POBee 74.1 - Grand Plans Fulfilled

POBee 74.1 - Grand Plans Fulfilled

The Firstborn hovered in the air as she again looked upon the towering fortress spread out before her. Legions upon legions of her and her fellow queen’s offspring flew in and out of the grand gate, a couple of soldiers holding open the great weaves to ease their passage.

The King...was truly incredible. And generous beyond all imagining.

They had walls that even a soldier could not pierce. They had entrances taller than any foe they could use to launch their assaults. They had areas to gather and organize their forces before they ever left the hive.

The fortress was even magical, like the palaces of the Apiary were said to be. Mana flowed through the walls, it touched every bee that entered, and it assisted their efforts to rebuild their hives. And as they moved their young brood in, the Firstborn felt the mana flow into them as well, helping to nourish them and stimulate their growth. If her predictions were correct...they could maintain a larger army than they had before without even expanding their foraging efforts.

But even that was not what the Firstborn focused upon now. The thing that held her gaze were the grand pillars upon which to build their combs. The same pillars that the Conduit once told her about when she was a young queen. The same pillars the King had built for the First Dynasty, upon which they built their civilization. In fact, the Conduit claimed these pillars were far larger and sturdier than those.

The Firstborn began to tremble. They had done it. They had returned to the time before the First Invasion. They had fully avenged the fall of the First Dynasty. The King could now turn his attention to grand constructions and civilization and leave the bloody work of war to them.

The Firstborn allowed herself a single moment to bask in the glory of the fortress once more before she returned to work. There was much to do, and her hive needed her to direct their efforts. Their cooperation with the King had revealed the potential of the soldiers for more than simple combat. Even now, workers chewed off entire sections of honeycomb in her old hive, which a single soldier could carry all at once. The soldiers carried these portions of her old hive to the pillars that were designated for her, where workers forming new wax would integrate them into the new constructions. The King had declared that there would be no invasion today in order to give them a chance to move and the Flower Meadow queens intended to fulfill his will. Therefore, the whole soldier bee army was deployed to support the effort. And with hundreds of soldiers each of which could carry many cells all at once, the work was proceeding beyond expectations. What they thought would be the work of days could now be accomplished in mere hours.

And then, the queens of the Flower Meadow would take full advantage of their new home. The extra mana and space and the ease of cooperation would accelerate their efforts, while the new flowers grown by the King would sustain their expansion.

The Firstborn and her fellow queens had succeeded. They had built an army that proved victorious where the First Dynasty had fallen. They had grown enough that the King had begun to trust them, and turned his attention back to his initial plans.

And that would only be the beginning. This she promised.

The Second of the Sixth stood still in her hive, staring at the glistening, slight glowing, blue and green honey in front of her. She...was unsure of herself.

Her instincts whispered to her of something else she could do. The nutrition, quality, and mana concentration of the new honey was just right for a use that to her knowledge even the First of the Fifth had not attempted. She had recently gathered sufficient quantity to make the attempt. She could try it right now. And if she succeeded...not just her honey or her workers but her entire hive would be transformed. They would become something different, something altogether new in the King’s realm. She would achieve something even the First of the Fifth had not.

And that was why she hesitated.

Surely the First of the Fifth would have noticed the potential in this flower? Surely the First of the Fifth must have realized the implications? The Second of the Sixth hated to admit it but the First of the Fifth did produce the finest honey of all the queens. It would be foolish of her to believe the First of the Fifth would not have understood what she did.

So, why then would the First of the Fifth permit this to happen? Why would she allow the Second of the Sixth to achieve something she had not? Was there something the Second of the Sixth was missing about this? A reason the First of the Fifth had not embarked upon this path?

Was this the result the First of the Fifth was hoping for? Was the Second of the Sixth playing into her hands? Would she seal her fate if she took the next step?

She did not know. She couldn’t know. She thought and she thought and she thought some more. She discussed it with her scouts. She discussed it, if in necessarily vague terms, with the other queens. But in the end, none of them could see the First of the Fifth’s purpose in this. None of them could see any angles or schemes.

So, she came to her decision. She gave the order to her workers and they began to surround a cell larger than any they had ever built before, filling it to the brim with the new honey.

And then, she herself climbed in, curling up to fit her large body in. The workers immediately began to cover the cell over as the Second of the Sixth circulated her mana, resonating it with the honey all around her.

She would take the plunge, and do what she thought best. To forgo this opportunity was to forgo her best chance at becoming something more than just another Apiary queen. It was to forgo her hive’s best opportunity at greatness. And if this was what the First of the Fifth wanted, if there was some scheme that would seal the Second of the Sixth’s fate, she would just have to admit she had been beaten. It would be no different than it had been before, and no different than if she rejected the opportunity entirely.

She continued to circulate her mana and began to drink of the honey as the wax shut out the light...