Jeb’s soul started reaching out. His lute, of course, was right next to him, and began to resonate. Ignoring it, he pushed further, searching for the other ties to his soul.
For a moment, Jeb was surprised at how many different places his soul seemed to want to connect. Remembering that the Swarm, despite being a unified whole, was also a collection of individual bees, however, Jeb had to decide which bee to teleport to. The fact that the closest by was not the strongest signal confused him a little, but Jeb reasoned that it made some sense that the queen might be further than the closest workers. Jeb focused on the feeling of once again being near the hive and willed himself to be there.
The sense of being nowhere and everywhere all at the same time returned. Given how much longer the feeling had lasted when Jeb teleported from his room to the farm as opposed to just a few steps, he half expected to remain in the lack of space for far longer. However, after what felt like just a few breaths, Jeb felt his body reassemble and the faintest wave of nausea wash over him. Looking around, however, he did not recognize where he had reformed. He did recognize his bees, though.
They had grown slightly since the last time he had seen them. Each worker was now at least the size of Jeb’s thumb. More than that, though, the Swarm had apparently grown stronger as Jeb did. Even though they did not actively radiate Magic, Jeb’s Magical vision let him see that they were all brimming with potent Attuned Mana. Fire and Water bees flew side by side with more esoteric Elements that Jeb had encountered in his different courses. He saw Flame and Steam Bees and even what seemed to be a single Ale Bee floating around their small hive. The hive was a larger than standard wild bee hive, not the frames that Jeb had carefully arranged for them.
“What happened to the frames?” Jeb asked the bees as they danced happily around him.
The bees started moving as a whole, communicating as a single organism. Unlike before, Jeb found that he could understand their dance as easily as if he was speaking to one of his classmates. These bees, as it turned out, were a scouting hive, sent by the Queen of Queens to be nearby to Jeb.
“Where are we?” he asked, looking for any familiar landmarks. As the bees started dancing their idea of geography, Jeb’s mind started connecting the different comments his Professors had made over the terms. Somehow, the Swarm was able to communicate their travels in terms of distance and direction in units that made sense to Jeb. He tried to remember how far away the Capital was from his home, but realized that he had never paid particular attention to the scale.
“One moment,” Jeb said to the hive before beginning his teleportation dance. The bees caught on quickly and helped to keep the Magic in the Ritual from spilling out. Jeb was once again reminded of how much more smoothly his Magic had worked back when he was on the farm. At the time, he had thought that he was just in a new space and dealing with the trauma of being kidnapped. Now that he was reunited with his bees, however, Jeb realized that the bees were also integral to his old Magic.
A few moments later, Jeb was once again beside his lute in the farm. He slung it over his shoulder and moved into the Stacks, hoping that he would be able to find a map of the Republic somewhere. To his surprise, the Stacks led him back out into the general portion of the Library. Jeb looked around, confused and wondering which Librarian had asked for him. As he kept wandering around, though, the Library and Academy kept returning him to the same spot.
Jeb finally stopped and looked around. His eyes settled on the back wall, which he had never really noticed. It was a large map of the entire Republic with a helpful scale. Humdrumville, unsurprisingly, was not labeled. Midville, however, was thankfully labeled, and Jeb knew they were just a few miles away.
Eyeballing with the scale, Jeb grimaced. The bees were just a few dozen miles from the Capital. He still was not positive that the Magical creatures that the Dean was referring to were the bees, but Jeb had a sinking feeling that they were. Jeb returned to his room, set the lute down, and teleported back to the bees.
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“Question,” Jeb asked the bees as they danced around him. “Have you seen Professors from the Academy?”
The bees danced in confusion, unsure of the meaning of either a Professor or an Academy. Jeb rephrased the question, “have there been Mages coming and looking at you?”
The hive danced their agreement, highlighting the few bees who had Attuned themselves to the sense of Magic that the visiting Mages had brought.
Jeb blinked in surprise.
He had not known that his bees were able to Attune themselves to individual Mages’ different signatures. More importantly, though, he could no longer deny the truth. One of the bees radiated the sense ocean, the rain in the sky, and the sense of a river. It was almost as familiar to Jeb as his own signature. After all, it wasn’t as though he went many days without seeing Dean Aquam.
“I have many questions,” he said to his bees. Watching them start to dance in concern, however, he smiled. “None of them are more important than asking how the Hive has been doing, though.”
The bees started dancing happily again, regaling Jeb with tales of just how much the Hive had grown. This scouting colony was a few miles away from the next one. The Swarm, as they informed him, had been instructed by the Queen of Queens to start spreading out from their home until they found their Binder.
“I appreciate it,” Jeb said, lightly stroking the queen of the hive. Something inside of him warmed at the knowledge that the bees had gone through all of this trouble for him. He thought that he had come to terms with the fact that his family had just let him be taken, but he realized that was not entirely true. Now that he was surrounded by his own bees again, Jeb realized that he would not let himself be taken so easily ever again.
That realization struck him as he danced his way back to the Academy. Jeb had not realized how much his time at the Academy had changed him, but it was hard for him to deny any longer. Gone was the boy who trusted all authority unthinkingly, who would do what he was told. Jeb still had every intention of following most laws, but he would resist if the Censusmaster tried to kidnap him again. More than that, though, Jeb was less and less sure that he was comfortable with the nature of the Guilds.
The Enchanting Guild refused to let Jeb make someone’s life easier, only because Jeb’s Skill was not explicitly called “Enchanting.” Even the Brewer’s Guild, who Jeb generally felt positively about, had only let him ply his wares because there were no other Alchemical Brewers in the Capital. He shook the thoughts away when he found himself in his dormitory room.
Taking a piece of paper, Jeb debated how best to begin the note. After consideration, he put his pen down and wrote, “Dean Aquam,” skipping the greeting.
His pen froze again. Sighing, Jeb decided that he would have to go through multiple drafts of the letter to the Dean. In the end, he ended up going through five sheets of paper before he had a version of the note that he was satisfied with.
Dean Aquam, I believe that I have figured out what the Magical creatures you encountered were. They are the bees that I Bound myself to before coming to the Academy. As it turns out, they were no more comfortable with our separation than I was. I have figured out the Teleportation Ritual and will be spending the rest of the term break at home. Best, Jeb
He was not entirely satisfied with the letter, but Jeb couldn’t deny that it was more or less everything that he wanted to say to the Dean. Folding it carefully, he asked the Academy to deliver the letter. It vanished, and Jeb assumed that it was going to appear on Aquam’s desk in a few moments. Hoping to beat the Dean’s reading, Jeb quickly started to dance, once again casting his soul out.
What he had initially thought were individual bees, Jeb now realized were the different hives of the swarm. He kept searching, more than a little impressed at how efficiently and quickly his hive had spread through the Republic. Near the center of the constellation of light, one blazed particularly bright. Hoping that it was the Hive, Jeb focused his Magic on the point and started to travel.
An eternity later, Jeb looked at the sky. At first, it seemed as though he had gone back in time somehow. The sun was higher in the sky than it had been when he left the last bees. Remembering how far away the Capital was from his home, though, Jeb realized what had happened.
He blinked a few times, hardly recognizing the farm. The two frames that he had constructed for the bees had disappeared, swallowed in a vast network of frames and honey. Casting his eyes out to the rest of the farm, Jeb saw that the hives had changed the least.