Belissar was still feeling quite perplexed by Finnakynne’s visit, but Tarwantrad said they would handle it on her side so he put it out of his mind for now. After all, he had a new flower to plant!
He created one new node of mirage flowers in the battle fairy grove, informing the bees once Niobee had confirmed it wouldn’t affect them. He warned the karnuq and asked them to warn the sigmaka about the new feature, then asked the Second of the Sixth to keep some medicinal bees near the flowers just in case. She had raised a number of antidote bees for her hive as well, so hopefully they could help anyone who ended up lost and poisoned.
Speaking of the Second of the Sixth, it seemed she had expanded her hive dramatically. She had raised new workers and a couple of daughter queens to help, but that wasn’t all. She now had gardeners, communers, honeypots and the like. Additionally, she had raised soldiers, sprayers, and lancers as well, all with the slim stingers that characterized medicinal bees. Belissar wondered how that would work, but it did seem they had the same medicinal qualities as their non-combat focused sisters. They hadn’t tested the soldiers or lancers yet, but the sprayers could apparently spray their healing compounds directly onto the wounded.
That proved helpful when a whole team of sigmaka fell into a pit trap all at once.
The Second of the Sixth wasn’t the only bee raising new variants. Belissar made his way over to the bumblebee meadow, carrying the leftovers from the swirled honeycomb tray he’d given Finnakynne a piece of. He went ahead and poured it out over the Heart of the Forest, seeing how the little shoot would like the new honey. Given that the shoot waved its little leaves around and began glowing, Belissar figured it liked the new honey very much.
He'd have to figure out how to make it himself sometime. That honey proved more complicated to replicate than even the attributed honeys. He’d probably have to ask the First of the Fifth how she made it in the first place, but didn’t want to distract her given how much swirled honey they were going to need from her soon.
For now, he’d just have to share what the First of the Fifth gave him with the Heart of the Forest. The little shoot had earned it, in his opinion.
He glanced around at the big flowers covering the field…and at the big bees now landing on them. Previously, while the monster bumblebee queens and soldiers had grown huge, the workers had remained hardly bigger than their mundane counterparts. Belissar had thought that’s just how monster bumblebees worked…but he had been mistaken. Ever since the flowers had grown, the bumblebee workers began growing with them. Now, there were bumblebee workers the size of monster bee soldiers happily drinking from the big flowers all around them.
So, apparently, the monster bumblebees would grow as large as the flowers they gathered from…and now those flowers were growing larger each day, thanks to the Heart of the Forest if Belissar’s guess was correct. And if the workers could grow…then perhaps the queens and soldiers weren’t done growing either. Belissar couldn’t wait to find out.
The First Daughter brushed the first communer’s antennae once more. She thought that had been the case, though her connection to the Fourth of the Seventh’s hive was still not entirely perfect. That was frustrating, but at least she had the first communer here to confirm for her.
“Fill soldier cell with queen mother’s honey, tell soldier to use. Think can evolve, think will be different from Fourth of the Seventh’s other children.”
The first communer fluttered her wings.
“Is ok? Need First of the Fifth’s honey for hive of hives?”
The First Daughter danced the confirmation.
“Is ok, one soldier cell should be fine. And…think this is opportunity, can do something new. Like Fourth of the Seventh would.”
The first communer saluted at that.
“Would. Ok, will tell. Queen mother will be happy if works.”
The First Daughter danced the negative, though.
“Happier. Fourth of the Seventh always happy, even if doesn’t work.”
The first communer could only salute at that before crawling over to dance with the soldier. The First Daughter sent messages to her own communers to make the preparations. She would have to thank her queen mother. Now that she could decide how to use the honey donations, she could start trying new things. She could make not only her own hive, but even the hive of hives itself more like the Fourth of the Seventh. ᚱ𝔞Ν∅ＢЕ𝓢
And for her, that was the best thing she could possibly do.
The Firstborn gathered mana to her wings. The mana followed her wings, spreading out to increase their size and the amount of air they could move. She beat her wings once more and pushed out with the mana and a small gust of wind blew behind her. She dove down along with a squad of soldiers all around her.
Usually, this is where she would fall behind. Instead, the gust of wind blew her ahead of the squad, and the magically increased size of her wings kept her there. She was the first to reach the target and unleashed her mana enhanced sting.
As before, the mana coated and mimicked her stinger, thrust forward to strike from a distance. But unlike before, the mana now lingered, a mystical stinger left in the target. The soldier squad began to adjust the angle of their dives. Five stingers struck the same exact spot she had.