The Bee Dungeon

The Fourth of the Seventh zipped up and down the tree. She flew right up to one of the apples, the bright red fruit as large as her torso. She brushed her antenna against one of the pink and white flowers. She took it in with all her senses, memorizing its colors with her eyes, its scent with her antenna, its touch with her legs, and even the charge of the petals that changed if she brushed her legs and wings together to make tiny-lightnings. She unfolded her probiscis and drank directly from the flower’s nectar, dancing about at the sweet taste she had never experienced before.

One of her workers watched from a polite distance, swaying back and forth. She wanted to get moving, but she did not approach her queen. Her queen was unlike any other in that she wished to see the world outside of the safety of her hive, much to the chagrin of all of her children. But, it was the workers’ duty to see their queen’s will fulfilled. Their queen knew her role and her importance, and so held back her desire to see the world. The workers wished that she could do as she pleased, even as much as they wished she would remain safely within the hive. So, the workers let her fly about while they moved the hive, and even act like a worker would. It was the least they could do, since her role would prevent her from doing so under normal circumstances.

The worker thus ignored her instinct to pull her queen to safety and glanced back at the rest of her siblings. The move was well underway, with countless workers carrying single wax cells filled with honey or with the brood. The worker flew over and danced a command to a group of scouts, sending them to assist a group of workers that were falling behind. Normally, this would be the role of the queen, but the worker did not wish to interrupt her in the moment of her joy. And well, at this point she was used to it. It wasn’t the first time she had taken care of details on behalf of her queen.

Their hive was a bit unique in that regard, in that the workers were left to their own devices to an even greater extent than the other hives. They didn’t have the rigid and efficient discipline the First of the Fifth’s hive did, nor the urgent energy the workers supporting the Firstborn’s army strove with. Instead, they had grown used to taking matters into their own hands and organizing themselves, leaving their queen free to do…whatever it is she chose to, within reason.

For example, raising soldiers.

The worker glanced over as the two soldiers that had recently hatched carried larger pieces of comb. The worker still didn’t fully understand her queen’s intention with those, since their hive did not participate in the grand war, but at present their bulk and strength was proving invaluable. One of them was even carrying the Daughter of the First of the Fifth on her back, since the young queen grew exhausted by the trip.

It was moments like these that the worker was reminded why she was not queen. For monster bees like them, the queen was more than just the mother of the brood. She was larger, stronger, and more intelligent than any of the rest of them. She could see the world in a way that they couldn’t. She could think thoughts that never crossed their minds. And more than that…she connected them. Each of them had a bond with her through which mana…and more…flowed. She elevated them all and they, in turn, acted as the implements of her will. For monster bees, the queen truly was the heart of the hive.

The queen could, therefore, see further and more than the normal worker could. Even this worker, who had taken on many duties beyond her instinctual tasks, generally saw the world through her instincts. She saw flowers and predicted whether or not they would produce good nectar. She saw the brood and felt the urge to check them for healthy growth and illness. She saw the hive and sought to ensure its security.

Not the queen. She saw the world and saw possibility. That was why she was so excited to go and see more of it, even though every instinct in the worker’s body told her to keep the queen secure and safe.

But…the worker only needed to look out at the sight before her eyes to understand the value of the queen’s perspective. Countless trees as far as her eyes could see, creating a field of flowers above their heads. An abundance that filled her with the urge to fly to the flowers, and to report the location to the rest of her sisters, even though she knew they were currently flying with her. And not a rival bee in sight, save for the ones travelling along side them. Had the queen not pushed them for this move, they wouldn’t have had access to even a fraction of the resources now stretching out before them. Their hive could grow exponentially once this move was completed.

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And to think she, along with most of her sisters, had thought this move was unnecessary. Inefficient. She now saw with her own eyes that she had been overwhelmingly wrong.

That was why she took on some of her queen’s duties without complaint. That was why she and the workers strove to let the queen indulge her desires as much as she could. And that was why she now assisted a rival queen without complaint. She had no doubt that, once again, the queen had seen something that she had not.

So she turned away from the flowers and her queen and continued to manage the flight of the hive. The queen was doing what only she could, so the worker would do all the rest.

But even the worker herself froze at the sight ahead of her once the group had arrived at their destination. There was a mighty grove of trees, tightly packed together in a location that would give them ready access to the Flower Meadow while remaining out of the immediate path. Their canopies overlapped and interweaved in a way that would be perfect to support an elevated hive. Massive hidden caverns guarded the ground approach while honey traps would surprise any aerial invaders. And, above all, there was a patch of mana flowers in the center of the grove, a treasure previously reserved only for the greatest and most powerful of the hives. The likes of the Firstborn, the eldest of the living queens and commander of the mightiest army, and the First of the Fifth, the largest and richest of the hives whose honey fed the King himself.

And most of all, this entire grove had not existed according the most recent report by the scouts. It, therefore, must have grown entirely within the past hour, for the worker did not believe her sisters would have managed to miss such a perfect location. The worker began to tremble at the implications.

This could only have been the work of the King. He had taken notice of their move and had prepared a perfect location for their arrival.

The King was an existence beyond her. If the queen could see things beyond a normal worker’s vision, then the King saw things beyond a queen’s wildest imagination. He built the world by hand, he created trees and flowers like a worker molded wax. He laid the spawners from which the queens came. Only the wisest and mightiest of the queens would dare to interact with him. As for a worker like her…only the Conduit could approach him, and that was if they considered an existence like the Conduit to be equivalent to a worker based solely on their previously shared external form.

And now, his attention was on her hive specifically, and he was moving personally to assist them. The worker trembled at the foresight of her queen. What she and her sisters thought was an unnecessary, inefficient move, the King approved of and changed the land itself to support. What they thought was the queen’s attempt to indulge her desires proved to be part of the King’s grand design.

Only truly great queens like the Firstborn and the First of the Fifth were worthy of such attention. Or so the worker had accepted as fact. Until now.

This was why, for all of the authority their queen conceded to them, she would ultimately remain queen. The worker once again thanked her queen and resolved to expand the freedoms afforded her, even if it went against her instincts. She could not possibly have come up with the decision that her queen had, nor earned the personal support of the King himself.

As such…she did not move to fetch her queen now that they had arrived on the site. Instead…she began to instruct her stunned sisters. They looked at her warily, but then slowly agreed with her dancing. The workers, therefore, began to set up their new hive…without waiting for the presence and instruction of their queen. They would do anything and everything that they could, so that their queen could do that which only she could.

And then the worker flew over to the Daughter of the First of the Fifth and requested her instructions. The queen hesitated to respond, but the worker insisted that her queen had instructed them to assist. Slowly, the queen began to dance, asking to set up her hive right next to their own. The worker agreed and started giving out commands to that regard. Workers from both hives began to mold wax in the boughs of the grove.

The worker knew not what would result from cooperating with a rival hive like this. And that was why she knew she needed to do it. All for the queen.

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