The Bee Dungeon

The next day, Belissar spoke with the First of the Fifth and the Apiary queens on upgrading their beehouses into bee apartments. While they decided the general structure was fine, the First of the Fifth pointed out numerous small optimizations that would assist with better honey production. Multiple entrances so that foragers coming and going wouldn’t get in each other’s way, isolated trays for honey that could impact its surroundings like burning mana honey, slight rearrangements for better airflow, and other such improvements. Belissar took all of this into account and, once the structure had been fully planned out, began the construction work.

He actually had the DP to just upgrade the beehouses outright but decided to build them himself. Since they had wood trees in the Orchard and the Flower Meadow queens wanted to help with construction anyways, there was not point in spending extra DP cutting down on resources and effort. Besides, he also enjoyed having a personal hand in the bees’ abode. It made them happy and it was the least he could do given all they were doing for him.

There was a question on the digging queen and burning queen’s hives, seeing as they were dug into the ground instead of wooden structures, but the digging queen herself provided the solution. Her workers, as per their name, were quite good at digging, so they could easily expand the subterranean hives. Belissar would just need to provide them with additional frames and maybe an extra entrance or two and they could handle the rest. The queen offered to do so for the Third of the Sixth’s hive as well but both Belissar and the Third of the Sixth decided to wait. After all, he had plans for the future regarding her abode, so they both agreed to wait until Belissar could build his envisioned volcano room before making major expansions to her hive.

And so, Belissar set off on his task for the coming days or weeks until his Tower would be ready for the next expansion…

It was not so, however, for one of the queens at the meeting with him. The Fourth Queen of the First Dynasty of the Eight Spawner, the first of her line, had the dubious distinction of being the last queen spawned in the Apiary. She had even been the lastborn in all of the King’s realm until the King had raised the bumblebee queens.

But that had been little comfort for her. The bumblebee queens were an entirely different species from the rest of them…and even now, they had begun to grow at a rapid pace. They were already larger than her at this point and showed no signs of slowing down. They, unlike her, appeared to possess a unique advantage.

Which left her, once again, as the least remarkable of the King’s queens. Born last, the slowest to grow, the slowest to expand. The queen who lived furthest from the King in the Apiary, born too late to even participate when the prime territory was claimed. The queen least likely to receive a magical palace. The queen who, even after receiving a magical palace, still lagged behind the others.

And that was a problem, for she was about to be left behind once again.

The First of the Fifth went without saying, an existence beyond anything she could ever hope to achieve. The Fourth of the Seventh had set out and claimed an entire room to her name. The Second of the Sixth and others had now set themselves apart by evolving on the honey of special flowers, and received entire patches of flowers to themselves from the King as a result. The Third of the Sixth was going to receive an entire room like the Fourth of the Seventh.

New flowers had grown and were now available, but the Fourth of the Eighth would never reach them. The First of the Fifth assigned them out in order of productivity, granting them to the queens who donated most during the daily honey deliveries to the Flower Meadow. The Fourth of the Eight and her children worked as hard as they could, but so did all the others, and so her contributions always fell short of theirs. She would be the last to gain exclusive access to a special flower, if ever.

And now the King was expanding their hives, which would lead to an explosion of growth. The First of the Fifth and the other highly successful queens would form huge joint hives with their children, doubling or more in size and productivity nearly overnight. The queens of more middling success had gathered together and come up with a plan to respond: they would, like the Fourth of the Seventh and the First of the Fifth’s first daughter, join their hives together, which would allow them to compete.

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None of them had invited the Fourth of the Eight to participate, of course.

So, for her the expansion would just be herself and however many queens she could raise. Which wasn’t many, she needed donations from the First of the Fifth to even participate in the expansion in the first place. Which, of course, would likely cause the First of the Fifth to write her off completely when it came to acquiring special plants. So, she would have nothing to set herself apart, and her hive just didn’t have the bee-power to keep up with either the powerful single queens or the newly forming joint hives.

