Each platter bore a perfectly square section of the croach. Each was subtly different than the next. One looked as if it had been baked in an oven—badly. The edges were black and crisp. Another had sugar sprinkled over its surface. A third was adorned with a gelatinous glaze and a ring of ripe cherries. A fourth had been coated with what had once been melted cheese—but it had been scorched dark brown.

Invidia sliced each piece into quarters, then began to load the Queen’s plate with a single square from each platter. After that, she served herself the same.

“And our guest,” the Queen murmured.

Invidia dutifully filled the third plate. “Whom are we entertaining?”

“We are not entertaining,” the Queen replied. “We are consuming food in a group.”

Invidia bowed her head. “Who is to be our companion, then?”

The Queen narrowed her insect eyes until only glittering black slits were visible. She stared down the length of the enormous table, and said, “She comes.”

Invidia turned her head to look as their guest entered the glowing green dome.

It was a second queen.

It shared its features with the Queen: Indeed, it might have been her twin sister—a young woman little older than a teenager, with long white hair and the same glittering eyes. There, the similarities ended. The younger queen prowled forward with alien grace, making no effort at all to mimic the motion of a human being. She was completely naked, and her pale skin was covered in a sheen of some kind of glistening, greenish mucus.

The younger queen walked forward to the table and stopped a few feet away, staring at her mother.

The Queen gestured to the empty chair. “Sit.”

The younger queen sat. She stared across the table at Invidia with unblinking eyes.

“This is my child. She is newly born,” said the Queen to Invidia. She turned to the young queen. “Eat.”

The younger queen considered the food for a moment. Then she grasped a square in her bare fingers and stuffed it into her mouth.

The Queen observed this behavior, frowning. Then she took up her fork and began cutting off dainty bites with it, eating them slowly. Invidia followed the elder Queen’s lead and ate as well.

The food was... “revolting” fell so far of the mark that it seemed an injustice. Invidia had learned to eat the raw croach. The creature keeping her alive needed her to ingest it in order to feed itself. She had been startled to learn that it could taste even worse. The vord had no grasp of cooking. The very notion was alien to them. As a result, they couldn’t really be expected to do it very well—but that evening they had perpetrated nothing short of an atrocity.