The Bee Dungeon-POBee 254.1 - Bee Informed
The First of the Fifth’s First Daughter crawled up to the top of her joint hive. She was joined by a large group of communers and drones. The communers and drones surrounded her in a circle and then the communers stirred their mana while the drones mixed it together, strengthening the bond of the hive. The First Daughter then stirred up and linked her own mana into the mix before beginning to dance.
“Hello, this is First of the Fifth’s First Daughter. Hive of hives can see dance?”
And then, she waited. It took but a moment before she was slammed with mana streams from all directions. Each communer took a different mana stream and eased it into the mix with the help of a drone.
“Wow! Can see First Daughter! Amazing, incredible!”
“This is Firstborn, confirming can see. Agree, is amazing, incredible!”
“This is First of the Fifth. Well done, daughter.”
“T-This is Fourth of the Eighth. Can see!”
“Hi big sisters! First Butcher sees!”
The First Daughter kept count as different queens sent mana dances from across the Tower. From saluting queens in the battle meadow to her own daughters happily dancing in the Orchard to the busy queens of the Apiary. From the new stingless queen to the butcher hives to images of bumblebee queens flying in happy circles. She could even feel the carpenter bees indicating their attention. She finished the count…and confirmed success. Every single bee queen in the entire hive of hives had joined in a mana dance across all of the King’s realm.
It had been a grand effort, sending communers and drones to each and every hive, as well as spreading them out through the Tower to relay the mana across such distances. It wouldn’t have been possible without the Fourth of the Seventh’s nomadic communers, but as usual the Fourth of the Seventh pulled through for her. And now, the entire hive of hives could meet and confer without ceasing the management of their hives by sending their mana through the First Daughter. She no longer needed to passively collect information on all the hives and try to organize everything herself. The hive of hives could discuss and decide together whenever they wished.
It was fortunate timing for this all to come together, for they had much to discuss thanks to recent events. The First of the Fifth checked on her organization workers, workers each tasked with recalling a single order of business for this meeting and lined up in order of priority. The King had once again showed them what they were capable of.
“First: Conduit has confirmed karnuq didn’t betray King. King doesn’t want hive of hives retaliate, Conduit has already warned dangerous one. King and karnuq queen have plan to handle, hive of hives will wait for King.”
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She heard the angry buzzing of dozens of hives. She was nearly overwhelmed by the mana from her queen mother, which still carried some innate authority over here.
“Knew dangerous one was dangerous! Should keep away from King! Will sting next time!”
The First Daughter stirred up her mana and turned her thoughts to the Fourth of the Seventh and the King, resisting the urge to leap into action at her mother’s command as best she could. She certainly understood her queen mother’s fury and did not intend to break away from her mother’s authority…but now was not the time. She was the central connection for the entire hive of hives at the moment, if she let herself become overwhelmed by any single hive’s mana, that connection might break. For the sake of the hive of hives and the task both the King and her queen mother had entrusted to her, she had to remain her own hive today.
It was not easy, especially as every other queen in the hive of hives joined the angry buzzing, but she managed to keep the link intact. She had just enough leeway to tap out the response she had prepared for this situation.
“Will keep watch on dangerous one, but Conduit has already stung. King has decided, hive of hives will do whatever King chooses.”
The angry buzzing remained, but no queen objected further. Even her queen mother’s mana receded, giving the First Daughter more room to breathe. She was able to check the next worker in the line and so focused on that.
“Next is battle with spiderkin. Army won but took losses, made King sad. How hive of hives adapt?”
As expected, mana came streaming in from the Flower Meadow queens. The First of the Second danced for them all today.
“Too many bees and too many attacks to dodge. Need way of stopping attacks when can’t dodge. Firstborn and Beero will speak with protecting King-thing and see if can learn from. Orchard hive can raise more trappers? Will help with webs if fight more spiders. Digging bees hurt up close, can’t dodge as well when stinging from ground. Firstborn will see if can use new powers to help. Says has access to new kind of bee that’s tougher. Can hive of hives give good digging honey? Firstborn will try to evolve new bee into digging if can get.”
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The Fourth of the Fifth began dancing the affirmative, but the First Daughter interjected.
“Fourth of the Fifth could, but needs to expand own hive now for King’s mission. Queen mother, is possible to make swirled digging honey for Firstborn?”
Her queen mother replied immediately.
“Yes, can do. Need Ground mana flower nectar to evolve digging honeypot though.”
The First Daughter double checked with the workers she assigned to remembering the hive of hive’s honey stockpiles and flower usage. She replied once she had confirmed her information.
