“I think that I have an answer,” Brian finally said, just as Jeb’s fingers were starting to feel loose again.
Jeb nodded at the Druid to continue, still working on his dexterity exercises.
“A Swarm needs a leader. I do not think that it is particularly arrogant of me to say that right now I have a greater intelligence on my own than any individual member of the swarm I wish to Bond. Even once we Bind, I think that I will be smarter and, frankly, stronger than their queen. As such, it is in the swarm’s best interest for me to lead it, since I know better.”
Jeb nodded appreciatively at the thought, but gave the boy some push back, “what will you do to its existing queen?”
Brian hesitated, but only for a slight instant. “Truthfully, I do not know. No one has really talked to me about what we are supposed to do with the existing leadership. My gut instinct is to let her maintain control, if only because I cannot hope to manage all the minutiae of life in a hive while also working to progress my Class.”
Jeb nodded.
“Since you still believe that the bees are fundamentally opposed to your existence, what will you do to befriend them?” he asked.
Brian grimaced before shaking his head sadly, “I truly have no idea what I can do to show the bees that I have good intentions.” He gave Jeb a pleading look, and Jeb had to resist the urge to pat the bear’s head.
“What did I do to develop a closer relationship with my bees?” he asked the bear, hoping to lead him to an answer.
“You built them a hive,” Brian said, mind clearly trying to figure out how he could convince the bees to relocate.
“And then?” Jeb asked.
Brian’s eyes widened. “You gave them Mana!” he cried, causing a few nearby birds to leap into the air. He quickly deflated. “But you could only do that because you were already growing Mana Infused plants. I wouldn’t even know where to begin with that.”
Jeb hummed. “That’s true. Can you release Mana from yourself outside of a formal Magical working?”
Seeing the bear’s cocked head, Jeb demonstrated, releasing a few points of his Mana into the air around them. His bees quickly swooped into the cloud, consuming it, but Brian seemed to understand what Jeb was doing before the Mana disappeared entirely.
“I think so?” he said, closing his eyes and taking a seated position.
Jeb watched the young Druid focus on his breath, clearly seeking some sort of Meditative state. Once his breath was focused, though, Jeb saw a small cloud of vibrant green Mana start to leak out of the bear. Unlike his own method for expelling Mana, which tended to come from gestures with his hands or mouth, the bear released it from his entire body.
A few seconds later, the cloud tapered off, and the bear opened his eyes, swaying a little as though he was dizzy.
“Are you all right?” Jeb asked.
The bear nodded shakily. “I didn’t notice how quickly my Mana pool was emptying until I bottomed out,” he explained, regaining some composure.
Jeb nodded in sympathy. Even though it had been more than a few years since the last time that he had emptied his Mana pool, he still remembered the pain of accidentally running it dry well.
“It might help if you focus the Mana flow more,” he suggested with a shrug. Seeing the bear’s confusion, he demonstrated how his own Mana came out of his hand, while the bear’s came out of his whole body.
Brian nodded, brows furrowing as he tried to copy the technique. When his Mana refilled, he was better able to do so, and Jeb gave him a cheer.
“I still don’t think this will work,” Brian said. “The bees have no reason to take my Mana.”
“That’s true,” Jeb said, rummaging through his bag, “but I cannot imagine that my bees are unique in enjoying the flowers of a Managrass. You can help them to grow, and hopefully that will help the hive to come to trust you, at least a little.”
Brian nodded hesitantly, and the two moved back towards the bees. They had calmed down, and did not immediately rush towards either of them. Jeb called on his Druidic Magic and started to reshape the earth. He wasn’t aiming for anything major, just creating a small field that the bear could plant his seeds in.
Brian watched with fascination. When Jeb had finished, he asked, “how did you do that? I haven’t seen that level of control in anyone else your age!”
Jeb chuckled. “I don’t think that I did anything too impressive. This was more a working of Willpower and Charisma than anything else.”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Seeing the Druid’s confusion, Jeb gave a quick explanation of the way that the different Mental Statistics affected Magic. “In general, control with Magic is a function of Intelligence. In this case, though, I wasn’t concerned with wasting a few points of Mana, and I was more concerned with the end result than how exactly it happened.”
“That explains the Willpower,” Brian nodded, “but how does Charisma play into it?”
Jeb shrugged. “It’s easier to get someone to do something if they want to do it. I told the earth that it would really rather be ready for planting, and forced it to agree with me.”
The awe in Brian’s eyes didn’t dim at Jeb’s explanation. Something about the casual display of Magic seemed to make the bear trust Jeb more than any of his explanations had. He took the bag of seeds from Jeb’s hands and scattered them expertly.
Seeing Jeb’s look of confusion, he shrugged, “the older Druids tend to think that it is good for young bodies to do work of different sorts. I’ve always been larger than my peers, for obvious reasons, so I tended to get put on farming rotations.”
