by Unknown
“Of course they do. The other hive’s attendant and the drones may come in, as may this… Joy and her companions. Keep watch on the other human that is outside the hive, but let the other workers do as they wish,” the queen said, her thoughts racing. The idea of apis from elsewhere was quite exciting, as it happened. She wondered if they were anything like her own hive.
“Yes, Your Majesty,” one of the attendants said, bowing deeply, then stood to leave, with the worker quickly following her.
The queen watched them go, then looked at the other attendants as she said, “Prepare some honey for them as well. Not much, but enough for guests.”
“Yes, Your Majesty!” they chorused, and the queen resisted the urge to sigh as they started moving, vaguely wishing they wouldn’t be so formal with her.
She felt terribly alone, which was part of why she was looking forward to the meeting.
“This is very different than the Shadebough Hive,” Cora said, looking around the room as they moved through it, following the worker leading the way.
“It reminds me of the Tulip Hive a bit, though,” Brianna replied, then gestured at the honeycomb cubbies along the wall as she added, “Though those are different.”
The interior of the hive was different than Cora had imagined, and she could hardly imagine trying to navigate it as an outsider. The first room had been an apis version of a gatehouse, with numerous arrow slits in the walls and what looked like heavy doors that could be dropped into place, but beyond that it was like being shrunk and set inside a beehive, with doors connecting each honeycomb to the next. It was also quite warm inside, and Cora had to wonder where the light was coming from, since she didn’t see any obvious sources like the Shadebough Hive had possessed.
More interesting were how the walls of each of the chambers were lined with hexagonal cubbies, many of which were sealed off and full of liquid. Cora had also seen some cells with what looked like tiny apis curled up inside them, surrounded by liquid, but she hadn’t had a chance to slow down and look at them with how quickly they were moving. The exception were the rooms which looked to be set aside for sleep, as the apis had crammed them full of what appeared to be bunks, and Cora had seen a trio of apis on a single bed with their equipment neatly organized next to their bed. Cora wouldn’t have expected one apis on the bed, let alone three.
“It has more flat ground to work with,” the Shadebough attendant replied cheerfully, looking around in curiosity. “We had to go up instead, and the trees gave us lots of support.”
“Where the Tulip Hive didn’t have as many trees, and was originally underground,” Joy added, smiling at their guide. “You have a nice hive!”
“Thank you, we’ve been working hard on it! There was a bit of a fight last week, when a group of wasps attacked, but they aren’t a problem anymore,” the worker replied cheerfully. “We set their hive on fire, and the warriors killed them as they fled!”
“Good work. It’s what they deserve,” Joy replied firmly, and Cora winced a little. She couldn’t really blame the apis for hating wasps, since they were a nasty insect, but how vicious the apis could be concerned her at times.
“Is there anything in particular we should do when we meet your queen? In other countries there are sometimes formalities,” Stella said, watching the apis calmly. “We don’t want to offend her.”
“Well, we kneel, but you aren’t members of the hive. I don’t know what you’re supposed to do,” the worker replied, slowing down as she looked thoughtful, then shrugged. “I don’t think you’ll offend her! She told us we shouldn’t kneel, but we wanted to.”
Cora glanced at Stella, and she could see the slight bemusement in the human’s eyes. Cora had no idea why the apis would want to kneel yet wouldn’t mind if other people didn’t, but she wasn’t about to argue. Kneeling to other people felt uncomfortable to her, and she couldn’t quite express why.
“Thank you for explaining,” Brianna said when neither of them responded. “Is it much farther? Unlike apis, we can’t really smell pheromones.”
“Nope! Just a few more rooms!” the worker said, quickening her pace again, and Cora had to work a little more to keep up. She’d never understand why all apis seemed to have inexhaustible stores of energy.
After a couple more archways, Cora saw a pair of apis with spears standing next to another room, one which didn’t look much different from the outside except for a light purple cloth blocking the doorway. They looked at Joy and the others warily, then nodded, one of the women speaking.
