeople thought much differently than any of the other civilized races that she had met.

What kind of alien mind would agree to something like that?

Trixie shook her head and did her best to put it out of her mind. She was going to make it back home and that was all that mattered.

It didn’t take very long for the sailor to stomp off once he realized that his complaints were not getting him anywhere with the captain. While Captain Prescott was no more tolerant of the spiderpeople than his men, he was intelligent enough to understand that his options were limited and the benefits for following through were significant.

“Will he be a problem?” Trixie asked as she approached the captain.

“Not if he knows what's good for him,” Captain Prescott said tersely. “I’ve got to say, when you lot told me that you were headed off to the spider kingdom to set up some kind of trade deal, I wasn’t expecting this kind of result.”

That’s an understatement.

The initial meeting between the crew and the spiderpeople had been more tense than she would have liked. Fortunately, while there were quite a few spiderpeople sent with the diplomatic delegation, they mostly seemed content to ignore the crew and stay amongst themselves below deck.

“At least House Ashfort should be more than happy once we return,” said Trixie, referring to the cargo hold that was completely filled with valuable trade goods, on top of the ‘minor transportation fee’. The spiderpeople might be as arrogant and scary as elves, but they were also as rich as them too.

“There is that,” Captain Prescott agreed reluctantly. “Still, I’ll be glad once we return to Lordaeron and this becomes somebody else's problem.”

That was something that Trixie could completely agree with.

After a few moments of making meaningless small talk with the captain, Trixie excused herself and began making her way to the front of the ship to find Malzie. It wasn’t very hard to find him given that he seemed to be spending his time watching one of the braver sailors teach one of the spiderpeople how to properly tie the mooring lines. She was pretty sure that she had seen that same spiderperson learning many of the various duties of a sailor.

Trixie could appreciate how eager the spiderpeople seemed to be when it came to learning new skills. The other Vizier that they were sending—who was not quite as scary as Vizier Hadix, thankfully—had even offered Malzie obscene amounts of gold for him to teach the Vizier how to speak the languages of the Eastern Kingdoms. Malzie had turned her down and had instead offered to teach her if she taught him how to speak their language in return.

This didn’t particularly surprise Trixie given that she knew Malzie had a love for learning new languages and that he was fluent in Common, Dwarvish, Gnomish, and had even learned some Thalassian from a half-elf. She could tell that the Vizier had been quite surprised at how quickly Malzie was picking up the language, although the Vizier was learning Common at a rapid rate as well.

While Trixie had mixed feelings about how quickly the spiderpeople were learning, it didn’t stop her from being amused every time she heard the giant spiderperson try to speak Common with a distinctly Dwarvish accent.

“Hey there, big guy,” said Trixie as she approached Malzie. “How’s everything going?”

“It’s going good, lass,” said Malzie cheerfully. “Nobody is dead and we’re set to head on back home today. Plus, I heard something good from Vizier Crinis. According to her, that Krivax fellow should be making his way here soon.”

Trixie perked up at the news. Krivax had been one of the first spiderpeople that she had met and he was much more friendly than the rest of his compatriots. It would be nice to have another spiderperson on the ship aside from Masruk who didn’t blatantly look down on them, figuratively at least since most folk did so literally already.

“Are you sure?” asked Trixie eagerly. “Has he already completed his… ‘elevation process?’”

Krivax had come to them a few hours after the meeting with the spiderpeople leadership had ended in order to explain that he would be busy until shortly before they were scheduled to set sail for the Eastern Kingdoms. Apparently, he would be undergoing some kind of magical ritual that would be turning him into one of the Viziers.

Trixie was a bit dubious given that she had never heard of magic that could permanently change a creature's body to such a drastic degree, but she wasn’t a mage so what did she know?

“Well that’s what the Vizier lady told me,” said Malzie with some uncertainty. “It makes sense though. That lad and his scary Vizier mentor are the only two who we’re still waiting for, after all. The spiderfolk seem like the punctual sort, so I’m sure they’ll be showing up soon.”

Trixie hoped that was the case. She would feel much better after they finally set out to sea.

The two of them spent the next few minutes going over their plans once they returned to the Eastern Kingdoms. They agreed that the first thing they needed to do was make their way to Ironforge’s embassy in Capital City. Telling their people about everything that they had seen during their trip to Northrend would have to be their absolute first priority. Trixie didn’t know how contact with the spider kingdom would impact the Eastern Kingdoms, but she knew enough to understand that the impact would be… more than substantial.

Just as Trixie was starting to worry that the spiderpeople would not be as punctual as her colleague had expected, their conversation was interrupted by a bright violet light suddenly forming on the deck of the ship.

Trixie startled and started reaching for her wrench before she realized that the light was the result of two Viziers suddenly teleporting onto the ship.

While she had a difficult time telling the spiderpeople apart from one another, Trixie recognized one of the Viziers as the intimidating mentor of Krivax by his teal robes and his general aura of danger.

If that one is Hadix, then the other one must be Krivax…

The other Vizier was wearing red robes and was noticeably smaller than the other one. He seemed to be fiddling with his headdress and Trixie could tell from the awkwardness of his movements that he was not particularly graceful. He had a brown carapace, was wearing a set of dark red robes, and looked much the same as every other Vizier that she had seen.

Trixie was not the greatest at distinguishing nerubian features.

Just as Trixie was about to move forward to greet them, she noticed Masruk quickly coming up from below deck and heading straight for the two Viziers.

The shorter, red-robed Vizier seemed to call out excitedly in their spider language as Masruk approached and attempted to move to greet him, only to stumble over his own four feet.

Yeah, that’s definitely Krivax, Trixie thought with no small amount of amusement.

She decided that she would stay out of the way and let the two of them talk. After all, there would be plenty of time for them to chat during the trip.

After their last two passengers arrived, it didn’t take long for Captain Prescott to call for them to set sail. The human sailors had the ship undocked faster than Trixie had ever seen before, likely more than eager to get away from Northrend and return home.

As Trixie watched the sleeping Spiderlord as Moa’ki Harbor vanished over the horizon, she couldn’t help but feel in her gut that the future of the Eastern Kingdoms would soon be changed irrevocably.