Chapter 30: The Epipha-Bee

Chapter 30: The Epipha-Bee

Belissar thought and he thought and he thought some more, even as Niobee buzzed around him. Eventually, she got his attention by landing on his hand.

“King, ok?”

Belissar sighed and shook his head.

“Not really. Just...give me a moment, please?”

Niobee buzzed her wings but said no more. She took off again, hovering a short distance away from Belissar. He sighed and began walking, heading over towards the farmhouse. He went inside, got a bit of honeycomb to snack on, and sat down at the table.

This was all way above his station...or would have been, were he not a Tower Lord now. Or...maybe it wasn’t? Because if the tales of the demi-humans were wrong, then what else might be? He, a peasant, had clearly stepped into and been placed in control of a Tower, and didn’t end up getting smote in the process. Maybe he had been wrong all along, and the gods didn’t mind peasants in Towers either. But if that were true...then what made the Tower Lords and the Tower Guard special?

Or...were they special at all? If Belissar, of all people, could do the job of a Tower Lord well enough to earn the patronage of a god, then did the job truly require someone greater than other men to pull off?

Or...was the case that it wasn’t those chosen by the gods who became Tower Lords, but those that became Tower Lords that were chosen by the gods?

And if all that was the case...then what of everything else he had been taught? Magic and potions being harmful to peasants? The Tower Lords requiring tribute to offer to the gods? Peasants naturally being beneath those the gods had chosen? The will of the gods being to obey any and all Tower Lords without question?

Belissar remembered going hungry in the cold of winter when the tribute cut into the rations on a particularly bad year. He remembered the villagers raiding his mead on orders of the village elder, for the local Tower Lord had requested it.

He remembered begging for help as his parents came down with the plague. A plague he later heard had been cured in the Tower cities by the fantastic powers of the Tower Lords.

He remembered the old beekeeper coughing in the night, believing there was nothing he could do. Even if he had magic or potions, he believed they would kill her as quickly as the pneumonia.

But if everything he had been taught was wrong...then all that pain...all that suffering...

Had it been for nothing?

Belissar groaned and clutched his head...

Ultimately, Belissar could not come to that conclusion on his own. He felt he needed more information, more confirmation before he could accept such a thing. He rose to his feet with his eyes narrowed, heat swirling in his chest.

Now, he had to wait until the demi-human returned...

Fortunately, Belissar did not have to wait for long. The bear man soon returned...and he was not alone. Several more armed bear folk exited the hole and set up a perimeter around it.

And then after that...came a whole tribe.

There were unarmed men and women carrying bundles and backpacks and even pulling carts. There were children and mothers carrying infants in slings. There were old men and women being supported by the young. Maybe a hundred or so demi-humans in total exited from the hole, all with brown fur on any part of their body not otherwise clothed, and round ears on the top of their heads, all standing tall above a normal human. Even the women would tower over Belissar, and some of the children could match his height. The armed ones wore armor of leather and bone over their torsos and extremities, while the others were more lightly clothed, revealing more of their brown fur.

And then, they began to make camp.

The man from before led them to a spot nearby where the bushes weren’t as thick, and the tribe got to work. They began to chop away at the trees and bushes with axes and set up tents in the cleared area. A group of them got a fire going, and even hung a large iron pot over it.

And most of all, the entire tribe was exchanging conversations throughout the whole process.

One of them, a wrinkled and hunched woman holding a large staff with all sorts of trinkets and decorations hanging on it, turned towards one of his bees. She smiled and inclined her head.

“Thank you, for allowing us here. Please excuse us, we will visit shortly.”

Belissar ordered the bees to fall back and then withdrew his Tower sight. He staggered back and held his head, his heart pounding in his chest.

There was no mistake. There was no denying it.

The demi-humans were acting no different than humans would. Everything Belissar had seen pointed to them being, well, normal people all things considered.

Which meant...

The tales were wrong.

All of them.