“Your workers can explore the hive if they’d like. Her Majesty wishes to speak with Joy and her companions, as well as the foreign attendant and drones,” the guard said, her tone surprisingly formal for an apis.
“Okay,” the Shadebough attendant agreed, and looked at her workers as she said, “You heard her.”
“We’ll stay close!” a worker promised, then scattered with the others as they went into nearby rooms.
Once they were gone, the other guard used her spear to hold the silken cloth blocking the doorway aside and said, “Welcome to our hive; the queen awaits you.”
“Thank you!” Joy replied, quickly entering the room, and Cora smiled helplessly, starting to follow, but she paused as the Shadebough attendant and drones moved first. Then she was cut off by Brianna and Stella, which caused her to end up entering the room last.
The first thing Cora noticed was that the room wasn’t the plain, almost featureless yellow wax as the rest of the hive, and the ceiling rose almost twice as tall as the other rooms. It was carved with images of flowers and other plants which had been painted with different colors of paint. Neither the images nor paint were of incredible quality, though they were good enough to adorn most village temples.
The rest of the room was interesting as well, as there was a small dais raised above the floor in the back, on which rested a large apis sitting in a pile of cushions. The apis was obviously the queen of the hive, and she had a woven circlet of violets resting on her head, while a necklace of daffodils was around her neck. She had wings that glittered with bits of magic, and she was looking them all over with interest, several attendants to either side of her, and a large wax pot filled with damp soil beside her. More surprising to Cora, there were also eight cushions on the ground in front of the dais, before which were simple wax chalices filled with liquid.
“Please sit. Her Majesty has kindly chosen to offer you honey to restore your energy,” one of the attendants told them, smiling warmly at Joy and the other apis, before giving the humans and Cora skeptical looks. She opened her mouth, then shut it, looking at the queen as if she’d been reproached. For all Cora knew, she had been… Cora didn’t really understand how much the apis could say to one another via their pheromones.
Joy waited until the Shadebough attendant and drones chose their spots, with the drones sitting to the left of the attendant as they settled onto the left set of cushions. Almost immediately Stella and Brianna headed for the right two seats, and Joy moved toward the one next to Stella, leaving the only unoccupied cushion as one almost in the middle. Cora grimaced slightly, since that left her in the center, which wasn’t what she’d hoped for. She didn’t like being the center of attention, but she moved toward the cushion after only a moment of hesitation and settled down onto it. It was a bit lumpy, but surprisingly soft despite that, and Cora looked down into her chalice, taking a moment to swirl it. How viscous the liquid was told her it was honey, and Cora resisted the urge to wince. That much honey would not settle well, so she set the chalice down gently.
“Thank you for the honey!” Joy said, looking into her chalice and smiling. “It smells really good! Oh, my name is Joy, and the nearby country asked me to be an ambassador to your hive! Well, maybe not the country… the people in charge of their army, anyway.”
“How fascinating. A country, you say? I assume these are the enormous, strange hives which I was granted knowledge of during my transformation?” the queen asked, lo
oking at Joy closely, and when Joy nodded, the queen smiled. “I have wondered about them. However, first I need to speak with someone else.”
She turned to the Shadebough attendant, then at the drones as she smiled broadly. “You look different than the drones of my hive. You’re here to exchange drones with my hive?”
“Yes. My queen, of the Shadebough Hive, sent us out to meet other hives and exchange drones if possible,” the attendant said, bowing her head slightly, though she looked almost as excited as Joy did. “She is preparing to pass her position to another queen and wishes to ensure that there are drones for her, as well as to make contact with other apis.”
The queen’s smile grew even wider at the explanation, tilting her head as she asked, “Where is your hive? No other bees in the forest turned into apis, so I feared for the future at first. I would love to make contact with your hive.”
“South of here, by a little over a week in a direct line. Possibly two weeks, depending on your speed,” the attendant explained. “It’s in the Teeming Jungle.”
