The Bee Dungeon

The First of the Fourth’s gardener landed by her moving flower as she usually did. The flower had grown well in the water and mana rich environment, which the gardener had supplemented with mana of her own. It was now bigger than her, or even a soldier bee, and too large for her to carry on her own. Fortunately, it was perfectly happy in its present environment. It reacted to her presence, reaching out its vine branches to wrap around her before she even landed and guiding her to its newly bloomed flower. It was careful to keep her out of the way of its thorns, so she allowed herself to be caught and carried, dancing happily as she realized the flower had begun to produce pollen and nectar. Not only could the hive of hives now begin to forage nectar from her flower, she could start cross-pollinating it to see if she could raise more of them.

Soon, the hive of hives might have a wall of moving flowers who could wrap up invaders with their vines. And they wouldn’t be as careful about the thorns as this one was with her.

She couldn’t help another happy dance, which the flower responded to by wiggling its stem and branches.

It was then that one of her fellow workers came zipping in.

“Gardener! Queen mother needs you come home! King asking for you!”

The gardener froze completely as she attempted to comprehend the dance she had just witnessed.

The gardener swayed about as she was carried back to the barracks. The flower had refused to let go of her, so she had instead convinced it to walk back with her. This had the unfortunate effect of giving her plenty of time to work herself into a frenzy, pacing about and buzzing her wings.

But she couldn’t help it. By the Queen of All Bees, the King had asked for her! The Conduit had checked up with her and thanked her for raising the new flower, so she knew she had done something important. But for the King to ask not for a queen but a specific worker…that was something else. To the gardener’s knowledge, the only non-queens the King specifically acknowledged was Beero, queen of the fallen, and the Conduit herself.

The Pond wasn’t that far from the barracks, though, so she still hadn’t accepted the situation when they arrived. Her queen mother greeted her first and led her to where the King himself stood, smiling as bright as the sun. The gardener could not help but tremble.

The gardener barely managed a salute dance, and the King’s smile grew.

“That’s perfect, actually.”

The King then fell silent, leaving the gardener to tremble as she wondered what exactly was perfect. After a seemingly endless moment, the King turned towards her once more.

“What do you know about gods?”

Gods? What did she know about gods? What could she, a mere worker bee, possible know about gods? But the King had commanded and so she danced what little she did.

“Queen of All Bees leads Hive of All Bees.”

The King nodded, clearly already knowing such obvious information.

“How about the God of Flowers?”

The gardener froze. There was…a God of Flowers? A…Queen of All Flowers? Her mind went blank, but she still managed respond to the King’s command.

“Didn’t know.”

The King thought to himself once again, no doubt considering countless unknowable thoughts the likes of which she could never imagine. At this point, the Conduit got involved as well, flying over to the King and dancing before him. The gardener tried not to look, for any dance between the King and the Conduit was far beyond her. She did, however, catch glimpses. Something about requests and being honored?

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The King seemed to have made some sort of decision and nodded to the Conduit. He then turned to her with an intense gaze that bore into her very soul.

“Raising a flower as you have is something the God of Flowers approves of. Would you be willing to devote your achievement and yourself to the God of Flowers?”

The gardener’s mind fell truly silent. These were matters of the King and the gods and she couldn’t even begin to wrap her mind around them. She knew the King was requesting something of her and she longed to fulfill it. Yet, knowing herself, her limitations and her failures, she could not bring herself to salute until she knew what exactly he was asking.

At that point, the Conduit flew over to her and began to brush her antennae, spreading soothing pheromones across her. She trembled at the Conduit’s attention but at least her mind starting working again. The Conduit then began to dance.

“King asking if want to join Queen of All Flowers’ hive, work for Queen of All Flowers!”

The gardener now understood the request but was still equally confused.

“But…part of hive of hives. Have to leave hive of hives? King’s hives? Queen mother’s hive?”

The Conduit, however, danced the negative.

“Part of both! Work for Queen of All Flowers, then Queen of All Flowers helps gardener work for hive of hives! Like how hive of hives is part of Hive of All Bees!”

The gardener slowly danced an acknowledgement as she started to comprehend. That made sense. She was part of her queen mother’s hive and worked for her, but was also part of the hive of hives and worked for the King, so also working for the Hive of All Flowers seemed reasonable. She had but one other question, though.

“But…why me? Other bees better?”

The Conduit tapped on the flower she was resting on.

“Not! Gardener raised new flower, moving flower! Flower one says Queen of All Flowers likes!”

The gardener wasn’t sure about that but she did realize something. She knew now, at least vaguely, what the King was asking of her. And if the Queen of All Flowers liked raising flowers…well that was one task she had not failed in. She looked down at the flower below, still holding her in its vines. It wiggled about, opening up its flower to show her its nectar and pollen.

Indeed, this was the one deed of her life that she felt no shame about. So…whether or not she was the best bee for this task, she at the very least that she could make a reasonable effort. And as long as she had a reasonable chance of success, no bee would deny the King.

She danced a salute.

“As King commands, will do best.”

The Conduit danced happily while the King smiled at her. Even her queen mother danced.

“Proud of gardener! Fight for King!”

The gardener could not help but break out into a happy salute dance at that.

The King led the gardener and her flower to the Shrine of All Bees, and pointed out the giant flower with a container in its center.

“This is the God of Flowers’ part of the shrine. From what we know, you should offer something to the chest, then pray to the God of Flowers and offer to devote yourself to her. The offering should be something you did yourself, and preferably related to your achievement.”

The gardener danced her acknowledgement. Something she had done herself, related to her achievement? Well, there was only one thing that fit that. She looked down at the flower still holding her and danced to ask if she could have some of its pollen and nectar?

The flower responded by rubbing her into its center, coating her in pollen. She scrambled to her feet and began packing the pollen into her pollen baskets until she had a full pair of pollen pants, as much as she could carry. She then extended her proboscis down and drank deeply of the nectar, filling up her honey crop.

At this point, the flower released her and she took off into the air, flying towards the giant flower. She caught sight of the Queen of All Bees’ statue and slowly came to a halt.

Was she abandoning the Hive of All Bees to join the Hive of All Flowers? She hadn’t thought about it before, the Hive of All Bees was a given for a bee so it hadn’t even crossed her mind.

But the Queen of All Bees’ statue began to glow faintly with warm light, shining behind the gardener. She turned back to see the King and Conduit watching her, as well as her flower. Her flower swayed about unsteadily as she paused and hovered in place. She fixed her gaze on her flower, recalling the efforts it took to raise it and how she felt when it had bloomed and begun to move.

She turned back to her destination and flew forward without any further hesitation. She deposited as much of the pollen on her body she could scrape off, followed by the contents of her honey crop. She flew out of the container and landed elsewhere on the flower, beginning to dance.

“Queen of All Flowers, want to join Hive of All Flowers. Will work hard for Queen of All Flowers, please help protect hive of hives, queen mother’s hive, and flower.”

She had barely completed the final step of her dance when the giant flower suddenly burst into blinding light.

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