The Bee Dungeon

The Fourth of the Seventh zipped through the hive, bouncing off of all of the walls. Her workers had given up on calming her down at this point, even the lead worker.

Largely because the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter had joined her.

“Amazing! Incredible! Can watch workers even when in hive! King is best king!”

“Amazing! Incredible! Can talk to Fourth of Seventh even if she leaves! King is best king!”

The lead worker, however, froze solid as the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter slowed down just enough for her to comprehend the frantic dance going on. She began to tremble.

There…would be a way to contact their queen? Wherever she went?

And, to the worker’s further surprise, the Tower’s mana began to speak to her as well. It turned out the new bee type the King had spoken off was not a queen, or some modified soldier. It was a worker evolution, and concerned her directly, thus making her eligible to receive the new information herself.

Her trembling grew as she considered the implications of the new information she had received. Plans began to coalesce in her mind.

However, the hive’s surprises were not yet over…

Belissar strolled leisurely out of the Flower Meadow. However, he stopped as soon as he got to the Orchard, turning to glance at the grove where the two Orchard queens lived. He began to rub his chin.

The bigger Orchard queen’s sheer excitement at the communer bees reminded him of something. If he recalled correctly, the Orchard queens were the ones sending out scouts beyond the Tower. It had been their workers that managed to locate the shade, and enabled him to respond before tragedy struck.

He had been neglecting the world beyond his Tower, but he realized that couldn’t continue. Even if the karnuq moved inside the Tower, threats could still come from beyond. The Hunger itself would probe the exterior, and then there was the risk of visitors who were not as friendly as the karnuq. And on the more positive angle, there were opportunities he was neglecting as well. It was outside the Tower that his bees found the first mana flowers, not to mention all the plants the karnuq had brought with them. And each time he did an expansion purification, the amount of ground reclaimed from the Hunger grew, which meant both new opportunities and new exposure to danger.

It would not do for him to remain unaware of what was occurring in his own Tower’s range.

He nodded and stepped towards the grove, waving at the bees above. Shortly thereafter, the two Orchard queens came down to greet him…and continuously thanked him for the communer bees. He couldn’t help but chuckle as they kept up their dance, not pausing for even a moment.

“You’re welcome, I’m glad you like it. And, I was thinking…would it be possible to step up the scouting? Now that you have the communers, maybe set up a mini-hive where the scouts could stay so they don’t have to keep flying back and forth all the time?”

He knew the Orchard queen had moved a couple of times at this point, so he figured she would have experience in setting up and managing multiple hives at once. And with the communers, they could stay in contact with their workers at a distance, so he figured it should be possible.

The Orchard queen immediately stopped moving. She hovered in the air, barely moving save for the beating of her wings. Belissar began to frown. Maybe he had been mistaken…

And then she burst out into yet another rapid dance. She was moving so fast and frantically he could barely keep up.

“YES! WILL DO! WILL DO RIGHT AWAY! KING IS BEST KING!”

Belissar blinked at the sudden dance, but chuckled and shook his head.

“Take your time and let me know if you need anything for this.”

“OK! WILL!”

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That settled it for the Fourth of the Seventh’s lead worker. The King himself had commanded them; her queen’s dreams were now their hive’s primary mission. All efforts would need to be taken to ensure it came about.

And so, she flew to catch her dancing queen.

“Queen, need to talk.”

“OK!”

The Fourth of the Seventh continued bouncing off the walls. The lead worker waited until she approached and then landed on her back, clinging on with all her might. She slowly tapped out a dance with the leg she didn’t need to hold on.

“Queen, really need to listen. Please stop for a second.”

“Oh, ok!”

The Fourth of the Seventh finally landed on the ground, letting her worker climb off. She was staying mostly still, though she was fidgeting a lot as if she couldn’t contain herself. The lead worker quickly started her dance while she had her queen’s attention.

“King commanded, we will set up new hive in Beyond, expand scouting patrols.”

“YES! Amazing, incredible!”

The worker quickly stepped forward and brushed her queen’s antennae to prevent her from resuming her flying dance.

“Yes, amazing, incredible, we know. Need to prepare now, ok?”

The Fourth of the Seventh still danced about but listened to her worker and remained on the ground.