“I don’t know where that is, but I will find out,” the queen said, obviously musing for a few moments, then looked at the drones as she asked, “Do you wish to join my hive? It may be why you are here, but I will not require it of you.”
“Yes!” one of them said, watching the queen worshipfully between sips of honey. Another pulled the chalice away from his lips, swallowing before he spoke.
“It’s why we came here. Our old queen asked for those of us who wished to join other hives,” the man explained, his voice rich and resonant.
“Did she? What an excellent notion. In that case, I believe I will have to do the same,” the queen said, looking at an attendant as she continued. “Escort her to the other drones, and ask if there are any volunteers to join her on her trip back to the Shadebough Hive. She may choose from among those who volunteer.”
“Yes, Your Majesty!” one of the attendants said, bowing her head to the queen, then looked at the three apis, who all stood at the same time.
The queen watched them leave, then her gaze drifted to Cora, followed by Brianna and Stella. She looked at them for a few seconds, then asked, “An… elf? Or are you a faerie? And I believe the others are humans, yes?”
“Yes, I’m an elf,” Cora replied, her cheeks heating a little with embarrassment.
“And we’re humans,” Brianna confirmed, shifting in place. “We’re friends of Joy’s.”
“They’re my adopted hive. Sort of, anyway!” Joy chimed in cheerfully, prompting the attendants to stir.
“Your hive? I heard that you were an… independent apis,” the queen said, almost looking like she was testing the words, and a little doubtful of them.
“That’s right!” Joy confirmed. “My queen sent me and several other apis out with the intent of founding a new hive. I ended up using my pure royal jelly to save Cora, but we’re going to trade for a new vial with the Shadebough Hive.”
Joy gestured toward Cora as she said the elf’s name, prompting Cora’s flush to grow deeper, and she cleared her throat, looking down as she spoke. “What she did was more than I could have asked of her. Joy had known us for perhaps three days when she chose to do so, and in so doing… well, once we found out, we decided that we had to replace the jelly if we could. It has been an adventure, doing so.”
“That it has. Like walking into a war zone,” Brianna murmured, at which Joy giggled.
“Ah, much is explained. You won’t be founding your hive near mine, will you?” the queen asked, her smile fading almost instantly, to Cora’s surprise. “I’m not certain the forest can support more than three hives, and I will likely be splitting off a new hive soon.”
“Nope! Cora said there was a nice spot up north, near where she grew up, so I was going to go look there,” Joy explained, and almost as quickly as it had vanished, the smile reappeared on the queen’s face.
“Good! I’d hate to have to go to war with you,” the queen said cheerfully. “Why are you here? You do seem rather concerned.”
Joy didn’t seem even slightly disturbed by the implicit threat, Cora realized after a moment. Her friend was acting almost like she’d expected that response, and Cora examined her more closely, wondering just how often bees fought one another, and if apis would do the same. With how ruthless they were… a shudder ran down her spine as she considered what an all-out battle between apis would look like. That would be unpleasant, she decided.
“Well, I’m sure my friends can explain more than me, but I think I understand the major bits,” Joy said, reaching up to tap her lip. “The nearby kingdom is called… Astonia, I think. The part of it closest is called Dorma, and they’re both part of a group called the Kingdoms of Light, which are kind of like a group of friendly hives that help each other. We’re also near the border of another group of kingdoms called the Kingdoms of Darkness… they’re mean, at least the ones I’ve run into. I think they’re more like wasps.”
“Not all of them, but many are, yes. You’ve mostly run into their soldiers, Joy,” Stella spoke up quietly. “They’re invading our lands, so of course they’re mean.”
“Oh, that’s good! I was afraid all of them were like that!” Joy said, grinning at Stella as she squirmed into a more comfortable position on her cushion. “But one of them is a really mean demon named Alethus. He’s leading his army of Skyfishers, they’re from Skyfish Valley, to attack this region. He’s trying to release a massive monster called an apocalypse spider from a prison, and if it gets out it’ll probably destroy the entire kingdom. It might even come here.”
