The Bee Dungeon

POBee 196.1 - Royal Bee-solve

The First of the Fifth was silent as she returned to her hive, giving commands to her workers by habit alone. She could not help but admit that this recent turn of events had left her shaken.

The taste of the Queen of All Bees’ honey had been, well, divine. There was no other way to put it. And the First of the Fifth knew that she could not compare her own honey to that, for what bee could compare with the Queen of All Bees? She could only take pride that the Queen of All Bees had judged her King worthy of receiving the divine honey itself.

What had shaken her was the realization of just how deep the quality of honey could go, and how little of it she had fathomed. She had grown content with her current production, believing it fit for the King, when she had barely scratched the surface of what was possible. She had grown complacent, taking the King’s love and favor for granted since she had learned he loved all bees. She had been content to stop growing, thinking she had reached the peak and had nothing more to do than to help others climb to what little heights she had managed to reach.

Oh how wrong she had been.

What shook her about the ambrosia was not how much better it had been than her own honey. What shook her was that her instincts whisper that it was possible to approach those heights. Yes, there was something fundamental missing that would prevent any bee from pulling it off, no matter how much they grew. But her instincts told her, that in addition to whatever that fundamental quality was, that she was simply too weak to even consider evolving with divine honey.

And that made her realize just how far the queens of the King had to go, for none of them had managed to grow in recent times. They had their one growth spurt that enabled soldier spawning, and then not one of them had changed since. What queens had evolved had merely taken on specialized types of mana and adapted to specific environments, but none of them had fundamentally changed what they were.

Compare this to the other types of bees. Workers could evolve into communers, gardeners, and honeypots. Soldiers could evolve into sprayers, lancers, battlecasters, or archers. Even the drones had found a role far beyond what their original purpose, and the First of the Fifth wondered if even they might one day evolve.

But not the queens. Not the bees with the most important, most foundational role in any hive. All of them, from the valiant warriors of the Flower Meadow, to the innovators of the Orchard, to the honeymakers of the Apiary, had managed to grow past their initial limits. In that regard, Beero, the queen who was not a queen, might actually be the most deserving of the title among them. She, at least, had earned her authority by her own achievements in exceeding her limits.

This would change. This had to change, so the First of the Fifth resolved. The hive of hives could not be held back by its own queens. They could not be content to remain the only bees that never changed. It was their obligation to put in at least as much work as their own workers and soldiers.

Only then could they truly begin to travel down the path of honey and find where its true depths lay. Only then could they be queens worthy of their King. Only then could they repay him for the love and favor he already lavished upon them.

The First of the Fifth thanked the Queen of All Bees for showing her the depths of her ignorance, and for blessing the King’s table with the honey she had failed to provide. And then she got to work, for she had much to do.

First of which was a call to all the queens of the hive of hives. This would be an effort they all must undertake…

The Firstborn left the meeting trembling. How could she have missed this? How could she have been so blind? How was it that the queens were the only bees in the hive of hives who had not grown?

The Flower Meadow queens gathered in the barracks, standing in a buzzing circle as each of them stewed in their thoughts. They had gathered to determine how they would pursue growth as queens, for they knew that they would need to find much different methods than the First of the Fifth and the Apiary queens. Their honey production could not compare to the Apiary queens current levels, so if the Apiary queens had not changed yet by those methods how could they hope to? No, they had a different role in the hive of hives, and so their growth must be equally different.

The question was…what should they do? In fact, what was their role in the hive of hives? At first, the Firstborn thought it was to defend the hive of hives, but that was the role of their soldiers. What was their role as the queens of the hives that defended, and how should they grow in it? To command the soldier bee armies…but was that enough? Could simply telling the soldiers how to fight, sitting safe within their hives thanks to the communers, truly result in any growth?

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Beero, the bee who had grown without even receiving a form from the King, had faced many difficulties and dangers before she had changed. How could the queens do the same?

The Firstborn was stumped, as well as all the others. But she had learned from her earlier failures. So, instead of despairing as to her lack of ability, she turned to the hive of hives. She considered what everyone else had done. And she did not limit her thoughts solely to her fellow bees.

She slowly began to dance.

“What about…karnuq?”

