The kinkoo was trying along to hide his emotions and control the fragrances he was giving off. It was no coincidence that the queen had ordered all of her most important subjects to assemble at the very moment the royal messengers arrived, he was convinced. For between them, the foreign kipekoos represented all the known rulers. While the kitin-nest authorities occasionally did business with other colonies, the kinkoo had never experienced such a gathering. But the myths, as memorized and passed down by the handful of conscious Kitins, referred to two great events that took place long before the queen was born, and which necessitated the formation of a huge Kitin alliance: the Burning Swarm. The first story recounted the war against the Primessences, strange entities that rose from the depths of the Great Egg, and whose intense, unblemished scent was shared, in a much more tenuous way, by all the creatures that lived there, Kitins included. Their power was so overwhelming that the early colonies had to put aside their rivalries for the first time. The Primessences had unique powers that allowed them to control the environment of the Great Egg, to change their appearance at will, to appear and disappear instantly, and to travel wherever they wished within the intricate maze of caverns. However, as soon as the first kitin-nest was invaded and the queen sitting in was eaten, the supernatural creatures headed back to the heart of the Great Egg, ending the conflict. Since this strange episode, the Primessences were showing a profound disinterest in the Kitins. According to the second story, their attention had turned to a greater enemy: the Steriles. These small, bipedal creatures resembled the bouncing primates the Kitins were so fond of, and had strong black shells with a unique, untold smell. Even stranger was the fact that they in no way shared the scent of the Primessences, which permeated every recess of the Great Egg. The explanation probably lay in the fact that the Steriles came from the Matrix, the uncharted territory above the Great Egg. While the Kitins were forbidden to break through the Shell into the Matrix, the Sterile had made many attempts to colonize the Great Egg. To do so, they had tamed gigantic black cylindrical creatures from their world, continuously digging, and burning everything in their path. It was after a major invasion that the Burning Cloud was reformed. Unfortunately, though small and physically very weak, the Steriles had two formidable upper limbs, which could spread death from a distance, and whose power was beyond the Kitins' comprehension. Fortunately, the Primessences did not seem to appreciate the presence of these extraneous invaders and for the opportunity became allies by necessity. But even though the Kitins had long been aware of the carnal bond uniting the Great Egg and the Primessences, they preferred to play it cautious and avoid contact with them. Until then, the kinkoo had never seen Primessences, let alone Steriles. After all, there was no evidence that these strange primates actually existed, and perhaps they were merely ghosts allowing to keep the Kitins away from the Matrix…