The Bee Dungeon

Urubran walked through a garden in Tarwantrad’s dungeon, then raised an eyebrow as he came to the central clearing. There, Finnakynne was sitting on a floating chair with one leg crossed over the other, Belissar’s conduit bee was hovering beside her, and Tarwantrad was standing across from her with her arms crossed. Once Urubran approached, Finnakynne steepled her fingers.

“Good, good, we’re all here. Now, I’m sure you’re all wondering why I’ve called you here today?”

Tarwantrad raised an eyebrow.

“To prank us?”

Urubran nodded.

“I hope it involves fire, Finny.”

Finnakynne jumped out of her chair.

“No! I’ve stopped doing that already, haven’t I?! Have I pranked you since I said I wouldn’t?”

Tarwantrad shrugged.

“It’s not even been a year yet, but fair enough. Then…what did you call us for, Princess Finnakynne?”

Finnakynne mumbled to herself before continuing.

“It’s Beely! Beely never plays!”

Both Tarwantrad and Urubran tilted their heads. Tarwantrad spoke for them.

“Plays? What do you mean?”

Finnakynne crossed her arms, her face turning solemn.

“Beely’s always working! Hasalways been working! He never rests, he never plays around! Niobee here tells me that’s been the case even when he was a kid!”

Tarwantrad’s face fell.

“…Belissar has alluded to an unpleasant childhood, but it was that bad?”

Niobee buzzed.

“Old human hive hurt King, took King’s honey. Would sting if not dead!”

Finnakynne grimaced.

“Yeah, that. So, it is imperative we teach Beely how to play!”

Both Tarwantrad and Urubran then stared suspiciously at Finnakynne.

“Finnakynne, you aren’t planning to play around with Beely, are you? Your definition of play is…”

Finnakynne puffed her cheeks, clenched her fists, and stomped on the air.

“I know that! Why do you think I’m asking the two of you for help?! I don’t even know how to play without hurting people, so I need you both to do this for me! Now, what do you two do for fun?”

Tarwantrad’s eyes lit up in understanding and she smiled.

“Grow flowers!”

Urubran grinned.

“Set things on fire!”

Finnakynne glanced between the two proud dungeon masters and then smacked her own face.

“…dungeon masters. Why did I even bother asking you two?”

Finnakynne took a deep breath, made a dramatic sigh, and then stared everyone down, even Niobee.

“Ok, listen up. I know all you dungeon masters are obsessed with your patron’s aspect, Beely included…”

Tarwantrad raised an eyebrow.

“You’re a dungeon master too, you know?”

Finnakynne silenced her with a glare.

“Quiet. Now, that may mean working on your dungeon doesn’t feel like work to you. We all know Beely loves his bees and loves working with them, too. But that doesn’t mean we should never take breaks!”

Niobee buzzed.

“Want King stop working for bees?!”

Finnakynne shook her head.

“No, I want him to rest for a short while, so he can come back and work for the bees even better! Human brains get tired working on the same thing forever, even if it’s something they love! And…we should try to be the friends Beely never had, right?”

Niobee stopped buzzing, while Tarwantrad and Urubran’s expressions softened. Urubran glanced at Tarwantrad.

“We could take him to the café we normally meet at? Show him around the Compact just for fun instead of for business? We could take him to the market, or maybe one of the wineries? He does like brewing mead…”

Tarwantrad, however, grimaced.

“I’m not sure that will work. The fair folk stared at him last time I took him around, some were outright hostile. It was uncomfortable for him, rather than fun…”

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Urubran rubbed his chin.

“Will it be the same this time, though? Last I heard, King Taranskare made a public proclamation about Belissar and his deeds.”

Tarwantrad sighed.

“It hasn’t been that long though, so I don’t know if everyone’s opinion would have changed yet even so…”

Finnakynne thought to herself for a moment before taking a deep breath.

“Well, if it’s for the sake of Beely…I could use my magic? I could disguise him as a fair folk, or just hide him from sight while he walks around? Then we can decide who to introduce him to.”

Tarwantrad’s eyes slowly lit up.

“That could work. I’d love to be able to show him the Compact without the stares. Though…”

She glanced over at Niobee.

“For this to work, we’d probably need to tone down the bee escort. Maybe just one or two, bees that could ride on Belissar comfortably. Would that be acceptable, Niobee?”

Niobee danced a salute.

“Will send strong bees. Also, bumble helper part of hive of hives, flower one fought together with, trust to protect King.”

Tarwantrad and Finnakynne beamed, while Urubran huffed.

“Hey, what about me? I helped too, you know?”

Niobee’s reply stung.

“Fire one helps too, but makes fire, wants to make King make big fires, so dangerous.”

Tarwantrad and Finnakynne both broke out laughing while Urubran hung his head.

Niobee followed along as best she could as bumble helper made plans with flower one and fire one. She couldn’t fully understand what they were trying to do, to be honest, the thought of taking King away from the hive of hives made her want to buzz and sting.

Besides, King was always happiest when he was working with the hive of hives or turning their honey into mead. And if they wanted him to play, they could just have him join the bumblebees. The bumblebees liked to play with the karnuq larva in the same way the human larva of King’s old hive used to. Bumble helper even joined them, so she should know!

