As Belissar turned his attention to the flowers, Henilett waved one of the pixies over. This one was a man in a simple tunic, with a little straw hat.
“This is Cembrukare, one of the Royal Pixie Gardeners. He will be able to assist you with cultivating any flowers we offer.”
Cembrukare nodded his head.
“Hey there, nice to meet you, Tower Keeper! Nice place you got here!”
Belissar greeted the pixie gardener in turn.
“Hi, I’m Tower Keeper Belissar, nice to meet you. So…what can you tell me about these flowers?”
“Whatever you want to know, Tower Keeper, I raised half of these myself. Let’s see…oh! Let’s start with these!”
Belissar returned the pixies grin and then waved to the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter.
As the First Daughter praised Belissar and flew in closer, Cembrukare swooped down and grabbed a bunch, despite the flowers being larger than him. These ones were purple and curved to face down.
“These here are dancing columbine! They have a neat little compound that makes people dance!”
The First Daughter began zipping about.
“Flowers…that cause dancing? Amazing, incredible! Can help communers? Evolve dancers?”
Cembrukare shook his head with a smirk.
“Ah, not structured dancing as the bees do. The dances it causes are wild and random. And, most of all, the dances don’t stop until it wears off…or your feet do.”
The First Daughter calmed down.
“Oh. So…dancing poison?”
Cembrukare grinned again.
Belissar hummed to himself.
“I…see. Well, more poisonous flowers is always useful…”
Cembrukare also waved down to the another set of similar flowers.
“Oh, we also brought some plain old columbine. They’re pretty adaptable and easy to cross-pollinate, the dancing columbine is my favorite, though. Cross-pollinated them with various Mind mana flowers, took me forever to get it to stop just giving people seizures.”
The First Daughter immediately perked up once Cembrukare mentioned cross-pollination.
“Queen mother will like!”
Belissar couldn’t help smiling as well. He may not be sure how to use dancing poisonous flowers…but flowers that were good at cross-pollination? The bees would sure make excellent use of that.
“All of those sound amazing to me.”
Cembrukare preened at his praise as he picked up the next flowers, a bunch of small, blue, five-petaled flowers.
“As they should! They didn’t make me a Royal Pixie Gardener for nothing! Let me show you more! Speaking of Mind mana, these are forget-me-lots! They can cause amnesia, which can be great fun. The humans think we can steal their names thanks to these…oh, no offense.”
Belissar blinked for a bit.
“Oh…none taken? But…should we be careful around these?”
Cembrukare waved his hand around.
“Ah, no more careful than around anything from the Royal Garden. Just don’t eat it or drink it or rub it on yourself or sniff it to deeply or lay in a bed of it…basic stuff.”
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Henilett smiled politely.
“And by that he means: be very careful. Nothing in the queen’s garden is harmless.”
“What about for the bees?”
Cembrukare quickly shook his head.
“Ah, not to worry! Pollinators are mostly excepted from the fun parts of the flowers…mostly because the ones that do affect pollinators tend not to, you know, get pollinated.”
Belissar then smiled.
“Then that’s fine, we’ll just have to let Juosiutik know to be careful…”
Belissar suddenly frowned.
“Wait…we should have Juosiutik here, shouldn’t we?”
Chief Rohsuak coughed.
Belissar used his Tower Keeper abilities to call Juosiutik. A short while later, Juosiutik came stomping over. She stared at Belissar with an unamused gaze.
“Tower Keeper…you didn’t tell me we were getting fey flowers?”
Belissar rubbed that back of his head.
Chief Rohsuak cleared her throat.
“In the Tower Keeper’s defense, Juosiutik, we were holding diplomatic discussions earlier. Once the discussion turned to flowers, he called you over right away.”
Juosiutik stared for a moment longer before breaking out into a smile and turning to the pixies.
“So, what kind of flowers are we talking about?!”
Cembrukare grinned down at her.
“A herbalist, huh? Well, you’re in luck! Take a look at the finest the Royal Pixie Garden has to offer!”
Juosiutik began bouncing at that. Cembrukare quickly recapped the first two flowers for her before continuing on. He sighed as he picked up a pure white flower with four to five petals.
