Chapter 437 - Starting Up the Meader-Bee

The next day saw Belissar put his new mead facilities to use. He gathered up all the surplus honey he had, from both the hive of hives and the Apiary’s beehouse features. Even though the bees had left, the built-in beehouses continued to produce daily trays of honey, if now the mundane variety. Belissar had been gathering it because it felt like a waste not to, but also hadn’t been using it since the monster bees’ honey tasted better. For the sake of running a multi-day feast where the mead had to flow, though, every bit of spare honey would help.

Belissar arranged the honey as Juosiutik had advised, separating out the more dangerous and volatile varieties into their own mixing rooms and structures as appropriate. Then, finally, the mead-making could begin.

Belissar took an empty jar, stepped outside the mixing room, and filled it with water from the Pond feature just outside, then brought it back inside. Before he could begin, though, he noticed the soldier bees that were always hanging around the Apiary farmhouse hovering closer, watching him. At his attention, they danced a salute, then one of them ventured a question.

“King, what doing?”

Belissar smiled.

“Making mead! It’s for the gods and…it’s also a pastime of mine. I know you bees prefer the honey as honey, but we humans also like turning it into mead.”

The soldiers glanced at one another, then hovered closer.

“Can help?”

Belissar blinked, but quickly resumed smiling.

“Sure! Let’s see…do you think you can gather water into the jars? That’d be a big help!”

There would, after all, be many jars to fill before the day was over. The soldier bees saluted and then zipped over to help…only to need a bit of help themselves, as it was difficult for them to grip a jar with their legs. Niobee, though, called the monster bee trappers and together Belissar and the soldiers figured out they could carry a bucket with a handle with far more ease. A few of them had to work together, with some of them holding onto trapper threads attached to the bucket…but Belissar found himself surprised at how much weight they could lift.

From there, the soldiers worked to fill the jars, leaving Belissar free to do the mixing. And since he would be making a great deal of mead, Belissar had a great many opportunities for experimentation as well. He gathered all the fruits, herbs, and seasonings available in his Tower, foraged by the karnuq from the purified areas and the Underway, or that the karnuq had acquired from the sigmaka and fair folk via trade. He then split these into various mixtures and recipes, focusing mainly on the standard honey and mana honey, though he did start trying some mixes with burning honey as well. Chief Rohsuak and Urubran might appreciate it, if no one else.

With each recipe, he asked Niobee to have memory bees remember the exact ingredients and ratios. Some of the soldier bees volunteered to help with this too, whenever they needed to rest from carrying water. It was then that Belissar found an opportunity to practice his magic. He intended to mark each jar to indicate what kind of mead it help and was trying to figure out how, only realizing now that he never prepared any sort of writing implements. Niobee then proposed having workers make wax instead…which made Belissar realize he could use his Bee magic for the task. Soon, spell-bee workers were writing words out of wax on the jars, labeling each with the recipe for the mead within. Once each jar was completed, Belissar would carry it over to one of the storage cellars, then used spell-bee wax to mark the date…which he had to get from General Rippotis’ liaison, as he, Hirkolos, and Sehfitis had all lost count, while the fair folk and karnuq used different calendars altogether.

So went a pleasant day of mixing mead. As the day went on, Belissar also taught the standard ratio of water and honey to the soldiers helping him so that they could prepare jars of basic mead by themselves, boosting the production rate even further. Eventually, though, Belissar and the soldiers both began to grow exhausted from lifting jars, so Belissar took stock of their efforts.

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His eyes widened as he beheld a cellar filled with rows upon rows of mead jars. They had made…a lot more than he had anticipated. He glanced at his hands…once more, he was reminded that he was somehow growing stronger.

Then he shrugged and turned to the soldier bees with a smile. He went back to the mixing room and grabbed one of the trays of mana honey they hadn’t gotten to, then took it towards the farmhouse and placed it on his table. Afterwards, he invited in the soldier bees, as well as the trappers and the memory bees Niobee had called.

