The Bee Dungeon

Chapter 169: How to Bee Queen?

Belissar did as Juosiutik asked and created a shortcut between the Apothecary’s Hut and the Apiary, as close to the First of the Fifth’s Bee Apartment as he could manage. He thought briefly about trying to place said shortcut in the apartment itself but decided against it. This was Juosiutik, the dangerous one herself, that they were talking about so having a direct connection between her workspace and a hive full of mana honey might be…unwise.

He stepped through the shortcut and went over to greet the First of the Fifth, informing her of the new room and shortcut…as well as his next course of business.

“I’m also going to place a carpenter bee spawner now. It’ll be in the Orchard, though, so maybe the Fourth of the Seventh or one of the hives there can take care of them?”

The First of the Fifth immediately launched into her response.

“First Daughter is there! Will take care of.”

Belissar smiled.

“Sounds good, thank you. Great work taking care of everyone, I appreciate that.”

He left the First of the Fifth to her resulting happy dance and made his way down to the Orchard. He quickly let the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter know what was going on, but turned out she had been informed by the time he arrived and was prepared to assist, so Belissar was able to get right to it.

He, Niobee, and the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter moved a bit further away from the Grove and the shortcut wall, though still on the same side of the Orchard, and brought up the spawner. This one appeared as a dead tree trunk with multiple holes bored into it. As soon as he placed it, a fuzzy carpenter bee crawled out of one of the holes, looking much like a bumblebee save for her smooth abdomen. She flew up to him, hovering before him, and he gave her a smile.

“Welcome to the Bee Tower. I’m Belissar, this is Niobee and the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter. You can ask any of us if you need anything.”

The carpenter bee buzzed her wings and zipped around at that.

“For now, just do your thing. The First of the Fifth’s First Daughter can help, too.”

Belissar then moved to make a home for the new bee. He knew carpenter bees preferred to bore holes into wood, so he went with the bee nest feature rather than a beehouse. He tried to see if he could place it on the nearest apple tree.

It didn’t work, this time. Belissar frowned. Maybe they’d have to bore some holes into it first before he could make it into a bee nest?

He glanced over at the carpenter bee but she had already begun foraging from the nearest tree. He decided to wait until she made her own home, then he’d see if he could upgrade it into a bee nest. If not, he’d have to figure something else out…

While Belissar pondered homes for carpenter bees, he decided to check in on the wounded bees. Once he arrived, he paused and just watched silently for a bit, for he saw a most interesting sight.

Bees of all sorts were swarming over the Memorial.

The wounded bees were all there, of course, both the newly injured from the recent purification and all those who had been there from before. The Second of the Sixth’s hive he expected, the medicinal bees flying from wounded to wounded to monitor their recovery and apply stings and honey as necessary.

What he didn’t expect were the countless worker bees following their queens and assembling into groups, all in front of Beero. Belissar spoke softly as not to interrupt.

“Hey, Niobee, do you know what’s going on there?”

Niobee did, as he expected.

“Queens decided Beero is queen of Memorial, Memorial bees are new hive! New hive needs workers, but Beero can’t lay, so hive of hives is giving!”

Belissar tilted his head.

“I…see?”

Well, not really. Beero had gotten promoted, somehow, but also still wasn’t a queen? And apparently the wounded bees were making their own hive at the Memorial?

“Huh. Well, if they’re making a hive…I guess they’re going to live here, now? They’ll probably need a house then.”

“Wounded bees already live here!”

Belissar froze solid, his eyes widening in slow motion as he took in Niobee’s dance.

“The wounded bees…have been living here? Outside?”

“Yes!”

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Belissar began to tremble. He knew that Beero and the wounded bees hung around the Memorial most of the time. But…he had assumed that they returned home to sleep and stuff. Apparently though, that assumption was wrong. In fact, now that he thought about it, how would the flightless bees even return home? Did he think they just crawled the whole way back each day?

And that meant that…the wounded bees…the bees who had given the most to protect the Tower…had been living outside all of this time.

Belissar spun right around and began marching out of the room.

“Niobee, we’re building a home for Beero and her new hive. I’m going to go arrange some supplies. Can you let Beero know and ask her what sort of home she wants? We have Beehouses, Bee Nests, the Bee Barracks, and the Bee Apartment. This one should be special, though, so if she has any ideas on what we can do differently I want to know.”

“Ok!”

Niobee flew off as Belissar marched straight towards his lumber stockpiles. He would not rest until Beero had the home she deserved.

The indomitable Beero, the soldier who let neither lightning, shade, nor crippling injury stop her from protecting the hive of hives, was currently panicking. She paced about in frantic circles while buzzing her regrown wings as more and more workers assembled before her, waiting for instructions. Her instructions.

