The Bee Dungeon

Metsaitti stood before the shrine, specifically the God of Fire’s brazier. He knelt before it and placed the hide and butchered meat of a wolf-mole within, then broke off a small chunk of the fire honey and tossed that on top of the rest. The burning honey immediately caught fire, causing the flame to flare up and consume the meat and hide. Even the fireproof wax began to melt in the heat of the divine blaze. Metsaitti bowed his head.

“Let your fire come down upon me and find me worthy.”

The fire flared out, singing his face slightly. With that, Metsaitti rose. He walked up the slight incline back towards the karnuq settlement, carrying the tray of burning honey in his hands, ignoring the heat building in his palms. Chief Rohsuak was standing in front of a newly erected structure made purely of stone, with several holes arranged around bottom of the walls and a large one in the center of the roof, while much of the rest of the clan gathered around it. Even the Tower Keeper and his ever-present bee companions stood off to the side, observing the proceedings. Fire began to spill out from the chief’s mana, wrapping around her body and lifting her hair. Smoke drifted out of her mouth.

“Are you ready to walk through fire and smoke, to embrace the God of Fire with your very flesh?”

Metsaitti held her gaze.

“I am.”

Chief Rohsuak nodded and stepped to the side.

“Then enter, and let your trial begin.”

Metsaitti nodded. He stepped inside and then disrobed, handing his clothes to a karnuq waiting outside the door. Then, he took the tray of honey and stepped into the center of the room. He knelt down and took a deep breath.

Then he began to consume the honeycomb as quickly as he could. Immediately, pain surged through his mouth, blocking out even the delicious taste of the honey. His tongue was numb after the first few bites, his throat burned as the honey slowly made its way to his stomach. Even from the very start, fire mana lashed out from the honey, spreading beyond his mouth and throat to his head and his neck.

Soon, tears and sweat mingled together, stinging his eyes and blurring his vision. His entire torso was on fire as the fire mana passed through his chest and his stomach. His hands trembled as he felt his skin and fur scorching, but still he forced them to lift more honey to his mouth. He was barely shy of halfway through the flames.

He was lifting the tray once more with his trembling arms when the honey hit his stomach proper and a new wave of fire mana surged through his being. He gasped as the mana raced through his body, feeling as though every inch was set a blaze. From the tip of his head down to the end of his toes the fire raged.

He tried to endure it. He vaguely remembered the chief’s words and tried to embrace it. But that only caused the pain to increase by an order of magnitude. Metsaitti was out of his depth. He had been to the Sacred Den of Fire and prayed before the Shrine of Fire, yes. But back then he had been neither particularly zealous nor strong. His blessing was a generic one, with no particular connection to fire besides the shrine where it was granted. He, therefore, had no particular affinity for, or resistance to, fire. In this trial, he was no stronger than any other.

He collapsed to the ground as the fire rampaged through his body unchecked.

Niobee watched as the King gasped.

“That…doesn’t seem good. S-Shouldn’t Chief Rohsuak do something about now?”

The karnuq’s queen didn’t move, however, though she was frowning and grinding her teeth. Niobee turned her own sight to the karnuq in the building. He was trying to absorb the fire like the Third of the Sixth once did, but he was not curled up inside a sealed cell where he could allow his body to break down and rebuild himself, nor within a hive where his sisters and children’s mana would flow around him. No, he was trying to do this alone, without changing his form at all. The Third of the Sixth had barely managed to pull it off, adapting to the fire mana just slightly faster than it could burn her. Niobee’s judgement was that…the karnuq had little chance of doing the same.

So, she helped. She started to dance and shift the mana of the Tower, directing it towards the faltering karnuq. It wrapped around him; it showed his mana how to adapt like the Third of the Sixth had. It encouraged him to let go of his form and allow the mana to act in ways other than burning him alive. It supported him in lieu of a hive. The King valued this karnuq, and the karnuq had fought well in defense of the hive of hives. Niobee would not allow him to fall.

But, unlike with the Third of the Sixth, it was not enough. The karnuq still could not let go of his form like a bee in a cell could. He was still trying to fight alone, and not accepting the mana of a hive. And…he was not a bee. He did not fit the mana of the Tower as well as the bees and so Niobee could not offer the same level of support. Most notably, the property of the Tower’s mana to help bees resist fire did not apply to the karnuq.

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Niobee tried to make up the difference by directing even more of the Tower’s mana in support…but then she ran into a problem. She had bent the natural flows of the Tower’s mana as far as they would go. To direct any more would take a more intentional effort. It would require effort. It would require permission.

It would require the King.

