“Everything is NOT fantastic.”
Queen, have I ever mentioned that you can be a bit of a downer? Well, I take it all back, because yeah, everything is not fantastic right now.
If I were to be frank, I would I was overwhelmed. Maybe it didn’t hit me until Beatrice’s icy threat to talk about thing later, but the tantrum being thrown by the top bees in the hive was really something unprecedented. Maybe foisting so much responsibility on creatures not even a year old wasn’t the greatest idea of all time.
“Age is a completely different issue when it comes to bees, especially when considering our own odd creations. But yes. They are a bit young for what they are going through.”
Well, the blame landed solely on me. Maybe Queen a bit. But mostly me. For some reason I thought it was a great idea to drop an unthinkable bombshell on the already sensitive hive right in the midst of a discussion about one of the worst moments in our short history, and now I had to live with the consequences of my actions. Bees crying, screaming, in the case of Beck, singing in discordant notes. Bees was looking at her creations and coming close to breaking them, and even the most stable of bees like Belle were near hysteria.
And don’t even get me started on the Valkybees. What I had interpreted as a sudden dash away by all the warriors actually turned out to be a kidnapping. Belial, Belphegora, and Behemoth had suddenly grabbed a shell-shocked Beryl and dragged her out into a remote part of the forest and began sparring with her. Safe to say, she was a bit distracted.
“Mother.” A deep voice broke through the chaos. Buzzes and cries in my head were pushed aside to make room for Bedivere’s larger-than-life presence, just as he pushed an indignant Beatrice aside.
“Hey!”
“Mother, this revelation is monumental, without a doubt. But right now, we need to restore order and get back to the discussion at hand. I am sure that once they are calmed, the bees will be able to put their personal feelings aside long enough to finish the meeting.”
Bedivere was right, of course. But how the hell was I meant to calm the bees down? None of my training prepared me for this.
“I can actually agree on that front, for once. Perhaps we should try soothing them, offer them some honey to calm them down. Or perhaps they need a firmer hand, a nice stern reclamation may work.”
But they’re freaking out too much. We might need to work with the Link, dampen their emotions for a second so we can reason with them. Or maybe-
Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw Bedivere give a slight roll of his own eyes. Was I seeing things? Did that brat just roll his eyes at me?!
Before I could say anything, he cleared his throat. It was like a volcano preparing to erupt, a deep rumbling that echoed through the Link. Even just with that, some of the cries fizzled.
“EVERYONE.”
My whole body shook. If his throat being cleared was like the volcano getting ready, Bedivere’s shout was as if the mountain finally let itself explode after decades of inactivity. Immediately, the effect rippled throughout the dining hall. Belle’s fretting stopped. Bess paused mid-bash, stopping just before breaking a nice wax table in half. Beck’s constant humming went completely silent. Even Beatrice froze in her tracks, her Mind typically an unceasing whirlwind of activity and thought that constantly buzzed in the back of my head. Everybody stopped and turned, witnessing the eruption of a long-dormant titan.
For his part, Bedivere scratched his head. “Good. I understand the thoughts ravaging your Minds, connected as we are, but for now we must stay strong. Do not allow these emotions to run rampant, but do not crush them. They are, as I have learned, important for growth. For now, though, think of the hive. Think of what we can do right now. We must continue discussing the events at Lemonholm and our plans for the future to prevent another situation like it. In practice, nothing of our goal has changed. We will continue to grow and protect the hive and our queen. For now, take a moment to process while we begin a brief intermission. But by the Mother, be sensible! Do not lash out like uncontrollable children.”
Something about what Bedivere said tickled my brain, but it was probably nothing. It was a great speech, though, considering that it got the bees to chill out. It didn’t quell their emotions, as I felt through the link dozens of thoughts directed both at themselves and at me. Countless questions, countless thoughts. I just couldn’t get through them all.
“Ah.” Beatrice, the first to shake herself from Bedivere’s baritone, finally spoke, “Give Mother some time to process as well. Though I am sure she has prepared extensively for this moment, she may not be prepared to answer all of our questions at this time. I will discuss the situation with her after this meeting, and from there we will figure out how to best clear up any misgivings.”
I was about to sigh in relief, happy with my two right-hand bees, until Bedivere turned back to me with a worried glance.
“Speaking of. Mother, would you please bring back the Valkybees? I fear poor Beryl is having a rough time of it.”
“Me? Can’t you just use this Bedivere speech power again to calm them down?”
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“Those four - or in this case, I should say three - are rather… shall we say, special. I cannot convince them of anything unless I perform a superior show of force most of the time. At least not when they become emotional. Most of the time they follow me without question as younger siblings, but…”
Maybe it was because of the sudden outburst from the hive, or maybe it was because our emotions were heightened to a degree that I hadn’t really experienced before. But for the first time, when I looked at Bedivere, I saw him for what he truly was: a child. As valiant as he might act, as remorseful and responsible, the nervous glint in his eye when he talked about trying to care for his most unruly younger siblings set off something in my head, like seeing a lost child at the mall.
I gave him a pat on the head.
“Don’t worry. I’ll go talk to them. You just make sure these guys don’t freak out again, alright?”
He seemed to become inflated with a mixture of indignation and calm when I patted him, enough to leave him speechless. With that, I flew out of the dining hall towards the forest, where even from here I could hear the clashes and explosions of battle.
