“Is… Is Bella dancing?”

After meeting up with Bess, our group of four had wandered off to find Bella and her team of gatherers, and since they were already on their way back to the central hive, we had just decided to meet up there. Too bad Bess and her own workers had already left.

And when we returned to the hive, what we found shook me to the core. Quite literally.

Bella was walking around on the ground in circles, occasionally shaking around in a quick little dance. A crowd surrounded her, mostly made up of Gatherer Drones, with others appearing here or there. A couple of the sixteen warriors could be seen, and Belle was there. Even Bess watched in a trance.

“Ah, it has been some time. This dance was some sort of common pastime for workers in the hive. Higher ranking bees such as myself did not partake.”

“Queen, that might be the snobbiest thing you’ve ever said.”

“Ooh, Mom! Look at me go!”

Bella called my attention and picked up the pace, causing the other bees to buzz frantically until she finally came to a stop, panting and coughing in exhaustion.

I politely applauded the bizarre display anyways. Gotta support the kids’ strange dreams, right?

“Er, Bella,” Beatrice said, “for what purpose are you moving so bizarrely? Is that not a waste of energy?”

“Not at all!” she waved to the gatherers, who, interestingly, began slowly moving in one direction.

“It’s for these guys. There’s no way I could use Mind to control all of them. I was super freaked out when Mom gave them to me! But then, I felt some weird urges. The urge to dance! Except when I started dancing, those drones went crazy.”

Bella twirled in the air, and the gatherer drones copied her, “these guys also like to dance! And when we dance, it’s like talking without talking. I use it to command them.”

So the dancing was some sort of bee instinct? And the drones were capable of understanding the dance? Since Queen said bees in her own hive did these dances, that probably meant it had nothing to do with my human-ness and was instead something all bees did. I knew bees could use pheromones to mark food, but it did seem inefficient. A gatherer would have to know at least the general area where that food might be, so maybe this dance was a more sophisticated form of communication.

Man, was I glad I could talk to my bees kinda like people! Thank you very much, psychic powers. It would be a nightmare if I had to dance to tell Beatrice or Bedivere something. Embarrassing, tiring, the works!

“All of that is well and good, but let’s have dinner, shall we? I suspect the last eggs will hatch tomorrow. Then I can get started on the next generation.”

The bees cheered, including the remaining warriors, who, of course, didn’t hear anything until the mention of dinner.

Oh boy, how exciting. Meat. Again.

________

“Come, Mother. The four powerful warriors seem ready to hatch.”

This time, I didn’t have to drag myself out of ‘bed.’ I had a bossy assistant to do it for me.

I was truly living a life of luxury.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming,” I replied with a bit of grump. Sorry Beatrice, nothing personal, but not having to work got me used to chilling out. Today I couldn’t use that excuse, though. Being productive would surely be good for me.

So much to do. More bees were about to be born, there was so much to manage in the hive’s growth, and all of that wasn’t even mentioning my pathetically slow progress with Mind.

Unlike last time, the nursery was practically empty. The only bees present were Belle, Beck, and that one warrior who had acted like the defacto leader of the sixteen.

“Hi there, has Bedivere decided on a name for you?” I asked the ramrod pack leader. Even though I had sort of snuck up on her, she didn’t jump in surprise or anything. Instead, she spun towards me and instantly bowed deeply.

Well. That’s no fun. And hold on, bowing? Didn’t you salute that one time? Be more consistent!

“Greetings, my queen. Certainly, Master Bedivere has entrusted me with the name ‘Beryl.’ I am honored to serve.”

She - Beryl - had stayed in her ridiculously deep bow during the entire introduction. Not only that, there was something about her language that felt… forced.

“You can be more casual if you like, Beryl. It’s not that big of a deal.”

“...If that would be preferable for you, my queen,” she said as she straightened up. Well, it was progress.

That being said, how the hell did Bedivere come up with Beryl’s name? I guess I could vaguely remember something about a mineral on Earth with a similar name, but the memory felt so hazy and imprecise.

It was no fair! Why did these dang bees have all my knowledge and could use it better? How did they remember info like that?! It’s not fair!

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

…Hm? Hold on, was it really that surprising? This was a world where everything revolved around a power literally called ‘Mind.’ Could I improve my memory with Mind? I didn’t see why not; Compartmentalization was probably way more complicated under the hood compared to something like that.

