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Honey

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Some small part of the bee scion was worried the Emperor might reject her verdict, but he seems to accept it easier than even she is willing to. How can her map be wrong? She and Leo worked together on it with the reports from the rockslides, and while her affinity is certain it’s accurate to those reports, her affinity is also certain the adventurer’s map is much closer to the actual truth than her own, now that she has something to compare with.

She lets her legs sprawl out beneath her, physical fatigue matching the mental from working her affinity and title so hard, and Leo gives her a concerned look.

“Are you alright?”

“Just tired,” she buzzes, not bothering with any dance right now. Teemo comes over and scoops her up and plops her on his head, earning an indignant buzz from her, but she doesn’t fight it. Laying on the map isn’t exactly helping figure things out.

Teemo taps his foot as he stands on his hind legs, looking at the map with a frown. Honey can feel his ear twitch as the Emperor speaks to him, and soon the Voice relays the message.

“So… Boss says we have a couple facts, so we should try to break things down and figure out what could possibly be going on here. So… we have our two refugees, the adventurers, and even Honey all saying this map is the more accurate of the two. The Boss is confident in Honey, and he says having three sources agree either means the truth is with them, or there’s a major conspiracy. Considering how many things would have to happen for all those sources to actively lie, we can basically count that option out. So we will need to plan using the map and the info we’ve gotten from Lechula, Merrik, and the adventurers.”

Leo nods at that and gives a sigh. “But what about the rockslides?”

“That’s the big question. Boss says they’re a single point of failure, so there must be something wrong. Maybe some kind of weird dungeon option, like the Southwood’s climate control? Something that would confuse rival dungeons, but not adventurers?”

Teemo doesn’t sound very convinced, Leo doesn’t look very convinced, and Honey definitely isn’t convinced. “Maybe,” she buzzes, “but that seems highly unlikely. We could ask the Southwood if it has any advanced options like that, but I don’t think he does. Some kind of illusion doesn’t sound like what the Maw would have access to. It’s a metal affinity dungeon, not illusion.”

Teemo nods, making Honey cling to his head, which in turn earns a chuckle from both him and Leo as the Voice speaks. “Yeah, the Boss isn’t so sure about it, but we can try to ask. Any other ideas that might sound absurd, but at least a little less absurd than that?”

Leo grumbles as he slowly stalks his logic. “The rockslides are either wrong… or lying for some reason. Both seem impossible, but it has to be one or the other.” He quietly growls as he considers, then gets an idea. “Whatever the reason, they’re compromised, but to what extent? Is it all of them?”

Honey buzzes and gets to her feet, determination helping fight back the fatigue. “We can cross-reference the reports to see. They each have their own reports, so we can see which ones are giving the truth, and which aren’t. Teemo, can you please get the reports from the adventurers?” She takes to her wings as he salutes, and orders her swarm to get out the rockslides' reports as he slips into a shortcut.

With Leo’s help, she gets the reports organized by both date and depth, and as they start going through them, she can already start seeing inconsistencies. Most of the reports seem accurate, with the rockslides reporting on the broken road, as the Emperor seems to call the clear path from the surface to the dungeon. It’s not inaccurate, as the least monsters really have torn up the tunnels they traveled through.

As of several days ago, the reports of even the deepest rockslides seemed to still be accurate, with their locations still remote enough that they didn’t have much besides topography to relay back. The new reports, however, raise her suspicions. They speak of a marked increase in patrolls, and sighting of strong denizens and high-level guards and other followers of the Maw. When they first received the reports, she and Leo simply took it to mean the dungeon was mustering its forces to make a more concentrated effort to breach the surface, but now she notices little details missing.

Perhaps the largest error, and one that she and Leo probably should have spotted earlier, is a significant lack of logistical support. They had originally chalked it up to the dungeon not being especially experienced with moving around people at that kind of scale. Denizens don’t really eat, but people do. The Emperor knew what that meant, and so his denizens marched with wagons full of supplies, but the rockslides have only reported soldiers, not wagons and support staff. With the information about the Maw being so concerned with food, there’s no way it would send soldiers off without at least basic provisions.

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She’s so focused on the task at hand, she hardly slows down when Teemo returns with the elf from the Emperor’s chosen party. No, she instead has the Voice explain the situation quickly and gets the elf to help with the flow of information. Aelara looks a little overwhelmed, but Honey is too focused to worry about that. Teemo and Leo help guide her through the buzzing swarm of a good research project, and Honey lets her affinity guide her through the shaded meadow of information. The flowers are shy, but she and her bees know how to get the nectar and the pollen with efficient ease, and before long, she puts the final period on the updated report.