Once the field was planted, Jeb almost instinctively Conjured Water on the field. Before the first drops could hit the ground, however, he cancelled the working. “You should probably take over from here,” he said, “since the goal is to get the bees comfortable with your Mana, not mine.”
Brian nodded and rushed off to find a watering can. When he was out of sight, Jeb sighed and quickly formed one himself. He was finished Enchanting it to create water with the nutrients Managrass would need before Brian came back, so he started drawing decorative loops on its outside, trying to call his Druidic Magic as he did. Brian came back just as he started to feel the slightest resonance between his carving and the Skill, and gave Jeb a sheepish grin.
“I guess I should have asked if you had a watering can,” he said.
Jeb shrugged. “I didn’t.”
The Druid looked at the watering can in Jeb’s hand, then back at Jeb’s face. After repeating the gesture a few times, he sighed and took it when Jeb offered it to him.
“How do I use it?” Brian asked, noting that the metal device was empty of water.
“Just feed some Mana into the watering can,” Jeb said nonchalantly. “I think that I got the runes for approximate entry correct enough for relatively good efficiency, but any wasted Mana still serves our purpose.”
Brian suddenly held the watering can with significantly more care. “This is a Magical work?” he asked.
Jeb nodded slowly. “Yes? It would take far too long for you to water the plants otherwise.” To demonstrate his point, he nodded at the shoots that were starting to come out of the soil, withering from a lack of water.
Brian yelped and hurried to water the plants. With the addition of Mana filled water, they revitalized, quickly growing tall and flowering. The bees in the nearby hive seemed curious at the scented flowers, and a few carefully began to fly closer.
“Take a few steps back,” Jeb advised.
Brian obeyed, and the bees seemed far more comfortable harvesting the pollen without the bear looming over them. The two stayed there for a few weeks, with Brian growing two or three generations of Managrass each day. Jeb absently watched, far more focused on the new Magic in his soul. He still could not quite understand the mechanism for Druidic Magic outside of desire, and hoped that he might get an explanation when he returned to the Enclave.
When the bees no longer shrank back at Brian’s approach, even when there was no Managrass growing, Jeb gestured for him to sit down.
“You might have more luck Binding with the hive now,” he said.
Brian rushed to sit down and closed his eyes, breathing deeply. The bees almost instantly started to pulse in time with his breaths, and Jeb let out his own sigh of relief. Looking with his Magical Vision, he was relieved to see that the constant growth of Managrass had not altered the soil significantly. With a small flex of will, he repaired the soil and encouraged more mundane grass to come back to grow in the space. Turning to the young Druid, Jeb saw the firm line of an offered Binding reaching out towards the bees.
When the strand was just a few paces from the hive, it stopped as though blocked by a wall. The bees were trying to decide whether or not they should Bind to the monster that had spent a number of nights and days working to feed them. It seemed like a far more democratic process than Jeb would have expected from a beehive. He nodded in understanding when two queens came out of the hive to accept the deal. The bees had been about to Swarm.
I wonder if that will make things easier or harder for Brian, Jeb idly mused, thinking about how the leader of his own Swarm was now known as the Empress, in charge of all of the Queens for each individual Hive. He stopped his idle questioning when the bees’ own will, still almost entirely mundane, reached out to span the small distance that separated the two. Jeb was reminded of why he loved his Class so much as the Binding took place; something far greater than the sum of its parts was forming directly in front of him. The two wills danced and twined around each other until it was impossible to find where one began and one ended. Like with Jeb’s own Bindings, though, there was still a clear difference between Brian and the bees. His own bright greens and browns faded and mixed with the yellows of the bees.
Thinking of that, Jeb looked at one of the nearby bees, trying to see the way that he was Bound to them. Just as he was starting to trace the fine shades of difference between himself and the bees to find where the prismatic shard that was his will touched the veritable rainbow of his Swarm, Brian gasped.
“I did it!” he cried.
“I saw. Congratulations,” Jeb nodded sagely, laughing on the inside when Brian took the gesture in stride. Jeb had to wonder if that was how his own mentors had felt when he had accomplished something in front of them. Rather than dwell on it, however, he helped Brian to take a few bees with him, including one of the queens. They returned to the Circle of the Swarm, and Char rushed out to meet them. She looked like a log about to light, and she whirled on Jeb with a complicated mix of emotion in her eyes. “Where were you?” she demanded.
“Char!” Brian called, too exuberant to notice the tension between his mentors, “I Bound a Swarm!”
That seemed to calm Char down more than anything Jeb could have said, and the violent reds and yellows on her arms faded. Looking at the bees flying around the boy, she smiled. “Congratulations, Brian. Now we can begin your training in earnest.”
Looking at Jeb, she sighed and added, “you are also welcome to learn what you can while I teach Brian.”
Seeing Brian’s shocked expression, she rolled her eyes and recited what was clearly a ritual phrase, “our Circle is open. Our fires and food are open to you, and we will not bar you from aid.” With that, she turned and walked into the building that Jeb was only now noticing. Brian followed, and Jeb did as well.