“Ok now, before Henilett gets mad at me, I should show you this one. Purifying Rue, aka the boring one. I only included it because Henilett forced me, so don’t blame me for this.”
Belissar tilted his head.
“Ok…what does it do?”
“Nothing! Worse than nothing! It makes everything fun do nothing too! We call it the spoilsport flower.”
As Belissar parsed that, Henilett took over.
“Purifying Rue wards off malignant mana, so it can function as a cure for any magically empowered flowers, as well as harmful magical effects of any source. Her Majesty thought it best that you have access to this one before offering you any of the more dangerous selections from her garden.”
Cembrukare crossed his arms and rolled his eyes.
“Like I said, the boring one.”
Belissar, however, did not find it boring at all.
“Perfect, thank you.”
Henilett gave him a smile.
“Her Majesty suspected you would appreciate that one. Just be aware that it only acts on magical effects, not on mundane poisons. Now then, Cembrukare, please continue.”
Cembrukare then butted in front of Henilett holding the next flower, one covered in dense hairs.
“Well, I got two more for you…mostly because the spoilsports stopped me from bringing some of the really fun ones, but a gardener has to know the basics too. These here are lion’s might. As the name might suggest, we use them for strengthening potions. A bit straightforward on their own but it is always fun to see the look on people’s faces when a pixie lifts something without using magic.”
Now that one put a smile on Belissar’s face. He could only imagine what sort of honey the bees could make out of a flower like that. Or what kind of bees could evolve from it. Juosiutik, as well, was positively beside herself as she grilled Cembrukare on the strengthening potions. He waved her off with a grin.
“Now now, all in good time, my new herbalist friend! After all, we aren’t done yet! This one, while boring, is still a must. I call it…super deadly nightshade.”
Belissar furrowed his brow.
“And…what does it do?”
“Nothing much. I just took deadly nightshade and got it to hold Poison mana too, so it got even more poisonous. Don’t touch it with your bare skin.”
Belissar gulped again…but he was also pleased. He imagined the toxic bees would certainly enjoy another poisonous flower.
All in all, it was a great set of new flowers for his bees to work with. He smiled at both Cembrukare and Henilett.
“Thank you both, and Queen Vanieskon too, for the flowers. This is wonderful.”
Henilett smiled back at him.
“I am pleased you like it, Tower Keeper. I will relay as much to Her Majesty. Cembrukare will remain as long as you need him to advise on planting and cultivation.”
Cembrukare gave Belissar a salute.
“At your service, Tower Keeper!”
He then leaned forward with a grin.
“Now…I heard there were gravity flowers. Can I see the gravity flowers?! I’m going to hybridize them with my dancing columbine! I want to make people float while they dance!”
And so, Belissar gained a bunch of new flowers…and a new pixie hanging around.
Unfortunately, Belissar would have to wait to give Cembrukare a full tour. Juosiutik volunteered to show the pixie around the Apothecary’s Hut and the flower selection they had growing there. As for Belissar, he first greeted Queen Vanieskon and Wardmaster Varilold once they returned from their scouting trip, after which it was almost time for the daily purification. They were testing a small+ daily purification today, so Belissar wanted to review the defenses.
The modified Dirt Tunnels was still the first room. The wardens did not reapply the explosive wards, in fact they removed any that had not been triggered during the purification, so they would not have those. The Royal Pixie Guard did reapply the concealment magic on the beeswax candle tunnel, but the candles themselves would only use maddening wax as Belissar was saving up the toxic wax for the next expansion or emergency.
Other than that, the rooms hadn’t changed, save for the addition of the Fairy Grove with the mana storm to the defense line-up. Belissar didn’t intend to use it today…but a small+ purification may not follow his intentions, so he figured he would put the new defense in the way just in case.
The bees and the karnuq had gathered together as with any other day, though there was more tension in the air. The Royal Pixie Guard were ready to help as well, though the wardens would not be participating today save in an emergency. Soon, everyone was ready. Belissar took a deep breath.
He triggered the daily purification that would match previous expansions, hoping that, unlike those, no bees would be lost…