Jeb woke up on a soft bed, completely unsure where he was. As he slowly blinked the sleep away, he remembered dancing the night before. Someone had told him that there was a bed available for him, so Jeb had followed them to this room. The throbbing in his head made it tempting to go back to sleep. Jeb gave into the urge and returned to dreams, confident that he was somewhere safe.
When he woke again, Jeb realized that he had been sleeping on top of the sheets and blankets on the bed. His starry cloak was wrapped around him, warmly embracing and cradling him. Running a hand along his jaw, Jeb grimaced at the feeling of dried sweat and unmaintained facial hair. In the excitement of realizing he had made it to the Druidic Enclave, he hadn’t noticed, but it felt as though he hadn’t shaved since leaving the Academy.
Jeb Conjured a reflective disc to look at himself. With the long beard, he looked far more mature. The man staring back at him was clearly a master of some arcane knowledge, even ignoring the Doctoral Robes he wore.
That man, was not Jeb, however. He resolved to shave the beard off as soon as he cleaned himself off. The grime he had felt on his face was at least a few weeks old, and a part of him wondered why the townsfolk had not drawn away from him.
When he went to remove the cloak, it almost felt as though it was resisting him. Jeb ignored the sudden pang of discomfort, sure that it was nothing more than the irrational fear that it would disappear the moment it was off of his body. Still, he had to pry his fingers off of the cloak one by one to let it drop to the ground.
Once out of his Doctoral Robes, Jeb felt exposed. He was still wearing an entire set of clothing. In fact, Jeb realized that he was still wearing the exact outfit that he had worn on the day he set off from the Academy. Or, at least, he was still wearing the remnants of those clothes. What he wore now was little more than rags.
He Conjured Water and soap and began to clean himself. Watching the dirt sluice off his skin, Jeb felt much lighter. When he had finished, he Destroyed the almost muddy water and debated putting back on his underclothes. With a shudder, he burned them instead. The robes were modest enough.
After removing his beard, Jeb picked up the cloak, expecting that it would also need to be cleaned. To his surprise, however, it felt as though it had been freshly laundered. Putting it on, Jeb suddenly felt far more comfortable with his situation.
That’s strange, he thought, making a note to consider what about the cloak made him feel safe.
Now that he had taken care of the vital parts of his situation, Jeb took a moment to look around. He saw that his bees had already established a small hive,. Jeb smiled at that.
“I’m glad to see that you are settling in nicely,” he said to the Swarm. The bees buzzed happily, content to continue constructing their home.
Leaving the bees to their work, Jeb decided to explore the tree that he was clearly still inside. As he looked around his room, however, he realized that there were no doorways immediately visible. More than that, despite the clear lighting in the room, there were no obvious windows or sources of light. Jeb was, for all intents and purposes, in a completely enclosed cell.
Trying not to panic, Jeb walked to the nearest wall and pushed. It did not move, and he knew just from knocking that the wall was thicker than he could get through in any reasonable amount of time. Jeb repeated the process on the remaining walls, growing more concerned with each failure. Just as he was about to panic, he looked up at the bees. If they were able to build their hive, then they must have been able to get in and out.
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With a start, Jeb realized that of the bees in the room with him now, none had been there the last time he looked. The last set had been almost entirely Sand Attuned Bees, and this new set was almost entirely Glass or Fire Attuned. What, exactly, the Swarm was doing with different Elemental Bees, Jeb was curious to find, but pushed the question aside. It was far more important for him to figure out how the bees were escaping the room.
Watching carefully, Jeb saw that none of the bees flew far from the hive. Despite that, the makeup of the bees kept changing. For the first hour, every bee appeared or disappeared from within the hive. Finally, though, one bee shimmered out of existence from outside of the hive. Another shimmered into its place a moment later, and Jeb realized that the bees had learned the Ritual he used to teleport. They were far more adept at using it than he was, however.
The lighting in the room slowly shifted as Jeb continued to watch his bees teleport. When the dim red faded to an inky darkness that mirrored his robes, Jeb realized that the room was mirroring a solar cycle. He assumed that the timing was synchronized, but had no real way to test that thought. As he looked around to try to find where the light changes were coming from, Jeb realized that he was no longer alone in the room.
“Good evening,” the figure said. Something in the speaker’s tone felt wrong to Jeb. It had a buzzing timbre that seemed more at place humming than generating consonants and vowels.
“Good evening,” Jeb replied.
“If you would like to come with me,” the figure said, turning back to the door that had suddenly appeared in the room. Or, at least, Jeb thought that the figure had turned.
An emerald green robe hid the figure’s shape and size. The hood shadowed the body’s face, and even though it turned, Jeb was less than positive that the body within had also turned around. Something about the way that the robe moved implied that it was shifting around a stationary figure, rather than shifting with the figure.
Jeb debated whether or not to follow the speaker. The bees seemed comfortable with them, so he nodded and followed along. As the two walked through hallways, Jeb continued to notice oddities in the robed figure.
For one, it did not appear to take steps. Even the smoothest gait that Jeb had ever seen still caused the walker’s body to shift as feet lifted and fell. The robe literally seemed to glide. Even more than that, though, the robe seemed to pulse almost like what Jeb would have expected if he put hundreds of his bees in a robe. He couldn’t figure out why that thought entered his head, but once it did, he could not dislodge it.
By the time that the figure stopped walking and sat down, Jeb was positive that he had been led through a maze. The sheer number of turns meant that, even if he had known where he was when they had started moving, he would still be lost. The robe suddenly collapsed, and a swarm of locusts flew out.
They flew out of the room, and a man walked in. He was wearing the same colored robe as the swarm, and his voice was melodious.
“Welcome to the Circle of Swarms,” he said. “I presume that you are planning to become a member.”
Jeb blinked, still unsure what had happened with the swarm of locusts. The man tracked Jeb’s vision and saw that he was looking at the empty robe.
“Sorry for that, Lucy wanted to be responsible for introducing you to the Circle. I understand that the relationship you have cultivated with your bees is different than the one that Lucy and I share, but I had not realized how much so. Are you unfamiliar with swarms taking a more humanoid shape?”
“I am not,” Jeb admitted.
“Well, then, I suppose that I can offer yet another benefit to you as a member of the Circle of Swarms. There are many benefits to having your Bound Swarm take a humanoid form, not least of which is the fact that they can more easily run errands for you. Now then, if you would like to come with me, I can introduce you to the rest of the Circle.”
“Hold on,” another voice called, “are you truly planning to poach the newest Druid?”
“It is hardly poaching. He is Bound to a swarm. He has already chosen his Circle.”
“If you feel so confident, then surely you would not have any objections to the full ceremony?” The speaker entered the room. Her skin was textured like bark, and she stood head and shoulders taller than the man bound to Lucy. Her eyes were a blazing red, and her green-tinted hair was cut neatly to fall at her shoulders.
Jeb heard the buzzing of a swarm starting to draw near. The man stood, and his eyes temporarily glinted as though multifaceted.
“I see no reason to waste such precious resources on a traveler who will not even remain in the Enclave. However, if you would like to request the Ceremony, the Circle of Swarms will not object. The Archdruid, however,” he trailed off meaningfully.