“That is a truly unpleasant thought,” the queen said, frowning as she sat back in her cushions, while another stir rippled through the attendants, who looked at one another in concern. “I believe I understand the situation. An ambassador is for making requests, isn’t it? They want to ask for help?”
“They do! A piece of the thingy to unlock the spider is here in the forest, so they sent people to guard it, but the Skyfishers outnumber the Dormans about… two to one?” Joy asked, looking at Cora curiously, sending mingled affection and embarrassment through the elf.
“You should know better than to ask me about military matters,” Cora replied helplessly, shrugging as she looked at Brianna. “I think that’s about right, but Brianna would probably know better.”
“Not much better, but I’ve tried to learn what I could on the trip,” Brianna said, pausing to think, then shrugged. “Just so you know, I’m not certain about the numbers involved, but here’s what I know. Duke Dorma has approximately two thousand soldiers in or around Clarion, with five hundred knights backing them up, and we also have two hundred adventurers. While in the caravan, I heard that Skyfish Valley has a standing army of eight thousand soldiers or so, in addition to some of their city guards. At a guess, two to one is likely going to be accurate, though I’m not sure what level each side is going to be… based on what we ran into around Bearton, I’m guessing that Skyfish Valley’s army is going to have around a three-level advantage over the Duke’s, and a five-level advantage on equipment, since gear comes at five-level increments.”
Cora winced, suddenly aware of how much danger the army was going to be in. That sort of advantage would give the invaders about three-quarters odds of piercing the armor of Duke Dorma’s soldiers, which would be devastating. She’d realized that the… the Skyfishers were dangerous, but not just how dangerous. She hated using Joy’s term for them, for some reason, but she had to admit it was easier.
“Right, so they outnumber them by a lot,” Joy agreed, looking back at the queen again. “The leader of the army sent me to you to see if you would be willing to help. Even guarding the thingy so they can’t free the spider would help a lot, though they would like support in the battle if you would help.”
The queen’s smile had faded by the end of Joy’s explanation, though she was watching Brianna and Cora thoughtfully as well. She leaned forward, tilting her head as she asked, “You ask
me to risk the apis of my hive for those who aren’t apis. Are you sure the spider will come for us if it’s released?”
“Nope!” Joy replied, sending a chill down Cora’s spine. Sometimes the apis was a little too honest. “It probably will, eventually, but it’s a spider. I have no idea what it will do.”
Sitting back, the queen watched Joy for a few more moments. Eventually she asked, “Why ask us? We aren’t of their hive. You aren’t of our hive. We recently dealt with a hive of wasps, but they were a threat to us. They attacked us. These Skyfishers haven’t.”
“Because it is a nearby hive, even if it isn’t anything like our hives. Every elf, dwarf, human, or orc I’ve met is like one of our queens. They live a long time, and can do so much. If we let them die, then if we need help like the Shadebough Hive did, we won’t have anyone to help us,” Joy explained simply, shrugging as she admitted, “If you don’t, I’ll understand. You have to do what’s right for your hive. I came here to tell you what they were asking for. They offered other stuff, like to try to trade with you and things like that, but I know that isn’t important. You’ll do it, or you won’t. I have a couple of gifts, but I’m going to give that to you either way.”
The queen nodded, leaning forward again, one finger tapping the edge of the pot of dirt, and each tap was oddly loud to Cora’s ears. In many ways, this could be where the fate of Dorma was decided, she realized at last. Worse, only now did Cora understand that some part of her had expected the apis to just… agree. To help without hesitation, as so many other apis had helped them so far. The idea of the queen not helping hadn’t occurred to her.
“I will have to consider, and to consult with the hive. We took losses dealing with the wasps, and throwing ourselves into a fight that isn’t ours feels wrong,” the queen said at last, tilting her head as she looked at them. “Thank you for asking, Joy. Meeting you is… intriguing. I have never considered what an independent apis would be like.”