The Bee Dungeon

The group didn’t move too far into the monster room due to the risks. Tarwantrad promised to accompany the bees when they arrived to forage so that she could point out each monster flowers and their unique dangers in detail. After that, the group returned to the nexus door and moved back over to Belissar’s Tower to show Tarwantrad his own nursery. She brought along a few of her stingless bees to scout the area in turn.

Belissar couldn’t help but frown as they arrived. Tarwantrad looked to him.

“Is something the matter?”

Belissar shook his head.

“No, it’s just…as you can see, mine is a lot smaller than yours. I feel…a bit bad, I guess. Like we’re not offering nearly as much as you are.”

Tarwantrad smiled at him.

“But you are. Belissar, my dungeon’s patron is the God of Flowers. Flowers are my primary focus, it is only natural I have raised more of them. But you know what I don’t have as many of as you?”

Belissar could guess where this was going.

“Bees?”

“As I said, most of my bees are still mundane, and even those who have become monsters have not expanded far outside of their instincts. Neither I nor they knew there was any particular reason for them to do so. My stingless bee hives have not raised gardeners to tend the flowers directly nor communers to help them coordinate while expanding. My solitary bees tend to have favorite flowers and stick to them, making them excellent at propagating the flowers I already have but far less effective at the cross-pollination your bees excel at. That is the point of our exchange and of the Circle as a whole. Each of us has our own area of focus and each of us can benefit from sharing with one another.”

Her smile then grew.

“And I am benefiting directly from this even if you had no new flowers at all. Your bees will cross-pollinate the flowers I share with you, creating new flowers my bees would not have. Trust me, I am as excited about this as you are.”

Belissar did his best to return her smile and nodded. If she said as much as that, then he’d just have to try not to worry about it.

With that in mind, the tour began. Since Tarwantrad had seen most of his flowers already, Belissar left it to Frelis and Juosiutik to explain each one in more depth. Despite raising far more flowers than they ever had, Tarwantrad listened to them intently, along with the stingless bees accompanying her.

Once the tours were finished, it was time for the daily purification. Tarwantrad hung around and so joined the victory celebration afterwards. She and Belissar were watching the bees and munching on some honeycomb when she spoke.

“So, I don’t mean to rush you, but now that you’ve seen my bees would you like to discuss a monster exchange?”

Belissar smiled and nodded.

“I think I’m ready for that now. Your dungeon will be wonderful for them.”

Tarwantrad beamed.

“I’m glad you think so! I, too, know you will take great care of mine. So, most of my solitary bees are still mundane, so I may need to try and raise monster versions before we can truly exchange them, but I did manage to raise some monster stingless bee hives and one of them has recently raised new queens. I would be happy to send one over to you, perhaps in exchange for a new monster bee queen?”

Belissar hummed in contemplation.

“The trade sounds good to me, I just need to check if there are any new queens.”

At that moment, Niobee started dancing.

“King, will help!”

Before Belissar could say anything, Niobee took off from his head and zipped away. In but a short minute, she returned…with the Fourth of the Seventh, the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter, and a smaller queen in tow.

“King! Third Daughter of the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter wants to go!”

Belissar blinked. He had not expected any of the existing queens to want to move.

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“Huh, really?”

The young queen began spinning around.

“Want! Fourth of the Seventh told! Amazing new flowers! Amazing new places! Want to see, want to build new hive like queen mother and Fourth of the Seventh did!”

Belissar glanced at the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter and she danced the confirmation.

“Third Daughter resolved, ready to follow King.”

Belissar slowly shook his head.

“You would be joining Tarwantrad’s dungeon, so you’d have to follow her instead.”

Both the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter and her Third Daughter halted at that. The Third Daughter glanced between them all before dancing slowly.

“…wouldn’t follow King? Wouldn’t be part of hive of hives anymore? Wouldn’t see queen mother or Fourth of the Seventh?”

Pain spiked through Belissar’s chest but he couldn’t lie to her. He was about to nod…when Tarwantrad interjected.

“Of course, you still can. We’re about to open our dungeons for a flower exchange. I’d be more than happy to let you host your parents or visit them in turn, it’s not a problem. And while you wouldn’t be following your king anymore officially, know that I intend to help him however I can, so you can still contribute to him and your hive of hives with your efforts.”

The Third Daughter broke out into a happy dance.

