Watching that quartet of human, bee, and fernen stroll through the forest really was mesmerizing. I was almost amazed enough to not interrupt their little adventure. Unfortunately for them, the pang of pain between my eyes had receded to almost nothing, so I was ready to go ham.

“And exactly what are you all doing?”

Grehn and Vlugh jumped a bit, which made Elofan jump in turn. Ben also jumped, but his leap was accompanied by joyful screaming.

“Mamaroo! What’s up? You’re feeling big and strong again! Are you gonna watch this little adventure through my eyes? Grehn had the greatest idea for us to get more food, but he needed me, some Linkers, and Elofan for the plan. Sorry, but the other fernen don’t actually know what’s going on since Yelah hasn’t been able to talk for a couple days.”

Well, thanks for the recap, little guy. But hold on. Grehn? Coming up with plans to help the hive? Excuse me if I don’t immediately swoon and cry tears of thankfulness. Let’s just take a little peek into the big man’s brain, and….

Oh! Oh me oh my. After a cursory investigation of his thoughts and plans, I didn’t find a trace of malicious intent in Grehn’s thoughts. As for his plan, well. It was an interesting one. I wanted to hear it from the man’s mouth. With a nudge, no words spoken, Grehn knew what I wanted. It was funny to see the strange look coming from Elofan. Yup, that made the whole thing worth it. And it saved me from having to read Grehn’s thoughts hard enough to give me a headache! Win-win.

Finally, Grehn began to whisper. “Among the various things holding the hive’s growth back is physical growth, both in terms of number of bees and the hive’s structure. And the only reason for that is food. You need food for making bees, and other bees need food for making the hive. You can certainly get food from Yiwi, but I know from experience that our food situation leaves a lot to be desired. So I thought of going to another place to obtain a source of food. Lemonholm.”

Vlugh’s sharp ears must have picked up the name, or maybe he was just used to listening to Grehn’s quiet voice, because he let out a huge scoff. Elofan, who was leaning in close, made a disgusted face when Grehn said the word ‘Lemonholm.’ Apparently even the fernen aren’t huge fans of the place. I knew Vlugh considered the people of Lemonholm to be crazy jackasses, so all I could do was wonder about the merits of Grehn’s plan.

“Those humans in the north never really bother the forest, but I’ve had to deal with them a few times,” Elofan said in her whooping language. “They’re actually not so fearful of non-humans. It’s just whenever we come close to their orchards…”

I instantly knew what she was talking about, thanks to the memories of the humans. Lemonholm and their lemon orchards were famous throughout the world, apparently. Almost as famous as the paranoia and fear held by all of Lemonholm’s citizens. It was a den of conspiracy and untrusting eyes, plus the fact that everyone really loves lemons. They were nowhere near the economic powerhouse that Yiwi was, despite their proximity to the very same forest, but that paranoia supposedly made a big part of that. That, and the fact that they didn’t have easy access to trade routes. Yiwi was right on the Yam River, just for starters. Lemonholm had outlawed all the paved roads to the city long ago, for another.

“To be honest, I’m still a bit creeped out by this whole thing. But you do have a point, Grehn. And if you think you can convince Lemonholm to rake in the literal dough for us, I won’t complain about it. But I want to make one thing clear. Cross me, and Yelah won’t be as lonely anymore. You dig?”

“I… dig?” he said with a bob of his head.

“Good. Now make sure to think really hard about what your plans are. And be specific. Even better if you can give Vlugh all the excruciating details, so I have two brains to- or rather, so you guys can work well as a team! Yeah. Oh, and take care with Elofan, hm? We only just met the fernen, and something about her feels weird to me,” I said, immediately switching my focus off before he could respond. Even just talking to the humans was tiring. Not exhausting, but there was a noticeable strain I could feel on my noggin.

As for Elofan…. She was part of the reason I wasn’t trusting Grehn’s little plan just yet. Why did he feel the need to bring a fernen along? Why Elofan specifically? I didn’t know much about the fernen, but there were some details I could observe. For example, this Elofan was quite strong with her Mind. All the fernen were, but she was a cut above the random fernen in the glade. Plus, she was trusted and valued enough to accompany Feltan, the vice-president of fernenland, into the ruined forest. As far as I knew, she was a close advisor and one of Feltan’s most trusted allies.

Nope, no trust to be found. At least when it came to non-bees.

For now, though, or at least until the group arrived at Lemonholm, I didn’t want to concern myself with them. I’d just keep a close eye on them for Ben’s sake. Actually, I was starting to get a bit nervous again.

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“Beatrice? Are you aware of the Lemonholm plan Grehn came up with?”

Despite the fact that she was busy coordinating the efforts of the newly ReLinkuished bees and their commanders, Beatrice responded immediately. “Of course Mother. Let me guess: you’d like to send some sort of military force to ensure the safety of Ben and the continued secrecy of the hive?”