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When I arrived, a crowd of curious onlookers had already gathered, watching the heated combat in a ring at the edge of a clearing. My presence was felt immediately, and the enthralled warriors instantly parted to let me through without my having to say a word. I did a double take when I noticed some non-warrior bees like Beau, Bessie and Becky watching as well, cheering and whooping along with the rest of the warriors. I supposed they were some of the busiest bees, and watching a fight was as good a way to unwind as any. But the Valkybees were constantly sparring. So what was so exciting this time?
Well, technically, I knew already. But seeing it was another story. When I reached the front of the crowd, all I could see was a series of blurs, even their colors near-indistinguishable. If I didn’t already have intimate knowledge of every move they were making, and access to their vision, I’d have no clue what was going on.
Beryl was fighting Belial in stinger-to-stinger combat, a bout so intense it caused shock waves whenever they connected. Both wore masks of extreme concentration, and were thinking thoughts of such extreme self-derision that just being near them made me upset.
Then the clearing exploded.
Beryl barely moved out of the way in time, but Belial was crushed under the weight of Behemoth’s armored leg. By myself, I hadn’t even seen her move. How a body that large moved so quickly was beyond me. What frightened me the most, though, was that she wore the same mask and was thinking the same thoughts as the other two. She tended to be the meek type, a sort of gentle, nervous giant, but I’d never seen her so distressed.
And then the clearing exploded again.
Mere moments after Behemoth’s brutal attack, a blast of Mind powerful enough to knock the behemoth off balance ripped stray roots and blasted some of the closer bees away. High in the sky, Belphegora focused her Mind downward, fueled by anger and confusion. I watched in awe as Belial, battered by Behemoth and blasted by Belphegora, stood up and take a deep breath before shooting upwards, intent on knocking Belphegora out of the sky.
No wonder everyone was so excited. The strongest bees in the hive were having a chaotic free-for-all, no holds barred battle. Calling this sparring was like saying honey tasted pretty good. They were out for blood.
Beryl was the only one who hesitated. Her feeling were more mixed than those of the Valkybees. But she didn’t have a moment’s respite. Her pause allowed Behemoth to charge, shaking the ground as she stomped forward. Her tiny stinger flashed forward and Beryl tried to block, and technically, she did. After all, even compared to her regular-sized stinger, Behemoth’s was exceptionally small. But clashing with Behemoth’s stinger didn’t stop the tons of mass of her abdomen trucking forward, so Beryl experienced the closest thing to getting hit by a train as she could in this forest.
Fights were entertaining to watch. It just felt natural for something like that to be exciting. But this? This was emotion incarnate. For me, it was painful.
“STOP. Stop this now!”
I did my best Bedivere impression, to no avail. Beryl noticed me, but she was too busy getting punted around by a leg five times her size to do anything about it other than fight back. The Valkybees seemed not to hear me.
I remembered what Bedivere said about force. I didn’t want to attack my bees, not at all. In fact, I would rather die. It was an easy solution: I had the Link. All I had to do was use it to stop them for a moment, then talk some sense into them.
My conviction brought me into a world of burning rage. Trying to force the Valkybees to calm down through the Link was like wading through burning sludge. Whatever their ‘corruption’ was, it affected the Link in some way - that I knew. But this was totally different from what I expected. Typically, when I played with the Link, the emotions and thoughts were ordered like strings, ready for me to change. But the Valkybees were different. If their battle was emotion incarnate, their Minds were the wellspring that emotion came from. And right now, their emotions were in such a state that I couldn’t grasp them at all. Every single Valkybee was uncontrollable, at least not in the same way others were.
I’d foisted them onto Bedivere and left them alone, hadn’t I? Beelzebub’s fight with Greyan was like this. I just couldn’t get through to her properly. And it was biting me in the ass. I hadn’t learned the Valkybees like I had the other bees; I assumed they were the same. Maybe the same was true for every other bee in the hive, too. And this was worse. They only had one thought, one thing that drove them.
“Win.”
“Win.”
“Win.”
“Help!”
The last cry snapped me from my stupor. Beryl wasn’t in the same state. She was just strong enough to deal with the Valkybees for more than a moment. But her Mind was also in turmoil, and she wouldn’t be able to handle it much longer.
With newfound strength, I decided that enough was enough. I would never hurt my bees, but I needed to be strict sometimes. I focused my Mind, and released it, making to grab the Valkybees and pin them down to satisfy their craving for battle.
Except my Mind thumped weakly against their bodies, doing nothing at all. Hm. Maybe I was holding back too much? Or perhaps I was unconsciously trying not to hurt them? Either way, my attack did absolutely nothing but grab their attention.
All three Valkybees turned to me. Beryl, seeing an opportunity, crawled in my direction. The surrounding bees were shocked, enough to stare in wonder. I gave them a silent command to move back, away from the clearing. I wouldn’t condone them hurting each other. After all, it was clear why Bedivere had sent me to take care of the Valkybees. He was a tired big brother, always stuck with babysitting a quartet of highly volatile, hyperactive, battle-junkie toddlers.
The Valkybees smiled in unison, their masks breaking enough to let a new emotion through. Pure joy. I supposed it was fair. Never once in their lives had they been allowed to play with mom, always left to wonder about her apparent great power. Well, it was finally playtime.