Chapter 429 - Bee-uniting the Hives

The Flower Tender had ordered her army to gather as she created a new entrance to her realm. She fully planned to charge with her full might and strike down any opponent assailing her ally beyond.

Her full might included the bees, so the First Stingless Queen of the Flower Realm gathered there as well, along with the Third Daughter. For once, the Third Daughter was not happily dancing around. The First Stingless Queen turned to her.

“Third Daughter ok?”

The Third Daughter buzzed her wings.

“Flower one says King and hive of hives in trouble, need help. Can’t hear hive of hives, so think is true.”

The First Stingless Queen briefly considered if she could take advantage of the Third Daughter’s current distress, but put the thought aside. If what Flower Tender and the Third Daughter said was true…then the hive of hives, a hive greater than that of any of the Flower Tender’s, was facing a foe that could match or surpass them. If so…then what could her own army do against such odds? She could barely match the Third Daughter, a single child of the hive of hives with a mere escort that the hive of hives could spare. If the grand army of the hive of hives was outmatched, then her own army would be like pollen on the wind.

So, now was not the time for infighting. If such a threat lay ahead of them, then every bee of the Flower Tender’s realm would need to work together to stand any chance. The First Stingless Queen prepared herself. Honestly, she could only hope that Flower Tender’s flower army and allies would bring powers that no bee could imagine, but she was once a conquering queen, so she would not back down no matter the odds.

“BELISSAR! HOLD ON!”

The gate opened and the Flower Tender charged through. Many of her flowers were stuck behind their allies. The First Stingless Queen realized that, of all Flower Tender’s forces, only the bees could follow her right now.

So she ordered her hive into the fray. Third Daughter hadn’t even waited that long and buzzed ahead of her. The other stingless queens soon followed along and the sky was filled with the buzzing of the Flower Tender’s bees as they dove through the entrance…

Then they emerged…and found no battle. While the First Stingless Queen looked around and took stock of the situation, the Third Daughter flew off buzzing.

“QUEEN MOTHER!”

The First Stingless Queen turned and watched as the Third Daughter charged towards the biggest queen she had ever seen. First Stingless Queen gaped…and then the mana hit her. The Third Daughter’s queen mother, she presumed, unleashed a power like no other, a mana imbued with the authority of a great queen. The Third Daughter’s queen mother did not demand obedience with an army at her back, her very mana enforced it upon the world. This was a true queen of queens.

But though the First Stingless Queen no longer ruled, neither would she serve anyone but the Flower Tender. She pushed away the mana, stirring up her own and preparing to resist. But then, to her surprise, the mana backed off, as if accepting her refusal. She stared…and then realized the Third Daughter’s queen mother had not even noticed her yet. The Third Daughter’s queen mother was not trying to make her submit, this was just something that happened because of her mere presence.

If the First Stingless Queen had any doubts as to the hive of hives’ strength, they were well and truly gone now.

“Queen mother?”

But it turned out a queen of the hive of hives had noticed her after all. The First Stingless Queen turned and found her own daughter now approaching…with an army at her back. Her daughter buzzed her wings, spreading warning pheromones.

“Queen mother trying invade? If attack hive of hives, will fight.”

The First Stingless Queen spread calming pheromones.

“Not attacking. Helping. Flower Tender asked.”

Her daughter stopped buzzing, though was still leaving light warning pheromones in the air.

“Ok.”

The First Stingless Queen drifted a bit closer, though stayed at a respectful distance given her daughter’s caution.

“Happy to see, daughter. Heard hive of hives spared, but didn’t know if true. Glad did.”

Her daughter watched her for a moment, then slowly released an acknowledgement.

“Submitted to hive of hives, was best decision ever made. Now part of hive of hives. Now greater than any one.”

The First Stingless Queen could only agree.

“Indeed…”

Then she took a look, a much closer look, at the army behind her daughter…and buzzed her wings.

“Daughter…have stingless soldiers? Have stingless army?! And what those?!”

There were more stingless soldiers present than she had sent with her daughter. So, her daughter had not only been spared by the hive of hives, she had been permitted to raise her own army?! And moreover…there were soldiers of a type she hadn’t seen before. They looked liked…they looked like the monster bee sprayers the Third Daughter had…but were clearly a type of monster stingless bee…which could only mean they had been raised by…her own daughter.

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“Daughter…what happen?”

Her daughter hovered at the same level as her. Her pheromone wave was firm and solid.

“Hive of hives happened.”

The First Stingless Queen did not respond for quite a while. It was one thing to hear of the hive of hives’ cooperation. It was one thing for the Third Daughter to want to cooperate as a stranger in their lands, with a strong army but still outnumbers by Flower Tender’s bees.

It was another thing entirely to see what the hive of hives had done with her daughter, a stranger and an enemy they had at their mercy, all after she had come at them with malicious intent.

“Daughter…will tell more? Want know what happened, want know about hive of hives.”

The stingless bees weren’t the only ones reuniting with their queen mother. The communer bee assigned to flower one nearly took off from her charge as the gate formed. Mana began pouring through immediately…and carried with it the mana of the hive of hives and her queen mother. The communer immediately began buzzing and vibrating with all her might.

“Communer! Can feel again! What happen?”

The communer’s mana gushed out, her antennae flashing rapidly as she simultaneously tried to bathe herself in her hive’s mana while also trying to report to her queen mother. Even she realized her mana dance was entirely incoherent, but she couldn’t help herself. She was back! She thought she had lost her queen mother and her hive, but now she was back!

