I watched as dust replaced the cloud of smoke hovering over the ring as the combatants crashed into the ground. What a fight! Thanks to Ben’s sight, I was able to absorb every last detail in all its HD glory, with mental commentary from experienced fighters like Grehn and Vlugh. Somehow, even though the majority of it was with invisible psychic power, the fight was thoroughly entertaining to watch with a snack.

As for the results? It was no mystery to me. Follo rushed into the ring while Grehn watched. As the dust cleared, they saw two inhuman creatures upside-down in the ground, heads stuck in the mud like an ostrich or something. It was cartoony in a way.

With a prod from me, Grehn spoke as loudly as possible, which for him wasn’t saying much. “The Battle has been decided. Challenger Beatrice is the winner.”

Follo didn’t argue as he pulled his Lowchief out of the ground. If nothing else, they were honorable sorts. The final blow was seriously insane, with Beatrice putting her all into pushing Feltan down! And Feltan! I have no idea what his Ability did there, but I think it had something to do with his shadow, considering Ben noticed it disappear earlier.

A lingering sense of greed flared up. I wanted those Abilities. The smoke thing that made Beatrice passive was simply great, and even if I didn’t know what the shadow did, it was still cool. They were unlike other Abilities I had seen, especially the smoke with its mental effects.

When Feltan woke up, I was going to Link him. I need to. The agreement stated that the fernen would be subservient to us, but they didn’t know what that entailed. How could they argue with the results of the Battle? Sure, it only stated that the agreement was for three months, but such a thing didn’t need to be honored once they were all Linked. At the very least, convincing them to be Linked initially shouldn’t be too tough. They were very serious about these Battles and the results. I had some sneaking suspicions about the past, where apparently a fernen Highchief bested a human, presumably from Yiwi. Whatever the details of that agreement were, the fernen were still taking it seriously after a long time.

“No. Don’t Link the fernen yet.”

Queen! Hey wait a second, what’s all this, then? You stay silent, come in with one or two comments out of nowhere, then leave me alone again to hide in your hidey-hole? And now come in with some nonsensicality? What’s the deal?

“I… I suppose we must talk. But first finish things here with the fernen. Don’t Link them right now, though. Please.”

Fine. Only ‘cause it’s you.

I tuned into Yelah’s body that had been hiding nearby and walked out, covered head to toe in mud. “Alrighty! Now that everything’s settled and done with, you guys can be subservient to us. As for what that entails, I’ll need to discuss with your boss later. He seems a bit… indisposed at the moment. My suggestion would be to take these humans with you to make things more clear for the rest of your tribe. Toodeloo!”

Grehn’s face had soured when Yelah appeared, but Vlugh continued to wear a neutral expression. The fernen, on the other hand, looked positively freaked the fuck out. Follo was the only one who nodded, his face hard. I didn’t miss the spark of fear in his eyes, though. Somehow, they knew that Yelah’s situation was a bit different from the other humans. In fact, they were probably wondering right about now about what sort of bullshit they had gotten themselves into.

Without much resistance, the fernen motioned for the humans to follow them, leaving the Ben Squad and a bunch of random warriors to tend to ostrich Beatrice.

Of course, that wouldn’t fly.

“Ben, follow them. That’s your mission right now. Leave Beatrice to the warriors.”

With a tiny salute, Ben buzzed off in the direction the fernen and humans had gone, followed by his two compatriots. As for why? Well it wasn’t surveillance, there wasn’t much point to that. Yelah and her pals were eyes enough for me. No, it was because of the Link.

I thought as I watched a warrior gingerly pull Beatrice from the mud. His Mind vaguely felt like he was trying to hold her far away, then let go as soon as possible. Did he think Beatrice was a hungry tiger or something? Since Yiwi, I had taken care to learn more about the Link. It was kinda important, after all. Well, when I say me, I mean I told Beatrice to take care of it, and she in turn told Beck. And what they found was some important stuff. Before, I had sent off Becky and Beckham to Yiwi as mediums, just in case the humans needed a stronger Link connection to keep them in tow. And it did work. But it was also overkill, in the case of Yelah’s team.

What Beck learned is that the Link’s stability isn’t contingent on distance, but the strength was. What that meant is that the Link’s stability would never waver, no matter how far someone went. But if somebody went far enough, the Link would be weak, and the connection could be broken more easily, though it needed to actually be broken. So basically, if Ben wanted, he could travel to the other side of the continent without a problem. He would never want to break the Link, so as long as he was careful, he could communicate with us no problem. Plus, he had a bit more Mind allotted to make the Link stronger. It was mostly to improve the benefits he got from me.

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Bit overpowered, if you ask me.

Of course, the issue came with people who aren’t so happy about being Linked. For whatever reason, the Kin Link allows me to create that psychic connection with my kin before they’re even born. But as far as I’ve found, I need to use Linker Bees to create that connection with others. And from what Beck found, that creates a bit of complexity. After all, the thread isn’t a solid connection between my Mind and the Mind of a bee, like Ben. Instead, it's a thread connecting myself and a Linker. And the Linker sort of injects the thread into the host’s Mind.

The results? Annoying. I’ve found that my power over their System stuff is somewhat limited. I can access it, but it takes tremendous effort and concentration, way more than is worthwhile. So increasing the strength of the Link ends up being more trouble than it's worth, at least for each Linked individual. Some exceptions, like Yelah, can be worth the hassle.

