Belissar rubbed his chin and furrowed his brow, humming to himself. Niobee had told him that any bee, including the queens, would absolutely love a name from him, considering it a great honor. A sign of his favor, that the bee in question was special to him.
And that gave him pause. When he had named Beero, Velebee, and Frelis, it had mostly been because he had nothing else to call them. It was true that they were special and he wanted to keep track of them, he guessed, but he hadn’t really been thinking about it as an honor or anything. However, he had now realized that it was a much bigger deal to the bees than he had anticipated…and especially when it came to the queens.
There was no doubt that the Fourth of the Seventh was special to him and deserved any such honor. The thing was, though, that he already had something to call her, so giving her a name would in fact be purely an honor. And…was she the only queen who deserved such a thing? The Firstborn and all the flower meadow queens risked their lives and the lives of their children to protect the Tower. The First of the Fifth worked without ceasing to provide enough honey for all the hives. The Third of the Sixth dunked herself in the same fire honey that had nearly killed Metsaitti to try and evolve. The Second of the Sixth saved the lives of many bees and even some of the karnuq.
So on and so forth. Each and every one of the queens gave their all for his sake and the sake of his Tower. He wanted to do something to celebrate the Fourth of the Seventh and her big achievement, but he did not want any of the other queens to feel any lesser. So, if he was going to name one, he really should name them all.
“Niobee…can you hold off on asking the queens about names? I…don’t want any of the other queens to feel like they aren’t special to me.”
Belissar made a wry smile at Niobee’s cheerful dance. He…might be overthinking it. Maybe they’d all just be happy like she was. But for now…the Fourth of the Seventh worked fine as a name, one the bees had naturally chosen for themselves.
Still, he wanted to do something for the Fourth of the Seventh, so he made his way over to the Orchard hives. The Orchard queens, including the Fourth of the Seventh, zipped around him once he arrived. He smiled. He held out his hand…only to quickly realize he need both as the now giant Fourth of the Seventh tried to land. He ended up grabbing her sides with both his hands to hold her up.
“Congratulations on your evolution!”
Her voice was soft and a bit raspy. Belissar waved back once.
“Hi, I’m Belissar, nice to meet you.”
Tarwantrad smiled at the exchange.
“Hesfalle’s patron is the God of Death, so I figured she could help with the underworld phlox?”
Belissar had a brief moment of panic at the mention of the God of Death, thinking back to when he first arrived at the Tower and thought he had died. He quickly overcame it though, recalling that all of that was just his misunderstanding. He could now definitively state that Niobee was not, in fact, the God of Death.
He brought his mind back on topic.
“Ah, yes. The bees told me they were having trouble with the honey from that flower…seems it’s dangerous?”
Hesfalle hummed slightly.
“Death…honey? So, it’s true. Could you show me the flowers and the honey?”
Belissar paused and glanced at Tarwantrad. She nodded with a warm smile.
“Hesfalle here is a friend and we’ve helped each other’s dungeons immensely. You can trust her.”
“Got it. In that case, follow me.”
Belissar led the pair to the Memorial in the battle meadow. Hesfalle followed along, eyes still unfocused and fixed on the path in front of her until they arrived. As they approached the Memorial, she suddenly started glancing around. Belissar tilted his head as she began to wander around, occasionally stooping to touch the ground, but Tarwantrad didn’t seem to be bothered so he just let the strange elf do…whatever it was she was doing.
After circling around the Memorial, Hesfalle walked back over to them.
“Tarwantrad told me this is a memorial for the fallen bees, right?”
Belissar nodded and Hesfalle made a tiny smile.
“Good idea. It’s concentrating the Death mana along with the lingering feelings of the fallen, purifying them both.”
“It’s quite refreshing. I do see the problem with the honey thing, though. Tarwantrad said your bees make attributed honey from different flowers and then evolve in it?”
Belissar confirmed as much and Hesfalle waved to the flowers around the Memorial.
“These won’t work for that. The effect the memorial is having on the Death mana means it has a mind of its own. It only wants to be used for specific purposes.”
“So, the bees can’t use it?”
Hesfalle shook her head.
“Death mana will be tough to use in that manner in general. I would not recommend trying it with this particular Death mana especially…but that is not a bad thing. I think you should just keep doing what you’ve been doing with this place and the mana here will do what it’s supposed to…but I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you that.”
Belissar looked over to the memorial, looking over the words and the dancing bee carvings before whispering to himself.