The Bee Dungeon

“So, Juosiutik…is this about the spiderkin?”

Juosiutik grimaced.

“Belissar…are you truly planning to raise those monsters here?”

Belissar narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms. All his thoughts, concerns, and plans vanished once she called them monsters.

“Yes. And don’t call them monsters, Juosiutik. That’s what the Tower Lords would do.”

Juosiutik glared at him.

“They killed my family, Belissar! They took everything from me!”

Belissar shook his heads.

“Not these ones. These are kids, Juosiutik. They haven’t even hatched from their eggs. They had nothing to do with that.”

“They’re all monsters! They hatch from those accursed eggs ready to kill and destroy! If you let them live, they’ll come for us again! They should all burn!”

At that moment, Belissar erupted. His body began to glow with a golden and black aura and the sound of buzzing filled the air. Spell-bees began to spontaneously form on his body and hovered aggressively around Juosiutik, buzzing their wings as loud as they could.

And the bees in the area took note. Niobee flew into action immediately, buzzing and waving her stinger right in Juosiutik’s face. All the workers and communers and gardeners in the Apothecary’s Hut stopped what they were doing and joined the swarm of spell-bees. Juosiutik snapped out of her rage, she took a step back as her eyes opened wide.

Belissar growled at her before he started shouting.

“Juosiutik, that’s exactly what the Tower Lords said about your people! I was taught that ALL beastkin are subhuman monsters cursed by the gods! Aggressive monsters who couldn’t be reasoned with and that should be put down whenever encountered! If I was willing to kill children like they do, then I should have wiped out your entire clan when even one of you first set foot in my Tower!”

He took a step towards her and the buzzing intensified. Juosiutik stumbled and fell onto the ground.

“But you know what?! The Tower Lords lied to me! MY family died because they lied to me! I lost everyone I ever cared about because of those lies! So, I am NOT going to be like them! Ever! I won’t believe that anyone is a subhuman monster unless they prove it themselves!”

Belissar stopped, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. The buzzing of his mana and the spell-bees quieted down, the workers, communers, and gardeners followed suit. Belissar slowly opened his eyes and spoke back at normal volume.

“So, look, Juosiutik. If the spiderkin adults come and attack, I’ll fight them. I’ll do what I have to keep the Tower safe, the karnuq included. But I won’t kill the eggs that haven’t done anything and can’t defend themselves. If they are hostile when they hatch and we can’t reason with them, then so be it. But I am going to take the chance that they might be more than monsters. Just like I did with the karnuq when I first met you all.”

Juosiutik watched him and trembled, but did not respond. Belissar sighed.

“And…if you think about it, we killed these spiderkins’ parents too. From what Chief Rohsuak tells me, you karnuq have attacked a lot of people yourself. But you’ve been nice to me ever since I met you, so we didn’t end up fighting. That’s…well, I’m not sure what I’m trying to say. So…how about we just try not to kill each other here in the Tower?”

Juosiutik’s face scrunched up. Belissar groaned and the last bits of his anger left him. His shoulders drooped as a wave of fatigue hit his body. But, finally, he remembered a bit of Chief Rohsuak’s advice. He did his best to stand up straight again.

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“And if not…well, this is my Tower. I say we’re not hurting the spiderkin eggs before they hatch, and I’ll take them in if they aren’t unreasonably hostile. So…that’s how it is. You don’t have to take care of them yourself, the bees will handle it, but you can’t hurt them. Ok?”

Juosiutik didn’t say anything, but she did quietly nod. Belissar sighed again.

“Ok. Then…if you understand, then I have a new feature to show you.”

Belissar walked over to start installing a universal floriculture pot or two. He took his time, though, not really feeling up to the task. And as he walked away…he didn’t notice that neither Juosiutik nor Niobee had followed him. Juosiutik had started to get up…but Niobee kept hovering or buzzing in her face. She frowned.

“Um…”

Niobee dashed in and landed on Juosiutik’s shoulder. The karnuq let out a soft screech as Niobee stabbed the tip of her stinger into her shoulder, though she didn’t fully sting. Niobee then took off and buzzed in Juosiutik’s face as she started to dance.

