The Bee Dungeon

Tarwantrad walked through her dungeon with heavy steps, trying to keep her face as impassive as possible. A girl the size of a hand zipped around her face, a set of transparent butterfly wings propelling her about. She giggled as she flew up to Tarwantrad and tried to poke her cheek.

“Aw, why the long face, Tarwy? Smile, today’s a great day!”

Tarwantrad waved her away.

“That would depend entirely on you behaving, Princess Finnakynne.”

Princess Finnakynne rolled her eyes.

“Come on, Tarwy, why so formal? We’re friends, aren’t we?”

Tarwantrad allowed herself a small smirk.

“Because you dislike it.”

The pixie cross her arms and huffed. But then, she began to smirk once more.

Specks of golden dust flew off Princess Finnakynne’s wings and then lit up, obscuring the pixie from view. She had grown to the same size as Tarwantrad and her features had grown much more mature. She had also traded her normal one-piece dress for something…bolder. She grinned as she came up behind Tarwantrad and wrapped an arm around the elf’s shoulders.

“Afraid I’m going to steal your little boy toy, are you? Is that why you’ve been keeping your pet human from me?”

Tarwantrad didn’t react and just stared at her.

“Finnakynne.”

The pixie’s grin grew.

“Yes?”

“Belissar is twenty. Thirty to forty at most, according to the lore on humans.”

Finnakynne blinked and then immediately reverted back to her pixie form, slowly flying back from Tarwantrad.

“Oh. Wow, Tarwantrad. I, uh, always believed you elves were secretly freaky but that’s…twenty? You’re, uh, quite…bold.”

Tarwantrad just rolled her eyes.

“Of course your mind would go there. Which is why I’m warning you now.”

Finnakynne nodded.

“Right. Absolutely. I’ll leave that to you, freaky elf, at least until he hits three digits.”

Tarwantrad just sighed as the pair reached the nexus door. She turned and glared at the pixie.

“Ok, here we are. Now, let me remind you?”

Finnakynne sighed, dramatically, and waved her hand in front of her face.

“Yes yes. Don’t hurt the bees. You don’t need to look so scary Tarwantrad, I’m a pixie, we raise flowers too. Don’t hurt the bees is like, one of our big ground rules! You can trust me on that.” ℝÃΝo͍𝐁Ês

Tarwantrad stared at her.

“The last time I trusted you, I lost half my dungeon.”

Finnakynne rolled her eyes.

“Hey, I did nothing but tell the truth! Baby bunnies are cute and fluffy and adorable! And as I told you, you would need a special kind of cruel bloodthirstiness to hurt them. That was honest advice, you know?”

Tarwantrad glared at her, about to reply when she caught herself and took a deep breath. She spun about and ignored the grin on Finnakynne’s face as she marched through the nexus door.

Belissar waited on the other side of the nexus door in the setup he usually wore for the sigmaka. He was accompanied by a good chunk of the soldier bee army and karnuq hunters led by Chief Rohsuak and Metsaitti. He even had Sehfitis on standby, waiting further away where communers would relay events to him. He still wasn’t sure how much he could trust the human augur…but given Tarwantrad’s warnings he figured a guy who was suspicious of the fair folk as a whole would keep a good eye out for any deceptions. Niobee sat on his head as always, fluttering her wings on occasion to keep them warmed up and ready.

Belissar steeled himself as the nexus door began to swirl once again.

“Get ready, everyone.”

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A moment later Tarwantrad walked through the door, with the pixie princess flying behind her. The pixie, about as tall as a soldier bee was long, stopped and stared at him for a moment before breaking out into a huge smile. Belissar might have found it bright and friendly were it not for Tarwantrad’s warnings.

“Hi! You must be the bee dungeon master! I’m Finnakynne, nice to meet you!”

Belissar blinked for a moment as the pixie flew up to him.

“Hi? I’m…Tower Keeper Belissar.”

Finnakynne’s smile grew and she flew closer, stopping only when Niobee began to buzz her wings. She looked up and down Belissar's body before furrowing her brow. She spun about and glared at Tarwantrad.

“Tarwy, you said he was twenty!”

Tarwantrad smiled back at her.

“He is…I think. The lore also said humans mature quickly, physically at least. What, you didn’t know?”

Finnakynne puffed her cheeks.

“You know I’m banned by that stuck-up loremaster!”

Tarwantrad kept smiling at her. Finnakynne huffed and then turned back to Belissar.

“But enough of that! Let’s talk about you! And your bees! So many bees! They’re your thing, right?”

Belissar was about to say yes before remembering Tarwantrad’s warnings. He was going to nod instead before remembering that was also included in the warnings. He furrowed his brow for a second.

“Bees…are my thing.”

Finnakynne was zipping around the bee army at this point though. Her eyes lit up as she approached one of the bumblebee soldiers and dove towards her, landing on her back.

“So fuzzy!”

The bumblebee buzzed her wings and the nearby soldiers moved to assist at first, but stopped as they realized Finnakynne wasn’t attacking. The bumblebee soldier just swayed about as Finnakynne rolled around on her back.

