The Bee Dungeon

The Fourth of the Seventh stood with her eyes fixed upon the scouts before her. There were two groups giving their reports. One group was the first wave back from the new room, here to report the initial findings while more of their number combed the area in detail. The other was the group assigned to find the Flower Meadow, who had flown far and fast while trying to relocate the path. The tale the two groups danced together was truly astonishing.

The King had created an entirely new room in between the Apiary and the Flower Meadow. This room was filled to the brim not with small flowers, but with massive trees, their canopies filled with gorgeous flowers and ripe fruits. The Flower Meadow and the Apiary had the occasional tree, but the scouts reported the sight was unlike anything they had seen in the King’s domain before. A field of flowers not on the ground below but in the skies above.

The Fourth of the Seventh wanted to see it for herself but put her own desires aside. Her first soldiers had just hatched, and she now could put her plans into motion. She desired to participate in the weaving of plant strands she had seen the King perform, and now that she had bees large enough to gather and transport them. She needed, therefore, to focus on the management of her hive and ensure said project could proceed nicely and without disrupting normal work. She would need to work extra hard at this now, in fact. With a new room between her hive in the Apiary and the Flower Meadow flowers she was granted access to, her foragers had a much longer trip. She would need many more foragers to keep up the same honey surplus as she had before…

Suddenly, the Fourth of the Seventh’s thoughts stopped entirely.

She had an idea.

A simple, incredible idea.

Rather than adding a bunch of foragers to maintain a long gathering route, which would in turn require more honey themselves and thus require even more foragers to achieve the same honey surplus, why didn’t she just move the hive closer? She had already done so once before, and making the route shorter was far more efficient than trying to fix the extended supply line. For example…why didn’t she move her hive into the brand new, apparently amazing room the King had built? Wouldn’t that be the most efficient option of all? Not only would that shorten her foragers trip to the Flower Meadow, it would also give her hive access to an abundance of brand new flowers from the new room.

Her workers had grown worried at her lack of movement and were buzzing around her, trying to get her back to work when she suddenly exploded into a dance. She called for a general assembly of the hive. Her workers reluctantly began to gather.

Once they had, she began a passionate explanation of her plan to move the hive. And her workers…just stood still. One slowly began to dance.

“Inefficient.”

“Unnecessary.”

One of the workers who often followed her around danced rapidly.

“Queen just want to escape, see new things.”

The Fourth of the Seventh glanced away for a moment before beginning a slow response.

“…yes. Want to see. Only see, not escape! But, not only reason. Flowers we gather are far away. New room has new flowers, and closer to current areas. Lots of work now, but will make gathering more efficient. Need more honey to feed soldiers, efficient gathering will help.”

The worker stared at her for a while but this time the Fourth of the Seventh held her gaze. The worker reluctantly began to dance.

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“Seems…right? Suspicious.”

But one of the scouts then began to dance.

“Have seen new room. Flowers incredible. Queen has good idea.”

The other scouts began to dance their assent and the workers of the hive began to ponder this. One by one, they began to agree, until the suspicious worker was the only hold-out. She, too, began to dance slowly.

“Ok. But ask Conduit first.”

The Fourth of the Seventh danced happily.

“Yes! Of course!”

The workers dispersed to begin preparing the hive for a move, while the scouts headed out to begin evaluating possible locations in the new room. The Fourth of the Seventh moved about, sending a messenger to the Conduit. This was, of course, premised on the King’s own plans for the room, but he hadn’t had a problem with her moving before so the Fourth of the Seventh was hopeful. Her dreams would come true, she would be able to see new sights for herself while still fulfilling her duties to the hive!

And then she paused as another thought passed her mind.

Wasn’t she supposed to be the queen? So, why did she need her workers' permission again?

She pondered this as the worker who followed her gave commands to the rest of the workers and arranged the move…

The First of the Fifth listened to the reports from her own scouts and discovered too the new room that the King had created. An abundant land with brand new flowers that grew on trees, and that formed into fruits so large only the King could consume them.

This gave her pause. She very much desired nectar from these new flowers, for who knew what sort of honeys she could produce from them? After all, shouldn’t she, the producer of both the most and best honey of all the hives, be the first after the King to drink of his latest flowers? She very much wished to order a foraging mission immediately.

But there was a problem this time around. Her hive was nearly overextended at the moment. Her bees needed to clear the hive of the mixed healing herb honey she had created, which while suitable for the soldier bee army was not nearly of a quality she would dare serve to the King. They then needed to rebuild her stockpiles of top quality honey and resuming providing for the King’s table. They also needed to create new stocks of non-blended healing herb honey, as was as mad honey. She, too, was aware that a new type of soldier bee was now available and presumed that the Firstborn would be moving immediately to raise some, so she could not suddenly cut the agreed-upon donations. Even if the Firstborn had deceived her and then failed in her own mission, the First of the Fifth would not deign to be seen reneging on her own word. She was above such a blunt refusal. On top of all that, her workers were now experimenting with the new gathering method provided by the King and trialing the production of blended honey.

So, to gather, produce, trial, sort, and refine a new type of honey from flowers in another room was one job too many. She would have to make compromises elsewhere if she wished to do so, and the First of the Fifth never compromised when it came to her honey.

But what then? If she waited until she could expand her worker force, another queen might move upon the new fields and lay claim to them. The First of the Fifth had no wish to conduct another negotiation, not after she had been swindled by the first. She also needed to consider the possibility of the King creating new spawners and new queens being born…

Her thoughts came to halt. She had it. She had the solution.

Her hive was not sufficiently large enough for the task. But her hive was not a mere hive anymore. Hers was a hive of hives. A new queen had already been born.

Her own daughter.

The First of the Fifth commanded that word be sent to her daughter. If her daughter were to move to this new room, she could lay claim to it in the name of the First of the Fifth. The First of the Fifth could even requisition her daughter’s workers to deliver the new nectar directly to her own hive. She would, of course, pay her daughter for the effort, for she was not so crude as to steal from her own kin, but the terms would be far more favorable than if she had to negotiate with a separate queen.

And if the King planned to create a new spawner to populate the new room, then the First of the Fifth could assist him! Her daughter would represent an established, experienced queen who could help lead and guide the new queens as they began setting up. It would give her a chance to assist the King directly…while also ensuring that the new queens found their proper place in the hive of hives under the watch of her, the most favored queen, and not any of those who had failed.

The First of the Fifth returned to her work, satisfied that she had found a solution.

Later, she heard the Fourth of the Seventh was moving to the new room as well, but that was fine. The Fourth of the Seventh had an agreement with her and had even helped her daughter out of her own initiative, so the First of the Fifth was confident the move wouldn’t interfere with her own plans. No, since the Fourth of the Seventh was already working under her, this was even better! All was going in the most favored queen’s way…

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