“Hurt King, made feel bad. Don’t do again.”

Juosiutik silently nodded. Niobee finally flew off to catch up with Belissar. Juosiutik took a deep breath, tears welled up in her eyes. She did her best to wipe them away and steel herself before rising to join Belissar.

Belissar finally noticed Juosiutik wasn’t next to him and turned to see what was going on. His eyes widened when he saw Juosiutik’s face. She hadn’t fully succeeded at wiping away the tears.

“Ah…maybe I should come back later? Those three pots over there can grow any flower. I’ll…explain a bit more later.”

Juosiutik could only nod. Belissar then retreated from the room. He heard Juosiutik begin to sob just as he was stepping through the shortcut.

***

Belissar rushed over to the karnuq settlement to meet with Chief Rohsuak in her home. He relayed the conversation with Juosiutik to her. He then frowned.

“Did…did I overdo it? I…didn’t want to hurt her but I just got so angry when she started talking like the Tower Lords…”

Niobee immediately began buzzing on his head.

“Didn’t! Hurt King, made feel bad! Deserves sting!”

Chief Rohsuak, for her part, shook her head.

“No, Tower Keeper, I think you did fine. This was helpful and necessary. Even I wasn’t fully aware of your circumstances and viewpoint on the matter, now we fully understand your stance. It, too, was necessary for you to remind everyone that you are the Tower Keeper. I understand you do not wish to be feared, but neither should we take you lightly either.”

She leaned back and sighed.

“As for Juosiutik, I believe she will be fine. She has been bottling up her grief ever since she lost her parents, this situation with the spiderkin and your conversation with her is bringing it to the fore. If anything, it is good that she is finally letting out her emotions, if only because she cannot contain them. She needs this if she is ever to move on. I think, too, that she will be more receptive of your stance afterwards.”

Belissar still frowned. Chief Rohsuak smiled at him.

“I’ll follow up with her as well, so you don’t need to worry. Honestly, most of our clan will need to go through some form of this as well. Back when we were nomads, we had no time to mourn, survival took priority over grief so we all learned to keep moving. Now that we are settling down and not struggling for our very lives each and every day…this is going to happen to a lot more of us. But that is our responsibility. You should continue doing as you please.”

Belissar, however, hummed to himself rather than respond. Bottling up grief, huh? Belissar could recognize now he had done the same thing for most of his life. He had been forced to confront it after becoming a Tower Keeper. And he found that, like what Chief Rohsuak was saying, a lot of the pressure he always seemed to feel lightened after he had reached his limit and let it burst out. So, he considered the moments where it did so most…during the memorials when he had to face death if he wanted to honor the bees who sacrificed for him.

“Would…would it help to have some sort of memorial for her parents? Like we do when we lose bees? And…for any other karnuq that lost people?”

Chief Rohsuak blinked, her eyes widening. She slowly began to smile at him, her eyes warm. She even teared up a bit.

“Tower Keeper Belissar…that would be wonderful. I would be immensely grateful for such a thing.”

Belissar nodded. His own heart pounded and he felt his own eyes grow itchy…now that he thought about it, he hadn’t had one for his own parents or Mrs. Imkomos either.

“Ok. Let’s…plan that too, then.”

The two talked some more about what to do. Neither Belissar nor the karnuq had particularly elaborate funeral rites, so they ultimately planned to keep it simple and similar to Belissar’s memorials for the bees. Chief Rohsuak didn’t want to spring it on the karnuq suddenly, so even though it wouldn’t require much prep they decided wait a bit for the actual event. With the basic plan set, Chief Rohsuak left to check on Juosiutik. Belissar remained seated in her house for a moment, not ready to move just yet.

Niobee began to dance on his head.

“King ok? King feels bad? Need Niobee sting?”

Belissar smiled and reached up to brush her.

“I’m ok. I think…sometimes, it’s ok to feel bad. Sometimes, I seem to feel better after feeling bad, so I guess the bad feelings aren’t always bad.”

Niobee’s antennae twitched about. Her next dance was a bit hesitant.

“Ok? Don’t understand, but if King says so. Tell Niobee if can help.”

Belissar’s smile grew.

“You already are. You always do.”