Char opened the door to the Circle of Swarm’s headquarters. The entrance was buzzing, and not only in the literal sense. Countless swarms moved around, though Jeb noticed that almost all of them flew. Druids mingled seemingly independently.
One thing that struck Jeb as more than slightly odd was the fact that conversations only took place between two Druids or two Swarms. He could not find a single instance of a Druid speaking to a Swarm or vice versa. Before he could ask about that, Char led Brian and him to a workspace.
“I will be honest with you, Brian,” she began, letting out a sigh that dimmed the embers on her skin, “I had not expected you to Bond to a Swarm for at least a few months. Because of that, I did not go through the ethics of Binding as quickly as I would have, had I known that you would be apprenticing under our visitor.”
She gave Jeb a halfhearted glare, and he grimaced in apology.
“With that in mind, we will now go through all of the lessons that you were meant to have.”
She looked at the two men in front of her, and both nodded. Brian was clearly eager to make sure that he did not do anything wrong, and Jeb was just curious what ethics were involved in Binding to a swarm.
“First, by Binding to the Swarm, you will be raising it from sentience to sapience. Those Circles which bind to individual beings often discuss the ways to help the new part of you to grow used to the metacognition inherent in the uplifting. Thankfully, Swarms tend not to have that issue, though no one is entirely sure why. There are -” she cut off when she saw that Jeb had Conjured a piece of paper to take notes with.
She blinked a few times before continuing, “there are a number of issues that come with uplifting something to sapience. However, given that you have already Bound yourself, I will only focus on the relevant ones for your particular situation, rather than going through every hypothetical situation, as would be more common.”
She paused, considering something, before narrowing her eyes at her student, “Before you become a mentor yourself, however, you will need to familiarize yourself with the remainder.”
Brian nodded.
Char looked away for a second, gathering her thoughts. Jeb followed her gaze, noting the fact that this room was decorated with the same looping whorls that he had come to associate with Druidic Magic. Quickly glancing at them with his Magical sight, however, he could not find any Magic actively running through them. Before he could give in to his impulse to send a small pulse of Mana at it to see what would happen, Char continued her lecture.
“Since you are the one who brought the Swarm to sapience, it is likely that they will put a great deal of trust in your word. Much like a parent, you have two major responsibilities to your Swarm. First, and I hope you do not need my instruction in this, but you should not abuse the trust that your bees have. I will not go through a list of ways you could do so, both because it would be far from exhaustive, and because it hurts me to think that anyone would ever even consider such actions. However, I will absolutely not stand for you harming your Swarm, and I will be swift and brutal in correcting you should you need it.”
As she gave the warning, her arms began to glow, shifting from the rocky red and black to an almost painful white and blue. She took a few deep breaths, and the coals faded back down to their usual hue.
“I apologize for losing my temper,” she said to Jeb, “there was an incident recently, and I have apparently failed to process it as well as I might. Now then,” she turned to continue addressing her student, “as a parental figure, you will also be responsible for helping to shape the way that your Swarm develops. Bees, in particular, are at their best when each member of the Swarm is able to specialize. Surprisingly enough, Jeb is actually a fantastic example for you to follow in this regard. I am sure that you have noticed the many subspecies of bee that he has with him at any point. Jeb, would you like to tell Brian about the way you helped your Swarm develop these different roles?”
Jeb grinned sheepishly, running a hand through his hair. “About that,” he coughed, “I didn’t actually help my bees to develop. Most of the real changes I’ve seen in them happened while I was at the Academy, before either I or they were able to teleport.”
Stolen story; please report.
Char sighed. “Given everything else that I have learned about you, I cannot say that I am surprised. If that is truly the case, then you will likely also benefit from these directions.”
She waved a hand, and a Swarm of gnats suddenly appeared in the room, flying around in an amorphous blob. Jeb gaped for a moment at how silent they were, despite the fact that there were so many packed so densely as to appear like an opaque mass. Char waved a hand and they reformed into a bee, though scaled to be a few feet in length.
“This is more or less what every worker bee in your hive is like right now,” she explained to Brian.
Brian and Jeb both glanced at the bees hovering above the young Druid’s shoulder, nodding when they saw that the Swarm had modeled it almost perfectly. Char rolled her eyes.
