The Bee Dungeon

When they had finally run out of ideas, Henilett put away her quill and rolled up her scroll.

“Very well, I shall take this proposal to Her Majesty Queen Vanieskon. We’ll send additional correspondence through the Circle masters until we confirm the final deal.”

Belissar just nodded. It had been a long day of dealing with contracts and Compacts. Henilett let out an exhausted sigh herself.

“Thank you for your time, Tower Keeper Belissar. It has been quite the long day, so I’ll let you go now. I’m quite parched myself…”

Belissar nodded. Henilett stared at him…and kept staring. Belissar tilted his head. Chief Rohsuak chuckled.

“Perhaps we could use some refreshments before we finish up, Tower Keeper?”

Belissar nodded.

“Oh, sure. You want some too, everyone?”

Henilett made a bright smile.

“I would be most grateful!”

Belissar thought for a second, then rose to his feet.

“Got it. Then…how about a herbal infusion, if Juosiutik has any other than the sleepy chamomile? I can provide some honey”

Chief Rohsuak confirmed as much. Belissar sent word to Juosiutik before leaving to visit the Apiary farmhouse. Given that Henilett was an important pixie of some sort and seemed to be helping out, Belissar decided to bring out a bit of the swirled honey for her.

Shortly thereafter, Henilett grinned as she held a mug as big as herself, full of a steaming herbal infusion with a generous spoonful of swirled honey.

“Thank you very much!”

She lifted the entire mug and took a swig…then quickly had to put the mug down as she began reacting the same way as Princess Finnakynne had. When she came to herself, she hovered over the mug, staring at it with wide eyes.

“I thought I was prepared…but I don’t think it is possible

Belissar smiled at that.

Henilett departed shortly thereafter. Belissar wanted to go and prepare for the daily purification…but he had one last thing to discuss with the Circle masters before they left. He turned to Nenavann and crossed his arms.

“So…can we trust her? And that Queen Vanieskon? I thought I wasn’t supposed to trust the pixies…”

Nenavann hummed for a bit before he replied.

“It is never a good idea to blindly trust the pixies even if they are helping you…but, in this case, I actually think you can.”

Tarwantrad started and then gaped at Nenavann.

“Nenavann, are you serious?”

Nenavann nodded.

“I am. Queen Vanieskon spoke with me prior to the latest discussion with the signatories. Do you know what she asked?”

Belissar tilted his head.

“Was it about the honey?”

Nenavann shook his head.

“She asked about your defenses.”

Belissar blinked…and soon began to frown. Tarwantrad started to glare and then asked the question that was stirring in Belissar’s own mind.

“Nenavann…is she planning something?”

But Nenavann shook his head.

“She is not interested in your defenses facing the nexus door and the Compact. Rather, she wanted to know about the methods you use against the Hunger and how they compare to ours. She wanted to know if I believe you can survive out here, where you are exposed to the Hunger with no wards to protect you, and how you would manage such a feat.”

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Nenavann glanced around, making eye contact with Belissar, Tarwantrad, and Tamosmed in turn.

“I believe Queen Vanieskon will help you regarding the Compact, for one reason above all. She has not forgotten who the true enemy of the fair is…”

Queen Vanieskon nodded as she finished reviewing Henilett’s scrolls. It was late at night, by that point most of the other pixies had already gone to sleep.

“Is that all? This Belissar is quite modest for a human, especially given that the Compact nearly pushed him to breaking off relations.”

Henilett giggled.

“I had to encourage him to even get that much, Your Majesty.”

Henilett then furrowed her brow.

“I must ask, Your Majesty, do you truly intend to just…give the human what he wants? He is but a child and his only Council is Nenavann and the Circle. If you commanded it, I believe I could have him sending us honey day and night.”

Queen Vanieskon raised an eyebrow.

“Are you questioning my decision, Henilett?”

Henilett just smiled.

“Please don’t tease me, Your Majesty. You know I would never.”

Queen Vanieskon eyed her for a moment before licking her lips.

