Chapter Nineteen: Honey

Everyone watched Darius with bated breath. Swarm familiars were rare; getting to watch one’s very first summoning was something special. Moments passed, and it became obvious that the healer was teasing them with the wait. Just as Rosa frowned and opened her mouth, he flashed them a cheeky grin.

Tom felt him spend a huge amount of mana for the skill. The initial summoning for a familiar always required an extreme amount. A fraction of a second later and there was a sound like sleet hitting a cobbled street. Tiny flashes of yellow light popped and crackled in the air around Darius, swiftly resolving into a swarm of fat, fluffy bees.

Everyone watched, amazed, as the fuzzy little insects buzzed about. A low hum filled the air as they moved. Every one of their bumbling, meandering movements trailed a tiny, pale streak of yellow light.

“They’re wonderful!” Tanya said, a huge smile on her face.

Darius simply answered with a laugh, childlike and full of wonder. His new swarm of bees danced around him, tracing faint, random patterns of light in the air.

Tom noticed that Tanya and Darius weren’t the only smiling faces. Everyone was enthralled by the swarm. He understood perfectly; he felt it himself. The swarm, its movements, it just seemed… happy.

The few of Sere’s bodies that Tom had left summoned began to swoop and dart amongst the bees. Tom summoned the rest of them, letting the flock burst from the tattoo on his neck to dance with Darius’ new familiar.

Wow! Pretty! Fun! New friend! Too slow! Sere sent in a tumbling rush of impressions.

There were five times as many bees as sparrows, and they were much smaller and slower. Their interwoven, playful dance was beautiful. Tom was reminded of when he first summoned Sere, back in the Deep with Val. A pang of nostalgia struck him at the memory.

Eventually, the bees began to settle about the group, only the occasional one buzzing to or fro. Tom recalled most of Sere’s bodies again. A catharsis settled over the group. They had needed some simple joy.

“Goddess, but this feels strange,” Darius said. “How long was it you took to settle with this, Tom?”

Tom knew just what he meant. The overwhelming amount of sensations from summoning a new familiar took some getting used to at the best of times. Having sensations running back through the bond from so many new vectors was incredibly disorienting.

To make things worse, the familiar bond with a swarm-type familiar also felt different in and of itself. It felt like a single bond, stretched in many different directions. Having any sensation or information passed from any of the parts of the swarm all felt like it was coming from the same being.

Tom knew from experience that Darius would be feeling like he was surrounded by a single, enveloping consciousness, all the separate parts of it bombarding him all at once. It would take some time for him to adjust, and begin to sort each of them from the other, to discern direction and orientation from each of the impressions properly.

“It gets better quickly, but it will take a long time to begin to fully get used to it. Longer still before you can truly capitalise on the extra information,” Tom replied.

Darius nodded thoughtfully. “This familiar, it will be very useful in combat, I am thinking. Not even counting its abilities. Its senses, they are very strange, though.”

Tom nodded in agreement. With Sere aiding him, he had a constant, clear view of his entire surroundings at any given time. Manoeuvres that would have left enemies in his blind spots, offering them his back, or otherwise obscuring his view, were now much safer to execute.

“What are you seeing, through them?” he asked the healer.

Darius shook his head. “I cannot be sure. It is… a lot. Their vision is strange. They see colours we do not. It makes my head hurt trying to adapt. And their smell… it feels like they can smell the entire Grounds!”

The group chuckled, most of them getting a closer look at whichever of the bees were nearest them. Darius was not finished though.

“There is more, too. If I am not mistaken, it seems that they can see …life force? Health? Or maybe see is not the right word…” He trailed off, obviously trying to sift through the wealth of new information he was being sent.

“You will adapt,” Rosa said briskly. “What abilities do they have?”

That pricked everyone’s attention. They leaned in, curious to hear. Most familiars had one useful ability or another, and that went doubly so for collective familiars. Doubly so again for any familiar manifested under a Healing Ideal.

World Wisps were notorious for leaving familiar abilities vague in their descriptions, but once the ritual skill was activated, and the familiar summoned for the first time, the Idealist often gained an instinctive knowledge of their abilities.

Darius smiled like the sun, revelling in the attention. “They do their little dance, and it can heal a wide area, I think. Shall we see?”

The bees all took to the air again, buzzing around the group. As before, their flight was seemingly random, yet beautiful, but as they watched, Tom noticed a kind of structure creeping into their movements.

The faint trails of light that each bee emitted became slightly brighter, the trails longer, and after a few moments, they each began to drop a small trickle of dust.

Glowing softly, the dust, or pollen Tom realised, drifted about in the air, accumulating quickly as the bees’ dance continued. Soon, the air was full of drifting motes.

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Wherever a mote touched one of them, it winked out, leaving nothing behind. Tom turned his face to the sky. The pollen had no scent, but when it contacted him it felt …sweet. Not refreshing, but comforting, relaxing.

“Incredible…” Tanya breathed, transfixed on the dancing bees and their glowing pollen. Everyone else was just as amazed. Even Darius seemed a bit overwhelmed.

“It will make for a potent combat ability,” Tom said softly. “Your bees will keep your whole group fighting through thick and thin. Even if the healing is not much, it will make a difference. And you’ll barely even have to think about it.”

“I will be able to use the bees to see which of my teammates need help, and to keep an eye out for ambushes and flanking attacks, too.” Tom gave the healer a grin. This was exactly the type of thinking he needed to be getting accustomed to now, if he wanted to be a successful battle-healer.

