The Bee Dungeon

With King’s blessing, the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter shared the hive of hives with the queen-commanders and queen-acolytes of the nice hive-burners. The other queens didn’t fully join the hive of hives, but that was to be expected since they did not serve King. Still, they were able to exchange information with the hive of hives. Despite the partial connection and the long distance, the First Daughter could feel the Queen-Commanders of the Dragon Banner Army dancing “Amazing, incredible!” dances as they learned the exploits of King’s bee army.

The exchange was not one way, either. While the Queen-Commanders of the Dragon Banner Army had not made any innovations that the bee army hadn’t just yet, the Queen-Acolytes of the Tower of Light were very knowledgeable regarding the queens of all things. They described how they had bees of their hives send tribute to the queens of all things all throughout the day…and how the Queen of All Light and the Oracle of Light had blessed them with the power to sting dragons.

A power the hive of hives would have greatly appreciated just recently. Though, apparently lots of bees had died when the Queen-Acolytes’ hives employed that power, so the hive of hives would have to be careful not to make King sad. Maybe they could make the bees with the power immortals?

For now, they had neither the power nor the ability to make immortals, so it was a dance for later. Instead, the First Daughter sent the knowledge of the other queens to the rest of the hive of hives. The Third of the Sixth, the Second of the Seventh, and Frelis were all quite pleased to learn how better to work for their queens of all things.

One other queen was as well…

The Firstborn fell still as the First Daughter shared new memories with them, memories of monster bee queens born outside of King’s realm. The Firstborn thus saw the courage of the Queen-Acolytes of the First and Fourth Beehives.

She saw mere workers swear oaths to the Queen of All Light. She saw them gain a power greater than any bee of the hive of hives. She saw workers sting and bring down dragons, even a dragon bigger than the one Vinoi had slain.

She saw entire hives’ worth of workers make the ultimate sacrifice, unable to withstand the power they wielded for long. She saw hives with a fraction of the hive of hives’ might protect their Oracle through oath, blessing, and sacrifice, giving their lives that their Queen-Oracle might live.

She could not help but dance the memorial dance in honor of those brave bees.

And then her thoughts turned to her own oath and to the Queen of All Bees. She had sworn herself to protect King in the sight of the Queen of All Bees…but she had not sworn herself to the Queen of All Bees herself. To her knowledge, no bee had.

Their loyalty was first and foremost to King…but that apparently did not preclude oaths to the queens of all things, did it? The Third of the Sixth joined the Hive of All Fire, the Second of the Seventh joined the Hive of All Light, and Frelis joined the Hive of All Flowers. Frelis, in particular, was just a gardener, not even a queen of her own hive…and yet, her loyalty to the Queen of All Flowers had not changed her loyalty to her own queen-mother, nor to King and the hive of hives.

Perhaps it was time to consider having some of the hive of hives commit themselves fully to the Queen of All Bees. All bees were already part of the Hive of All Bees unless they joined another hive…but as of yet, no bee had explicitly declared it. No bee had danced before the Queen of All Bees, no bee had promised to commit to the Hive of All Bees and to join no other.

The Firstborn buzzed. This had to change! The Queen of All Bees was not only all of their queen-mother, but also the queen of all things that King himself worked for. How could the hive of hives work for her with any less loyalty and diligence than they showed the other queens of all things? How could King’s queen of all things lack a representative among his own bees?

The Firstborn wanted to do it herself, but the moment she thought that she realized she could not be the one. She had already sworn an oath to protect King. If she swore another, it would weaken them both. It would divide her loyalty and then one day she would fail to uphold her oaths to both her masters. It would honor neither King nor the Queen of All Bees to do such a thing.

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

But…what if there were more chivalric queens? The Firstborn had daughters, daughters who worked on the bee army alongside her. Initially, the Firstborn had given up on the idea of raising chivalric daughter queens. Her instincts told her that no bee could be born chivalric, even the workers and soldiers she raised after evolving had to repeat her oath before they could fully join her hive. A daughter queen, while part of her kin, was not fully of her hive and so her oath could not extend to her. It was impossible to hatch a chivalric queen.