“Thank you all for helping me today! Here, have as much honey as you’d like! It’s my thanks!”

The soldier bees began a coordinated “King is best king!” dance. Belissar thanked them once more, then took his leave so they could stop dancing and start eating…

The First of the Fifth froze, even forgetting the nectar of the Queen of All Flowers she had been observing. Indeed, a disturbance passed through the entire hive of hives as the reports of the trappers and memory bees made its way to the queens.

King…had invited bees to dine at his table, in his own hive.

For a brief moment, the First of the Fifth wondered what those bees could have possibly done to earn such favor from King…and why none of her efforts had acquired the same favor. For a brief moment, her mind was filled with schemes and ambitions. Perhaps…if she finished the honey she was intending to make one day…

But then she remembered herself and remembered that King did not favor one bee over another. She shook off her thoughts and took another look at the report…and found her answer. The bees in question were the bees of the soldier spawner, the ones who guarded King’s hive, and who had just taken part in King’s own work.

That made perfect sense then. Those soldier bees were part of King’s hive, having been spawned directly by him instead of from a queen. It was only natural that they ate in King’s hive. And King would have to feed them from the tribute of the hive of hives, too, for King’s hive had no workers save the Conduit.

Satisfied, the First of the Fifth turned her attention back to her work. Though she couldn’t but hope and dream that maybe, if she finished this honey and presented it to King, maybe she could dine in his hive too…

The First of the Fifth’s First Daughter, however, was still disturbed, for an entirely different reason. She had made the same observations as her queen-mother, but had come to a different conclusion.

“King…feeding soldiers with tribute…because hive of hives forgot?”

The spawner soldier bees! Only now did the First Daughter realized they hadn’t integrated into any of the army hives…for they were of King’s hive, so why would they join any other? But that being the case meant they had no queen connected to the hive of hives…and so had no way of sending or receiving dances. Because of that…they had been overlooked.

And so…all this time…a group of soldiers had gone unfed by any workers, such that the King himself had to feed them. This…this was a failure of the highest order. The exact thing the First Daughter swore to prevent, the exact thing the Fourth of the Seventh had saved her from!

Her mana began blaring and making her antennae light up while her wings started buzzing as loud as they could. She began a frantic dance, sending it straight towards the Conduit.

“Conduit! Soldiers ok?! King running out of honey?!”

A veritable wall of mana hit her from the Conduit, knocking her right out of her dance. The First of the Fifth’s First Daughter braced herself, preparing for the rebuke she rightly deserved…only to realize the Conduit’s mana took the form of soothing pheromones.

The First Daughter was thoroughly confused as the Conduit sent her a dance.

“Ok! Soldiers have honey from empty magical palaces, so fine! King feeding because is happy soldiers helped with work!”

The First Daughter’s buzzing quieted but did not stop entirely. It was incredibly fortunate the soldiers had food after all, but this was still a major failure. But the Conduit kept dancing, as if she knew what the First Daughter was thinking.

“Is ok, is King’s hive, so took care of!”

The First Daughter considered that. It was true the Conduit was the one and only worker of King’s hive…so she supposed it would be her duty to ensure King’s hive was taken care of. In that way, the Conduit would also assume the duties of the queen of King’s hive, so it would have been her duty to inform the hive of hives if anything was wrong, as would be the case for any queen with their hive. It was not the First Daughter’s role to micromanage the inner workings of any other hive, after all.

“…ok. Thank Conduit for taking care of. Still think is oversight, will do better to watch bees without queens.”

“Ok!”

The Conduit’s happy dance finished the conversation. The First Daughter groomed her antennae. The situation had worked out, but she would do better next time. She had to do better next time. She would let no bee go hungry as her hive nearly had.

And she would have to be better soon, because next time had just arrived in the form of a message from King himself.

“Hi, First of the Fifth’s First Daughter! Is the hive of hives ready for a chimeric cuckoo bee spawner?”