The Bee Dungeon

Back when the new stingless queen had just left for Belissar's Tower, a different stingless queen listened to the report by her scouts before buzzing her wings. She had succeeded, the plan had all come together.

At first, when the domineering queen had ordered her to handle some task for the Flower Tender, she had been annoyed. Because of course the domineering one wouldn’t use her own workers for anything other than growing her own hive, not even for the Flower Tender, and so she had to break off her own workers for the task. If only the Flower Tender had given her a magical palace first, before the domineering one…

However, it was unusual for the Flower Tender to involve herself in bee affairs to begin with, so the queen had been curious as to the reason. She committed her workers to the task without complaint…and had been utterly shocked at what they reported back.

The Flower Tender was showing a new flower tender around a new room she had built…and the new flower tender was attended by true giants. There were two bees larger than entire hives scouting the area, accompanied by a full soldier compliment.

The queen was without pheromones at first. But the report was corroborated several times over, so she had no choice but to accept it as accurate. What sort of bee could grow to such gargantuan size? How much nectar and how many workers did it require to support such a monster? What did that mean for the scale of the hive that had raised them?

But then…the queen had a thought. Nay, an opportunity. At the time the report had been received, hers was the only hive that had observed the new bees. The Flower Tender had told the queen of her plans as well, that she and the new flower tender would be exchanging a queen each. Naturally, the domineering queen intended for one of her own children to fulfill that role and hadn’t told any of the other queens about the exchange. Clearly, the domineering queen had no clue about the nature of the new bees they were about to make contact with. And with reason, who would have expected these bees to be so different? Even the queen had trouble believing the reports her own workers were making, so it was only natural the domineering queen had no way to predict such dramatic differences.

And the queen had kept it that way, reporting nothing out of the ordinary besides the new bees’ general appearance indicating a different species. Oh, questions would eventually be raised about how she had missed such a massive threat…but she could simply say the big bees and the soldiers hadn’t been among the scouts and that she hadn’t been aware of them. It wasn’t like the solitary ones would tell the domineering queen of her deceit and it was strange the new bees were using soldiers to scout in the first place. The domineering queen would certainly be angry…but would have no reason to suspect her lack of information was intentional.

The queen’s scouts had now reported her plan’s success. The domineering queen, under the impression the new bees were no different than any other, had sent off her daughter with a force clearly intended for hostilities, and would act as domineering towards the incoming queen as she had towards all of them. Well, the Flower Tender had told them specifically not to use violence against the new queen, but that didn’t mean the domineering queen would just let her be.

And when the new bees, with the gargantuans they had at their disposal, learned of these things? Well, then the domineering queen might find herself a small bee in a very big hive. And if she were taken down a peg…or removed entirely…that would make some space for the other queens to begin to grow.

And if she, among all the surviving queens, was the only one to have foreseen and prepared for this outcome? Well, someone needed to be queen.

Of course, at the time, the queen had no idea of what sort of chain of events she had set in motion…

The Fourth of the Seventh’s antennae twitched about.

“Kill? Won’t kill!”

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But before she could protest anymore, the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter walked up to her and brushed antennae together.

“Fourth of the Seventh, can talk with new queen?”

As always, the Fourth of the Seventh happily replied.

“Ok!”

The Fourth of the Seventh then hovered away to give them space, wonderfully considerate queen that she was. But the First Daughter held back her happy “Fourth of the Seventh best Fourth of the Seventh!” dance. She had something she needed to do first, so she turned her attention to the new queen.

“Hello, am First Daughter of First Queen of First Dynasty of Fifth Spawner. Nice to meet.”

The new queen remained in submission and began to tremble, so the First Daughter continued without waiting for reply.

“Accept submission, won’t kill. Hive of hives won’t kill.”

The new queen replied not with a dance but with a mixture of mana, pheromones, and wing buzzing. Fortunately, the King’s mana now connected them both, so there was no difficultly interpreting her words.

“Thank gracious queen, will serve well!”

The new queen was clearly under a misunderstanding about the hive of hives, but it was to be expected. The First Daughter had been raised before her queen mother herself understood the concept and so found the hive of hives far different than she had initially expected despite being born into it. The hive of hives was a long achievement built by the King and by such innovative, wonderful queens as the Fourth of the Seventh, so a queen from beyond the King’s Tower could not be expected to know these things.

The misunderstanding would need to be corrected quickly…but later, for the First Daughter had something she needed to do first, and the misunderstanding would not hinder her in achieving it.

“Hive of hives all helps each other. Will help new queen, make sure no one hurts. Will help find flowers, give honey to feed. In exchange, new queen should help too. Can help right now, even.”

The new queen quickly flooded acquiescence pheromones.

“Will help! Will!”

The First Daughter held herself high before calmly replying.

“Good. So…tell about home and original hive. What like? How queens interact?”

The new queen hesitated for only a moment before beginning to describe the hive she was born in and her queen mother’s rule. The First Daughter was nearly taken aback at how willing the new queen was to give up her queen mother…but it began to make sense as the new queen spun her tale. Her original hive was as the First Daughter feared; without the King’s guidance or the Fourth of the Seventh’s example, they never developed a concept of the hive of hives. Their society was centered around the hives and their interactions based on competing with and subduing other queens as rivals…apparently to the extent of using violence. Even her queen mother never considered measures that extreme, since she had known from the start that the queens she once considered her rivals also belonged to the King.

It also painted the new queen’s mother’s intentions for the soldiers escorting her child in a different, highly concerning light. And now the First Daughter was sending her own child right into the middle of such a society dominated by such a queen.

Fortunately, the hive of hives was already in motion. The First Daughter made sure the Fourth of the Seventh’s first communer was connected to her, so the diligent worker had already picked up on what was going on and had contacted her Third Daughter. The First Daughter’s own communers had already been spreading word to the other queens of the hive of hives even as the conversation took place, now all those queens stopped approaching the new queen for introductions in favor of making preparations. The Firstborn had already acknowledged the unforeseen danger and was now organizing reinforcements for the Third Daughter’s swarm in response. Her own queen mother, the First of the Fifth, now danced with the Third Daughter, advising her on various possible approaches while promising her additional honey from her own stockpiles. The Conduit herself asked the King for more time to prepare the Third Daughter.

The Fourth of the Seventh sent her mana instead of dancing.

“Something wrong? Third Daughter will be ok?”

The First Daughter buzzed her wings.

“New hive not nice. Will make sure Third Daughter is ok.”

The Fourth of the Seventh buzzed her wings, sending a gust all around her.

“Will make sure too. Can go with Third Daughter, lay lots of eggs so will have lots of workers, soldiers, whenever needs.”

The First Daughter happily acknowledged that. Of course, the Fourth of the Seventh would find a way. And now, thanks to the hive of hives’ quick cooperation, her daughter would have a soldier compliment from the Flower Meadow to keep her safe, eggs from the Fourth of the Seventh to scale up or replenish losses as her circumstances required, and the abundant honey the First of the Fifth could produce to sustain them all until she could secure the necessary resources. The First Daughter wouldn’t even stop there, using every second of time bought by the Conduit to put every odd she could in her Third Daughter’s favor.

Unlike this new queen’s mother, she wouldn’t let anything happen to her daughters. And she would not be alone, for not a single one of the King’s queens would remain idle if any of them were threatened. That was what it meant to be part of the hive of hives. And that was what the new queens would find out, should anything occur.

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