They were given new designations as they sat at the very bottom.
Deplorables.
THE Resplendent Paradox and THE Corpse Hierophant and others were deemed The Grot, positioned above them in the hierarchy that these foreign invaders were constructing.
The Grot.
Where these beings came from, Grot referred to microscopic organisms that fed upon decomposed matter, bacteria that scavenged the remnants of dead Civilizations and consumed the rotting foundations of collapsed Existences. They were considered useful but contemptible, necessary for breaking down waste but never respected for the function they performed.
To be called Grot was to be told that your highest purpose was to consume garbage.
And Achilles and Rose were marked to be lower than even that.
They fell silent and only looked ahead, their stellar features betraying nothing of the anger building beneath.
