Chapter 693 Communication Can Bee Difficult

Belissar was getting ready for bed when Niobee returned…with the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter and the Fourth of the Seventh in tow.

“Hi Niobee, First of the Fifth, Fourth of the Seventh. Do you need something?”

Belissar watched the queens…and started to get a bad feeling. Neither the First Daughter nor the Fourth of the Seventh were zipping around him as usual, their salute dance was unusually slow and their antennae were drooping. Belissar glanced at Niobee. She did not keep him waiting.

“Hive of hives attacked hive-builder, thought was hive-burner. King should decide what do next, so asking.”

Belissar blinked, then fully processed Niobee’s dance. His eyes went wide.

“What? Niobee, tell me, what exactly happened?”

Niobee duly explained and Belissar furrowed his brow. So, the hive of hives thought anyone applying fire to a hive was a hive-burner, or what they called any hostile human. As such, they attacked a beekeeper who was attempting to smoke a hive without realizing the hive wasn’t under threat. Though, it also sounded like the beekeeper in question was using the old skep method, which would have required them to break the colony to harvest honey. Belissar did not imagine the hive of hives would be pleased at that, so he didn’t mention it for now.

After all, a skep beekeeper may have to destroy some colonies, but would always ensure that their bees endured. They would only break hives after they had swarmed to a new skep, and they would shake the bees out of the colony to be harvested so that they could either rebuild or join other hives. Mrs. Imkomos said that’s what she used to do before she came up with the rope method that let her pull out parts of the colony, the precursor to her and Belissar’s tray design. It was unfortunate, but it was an inevitable part of beekeeping for those who didn’t have his beehouses.

But…the hive of hives had now claimed this particular beekeeper’s hives as one of their own. They would not consent to the destruction of entire colonies, nor did Belissar wish to force that upon them. Yet, he also did not want to destroy the livelihood of a fellow beekeeper, nor to approve a conflict between his bees and beekeepers.

So, Belissar took a moment to think, considering how to address this situation. There was another problem: the incident in question was all the way back in the Conclave. If it had been close by, Belissar could just go and talk to the bees and people in question, but that was unfortunately not an option. Likewise, most of his bees couldn’t talk to people and most people couldn’t understand bee dances, so there was no way for them to communicate…

Belissar blinked, then glanced out the window of the Apiary farmhouse. He glanced in the direction of his new mead cellar…where bees had, with his guidance, placed labels upon mead jars…

Belissar smiled.

“Ok, I have an idea. Here’s what you should do…”

Queen Vanieskon lounged in a chair set up in the core room of the Tower. Tower Lord Leipistos knelt at her feet. She reached down and patted his head.

“See now, dear Leipistos, is this not better? You could be in the belly of a dragon right about now, but fortunately for you I am much kinder than my allies. All you needed do was submit.”

Leipistos shivered at her touch.

“Y-Yes, my queen, it is as you say. T-Thank you for your kindness.”

Queen Vanieskon smirked, then turned her attention to the Tower’s core, having her new subordinate display various parts of the Tower through it.

All across his Tower, Heigiosa’s City Guard were taking weapons from surrendering Tower Guards. Queen Vanieskon held back a sigh, she would have much preferred for her new pet to keep his army, but this was unfortunately part of her deal with the Oracle of Light. The humans of the Conclave, including the former Tower Guard of the traitorous lords, would be hers to deal with…conveniently denying Queen Vanieskon her army even should she gain the allegiance of the ruling Tower Lord. But such were the constraints she was now forced to work with, she could not have the Oracle of Light thinking she had broken the deal. So, Queen Vanieskon said nothing and let Heigiosa’s army defang her new Tower…

Just then, the door to the core room opened up. The commander of the City Guard marched up to her and gave a salute, though with a big frown on his face.

“Your Majesty, it is as the traitor said. We found a monster that did not belong to the Tower and dispatched it. I am uncertain if its master was watching, but no Tower Guards were attempting to report to it at the very least.”

Queen Vanieskon rubbed Leipistos’ head again.

“That’s a good boy. And not to worry, I already disabled those clairvoyance wards keeping watch over you. Your former masters will not know of your fate.”

Leipistos shivered again. The commander of the City Guard ignored him and kept his own gaze on Queen Vanieskon.

“Additionally, I have received new orders from Oracle Heigiosa. I will be breaking off a small group of my troops to address a situation in a local village.”

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Queen Vaniekson waved her hand about.

“By all means, commander. I will be rearranging the Tower’s shortcuts, as planned, so you have until then. I trust the Oracle has not changed the overall plan?”

The commander grunted and shook his head. Queen Vanieskon waved towards the door.

“Then we had both best get to work.”

She then turned her attention back to Leipistos.

“Now then, my dear Leipistos, let us take care of your Tower, shall we?”

The next morning in the Conclave, the local villagers gathered, called to arms by the wounded beekeeper’s family. Unfortunately, Lord Lepistos had ceased all patrols by his Tower Guard at while ago, so they would receive no help. It was up to them to deal with the monsters that had descended upon their village.

So, they gathered what weapons they had…mostly farming implements and torches…and made their way to the local apiary, intent on confronting whatever creatures had taken up residence there.

They paused, though, once they reached the Apiary. One of the farmers looked up and gulped.

“Those…are really big bees.”

