Let’s see. If one were to, say, remove all foreign contaminants from their body, about how long would it take?

The answer: I can’t be bothered to finish this train of thought because I have been experiencing the most awful few hours of my life throwing up blood and other stuff with no signs of slowing.

“Mother, please! This Lock is doing terrible things to you! I implore you to turn off. I will… I will figure out a way to remove the sickness!”

Beatrice had something of a point, but that didn’t stop me. Suck cost and all that. Cause I mean, it was working.

Yes, as dangerous and horrific as the treatment was, it was definitely working. Why was it taking so long? Why did it suck so much? For that, I had absolutely no idea. But as every moment passed, disregarding the weakness and exhaustion I felt from expelling what must have surely been a decent portion of my actual body weight, I felt less disoriented and ill.

Ironic to say that, considering the cure.

Eventually, though, the steady stream of awful began to subside. And less blood was mixed in! Yay!

“It must be terrible to have a body. I am not physically present, but even I can feel the effects of the cure.”

Not for the first time, I questioned whether Queen actually got the short end of the stick in our situation. Must be nice, not having to vomit every time something mildly inconveniences you. No pain from injury must be nice too, though I hadn’t actually experienced many wounds myself.

“Ah, yes. It must be so nice to have no control of yourself. And being unable to taste honey. Oh, and don’t forget that your every action and entire reputation depends on a grouch who can barely focus on important matters.”

Okay, ouch. Grouch? Really?

“Oh, thank goodness! Are you feeling better, Mother?”

“Never better, Beatrice. Boy, I sure wandered far, didn’t I? No matter; Beatrice, I’m going to send you a B-mail with information about the cure I devised. I could perfect it to administer to the other sick bees, but I think it could use your help. Plus, we’re still in the middle of the Yiwi Operation.”

I had information about the Operation and our Linked humans on speed dial from the B-boxes, so there was no need to ask for Beatrice to report or anything. Thankfully, the past few hours had been fairly uneventful when it came to our humans, and Beatrice had finished a preliminary map of the city already, thanks to Ben’s scouting.

Also thankfully, it seemed like Toh’s team was already on the verge of arriving. Apparently Beatrice had urged Becky to hurry things up, forcing both the small army of Linker Bees and Toh’s trio to speed up.

Which meant that soon, we would need concrete Link targets.

On the other hand, there were some things that I found less… exciting. For one thing, Grehn’s investigation in a library proved entirely fruitless. I did get to see the library itself, which was pretty interesting. It was a decently sized building, covered even more heavily in flowers. Once inside, a dais stood near the entrance holding a huge metal cylinder. A big scroll that acted as a directory. From there, it was basically like any other library, except with metallic shelves full of equally metallic scrolls rather than books.

But all of that didn’t matter. Skimming nearly the whole place, asking librarians, and checking the directory had resulted in next to no new information about elves. Only one scroll even mentioned them, in a section about crackpot theories and disgraced scholars.

Vlugh also had no luck getting in further with the Yiwi Fighters. We knew more about their beliefs and ideals, but no sign of a headquarters or leadership. Although, those three I had seen when I was wandering with Grehn had shown up again. If we couldn’t directly go to the Fighters’ leaders, then those three might be a good stepping stone.

“Mother, this… I do not know if our bees will be able to replicate this Lock. Perhaps some of the more powerful among us, but…” Beatrice said. Seems Queen already sent the B-mail while I was thinking.

“Actually, it was done automatically. Sort of. I tasked the prototype CBU with sending it. You see, I spent quite a bit of time making sure that the contents of a… B-mail… could be automatically packaged and sent without-“

“Which is exactly why I need your help, Beatrice. You’re powerful too, so you might be able to replicate the Lock to some degree. I just have way too much leeway to work with. You could optimize it better.”

“But. The Operation…”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Don’t worry! Of course, I’ll help with the Lock as well. Not gonna leave you to do that yourself. Plus, I’m also heavily involved with the Operation. No worries!”

“Okay…”

Hey. Sound more reassured.

_________

I yawned, looking out of my window. As usual, the sky was gloomy and interspersed with dull lightning. What would it take for this damn forest to come back? At least my Sprinkler Project combined with Yiwi’s flowers might be able to do something. But unless some rain came, the forest would stay stagnant. What had those freaking knights done to this place? How?

I yawned again. It did make sense. After tasking Beatrice with optimizing the curative Lock, I had also helped. After some scolding from Queen. Hours of experimenting and banging my head against the ground in frustration was surely a one-way ticket to exhaustion town.

“Don’t forget the fact that we were just incredibly ill. And your insistence on constantly observing the Operation.”

Beatrice and Queen weren’t exactly pleased either. At some point, Beatrice decided that the optimization was going well enough that I should have gotten back to my most important duty. Egg-laying. Unfortunately, we no longer had an infinite food supply at our doorstep. So that was out of the picture.

And for that, I was thankful! Don’t get me twisted, I had gotten used to Egg-Laying by now. The disgust was pretty much a thing of the past.

But come on! I had spent the better part of this entire day expunging material from my body, if you know what I mean. Give me a break!

“Whatever. Maybe you should just hurry up and put more focus on retrieving Yiwi’s flowers.”

What was I supposed to do about that? We were already piling them up! I mean, look!

“Hey there, Belphegora.”

The bulbous Valkybee started, guiltily looking upwards. Despite that, I could see small piles of flowers scattered around the floor, mostly thanks to the other bees that were behind Belphegora.