But now the Firstborn pondered…did that truly mean it was impossible to raise a chivalric queen? The Firstborn, too, had not been born chivalric. She became chivalric by learning to fight, defending King and the hive of hives with her own stinger, and then swearing an oath. Could she, perhaps, guide one of her daughters along that same path? Could she help her daughter to evolve, after which her daughter could swear her own oath?

The Firstborn’s wings fluttered. It felt as if she had just caught sight of a new flower blooming where none had before. There was absolutely no reason why she couldn’t help one of her daughters evolve like she had. All this time, she had only ever considered evolving daughters who were still growing, helping them hatch into new forms with special honey and mana. Once the daughters had hatched and had their maiden flights, they would subsequently go off to form their own hives. A queen-mother’s job was done then…

Except, it wasn’t. Not in the hive of hives. Her own daughters lived alongside her, joined their children with her own to form the bee army. The First of the Fifth’s own daughters helped her to make honey, the Fourth of the Seventh’s Daughters helped her scout. The hive of hives did not send off their daughters alone to find their own way, they kept them by their side to contribute to the whole.

So why, therefore, should a queen-mother’s job stop after her daughter hatched? Why, therefore, could a queen-mother not help a daughter who was fully grown to evolve further?

The Firstborn realized…there was no reason at all. And, therefore, the hive of hives had been leaving potential evolutions unexplored all this time.

And once she realized that her thoughts expanded further. She realized that helping a daughter follow along her path was only the beginning of what the hive of hives could do. Didn’t she start thinking about this so one of her daughters could swear a different oath, take a different path from her?

So…was the path of the chivalric queen itself the only path she could guide her daughters on?

It wasn’t, was it? Hadn’t the Firstborn herself seen many different paths she could have taken when she evolved? She had seen soldier-queens that were armies all unto themselves. She had seen captain-queens who could guide and elevate their entire hives like a captain did a squad. She had thought these paths gone after she had chosen another…but was there anything stopping her from informing her daughters of what paths existed? She had even seen a path similar to that of the Third of the Third, where she could have become a bee building impregnable hives. She had declined that path, only for the Third of the Third to take it up all on her own.

Could the Third of the Third have evolved more quickly, had the Firstborn informed her of that path ahead of time?

The Firstborn put aside those thoughts. She had identified a way she could better protect King and the hive of hives and her oath now demanded action. So, she immediately called for her daughters and sent a dance to the hive of hives, letting the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter know she had something to share with them all.

She then explained her thoughts to her daughters and to the hive of hives, before launching into a dance recounting her path to becoming a chivalric queen as well as everything she could remember about the other evolutions she had seen. She then offered to teach her daughters, or any other queen of the hive of hives, the techniques she used to reinforce her body with mana, the techniques that let her fight as a warrior.

The First of the Fourth immediately took her up on it, her fellow army queen longing to join the battle herself. Her daughters did as well, wanting to follow in her path. Meanwhile, she felt new dances spreading through the hive of hives. The Fourth of the Seventh, the First of the Fifth, the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter, the Second of the Sixth, the Third of the Third…every queen that had the privilege of evolving before the Queen of All Bees now danced of the paths they had seen, sharing with all the queens yet to evolve the possibilities that awaited them.

The Firstborn felt a new warmth grow within her. She was comfortable in her role as protector of the hive of hives, but she couldn’t help but notice how much she received from her fellow queens. The First of the Fifth gave her honey, the Fourth of the Seventh constantly innovated new paths for the hives, the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter connected the hive of hives as one. The Firstborn received from them with purpose and paid it back with blood, but part of her still longed to give something back, something more than stinging.

Today, she had. Today, she had been the one to come up with a new idea for the hive of hives, one that benefited hives away from the battlefield. Today, she helped the entire hive of hives move forward.

And for that, she would be ever grateful to the heroes of the Queen-Acolyte’s hives, the brave bees that inspired her so.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!