Hives Heroism by Benjamin Medrano (z-lib.org)

by Unknown

  “Which is why I have a solution,” Yonra said, prompting Fayliss to narrow her eyes slightly.

  “Oh? What sort of solution is it this time?” Fayliss asked, her tone a touch frosty. “Last time may have worked out well, but I find it hard to trust you.”

  “Agreed,” Xinra said instantly. Yonra rolled his eyes as he ambled his way over to a chair and flopped into it.

  “So skeptical, aren’t you? My solution is simple enough, though. Why don’t we just offer her a chance to reincarnate?” Yonra suggested, and murmurs of surprise, then approval rippled through the room.

  Fayliss blinked, then her lips curved into a half-smile as she glanced at Avelin. Her sister met Fayliss’s gaze and quirked an eyebrow, at which point Fayliss whispered, “Shall we sow a touch of chaos of our own?”

  “Let’s,” Avelin murmured, just as quietly.

  None of the others seemed to notice as their fingers touched under the table, and power bloomed.

  Joy blinked as she looked around the room she’d just appeared in, one that was much, much bigger than the one she’d been in before. It looked a little like the temples that she’d visited before, but instead of statues of the various gods, there were a few dozen people in the room, each of them glowing with power. She even recognized several of them from the temples, and her eyes widened a little. The room was indescribably grand, and she heard a swirling sound behind her.

  Glancing back, Joy saw a broad pool of gray water with a swirling whirlpool at its center, but the water was strange, as it didn’t bubble or burble; the water was perfectly smooth until it reached the whirling pool, and something about it felt strange to Joy. Still, she looked away after a moment, smiling at the various deities.

  “Hi, I’m Joy! You’re all gods, right? It’s nice to meet you!” Joy said, smiling at them as she tilted her head. “Why am I here, though? I thought I was stuck in Death’s room until I made a decision.”

  “Which you should have already made already,” Death muttered.

  In the back row, Joy saw a human woman with roses in her bright purple hair sitting next to a pale elven woman with dark hair, both of them gorgeous beyond words. The human looked like Fayliss, and she gave Joy a smile and waved slightly, which Joy returned, a little stunned to see her looking so much like her statue. She wished she could tell Cora about the goddess, which sent a flicker of sadness through Joy.

  “We’ve come up with a potential solution to that,” a bearded human man said, drawing Joy’s attention back to the god who was standing closest to her. “See, we can’t have souls just waiting, Joy.”

  “I want to go where my friends do,” Joy replied, crossing her arms and settling in place. “If I don’t know ahead of time, I just have to wait.”

  “I understand, but that’s why I have a solution,” the man said, grinning at her in a way she didn’t quite trust. “How would you like another chance? To be born again, and a chance to see them again? To live a long, full life?”

  “Really?” Joy asked, enthusiasm rushing through her. “I’d love that! Then we could explore the world together!”

  “If that’s the case, you just need to enter the pool behind you,” another deity said, the dark-haired man’s voice calm and unruffled. “It will cause you to be reborn as soon as an appropriate body is found.”

  Joy hesitated for only an instant, then turned and dove into the water, though she didn’t expect that diving wasn’t as easy as she’d thought it was when watching humans, and she hit with a somewhat painful splash. The water was cool, and Joy shivered as heat was leeched from her body.

  “Really? You didn’t even tell her that it’d wipe away her memories, and that she might not come back as an apis?” a woman protested, and Joy suddenly surfaced, panic rushing through her.

  “Wait, I didn’t want that!” Joy protested, floundering and splashing inexpertly as she tried to jump into the air, but the water gripped her tightly and was tugging her toward the center. Maybe she should have learned to swim at some point, Joy realized. The problem was that no bee swam, to her knowledge.

  “Then you should have chosen an afterlife,” Death said, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

  Joy was about to speak when the elf next to Fayliss spoke, even as she was dragged toward the center of the pool.

  “Don’t worry, Joy. My sister and I anticipated this,” the goddess said, a slightly more formal note to her voice.

  “Indeed, we knew you’d agree… which is why we’ve both blessed you. You’ll keep your memories, my dear, and you’ll come back as an apis,” Fayliss said, her smile like a blooming rose as she added, “Enjoy the flowers properly, hm?”

  Relief rushed through Joy, and she stopped fighting the current as she heard the deity who’d offered her reincarnation demand, a note of panic in his voice, “You did what?”

  Then the whirlpool swallowed her, and everything went black.

  For a time everything was dark and warm. Joy couldn’t see, and she ate when she was hungry, and slept when she wasn’t. Then it grew a little brighter, and she was occasionally able to see the shadows of other people. Food grew less prevalent, and she started to feel like she was… confined, or pressing against the walls of somewhere. It was cozy, though, so she didn’t mind.

  Not until she ran out of food, though, and woke up at last. Then she snapped fully to consciousness, blinking and squirming. The walls around her were warm but solid, and the light was coming from above, so she squirmed, pressing firmly against the ceiling, and it cracked. She redoubled her efforts, and a moment later the wax gave way, allowing her to pop her head out of the wax cell and take her first breath of fresh air.

  In front of her was the small room of an apis hatchery and an apis. The worker smiled at Joy, picking up a wax cup of honey as she spoke, her voice gentle. “Welcome to the world, little one. You must be hungry, so here you are.”

  Joy looked at the cup, then up at the woman as she grinned, seeing how tiny her hands were, and she chirped, her voice unusually tiny compared to her memory, “Thanks! Hi, I’m Joy!”

  The worker paused at that, and her pheromones gave away her surprise, then she nodded. “So you are. I’ve never had a hatchling speak immediately, let alone one with a name. Let’s get you out of there, and you can explain it to me?”

  “Sure!” Joy replied, and raised the bowl to her lips to drink deeply.

  She needed to eat so she could grow strong, then she was going to have to train. She checked her level, and paused for an instant then mentally shrugged. She’d expected to be level one, but she had no idea what a ‘gilded apis champion’ was. She’d have to figure it out later, as she had far too many levels to make up, now.

  The worker picked Joy up, pulling her out of the cell, and Joy giggled, lowering the bowl as she kicked her legs curiously. This would be fun.