The Firstborn hovered in the air as she again looked upon the towering fortress spread out before her. Legions upon legions of her and her fellow queen’s offspring flew in and out of the grand gate, a couple of soldiers holding open the great weaves to ease their passage.

The King…was truly incredible. And generous beyond all imagining.

They had walls that even a soldier could not pierce. They had entrances taller than any foe they could use to launch their assaults. They had areas to gather and organize their forces before they ever left the hive.

The fortress was even magical, like the palaces of the Apiary were said to be. Mana flowed through the walls, it touched every bee that entered, and it assisted their efforts to rebuild their hives. And as they moved their young brood in, the Firstborn felt the mana flow into them as well, helping to nourish them and stimulate their growth. If her predictions were correct…they could maintain a larger army than they had before without even expanding their foraging efforts.

But even that was not what the Firstborn focused upon now. The thing that held her gaze were the grand pillars upon which to build their combs. The same pillars that the Conduit once told her about when she was a young queen. The same pillars the King had built for the First Dynasty, upon which they built their civilization. In fact, the Conduit claimed these pillars were far larger and sturdier than those.

The Firstborn began to tremble. They had done it. They had returned to the time before the First Invasion. They had fully avenged the fall of the First Dynasty. The King could now turn his attention to grand constructions and civilization and leave the bloody work of war to them.

The Firstborn allowed herself a single moment to bask in the glory of the fortress once more before she returned to work. There was much to do, and her hive needed her to direct their efforts. Their cooperation with the King had revealed the potential of the soldiers for more than simple combat. Even now, workers chewed off entire sections of honeycomb in her old hive, which a single soldier could carry all at once. The soldiers carried these portions of her old hive to the pillars that were designated for her, where workers forming new wax would integrate them into the new constructions. The King had declared that there would be no invasion today in order to give them a chance to move and the Flower Meadow queens intended to fulfill his will. Therefore, the whole soldier bee army was deployed to support the effort. And with hundreds of soldiers each of which could carry many cells all at once, the work was proceeding beyond expectations. What they thought would be the work of days could now be accomplished in mere hours.

And then, the queens of the Flower Meadow would take full advantage of their new home. The extra mana and space and the ease of cooperation would accelerate their efforts, while the new flowers grown by the King would sustain their expansion.

The Firstborn and her fellow queens had succeeded. They had built an army that proved victorious where the First Dynasty had fallen. They had grown enough that the King had begun to trust them, and turned his attention back to his initial plans.

And that would only be the beginning. This she promised.

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The Second of the Sixth stood still in her hive, staring at the glistening, slight glowing, blue and green honey in front of her. She…was unsure of herself.

She had been extremely wary when the First of the Fifth offered her access to a brand new flower…and her suspicion only grew as scout reports and nectar samples came in. The flower was like one of the healing herbs…but contained noticeably more mana like the mana flowers. It produced nectar on par with processed healing herb honey which was then elevated even further by her workers. It’s productivity far outstripped that of a regular healing herb flower as well. And there were no downsides that the Second of the Sixth’s workers had noticed. It was not difficult to gather from, limited in quantity, or lower in quality. It was, by all metrics, an excellent flower and a great boon to her hive.

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It was beyond suspicious.

The Second of the Sixth just knew the First of the Fifth must have had some sort of goal with this. The schemer who had maneuvered into uncontested control of the Apiary and all of its resources would not have simply given up a treasure of this caliber. No, she must have had some sort of plan, some sort of catch. And yet, for the life of her the Second of the Sixth could not figure out what it was. She could not see how the First of the Fifth would benefit from this.

And that was why she was suspicious. The First of the Fifth was crafty and powerful, that much all the Apiary queens had to acknowledge. There was absolutely every possibility that she saw something the rest of them did not. That meant that the lack of an apparent motive was the most dangerous situation of all.

It was why all of them were wary when the King doubled the number of mana flowers in the Apiary just yesterday. The First of the Fifth again did something that none of them had anticipated. She gathered them up and assigned each and every one of them a mana flower. Every hive now had exclusive access to its own mana flower, with the rest to be shared communally.

They had wanted to refuse as they could not determine what the First of the Fifth’s game was. However, the Second of the Sixth had to admit that the First of the Fifth was truly good at what she did. She made them an offer none of them could refuse, whatever her angle ultimately was. All of them begrudgingly agreed to her terms. All of them stewed in worry as their hives began to grow, wondering when the First of the Fifth’s final designs would be revealed.

And that was why the Second of the Sixth now hesitated.

She thought long and hard on how best to leverage the new flower the First of the Fifth had dared to “grant” to her. It’s nectar was rich and powerful…but it was ultimately a single flower. No matter how productive, it would be difficult to support any sort of mass endeavor with it. She first wanted to offer it to the King…but filling an entire tray off the nectar of one flower would take a long, long time. She thought about raising new workers on it….but that, too, would have only resulted in a handful of new workers. Not enough to make any sort of dramatic difference for her hive. Not enough to surpass anything that the First of the Fifth had already accomplished.

No, none of that felt like a sufficient use of this treasured resource she had acquired. And she knew why.

Her instincts whispered to her of something else she could do. The nutrition, quality, and mana concentration of the new honey was just right for a use that to her knowledge even the First of the Fifth had not attempted. She had recently gathered sufficient quantity to make the attempt. She could try it right now. And if she succeeded…not just her honey or her workers but her entire hive would be transformed. They would become something different, something altogether new in the King’s realm. She would achieve something even the First of the Fifth had not.

And that was why she hesitated.

Surely the First of the Fifth would have noticed the potential in this flower? Surely the First of the Fifth must have realized the implications? The Second of the Sixth hated to admit it but the First of the Fifth did produce the finest honey of all the queens. It would be foolish of her to believe the First of the Fifth would not have understood what she did.

So, why then would the First of the Fifth permit this to happen? Why would she allow the Second of the Sixth to achieve something she had not? Was there something the Second of the Sixth was missing about this? A reason the First of the Fifth had not embarked upon this path?

Was this the result the First of the Fifth was hoping for? Was the Second of the Sixth playing into her hands? Would she seal her fate if she took the next step?

She did not know. She couldn’t know. She thought and she thought and she thought some more. She discussed it with her scouts. She discussed it, if in necessarily vague terms, with the other queens. But in the end, none of them could see the First of the Fifth’s purpose in this. None of them could see any angles or schemes.

So, she came to her decision. She gave the order to her workers and they began to surround a cell larger than any they had ever built before, filling it to the brim with the new honey.

And then, she herself climbed in, curling up to fit her large body in. The workers immediately began to cover the cell over as the Second of the Sixth circulated her mana, resonating it with the honey all around her.

She would take the plunge, and do what she thought best. To forgo this opportunity was to forgo her best chance at becoming something more than just another Apiary queen. It was to forgo her hive’s best opportunity at greatness. And if this was what the First of the Fifth wanted, if there was some scheme that would seal the Second of the Sixth’s fate, she would just have to admit she had been beaten. It would be no different than it had been before, and no different than if she rejected the opportunity entirely.

She continued to circulate her mana and began to drink of the honey as the wax shut out the light…