Chapter 144

[Sybil POV]

"Now, tell me what you know of the packs that have disappeared." The True Alpha's voice rang out over these, his newly assembled subordinates. Sybil listened to his questions while glancing over the rather… unimpressive showing of supposed Alphas. 

The more time passed by, the more Sybil realized that she and her brood had been exceptional. She wondered if, just like how Ashlani's mere presence elevated his pack to try harder and strive onward since he had become the brood's Alpha, his mere presence had improved the quality of the fetuses as they had grown in nearby eggs. It could very well have been the case, but whatever the case was, the creatures arrayed out in front of her could not hardly be called Alphas in good conscience.

Notwithstanding the general weakness and unremarkability of the keelish currently here, watching Ashlani acting as the Alpha he continued to grow into was both inspiring and demoralizing for Sybil. While he could be abrasive and impetuous, his natural leadership ability was uncanny. There was something naturally magnetic about the large Alpha, and as she witnessed him swiftly and efficiently addressing the rest of the so-called Alphas of the swarm, Sybil did feel slightly unnecessary. Her greatest strength was her ability to efficiently organize the minutiae of the day-to-day for the Alpha's grand plans, and seeing him develop to be able to take care of such a large group by himself was slightly disheartening.

Something about the way that the True Alpha carried himself seemed to communicate an absolute competence and ability, and all the weak keelish spread out before him hung on his every word. Sybil had heard that there was a male that had questioned Ashlani's ability and competence at leading, but he had been swiftly cast out of the consideration. After a moment's consideration, Sybil realized that Ashlani's decision to simply cut the other male out of the search had been brilliant–after all, if that male had desired to question the True Alpha, he simply would not be considered a member of Ashlani's swarm.

The True Alpha quickly began to give orders to the lesser beings in order of how and where to search. His focus was entirely on speed instead of pure safety, and Sybil felt that she agreed on that, since any number of these inferior ones could be slaughtered without truly weakening the swarm as a whole. Sybil was not entirely sure at what point she had begun to think of those of the swarm as inferior to the members of Ashlani's pack, but the more she saw of the weak, the less she considered herself as one of them. After all, with how she and the chosen of the True Alpha had changed and grown, how could they be considered mere keelish?

Regardless of how she looked down on them, though, Ashlani was going to use them to their benefit, and she could only agree with what he was commanding them. He quickly verified what the individual pack's weaknesses were and grouped them with another pack to better enable them to find where the "humans" would be hiding. The plan seemed contingent upon ensuring that at least one of the pack would be able to escape and bring word of the humans' location back to the swarm. Ideally, every pack that scouted out the surroundings would be able to destroy the humans they encountered, but Sybil was well aware that they would be incapable of doing so.

She herself had been grievously wounded while in direct combat with the humans. While Sybil did not consider herself a versatile, or even particularly competent, combatant, she was at least as capable as any of the keelish in this space. Any not of the True Alpha's pack, that was. Though Sybil was among the weakest of the True Alpha's pack when it came to direct combat, she was easily wounded by those that Ashlani counted to be the least dangerous of the humans. As a greater testament of the humans' combative prowess, Treel had been easily laid low by a simple ambush by the weakest of the humans.

Though Sybil had difficulty understanding exactly how powerful these "High Speakers" were, she did not even begin to doubt the Alpha. After all this time following him, she could not remember why she had ever questioned him, though somehow that unquestioning loyalty still allowed her to advise him as best she could. An interesting difference, but one she did not currently allow herself to ponder over. Regardless, Ashlani was many things, and deceitful was not one of them. Thus, it fell on Sybil to continue to plan for how best to overcome whatever other advantages the humans had. Ashlani had made mention of many things in passing that she knew nothing about, so most of the planning to be made could only happen in the most general and vague of terms. Even so, Sybil relished every opportunity she had to serve. 

With idle plans flitting through her mind, Sybil noticed one of the females sidling up to Ashlani, her every scale dripping with sexual desire. The True Alpha rebuffed her approach, and Sybil wondered why that was the case. He had obviously enjoyed himself with her, and though that female was an inferior being, she could certainly still provide to him pleasure, if not inferior offspring. Sybil herself was not gravid, nor did she currently feel as if becoming so would be beneficial to herself, the True Alpha, or his plans, but it could be that his siring of offspring would allow for the pack and swarm to grow further. 

Without moving or making any physical indication of it, Sybil shook herself from her idle thoughts. Her mind never rested, and she often found herself ruminating over any number of possibilities, both probable and otherwise. However, now was not the time to entertain such fancies. The True Alpha's commands to the lesser so-called Alphas were beginning to finish, but Sybil ensured that she sent out occasional pulses of her magic to further cement in the listeners' minds the imperative of following Ashlani's commands. Here and there, Sybil could feel similar pulses of magic coming from Etra and Cree, while Shemira's magic was more desirous in nature. Sybil was rather unsure of how Shemira had managed to change the object of infatuation for her magic from herself, as Shemira had frequently communicated her dissatisfaction with the rigidly inflexible nature of her magic. Even so, Sybil was sure Shemira would approach her to talk about it at some point.

"Now, when you're finished with your explorations for the day, make sure you talk to my Beta, Sybil, about what you've discovered. She'll coordinate everyone to work together to make sure we don't let the humans slip through our detection. She and Took, my other Beta, will work together to respond to any distress calls while I am involved with other problems. Treat her words as my own." With his last sentence, Ashlani set his voice to cracking with his magic, the sound echoing over the assembled keelish and sending them to cowering. Then, with a nod, he whirled around and stalked out of the small den that had served as an impromptu gathering place.

That left Took and Sybil standing and looking over the dozens of keelish Alphas looking for direction. Sybil felt a smile crack her face at the prospect of organizing so many subordinates. That was, after all, her greatest strength.