Belissar ground his teeth and wrung his hands. He watched with Tower sight…and it was not going well. Metsaitti appeared to be suffering…maybe even dying. And yet, Chief Rohsuak was not moving to respond. He saw her clench her fist, trembling ever so slightly. He heard her whisper to herself.

“Come on, Metsaitti. Please…”

Belissar was about to ask her what was going on when Niobee suddenly began a frantic dance to his side.

“King! Want to help karnuq?! Need King’s permission!”

Belissar blinked as he turned to Niobee. He noticed, then, the flows of the Towers mana surging through Niobee and towards the hut, as well as a message from the Tower starting to appear before his eyes. But he shook his head before he got too confused or overwhelmed. Time was of the essence.

“Yes! If we can help him, then let’s help! However we can!”

“Ok, will!”

The flow of mana through Niobee exploded and grew several times in size, pouring down into the hut and the karnuq within. Belissar could only help that whatever Niobee was trying would work…

Metsaitti ground his teeth and tried desperately to regain control over his body. But every time he did, a new wave of pain surged through him and drove all thoughts out of his mind. He knew there was a reason so few karnuq had ever been blessed to the level the chief was, but even he was not prepared for this level of pain.

But, just as the pain nearly knocked him unconscious, a small beacon of light broke through his perception. He just managed to notice the words appearing in sight, trying to grab his attention.

Accept improved dungeon bond?

Metsaitti didn’t have the presence of mind to consider the meaning of the words. All he knew was that someone was reaching out to him…and so he grabbed onto the lifeline.

Another stream of mana began to pour into him, this one yellow and buzzing though with hints of fire as well. It healed and soothed his burning body. It wrapped around the flames and his own mana and brought them together. It brought images to his mind.

He saw his exterior body melt down and rearrange around his interior structure before rebuilding his body piece by piece. That…frightened him far more than burning to death. But then he saw something else. Images of an injured bee with lightning surging through and burning her body. He watched as she endured the lightning, then adapted to it, then harnessed it for herself until it became a part of her own body.

He decided to try that one.

He no longer tried to resist the flames, or grab hold of them. Instead, he tried to flare his mana along with the fire as the bee had done with the lightning. The mana pouring into him attempted to assist with this, guiding him like a karnuq parent holding the hand of a cub walking for the first time. When the next surge of pain came, he surged his mana with it. He gritted he teeth again as he nearly loss consciousness, but the mana held him in the present. Bit by bit, his mana harmonized with the flames, following their burning path through his body.

And then, he moved his mana…and the flames moved with them. Just a bit, just a tad. He couldn’t control the flames…but, ever so slightly, he could guide them. Move them away from a part of his body in great pain to one already numbed. Or even out of his body entirely.

He chose not to do this. To survive was not the point of this. So, instead, he concentrated the flames where they hurt less, just enough for him to think and act once more.

And then he began to eat the rest of the honey.

Pain surged through his mouth and throat and stomach once more, but this time he was ready for it. He flared his mana along with it and guided it across his body, spreading it out so that his entire body could share the pain. He even found that he could move some of the fire outside of his body temporarily before pulling it back inside, allowing him to push it aside whenever the big waves of pain came so that it never overwhelmed him entirely.

Outside, Chief Rohsuak stopped clenching her fist. She blinked, and then she slowly began to smile.

“Yes, that’s it. Keep it up.”

She then stepped over and knelt by one of the holes at the bottom of the hut. She took a deep breath.

Then she burst into flames…and sent them pouring into the hole.

Flames filled the room and surrounded Metsaitti, scorching his skin and hair. But he found he could treat these flames no differently from the ones inside his body. Rather than letting them burn him, he pulled them inside of himself, into the fires already rampaging within, before pushing them out again, letting the fire flowing out of him shield him from the fire all around him.

It still hurt worse than anything Metsaitti had every experienced…but he could handle it. No, more than handle it. He started to be able to direct the flames, to control what part of his body he emitted it from. And once he did, he started to feel…wrong. It was wrong to just burst the flames out in all direction.

He restricted the flames inside his body and searched for where it felt best. He concentrated the flames on his back, by his shoulders, and began emitting the fires there. The flames shout out from his shoulders and down his back before being pulled back within him. But that felt wrong too. Rather than surging them out and pulling them back in, he started to curve the flames, so they flowed out in one direction. They flowed out, and then they flowed back in, forming a complete circuit.

And once they did, the flow began to stabilize and take shape. The fire stopped surging at random points, settling down into a steady blaze. He finally started to feel…right again.

He nodded and then looked down to take another bite of the honeycomb…only to find an empty stone tray.

Which meant…he had done it.

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