The Bee Dungeon

The next day, King Ratuatapi arrived at the Tower once more, accompanied by Second Queen Berbiya and Fourth Queen Pezuya as before. They had agreed both to the alliance and to Belissar’s proposal for honeydew delivery challenges, today was the day for the two leaders to finalize the deal. The agreement was less formal this time with no oath before the God of Bees, as neither side wanted to be divinely bound in this case. Instead, Belissar and the sigmaka king simply recited the agreement, shook hands, and exchanged some gifts as a symbol of the alliance. Belissar received a fine robe made of silk, while King Ratuatapi received a full tray of mana honeycomb from Belissar’s own stockpile.

The formalities were quickly concluded and a feast prepared. Belissar and King Ratuatapi once again ate together. King Ratuatapi smiled at the meal before him and his people.

“That’s a lot of rabbits, did you discover a den in the Underway?”

Belissar shook his head.

“I recently met another Tower Keeper who gave them to me. We’re breeding them now to hunt.”

King Ratautapi’s eyes widened for a second before he forced his expression back to stoic.

“I see. Would we be permitted to hunt them as well?”

Belissar thought to himself for a moment. Chief Rohsuak had reinforced that he wasn’t supposed to agree to anything casually, so he was careful choosing his words.

“We’ll have to discuss that. The room they’re currently in…isn’t safe, and we weren’t planning to spread them just yet.”

“I see. We would love to discuss that once you are ready. Then…you say you met another Sacred Den Master?”

Belissar nodded.

“One of the Fair Folk, even.”

King Ratuatapi could not help his eyes widening once more.

“Fair Folk? You can’t mean fairies, can you? I thought they were just a myth.”

Belissar smiled knowingly at that.

“So, did I. Apparently, they have their own realm or something that’s separated from the rest of the world. There’s a door in my Tower that connected to one of theirs.”

King Ratuatapi blinked before looking slightly relieved.

“So, they’ll just be in your Sacred Den…”

Belissar nodded, then gave King Ratuatapi a serious look.

“I’ve become friends with at least some of them, so please inform your challengers to respect them as they would the bees and karnuq if they encounter each other.”

King Ratuatapi immediately agreed.

“Of course, we will respect your friends as you have respected us.”

Belissar smiled again.

“Thank you. I should also let you know that at least some of them have agreed to help us prepare for the Tower Lords, and may even join us should we be attacked.”

King Ratuatapi could not hold back his surprise at that but soon began to smile.

“That is most reassuring.”

Inwardly, Belissar held back his own sigh of relief. He used his Tower commands to thank a group of bees dancing in the distance.

“That was everything, right? Thank you, everyone! Great work remembering all that, you can join the banquet now.”

The bees immediately began a “King best king!” dance at his praise. Since Chief Rohsuak would also be busy talking to the sigmaka during the celebration, they had arranged for some worker bees to help Belissar with his task. They had spoken with Tarwantrad earlier and decided it would be best to inform the sigmaka about her and the general existence of the Compact ahead of time. Not only would this avert any surprises or knee-jerk reactions, but it would also allow Belissar’s allies to coordinate if and when the Tower Lords arrived. To this purpose, Chief Rohsuak proposed they inform King Ratuatapi directly, as the sigmaka would have an easier time accepting something as surprising as the existence of the fairies if it came from him rather than the usual Second Queen Berbiya. ᚱ𝐚𝐍ŏ𝖇Èş

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Of course, the only time they had a chance to speak with King Ratuatapi directly was at post-agreement banquets like this, so Belissar had to do it himself, without Chief Rohsuak’s help. But that was a problem that could be solved with bees, and so no issue at all.

And now Belissar was free to enjoy his meal and the conversation with fellow insect-keeper King Ratuatapi…if it weren’t for the young sigmaka king becoming distracted for the rest of the banquet…

The King and the sigmaka were not the only ones who would feast today, however. The First of the Fifth reviewed her production lines. All of her honeypots had evolved into honeyswirlers and were now producing the more advanced honey, which meant all of her hive’s production was now honeyswirled. There was some loss in quantity as the process did take longer than that of regular honey, but the productivity boons from before her evolution more than made up for that.