She had no idea what was happening. Or, rather, she knew what was happening on a factual level. The other queens had declared her one of them and the bees gathered at the Memorial as a separate hive, but were aware that Beero couldn’t exactly raise workers of her own. So, they were donating workers that would sustain Beero’s hive. That much she understood.

But this was all too much for her. Just days earlier she was nothing but a soldier. She attacked intruders and obeyed her queen. That was it. All of her deeds and achievements had been nothing more but an extension of those duties, adaptations for her crippling circumstances. Nothing she was, had, or had done, though, prepared her to be queen. She knew nothing about raising brood, commanding children, organizing workers, building hives, or producing honey. She had no idea what to do.

Even if she had, these were workers from another hive. The queens had donated communers but Beero couldn’t even use them. She had no link to them, mana or otherwise, and could not issue them commands save by manual dance. And even if she was connected to them…she was a soldier. Her only interactions with the link between the hive was to receive orders from her queen. She had no idea how to reach out to another member of her hive, or how to send commands through that link.

She was going to waste these workers. She would waste their efforts, and the generosity of the queens who had donated them to her. This was a job she was not suited or prepare for, and she had no idea how to even start. And she had to figure it out quickly. Already there were countless workers milling about in confusion and unease, waiting for her to issue orders she didn’t know, all while more and more of them continued to arrive and add to the confusion. Her hive had not even formed and already was becoming a disaster.

And then yet another queen arrived to add to the chaos.

“Hi! Brought workers!”

The Queen of All Bees had not taken mercy on her, it seemed. The Fourth of the Seventh had come. The courageous queen who now led the scouting of the Beyond in-person, a feat not even the Flower Meadow queens had attempted. The queen who had pioneered countless innovations in hive management, a true master pushing the envelope of organization. This was the queen that had arrived at the moment of Beero’s greatest failure, when her inability to issue even the simplest of commands was squandering the efforts of countless workers.

“Brought first communer and drone too! Will help!”

Beero was too ashamed to even reply. So, she was busy trying to curl up and hide from view when the Fourth of the Seventh’s drone crawled up to her and began brushing her antennae.

A shock passed through the mana to every corner of Beero’s body. She leapt up and stared at the drone. His mana was brushing against her own and…trying to pull it in? Well, she had no idea what he was trying to do, but she was not going to object to anything the Fourth of the Seventh’s hive wanted to do. It wasn’t like she had any better ideas.

She watched as he pulled her mana and twisted it with his own. For a moment, all thoughts of the disaster unfolding before her stopped. With her new body and senses, she could see and feel mana in a way she never had before. She could see the mana of communers and workers from other hives bouncing off her own. She could see the drone somehow pierce through this natural resistance, enticing her mana to work with his of its own accord.

She was fascinated as he pulled her mana and walked towards the Fourth of the Seventh’s first communer, then began to pull on her mana as well. He twisted the three strands of mana together, manipulating them at a level she had never imagined possible.

Until…she could hear it. She could feel it. She stared in awe as her mana linked with the Fourth of the Seventh’s first communer. The first communer began to dance and spread her mana out towards the Fourth of the Seventh’s workers…and Beero could feel them. She could feel them all, each worker hovering about.

Was this…was this how a queen felt her hive?

The first communer danced a salute.

“Workers connected, waiting for Beero’s orders.”

Beero was pulled from her revelry as she recalled her predictment. It took all her courage and will, but she could not help but speak the truth. Surely, the Fourth of the Seventh had seen through her anyways.

“…don’t have any. Don’t know how to build hive, command workers.”

As she feared, the Fourth of the Seventh appeared prepared for that, and now passed her judgement.

“That’s ok! First communer will help! Takes care of hive for me, can help!”

The first communer danced her confirmation.

“Yes. Queen likes to leave, so workers figured out how to work on their own. Will teach how if Beero needs help.”

Beero crawled up to the first communer and brushed their antennae together.

“Really? Can? Can teach how to be queen?!”

The first communer hesistated at that, but the Fourth of the Seventh replied in her place.

“Can! First communer is best communer! Like queen!”

The first communer then slowly danced her confirmation.

“Queen commands, so will do.”

Beero nearly collapsed from the relief. Even as she recovered, the Fourth of the Seventh’s first communer gathered donated communers from all the other hives and the Fourth of the Seventh’s drone then linked her mana to theirs. The first communer then went on to suggest commands to her, which Beero relayed to the gathered workers. Slowly, surely, the workers stopped milling about and began their assigned tasks, foraging for the first honey and building the first combs needed for a hive.

This…this was going to work! As long as these two were here, Beero could do it after all! She wouldn’t waste the queens’ generosity! She wouldn’t fail her queen mother’s expectations! She could build a hive after all! Beero slowly began to grow more sure of herself…

At least until the Conduit arrived and told her the King himself wanted her opinion on a magical palace, after which Beero began panicking once more…