The next day, Belissar found himself surrounded by beehouses. He walked through them, rubbing his chin. He looked through each and every one, pulling out a tray from each. They were all different shapes and sizes, mostly all rough around the edges. But still, Belissar nodded. He turned to face the karnuq beekeepers’ class, all of them staring at him silently.

He gave them a smile.

“This should do, at least as far as I’m concerned. The true test will be if the bees like them. Are you ready for that?”

The karnuq all saluted.

“Yes, Tower Keeper!”

Belissar nodded in approval.

“Good, then I’ll go get the first one.”

With that, Belissar departed from the karnuq village and walked over to an inhabited corner of their Flower Meadow. Once there, he placed a new monster bee queen spawner. He waited while the tree with a beehive built itself, and then a new monster bee queen crawled out of the hive. She shook herself off and began looking around, freezing once she turned towards him. She then took off into the air and began a salute dance before him. Belissar smiled.

“Hello, and welcome to the Tower. This one would be the ninth spawner so…First of the Ninth?”

He turned to Niobee for the latter question and she danced the confirmation.

“Yes! First Queen of First Dynasty of Ninth Spawner!”

Belissar nodded before turning back to the new queen.

“First of the Ninth, I have a special request for you.”

The First of the Ninth flew a single salute dance and then gave him her full attention.

“Over that way, you’ll find the karnuq settlement, and a bunch of beehouses they tried to make. I’d like you to look them over and, if you like any of them, to make your hive in the best one. I’ll upgrade it into a Tower feature once you decide. But, if none of them are to your liking, then let me know and I’ll have them make some more.”

The First of the Ninth quickly saluted. Belissar smiled and continued.

“Also…I’d like you and your hive to act mostly like normal bees towards the karnuq. Make sure you don’t kill any of them, but your workers can sting them if they do something you don’t like.”

She saluted once more. This was Belissar’s plan to help the karnuq learn beekeeping as the God of Bees wished. The augur had mentioned that true challenge was important when raising Tower Guards, but beekeeping had been entirely too easy now that Belissar had magical monster bees he could talk to directly. So, for those karnuq learning beekeeping, Belissar decided to give them a more realistic experience. Within reason, he didn’t want any tragedies occurring between bee and karnuq, but he also wanted them to experience beekeeping when the bees weren’t magically cooperative.

So, the first step would be if they could make beehouses that a bee queen would choose to settle in. Belissar was about to send the First of the Ninth off when Niobee began to dance.

“King! Should introduce to Velebee?”

Belissar’s eyes widened just a bit.

“Ah, that’s a good idea. Right, let’s introduce you to the queen already living here, and then you can check out the beehouses. Alright?”

The new queen saluted once more. Belissar set off with her in tow…

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Velebee watched as new workers crawled out of their cells, brushing antennae with the older workers watching over them.

At first, she had thought she’d have to hold off on raising more brood until what workers she had left could forage enough honey…and winter was fast approaching, so she thought she might have to wait until spring. But it turned out the Hive-Builder had grown far more than she had anticipated. His hives were no longer simple fortresses, they were magic. She was more than little surprised when her workers reported she already had honey stockpiles by the end of the first day. On closer observation, she found the hive itself was spontaneously filling empty cells by some magical means.

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And then, the next day, she arrived.

Her second day in this hive, Velebee had found herself cowering as a hit squad of gigantic soldier bees flew over her hive. She knew it had been too good to be true, this room was not beyond the reach of the giants after all. And would they allow her, but a humble honeybee, to take possession of a magical hive such as this one?

She knew she wouldn’t have, had their positions been reversed.

So it was to her great surprise that, as she trembled, a queen landed before her, and ordered her soldiers to drop a full tray of honey right in front of her hive. The queen said something about hives of hives or something like that, Velebee had been too frightened to pay much attention.

And then the queen had left, leaving the honey behind and Velebee thoroughly confused. What sort of queen just…left their honey outside a rival’s home? She had sent out workers to check it out…and they had not been ambushed by angry defenders. She simply couldn’t comprehend what that “First of the Fifth’s” intentions were.