“Flower one is best flower one! Want to go!”

Belissar turned to Tarwantrad, his eyes widening a bit before he broke out into a smile.

“Thank you, I appreciate that.”

Tarwantrad smiled back.

“Of course, Belissar. I have no intention of keeping your bees from their family even should they join my dungeon.”

She then smirked.

“And…if bees that technically belong to me rather than you just so happen to see my dungeon past the wards and report on it back to yours? Well, the orders of the Compact technically wouldn’t have been broken so there’s no problem, right?”

Belissar blinked.

“Oh. I…hadn’t thought about that. Is that alright?”

Tarwantrad winked at him.

“I won’t tell the Compact if you don’t.”

Well, he guessed that settled it. The Compact wasn’t even speaking to him anyways so it wasn’t like he could tell them even if he wanted to. If Tarwantrad didn’t mind, then he wouldn’t either.

And, well, he could only smile as he watched the Third Daughter dance happily about with her queens. It made him unbelievably happy that they wouldn’t have to separate after all.

Later that night, the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter paced up and down one of the trays in her hive. She checked and double checked each and every cell, ensuring that they were all filled to the brim with the highest quality, most mana-packed honey she had available. And yet, upon completing her check, she immediately started a third.

She couldn’t help it. On the one leg, she was incredibly proud of her daughter. She had volunteered to take on great risk on behalf of the King, to expand the hive of hives to the flower one’s realm, and to follow in the footsteps of the Fourth of the Seventh. She could not have asked for a better child.

But on the other leg, she could not help but worry. She had told her children what the Fourth of the Seventh had done for her, but she had not told them the true extent of the desperation she felt back then. She had not told them of spending each day staring at empty cells, living each day by what the workers brought back as she spent everything on new brood. She had not told them how close she came to condemning an entire generation of workers to death by starvation.

So, when her daughter proclaimed she wanted to follow in her footsteps as well, the First Daughter had nearly panicked. It took all her self-control not to deny her daughter right then and there. After all, she would be sending off her daughter as her queen mother did her, only her daughter would be heading outside of the King’s realm where it would be much harder to reach her, even if they could still visit as the flower one had said.

And her daughter was not going with a Fourth of the Seventh of her own. If she got into trouble, there would be no hive of hives to save her.

But what could she do? She raised her daughter to admire the Fourth of the Seventh so could she now tell her not to explore? And her own queen mother had recently asked her to take care of the entire hive of hives as requested by the King, so could she stop her daughter from fulfilling one of the King’s requests? Her daughter had volunteered to no less than the King himself, so she was now committed either way.

So, all she could do now was make sure her daughter was as prepared as possible. After that…

“First Daughter ok?”

She had been so caught up in her thoughts that she didn’t notice the Fourth of the Seventh approach until her fellow queen was right on top of her. At first, the First Daughter was going to reply that she was fine…but the Fourth of the Seventh had already seen her pacing about. Not to mention that with their hives’ mana blending together, the Fourth of the Seventh would have already felt her thoughts.

“…worried. Third Daughter going far away. Won’t be able to help. What if runs out of honey? What if can’t feed brood? What if needs help…”

“…like I did” was the rest of the dance she couldn’t complete, stumbling as she suddenly halted.

The Fourth of the Seventh crawled forward and began gently brushing her antennae. The Fourth of the Seventh’s mana then began to flare and flooded into her own. The Fourth of the Seventh’s thoughts and intentions grew stronger, until the First Daughter began to see them with her own eyes.

She watched as the Fourth of the Seventh showed her the memories of the day. The wide and varied and most of all abundant flowers that filled the flower one’s realm. Only after the Fourth of the Seventh showed her all she had seen did she start to dance.

“Will be ok, flower one has lots of flowers. King trusts flower one, flower one wants to help King, will take care of daughter too! Will keep scouting and help Frelis in flower one’s dungeon, so can visit daughter too and make sure is ok!”

The First Daughter nearly collapsed. Instead, she crawled up the Fourth of the Seventh and lay on her back. The Fourth of the Seventh gently brushed her with her wings. She managed to reply by tapping out a dance on the bigger queen’s back.

“…thank you. Fourth of the Seventh always saves me.”

The Fourth of the Seventh replied through her mana.

“Of course! First Daughter always helps so always help too!”

The First Daughter stayed on the Fourth of the Seventh’s back for the rest of the night.

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