But she held off on both dances and stings for now. Bumble helper had proven a stalwart part of the hive of hives and had ideas that let the bees overcome the strongest of foes, Niobee would give her the benefit of the doubt.

And beyond that…Niobee knew that humans were different from bees. King had thoughts and ideas unlike any bee, that was why he was best hive-builder and best king. It was how he helped the bees organize their hives for untold efficiency, how he inspired the hive of hives, and how he saved Beero and the hive of the fallen.

But it was also why he couldn’t fully join the hive of hives. He could brush upon the hivelink, he could peer into it, but he was not a fully member, not truly.

Niobee would not let that stand.

She needed to understand humans, to the same extent she understood bees. Only then would she be able to bridge that gap and help King fully join his hive of hives. Only then could they truly become King’s hive.

So, she watched and listened quietly, regardless of her own initial thoughts on bumble helper’s ideas. The fair ones were closer to humans than to bees, so perhaps watching King interact with the fair hive would teach her what she needed to know.

And, if nothing else, perhaps the fair ones could be King’s hive, at least until he could join his hive of hives. So long as this all made King happy, then Niobee would be happy too.

After checking on Juosiutik, Belissar was schedule to have lunch with King Ratuatapi that day. With the new external shortcuts, King Ratuatapi was able to arrive quickly, and with only a handful of guards. Curiously, none of the sigmaka queens would be joining them today, so Belissar did not bring along Chief Rohsuak either. He didn’t even have Niobee with him, since she apparently was still learning from Finnakynne or something like that.

So, the two kings sat together in relative privacy as the karnuq brought out some food for them. King Ratuatapi smiled.

“Thank you for meeting with me today, Tower Keeper Belissar.”

Belissar smiled back.

“Of course. Did you have something you wanted to talk about?”

King Ratuatapi paused for a moment, but shook his head.

“No, today is purely a social visit, to enjoy each other’s company. I am curious on how your beekeeping is going, have you acquired any new bees lately?”

Belissar grinned. Now that was a talk he could get behind. The lunch thus proceeded well as he and the young sigmaka king got into an animated discussion of bee and aphid-keeping and how each other’s insects were doing. Belissar hardly noted the time going by even as he finished his lunch, their talk only died down as they sat back and enjoyed some post-meal honey tea.

It was then that King Ratuatapi furrowed his brow and stared at Belissar. Belissar tilted his head.

“Yes? Is something the matter?”

King Ratuatapi did not reply at first, staring at Belissar for a moment longer. Then, he straightened himself and took a deep breath. Belissar braced himself as it seemed the conversation was about to turn serious.

“To be honest, Tower Keeper Belissar, there is something I would like to discuss, though I was not supposed to mention it to you. But…you have been a friend to both me and my people, so I want to trust you. You see, my Fourth Queen Pezuya is quite worried after our battle with the Tower Lord. She believes we are now too weak to survive, to the point that she wants us all to become your sworn defenders, like the karnuq. She thinks it’s better to swear ourselves to you and hope you’ll protect us.”

Belissar’s eyes widened.

“…wow.”

King Ratuatapi nodded, then frowned.

“It…would be a dramatic change for us. Too dramatic, according to my First Queen Nyoyanke. We sigmaka ran from the Sacred Den Masters long ago, we found a small unoccupied corner of the Underway where we could live unbothered. She, and many other sigmaka, would be loathe to tie ourselves to a Sacred Den, even one as nice as yours. But neither is Fourth Queen Pezuya wrong, we probably can’t defend ourselves anymore with all these Tower Lords and spiderkin now marching through our part of the Underway…”

King Ratuatapi sighed and shook his head.

“To be honest, I do not know what to do. My father died when I was young, I was not ready to take the throne. The queens ruled our people on my behalf, to this day I am not sure what I’m doing…”

Belissar thought for a moment before giving King Ratuatapi a sympathetic smile.

“I get it. I was just a peasant beekeeper when I suddenly found myself in my Tower, I was not at all ready to run it. It seems to have worked out, but I’m still not always sure I’m doing the right thing. And I get not wanting to trust a Tower, my whole life I was ruled by the Tower Lords and they lied to me, took advantage of me, and let my family die.”

King Ratuatapi’s eyes widened.

“Truly?”

Belissar nodded and the sigmaka seemed to lose some of his tension, even giving Belissar a small smile. Belissar considered reaching out to Chief Rohsuak for help on how he should respond…but ultimately decided against it. King Ratuatapi had come here without his queens, his own older advisors, and had apparently told all this to Belissar when he wasn’t supposed to. Belissar thought he should respond in kind and keep the talk just between the two of them. So, he thought about what he should do and tried to make his own decision.

“I think…if you want to become my sworn defenders, I would be happy to welcome you and your people into the Tower. If not, I’ll still try to help you as much as I can, since we’re allies and all. We have the external shortcut now, maybe you can join my Tower if anything happens? We have the wards and the bees are patrolling the Underway, so we should see any danger coming before it arrives.”

King Ratuatapi’s smile grew.

“Tower Keeper Belissar, you are truly a good friend to us. I knew it was right to trust you!”

Belissar couldn’t help but rub the back of his head.

“Well, we both just have to do the best we can for our people, right? Maybe we can work together to help each other.”

King Ratuatapi beamed and nodded. And so the Tower Keeper and the sigmaka king began another discussion, this one on their people and insects both.

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