“Er, yeah.” She was way too good. Hold on. When I looked inside, I found out that she hadn’t known about the Lemonholm situation at all! At least, before I asked her. For the first time in a while, I watched Beatrice’s memory in awe, watching as she immediately scanned the available information related to Grehn and Lemonholm, and as soon as she began responding, had already anticipated what I wanted. Maybe I should have a Beatrice in my head instead of this freaking spooky CBU.

“Very well. Would you prefer to send numbers or strength? Or both?”

She was asking if I wanted to send something on the level of a Valkybee, or otherwise just send a bunch of random warriors. Which was a tough call, especially now. On the one hand, the Valkybees were all fresh and raring to go. Occupying them was actually a great idea, probably. On the other hand, numbers were always a safe option for simple strength, and it allowed our most powerful defensive force to remain in the hive. But when I thought about how most of the warriors were now ReLinkuished and trying to work as a cohesive unit under the command of Bedivere, Bend and Beryl, well…

“Send Belia-“

“GRAH! I WANNA GO!” a voice crashed into our conversation. What the heck?! What a shock! Beelzebub is going crazy and trying to crash the party? Who could have expected that?

“Beelzebub, I’m willing to send you up. You should, in theory, be capable enough. As of now, you’re the second most unproven Valkybee other than Behemoth. But that’s not really an issue. My problem is with your sensibility. Your little scuffle with Beryl recently doesn’t inspire confidence. So you understand my hesitation, right? If I send you out there to Lemonholm and you piss off the most notoriously superstitious town in this world, I hope you understand how horrific that could be for the hive.”

“I totally do, ma.”

“Despite myself, I’ll trust you on this. Because you really pulled through with the Antithought medication delivery. It was a delicate mission we didn’t know much about, and you completed it in a timely and effective manner. But that won’t compare in terms of consequences. If you fuck up in Lemonholm, who knows what the ramifications could be? We don’t have a plan B for this. Thankfully! You shouldn’t have to do much. You’re mostly insurance, anyway. It’s an important role, nonetheless. You got it?”

Beelzebub hesitated. It was a foreign thing for her to do, I could feel it. Interesting that she hesitated after I complimented her good work rather than when her failings were highlighted. And I knew why she hesitated. Something about the idea of being on standby made her squirm. She had volunteered without knowing the assignment, intent on proving herself further thanks to our lack of need for self-defense. And she ends up going on a mission to sit on her ass. Basically the antithesis of what she wanted to or even could do.

“Ma. I can do it. For real. For real! I’ll make sure you never doubt me again,” Beelzebub said with a smile. I could feel her resolution. Fine enough. I gave her the go ahead, which led to a plethora of grunts and pumped ‘fists’, culminating in a rapid departure. That silly girl - she had been waiting at the border of the hive already, ready to go.

Although she was waiting on the western side. What, was she expecting me to tell her that her mission was to destroy Yiwi again? Huh. Maybe she was. Despite that, my mind was put at ease. Ben’s life would be safe at the very least. Plus, this was an opportunity for Beelzebub to prove herself, something she desperately needed. I knew she had the potential to be the strongest Valkybee based on pure natural talent alone, but that wasn’t enough anymore. I needed bees to start really proving themselves in practice.

For now, I could actually relax about Lemonholm for a minute. Why oh why did I have to worry about that in the first place? My list of things to stress about was long enough as it was. Speaking of such things - Queen, what’s the word on Yiwi?

“The peacekeepers still aren’t stepping out of line far enough for a show of force. I’ve noticed that, in particular, Mesne has been complaining to Bella about them, but only recently did Belle even know what she was saying. Thankfully, Mesne was so accustomed to Bella’s shenanigans that she thought her silence was a simple prank. I think it’s fine to just leave them be at this point. We have plenty to worry about without these random mooks tossing a wrench into things.”

Nice earth lingo Queen. And I do agree with the peacekeeper stuff. Though it might calm my heart to just tell the Yiwi leadership to keep an eye out for them.

“Especially Harven. He seems like the threatening sort with not much else to do.”

Perfect idea. He has the experience and manpower to keep a leash on the peacekeepers for sure. Though something still bothered me about those so-called keepers of the peace, and I couldn’t put my finger on why. They were just so unobtrusive. The humans in Yiwi weren’t huge fans of them either, and they were just another source of pain. But they were already suffering anyway. It was almost…designed. Too perfectly under the radar. But something like that just couldn’t jump to the top of the priority list at the moment, so I just passed a comment to Beck to pass on to the Yiwi bees.

“As for Bob…. Thankfully, Beckham made it just in time to stop Jill Yemonto from storming his building. That man concerns me far more than anything else. Perhaps it's just because I have been placing a lot of value on the experience of some of the longer-lived or knowledgeable humans, but almost every single important human has alarm bells ringing. That can’t be good.”

Not good? An understatement, maybe. Well, the stray humans were taken care of. And now I have to poke another stray human. I was beginning to sense a pattern in these damn conflicts. I almost wished the fernen were the ones being fucking annoying.