Well, if that happened it happened. She was grateful that she was even allowed to participate in the expansion, so she couldn’t particularly complain if she wasn’t in a position to take advantage of it. And, as the lastborn, she was more than used to her own circumstances. At first, she had completely accepted her place in the world.

That had changed, though. The Fourth of the Seventh was once a queen in the very same position as herself. All it had taken was one set of flowers from the First of the Fifth to completely change the trajectory of her hive. And now, the Fourth of the Seventh was spoken of in the same vein as the Firstborn and the First of the Fifth, one of the great queens who ruled over the others. The Third of the Sixth was now set to do so as well after having spent so long as one of the queens without palaces like her. So now…now the Fourth of the Eight couldn’t help but imagine what could be. Couldn’t help but wonder if there was any way she might be able to change her fate. Anyway she might be able to set herself apart from the others and become more than just the lastborn.

The obvious way to do so were the special flowers, but she couldn’t think of any way to gain access to them. She needed the flowers to set herself apart, but she needed to set herself apart for the First of the Fifth to grant her the flowers. If only there was some way she could acquire special honey without the flowers…

She froze. Because…she now remembered that there was. The King, mighty and miraculous as he was, could create honey out of nothing but mana. He required no flowers and no nectar to do so. And while acquiring honey from the King himself was not something she could even imagine happening, he was not the only one who could do so. He was not the only one who had learned such a secret.

Before she knew it, the Fourth of the Eight was beating her wings and rising into the air. It was a long shot and required her to make an incredibly insolent request. And yet…it was a chance to change the course of her hive. Maybe her only chance. So, before she knew it, she was flying towards the exit of the Apiary. ℞Ä𐌽ο฿Ёs̈

Beero was about to start another training session with the other wounded soldiers when one of them began dancing, signaling that someone was approaching her. Beero turned around and her antennae began to twitch. One of the queens was approaching her, and not one she recognized from the Flower Meadow.

“Hello, am Fourth of the Eight from the Apiary.”

“Hello, am Beero. How can help?”

The Fourth of the Eight slowly landed on the ground with her antennae twitching. Her wings buzzed a bit and she fidgeted in place, but, eventually, she began to dance.

“…have…request.”

“Ok, what request?”

The Fourth of the Eight paused…and then began to dance rapidly with her wings beating.

“Beero can make magic honey, right? And can make tiny-lightnings? Can make honey with tiny-lightnings? If so, can get some? Know it’s bad to ask for but could really, really use. Just a little bit, just enough for a worker. Will give honey in exchange, as much as can. Will help however can.”

The queen was dancing so rapidly Beero barely managed to catch what she was saying. But once she had processed what was going on…Beero froze.

That…was right, wasn’t it? She could make honey now. She had been so focused on trying to get back into the fight that she had forgotten about that. Hadn’t she already seen some of her sisters evolve into maddening soldiers by drinking special honey? That…probably would have been a better way to give her comrades lightning than zapping them and hoping they’d endure.

But what was done was done and they had all endured as well as she had, so Beero put that aside and considered the Fourth of the Eight’s request. She needed only a moment to decide.

“Yes, can make honey with tiny lightnings. Will give as much as can make.”

There was no question at all. Beero had been supported by her own hive when there was nothing she could do at all. Even before she was injured she had relied on the workers for her meals, and afterwards she had been fed vast amounts of honey when she could neither work for nor protect the hive of hives. So, now that she could now do both, and a member of the hive of hives was asking for her help, she would never even consider turning them down. Indeed, it would be her honor to now provide honey for the workers as they had always done for her.

The Fourth of the Eight suddenly stopped her dance and stared at her.

“Wait…what? Really? Really will give?!”

Beero danced a salute.

“Of course! All bees help hive of hives, however can!”

So today, instead of practicing their lightning sting, Beero led the wounded soldiers in the honey creating spell. And the Fourth of the Eight began to hope that maybe, just maybe, she might become more than the lastborn after all…

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