Teemo looks it over, and Honey can feel the Emperor assimilating the information with ease, thanks to the combined effort of the three scions and the elven adventurer. Said elf is looking at the information as well, looking baffled.

“A couple days ago, the rockslides started giving false reports? But why? How?” she asks as she looks over not only the simple written words, but also the attached map that shows the rockslides that are giving false information.

“Those are the questions we want to answer,” replies Teemo.

“Does… does the Maw have rockslides?” she asks, and Teemo shakes his head. The question sticks in Honey’s mind, though. Could it? Could it have a secret earth elemental spawner? Her intuition says no, but she also feels like the elf is on the right track.

“How many rockslides does the Emperor have on expedition?” Honey asks, her swarm moving to tabulate how many rockslides are currently under her and Leo’s command.

Teemo looks like he doesn’t understand where Honey is going with this, but dutifully relays her question. “Hey Boss? How many rockslides are out right now?” Honey can feel the Emperor’s confusion as he considers the question, then a bit of surprise. Teemo shakes his head and smiles as he relays the answer. “Boss is surprised he had so many out. Two-hundred and Thirty-six.”

Honey buzzes in triumph as she gets the number from her own swarm: 263 rockslides are under her and Leo’s direction! Her jubilation turn to confusion as she checks her numbers, and sees that each and every rockslide is confirmed to have left from the Emperor’s domain, meaning no sneaky spawner from the Maw.

Then how has it subverted twenty-seven rockslides?! It’s metal, not…!

She almost falls out of the air as the realization hits, and Leo’s barked concern for her only just pushes through her shock.

“No, I’m fine. It’s just… I know what’s going on.” She lands on the map and points out the compromised rockslides. “We have twenty-seven more rockslides than the Emperor has on expedition. They’re not secret spawns from the Maw, though. They all have a trail of reports linking them back to the Emperor.”

She pauses and looks up at Teemo, Leo, and Aelara, meeting their eyes as well as she can. She can feel the Emperor’s confusion, before it gives way to shock as he comes to the same conclusion as she has, at least if the anger and feeling of self-disappointment are anything to go by. She feels a bit stupid for not putting it together earlier, too.

“The Harbinger is Mental affinity. It’s taken over the slides closest to the Maw. They no longer belong to the Emperor, which is why his number doesn’t match with ours.” Aelara gasps at that while Teemo and Leo look grim.

“Mental? I need to warn the adventurers before they head out!”

She gets up to go, though she pauses when Teemo speaks up. “Have them swing by here before they go, if any of them are still willing!” Aelara nods before running out of the cave. Leo growls as he looks at the map.

“They know we’re coming, then. They’ll fortify their position now we’ve lost the element of surprise.” The Warden’s hackles rise with his frustration, and Honey buzzes in grim solidarity with her fellow scion. Teemo looks more confused than upset for a few moments, before he grins wide.

“Boss says we might be able to use this.” Leo and Honey both look confused, so Teemo elaborates. “They know we’re coming, but they think we don’t know they know. But we do know. So we can leverage knowing we know they know, without letting them know we know they know, you know?”

“What,” states Leo, and Honey is with him. Even with her affinity, that all sounded like nonsense. Teemo keeps smiling.

“Boss calls it counter-counter-intel. We make it look like we’re taking the bait, but we’re actually preparing to ambush the ambush!”

Leo blinks at that before grinning wide, and Honey’s wings start to buzz as she understands. Each of the false points of interest would be a perfect place to ambush their forces, but there are only a few places the enemy could launch an ambush from on those locations!

“Don’t send any more rockslides in there, though,” says Teemo, knocking Honey’s train of thought off the tracks. “Tell the suborned ones to get into a better position to keep an eye on the fake points of interest, but don’t send any fresh ones in. He doesn’t want to send them on a deliberate suicide mission. Danger is one thing, but any others sent in there would be being deliberately sent to their death.”

Honey and Leo both nod at that, and Honey has to admit she was vaguely pondering sending in a few more to try to lure out further ambush positions. The Emperor is right, though. It’s one thing to send them into a dangerous location with little information when there’s little to give. But knowing they’ll be attacked by the Harbinger without giving them some means of protecting themselves?

Honey shudders at the thought. She knows how twisted the Harbinger is. Even with respawning, it’s not an experience she'd wish on anyone.