“Should be possible if trade swirled honey with Fourth of the Fifth. Queen mother, Fourth of the Fifth, that work?”
She felt the Fourth of the Fifth dance a salute…and then she froze. Her queen mother…was dancing a salute to her. Her mind went blank and the link nearly broke.
She only managed to regain focus in time by reminding herself that it was her queen mother who had asked her to manage the hive of hives, so she was respecting her queen mother’s authority by accepting her queen mother acknowledging her authority. She still shuddered and her wings buzzed, but she just managed to turn attention back on her organization workers.
“Ok, if hive of hives all agree then will do. Can raise more trappers too, enough for full squad. Next is scout plan. Fourth of the Seventh confirmed Third Daughter’s ok?”
“Yes! Flower one told bees not to fight, Third Daughter teaching stingless bees about hive of hives now! Has big enough army, will be safe!”
The First Daughter nearly broke out into a happy dance, but she contained herself. Being overwhelmed with happiness would break the link as well as anger, so it was not the time. For now, she’d content herself that all the hive of hives was hearing of the Fourth of the Seventh’s deeds, and then celebrate more properly once the meeting concluded.
“Amazing…good. Thanks to Fourth of the Seventh. Going to scout Beyond now?”
“Yes! Will! Can’t wait to see!”
The First Daughter kept her excited feet in check by focusing on another queen.
“King asked Fourth of the Fifth to scout and watch Underway, said more spider-King things might come. Fourth of the Fifth ready?”
“Am! Expanding hive, looking for good locations. Can Fourth of Seventh show mini-hives? Want to know how built.”
“Ok!”
Her feet nearly rebelled against her. The First Daughter desperately reached out for something to distract her.
“Third of the Third also learning how to build like King. Maybe can help make stronger hive?”
“Still working on but…will try if Fourth of the Fifth and Fourth of the Seventh want.”
“Want! Want to see how Third of the Third builds! Amazing, incredible!”
The First Daughter couldn’t contain the dance anymore. In her last ditch effort to preserve the link, she ordered a part of her hive to dance the Fourth of the Seventh’s praises in her stead. That managed to settle her heart enough to continue on.
“Good, let know if need more help from hive of hives. Next, Second of the Sixth, can report on wounded and spider-King thing eggs?”
The meeting went on as the hive of hives shared all of their information and plans with one another. The Second of the Sixth confirmed the wounded had all stabilized, none of the King’s defenders would suffer any further losses. Beero was informed of how many new recruits would join the hive of the fallen, now including sprayers and even an archer, and made arrangements with the other hives to expand her worker force. The Firstborn would even send her a broodmother so the hive of the fallen could expand at will.
Now that the Third Daughter’s safety was confirmed, she would begin mapping out the flower one’s realm and guide gardeners to novel flowers. Frelis and the gardeners were already beginning to visit some of the ones they had seen during King’s visit there. There were some concerns over if the dangerous one was still suited to work in the nursery, but with Frelis there the hive of hives could press on regardless.
And, of course, they discussed the plans of the King, those he had commanded already, those the Conduit had informed them of, and those they managed to infer from the King’s preparations. The First of the Fifth’s Seventh Daughter and the Fourth of the Fifth’s First Daughter agreed to raise queens and drones as soon as feasible as the King discussed with the angry elf. The Apiary bees and the karnuq hive bees would study the King and the karnuq’s food preparation and see if they could learn anything from it. The soldier bee army would strengthen patrols around the spider-King thing’s eggs since the King was worried about their safety.
Eventually, though, the First Daughter’s mind began to ache. Dealing with this much mana from this many hives was starting to take its toll, no matter how many communers and drones she had supporting her. She assessed the situation and decided that they had discussed all of the urgent issues.
“Let’s stop now, go back to hives and King’s tasks. Will make hive of hives dance again tomorrow if have more to report. Work hard for hive of hives and King. King best king.”
She let the link fade to the fading images of every queen declaring King best king. She then danced all the praise dances for the Fourth of the Seventh she had wanted to earlier, and then collapsed onto the ground. She was surprisingly exhausted…but she was also proud. The hive of hives was now truly connected, no matter if they shared a hive or not. Now no queen would go neglected, no opportunity would be missed, and no problem would appear without warning.
The hive of hives would share as the Fourth of the Seventh had shared with her, and the King had shared with them all.
Eventually, she recovered enough to return to her hive. And strangely, even though the link was long gone, she felt tickles on the edge of her mana, as if she could still feel all of the King’s hives dancing…
