Bella’s little scheme was scary. Scary in the way an unmoving insect might be. Would it fly at me? Scurry away? Or would the blasted thing just stay there, prolonging the confrontation?

Actually, I take that back. An insect was way scarier than some attention-seeking plan. Bella’s idea would ultimately help the hive anyway, so I had nothing to complain about. Well, besides the fact that Beatrice’s lack of involvement introduced an element of risk. Bella was fairly intelligent as far as I had observed, but she was still nowhere near Beatrice’s level of effortless ability.

Oh wait. I’m an insect now, aren’t I? Guess I shouldn’t be putting my fellow buggers down.

I internally shook my head. While listening to Bella’s little mustache-twirling planning sesh, I had been hard at work developing a healing Ability. And it was going well. Too well…

I could feel the power coursing through me. Unimaginable depths of might sprang forth from the recesses of my mental realm, allowing me to perform feats beyond imagination. I couldn’t even imagine the unimaginable-

“Oh, enough of that.”

I started, making Beatrice flinch. Queen speaking up was a bit unexpected, so I got somewhat startled. Anyways! Before I was so rudely interrupted, I had been trying to develop a healing Ability, to no avail. Beatrice could attest; she sat there for hours while I spat up eggs and tried to create a new Ability, and could practically see the results of my failed experiments. Well, failed experiments related to Abilities. The eggs were doing just fine, which seemed to satisfy her.

“Are you struggling, Mother? It is alright. Abilities are something we still do not fully understand, and, in my opinion, are something of a crutch. You are powerful and skilled enough to perform any action we could possibly need without something as limiting as an Ability,” my aide said, pushing up her antennae-glasses like some kind of smarty pants.

“I didn’t think you were so simple-minded, Beatrice,” I said back. “Abilities have something unique about them, I thought that much was clear. If they weren’t important, then at the very least, humans wouldn’t be limited to one.”

Beatrice didn’t even have the grace to look embarrassed, instead only scoffing at the mention of humans.

“Humans are limited only because they have unfair advantages. They are too great in number, and they have odd adaptability capabilities. If anything, their limitation makes them seem even more inferior than they already are. Their species wouldn’t need so many unnatural crutches if they were just better, like bees.”

Hey! Who the hell are you?! What happened to my sweet little Beatrice who always agreed and kowtowed at what I said? Sure, she got a little defiant sometimes, but in the end she couldn’t help but grovel.

Is this the rebellious teenage phase?

“Of course, I concede that you are correct, as usual, Mother. Abilities do indeed posses some strange uniqueness, and they might be more important than I gave them credit for. I did not express myself properly, I think. What I was truly meant to say is that there is an over-reliance on Abilities, especially among those outside the hive. And it has begun to infect those within our ranks.”

Hm. When she said it like that, I could see where she was coming from. Well played, my aide.

While Beatrice was right, it didn’t change the fact that I needed to make more Abilities for myself. Not creating them was just an unnecessary limitation I was imposing on my power. So I would keep working on it, especially this healing Ability. I couldn’t get it out of my head now. But I would like to say something to the rest of the bees about Beatrice’s concerns, because they did have merit in one way or another. Even now I could feel the burning passion flaring up near Yiwi, coming from miss Bella and her desire for attention. What sort of Ability would feelings like that produce?

I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to neglect you or anything, Bella, stuff just kinda… happened?

“There are visitors coming.”

And what’s got you so talkative all of a sudden? I poked at Queen to get her to speak some more when the trembling form of Beau appeared in the ‘doorway.’ I beckoned her forth even as I shoved Queen’s Mind avatar to provoke a response, which she pointedly ignored.

“…Mother?”

“Right, Beau. I’ve been meaning to speak with you. I’ve been keeping a close eye on your work, and I’ve gotta say, I’m impressed. You were quick to grasp many of the concepts I sent over about the nature and behavior of electricity. But even before that, you were doing some interesting stuff. Mind telling me a bit about the beginning? What inspired some of your inventions, like the electrical bullets for example?”

With that little prompt, Beau began gushing a tirade of explanations. She talked about seeing Belial shoot his guns, about her first time seeing the electrical crystals, and about the encounter with Toh, of all things. On that last point, she mentioned how easy it would be to defeat Toh or Beelzebub if they were unable to move, which made her think about the electricity. She pulled up mental diagrams and floated various materials in the air. A faintly glowing bullet hovered a little too close to Beatrice, who made to swat it away.