In the meantime, flower one charged through the gate and ran straight towards King. The communer zipped around in a salute dance to King. Then…she realized that her orders had been to keep flower one in contact with King. But flower one and King were now talking directly so…she no longer needed to stay with flower one to fulfill that order.

The moment she thought that, she zipped away, flying directly for her queen mother, who accompanied King as the voice of the hive of hives.

“Communer!”

The communer didn’t even reply, just crashed straight into her queen mother’s back. She crawled all over the monster bee empress, immersing herself in her queen mother’s pheromones and mana.

She was back. She hadn’t been separated from the hive after all.

Her queen mother began a soothing dance and let her stay there for a while before asking for that report.

After the God of Light explained what happened on the dungeon side of things, Belissar and Tarwantrad exchanged their tales of the purification on either side. Tarwantrad, along with Nenavann and even Wardmaster Varilold, stared in abject horror as Belissar described the persistent purification.

Wardmaster Varilold exchanged a glance with Nenavann.

“A thousand years and we did not know of such things?”

Nenavann furrowed his brow.

“More and more, it seems we missed much by hiding our dungeons behind the wards. Perhaps the Hunger couldn’t maintain such a consistent connection with our dungeons?”

He looked around at the Silver Host and at Chief Rohsuak and frowned.

“Or perhaps…the Hunger did not feel the need to strike against us in such a way.”

Wardmaster Varilold raised an eyebrow.

“Your dungeon has shut down purifications as well as Tower Keeper Belissar’s, though? We assisted you at the start just as we are assisting him.”

Nenavann rubbed his chin.

“But in our case, the Hunger always struck at the wards before arriving at our dungeons. Perhaps it’s been working away at them, rather than striking our dungeon directly?”

He then smiled and glanced to the side.

“Though…perhaps we need not speculate, given present company.”

Both elves turned to the God of Light, who nodded in return.

“Your theory is accurate. The Hunger has been primarily assaulting your wards and draining their strength over time. Your dungeons have been working to ease the burden and purify the wards, but are not purifying the Hunger directly since the Land of the Fair itself has not been corrupted.”

Wardmaster Varilold frowned.

“So we were losing all along. Perhaps it was a mistake to tie the dungeons to the wards after all…”

The God of Light shook her head.

“Even I cannot declare if that is true. It is true that by tying the dungeons to your wards, your dungeons have not been operating at their full potential. But it is also true that by doing so, you were able to keep the Land of the Fair completely corruption free with just a handful of dungeons, a single one to begin with. In doing so, multiple civilizations of fair folk were saved without further casualties. Others have done more with their dungeons but have suffered greater retaliation by the Hunger in exchange. Some dungeons have fallen entirely, along with all who sheltered under their protection, when the risks proved greater than they could manage, even with the full strength of their dungeons unleashed. Only you can decide what risks were preferable to take.”

Wardmaster Varilold took a deep breath and calmed her expression.

“Thank you. I must also ask, is there any advice you would offer?”

The God of Light’s face scrunched up.

“That is a more complicated request. I have my opinions, but the ancient pact with the pixies still holds, only the pixie queen could release us from its constraints. Until then, the Land of the Fair is ultimately yours to manage. I cannot interfere, for better or for worse, even indirectly. If I were the primary patron of one of your dungeons, I would be able to say more…but perhaps as you have seen, the gods have our own rules regarding the dungeons.”

She glanced over at the God of Flowers, who made a big, bright smile.

“My advice is to pour everything you can into Tarwantrad and Belissar’s dungeons. Lord Aratodel too, though he really needs more bees.”

The God of Light turned back to the elves.

“…I imagine that was not the advice you were seeking.”

Wardmaster Varilold firmed up.

“Then we will simply have to keep doing the best with the information we have.”

Just then a bumblebee worker flew by, minding its own business. The God of Light stared at it, but it just kept buzzing happily, landing on a nearby flower and paying no mind to anyone else.

After that, Tarwantrad explained what happened on her end. After the catkin shade dove through the nexus, Tarwantrad tried to attack with everything she had, but the shade had already gone and she couldn’t follow it. She got no notification of the purification’s end, though, and her nexus remained corrupted, her Tower in a strange state of limbo with an ongoing purification but no shades to fight. From that point on, she and Wardmaster Varilold decided the experiment was over. They deployed all of Tarwantrad’s monster and the wardens in force to ensure no further shades could pass in or out of the nexus and even called in Nenavann for reinforcements.

She faced a few more waves for her purification, but she, Nenavann, and the wardens struck them down with overwhelming force. Then…they waited, having lost contact with Belissar and even the monsters they exchanged. Tarwantrad knew her flower monster was alive and the bees with her knew the hive of hives still existed, but otherwise they were left wondering what was going on.

Belissar was glad to hear that nothing bad had happened to Tarwantrad or the Land of the Fair in the meantime. In the end, everything had worked out and everyone settled down. Tarwantrad, Nenavann, and Wardmaster Varilold sent their forces home, with the exception of the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter’s Third Daughter and one of Tarwantrad’s stingless queens, both of whom were still speaking with their kin in Belissar’s Tower. Duke Turuhave led the Silver Host home as well, the elves eager to see the Land of the Fair after being separated, even if only for a few days.

As for Belissar…well, now it was time for Belissar to deal with the gods in the room. The God of Flowers ran up to him with a huge grin on her face.

“Hi Belissar! I’ve wanted to talk with you for a while! I’m your favorite secondary patron after all, right? Right?”