Belissar and Chief Rohsuak discussed a bit and decided to allocate the second floor to the karnuq. Belissar would add a Flower Meadow, an Orchard, and a Dirt Tunnels there for the karnuq to use. There was, however, a slight problem.
Mana: 12/440
It turned out Belissar didn’t have enough mana to actually add that many rooms right now, much less any additional room features. So, he and Chief Rohsuak agreed to wait a day or two for him to expand his mana reserves before the karnuq would move in.
With that, Chief Rohsuak left to rejoin the karnuq and Belissar dismissed the queens back to their hives. He decided to spend the remainder of the day resting after all the recent battles and conversations.
----------------------------------------
But, unbeknownst to Belissar, the queens did not immediately disperse and return to their hives. Niobee took the Firstborn and the First of the Fifth aside. The Firstborn gave a salute dance and then began to dance unsteadily.
“Yes, Conduit? Need us?”
Niobee danced unusually slowly for her.
“…yes. Worried.”
The Firstborn and the First of the Fifth glanced at each before the First of the Fifth began to dance.
“That’s concerning. What worried about?”
Niobee turned to glance towards the entrance of the Tower.
“Before King was king, King was part of hive of humans. Human hive treated badly. Hurt King, stole King’s food. Niobee would sting but King wasn’t part of hive, so only Niobee fought. Wasn’t enough.”
The Firstborn and the First of the Fifth both began to buzz loudly and extend their stingers at that. Niobee had to brush their antenna to calm them down. The First of the Fifth began a slow, but unyielding dance.
“So…Conduit believes karnuq are a threat to King?”
The Firstborn saluted.
“Want me to gather army?”
Niobee danced the negative before continuing unsteadily.
“No. Karnuq different, and swore to join King’s hive. Think will be ok, but still worried. Can queens keep watch, make sure not tricking King?”
Both the Firstborn and the First of the Fifth saluted immediately.
“Will protect King from every threat.”
The First of the Fifth was still buzzing her wings.
“If hurt King…will die.”
Niobee thanked the two queens and then left to rejoin the King. The Firstborn and the First of the Fifth slowly made their way back to their hives, for they had much to think about…
----------------------------------------
The Firstborn called for a meeting of the queens as she returned to the Bee Barracks, and relayed the information granted to her by the Conduit. The other Flower Meadow queens were silent. The Firstborn could sympathize, the tales of the King before he became king were always fantastical and hard to believe. Especially this one.
How could the King find himself at such a disadvantage? How could others like him fail to see his wisdom and grace? And how powerful were they that they could harm the King and get away with it?
It was a solemn reminder to the Flower Meadow queens. Their army was mighty and could bring down invaders without the loss of a single bee. They had avenged the First Dynasty and allowed the King to turn his mind away from war. They had defeated two new types of invaders without being caught off guard. But they were not the most powerful force out there, not by a long shot, and they still had a long way to go if they wanted to protect the hive of hives. It would not do for them to grow complacent in their recent victories.
Fortunately, the King had granted them great tools to do just that. Every queen felt as the Tower’s mana passed through them. It strengthened all the bees, making the soldiers hit harder, the workers fly faster, and granting the queens greater mana and endurance. And, beyond that, it spoke to the queens. It told them of a new type of bee, the one the King had told them about. A bee that would let a queen see through the eyes of her workers and send them commands from the safety of her own hive.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
For the Flower Meadow queens, it was perfect. The need for a queen to command the army for maximum responsiveness and adaptability? They could now do so without exposing herself to danger. The drop in worker efficiency they noted whenever the queen was away? The queen no longer needed to leave to take command, and so could continue to manage her workers at the same time. The delays when commanding soldiers that weren’t the queen’s own brood? Now each queen could command their own offspring all at once. It was a solution to all of the problems they had encountered since taking personal command of the army.
And, additionally, it would help with the issue raised by the Conduit. The queens could assign workers to watch the newcomers and then watch them with their own eyes. Their responses to any threats would not be delayed by the need to wait for a report to arrive.