“… and the electhingery STOP!” Beau shouted, stopping Beatrice in her tracks. I could feel a flame of indignation rise in Beatrice, but I quickly squashed it. Beau was the expert here, after all, and Beatrice would only be inconveniencing her with accidents. Considering the merits of Beau’s work, she was already rising to a powerful position within the hive’s politics.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Or not. Hive politics weren’t really a thing. Except in certain cases, like the Valkybees and Bedivere. Or the original Hive Five. And for Beatrice herself.

Oh my gods, are there hive politics?!

“I… apologize, Beau. You are the expert here. But please keep those things away from me. That electricity is simply abhorrent.”

“EXACTLY!” Beau shouted. I must’ve made a face at the volume, because she got real shy after glancing at me.

“I mean. Exactly, miss Beatrice. Your aversion to the electhingery is something not unique to yourself. In fact, every living creature, bee or human or squirrel is instinctively compelled to avoid it. Humans especially seem to have developed some sort of… what would it be called? They collectively decided to hate it.”

“Uh, stigma?”

“EXA- er, exactly Mother. The humans all have a shared stigma against electhingery. And yet, a human’s Ability created the crystals so crucial to my work. And that stigma is why my work is so important! My good friend Belial graciously tested my original, primitive bullets in Yiwi to great success. Not only did they successfully deliver a shocking payload to the victim, but they act as powerful projectiles in their own right. As if that weren’t all, metal.”

Beau beamed. Beatrice looked confused. Oh Beatrice, I suppose I am ahead of you once again! Your rebellious streak won’t help you against the real world.

“The only reason you aren’t as confused as she is because you already know Beau’s thoughts.”

Before I could retort against that baseless and frankly disappointing claim, Queen giggled and turned away again, back to ignoring me. What was up with her?!

“I’m afraid I don’t follow, Beau. Are you explaining something?” Beatrice said slowly. I could practically taste the reluctance in her voice. Beatrice, outsmarted?! It was devastating. In reality, she wasn’t being outsmarted at all. If Beau were more clear, Beatrice wouldn’t have a problem understanding the explanation. But Beau’s brain just worked differently, I guess. Must be an inventor thing.

“Metal, miss Beatrice. Metal! Humans adore metal for some reason, which is the crux of this new electhingery technology of ours. Metal clothes, metal jewelry. Heck, metal houses even. Everything they make is metal. It’s no wonder they struggle to accept electhingery with all that metal around. No wax, as it were.”

“No… wax?”

“No wax.”

Once again, Beatrice looked confused. And her indignation from before was staring to turn into something else. Something… sinister. It was good for Beatrice to have a worthy rival among the bees, in my estimation. She had become a bit too complacent about being the smartest and most annoying know-it-all in the hive.

“What she means, Beatrice, has to do with the properties of electricity. Humans use metal in most everything, including clothing and jewelry, which is always on their person and close to their bodies. Since many metals are fantastic conductors of electricity, the human body can be electrocuted far more easily. So you could say the humans of this world have a natural weakness to electricity because of their overuse of metal. This naturally extends to bullets. Of course, I doubt all the metal they use is highly conductive. As for what she means by ‘no wax’… Well, I’ll let her explain. Could you give a basic rundown on your techniques, Beau?”

The smaller bee had been nodding along with my explanation, so when I tossed the ball back to her, she seemed stunned. But her insatiable appetite won out against her surprise.

“Of course! I’ll simplify it for you, miss Beatrice. The wax we create is the opposite of the humans’ metal. It doesn’t conduct electricity that well at all. Resist! Because of that, we can use it in all sorts of neat ways. For instance, take the bullets. Belial uses the human guns, which are made purely from metal. Like Mother said, not all the metal is so conductive, but the guns are conductive enough. So if the bullets were used in their raw form… boom! Fried Belial. So I first encase the bullet in a special shell of wax, which is discarded when the bullet is fired from the gun. Even my most primitive bullets managed that much. And the bullets themselves are metal, which I’ve tested to ensure is as conductive as possible, to deliver maximum shock. But I think I can make them even better. In fact, I’ve already done so!”

