POBee 56.1 - The Grace of the King

POBee 56.1 - The Grace of the King

After confirming the details of the Flower Meadow beehouse, Belissar heard a pair of chimes.

New Mission Received: Construct new type of beehouse.

New Mission Received: House all queens.

He nodded as the God of Bees officially sanctioned his current efforts. He really had put that task aside for too long. But no longer. With nothing but the small, daily purifications on the horizon, he had nothing more urgent to deal with.

That did remind him, though, that he would need to resume those purifications soon. The Tower would even force him too if he put that off for too long, and he still felt it was important for his Tower to continue growing. He rubbed his chin and frowned, though. With the soldier bee army taking casualties so recently, he wasn’t sure if they were ready.

But then he had a thought. Why not just ask? He had all the Flower Meadow queens with him right now, so he might as well hear it from them. He took a moment to think of how to phrase the question in a way that wouldn’t just result in “Whatever King chooses!” responses.

“So, I have another question. How is the soldier bee army doing?”

The queens all went completely still at that, causing Belissar’s heart to race. That reaction was not what he had expected.

“Um, I mean, you lost a lot of bees lately, right? Is the army, um, recovering well?”

The bees remained still, but eventually the largest queen began to dance. Slowly, ever so slowly, barely enough for the Tower’s translation power to recognize it as communication.

“Army...ok. Losses...recovered.”

Belissar gulped at her tone but took a deep breath to try and calm himself. The queen...was clearly hesitating to talk about this, and Belissar wasn’t sure why. He wanted to ask her, but given how hesistant she seemed he didn’t feel comfortable pushing further. He would just have to make a decision based on that. But, he could still see the soldier bee army training in the skies of the field beyond and they still painted a formidable sight to him, at least. So, if the queen had confirmed they had recovered, then there was no reason not to resume purifications, right? Belissar figured worst came to worst, they could just rely on the pit trap strategy again.

...assuming the shades would go back to the mini-wolf types.

“Ok, um, if there’s no problem, I’m thinking of facing another minor purification tonight. Um, hopefully the easy ones from before. So, um, let me know if there’s anything we need to do first, and otherwise, um, get ready for later?”

The queens froze once again. Belissar was about to rescind the order when they exploded into motion. Belissar’s eyes spun around at all the bees zipping about him, but the Tower’s magic barely managed to catch a few of their dances in total.

It seemed they were flying salute dances as quickly as they could.

Belissar was altogether confused at this point but decided to take that as a good sign. With that done, he moved on to begin preparing a new campfire site in the Orchard and to double check the defenses. Once that was settled, he’d move to get started on the new beehouse. Purifications had delayed it long enough, after all.

The Firstborn made the declaration.

“King giving another chance. We battle again today.”

The army nearly dropped out of the sky as the soldiers’ wings halted at the declaration. But the Firstborn gave them no chance to recover, as limited as her time was.

“Queens will fight too, today. Will command.”

Some of the soldier bees fell so far they landed upon the ground at that, before the objections began. But the Firstborn had none of it.

“Not all. Today, me alone. Other queens stay safe. Our job to raise army. If did well, won’t be hurt. If did poorly, another will replace. But no matter what, cannot fail again. Will not put King in danger again. Hive of hives bigger than one.”

The soldiers fell still at that. The soldiers of the other hives looked to their queens but all the Flower Meadow queens danced their assent and commanded them to follow the Firstborn’s lead for today’s battle.

This was the resolution of the Firstborn, as well as her assessment of their failures. Their army was deadly and disciplined...but it was slow to adapt. They trialed new tactics in response to their failures, but only ever after the fact. That was no longer enough. The soldier bees, as strong as they were, were still limited by their own instincts. When they saw the enemy ahead, they lost most of their thoughts save to defeat it. They had trouble adjusting to anything that occurred until they experienced it directly.

The Firstborn identified a potential solution from the past, ironically from the queens who had perished altogether. The queens of the First Dynasty of the First Spawner that came before her had led from the front. It was thanks to that that the Third Queen of the First Dynasty of the First Spawner, the first of her line, had pioneered the rotating squad attack that was now the cornerstone of the army’s tactics.

Monster bee queens had more intelligence and more flexibility than the average soldier or worker and were not as beholden to their instincts. Beyond that, they had an innate ability to command their children through the links in their mana. Orders that came from the queen would be received and responded to far more quickly than from a fellow soldier.

The Firstborn had experienced all of this herself in the latest purification. In the darkest moment, she had confronted the shade directly alongside her workers in a desperate final stand. And when the shade attempted to burn them all with its lightning, her greatest sensitivity to mana had caught wind of it, her experience had identified the potential threat, her flexibility had suppressed her instinct to attack the enemy without cease, and her abilities as the queen had passed her command to the workers in time. As a result, she and all of her workers had managed to avoid the enemy’s attack, something the soldier bee army had partially failed to do.

The Firstborn felt, therefore, that the presence of a queen on the battlefield could increase the flexibility and speed of command of the army. Perhaps they could adjust to the enemy before the worst occurred. And, if nothing else, seeing the fighting with her own eyes might inform her how better to prepare the army in the future.

And, above all, the Firstborn needed to take responsibility for her own failure, and see the job done.

The soldiers were clearly unhappy that a queen would be exposed to harm, but reluctantly agreed. Of course, attempting to take command without practice would be a recipe for disaster, so the Firstborn would join the soldiers’ training for the rest of the day. The other queens returned to their hives to continue their normal work. The Firstborn had proposed that they would rotate which queen commanded the army each day, so that all would have a chance to face the battlefield themselves, and that all would still be able to grow their hives as a queen must. She would simply be the first.

And so, the Firstborn took command of the army. She simply watched at first, familiarizing herself with the way the soldiers operated. And all the while, she thought of what she might do against the enemies they had faced...or perhaps enemies they had not.

This was her second chance, and she would do any and everything she could to see it done.