Belissar wasn’t sure how to respond. He glanced at Tarwantrad. The elf just shook her head.

“Don’t let your guard down.”@@novelbin@@

Finnakynne popped her head up out of the bumblebee’s hair.

“How rude! Can’t a girl just enjoy some fluff? I mean, just look at her! Isn’t she just the goodest, fluffiest bumblebee! Yes she is!”

The bumblebee soldier grew increasingly perplexed as the pixie played with her hair, but her mana wasn’t indicating distress or discomfort so Belissar let them be. He did make sure to extend his mana towards the bumblebee and asked her to let him know if she wanted help. The bumblebee just began zipping happy circles about, causing Finnakynne to laugh as she gripped onto the soldier’s hair.

Eventually, Finnakynne patted the side of the bumblebee and then pointed to Belissar. The bumblebee soldier flew up to him and Finnakynne stood up, patted her dress, and placed her fists on her hips.

“Now then, let’s get to business. You have bees, honeybees if I’m not mistaken, right Belly? Or should I say Beely? So, Beely…”

She took off from the bumblebee and flew up as close to Belissar’s face as she could get before Niobee began buzzying, leaned forward, and grinned.

“That means you have honey, right?”

Somehow, Belissar did not find that grin as friendly as her first. Fortunately, he had prepared for this situation, so he reached into a pouch on his belt and pulled out a small chunk of honeycomb.

“I do. Would you like a taste of this chunk here?”

Finnakynne immediately dove towards it.

“Dibs!”

She swiped her hand across the chunk and put it directly into her mouth. Her eyes immediately went wide and she dropped from the air. She began groaning even as she fell to the ground. Belissar’s eyes went wide.

“Hey, are you ok?!”

He glanced over at Tarwantrad.

“Is she ok?! I thought you said she liked honey!”

He found Tarwantrad blinking with wide eyes and a light flush.

“She’s…fine. I think.”

Belissar glanced down at the groaning pixie and frowned. Tarwantrad had said to give her the sweetest honey he had…but maybe using swirled honey had been a mistake? He wasn’t completely sure exactly what it could do, after all.

As for the pixie, Finnakynne…didn’t look fine to him, but if Tarwantrad said so then what else could he do. He asked the Second of the Sixth to bring up some medicinal workers just in case. Fortunately, though, Finnakynne stopped groaning before Belissar felt the need to send in the workers. She zipped back up to right in front of his face and glared at him.

“What in all that is fair and foul was that?!”

Belissar blinked.

“…honey?”

Finnakynne puffed her cheeks and growled.

“That…that wasn’t honey! That was like…a deadly, concentrated bomb of sweetness! How did you make the mana sweet?! How did you make me taste sugar in my toes? What did you even do to make something that delicious?!”

Belissar took a step back.

“It was swirled honey? It’s…new.”

Finnakynne flew forward to stay in his face.

“Explain. You can’t mean you just stirred it a bit!”

Belissar glanced at Tarwantrad. She just made a helpless smile.

“She won’t let this go, Belissar. I must admit, I’m curious as well. I knew your honey was good but I didn’t expect a reaction like...that.”

Belissar instead sent a message to the First of the Fifth, asking if it would be ok to explain what she does. She, of course, said “whatever King chooses!”

“If I understand correctly, the bees swirl the mana, which allows for greater mana density? I…think that also helps spread the taste around when you eat it?”

Finnakynne held her chin and nodded.

“I see, yes, I can see that now. They’ve crystallized mana formations within the honey itself, improving its capacity for sweetness and amplifying the sweetness when you absorb the mana from it…especially if you’re really good at absorbing mana like us. Brilliant, absolutely brilliant! With this, your plan to bribe mommy dearest might actually have a chance!”

She glanced over her shoulder and smirked at Tarwantrad while the elf winced.

“Oh, don’t look so surprised, Tarwy. We pixies love gossip, you know, so you didn’t think we would miss old Uhgy tossing out his own son and going on big rants on the danger of humans, did you? And then, immediately afterwards, you come to me, offering to introduce me to your own personal pet human, when previously you were gushing about him to every master in the Circle but me? Come on, Tarwy, you and Neny couldn’t have made it any more obvious if you had tried to. And what exactly would a bee dungeon master use to try and lure the pixies, hm? To sweeten the deal? Oh, what a mystery, just what could it…bee?”

She spun about and then flew backwards until she landed on Belissar’s shoulder. Niobee buzzed but Belissar calmed her down for now, not certain how to respond just yet. Finnakynne patted Belissar’s cheek as she smirked at Tarwantrad.

“But you know what? Lucky you, Beely’s honey here is just that good, so I’ll play along, and mommy dearest might too. If…”

Her smirk opened into a full-teeth grin.

“…we manage to come to a little compact of our own. I think I like it here, so I’d love to come back and play…”

Tarwantrad just hung her head. As for Belissar, it was strange. Finnakynne was apparently offering to help as they had hoped…and yet, Belissar couldn’t help but feel a chill go down his spine.