And then she found out that the honey was magical, stocked to the brim with mana like the honey her Niobee had once made. If she wasn’t mistaken, this honey had more mana than even Niobee’s did.

Velebee had spent the rest of the day in anguish. If she hadn’t been mistaken, honey like this would have allowed her to raise a full generation of Niobees and push her hive to heights she never could have imagined before. And yet…was it a trap? Why exactly had that First of the Fifth just left her honey here? Did the First of the Fifth intend to accuse her of robbing and wipe out her hive? But then…why wouldn’t she have just wiped them out to start with?

Well, while Velebee had been pondering her workers had been working and since she hadn’t told them otherwise they moved the new honey into the hive, leaving Velebee despairing as to what would happen next.

And then the First of the Fifth had returned the day after…and left another tray of magical honey in front of her hive.

Velebee had thought long on this and spoken with her Niobee on the matter, for she simply couldn’t comprehend what was going on. Niobee had explained, then, what was meant by “hive of hives.” All the bees here belonged to the Hive Builder and all worked on his behalf. Therefore, they considered all bees that belonged to the Hive Builder as one hive, and acted as such.

That didn’t seem possible to Velebee. The queens that lived in the Hive-Builder’s hives before had shown no particular inclination to cooperate with one another, Velebee included. How was it possible that these bees had put aside their innate rivalry?

And yet, here she was, not being stung to death by mystical giants. And now, Velebee was watching as new workers crawled out of their cells, raised not on the work of her brood but on honey freely given to her by hives that should have been her rivals and her doom. Workers that possessed the spark of mana within them, new Niobees to take care of her hive while her Niobee took care of the Hive-Builder and all his hives.

This hive of hives thing was inconceivable…but if it was real then maybe it wasn’t a bad thing.

“Hello, Velebee?”

Velebee dropped everything, though, as she heard the Hive-Builder’s voice calling her name. She flew out to find the Hive-Builder and her Niobee once more. She danced happily with her favored worker, before rushing to greet the Hive-Builder and thank him for the magical hive he had granted her.

“You’re welcome, I’m glad you like it. Also, there’s someone I’d like to introduce to you.”

Velebee then realized that the Hive-Builder and her Niobee weren’t alone. There, flying alongside them, was another queen. Not a giant this time, this queen was barely larger than Velebee herself. But the queen was packed full of mana just like all the others, so Velebee had no illusions as to her identity. This was one of the magical giants, maybe a young one who had yet to grow.

“This is the First of the Ninth, she’ll be living near the karnuq with you.”

Velebee froze. The magical giants…were moving in? This place wouldn’t be hers after all? Her hive wouldn’t be safe here either? Had that been the reason? Had the First of the Fifth been fattening her hive up so that a new giant could devour them?

While her mind was racing, the Hive-Builder turned to her Niobee.

“Niobee, normally the oldest queen is in charge of a given room, do I have that right?”

“Oldest and most developed hive!”

The Hive-Builder nodded.

“Got it. In that case, First of the Ninth, this is Velebee. One of my queens from before the Tower, Oracle of the God of Bees, and Niobee’s mom. She’s been living here a few days now, and I guess will be the main queen for this room if you have any issues.”

Velebee recoiled as the young giant flew before her and then started to dance. No doubt a smug declaration of her hives demise…

Velebee froze. If she wasn’t mistaken…the giant was…saluting to her? The young giant repeated her salute dance several times so Velebee could not be mistaken. Her Niobee then landed by her and began brushing her antennae.

“Queen mother ok?”

“Niobee, magic giant not eating hive?”

“No!”

“Magic giant…saluting?”

“Yes! King said! Queen mother in charge of room, other bees will follow!”

Velebee barely managed to move her antennae.

“Magic giant…following…me?”

“Yes!”

Velebee stared at the young queen that would one day dwarf her, who instead of stinging her to death was repeatedly saluting. She looked at the Hive-Builder, who could now build magical hives that made their own honey. She considered the First of the Fifth just handing her magical honey for seemingly no reason.

This hive of hives thing just got more and more inconceivable. But more and more…she was feeling that maybe it was real, and the bees here really weren’t competing with one another. And if that were true…then maybe the giants wouldn’t be so frightening after all…