POBee 437.2 - New Colla-Bee-rations

Each morning in the Bee Tower, sigmaka and silver elf challengers arrived to deliver sweet drinks through dangerous tunnels. But for the Tower’s own sworn defenders, the karnuq, the normal challenging method was no longer their focus. They were assigned a minor purification to handle each day, Chief Rohsuak rotated different squads of hunters so that each karnuq had a chance to face the Hunger. With that consistent opportunity for battle, having her hunters wander around to face even weaker remnants was not the best use of time.

Besides, Chief Rohsuak had not missed that her people were growing stronger each and every day. Tower Keeper Belissar was generous with the mana honey at the daily victory banquet while the bees working with the karnuq’s beekeepers were now producing a noticeable surplus. Every karnuq was now consuming mana honey with every meal and all of them were growing their mana as a result. Even the children and the noncombatants were growing stronger, to say nothing of those who had received a blessing from the gods.

Chief Rohsuak thus focused her people’s daily efforts on the gods, so that they may receive blessings on par with their growth. For the God of Bees, the karnuq were now taking care of beehives, training with the bee army, and working with bee products on a daily basis. In fact, many of the noncombatants were receiving gifts of mana from their offerings of honeycomb, honey-glazed meals, and beeswax products, Chief Rohsuak believed they would gain full blessings soon.

But Chief Rohsuak herself was devoted to another and, though she worked hard to make sure her people respected their home patron first and foremost, the time had come for her to act as a champion of fire. So, she gathered some of her people, a few chosen individuals who seemed suitable to follow her path, and brought them to the Third of Sixth’s home Lava Field.

“Travel through the fields of fire, breathe in the heat and flames, and make your way to the hives of the burning bees. Should you arrive, the burning bees will gift you with as much burning honey as they judge you can handle, so that you may take fire into your inner being.”

She fixed them all with a glare.

“Do not attempt to eat it on the spot. Return to the village and wait for me. A fire that burns too bright burns out quickly.”

All of the karnuq saluted and then made their way into the room. Chief Rohsuak then turned to the last one remaining, Metsaitti, and smiled.

“Ready?”

Metsaitti sighed.

“As ever I will be?”

Chief Rohsuak shook her head. Metsaitti’s enthusiasm for fire was…lacking, but he was still the next strongest champion of Fire after herself. So, she took him and made her way to the Dragonvein Volcano room. There, they found the Third of the Sixth with many of her foragers, all of whom were currently attempting to drink the fire and lava at the edges of the room. The Third of the Sixth zipped over and danced a salute once she saw the chief.

“Karnuq queen! Trying reach Queen of All Fire now?”

Chief Rohsuak nodded.

“Yes. Watch Metsaitti for me, will you? Make sure he doesn’t turn back until it’s dangerous, maybe a little after.”

“Ok!”

Metsaitti sweated while the Third of the Sixth zipped around and Chief Rohsuak laughed. Then, with a grin, Chief Rohsuak dove into the world of fire.

Metsaitti was dying. He…had to admit he had never been as fond of getting burned as the chief, and this new fire room was only reinforcing that. He glanced over at his companion and frowned. The Third of the Sixth didn’t seem to be suffering at all and she was but a fraction of his size! She was currently surrounded by a bunch of her workers, none of whom seemed to be struggling either.

“Strong one ok?”

Metsaitti shook his head.

“This room is entirely too hot for me. I have no idea how you’re doing so well.”

The Third of the Sixth danced about.

“Hive working together!”

Metsaitti paused and gave the bees a closer look. He then noticed that the bees were not just hovering around randomly. The workers had formed a sphere around the Third of the Sixth in the air and were rotating in and out, such that no worker remained permanently on the outside. The workers on the exterior were generating fire with their wings, burning off excess Fire mana while they flew, while those inside were beating their wings harder than necessary for flight, creating a breeze that pushed the fire and hot air out and away.

Metsaitti’s eyes widened.

“…I’ve been a fool.”

All this time, ever since Chief Rohsuak had thrown him into this deadly quest…he had only been using half his blessing. Chief Rohsuak was a master…but she was a master of Fire and Fire alone. Metsaitti had another blessing, one Chief Rohsuak couldn’t speak of at all.

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But he had the perfect teachers right with him.

He stirred up his mana and created his bee wings of Fire, then turned to the Third of the Sixth.

“Can you teach me how you do that, how you manage the heat with your wings?”

The Third of the Sixth zipped out of the sphere and flew around him.

“Ok! Will help!”

The Third of the Sixth not only began to show him what her hive was doing, she had her hive extend their sphere around Metsaitti. Their mana brushed against his…and then Metsaitti’s own mana resonated. They started to pull Fire mana from his wings into theirs, drawing it away from him.

And Metsaitti’s mana pulsed, then started to grow. Metsaitti blinked…and then chuckled. He had forgotten…it was only with the help of the bees that he had received this blessing in the first place. It should have been obvious that he would need their help to make it grow.

Metsaitti turned to the Third of the Sixth and grinned.

“Thank you. I’m feeling a lot better now…should we try and push a bit further in?”