“Jeb doubting me I can understand, given that we have only known each other for a few days. But Brian, do you truly have so little faith in me?”
The boy blushed, even though he could see from the way that his teacher’s skin glowed that she was kidding.
“I’m sorry Char,” he said, and she laughed him off.
“Jeb, would you be able to summon one of each subspecies of bee that you have? It will still be helpful for Brian.”
Jeb nodded and relayed his wishes to the bees that were nearby. Within moments, a few dozen bees were flying around.
“Huh,” Jeb commented aloud, “they’ve gotten much better at hiding their teleports.”
“Jeb’s bees, apparently on their own initiative, still produced almost all of the classic Bound Bee subspecies.” She began pointing them out one by one. As she did, Jeb was slightly surprised to learn that his bees agreed with the assignments she assumed they had.
“Notice how this bee has a stinger whose removal will no longer result in death,” she said, pointing to the largest of bees around Jeb. “That, along with its large size, makes it a fantastic bee for defending the hive from outside invaders.”
Pointing at other bees, she called out that one was meant to collect pollen, another was grown as a scout, and there were apparently three bees who were each meant as a different form of attacker. “Interestingly,” she commented while pointing out the third of them, “none of the pure attacking bees are able to remove their stingers without dying. I am unsure whether that is an intentional choice on the part of your Swarm, or whether it is simply an oversight.”
Jeb grimaced. “I hope that it’s an oversight,” he said, knowing full well that his Swarm counted the individual bees’ lives as far less valuable than he did.
Char nodded as though she could hear the thoughts in Jeb’s head. She looked curiously at the largest bee that had come. The moment that it had arrived, it sat on Jeb’s shoulder, where it seemed perfectly content to stay indefinitely.
“Interesting,” Char commented, coming close to Jeb to peer at the bee more closely.
“What is?” Jeb asked.
“I think that your Swarm created a subspecies of bee which is meant to act as a Mana battery.”
She came even closer, until Jeb could smell the blend of cherry and apple wood smoke which she gave off. The bee, apparently content to feed on the Magic that Jeb radiated, did not react at all.
“No, that isn’t entirely correct. Jeb, is there a reason that your Swarm would feel a need to create an entire subspecies whose entire purpose is to Aspect ambient Mana?”
Jeb nodded eagerly. “I encouraged my bees to Aspect themselves. Since I use more than one Element, though, I wanted them to be able to too. I’m glad that they figured something out, because I was worried about how they would be able to Aspect themselves while I was gone.”
Char still didn’t step back. She was still staring at the Mana converter, as Jeb immediately began to think of the large bee on his shoulder. Suddenly, she jumped back, flaring up as she did.
“There is an incredibly specialized bee living on top of your Aspecting bee!” she cried. “This is fascinating! Would you be willing to let one of the Bee Druids inspect your hive to learn more about the symbiosis that your Swarm has apparently naturally come to?”
“Uh, sure,” Jeb replied, “but aren’t we getting somewhat off track? Brian probably isn’t going to need that for a long while.”
Char blushed, a crimson hue flaring on her cheeks. “You are correct. Thank you for reminding me. Now then, Brian, which subspecies do you think you should work on as your first priority?”
Brian looked at each of the different bees around Jeb. Both Jeb and Char noticed how long his eyes lingered on the dog-sized bee sleeping on Jeb’s shoulder, but in the end he chose a different subspecies.
“I think that right now my first goal should be growing the Swarm’s numbers. Since the Circle of Swarms should be a safe place for it to grow, I cannot think that the combat oriented subspecies would be my best bet. The scouting bees are tempting, but Jeb has already shown me how to grow flowers quickly.”
Char shot Jeb a murderous glance, and Brian hurried to add, “in a way that doesn’t deplete the soil!”
Jeb was privately surprised that Brian had been able to tell the soil quality as well. After letting the thought sit for a moment, though, it made some amount of sense. Everything he’d learned about Magical Farming while at the Academy had been cobbled together from the few notes about Druids he was allowed to access.
“With all that in mind,” Brian said, redirecting the conversation again, “I think that I’ll start with the gatherers.”
“That was a well thought out answer,” Char complimented. “Well, there’s no time like the present. Let us begin.”
She strode out of the room. The two men hurried to follow after her.