The Bee Dungeon

She slowly awakened. Everything was dark, pitch black. She began to squirm, wondering where she was, what had happened.

But then, suddenly, there was light. Or rather, mana. It danced across her eyes and flooded into her body. There were patterns, dances within the mana.

“Larva in section two is hungry, need honey.”

“Honey production good! New palace full of mana, barely need to add any to nectar! King is best king!”

“New flowers have mana but make sleepy, make worker fly slower. Inefficient. Don’t recommend.”

Her vision spun and she felt dizzy. A hundred different dances impressed themselves on her mind all at once. She…needed to feed the brood! Or…was she checking the honey? Or giving a scout report…or was she receiving it? Or was she trapped, curled up somewhere dark? Her head began to pound and she squirmed about in her confines.

That is, until she saw a dance that stood out above the rest.

“King made new room! Want to go see!”

Suddenly she burst into motion.

In an instant, the Fourth of the Seventh’s worker burst out her cell all in one go. She paused as her mind finally caught up, her focus on her queen causing the rest of the mana and the dances it carried to fade to the background.

That’s right, she was a worker of the Fourth of the Seventh. The worker who helped the others work whenever their queen was distracted. The worker who subsequently decided to evolve to better fulfill her role. The worker who…was probably done evolving now?

But she put all of that aside…because she knew that dance! The scouts must have reported the King doing something new again! Which meant she had to find her queen, now!

Strangely, though, she somehow knew exactly where her queen was. She could see as her queen suddenly paused, and somehow turned in her direction.

“Worker? Worker is awake! Going to go see!”

The worker paused. Her queen…had noticed she was awake? And was immediately coming to see her, despite the new scout report?

Before she knew it, she had stopped moving and broke out into a happy dance. When her queen rounded the corner of the honeycomb tray, the worker immediately flew over to her. Her queen began to brush her with her antennae.

“Queen!”

“Worker!”

It took a while before the worker could think coherently again.

“Worker, you’re evolved!”

The worker finally calmed down enough to perceive her queen’s dances. That…was right? She was evolved, right?

Suddenly, she was no longer looking through her body. Rather, she was now looking at her body, from up above. Was this…her queen’s vision?

She saw a little worker, no bigger than any other. However, her antennae were far fuzzier than normal, with countless branches extending out from them and swaying as if in a breeze. Also, her eyes were glowing as mana swirled around her body.

That’s right. She had evolved. She was no longer a worker. She was now…a communer. Her body was filled to the brim with mana, far more than she had ever had before. Her antennae directed and swirled that mana around, extending it out to connect with the mana of her queen and her sisters. That mana danced along with them, carrying information about them back to her.

It was a lot. But she kept her focus on her queen, a bright star of mana shining through the light of the rest, and which all the rest focused their attention on. Even the second star, the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter, turned towards the first…

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She paused. Wait. She could also…feel the mana of the other queen? One that was part of her hive but also not? And now that she turned her attention to the mana of the other queen, she could also, faintly, feel the mana of the the other workers in the hive. The ones that weren’t her siblings, but acted like they were.

She briefly thought about if that was normal before turning her attention back to her queen.

“Queen…queen stayed? Managed hive?”

The Fourth of the Seventh danced happily.

“Yes! King built new hive, so had to move!”

The communer froze. Wait, what? The King…had built them a new hive? She briefly looked around and started to tremble. She was not in the hive she had built. She was in a mighty palace with massive pillars of wood supporting the comb, with huge currents of mana surging through them and into the cells, enriching the honey and feeding the young. With her new sight, focusing on the mana caused the entire hive to light up like the sun. She stumbled back and quickly refocused back on her queen, letting the ambient mana fade into the background.

And the surprises didn’t stop.

“First of the Fifth’s First Daughter and I going to raise queens, too! Been saving honey for!”

That was also big news. They…were going to have new queens? Were they going to send them out or keep them in the hive? Did they have the workers to support that?

“And then outsiders moved into King’s land! Conduit, Firstborn, and First of Fifth asked if we could help scout!”

At this point, the communer’s thoughts became jumbled. Something from outside…moved inside? The Conduit and the two foremost queens asked them to do something?

“And now heard King made new room! Even made new kind of queen! Want to see and greet!”

The communer collapsed to the ground, her antenna twitching. The glow in her eyes flickered and then shut off, immediately cutting the dances swirling in her head.

Just what had happened while she was evolving?!

The First of the Fifth flew through the sky. She was, as usual, loathe to leave her hive behind, but this time she had to. The King had raised a new bee of his own, the first since he raised the soldiers that guarded the Apiary. And this new one was apparently a queen, no less, the first since the last of the Apiary queens was born. It was imperative that she meet this newcomer and take their measure…and, of course, figure out how to support them.

This was all the more important as the King had placed them in a new room connected to the Apiary itself, placed as close to the First of the Fifth as possible without infringing on the existing hives. It was a clear sign that she should help take care of this newcomer.

She flew through the new room, a second Flower Meadow. She paused briefly as she saw the sheer abundance of flowers present before shaking herself. The King himself had promised that all bees would have enough nectar to eat to their hearts’ contents, so it was only natural he had provided extreme riches to the newcomers. It was even a sign of his love for the rest of them, as this would ensure they wouldn’t need to reduce their foraging for the newcomers!

So, she repeated to herself as she flew to the closest palace. She landed outside.

No one came to greet her. That was…a somewhat inefficient use of time, for both of them. The First of the Fifth buzzed her wings, but she would show patience and grace. So, she waited.

And waited. And waited…

Eventually, when she was buzzing loudly, she gave up and told one of her workers to check inside. The worker peeked her head in and immediately came to report.

The palace was empty.

The First of the Fifth paused for a moment before drooping a bit. So, she had waited for someone who wasn’t even there. That was…an unfortunately use of time, but at least it meant she was not being specifically ignored. So, she made her way to the next palace, where surely she would find the newcomer.

A minute later and the worker she sent to check confirmed that this palace, too, was empty.

At this point the First of the Fifth abandoned courtesy and ordered her workers to immediately check the other two. They came back confused, reporting that those palaces were empty too. The First of the Fifth couldn’t help but float around aimlessly.

All of the King’s palaces were empty? Then, where was the newcomer?!

It was then that one of her workers got her attention. She turned and faced the ground and nearly dropped out of the air.

Instead of the King’s personally crafted palaces, the newcomer was crawling out of a hole in the ground. She was large for a newly born queen, maybe a fifth the size of the current First of the Fifth. She was covered in far more hair than normal, giving her a round and fuzzy appearance. She beat her wings and slowly rose into the air, moving far more ponderously than the First of the Fifth’s sleek and efficient workers.

The First of the Fifth’s instincts vaguely hinted at the identity of this newcomer. A different type of bee, one that was larger and less elegant, that had small, chaotic hives instead of the efficient order of her own. But, fortunately, one that was not at odds with her own besides the general competition for resources that the King had sworn to prevent.

The newcomer suddenly paused, and then began flying over to them. She then simply floated in the air, not bothering with a dance or anything. It appeared it was up to the First of the Fifth to initiate. But that was fine. She was, after all, the older and more experienced queen. It was only natural for her to have to lead a newborn.

“Hello. I’m the First of the Fifth. Welcome to King’s hive of hives.”

The newcomer stood still, not replying with a dance of her own. The First of the Fifth hung there, waiting to see what she would do. And just when the First of the Fifth began to wonder if she was being ignored again, the newcomer moved.

But she did not dance. Instead, she simply began flying in a circle around the First of the Fifth. The First of the Fifth began cleaning her antenna to calm herself.

Taking care of new bees…might be more difficult than she thought.

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