“That you will,” Tom agreed. “What’s this other ability of theirs, then?”

Darius frowned. “I’m not sure. They gather something, it feels like. Let us try it.”

The bees stopped their mesmerising dance, the trails of light fading back to their usual barely visible state.

They began to hover in place, swivelling about, before cruising further afield. Every few moments they would stop again, buzzing as they hovered, then continue onwards.

Soon enough, the swarm had dispersed away from them, spreading out to either side of them along the grass at the side of the road. There they began to stop much more frequently.

“What are they doing?” Tanya asked.

“I am not sure,” said Darius, a frown creasing his handsome features. “I am looking through their eyes, but it makes no sense. They are chasing after …light?”

Tom focused more closely on the fluffy insects. He watched as they patrolled around the grass, stopping in seemingly random places. As he observed them, he noticed that each of them was slowly growing brighter.

He squinted, trying to make sense of the scene. Suddenly, one of the bees he was watching blinked a bright yellow. Immediately, it made a beeline straight back to Darius.

Several more bees blinked with yellow light, and every one that did immediately cut straight back to Darius too. More and more began blinking. Everyone looked on, fascinated.

The first bees reached their summoner, plinking straight against his skin, wiggling for a moment in midair, and then scooting straight off back to where they had been prior to returning to him.

“Oh, this is strange,” Darius said. “They are gathering something for me. I cannot tell what, though…”

Tom squinted at the nearest bees, flexing Hunter-Gatherer. The seemingly random flight patterns suddenly made sense.

“It’s mana,” Tom offered. “And life force, too, I think. They’re gathering it all up. They seem to be able to sense it.”

“Ohh, this makes sense. It must be the colours they can see.”

Tom observed the bees bumbling around, picking up tiny motes of ambient life force and mana as they drifted about. More and more of them began making their way back to Darius to drop off their bounty.

“What does it do? I mean, what can you do with it..?” Tom asked him. Darius shrugged and held out a finger.

Everyone stared at him with puzzled expressions. Then Tom noticed a tiny bead of liquid growing on his fingertip. It was closer to a hemisphere of growing condensation. Darius frowned as it stopped growing, then turned his finger upwards for them to inspect.

Everyone shuffled closer, intrigued. The bit of matter on the pad of his finger was a deep, burnished golden colour. It glittered in the morning light.

“Is that …honey?” Tanya asked.

Darius cocked an eyebrow at her. “There is only one way to find out,” he said, his face a flat mask. Then he popped his finger in his mouth.

Everyone flinched. It was incredibly unlikely that any substance made by a healing familiar skill would be detrimental, but Darius’ skills were …odd, to say the least.

The healer’s eyes went wide. “It’s good!” he said, surprised. Everyone released a collective breath. “It is very, very sweet though. Definitely honey.”

He made a decisive nod. Then his eyes widened again. “Ah,” he said. “This makes sense. It heals, also.”

Tom’s mind swum with possibilities. Darius’ familiar was ridiculously powerful. Automated area of effect healing for himself and his allies, in addition to a slowly filled extra healing resource gathered from simple ambient mana and life force? Incredible. Not to mention the utility simply from gaining the sensory input from the familiar. He could now keep track of his surroundings, in three dimensions and, through his familiar, could passively sense life force and mana. It was too much. He was green with envy.

Tom could see that everyone in the group was feeling the same way. He, Tanya and Markus all looked stunned. Rosa looked disgruntled, but begrudgingly appreciative. Darius simply beamed.

“I love it,” he whispered. “I love her, I should say. Granny, what do you think?”

The craggy tortoise craned her neck slowly about, trying to track the bees. She made a gravelly purring sound, and a fine cloud of dust rose from her shell.

“She likes her too of course,” he said, beaming at his familiars.

“She’s not the only one,” Tom said derisively. Sesame was sitting on his haunches, eyes crossed as he tried to focus on the bee that had landed on his nose.

Hehe, tickles, he sent, before releasing a great sneeze and toppling over backwards. The unfortunate bee shot away in a twirling arc of soft light before managing to stabilise itself.

Sesame sat up and shook himself. Did I smell honey..? He sent, before edging closer to Darius.

“I know what you are after, you handsome fellow,” Darius said to him. He extended a finger towards the bear, another tiny droplet condensing on it.

Sesame’s nose twitched as he sucked in great gusts of air. Tom caught the overwhelmingly sweet scent of the healing honey through the bond. Sesame’s long tongue quested towards it, a spool of saliva dribbling from his jaws.

“Gross!” Rosa yelled, recoiling. Tanya looked a bit green too.

Sesame swiped the honey with his tongue. The bear froze, then a great shiver passed up his spine. His short tail stood straight out. Tom’s bond with him was flooded with satisfaction.

That’s Goddess Honey, Sesame opined. He snuffed at Darius again.

“No more, my hairy friend!” Darius waggled a finger at him. “It takes a long while to gather. Perhaps if you are extra good…”

Sesame gave him a small roar, then shuffled to sit back to back with Tom. Rigid alertness and protectiveness vibrated along the bond.

Tom sighed. At least Sesame was easily motivated.

“What are you going to call her?” Tanya asked.

Darius was generally an open and upfront person, but in that moment, his smile was the most genuine Tom had seen.

“Daisy.”