Belissar smiled as he watched the different queens zip around. Tea had proven very popular among them indeed. It was, however, time for the post-celebration council, so he recruited Niobee’s help in gathering them up. Belissar then took a deep breath.
“So, thanks to this latest purification, we can now select stronger daily purifications…but they would be small+, the same as previous expansions. Alternatively, I think we could fit in multiple weaker purifications within a single day. So…what do you all think? Could we fight a small+ purification without any losses or should we try to do multiple purifications?”
Belissar gave time for the queens to confer amongst themselves and checked with his other allies. Chief Rohsuak spoke first.
“I think it would depend on the shade, Tower Keeper. I will say that now that the spiderkin have started training and our hunters have intensified their own training, that we will be stronger soon if you do not think our forces capable just yet.”
Belissar nodded to acknowledge that before checking in with the fair folk. Wardmaster Varilold was ready to respond immediately.
“Our work on the nexus door wards is coming along at a reasonable pace and I could spare some wardens for other tasks. However, I would prefer to focus their efforts on preparing contingencies for emergency purifications or invasion by outsiders, rather than wards that would need to be used daily. Would you object to that, Tower Keeper?”
Belissar shook his head.
“No, that’s a good idea. I’d prefer that too, honestly. We can just fight weaker purifications until then.”
As for the Royal Pixie Guards, Captain Karpakynne had…yet to return, so a pixie man flew in her stead. Vice-Captain Mahgare, if Belissar remembered correctly. The vice-captain gave an amused smile.
“That’s the plan, thanks for the help.”
At that point, the bees had finished conferring and the First Daughter reported their joint opinion.
“King! Hive of hives not sure, got stronger since earlier expansions, but don’t know how strong. Firstborn proposes we test!”
Belissar just barely managed to keep a frown from forming on his face. A test, huh. It was probably the right thing to do…but it could potentially result in bees being lost. But…the bees had grown stronger and the Tower had more defenses and more allies to help now as well. How else were they supposed to determine if the bees’ current strength could handle the stronger daily purifications if they didn’t try?
And most of all, the reason Belissar kept himself from frowning, was that the bees had made their own decision. A decision Belissar would not have made otherwise. That, ultimately, was something he wanted to encourage. He didn’t want to think of how the bees would hesitate to give their own opinions in the future if he responded poorly now.
So, he put aside his own misgivings and forced himself to nod.
“I see…that’s probably the best approach. Let’s try a small+ purification tomorrow, then. Can I ask the pixies for help, Vice-Captain Mahgare?”
Vice-Captain Mahgare gave him a salute.
“For the sake of our honey…and our queen and your tower, of course, you can count on us, Tower Keeper!”
Belissar held in a sigh and turned his attention back to the bees instead. The queens were all dancing salutes once more. The Firstborn even seemed to glow slightly.
“Will protect King’s realm and King’s bees. Promise.”
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Belissar did smile at that. The sight of the big chivalric queen’s salute did calm some of his fears, he had to admit.
The next day, Belissar awoke and had just finished his morning routine when Niobee began dancing.
“King…want to go help hive of hives. Is ok?”
“Of course, Niobee, do whatever you like. Let me know if I can help!”
Niobee spun around before taking off.
Belissar waved as she flew off. He had grown used to having her on his head at pretty much every waking moment, but he also knew that when Niobee left it was always for a good reason. Not to mention…his mana senses were growing and he had an increasingly better feel of what was going on in the Tower. Ever since he had joined his mana with the Fourth of the Seventh and First of the Fifth’s First, Fourth, and Seventh Daughters and all of their hives to finish a golem, he had felt his awareness…expand, somehow. He could occasionally sense a bee nearby without seeing them through either his eyes or the tower sight.
This was especially true for Niobee, who had the strongest mana presence within his senses. He guessed it had something to do with her being the Tower’s conduit and he being its master. In any case, he could pretty much feel her presence through the Tower’s mana even when they weren’t physically together. He knew instinctively that she would hear whenever he called, no matter where in the Tower either of them was.
He felt warmth and…relief, he thought, at that. He guessed…he was reassured to be able to feel that she was always there. That someone was, and that not even death could take his best and oldest friend away from him.
But his thoughts were drifting and Niobee was not the only one with a task for the day. Belissar was now going to check on the different missions he had received from the gods. Signing a new compact with the fair folk had distracted him, but it was high time he devoted all available efforts to fulfill the tasks the gods had given him.
The mission to help a disciple of fire strengthen their blessing was basically a personal mission for the Third of the Sixth, so Belissar left it to her and Chief Rohsuak. He knew that Chief Rohsuak would request assistance from him if he could give it, so he trusted those two to handle it. The God of Flower’s mission to defeat a purification primarily using flower monsters and features, on the other hand, was one he should review.
They had the venomous slime rose now, but it was just one monster and still a relatively small one at that. Belissar was not confident it could defeat a shade on its own, much less doing so safely. It might be a good idea to ask Frelis and the gardeners to focus on raising more, though that would take their attention away from the pollination exchange with Tarwantrad’s dungeon.
He crossed his arms and hummed to himself as he considered that. Belissar personally thought missions from the gods should generally take priority over other matters given that they were, well, from the gods, who were responsible for him having a Tower in the first place. But, as he thought to himself, he wondered if it was necessary to grow more slime roses to complete this mission in the first place. They had other flowers that could harm a shade now, most notably the vaporous hemlock in the bog. Couldn’t he just make the Bog the first room for a daily purification and ask the pixies to do the fog-spreading thing again? Would that count as completing a purification with flowers?
It…was probably worth a try. In fact, upon review the mission never specified how strong the purification had to be, so maybe they could try it with a minor purification. Belissar would have liked to do so right away…but he had agreed to test a small+ purification today, so it would have to wait for tomorrow at earliest.
That left two missions that both related to mead. The God of Fire had requested ten servings of fire mead, while the God of Water apparently wanted mead made from Water-attribute honey. The only thing Belissar had thought of was using the swimming bees’ honey. He had put a batch to ferment almost a week ago…and, fortunately, had remembered to check if it actually was fermenting earlier. More fortunately, it seemed the swimming bees’ honey would not be as difficult to ferment as the burning bees’ honey had been…
He checked again on all the mead today. Gathering enough burning honey for the God of Fire’s mission had taken some time, but he’d soon have enough for that. As for the God of Water’s mead…Belissar opened the jar holding it and took a whiff. He hummed to himself. The smell was a bit weaker than he was used to, but it was clearly becoming mead. He’d let it go for a bit longer and see if that helped.
He was just about to put the jar back down when he paused. He glanced down at the place the jar had been resting and saw a peculiar stone tablet, engraved with writing of some sort. His eyes slowly widened.
That’s right, he had picked up that tablet from the very first set of ruins his Tower had purified. He had left it in the Apiary farmhouse and forgot about it since neither he nor the bees could actually read it. But now…wasn’t Sehfitis deciphering texts from other ruins they had explored since? Maybe there was a chance he could decipher this one too.
Belissar shrugged, set the jar down elsewhere, and then picked up the tablet and placed it on top of his table. He may as well hand it over, better to let Sehfitis check it out than to leave it lying around here. He glanced up at one of the worker bees that helped him remember stuff.
“Could you remind me to take this to Sehfitis sometime?”
The worker bee happily danced a salute.
He’d handle the tablet later. After all, Belissar had a lot of different honey types now…and that meant a lot of different mead experiments to check on. He began to hum a tune as he checked the jars one by one, seeing which ones were fermenting well and which ones might need a bit of help…