The stingless queen, the first chosen by the Flower Tender to receive a magical palace, now the queen of queens over all the lands stewarded by the Flower Tender, received a report from whichever hive it was she had assigned to scout the newest room. The new bee type had arrived, complete with its hive. The scouting hive recommended immediate subjugation.
The stingless queen did not reply, continuing to sip honey from a cell. After she finished her meal, she proceeded to lay another round of eggs. Then she conferred with her workers on the state of her hive and made adjustments where necessary.
Only then did she reply to the workers from the scouting hive.
“Servant queen inform new hive of subjugation, demand tribute. Take appropriate measures if refuse. Will expect delivery soon, do not fail.”
The scouting queen was truly insolent. As if the queen of queens would bother mobilizing her army to subjugate a single new queen. She had an entire empire to run, countless queens submitted to her will. A single newcomer was of no concern, running her own hive was of far greater importance. One of her servants would suffice to inform the newcomer of their place.
And if the newcomer refused and her servant failed to subjugate them? Only then would she remind the queens of her might.
The stingless queen who had scouted the new bees was currently running about in panic. Her plan…had not developed to expectations. She had not considered that the domineering queen would simply assign her to subjugate the newcomer instead of sending the army. Her choices were now refuse and earn the ire of the domineering queen who conquered all the rest…or tell the gigantic bees that they needed to submit.
Either way, she was dead.
She continued pacing about but time was ticking. Thanks to the vague and threatening time limit set by the domineering queen, she had no choice but to try and work things out on the fly. With her antennae drooping, she slowly began to fly out of her hive. This was a conversation that would need to be handled delicately, she couldn’t just pass a message through her workers this time. She had no choice but to go herself and hope the new queen didn’t take the opportunity to kill her immediately. As such, she took only the bare minimum escort, for what was the point? A subjugated queen like her was only permitted one or two soldiers at a time, a paltry force compared to what the new queen might possess.
For a moment, she was taken aback. But then, she began to flutter her wings. The newcomer must have realized the balance of power better than most and so must be attempting to avoid being conquered. If that was the case…such a gift made sense. Her opinion of the newcomer rose, clearly the newcomer had a good head on her torso. A bit cowardly, of course, but that was a flaw she did not mind in her servants.
And so, the queen of queens returned to her most important business and put the newcomer out of her mind. Clearly, said newcomer had already learned her place, and thus required no further attention from the queen of queens…
The Third Daughter welcomed her workers after they returned from their honey delivery. She then spun about in a happy circle.
It had worked! It went just like her queen mother’s queen mother had predicted! The powerful queen asked for honey, so she gave it! The powerful queen now accepted her hive's presence, so she wouldn’t need to fight yet and her workers got to scout powerful queen’s hive! Now she’d have plenty of time to build up her hive, especially with all the honey from her queen mother’s queen mother and all the eggs the Fourth of the Seventh laid for her!
It was interesting! New hive of hives apparently wasn’t a hive of hives! Apparently, she’d have to make them into a hive of hives so that they could be useful for the hive of hives instead of inefficiently fighting each other! This would be a brand new experience, something only her queen mother’s queen mother had tried apparently but had stopped once she learned about the hive of hives! The Third Daughter would be the first to do it for real!
So, she’d start now! She turned to the stingless queen that had greeted her. The queen was twitching and buzzing.
“New queen…gave all honey? But…how will feed hive? How will feed soldiers?”
The Third Daughter began a confused dance.
“But…didn’t give all honey? Have plenty more?”
The stingless queen twitched.
The Third Daughter thought this would be easier, so led the stingless queen inside her hive. The queen froze.
The Third Daughter danced before entire trays of glistening honey.
“Is from hive of hives! All queens help, so help all queens!”
The stingless queen was leaking mostly incoherent pheromones, but eventually the Third Daughter worked something out.
The Third Daughter stepped forward and gently brushed the stingless queen’s antennae. The other queen flinched at first, but the Third Daughter spread calming pheromones as she did to reassure the stingless queen she meant no harm.
“Yep! Want to join? Can share honey if need!”
The stingless queen did not reply at first, staring at her and her honey for a good minute. Then, she slowly began to release pheromones and mana.