The worst part? The Linkers are extremely inflexible. Every ounce of their being is taken up by the [Linker Stinger] Ability, so there’s no room to increase the strength of the thread. But being in proximity to another bee helps, so my medium idea did have merit. That bee’s Mind can temporarily serve to improve the strength of the Linker’s thread, through some sort of means. I didn’t really understand it fully. It was like some sort of signal boosting mechanism or something. For small groups, like Yelah’s, the job could be done by a random bee with a solid Link connection. So here, Ben and his crew could tag along with the humans and fernen to make sure the Linkers’ connection was strong enough.

In the case of large groups, like Yiwi? Well, we hadn’t tested it, but Beck was convinced it was a bad idea to take half measures. Hence, leaving Beckham behind to shoulder the burden. This was the second method of strengthening the Link: routing. Rather than the Linkers’ threads being directly connected to me, who was far away, they would instead connect to the Link expert Beckham close by. That way, Beckham could reinforce the strength of the threads through proximity, while requiring a bit more Mind from me to make everything work.

Other than being a bit hard on his Mind, the idea was working perfectly.

All that is to say, the only reason the Ben Squad was secretly tagging along with the fernen to ensure a strong Link to the humans. I wasn’t yet ready to test the Yelah relay theory. I was thinking that since she has more Mind allotted to the Link than most humans, she could somehow act as a relay, or even strengthen the Link like regular bees do. But until the conditions were more controlled, with warriors standing by to capture Grehn and Vlugh if things went south, I’d leave that experiment on the back burner.

For now, I had a much more pressing conversation waiting. That’s your cue, Queen. I know you’ve been feeling down and out lately, but I didn’t really expect your intervention with the fernen. What’s on your mind?

“Thanks for leaving them. I’ve just been thinking a lot lately. Ah, I also apologize for sealing myself away like that. There has just been so much plaguing me lately, I didn’t know what else to do. And having that bit of agency was relieving…”

So, you’ve been bothered by the lack of agency? In that case, we can get started on transforming Yelah into a physical vessel for ya. I’m fairly certain the CBU has been hard at work figuring that one out already.

“It’s not just that. I’ve just been… thinking a lot lately. I think it began some time during the end of the Yiwi invasion. Something about all the Linking, bringing so many new beings into the hive. It felt good. Great, even. But with each stranger who came in, someone who was unwilling to join, someone who wasn’t… kin. It just felt strange. Every stranger who came in made me feel more and more alone. And that just makes no sense! I mean, there are more children in the hive than ever, stranger or no! Plenty of children, born from our own body, and yet, I feel so lonely. And it only gets worse with every damn egg. It feels like I’m no longer myself, like something unnatural has taken hold of me and pushes me away from my family. It all stems from this disgusting feeling in my nonexistent stomach, so annoying!”

Oh. Oh nuts. Uh, that might by my fault. That stomach feeling couldn’t be anything else. It seems that our oneness is affecting you, Queen.

“Now that you mention it, it does seem to be the case. If I pay attention, my speech feels slightly less formal than it used to appear in your memory, and you are somewhat more clinical. Every chance you get, you jealously try to add to the hive and expand. Like with the fernen. Would you honestly say that such callous intentions would occur to your old self?”

Hm. Most likely not. I guess the situation with the humans was a bit different. But couldn’t I just make the same excuse with the fernen? Like, if the humans go to their home base, the fernen might become aggressive, or even kill the humans outright? What if they don’t honor the results of the Battle? That’s a definite possibility. Actually, maybe letting the fernen go without getting Linked was a massive mistake. A war between the hive and the fernen might go really poorly! They were supposed to be a match for the vultures! Who had much larger numbers!

“Just stop. I truly don’t want another Yiwi situation. Doesn’t it hurt you to think of the future of the hive and the relations with humanity? They are a powerful enough enemy already - making the fernen another enemy within the hive itself simply cannot be good.”

Am I really being that aggressive? It all just seems reasonable. All of it is to keep the hive safe. To help it expand. That’s my whole purpose as a queen bee, after all.

Oh. Oh nuts again. I really am being affected by you, aren’t I Queen? Yes, your instincts as a queen bee are taking hold of me, influencing my thoughts. But that doesn’t make sense, does it? We’re one. Your thoughts are mine. So why are we still separate?

“I… don’t know. We truly are like two different individuals, despite also being ‘one’. It may have something to do with our unique circumstances. I have given that matter some thought as well, considering the sudden increase in our [Combined Minds]. As far as we’ve found, having multiple Minds within one body is simply not normal. Yelah’s Ability doesn’t do that. Nor did the Vulch’s. But in our case, it did happen somehow. I believe the Bee itself put your Mind in my body, and as a result, caused something abnormal. Your System experienced errors and was eventually combined with my own to make an entirely new System. The ‘Beest System’, as I recall. Which also resulted in the [Combined Minds] Ability.”

“Essentially what I am saying, isn’t it possible that the Vulch’s Mind, as well as Yafoot’s, will eventually affect us? We don’t even know what we have done to each other. How can we predict further changes? My annoying feelings of loneliness are one thing, but this is a pressing matter.”

Queen’s concerns were unnerving. Extremely so. I could feel her loneliness now, fully released from the self-containment she developed. I could feel her fear, her uneasiness. Her emotions were mine.

Fuck. Sorry, Queen. I’m just as bad at managing these things as you are. I puked another Linker egg, and with that, I made my decision.

I’d give Queen a body. Freeing her from me might at least take a load off her mind.