Mark answers Sylvia, “It's not that I don't like you, I’m just more cautious. You didn't do anything wrong, but we haven't lived together long enough for a deep trust relationship. I have noticed that you are already very capable and can change your environment a lot if you want to. I am ready to improve my attitude towards you if you follow two simple things. First good behavior, which means that you will not harm the family in any way or put us in a threatening situation. The second is some time to prove that a peaceful life together with you is possible in the long term.”
Mark is willing to let the Hive Queen stay at his home, but he still doesn't see her as part of the family. As he just said, it takes time for Sylvia to gain the necessary trust. Mark is not as naive as Elise and knows that the Sylv Queen can be very dangerous. For him it is a fact that Sylvia is not a child in need of protection, so he will not behave that way.
Sylvia listens closely to Marks words and concludes that she is already on a good path. She didn’t understand every word he said, but she understood what Mark wanted to tell her. After he finished his speech, she calmly collects her thoughts for some seconds and answers, “I will follow your advice. I want to talk together with you and Elise about important …”, Sylvia searches for the right word and Mark helps by suggesting, “matters”, so Sylvia can continue, “…, when she comes back home.”
Mark agrees and they continue to wait together. The father reflects about what he just said and is not so sure that he used the right tone. He could have hurt Sylvias feelings, which wasn’t his intention. He glances at Sylvia sitting right next to him to confirm his suspicion. The hive queen sits on the sofa with her head down as she is thinking hard about what just happened and how she should speak in her next conversation. Her antennae are moving nervously back and forth.
Misreading Sylvias behavior, Mark sees that she is reacting differently than usual and concludes that he may have hurt her feelings. With a caring look, he reaches out his hand towards Sylvia's head and begins to pet her slowly. The Sylv Queen is quite surprised and sets her wandering antennae bolt upright for a moment, before relaxing again. She doesn’t understand how she triggered this reaction, but she interprets it as a friendly one. For her this is another small victory on the path of acceptance. Satisfied with this positive surprise, she leans over to Mark's lap and lets herself be pet there. Starting a low purring to indicate her satisfaction.
About 15 minutes later Elise arrives home and enters the house. This action triggers a ringing sound, informing the others. Sylvia gets up and together with Mark walks towards the door. There they meet Elise, who is just taking off her equipment and welcome her back home. Her husband mentions that he made some extra soup for dinner and that he will go to the kitchen to reheat it now. The young queen on the other hand asked Elise about her progress with her missions so far. They talked a bit about the topic until dinner was ready. In summary the missions Elise wanted to finish before starting to tutor the kids, are almost completed. She may need another half a day and then visit the guild hall in Westerville to hand them in there. When they finished Mark served some of the reheated soup and sat down with the other two at the table.
Sylvia positioned herself opposite of Elise and Mark in order to talk to them better. While Elise is eating, the Hive Queen announces, “I want to talk about important matters!”, gathering the attention of the couple. Sylvia continues, “I am thankful that you let me live here with you, that you feed me and that you care for me. I grow fast and I am …”, she searches for the right words and decides to indicate her rapid physical development through gestures, then continuous with a serious expression, “I want to help you out in return!”
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Elise wants to answer, but Sylvia isn’t finished yet and continues in a fast pace, “I have …”, she stutters and moves her antennae around nervously, “I may have done …”. The Hive Queen thought about revealing her new hive complex, presenting it as a solution to the food problem she sees coming. After her talk with Mark she came to the conclusion that it might not be such a good idea to operate the hive complex secretly. This could in theory develop into a ‘threatening situation for the family’, as Mark has called it, if she continues this project on her own. But her confidence quickly melted away when she tried to tell her benefactors.
Elise notices the signs of distress in Sylvias speech and manner. While Mark remains seated with a gloomy foreboding, Elise stands up and moves over to the other side of the table. “I really love you very much. When I picked you up in the forest, I decided to take care of you. You don't have to be afraid at home. This is a safe environment for you. You can always stay here, even if you make mistakes, I will not send you away!”, after Elise has said the last words she gently hugs Sylvia and continues in a soft tone, “No matter what you did, you can tell us. I am sure you meant no harm and together we will find a solution.”
The Sylv Queen regains some of her confidence, takes some time to find the right words and then explains slowly, “I know that you will stop going outside so often, because you want to teach me and Erik at home. You can’t get enough food for all if you start teaching. I wanted to help get more food, so it’s not a problem. I created more of the kind of Spinny to get more food.”. She needed some rephrasing as she didn’t know some words like hive drone yet, but she knew the name of her first drone.
Mark asks with a worried look, “How many eggs have you laid?” The Hive Queen indicates two by raising two of her fingers, which calms those present. Elise states, “That is not a problem. We already had one, so two more don’t make a big difference!” Mark does not see this so lightly and asks further, “Where are they, I haven’t seen them yet?”. “Outside”, indicates Sylvia, showing signs of distress in her voice and with her antennae.
Elise addresses her husband with a resolute tone, “We are not going to go outside now. We can do that at our leisure tomorrow. Let Sylvia rest for a while and regain her composure. We have had enough excitement for today.” Her husband agrees, knowing that he can be a bit insensitive.
After sending Sylvia to bed, Elise and Mark have a talk regarding the event in the evening. In the conversation they come to the conclusion that Sylvia is not to blame for her actions. She just wants to help and due to lack of communication, this did not go the way the family would have liked. Now that this situation has arisen, they have to work with it and allow Sylvia to proceed. On the other hand, it would be nice to control the number of minions Sylvia creates. To achieve this, they will talk about it with Sylvia in the morning. In the future if she wants to lay new eggs, she should let them know beforehand. Then they could talk about it and decide together.
What both of them didn’t know, is that the two drones already morphed into living structures inside the hive complex and that the Spawning Grounds is already producing a batch of Sylv hunters, which can’t be canceled easily.
The next morning arrived and everything started as usual. The family did their morning chores and ate breakfast together. Then it was time to inspect what the Hive Queen did to combat the food shortage she falsely saw coming. Erik followed his parents outside, knowing that something was going on. Sylvia escorted the whole family to her new hive complex, located near the house. They where a bit confused why the drones couldn’t come to them instead but decided to follow and see for themselves. A minute later they arrived at a hole in the ground, hidden by some small bushes, which is the only entrance to the underground complex for now. The passage is not very deep and has a bend after about a meter to become level again. The light shines only weakly into the passage and does not get around the bend. This creates the darkness loved by the Sylv in the actual chamber at the end of the corridor, in which the two living structures are located.