The Second of the Sixth buzzed her wings as her workers reported to her. She stood in the midst of her Bee Apartment, filled to the brim not with yellow but bluish green as medicinal workers filled medicinal honeycombs with medicinal honey. One wall, however, had turned yellow with bits of color here and there as it displayed the interior of Beero’s growing Memorial Hive. Her workers flew in from the other hive to report now the status of their charges.
Yet another display of the King’s might, and his love for all bees. After her transformation, the Second of the Sixth had the opportunity to watch the King firsthand. She watched him build palaces for brand new bees by his own hands. She herself had been showered in flowers and shelters galore. And when battles came and bees were injured, she found him right there at her side. Her new instincts informed her how to care for and heal bees. The King had done so with no instincts or transformations at all.
It had been seeing the King watching with concern as she tended to the wounded, and then participating in the healing himself, that taught the Second of the Sixth the King’s true character. And that was why she had accepted the First of the Fifth’s own transformation, one of perspective rather than chitin. She realized the First of the Fifth must have also deciphered the nature of the King and thus pivoted herself to follow suit.
The Second of the Sixth could only be grateful to her. Because now, thanks to her transformation via a flower offered to her freely, the Second of the Sixth could truly match the heart of the King. Every aspect of her hive, from their inborn instincts to the designs of their bodies to the honey and wax they produced, was geared towards taking care of bees. For a while, the Second of the Sixth had basked in contentment, knowing she had found a place within the hive of hives that the King would value greatly. She was the one who could assuage his fears and grief when the soldier bees fulfilled their duty.
The Second of the Sixth relaxed, letting her proboscis unwind and her antennae droop. The workers reported back positively, the wounded bees were predicted to make full recoveries shortly. Sans those who had lost wings or limbs, but those had already been gathered to the hive of the fallen and were training in Beero’s methods even now.
Which meant the risk the Second of the Sixth had taken wouldn’t come back to sting her after all. She dismissed the workers back to their duties before taking off and flying to a newly built section of her hive. There, new children were just crawling out of their cells.
Children as large as herself.
This latest battle had both shaken and enlightened the Second of the Sixth. Shaken, for her hive had proven inadequate to their task for the first time since her transformation. The sheer numbers of wounded, plus the size of the bumblebees, lancers, and the karnuq, had stretched her hive to its limit. To her shame, the King himself had been forced to intercede personally and injured himself in the process. No bee, whether the Firstborn when a shade bypassed her army, the First of the Fifth when she had completely misread the King, or even the fallen First Dynasty of the First Spawner that had perished to a bee, had allowed the King to be injured by their failures. She would never forget that she had been the first.
The communer was currently dancing.
The Fourth of the Seventh watched through the communer link as her scouts out in the Beyond danced their salutes, scattered around their target.
A squad of soldiers gathered together and saluted, ready to intervene at a moment’s notice.
The communer turned to the Fourth of the Seventh.
“Queen, ok to start?”
The Fourth of the Seventh nearly took off as she quickly danced her reply.
The communer relayed the command and her bees in the Beyond began flying to their target. With the latest expansion, the borders of the Hunger had been pushed back and no longer came up to that ruined stone hive. There was no longer any reason why the Fourth of the Seventh’s hive could not scout the ruins. So, today, they were sending in the scouts to see if they could find anything useful…and to see if the ruins were safe. The soldiers were on standby in case they weren’t. ȓ𝖆ＮọʙÈș
The Fourth of the Seventh continued dancing about as she watched through her scouts’ eyes. They approached the ruins from every direction and angle, antennae twitching as they tried to pick up any scents or mana. Indeed, the ambient mana density rose as they approached and entered the old hive. Nowhere near the King’s realm, of course, but higher than they had found in the Beyond thus far.
The workers followed the mana where it concentrated on the walls of the ruined hive. It seemed to have been arranged in patterns of some sort, though wear and tear had long broken them down. They did, however, remind the Fourth of the Seventh of that pattern the King asked her to find after the battle with the King-shaped enemies. The Fourth of the Seventh stopped dancing for a moment.
“Tell them to be careful, might be enemies.”