“Ah, Mother! How good it is to hear from you. I trust you are recovering from your illness?”

“Yes, I’m feel- Is that cake?”

When Belphegora happened to glance down, I saw quite a sight. Of course, I had been seeing a similar sight thanks to the other bees, but seeing it from her perspective was something else.

Before the Yiwi Operation advance team sat a feast. Mounds of cakes and pastries sat on the forest floor alongside rolls of bread, raw and cooked meats, and tons and tons of druids. Grilled druid on a stick, fried druid, druid tentacles. So much druid.

“What’s going on here? How did you guys get so much food?”

“Ah, you see,” Belphegora swallowed. She had taken a massive bite of cake while I was busy being shocked.

“The Ben Squad’s observations have been nothing short of incredible. And edible. I have been requesting that they bring some… samples for us to test. Along with flowers, of course, but we have no idea what to do with those.”

Flabbergasted. That was a good word. To describe me, that is.

The other bees, I could now see, were happily munching away at shreds of food, with no thought spared for decorum. No food was wasted, of course. But what the hell? These guys sure were having a fun time, weren’t they?

“Blasted fools! They should bring some of that food back! We need to lay more eggs!”

Will you quit it?! Sure, getting tons of food straight from Yiwi would be nice, but our logistics aren’t amazing at the moment. To be fair, though, mounds of free food would definitely be great. Once Bella was feeling better, her gatherers could be sent out alongside her to be a small logistic network between Yiwi and the hive.

Of course, doing that while Yiwi was an active threat wouldn’t be ideal.

“Are you being careful when you steal this food? You realize that the entire Operation could be jeopardized?”

“Of course, of course! I have personally ensured that Benita and Bennet are informed of the proper way to steal food from the humans. They have not even been noticed once.”

“Be more careful. The cavalry is arriving soon, and until we have Yiwi’s upper echelon under our control, then everything is on the line. Put aside your gluttony for a second, will you?!”

Even though I was trying to convey the seriousness of the situation to her, Belphegora just kept eating. At least she had the grace to look ashamed.

“I apologize. I will make sure that all risks are minimized. No, eliminated.”

Fine enough. As long as the Operation could continue smoothly, I was fine with the bees, who really had nothing to do, trying to contribute to something for the hive’s benefit.

“I don’t think you handled that very well.”

Well what was I supposed to say? It didn’t matter, not as long as it would get handled. I had shown Queen our big new collection of flowers, so I turned my attention elsewhere. I yawned again and made my ‘presence’ known in the sick room. Things weren’t looking good. Bella and Belle, the first to fall ill, barely moved. Their appearance was sickly, their colors graying.

They were dying.

“Hey. You two. Do you think you’d be able to… to do this?”

I sent them a B-mail with information about the Cure Lock. I hadn’t thought to give it a proper name. But it was a cure. For removing bad things from yourself. Not all, but the ones that were killing our bees.

“I… I think it is possible. For me, at least. Bella… please, can you do this?”

“…”

Bella was less powerful when it came to Mind, that much I had known for ages. Not to mention their current weakness. Was it worth the risk? I just didn’t know.

“I’ll do it,” I said. Hm? I hadn’t expected that.

“Thank you, Mother.”

That wasn’t part of the plan. I was exhausted, continuing to yawn repeatedly in my own room, while the sick bees were in their own separate room some distance away from the central hive. There was no way I could manually use the Cure on someone else without risk of complications. Did I have a choice?

“Mother. Please. It is too great of a risk for you to do this yourself. Allow me to use it instead. Rest.”

Beatrice? Where…?

She was already there, opening the sick door. No! What if you hurt them?!

“What if you hurt them? You already know that you are in no condition to perform such a delicate and dangerous procedure. Who knows how this power will affect others without our unique state of being? You also know that Bella and Belle’s condition is terrible. Our optimizations today made sure that bees like Beatrice could use the Cure on themselves, which would be the easiest and most reliable way for the Cure to work without fail. But the optimizations also mean that Beatrice should easily be able to use the Cure manually. Further, she is nowhere near as exhausted as yourself.”

If she hurts them… if she hurts them…

…

Won’t she get hurt?

“Prepare yourselves. I have experienced some of what this Cure has to offer, and it is not pleasant.”

“Wait!”

Suddenly, Bella and Belle began to spasm, alarming the other sick bees. Beatrice’s face was scrunched in concentration, and I could feel the strain her Mind was going through.

She was going to suffer Mind Collapse at this rate.

“I’ll-“

“ENNO. Do NOT break her concentration now! She has already begun to focus.”

Fuck. Frantically, I tried to think of what to do. In a mere instant, I tasked B-boxes with thinking of a solution, too.

Maybe I could… enhance her Mind through the Link. What would that do to her concentration?

Bella’s wings wrinkled as she expelled blood and mystery fluid. Belle’s antennas stiffened. How much time had passed? Fuck.

“It’s working. Don’t worry, it’s working.”

Queen’s words were hollow. Empty reassurance. But Bella and Belle were still alive. They were groaning and twitching, and most importantly, I could still feel their Minds.

Then suddenly, it ended.

How long had it been? I realized with a start that the already gloomy sky was completely dark. But it had already been late. How much time really passed? How were Bella and Belle?

At some point, Beatrice had moved them outside of the sick room to prevent the place from becoming a worse mess. Both of them were wrinkly and gray.

Unmoving.

No. NO. THEY MUST BE ALIVE.

Then they gasped for air.