She still hadn’t evolved all of her workers, gardeners, communers, and soldiers, but it wasn’t as urgent for her to do so as their roles in the production process could be performed as base monster bees. She could evolve them at leisure through their normal feeding once they worked through the remaining stocks of regular mana honey, and all new children would be born as honeyswirlers anyways. As such…she was now ready to begin delivering swirled honey to the other queens.

This is usually where she would have considered the state of the hive of hives to determine where her honey was most needed, arranged the delivery, and then personally informed the receiving queen. Today, however, she caught herself even as she started to brainstorm. Instead, she began dancing to one of her communers.

“Inform First Daughter that have honey to share with hive of hives, tell amount available. Can coordinate delivery with Second Daughter.”

She realized that since she had asked her First Daughter to manage the hive of hives, it was no longer her decision who should receive her honey, nor her responsibility to arrange the deliveries to said hives. Her First Daughter was now the one keeping track of the hive of hives, and therefore any decisions on honey allocation should be hers.

The First of the Fifth paced around a bit, considering then what she needed to do next, what other decisions she needed to make now. She came to conclusion that there was…

…nothing? If her First Daughter was now deciding where the honey should go and how to get it there…then there was nothing else for the First of the Fifth to do after informing her. So…there was nothing stopping her from now going back to making more honey.

With only a slight twinge of concern that she might be missing something, the First of the Fifth went back to her task, deciding to trust that her First Daughter could handle things from there.

The First of the Fifth’s First Daughter danced her receipt of the report from her queen mother’s communer.

“Got it, queen mother say where honey going?”

She paused, though, when the communer dance the negative.

“Queen mother said First Daughter decides now.”

The First Daughter stood completely still for a moment. That was right, wasn’t it? If her queen mother had entrusted the hive of hives to her, then she should be the one to allocate honey donations between the hives. It just…felt strange to be deciding what to do with her queen mother’s own honey.

Strange feelings would not prevent her from completing her duty, however, so she began to consider.

“First batch should go to queen mother’s Fifth Daughter, evolve Fifth Daughter since she helps queen mother make honey. Next batch…”

For a brief moment, she considered sending a batch to her Third Daughter…but she held back. As worried as she was for her Third Daughter, the honey from her evolved queen mother was quite powerful, able to drive queen evolutions. She had to consider the hive of hives as a whole and send the honey where it would be most useful for all of them. She would have to take care of the hive of hives and then trust the hive of hives to take care of her Third Daughter; indeed, the hive of hives had already given plenty of bees and resources to do just that. She would eventually send her queen mother’s honey to her Third Daughter…but the very first allocation needed to be for the wider hive of hives.

And so, she put aside concerns for her Third Daughter. She glanced over at the Fourth of the Seventh’s first communer by her side. The first communer brushed her antennae.

“Queen mother with other queen’s Third Daughter now, helping set up hive.”

The First Daughter thanked the first communer. The first communer, like the Fourth of the Seventh, always knew what she needed and was always able to help. So, reassured about her daughter’s safety, the First Daughter considered the hive of hives instead.

“…send to bumblebee queens. Haven’t evolved, haven’t raised new queens, only have workers and soldiers. Would help hive of hives if did, might need better honey. After, send to Flower Meadow barracks and Firstborn.”@@novelbin@@

Her queen mother’s Fifth Daughter evolving would expand her queen mother’s hive’s honey production, so the next priority for the hive of hives was to boost their defenses. Either the bumblebees or Flower Meadow queens evolving more of their soldiers would go a long way towards that…not to mention if either of them managed to evolve a queen. Indeed, nearly every queen in the hive of hives was watching the Firstborn these days, waiting, or even expecting, that she would evolve soon. The First Daughter would ensure that she had all the resources necessary to do so.

After that, she turned to the first communer.

“Can watch hive? Need to check on hive of hives.”

The ever reliable first communer danced a salute, freeing the First Daughter to begin a full review of the hive of hives. For if she now needed to determine honey allocations, she needed a refresher on the state of each and every hive in the Tower…as well as the bees that did not live in hives to begin with. It was now her job to take care of every hive, not just her own.

And for the sake of the King, the hive of hives, her queen mother, the Fourth of the Seventh, and their children together, she would not fail.