Each queen buzzed as her movement caught their eyes. The First of the Fourth buzzed her wings again.

“What about karnuq?”

The Firstborn wasn’t sure of her steps, having to find each one as it came as she worked out the idea in her mind at the same time.

“Karnuq…all have same form, don’t change. But…managed to grow anyways. Fighting one both leads and fights, acts like both queen and soldier, and managed to grow. Maybe can ask how?”

Silence hung over the queens as each considered this. The First of the Second slowly began her dance.

“Could try? Don’t have better idea.”

The First of the Fourth danced her agreement.

“Better than doing nothing. But ask karnuq queen too! Hasn’t grown like fighting one, but both leads and fights and is strong!”

One by one, all the queens agreed, if only for lack of better ideas. The Firstborn began beating her wings and lifting into the air.

“Ok, will find fighting one and karnuq queen and ask.”

Chief Rohsuak rubbed her chin while Metsaitti crossed his arms. She frowned a bit as she looked at the Firstborn hovering before them.

“I see. First, I must caution you that Tower monsters, to my knowledge, grow very differently than we do. You grow more based on what you are, while we grow based more on what we do. Our methods may not be suited to you, nor yours to us, so please be careful if you try to emulate us. It’s important not to try and be something you are not.”

The Firstborn danced a salute. Chief Rohsuak gave her a minute to absorb the warning before continuing.

“That said, I can certainly share with you how we grow. In general, there are three ways to grow. First is to grow the basic abilities of our bodies. This is general done through physical training, but can also involve expanding our mana reserves through use and through consumption of mana-rich foods and potions. The latter method must be matched with physical training, though, lest we consume more than our bodies can currently handle.”

She nodded at Metsaitti and he began to spin his spear, working through several drills.

“The second way is to hone our craft through study and practice. The exact method differs on what the craft is, a warrior will train very differently from a mason or alchemist.”

Chief Rohsuak then sighed and held out her hand, creating a ball of flame.

“These two methods are the most important, for they lay the foundations. But there is no doubt that they are slow. The fastest method of growth, by far, is to receive and grow the blessing of a god. Such a thing accelerates the realization of a person’s potential, as well as changing that person’s nature to align more closely with the chosen blessing. This method, as you may have seen through us, depends on earning the favor of a god. How you do that changes from person to person and from god to god. Juosiutik did it by rediscovering a tricky potion recipe of her mothers, and then offering the first batch to the God of Bees. Noigakkuq did so by braving the dangers of the Underway to claim a prize to offer instead. Muuraqi didn’t make a physical offering but instead by assisting the Tower Keeper in building new beehouses, a feat and a service in line with the God of Bees’ desires. Metsaitti did not make offerings at all but instead by undergrowing a Trial of Fire in order to align his nature with fire and to prove his devotion to the God of Fire’s domain.”

She nodded at Metsaitti and he took over.

“Though, I failed the Trial of Fire, but was helped by Niobee and the God of Bees instead, aligning with a combination of both gods’ domains. What the Chief is trying to say is that you can’t just repeat something that we did. Whatever you do needs to both match who you are, the kind of blessing you want, and the god you hope to be blessed by. And, as a point that might matter for you, you need to pull whatever feat off yourself.”

Chief Rohsuak shook her head.

“I would take that with a grain of salt. You, as a queen of bees, naturally work with your hive, so I’d believe the need for solo efforts might be different. And we don’t know if a Tower monster such as yourself can even earn blessings such as this. But Metsaitti is right in that you must personally be involved in a feat for it to be considered. Additionally, you must be willing to grant your devotion to the god who gives the blessing. Someone who just wants power alone will find it difficult.”

The Firstborn saluted and thanked the two karnuq for her words. She and the Flower Meadow queens would have a long discussion on these things, and what they might mean for the growth of the queens…

As for the Fourth of the Seventh…she immediately flew out of the meeting with the First of the Fifth the moment the conversation was over.

“Ok! Will go scout new things! Will go follow the flower one into leaf door!”

Her communer and the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter zipped after her.

“Queen mother, no!”

What followed was a frantic race to the Fairy Grove and a long conversation that was only resolved when the communer asked the Conduit and she confirmed the king didn’t want anyone going through the door just yet.

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