Despite all that she currently had to do, the First of the Fifth found herself standing at the front of her hive. Dancing in front of her were several workers from her daughter, giving her a report on recent affairs. The first of which had the First of the Fifth confused, confused to the point that she was now here to hear and clarify the report in person.
The start of the report had gone well, beyond the First of the Fifth’s wildest expectations. Not only had her daughter successfully made the move, the King himself had built a perfect place for her to construct her new hive, well-defended and stocked to the brim with resources. The King was directly supporting her efforts. It took a while before the First of the Fifth was cognizant enough to receive the rest of the report. Which only made the next piece of news all the more confusing.
“My daughter…formed joint hive? With Fourth of Seventh?”
The workers danced the affirmative. The First of the Fifth did not consider for a moment if they had told the truth, for anything else was unthinkable. Besides, these workers, the children of her own child, were still partially under the effects of her ability to command her own offspring. They replied to her questions as honestly and thoroughly as her own workers would. So, there was no mistake in the report itself.
“…why?”
Try as she might, the First of the Fifth couldn’t see any rationale for this turn of events. Coordinating and cooperating with the Fourth of the Seventh was one thing. Forming a joint hive with her was something else entirely. That was a measure that could be taken…but only ever by related queens. Mixing workers and broods and honey with an unrelated queen could only produce inefficiency and dilute her offspring’s achievements. How would her daughter possibly achieve the rigorous quality control to produce acceptably good honey if she wasn’t even in command of all the workers in the hive? The First of the Fifth knew the Fourth of the Seventh had been surprisingly cooperative and subservient, but she could not believe that extended as far as the Fourth of the Seventh subordinating her own hive to her daughter, a bee far younger and smaller than she. Nor could she imagine her own flesh and blood subordinating herself to the Fourth of the Seventh, one of the least of the Apiary queens. So…how had these events come about?
And as mentioned before, since these workers were partially under her ability to command her offspring, they answered truthfully and in detail.
“Running out of honey, not enough to move and raise next generation. Fourth of Seventh offered help. Workers worked together, built hive together for better efficiency.”
The First of the Fifth froze solid.
Her daughter…had run out of honey? How was that possible?
The First of the Fifth thought back to her daughter and all that she knew of her affairs. And…she started to tremble. She had had her daughter operate on the edge of sustainability in order to achieve maximally rapid growth…because she herself would provide the extra resources to ensure her daughter’s hive did not collapse. She wanted her daughter to grow greater than the other Apiary hives, after all, which would take even greater efforts since she did not possess one of the King’s magical palaces.
And then…she had withdrawn her resources in order to support the King’s battle. And…she had not commanded her daughter to act any differently as a result. So…if like any of her other offspring…her daughter had continued to execute her commands without question…she would have continued to operate at the absolute limits of her honey production, possibly beyond. So…she would not have had any reserves when the First of the Fifth commanded her to move. And if she tried to move immediately, without those reserves…
The First of the Fifth’s wings began to buzz and she began to pace about rapidly. This…this was a disaster of her own making. She had not paid sufficient attention to her own daughter, treating her like just another worker. And because of that, she had placed her daughter in a desperate situation where the child had no choice but to accept aid from another, unrelated queen in order to fulfill her commands. The First of the Fifth had spread her attention too thin, and her daughter had suffered as a result. When she thought about what her daughter would have been forced to do had it not been for the Fourth of the Seventh…
A joint hive with an unrelated queen was the best outcome of all this, even if it were the scenario where her daughter was now subordinated to the Fourth of the Seventh’s rule. In the worst case, her own daughter’s hive may have collapsed. She may have been responsible for the first failure among all the hives of the King that resulted purely from their own mistakes, without even the interference of an external invader.
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But for the First of the Fifth, the worst was yet to come.
The report continued. The workers described the current situation of the joint hives and the new room they found themselves in. The First of the Fifth could hardly pay attention, but at the very least the joint hive was now doing well. No thanks to her, but at least her daughter was not starving.