So, the Flower Meadow queens soon began to discuss what all of this would mean for them. Every queen would begin raising communers immediately, while worker bees would be spread out across the entire room in order to keep eyes on every corner…and so keep them aware of everything occurring in the Flower Meadow.
They would never cease their efforts. They would take this opportunity and continue to grow the might of the army. And they would keep the hive of hives and the King safe from any and all threats.
----------------------------------------
The First of the Fifth paced about in her hive as she considered the implications of what the Conduit had told her. To hear that the King had been wounded and humiliated? Unthinkable. Had it been anyone other than the Conduit who told her, she would have them stung for a most egregious and despicable lie.
But it was the Conduit, and that meant that it was true. Her wings buzzed again as the mere thought of it made her mind blank with rage. Should any of the King’s old human hive appear again, she swore she would make them suffer.
But they were not here. So instead, she would not fail the Conduit’s request. She would ensure that these karnuq would never have the chance to do anything like the King’s old hive.
The question on her mind right now was…how?
She had the worker force to spread across the Apiary, or even beyond, and she could request her daughter’s help with the Orchard. The Flower Meadow queens would handle their own domain and, for once, the First of the Fifth did not doubt that they would complete this task with all due diligence. The issue was that to do so would ultimately compromise her honey production. Workers spread out across the Apiary would disrupt the allocation of her foragers to the best flowers, the patches the King had grown himself. They could still gather from the mundane flowers spread across the room, but the honey quality and quantity would suffer as a result.
The First of the Fifth was willing to do this if it came down to it. She would not permit the King to suffer such injury and humiliation ever again, no matter what she had to do to prevent it. But, she was the First of the Fifth. She aimed to be the King’s ideal queen. She produced the most and the best honey. She would love all bees as he did. She never compromised and never settled for less than the best, and would spare no effort to achieve her aims.
So, she considered how she could complete her given task without compromising on her honey production. If there were any method by which she could avoid the inefficiency inherent in giving her workers this secondary goal.
And, as she could have expected, the King had provided.
At first, the First of the Fifth had been somewhat dismissive of the new option. These communer bees cost more mana and honey than a regular worker to raise, and yet held no advantage over any other worker in either work or battle. Certainly she could see the value in extending her eyes and dances beyond the range of her own sight…but it was not necessary for her hive. Her hive was perfectly efficient already, and she had perfect knowledge of its every operation and full confidence that her workers would carry out her will. Relying on communers to manage her own hive was a crutch that an ideal queen would not require.
But as she thought more about it, she began to see the value. Her gravest mistake came from being unaware of events going on outside of her hive. If, for example, she had assigned a communer to her daughter’s hive, she could have received real-time updates on her daughter’s status. In fact, she intended to send one to her daughter now for that very purpose.
And then, she had an idea. Why should she limit that to her own daughter? What if, instead, she sent a communer to every single hive in the Apiary? That way, she could keep track of every hive there, and so offer assistance whenever and wherever it was required? Would that not be the ideal way to show her love for all bees? Would that not bring her closer to the King and the Conduit, both of whom could keep track of the bees without eyes?
And, this would provide a solution for her current quandary. Because if she did this, then she could collaborate with the other Apiary queens on this task. She knew the Flower Meadow queens and even her daughter cooperated with other queens besides their own kin, and that such cooperation had apparently born fruit, but still she hesitated. The First of the Fifth now loved all bees, but she still refused to compromise the quality of her work. She did not wish to share her tasks with any queen who could not achieve the level of performance she expected of her own hive. How much more so when it could be the King’s own safety at risk?
But, what if the other queens took her eyes with them? What if all the queens of the Apiary spread their eyes and ears throughout the room to receive immediate reports on any threats, which they could then immediately pass on to the First of the Fifth? That…would be sufficiently effective, would it not? And it would only require a fraction of the workers from each hive to achieve, resulting in a drop in productivity that was ultimately manageable.
The First of the Fifth finally stopped pacing, and then began to issue commands to her workers. It was time to call for the Apiary queens to gather once more.