My brain was a whirlwind. There had to be a catch, right? How far could this ‘optimization’ go? A world where people or even animals have a sort of magic that could do stuff like that? Did that even make sense? In that case, wouldn’t such a world be advanced beyond belief? People would be able to optimize every aspect of their brains to break through even human potential, couldn’t they?

Was that what Vulch had done?

Something still felt off, though. I had no answers to my questions. Animals like the squirrels, capable of utilizing Mind, were basically unintelligent beasts. And on the human side, would a world like that have a need for simple guns or armor?

There was one thing that was most damning of all: Vulch’s family. His flock had been a bit odd. There was Vulch at the top, an incredibly intelligent and powerful creature. Then under him were, I guess, his top officers or something. Those were the largest vultures who also had strong Minds. And then, after that, was pretty much everything else; seemingly mindless vultures that did nothing but live and obey Vulch. Now the kicker: why wasn’t Vulch’s family as intelligent or powerful as him?

If it were as simple as I thought to manipulate your brain and thoughts, couldn’t Vulch teach his offspring to do it? Hell, couldn’t he manipulate their brains himself?

Something didn’t add up. There was something preventing individuals from reaching that potential beyond their potential. In fact, it implied Vulch hadn’t naturally developed his intelligence on his own. It just didn’t seem to be a feature of a ‘regular’ vulture here. It might be related to Vulch’s knowledge and previous experience with humans.

Or it could be something else entirely.

Well, in the end, none of that really mattered. Why? Cause I could be completely making shit up! Until I tried out these theories for myself, I couldn’t really come to any sort of conclusion.

“I think the eggs are hatching!”

What impeccable timing. I suppose testing these theories would have to wait until after the hatchings.

“Yay! Welcome, babies!”

…

…

“I said: Welcome, babies!”

…

…

Uh.

“Enno! Where are the babies!”

How should I know?! This was really strange; Queen hadn’t been wrong yet when it came to the hatching eggs. Her predictions had been 90% accurate 60% of the time!

It looked like she missed the mark for once. Inspecting the eggs more closely, I didn’t see anything unusual. They were still the normal color and shape of regular eggs. They did seem to be outgrowing the wax cells they sat in, though. The other hatchings started with the eggs exploding, and these babies looked ready to pop to me.

Even Beatrice and Belle had been ready. Wait a second. I was dragged out of bed for this!

“Oh dear. Oh no. Oh fuuuuunk,” Beatrice waved in a panic. Geez. She seemed more upset about this than being called ‘Trice.

“Mother, what is happening? I can feel that these eggs are ready to hatch, but they refuse!”

“Calm down, Beatrice. I wouldn’t say there’s cause for concern just yet. They still seem healthy. Maybe some bees just like to… take their time or something.”

One of the eggs started turning a mottled shade of green.

Oh shit oh fuck.

“Okay, okay, stay calm! Stay fucking calm!”

“Mother, the egg is green! Noooo!”

“Ahhhhhhhhhhh!”

It was chaos in the hive as the other three warrior eggs also started turning the same sickly shade of green. This was definitely a cause for concern!

I was surprised to see the only one not shrieking like a lunatic was Belle, who was instead curiously inspecting and poking the eggs.

“Belle, this is real bad! What the hell!”

“Mother, I am not yet sure if there is a need to panic,” she said, cocking her head, “The only eggs that changed were the warrior eggs. It seems like an odd coincidence.”

Okay. Alright. Belle was doing this correctly; we needed to calm down and analyze the situation. What she said was true; the only eggs that had turned green were the four warriors Bedivere had requested. My Link couldn’t connect to bees still in their birth stages, but I had some instinct from my egg-making Ability that made it clear. Or maybe it was a pheromone of some sort?

This was an odd coincidence. The 10 new Simple workers were only bulging slightly and still didn’t feel anywhere near ready to hatch. What was going on here?

Belle whizzed past me, startling me out of my thoughts. I turned in time to see her pin Beryl to the wall. How the hell was she overpowering an actual warrior?!

“You have something to do with this! You are far too calm!”

Huh? Sure enough, Beryl was staring at Beatrice with a blank expression. There wasn’t a trace of panic or concern to be found.

There was no way. Was I getting betrayed?

“It is not what you think, my family.”

The now familiar deep baritone of Bedivere cut through the tension as he appeared outside, peering into the nursery like a hungry kaiju.

I couldn’t handle this stress. What was going on?!

