Summary

On Kern’s World, the narrator explains that spider society is an organized anarchy. The females who contribute the most are given the highest priority while the males are used for labor alongside the ants they have chemically manipulated. However, this makes it difficult to choose leaders for the war, and the ants have destroyed 100 metropolises across the world and are marching on the Great Nest.

Portia finds Bianca in her laboratory working with male assistants. Bianca says the males can be taught while females often argue for power and that males are just as capable of passing on Understanding as females. Portia, not wanting to talk about this concept she does not fully believe in, tells Bianca about the devastation at the Seven Trees. Bianca believes the spiders will end up destroying themselves...