As she kept jabbering on, I was trying my best to restrain a steaming Beatrice. I think it was the ‘I’ll simplify it for you’ comment. Which, by the way, was so untrue. How could you say that then throw around jargon like ‘conductivity’?! Beau didn’t mean it maliciously, but I don’t think Beatrice cared much about intent.

Hm. Maybe an intellectual rival wasn’t such a good thing after all.

“Aha! Well, that’s all great stuff, Beau, but I think we should get to the point. Let’s see your most recent work, if you wouldn’t mind.”

“Of course I wouldn’t mind, master Mother!”

When prompted, Beau made three objects float above the others. Two were fairly standard-looking bullets, but the third was a bit odd. She went on to explain, which I sort of tuned out. What? I already know all of what she’s saying. I just thought it would be motivating for her to show off the fruits of her labor.

And I was right. I could feel the excitement mounting even as she explained. The bullets, she lectured, were simply improved versions of the electrifying bullets Belial used in Yiwi. The differences between them were in their purpose. One was more focused on delivering devastating electric shocks, while the other was designed for power. The second was a bit scary-looking, all big and aerodynamic and stuff. But the first one was way scarier in function.

As for the final object, it actually wasn’t made for combat. Which very nearly surprised me. If I didn’t know better, I might think Beau was some sort of mad scientist who craved stronger and stronger weapons. But instead, the final item was something much more mundane.

A motor.

“And what, pray tell, do we need something like this for?” Beatrice asked. Well, I couldn’t blame her. Although I called the object a motor, it was more like an extremely simplistic engine powered by a crystal. The device was pretty big, and clearly couldn’t produce enough power to justify its size. It was also cobbled together, with pieces and bits of metal stuck together using wax.

“I don’t know! I just thought it might be neat.”

It really didn’t serve much purpose by itself, but it was an interesting exercise, nonetheless. I didn’t stop her from making it, because why would I? It was something she felt like making, and of all the jobs in the hive, hers was the least urgent.

“I see… But if your projects are as important as Mother seems to believe, you should put more emphasis on efficiency. It is all well and good to do things you want to do, but please consider the hive’s future,” Beatrice said, her scowl fading. She pushed her imaginary glasses up again. Was this a new habit?

“Hm. Based on everything you’ve explained so far, then containing this electhingery - excuse me, electricity — is extremely important. The crystals are an amazing vessel, but they tend to leak energy too easily, based on the need to trap electricity using wax. And I see you ran into this problem with your motor project. Perhaps you could build upon this makeshift fix you implemented to create an improved storage system.”

Excuse me?! Both Beau and my jaws dropped to the floor. I sensed Beau’s mind racing, immediately dreaming up plans and designs to implement Beatrice’s suggestion of an electricity storage system. She wasn’t even paying attention to anything else anymore.

But I was more concerned with Beatrice! That freakazoid already adapted to unfamiliar knowledge and was giving thoughtful suggestions?! Just a moment ago, she seemed clueless about all of Beau’s work, and now…

Well, I guess you can’t discount a genius.

“Heyho, Mama! Oh, hey Beatrice, Beau,” Bess loudly proclaimed as she suddenly buzzed into the room. Before she could say anything else, Beau shoved past her and rushed deeper into the central hive, to her workshop just beyond the nursery.

“…Do I smell that bad?”

I laughed at that. Well. I knew it was coming, but Bess’ delivery was genuinely good. Some things just can’t be conveyed in thought.

“Hello Bess. Don’t mind Beau, I just happened to give her a bit of… inspiration,” Beatrice easily said. Did she have to show off such an unsightly grin while she said that? Someone might get the wrong idea.

“In any case, I assume you’re here to talk about-“

“”Ma! Kill her!”” A pair of voices shouted from outside. I peeked out the window to find Beryl and Beelzebub smashing their heads against each other as they trudged towards my chambers. Beryl was nowhere near a match for Beelzebub, so the more grizzled warrior was easily pushed down-

Or not? I was shocked to see Beryl hold her own against the fury of Beelzebub’s forehead, although she was plainly struggling. It must be the product of her new Ability…

Hold on. Why was my room becoming so crowded? Aren’t I a freaking queen?! That’s like, an important person! My room’s not a freaking hangout!

“And with that, you insult true royalty everywhere.”