“Yes! Ok! Let’s prepare! What do we need?”

The worker aimed a dance at her queen.

“Need queen to raise more workers. Need a lot more for this.”

“Ok!”

Then the worker aimed a dance at herself.

“Worker wants to evolve. Become one of the new bees so can talk to queen anywhere. Is ok?”

The Fourth of the Seventh walked up to her and began to brush her with her antennae.

“Ok! Good! Worker always helps a lot, worker evolving should be amazing!”

The worker nearly broke out into a happy dance but she contained herself.

“Queen is best…ahem, thanks, queen. But, worker won’t be able to help while evolving. So, queen NEEDS to stay in hive. Needs to raise brood, manage hive until worker wakes up. Stay with First of the Fifth’s First Daughter and help her with work. NOT leave until worker is done evolving. Ok?”

To the worker’s surprise, her queen immediately agreed.

“Ok! Will make sure hive is ready! Worker can go evolve!”

The worker…wasn’t sure about this. But then, she felt another set of antennae brush hers. She turned and found the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter.

“Don’t worry, will help! Will make sure everything ready. Can gain King’s favor and help Fourth of the Seventh at the same time. Will not fail.”

The worker slowly saluted to both her queens, and then made her way to the brood chambers, where the most mana-packed honey was stored. The entire way, she gave some final commands to her fellow workers. She…still wasn’t sure how the hive would do without her, but her queen had promised to watch things and the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter would be there to help.

So, with only a moment of hesitation, she chose an empty cell and curled up inside of it. The brood tenders filled the cell with mana-rich honey, and then began to wax it shut.

It felt strange to spend brood honey on herself and to leave the hive. But she believed in her fellow workers, and they all knew this was the right choice.

The Fourth of the Seventh was excited for the communers because it would let her see through her worker’s eyes. It would let her explore without exploring. But her workers…her workers had a different plan. Because, if they could speak to their queen wherever she was, then it wouldn’t matter where she was, right? And beyond that…communers could not only pass information and communications between the workers and the queen…they could also reach out to the nearby bees themselves.

That meant that if the lead worker became a communer, she would be able to see, hear, and command the workers of the hive like a queen could. That meant that she could fulfill most of the queen’s tasks without any loss of efficiency.

And if she could do that while also being able to speak to her queen at any time?

In that case…her queen would be free to go anywhere she wanted to without any interruption in the hive’s function. So long as she made sure to lay enough brood…and the worker had ideas on that as well.

Her last thought as she settled into sleep was that finally, she could make her queen’s dreams come true.

As the worker went off, the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter was left with the happily dancing Fourth of the Seventh. She could barely contain her own happiness as well. With these new communers, she could take care of the joint hive while also contacting the Fourth of the Seventh at any time. And then the King himself had personally given them a mission! Her mother would be beyond pleased to hear about this!

And, she had her own idea about how to make it happen. She just…had to gather the courage to state it. She stopped walking and grew still, her antennae twitching. The Fourth of the Seventh noticed and flew down in front of her.

“First of the Fifth’s First Daughter ok?”

The First of the Fifth’s First Daughter looked at her savior and her partner queen. She twitched at the attention and nearly fled. But the Fourth of the Seventh, the Fourth of the Seventh’s worker, and the King himself were counting on her. So, she gathered her courage and began to dance. Slowly, unsteadily, and with frequent pauses, but she forced herself through each of the steps.

“Fourth of the Seventh, been thinking. Orchard is big, two hives not enough to gather from. And now…King wants us to scout, set up new hives. So…was wondering…just because King commanded…and because definitely need…would you…d-drones and queens?”

She tripped over herself at the end but managed to finish the dance. She was barely able to force herself to stay and wait for the Fourth of the Seventh’s response. But her mother raised her to be an exceptional queen, and so she did not give into her fears.

The Fourth of the Seventh watched her for a torturous moment before beginning to dance. The First of the Fifth’s First Daughter nearly tore her gaze away but forced herself to remain still.

“Drones? Queens…Oh! First of Fifth’s first daughter wants to raise new queens?”

“…yes.”

“Ok!”

The First of the Fifth’s First Daughter froze as her mind attempted to comprehend the immediate reply.

When it finally did, it was her turn to begin a frantic happy dance.

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