"Your technology is of great interest to us," says much of the formian hive- they've all begun speaking, now, the workers and warriors.

"What will Amentans need to adjust to? We know little of your world. Share a bit of your knowledge, and we will share some of our own."

"Amenta does not have magic, of any kind. The concept of alignment is unknown there. They haven't contacted any other civilizations before."

"Arcadians make poor neighbors," say the formians, "except those who understand why law is more important than goodness. Even they can be stupid. Law allows for good trade and trusted agreements. You may have seen that Arcadians can be too good for their own sake, when law might be wiser. Are Amentans more lawful or more good?"

"I think most Amentans are more lawful. I don't know that they're as lawful as Arcadians but the ideas will be recognizable to them."

"How do Amentans treat their neighbors? Mandible will expand soon, forming new colonies, but it will remain the center of formian activity on this plane. We need our neighbors to respect our sovereignty."

"Amenta has very strong international agreements and would be enthusiastic about forming new ones with you, I believe. I don't think you will conflict much for territory because you prefer to live under the ground and Amentans don't."

There is much chittering and clicking.

The myrmarch speaks again.

"Arcadians often seek to mine, or build underground. I hear that Amentans may have similar designs. Our plane is vast, and so we can find room for all of us- but we fear allowing development beneath the ground. Once done, such a thing cannot be reversed. What say you?"

"Amentans do mine and build basements or subways under the ground. I don't think they will mind very much if they have to switch to surface trains and look for places to mine that you don't want, though, or trade with you for most of the things they'd want underground."

"Then Amentans may make very pleasant neighbors."

The myrmarch appears to have more to say, but ceases when the workers and warriors begin to murmur again.

Workers and warriors skitter to the edges of the chamber. At the center of the chamber, there is a loud heaving sound as a formian head and torso emerge into view. Beneath them, Lintalai can now make out a massive, bulbous form that the other formians continue to protect with their bodies.

She speaks, now, with the mindless castes of the hive speaking in unison.

"Will you represent the Amentan people? In the absence of your world's authorities, can you speak for them?"

"- they have not appointed me to any position, but I belong to the correct caste. In the absence of authorities, I will represent them."

"Then I will speak with you as I would a fellow queen."

And she does. The queen proceeds to properly introduce herself as Queen Clarity (non-formians find her real name difficult to announce, so she chose 'Clarity' to go by amongst mixed company). She discusses preliminary steps in setting up trade agreements between their two peoples, as well as taking some interest in the possibility that Amentans and formians could run a trial colony where they tried to more closely integrate- she thinks there might be some efficiency gains in learning from another species with a caste system, if they're not completely incompatible.

Lintalai thinks some Amentans would be really excited by an integrated city, and has guesses about what trade goods will be in demand.

At this stage, a few other formians begin introducing themselves into the conversation. It seems that whatever whim prompted the queen to summon Lintalai so urgently has now been satisfied.

Trade!!! Several taskmasters want to talk through what sorts of industries Amenta might have that just don't exist on Arcadia, and vice versa. While Amentan industries might involve technologies that Arcadia (and the Prime) has never seen, there are several things in Arcadia that do not depend on magic but would not have been developed without them.

Oooooh, like what? Amenta has computing and trains and airplanes and electricity...

It takes a while for the formians to explain what they mean, since they don't have any concept of mass production. It seems that, because magically-created items don't require ongoing magic to maintain, Arcadia has self-assembling objects of various kinds, as well as a variety of oddly specific effects relating to food production or weather. The formians expect this to work even in places without any local magic, although admittedly until now this has never been possible to test conclusively.

Amentans would certainly be keen to import some and check.

The queen would also appreciate learning more about how Lintalai's government works, and any other relevant ones she may need to interface with. Most of the queen's questions are phrased under the assumption that Lintalai's is the only opinion that matters, and these Amentan governments are minor interests that must be appeased.

Well, that suits Lintalai all right. Her country, Anitam, has a five person council at the top and various provincial and municipal interests on top of all the federal infrastructure; her dads are both in the federal government and they'll help. Anitam is friendly with most other countries and she can summarize those too.

Queen Clarity requires a Lintalai to go over the concept of 'dads' and 'council' to confirm how much and why Lintalai trusts these institutions and entities. For example, Queen Clarity trusts her workers and warriors because they are essentially extensions of herself, while she trusts her taskmasters and myrmarches less- they are more individualized. Some myrmarches are deeply trustworthy, which she knows through their years of tireless service. And there are rare non-formians who meet a threshold of trust- Lintalai would not have been one of them, but she has already been vouched for- by a valued taskmaster, rare among her caste for rising to the queen's notice, and by a...mutual friend of theirs...who values the economic flourishing of women.

Lintalai does not trust the council all that much but she trusts her dads a lot and expects they will be able to steer the council pretty well. Her dads are the people who have been raising her; they care about her personally and have similar values.

The queen's favorite myrmarch would like to know everything about her dads' agenda, and her own, please.

The queen, simultaneously, supplies Lintalai with a list of names: taskmasters and myrmarches who will be most directly involved in interfacting with the initial Amentan contingent. Formians within a particular caste do not seem to specialize as much as Amentans do, but it seems their broader castes do contain sub-castes which form as a result of massive cultural changes within the hive. Now that there are aliens to interface with, there will be new sub-castes of taskmasters and myrmarches just to interact with Amentans.

Lintalai's dads' agendas are not up to date because they may not have finished reading most of her emails yet, but they want to find humane ways to address the red caste (Lintalai favors finding magic to clean them, whereupon they could maybe be re-casted somehow or go among other species in Arcadia) and to find out where Lintalai came from (she's working on that with her talking skull, and meeting formians and other kinds of aliens will serve some of the same goals) and to have steering power over the future of Anitam and Amenta. Lintalai basically agrees with these agendas but also because she has more information right now also wants to colonize Arcadia and she is sure they will want that too.