The Bee Dungeon

The First of the Fifth glanced through the mana of her communer, allowing her to see through the eyes of her scouts. It was her turn to arrange the karnuq watch today, and she was glad that it was. The King made his way to them, exposing himself to harm once more. But the First of the Fifth would be on guard and would not allow anything to befall him.

Particularly not by the hands of these karnuq. She knew the King had welcomed them in but she could not help but dislike them. They blended with the King’s noble form with the features of a creature her instincts knew as honey-stealers and hive destroyers! Sure, they hadn’t stolen honey or destroyed a hive yet, so perhaps the resemblance was superficial, but that did not mean the First of the Fifth trusted them, least of all with the safety of the King!

Especially the one who talked to him now, the one carrying mushrooms and plants. The First of the Fifth heard she had attempted to pounce upon the King before, and that only the King’s intervention stayed the Conduit and the soldier bee armies’ stingers. The word of the King was law, so it could not be helped, but the First of the Fifth swore she would not allow this one to threaten the King once again. She would watch her with extra vigilance.

The dangerous one grunted and growled in the manner that their people did…though as the King had accepted them his mana now converted their noises into intelligible language. Their voices were coarse and rough and irritating, nothing like the soothing warmth of the King’s. The First of the Fifth would have ignored them if they were not speaking to the King, but her vigil required her to analyze their words for any hint of deceit.

The dangerous one…was speaking about some new mushrooms and plant. So…that one was supposedly extremely toxic, that one possessed an unusual bioluminescence, and the last one cause blindness? Interesting, especially as the King absorbed them all with the intention to spread them about. The First of the Fifth did not trust the dangerous one’s assessments, so she would have to confirm the characteristics of these new resources herself. But if the dangerous one spoke with any truth, there could be an opportunity to develop new honey types…and new types of bees as well.

If that occurred…well, at least then the karnuq would have been good for something. It was the least they could do as they invaded the King’s home, ate his food, and threatened his person.

The First of the Fifth had to calm herself before her hive started preparing for war again.

So, yes, new plant types would be a start. Not enough for the First of the Fifth to tolerate their presence, much less approve of it, but a start. If the dangerous one could be trusted. Which was a big if.

And then, she heard the dangerous one speak yet again.

“Like I said, I’m the one who should be thanking you, Sacred Den Master. The potions I’ll be able to make with all of this and the honey are going to be amazing.”

The First of the Fifth’s attention snapped to the dangerous one like bolt of lightning. Her wings began to buzz and her stinger extended. The dangerous one…had acquired honey? How had she done so? Where had she gotten? Had the hive of hives been robbed already?

This…this could not stand. If such a thing had occurred, if these honey-thieves had stolen what was rightfully the King’s, then their intentions were absolutely clear. They would have deceived the King, and repeated the insults and injuries of his former life after all the generosity and grace he had shown them.

The First of the Fifth would not suffer them to live if so.

Still, the King did not react to that shocking declaration, which was the only reason the First of the Fifth had not requested the soldier bee army swoop in and sweep them away. Which, was confusing. Did he not realize what was said, so shocked that they would be so bold and arrogant? Or did he already know about the honey? Had he arranged for it himself?

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That in itself would be shocking but the King saw much that she did not, so she would have no choice but to accept it. The last thing she wanted to do was defy the will of the King.

As such, she ordered her scouts to tail the dangerous one. The First of the Fifth was going to get to the bottom of this. The King and the hive of hives were depending on her.

The First of the Fifth’s scouts followed them to the second floor Dirt Tunnels, where the King created some new resources. The new plants, but also some rocks of some sort. The First of the Fifth wasn’t sure about most of those, but one of them was made of salt. Salt could assist a hive’s nutrition and cut down on the mana required to sustain them so that would be useful.

Which made it all the more aggravating that these potential honey-stealers were receiving such gifts. But…if the King was rewarding them with such things, then surely they couldn’t be stealing his honey? Maybe he was testing these things on them before gifting them to the bees?

Well, she thought that last time when the Flower Meadow queens received flowers and it turned out she had been wrong then, so she couldn’t say for sure. She would have to continue watching.

At that point, the King separated from the karnuq and returned to his rightful place by the hives, so the First of the Fifth could relax her stinger slightly. At the very least, he was once again out of their grasp. Now, she could focus all of her attention on the dangerous one.

The dangerous one returned to the karnuq hive, and to her own cell. Her cell was far larger than she, an inefficient use of space and a sign that the karnuq hive was poorly run. The dangerous one hummed an ominous tune as she rummaged through the corpses of once beautiful flowers, the evidence of a callous and wasteful slaughter. She then moved back outside to a fire pit clearly copied from the King’s own. She lit a fire as she hung some sort of hollowed black rock above.

So, she was not content to uproot the flowers that could have fed a generation, but now sought to burn them to ashes as well. The First of the Fifth couldn’t even fathom the level of waste and malice required to do such a thing.

The dangerous and evil one filled the black rock with water, waiting until it began to bubble. Then she dumped some of the flower corpses inside. The First of the Fifth buzzed, but she bid her scouts to bide their time. She would see this until the end, no matter what horrors she would witness.

Soon, the dangerous and evil one nodded to herself and held her hand above the rock. She closed her eyes. The First of the Fifth considered having a scout sting her while she was distracted, to let her know that her deeds had not gone unseen.

But, before the First of the Fifth could give the command, something happened.

Mana poured out of the dangerous and evil one’s hand, forming into the shape of…a hive? A shape that looked exactly like when the King formed his own honey…but that couldn’t be. That was impossible…

The First of the Fifth froze solid as she watched the pattern flash…and then golden mana honey dripped into the pot.

The dangerous and evil one…made honey? With that magic of the King, granted to him by the Queen of All Bees herself?

Then…this dangerous and evil thing…was approved of by the Queen of All Bees?

The First of the Fifth couldn’t comprehend what she had seen…but at the very least, it was clear that the dangerous one had not stolen the honey she mentioned but had made it herself. That, at least, explained why the King was not surprised when she mentioned honey.

But then, what exactly was she doing? And why had she slaughtered precious flowers when she didn’t even need their nectar to make honey of her own? Would the Queen of All Bees approve of such waste and malice? Would the King?

Then, she noticed it. The flow of mana within the black rock changed. Since she was sensing this through a communer’s link to a worker, she couldn’t get a completely accurate read on what was going on…but she could at least notice the mana of the flower and the mana of the honey mixing together. The dangerous one then dropped the remaining flower corpses into the rock, and then filled it with her own mana. The mana mixed and swirled in ways the First of the Fifth had never seen, sparking and reacting and coming to life.

And then, the mana fell still, settling down within the contents of the rock. Within was some liquid that was like honey, but not, containing an entirely different kind of mana than any of the ingredients that had been placed inside of it.

The First of the Fifth stood completely still for a long time until her mind finally began to move again.

The mana of honey…could be changed? After it was made? What she had just witnessed…changed everything.

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