“Ok! Strong one has lots of mana, helping hive a lot, so can!”

And so, bee and karnuq braved the heat together, with both of their mana pools growing as they did…

The Second of the Seventh stared at a cell in her hive, one that was currently glowing as brightly as the colorful lights overhead. King had placed a truly amazing and incredible flower in this place, one with the most powerful mana the Second of the Seventh had ever encountered. Yet, this flower was slow, King had made it a while ago, but it had barely produced any nectar.

And the Second of the Seventh knew why. Because now, her workers had finally gathered enough nectar from the amazing and incredible flowers to fill a single cell with its honey…and had produced the most mana-packed honey in the King’s realm. This honey, with mere basic processing, matched the First of the Fifth’s swirled honey in mana-density…maybe even surpassed it! It made sense the flowers were slow, they had to gather a mind-boggling amount of mana to make nectar like this.

But her gardeners had done what they could, giving the flowers as much mana and light as they could make. They even asked the dragon to help by making more light for the flowers with his wings and mouth. The dragon was amazing and incredible too, he could make more light than the Second of the Seventh’s entire hive! Unfortunately, he was a drone, so he was bad at making honey or foraging flowers, but the Second of the Seventh could help with that!

Speaking of which, the Second of the Seventh had to decide what to do with the new honey. She could drink it herself, she might be able to evolve just from the sheer Light mana within it! Or she could share it. King always deserved the best honey, but the Queen of All Light also deserved good honey to, while the dragon had helped her gardeners help the flowers.

The Second of the Seventh thought about it and then decided…she would do all of the above! She’d wait until she had a few more cells of the honey, then she could share it with everyone! It’s what her little spawner sister, the Fourth of the Seventh, would have done…and she was the most accomplished queen to come from their spawner.

With that settled, the Second of the Seventh sent word to her hive to encourage the amazing and incredible flowers as much as they could…

The First of the Sixth’s First Daughter, the blinding queen, flew through the dark tunnels she called home. She soon arrived her destination, a small, pitch-black cavern where her gardeners danced about.

The thing was…this cavern was open to the sky above, and it was the middle of the day. The sun should have illuminated the entire thing…yet it did not, thanks to the fruit of her gardeners’ efforts.

She could not see it, but she could smell and feel it. There, in the center of the cavern, was new patch of mana flowers. Mana flowers that had been cross-pollinated, planted, and tended by her gardeners, and that had finally bloomed.

The First of the Sixth’s First Daughter had been presented to King alongside the Second of the Seventh…but she couldn’t help but notice that King seemed more impressed with the shining queen than with her. King still loved and took care of her, but there was no doubt he was more interested in Light mana than Dark. Indeed, the Queen of All Light herself had come to visit him and had blessed the Second of the Seventh. No Queen of All Dark had done the same, if there was one out there…

Still, the Second of the Seventh was older and larger than the First of the Sixth’s First Daughter, so it could not be helped that she had done more. The First of the Sixth’s First Daughter decided to just do what she could at her own pace, her hive had at least been able to help the bee army, even more than the Second of the Seventh’s! All the while, she and her workers quietly worked away in the dark, working at a plan to help them grow even more.

And now, finally, they had succeeded at something of note. They had successfully cross-pollinated mana flowers with the shadow vines they foraged and created a Dark mana flower. The flowers not only drank up all light that touched them, they drank up all the light around them as well, plunging their surroundings in cool, comforting shadow.

The First of the Sixth’s First Daughter happily danced about in the dark. With this, her hive could grow even more. And, hopefully, King would be happy about this too.

Belstablom was still resting, though she had moved to her flower instead of her king-father’s head now. As comfortable as king-father’s head was, her mana replenished best when she in physical contact with her flower, so she could help everyone more if she slept there! And that would make everyone happy!

In fact, she could even keep working while she was sleeping here! Her flower’s mana was connected to lots of the flowers and even to her king-father’s realm itself, so though she couldn’t do much, she could at least keep watching the hive of hives and figure out where she could help when she woke up!

So, she dreamt of the hive of hives and of all the happy flowers blooming across the Tower, watching them all work and grow and waiting to wake up so she could join them once more. And it was during these dreams that she noticed something out of place.

There was some mana in her king-father’s realm that she didn’t recognize. It was growing, feeding off the mana of the realm, but it couldn’t fully connect to it. Also, it was stuck in a cold and dark room full of water, a place where neither her king-father nor the hive of hives ever visited, so no one had said hi to the mana.

That didn’t make Belstablom happy, so she had her flower reach out its mana to the new mana! She wouldn’t be able to do much since she was still recovering her mana, but she could at least say hi to the new mana! And also tell the Conduit, since the Conduit could go anywhere in the realm she wanted and would want to say hi too!

The new mana recoiled at first, but then it realized that Belstablom’s flower was just trying to say hi. It touched her flower’s mana and the two formed a little connection. Belstablom spun about in her mind, now the mana wouldn’t be alone! And that made Belstablom happy!

That was the extent of what she could do for now, but she knew it would be enough, so Belstablom drifted back off to a happy sleep.