“That honey is truly…divine. The human, the dungeon, and the bees that produce it are all treasures. We must do all in our power to preserve them and enable them to devote as much of themselves to honey as is possible. That much is true, and worth our support on its own.”

Henilett nodded…but also furrowed her brow.

“But that is not the only reason?”

Queen Vanieskon let out a sigh…and then rose to her feet. Henilett fell silent as the pixie queen stepped down from her throne. Queen Vanieskon waved her hand and the trees above them moved their branches, revealing the night sky. Queen Vanieskon stared up at the moon as she spoke a soft whisper.

“Tell me, Henilett, do you remember the mortal realms?”

Henilett frowned and looked up to stare at the night sky as well. It took her a minute before she replied in a whisper of her own.

“…I do. I remember how we danced under a moon just like this one. We’d awaken to the dew dripping on our heads, then we’d fly off to frolick with the bees and the butterflies and drink nectar directly from the flowers like they did. We would dance through the fields of the mortals, sample their fare, and play with their children. We’d leave our blessings on those that were polite and play our tricks on those who were grumpy, no matter who they were.”

Queen Vanieskon nodded, though she kept her eyes fixed on the sky above.

“I do as well. I remember all of it. I remember the times when we flew unrestrained through the world. I remember when even the gods deigned to walk the surface in person…”

A soft glow enveloped the pixie queen and she began to shrink. Soon, she flew in the sky with her wings, now the same size as Henilett. She looked down at her hands and waved one about, creating sparkling lights like stars in its wake.

“Back then, there was no living thing I could not captivate. Human and fair, man and woman, monster and beast alike would all dance to my song. We have living proof that not even the gods were unaffected by my charms.”

She then grimaced and clenched her fists. The lights she had created all went dark at once.

“But there is one foe who would not be manipulated. The only one that ever rendered me completely powerless.”

Henilett glared down at the ground.

“The Hunger…”

Queen Vanieskon nodded.

“And not just me, all of us, everyone. No lore, power, or craft possessed by any of the fair managed to stop it. The human kingdoms collapsed, their mage-kings and their endless hybrid armies destroyed in an instant. The mighty giants tumbled to the ground. The proud dragons fell from the skies. Elder monsters from primordial times were devoured. The leviathans of the depths, the guardians of the ancient forests, the creatures of the deep caverns, every fair and foul thing dwelling in every corner of the world failed before this enemy. We could do nothing but flee…and not even that saved us. None of us would have survived if not for the intervention of the gods…and even they now fear to walk the surface. For over a thousand years, it was all we could do to keep the door shut.”

She looked up and met Henilett’s gaze. Henilett looked into her queen’s eyes…and saw them focus in a way they had not in centuries.

“But no longer. From what this Belissar tells us and from what the Circle has observed him doing, we’ve been using the dungeons all wrong. By tying them to the wards we managed to hold the Hunger back…but that was all. The humans have not only managed to survive…they’ve managed to push back. They are reclaiming the world from the Hunger.”

Henilett’s eyes widened.

“And thanks to this human…now we can too.”

Queen Vanieskon nodded and made a small smile.

“And there is nothing worth more than that.”

She returned to her larger size and strolled back to her throne. She sighed as she sat back down upon it.

“The Forgemaster and the other signatories are still caught up in their fear of the Hunger and the humans who unleashed it. They cannot believe that a human can or would find a way to push back the Hunger when we could not. They believe the human’s survival to be a fluke, an anomaly, one that will soon collapse and drag us with it. We, too, believed that, until it was proven that this human has done things we never dreamt of.”

Henilett nodded and licked her lips, having tasted those things just earlier today. Queen Vanieskon raised an eyebrow but continued anyways.

“Tower Keeper Belissar now holds the key to our future, the means with which we can finally strike a blow to the Hunger itself. And in our fear, we’ve nearly burned our bridge with him already. So, we shall do whatever we must to gain this human’s trust, no matter what the other signatories think.”

She narrowed her eyes and allowed her usually carefully controlled mana to flare past her glamour. Her eyes began to glow as the air distorted around her.

“And if anyone, whether fair, beast, human, or Hunger, attempts to take this future from us, then they shall feel my wrath.”