Seven bees, sitting in a circle. A bee whose antennae looked like glasses, giving off a serious secretary vibe. A massive thing with a bigger stinger. One beefy little bee with some serious stab wounds, floating in place. Two twins who did nasty things. The loudest and most melodic buzzer buzzing. And me.

“And we. I still cannot tell if you count us as one being or consider yourself a separate entity. And why the simple description? You could mention how you are distracting the important meeting with your spinning stick shtick.”

Oops. Queen was right about the spinning thing. I still hadn’t kicked that habit (not that I had tried to), but I kept being surprised by it. Considering I didn’t have pens, it was amazing that I somehow considered tree branches to be a sufficient substitute.

“I don’t much care about the habit, but the others have already learned to discern your stress levels through the habit. You know they are already affected by your mood thanks to the Link? And yet you compound that stress by spinning that thing at ridiculous speeds.”

“Are you certain, Bedivere?”

“Yes Beatrice. The more we learn about the mercenary companies, the more I am certain that they must be added to the agenda.”

I stopped spinning the stick, causing a noticeable silence. Huh? I hadn’t even noticed, but the force from the stick had been causing a clear whirling sound, and to make matters worse, everyone else just stopped talking.

“Ahem. Sorry about that everyone. My mind was wandering. We’re talking about the overall goals in the Yiwi operation, right?”

“I can begin again, no trouble, Mother,” Beatrice was quick to respond. Before I could stop her, she kept going.

“Our overall goal: covertly conquer Yiwi. In order to maintain our safe position, prevent retaliation, and get a foothold in the world at large, we intend to take control of the human city of Yiwi.”

“Right. I still think it’s extreme, but I ultimately agree with all of your decisions. Anyway, the idea is pretty simple, if I’m not wrong. Get in close to the Yiwi City Lord and attach a Linker Bee. Easy.”

“Easy in theory, Mother. As I was explaining to Beatrice, the Yiwi operation we had planned may not go far enough. Knowing that the mercenary companies are such threats, I think it best to include their leadership in the plan.”

“So, attach Linker Bees to the bosses in the mercenary companies? That makes sense. Hm, but aren’t there a lot of mercenary companies? I guess we could just take control of the four big ones Toh mentioned, but that seems like half-assing the plan. Not to mention… I feel like surprising mercenaries would be tougher than a government official…”

“Those are my primary concerns as well. What are your thoughts, Bedivere? If it were up to me, I would say every mercenary company should be acquired.”

“I agree. It would be unacceptable for a rowdy, small company of mercenaries to cause an uprising. I only hope that we can manage that many minds at once.”

Beck heartily spoke up, expressing confidence in our ability to maintain an iron fist over the humans.

“Well said, Beck. However, I have also been considering what you mentioned, Mother. My warriors are not, as far as I have observed, quite adapted to stealth. We possess some natural advantages. For instance, the Linkers, being small, are well-suited for stealth. Also, bees are generally not perceived as a threatening presence. But as mercenaries are in dangerous business… sneaking up on them may be difficult.”

“Well, at least there’s one mercenary boss we can easily surprise.”

My advisors looked at me with a questioning look. Hm? Hmmmmm? What’s this? Did I… did I just out-think these guys?!

“Only a human would think so deceptively, my friend.”

“Ah! Brilliant, Mother! Listen to this Bedivere. We can use the invisible human as an agent!”

Beatrice realized quickly, but I couldn’t help but feel some pride. Sure, maybe it was underhanded, but I was just happy to be strategizing on the same level as the bees who had laid out a plan to conquer the world.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“You guys have also got to think about this even more underhandedly. Toh isn’t just valuable because he can turn invisible. No, he’s got the best kind of stealth you could possibly have. Yelah and her group have the same. They have the power of being familiar. Jill Yemonto recruited Toh twenty years ago. Twenty years of trust and reliability. She would never expect him to be carrying a tiny mind-control device. Same for Yelah, though she doesn’t have the same level of familiarity Toh does. Best of all? We can make them carry the Linker Bees without them even knowing. So they would be betraying their leaders without them even knowing!”

Now was the time to be smug! With tactics like these, who needs enemies? Finally, I could contribute to the merciless planning!

“Ah…”

“Oh my…”

“Mother…”

Hello?! Why are you looking at me like that?! You think you guys are saints or something?

“I think it is the same reason they did not plan around our humans in the first place. For them, betraying your hive is unthinkable. Knowingly or unknowingly. See how Bedivere looks particularly uncomfortable?”

Oh god. Gods. Well, that’s why I’m here, I guess. At the very least, they might keep these sorts of things in mind for the future. What was this feeling? Guilt? Why did it feel like I was just destroying the questionable innocence of these bees? Enough!

“Well, let’s move on. Just keep that in mind, you guys.”

“Right. Of course. Moving on, I think everyone should discuss their own concerns if they exist. I can begin, as my troops are the most numerous in the small advance force. They are mainly a defensive force to prevent damage to our members, as well as discourage more teams of humans from storming our forest. There is an interesting case in Belphegora. I will admit, I am still… unsure about the capabilities of the Valkybees. Belphegora has impressive Mind capabilities, and of the four, she has the most advantageous skill-set. I hope she awakens abilities that will directly impact the operation.”