“Explain, Bedivere. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt, so you better hurry up with a good explanation,” I said slowly.

“I did not intend to hide anything from you, Mother. The actions I take are purely for the safety of the hive.”

“I said: make with the damn explanation.”

“Apologies. I have concocted an Ability to change the nature of a living being using the power of my Mind. It is highly resource intensive and cripples my capabilities with Mind. I decided the risk was worth the reward, and used this Ability on the four warriors I requested.”

…What the fuck? What was I supposed to think about that?

[Abilities:

* Transmutation Stinger

* Guard Authority (Lv. 2)

* Apid Vibration

* Stinger Fencing (Lv. 2)

]

[Mind: 6th Degree]

[Tapped Mind: 0% / 78.5%]

[Mind Locks:

* Life (5%)

* Strength (5%)

* Higher Senses (1%)

* Reinforced Link (10.5%)

]

There it was. A new Ability that replaced Venomous Stinger. One without the capability to level up, just like my Combined Mind.

[Transmutation Stinger:

Acquired by: Developing a hardened resolve to protect your family, you tirelessly used your Mind to discover a method of strengthening others

You have developed a method of empowering living creatures beyond the confines of their nature. This unique application of Mind caught the gods’ attention, and this Ability was granted.

Change the ‘nature’ of a living creature by sharing a piece of your Mind.

Each use of this Ability destabilizes the Mind of the user, making it more difficult to control. This is permanent.

In order to use this Ability, unbroken concentration is required; Otherwise, both the user and the receiver will experience backlash.

]

My apprehension transformed into a rage. I used a couple percentage points of Mind to grapple with Bedivere, but he provided no resistance, doing nothing but allowing himself to be thrown to the floor outside.

“How dare you tamper with my eggs using such a dangerous Ability?”

I floated out of the hive so I could hover directly over Bedivere as he lay pressed to the ground.

“Did you think I would appreciate this? Maybe give you a pat on the head and say ‘good job, buddy?’ Well?!”

A hand gripped my shoulder. I knew it was Beatrice. Was she trying to stop me?

“She is encouraging you to use less Mind. As he is not resisting, Bedivere may find it difficult to speak under the pressure of our Mind.”

Queen’s voice sounded… strange. Like something between worry, anger, and joy. She was right, though. I fully let up the pressure on Bedivere to allow him to speak.

If push came to shove, I could directly control him with the Link.

“Answer me, Bedivere. Did you think I would appreciate what you did? You say you didn’t intend to hide anything from me, yet you did.”

“I have no excuse. I do not regret my actions, and I was already resolved to accept any form of punishment for not notifying you.”

He straightened up, purposefully pointing his giant stinger away and displaying his three remaining limbs, “I have done this with the sole intention of protecting my family. The world is large. I have learned that since my birth. Even this forest is large enough to impede my duties, yet it is but a fraction of our future hive. Especially since such a large world will one day be our hive, I am limited in my capacity to guard the entirety of it, so we must have warriors to aid in my task.”

“But that’s exactly what we’re doing! I made as many warriors as you requested, and soon I’ll make even more. We could have dozens, hundreds of warriors in less than a week. I could even make them as strong as you- no, even stronger. There is not one bit of justification for this.”

“I disagree.”

Of all things, that shocked me. Why? Other bees had shown disagreement, right? Countered my opinions?

“Our knowledge is sparse. The capabilities of this world are a mystery. Is the Vulch weak in this world? Strong? What of the humans? The fact that the Vulch was contained in the forest suggests humans or other creatures are so numerous or powerful that the Vulch bode his time here, expanding his family. We are bees, Mother. Although we can be individually powerful, such as myself, it is an inefficient process. We could dominate with numbers in the thousands by cheaply creating huge numbers of warriors.”

He shook his head, “And yet, such a feat is impossible for now. We simply do not have access to the resources, infrastructure, or outside knowledge for that to be a viable strategy. Hence, empowering those we have.”

What Bedivere was saying was nothing short of disturbing and logical. Was his reasoning sound? Sure. And yet, I was uncomfortable with what he had done. Not enraged, but uncomfortable.

What enraged me was the fact he decided to do this. Without my knowledge, input, or agreement, he had developed a highly dangerous Ability and used it on other bees.

Betrayal. Even now, even in another life, it was here. It always was. This was absolutely unacceptable.

For this, Bedivere would suffer punishment. Severe punishment.