She thought that was the end of it but the workers had more to report. The Fourth of the Seventh’s workers had also reestablished contact with the Flower Meadow and had passed on news from there, as they had done before. So, for the first time since the King’s battle, the First of the Fifth received news of the Flower Meadow.
She froze even her anxious dance as the meaning of the workers’ dances before her reached her mind.
“King…building palace…for Flower Meadow?”
The workers danced the affirmative.
“…consulted with First of the First on it?”
The workers again danced the affirmative.
“Received new flowers? Still commanding army?”
The workers danced the affirmative once more. The First of the Fifth turned around and walked back into her hive in complete silence. The First of the First, who in her opinion no longer deserved any honor for being born first, had failed egregiously, and put the King himself at risk. She deserved no less than exile, it was only the King’s boundless grace that she was permitted to endure. But it was clear that she had lost any favor she had with the King, evidenced by the fact that he had pushed her away from his abode, separating them with an entirely new room. And it went without saying that she could not be trusted to command his defenses any longer. The First of the Fifth had even been prepared for the King to ask her to arrange things in the First of the First’s stead, but if not her then someone else. Such was the natural outcome for a failure, one who had lost the King’s favor. Or so the First of the Fifth had believed.
But she could not have been more wrong.
The King had not cast the First of the First out, nor had he replaced her. No…he had treated her with greater favor than before she had failed! He continued to trust her with the defense. He granted her new resources and a new type of bee with which to fight. And now…he intended to construct for her a palace, which had previously been an honor restricted to the Fallen Dynasty and the Apiary queens alone. And not only that…he had consulted with the Flower Meadow queens on the palace. He had taken their meager opinions and desires into account. He had not done that much even for the First of the Fifth. Measured by the rewards alone…he would be showing greater favor to the First of the First than to the First of the Fifth.
It made absolutely no sense. There was no way she could justify it in a manner she could understand or accept. How could the First of the First possibly have gained that much favor after such an egregious and critical failure? How could she have surpassed the First of the Fifth by placing the King himself in harm’s way? Why did the King lavish rewards upon her so?
The First of the Fifth could not help but let the doubts creep into her mind. What if…these rewards were not a sign of the King’s favor? But if that were true…then none of the First of the Fifth’s own rewards could be considered a sign of it either. Which might mean she had misread the King’s actions and intentions entirely. Forget knowing him better than all, she might not know him at all.
Previously, she might have been able to put such doubts aside, confident in her own achievements and her own observations of the King. But now? His treatment of the First of the First was conclusive proof that his thoughts were different from hers, for they were completely opposite of anything she would have ever expected. And worse…she could no longer claim to be the greatest of queens. Her failures with her own daughter had revealed that her own plans and methods were flawed. She, the queen producing the most and greatest honey of all, had nearly driven her own offspring to starvation. She had failed in her area of expertise, her primary task and the one she considered most important. A failure on par with the First of the First’s own...or worse, since no external force played any part in it.
And then…it got worse. She had a thought. If the King’s boons were not a reward for his favor…then what was their purpose? The First of the First had received them after a failure. In that case…was it not possible that the King was not rewarding the best of his bees…but trying to bring those who were failing up to standard? The First of the First’s case would indicate so. And then there was her daughter…who had received a perfect location from the hive from the King…when she had been so desperate that she had to join with another queen. The evidence only grew.
And if that were true…then what of all the boons granted to the First of the Fifth? What if it were not a sign she was the most favored…but the very opposite? A sign that she had never been trusted like the First of the First had been?
The next thing she knew, she was flying through the air. Away from her hive, away from her daughter’s workers, away from…everything.
----------------------------------------
Niobee flew in front of Belissar and began to dance.
“King, need to do something! Is ok? Will be back soon!”
Belissar tilted his head but nodded immediately.
“Yeah, that’s fine. See you soon.”
“Thanks! Will be back soon!”
And with that, Niobee flew off into the Tower…