The Third Queen of the Second Dynasty of the First Spawner, the first of her line, lay listlessly in her hive, her antennae drooping. The First of the Fifth’s First Daughter had learned in the course of her evolution how to share memories between the hive of hives. That alone was amazing and incredible, but it paled in comparison to whose memories she had then shared.
The First Dynasty. The First of the Fifth’s First Daughter had somehow come into contact with the queens of the First Dynasty of the First Spawner, the very first queens the King raised in the realm. The Second Third of the First’s predecessors. The bees that were thought to have been lost, preserved only in the memory of the King and Conduit, and in the dances of the Memorial.
The Firstborn had been overwhelmed, as has the Second Second of the First and the Second Fourth of the First. The Second Third of the First as well. All four of them labored under the knowledge that they were the only second dynasty within the King’s realm, the only bees who had come in place of fallen predecessors. All of them wondered in the depths of their minds if they lived up to those whose place they took. So, all of them had reacted powerfully when the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter reported the First Dynasty’s praise for the hive of hives.
But, for the Second Third of the First, that had not been the end of it. For she, more than even her fellow spawner sisters, had a great precedent to live up to. The First Third of the First was a name danced with reverence among the bee army. It was she who pioneered the rotating squad attack, the foundation of all the methods of battle the bee army had devised since. It was she who taught bees how to face and overcome the invaders who could destroy entire hives with one attack. She, possibly more than any other bee except the Conduit herself, was most responsible for their success…and achieved this at the cost of her very life, sacrificing everything for the sake of the King.
Long had the Second Third of the First wondered if she was a worthy successor…and seeing the battle of the First Dynasty firsthand had only raised the standard. They knew from the Conduit’s account that the First Third of the First had come up with the rotating squad attack on the fly, with hardly any time to train or prepare beforehand. But the queens of the hive of hives hadn’t understood, not truly, the conditions the First Third of the First had operated under.
The hive of hives, the concept of bees working together that every one of them took for granted, did not exist at the time. Even before the Firstborn first danced the steps “hive of hives,” the bees who were born after the First Dynasty fell worked together because the King requested that they help him in his tasks. To all of their surprise, the King had not requested the same of the First Dynasty. The only thing he had commanded them back then was to raise their hives, and so they had done. They hadn’t even thought about the others’ hives.
Thus, the original Firstborn fought alone, without even warning the other queens the King’s realm was under attack. The First Fourth of the First had been helpless, the First Second of the First died unaware in her hive. Even the Conduit had perished on her own.
What did this mean? This meant that the First Third of the First had even less forewarning than the hive of hives had believed. She hadn’t even learned of the threat until the First Second of the First’s hive fell, and that queen’s hive had fallen in a single moment after which the shade had immediately moved the First Third of the First’s way. She had scarce minutes, maybe even seconds to arrange her forces before her hive had been thrust into battle. And it had been her hive’s first ever battle at that, the First Third of the First was but a day old and with no experience of her own.
And yet, with neither the support of the hive of hives or experiences of her own to draw upon and with the barest minimum of time to act, she had succeeded. She only had the time to think of a single idea, if that, and the very first idea she had come up with had been the right one, if only she had a hive more than a day old to employ it. And even though she fell, that single instance of brilliance under the worst of circumstances had revolutionized combat for every bee who came after her.
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So…no. The Second Third of the First could not claim, not even on her best day, to compare to the queen who had come before her. What had she done in comparison? She was just a part of the soldier bee army, an army built on her predecessor’s accomplishment. She wasn’t even the leader of it, she had done nothing to change or revolutionize it. She was just one queen of many. Yes, the First Dynasty praised the hive of hives for exactly that…but the Second Third of the First couldn’t help but wonder what the hive of hives would be like today if the First Third of the First had survived to join it.
But what could she do? A revolution like the rotating soldier attack was not an easy thing to imagine, not when the soldier bee army could already handle the majority of the threats they faced. The Firstborn already discovered an evolution through fighting, the Second Third of the First would just be following her lead as always if she tried to do the same. What could she do now to match the bravery, brilliance, and sheer contribution to the hive of hives of the one who came before her? What could she do to deserve the name of Third of the First?
It was then that the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter danced to the hive of hives.
“Soldier army queens! King needs bees to move to new room, wants to fill with Death mana! Will need to hunt rabbits but not eat! One of you can, since have lots of soldiers? Will keep giving honey so can use soldiers to hunt!”
The Second Third of the First leaped to dance before anyone else could.
This…this was the opportunity she needed! The King had made sure to warn the bees about the potential dangers of a Death room when he set up the butcher bees’ home, so the Second Third of the First knew it was supposed to be dangerous as well. Honey from the underworld phlox, the flowers with the same kind of mana, was too dangerous for even the First of the Fifth to raise new bees with. If the Second Third of the First managed to pull it off, she would have done something no other bee had. She would have contributed something new to the hive of hives by facing great danger, all at the personal request of the King.
That didn’t necessarily match the grand contributions of her predecessor…but it was a start. And a far better start than anything else she had done or could think to do.
And so, the Second Third of the First left the Flower Meadow, the room her predecessor had triumphed and fallen in, for a Flower Meadow all her own. The King built her a new magical palace just for her and her hive and showed her the mana flowers he had placed specifically to be her food. The Second Third of the First certainly didn’t feel like she deserved any of that yet, but accepted it graciously nonetheless. She knew that she would need resources like that to live up to her predecessor’s accomplishments.
Then, the King showed her to her task. He took her and her soldiers to a part of the room and showed her the target creature.
“I know they might look cute, but we need you to hunt as many of them as you can.”
Cute? The Second Third of the First didn’t know what that meant, so she turned to observe her target. It was a large creature, larger even than a soldier bee, with powerful legs and vicious-looking fangs that could crush a bee in an instant. It had a thick coat of hairs that would complicate dives by smaller bees, though the soldier bees should be able to stab through it.
And then it pounced upon a flower, ripping the entire plant from the ground and consuming it whole.
The Second Third of the First buzzed. Ah, so cute meant evil! King was warning her not to be intimidated by its size or appearance, but to face the threat with courage, lest they sweep away the flowers the hive of hives needed! She saluted the King.
“Will be brave and hunt well!”
She then gave the command to her soldiers, who dove down upon the cute enemy. The furry and wide antennae on its head twitched and it suddenly ran with incredible speed, causing the first squad to miss entirely. But the Second Third of the First was a queen of the battle meadow, she may not have innovated the tactics of her predecessor, but she had done her utmost to master them. She redirected her soldiers, having several squads work together to surround the monster like they would a bird shade or a cat shade. Two dove to either side to keep the cute enemy moving in one direction while a third aimed ahead of the monster. It ran right into the path of their dive and their aim was true, impaling the creature upon their stingers.
The Second Third of the First saluted to the King. She would fear no cute, nor allow the flowers to come to harm. She would not fail. To fulfill the King’s command, to contribute to the hive of hives, and to prove herself worthy of the name Third of the First, she would see this task done, whatever it took.