The biggest bees any of them had ever seen hovered in formation up in the air, their big wings creating a breeze that swept across the farmers. Plus, some of the bees were glowing. The village chief narrowed his eyes.

“Those are no bees, they are clearly monsters. And we won’t yield our homes to monsters!”

The villagers all began to shout and stir themselves up, though none of them were quite sure what exactly they were going to do about the flying monsters.

Unfortunately for them, the monsters decided for them, bursting into motion before the villagers could react. Farmers and craftsmen braced their tools…only to find the monsters were not descending upon them. The monsters simply took up a new formation and then returned to hovering in place. A strange, unusual formation…

One of the farmers squinted.

“Wait, do those look like letters to you?”

The farmer next to him shrugged.

“Beats me. I can’t read.”

The first farmer glanced around.

“Where’s Priest Fapas? He can read, right?”

It took a bit of shuffling, but eventually Priest Fapas was pushed to the front of the group. He blinked as he observed the monsters.

“They are indeed forming letters. It says…please don’t hurt the bees.”

Everyone glanced at the village chief.

“What do we do?”

The village chief scowled.

“This is just proof they are wicked monsters, only foul sorcery could be responsible.”

The villagers began to brace their weapons again. The bees began to buzz, turning their breeze into a gust of wind that whipped around the villagers’ clothes. Someone took a step forward and started poking a pitchfork towards the air…

But then, a young boy from the village came running.

“The Tower Guard! The Tower Guard are here!”

The village chief smiled.

“Finally! All right, everyone step back. Let’s let the chosen of the gods handle this!”

The villagers carefully backed away from the monsters, keeping their improvised weapons pointed in their direction. They didn’t get far before the Tower Guard appeared, marching down the road. The village chief, however, froze when he saw them.

“You…aren’t Lord Leipistos’ men, are you?”

The Tower Guards in question walked up to him…and didn’t seem on guard against the monsters.

“I am Captain Annios of the City of Light’s Guard, here with word from Oracle of Light Heigiosa herself!”

The village chief blinked. Priest Fapas quickly knelt down and bowed his head. The other villagers followed until the village chief was the only one left standing. Eventually, he too knelt down.

“W-What does the High Councilor wish with our humble village?”

Captain Annios pointed up towards the bees.

“So says the Oracle of Light: the bees you see here are no evil creatures! They are the agents of Belissar, the chosen Tower Keeper of the God of Bees! They are here to share with you the ways of the God of Bees!”

Priest Fapas gasped.

“There’s a God of Bees?”

The village chief, however, frowned.

“Forgive me, captain, I would never question High Councilor Heigiosa but…are you certain these creatures are the agents in question? They have already attacked Terlakas, stung her real bad. She’s in rough shape…”

Captain Annios just pointed up to the bees.

“I’ll let them answer themselves.”

The villagers glanced towards Priest Fapas again, who had to tear his attention away from the City Guard back towards the bees.

“Ah…they say sorry, and that they have medicine they will give.”

Captain Annios nodded.

“The City Guard will assist as well. Please, show us to the wounded so we may heal them right away. The rest of you should return to your homes, we will take care of things here. Do not attempt to engage the bees.”

With that, Priest Fapas and the village chief led Captain Annios towards the beekeeper’s home, with the giant bees following along. One by one, the rest of the villagers lowered their weapons and began heading back to their homes…all the while gossiping to each other about a new god and a High Councilor’s personal Tower Guard visiting their humble village…

With Captain Annios’s help, the Fourth of the Seventh’s bees brought some medicinal mana honey to the wounded beekeeper, which the City Guard supplemented with healing magic. The Fourth of the Seventh’s bees formed an apology while the City Guard worked.

“Sorry, thought was burning hive.”

Terlakas, for her part, waved them off with a smile.

“Ah, don’t worry about it. It was a surprise, but it wasn’t the first time I’ve been stung and it won’t be the last!”

The bees, however, buzzed at that, then formed new words.

“Will tell bees don’t sting, if promise not hurt bees.”

Terlaka blinked.

“Truly? You can speak with them? Well, of course you would, you’re bees too after all. And…god-bees of some kind? I have to say, Priest Fapas, this is all a little beyond me…”

Priest Fapas shook his head.

“You and I both.”

Once Terkalas was tended to, Captain Annios and the Fourth of the Seventh’s bees gave her some space. The bees formed more words.

“Thanks for help! King says thanks too!”

Captain Annios gave them a salute.

“It is my honor to assist you, we City Guard and Oracle Heigiosa owe your kind and your king great debts. Oracle Heigiosa says as much herself and to convey her thanks to Tower Keeper Belissar for all he has done on behalf of her, the Conclave, and the gods.”

Captain Annios paused for a moment, then continued.

“Oracle Heigiosa also says that it may be possible for her to visit in the near future, or for Tower Keeper Belissar to visit the Tower of Light. She extends an open invitation to him and requests to meet with him some day, so that she may thank him in-person.”

The bees checked in with Belissar, then began zipping about to form more words.

“King says ok!”

Captain Annios smiled.

“Oracle Heigiosa is delighted and thanks you once again. Now…she has also commanded us to assist you in teaching this village about the ways of the God of Bees. I’ll admit, I’m not entirely sure what that means. Will you be able to take the lead on that?”

The bees began zipping around. Captain Annios didn’t know what their dances met, but somehow got the impression that they were happy.