Bedivere apparently didn’t have much more to say, because he nudged Beryl, who seemed surprised to even be here.

“Go ahead Beryl.”

“Uah? Er, of course, sir. Ahem. Specific traits and capabilities of the five other warriors taking part in the operation are, well, unremarkable. They are simple warriors with simple power, but I have confidence in Bend’s skills and faith in the others. Belphegora will probably be the stand out combat force. I wouldn’t say the warriors are stealth masters, but other than Bend, I do not think it will be impossible for them to accompany Mr. Ben and his crew in the city. Though, if it’s determined that Belphegora and Bend aren’t enough to guard Beckham, they can certainly do so.”

After Beryl finished talking, she backed up with a small nod from Bedivere. She had always been his favorite, so I suppose he was invested in her growth as a leader. I didn’t want to say anything, but after Beryl’s injury, it was clear that Bedivere doubted her ability to be a frontliner. It warmed my heart to see that didn’t mean he was giving up on her. Far from it. But would she be able to step up to the task? I had no doubt about her leadership skills as a commander, seeing the overwhelming success of our skirmishes and hive defense. But as a manager? Only time would tell.

“Thanks you two,” I said. “Unless Toh and Yelah are weaker than other mercenaries, I believe our small force can handle combat. Provided they don’t get dog piled, but that shouldn’t be an issue if the covert stuff works out. How about you, Beck?”

Beck’s side of things was more focused. Specifically, about Beckham’s position as a glorified wi-fi router.

Beckham probably had the most important role of the lot. If it weren’t for the fact that he had to go along with Yelah to actually make the operation possible, it’s possible an advance force wouldn’t have been made in the first place.

Beck expressed satisfaction with Beckham’s performance so far. The limit on the Linker Bee range wasn’t super clear, but it was reasonable to assume they had a similar effective range of the Link as a whole. Of course, a steady and sturdy connection was far more important when it came to the Linker Bees. But Beckham was easily acting as a relay with myself and Beck alike, so that probably wouldn’t be a concern.

As for the rest of the operation? Beckham would be the key figure in making sure that the connections would be stable and made instantly. That was essential. When they were stung, Yelah and Toh reacted quickly; if the order to stop the swatting came too late, there would be major consequences.

“Do you think we might have to test Beckham’s speed? Maybe use some of Toh’s troops, something less risky?”

Beck agreed, and had apparently already made plans for such a test. Guess I couldn’t win them all. All that was left on that end was to send over a slew of Linker bees.

Speaking of, there was one thing left to discuss. Well, there was Ben’s group, but they were Ben’s group. Explorers with loud voices, but ordinary, small bees all the same. To the humans in Yiwi, their loud voices would be heard as buzzing at worst. No, the true last thing was actually an emergency.

“Bella, it’s about time we discuss the issues you’ve encountered.”

“Yeah… Well, sorry to tell you guys, but there’s no more food easily available in the forest.”

The bees who hadn’t heard the news yet murmured with concern. It was a pretty alarming piece of news, but I didn’t think it was as dire as it seemed at first glance.

“So you mean there are no more corpses? Would that mean we now have to hunt to acquire food?”

“Yes, if you’re a meathead like yourself, Bedivere. But not all of us just want to kill some stupid squirrels to eat. Belle and mine’s honey is what we really need to continue developing, and meat works fine, but it’s just annoying. So many steps and energy wasted. Now, Ma’s knowledge has revealed something incredibly interesting to me. There is something that may exist in this world known only as ‘flowers’.”

When the f word came up, the other bees’ eyes shone. None of them seemed to know what it meant, but some instinctual drive seemed to flare up in them. Even Bedivere apparently forgot about being called a meathead.

“How sad. Flowers were once abundant in this forest, but I suppose these young bees would have never even heard of them. How… sniff… how sad!”

Sniff?

“Yup! Fl-ow-ers! Magical things that store essence we can turn into honey easily. No need to hunt, no need to stress. All it would take is for my team to fly around, gather the essence from the flowers, and bring the stuff back here to turn into an abundant source of food!”

“And where can we find these flowers? I just gave a moment to search Mother’s knowledge, and flowers are living plants akin to trees. Does that not imply all the flowers in this forest were destroyed?”

“Yup! You’re fast Bea. Well, I have a theory. The human city was close to the forest, right? And flowers are the best thing, probably. So it makes sense that the humans would take some flowers for themselves. It’s simple. We take the flowers.”

That all seemed reasonable to me. We had already planned for Bella to journey to Yiwi with the Linker Bees in search of food, anyway. I wasn’t too keen on having that many bees in the city at once, but it was a bit of an emergency.

To me, the plan had been laid out well. Even considering some recent revelations, all it took was some minor adjustments. Of course, everything had to go smoothly for me to feel at ease.

Speaking of smoothly, there were some things I wanted to iron out. Before the advance force arrived at Yiwi, I wanted to take care of any loose threads so I could spend that time calmly observing a new place.

Sending Toh on his way, bolstering our warrior count, and of course making Linker Bees. But there was one more thing. And for that, I would have to turn towards my Mind.