The Bee Dungeon

The stingless queen, the first chosen by the Flower Tender to receive a magical palace, now the queen of queens over all the lands stewarded by the Flower Tender, received a report from whichever hive it was she had assigned to scout the newest room. The new bee type had arrived, complete with its hive. The scouting hive recommended immediate subjugation.

The stingless queen did not reply, continuing to sip honey from a cell. After she finished her meal, she proceeded to lay another round of eggs. Then she conferred with her workers on the state of her hive and made adjustments where necessary.

Only then did she reply to the workers from the scouting hive.

“Servant queen inform new hive of subjugation, demand tribute. Take appropriate measures if refuse. Will expect delivery soon, do not fail.”

The scouting queen was truly insolent. As if the queen of queens would bother mobilizing her army to subjugate a single new queen. She had an entire empire to run, countless queens submitted to her will. A single newcomer was of no concern, running her own hive was of far greater importance. One of her servants would suffice to inform the newcomer of their place.

And if the newcomer refused and her servant failed to subjugate them? Only then would she remind the queens of her might.

The stingless queen who had scouted the new bees was currently running about in panic. Her plan…had not developed to expectations. She had not considered that the domineering queen would simply assign her to subjugate the newcomer instead of sending the army. Her choices were now refuse and earn the ire of the domineering queen who conquered all the rest…or tell the gigantic bees that they needed to submit.

Either way, she was dead.

She continued pacing about but time was ticking. Thanks to the vague and threatening time limit set by the domineering queen, she had no choice but to try and work things out on the fly. With her antennae drooping, she slowly began to fly out of her hive. This was a conversation that would need to be handled delicately, she couldn’t just pass a message through her workers this time. She had no choice but to go herself and hope the new queen didn’t take the opportunity to kill her immediately. As such, she took only the bare minimum escort, for what was the point? A subjugated queen like her was only permitted one or two soldiers at a time, a paltry force compared to what the new queen might possess.

“Hi, looking for queen mother?”

Well, she apparently wasn’t going to sneak up on the new queen either. Not that she intended to do so.

“…yes. Need to…welcome.”

“Ok! Queen mother says will meet!”

The worker then led the stingless queen and her entourage towards their doom. Her workers buzzed as more and more bees flew around them but she forced them to stand down. No amount of courage would help them here.

She hovered in place for a moment when the new queen’s hive came into view. Apparently the Flower Tender had built a magical palace for the new queen as well…a much larger one than any of them possessed. And, as the stingless queen had once hoped but now dreaded, the place was crawling with soldier bees, clearly on alert for any sign of attack. Just the soldiers she could see represented a force that would give even the domineering queen pause. Her hive, with its grand total of two soldiers, had no chance if a conflict started.

So, she could not help a tremble as the new queen crawled out of the hive and flew over to her, escorted by her soldiers. The new queen then began to dance for some reason.

Stolen story; please report.

“Hi! Am Third Daughter of First Daughter of First Queen of First Dynasty of Fifth Spawner of Bee Tower, third of her line, now of Flower Tower! Nice to meet!” ṟÅＮŏВΕS̈

The stingless queen had no idea what the new queen was saying. She could somehow understand the new queen’s dancing as if it were normal pheromones…but she was confused at to the point of the words themselves. Was…that some way to refer to herself? But…why?

“…nice to meet? Well would be but…have to tell you something. There’s domineering queen, queen who conquered all others. Has big army with many soldiers, demands tribute from other queens, kills if refuse. Wants tribute now. But not me! Won’t fight new queen, but domineering queen will kill if new queen doesn’t give honey so…”

“Ok!”

The stingless queen’s barrage of pheromones abruptly cut off as the new queen danced a confirmation.

“…huh?”

New queen…agreed to tribute?@@novelbin@@

The queen of queens received a report that the new bees had arrived to offer tribute. At first, she ignored it. Countless hives offered her tribute each and every day, such an occurrence did not warrant her attention.

But then, her workers reported the amount. It could not have been accurate, so she reprimanded the reporting worker. But the worker continued insisting on their report. The queen thus had to interrupt her own schedule to see what was going on…and to handle whoever was responsible for these inaccuracies.

It turned out, though, that the report wasn’t inaccurate at all. She stared at the pots now full of glistening honey. Enough pots to represent an entire day’s work by a hive and filled to the brim with mana as well. She had expected that the newcomer would refuse to send tribute until she made a display of force. And if the newcomer had agreed, she had expected the newcomer would have sent a wholly insufficient amount. The one thing she had not expected was for the newcomer to send all the honey she must have had.

For a moment, she was taken aback. But then, she began to flutter her wings. The newcomer must have realized the balance of power better than most and so must be attempting to avoid being conquered. If that was the case…such a gift made sense. Her opinion of the newcomer rose, clearly the newcomer had a good head on her torso. A bit cowardly, of course, but that was a flaw she did not mind in her servants.

And so, the queen of queens returned to her most important business and put the newcomer out of her mind. Clearly, said newcomer had already learned her place, and thus required no further attention from the queen of queens…

The Third Daughter welcomed her workers after they returned from their honey delivery. She then spun about in a happy circle.

It had worked! It went just like her queen mother’s queen mother had predicted! The powerful queen asked for honey, so she gave it! The powerful queen now accepted her hive's presence, so she wouldn’t need to fight yet and her workers got to scout powerful queen’s hive! Now she’d have plenty of time to build up her hive, especially with all the honey from her queen mother’s queen mother and all the eggs the Fourth of the Seventh laid for her!

It was interesting! New hive of hives apparently wasn’t a hive of hives! Apparently, she’d have to make them into a hive of hives so that they could be useful for the hive of hives instead of inefficiently fighting each other! This would be a brand new experience, something only her queen mother’s queen mother had tried apparently but had stopped once she learned about the hive of hives! The Third Daughter would be the first to do it for real!

So, she’d start now! She turned to the stingless queen that had greeted her. The queen was twitching and buzzing.

“New queen…gave all honey? But…how will feed hive? How will feed soldiers?”

The Third Daughter began a confused dance.

“But…didn’t give all honey? Have plenty more?”

The stingless queen twitched.

“Huh?”

“Here, will show!”

The Third Daughter thought this would be easier, so led the stingless queen inside her hive. The queen froze.

“What…how…?”

The Third Daughter danced before entire trays of glistening honey.

“Is from hive of hives! All queens help, so help all queens!”

The stingless queen was leaking mostly incoherent pheromones, but eventually the Third Daughter worked something out.

“Hive…of hives?”

The Third Daughter stepped forward and gently brushed the stingless queen’s antennae. The other queen flinched at first, but the Third Daughter spread calming pheromones as she did to reassure the stingless queen she meant no harm.

“Yep! Want to join? Can share honey if need!”

The stingless queen did not reply at first, staring at her and her honey for a good minute. Then, she slowly began to release pheromones and mana.

“I…see. If have this much honey and soldiers already…yes. Will submit to new queen, if promise to protect from domineering queen when finds out.”

“Ok!”

The Third Daughter happily accepted and then instructed her workers to deliver some honey to the stingless queen’s hive. The stingless queen didn’t seem to fully understand the hive of hives but that was ok! Queen mother and queen mother’s queen mother warned her that would happen! So, she’d follow their advice!

She’d just have to show them what the hive of hives could do!

And so, the Third Daughter recruited the first member of a new hive of hives…