BD - POBee 258.2 - No Bee Left Behind

The Second of the Sixth hovered over an injured karnuq. She checked on the medicinal stings now flowing within his body and the mana they imbued into him. She rearranged the mana slightly so it would work better then began to dance.

“Karnuq fine, will recover. Can return to hive soon. Workers will watch until can.”

The karnuq smiled at her. He was saying something but the Second of the Sixth had already left, confirming through her workers that he was just thanking them. The Second of the Sixth thus pressed on and flew away from the karnuq settlement.

That was the last karnuq whose condition might deteriorate. They had all now stabilized to the point that they would not need her to boost the effect of her workers’ stings. Her workers and the medicinal karnuq could handle their recovery without her. The injured bees had already either returned to their hives or made their way to the hive of the fallen.

There was still the matter of the spider-King thing eggs, but that was not solely an effort of her hive. All the hive of hives was contributing brood tenders in turn to watch over them. The Second of the Sixth had confirmed they were healthy, now it was just a matter of feeding them mana and waiting for them to hatch.

In other words, there was no pressingly urgent task for her at the moment. The hive of hives could spare her for a brief time. And so…it was now her time.

She had a communer send a dance to the Conduit even as she flew back to her hive. The response arrived as she did.

“King says ok! Looking forward to seeing!”

That elicited a slow happy dance from the Second of the Sixth. King truly was best king, he still held great expectation for her despite all past failures. She would see it fulfilled.

She arrived at her hive and quickly began making preparations. No other queen had become medicinal besides her, so she followed the Fourth of the Seventh’s example and designated one of her communers as coordinator for her hive. Once she was satisfied that her children could keep the hive running without her, she made her way to the swirled honey the First of the Fifth had delivered to her. Her antennae twitched in amusement. Once again, she would attempt to evolve with resources granted to her by the First of the Fifth.

But this time, she had no suspicion of ulterior motives. It was clear to them all that even the First of the Fifth had embraced the hive of hives. They were all of them, together, the favored queens. She had no reason to hesitate, no reason not to rely on the First of the Fifth’s gifts.

So, she climbed into the cell and began to drink as her workers sealed her in…

***

Beero beat her wings and rubbed her legs together. Lightning arced across her wings, her hairs, and her antennae before leaping to her target. The monster bee archer standing before her buzzed as the lightning struck her, but she did not flee or resist. She did as Beero had taught her and beat her one remaining pair of wings, trying to create her own tiny lightnings to link into Beero’s.

It didn’t go as well. Beero had no trouble imparting lightning to the wounded sprayers, but the archer was different. The archer’s mana was more powerful and more aggressive, it immediately tried to resist any harmful effect and heal any damage within the archer’s body. This, unfortunately, made it far more difficult for the archer to join her mana with Beero’s lightning. The mana wanted to push the lightning out, not spread it further.

Beero, however, had an idea. Once it was clear her lighting was again insufficient, buzzing wings and crackling lightning sounded all around them. Then, one by one, more battlecasters from the hive of the fallen began to strike the archer with their own lightning.

If the archer’s mana pushed out one battlecaster’s lightning, then they’d use more. They’d fill the archer with lightning until her mana couldn’t resist it all, which hopefully would allow the archer to attempt alternative means of survival. Given the archer’s greater size, they had medicinal soldiers on standby from the Second of the Sixth’s hive, but the soldiers didn’t stir. Fortunately, the very regenerative abilities that were giving the archer trouble also made a dangerous method like this practical.

The archer trembled as her body was wracked with lightning, but she pressed on as all soldiers of the hive of hives would. Beero felt the archer’s mana wrap around her lightning and flow with it.

It took several painstaking minutes, but eventually the archer’s trembling slowed. Beero lost control of her own lightning and cut it off, the other battlecasters followed her. They all watched as the lightning arced around the archer’s body…and then began to gather. Soon, as they had done before, the archer managed to form a pair of wings out of lightning. Beero began dancing around.

“Great! Archer has lightnings now! Rest today, then practice with lightnings. Once can cast with lightnings, will give fire.”

The archer happily danced a salute while the medicinal soldiers moved in. They applied their healing stings and then led the archer off to get some rest. With that, the latest additions to the hive of the fallen could now follow Beero’s path.

She could return her attention to her other student. Beero turned around to another bee. The Fourth of the Seventh’s drone was standing on a chunk of honeycomb, lapping up the mana honey within. He withdrew his proboscis as he saw Beero approach and danced a confirmation salute.

“Mana full, can try again.”

Beero buzzed to acknowledge him. She began dancing while stirring up her lightning, forming the honeycomb pattern to create a drop of spell honey.

The drone watched her steps carefully. He slowly began to concentrate mana in his wings until they glowed slightly, and then began to follow her dance. Beero and the drone had run into several hurdles as she tried to teach him her spellcasting. The foremost of which was that the drone didn’t regenerate mana on his own and would die if it ever ran out. They had to be very careful, having him refill his reserves with mana honey in between each attempt.

And there was another consequence to that. Without regenerating mana, Beero’s normal method of imparting lighting was entirely too risky. They couldn’t be certain the drone even had enough mana to take control of a lightning attack. They weren’t even sure his mana would heal him like a soldier bee’s might. Beero couldn’t bring herself to zap him.

So, Beero was trying to see if he could learn her spells without a lightning or fire wing…and it was proving to be a far more difficult way to learn, only made worse by the long breaks he had to take between each attempt. The drone himself had wanted to give up on this method, citing the sheer amount of mana honey they had to spend on it, but Beero refused. She remembered just how many times she tried and failed before she first figured out how to cast. She would never give up until the drone could do it too. She knew it had to be possible, the drone was too good at manipulating mana. There was no way he couldn’t manage it in time.

Fortunately, the drone had accepted that Beero wouldn’t allow him to give up at this stage, so he simply launched into the next attempt without complaint. His wings drew a faint line in the air as he danced. No pattern formed as the line faded before he could complete the circuit, but Beero could tell he had followed the steps correctly.

“Ok, flare now!”

For this latest attempt, Beero had instructed the drone to try and flare his mana after completing the dance. The drone thus beat his wings as fast as he could as he pumped as much mana as he could spare into them.

Beero’s antennae drooped as nothing happened…for a moment. But then, the pattern suddenly burst into being, a glowing honeycomb in the air. A drop of honey dripped out of it and onto the ground before the drone’s glow cut off. Beero and the drone both stared at the drop until it faded away. The drone stumbled about.

“Drone…made honey?”

Beero buzzed her wings and began spinning about in a happy dance.

“Amazing! Incredible! Drone is best drone! Knew could do!”

A moment later, the drone joined her.

“Amazing! Incredible! Beero is best Beero! Taught how do magic!”

The two buzzed about in happy circles for several minutes until the drone got tired. Beero had the workers bring him some more honey to replenish his reserves again. Her antennae began to twitch as she watched him, though.

“Wait…drone learned do magic, but didn’t evolve? Still can’t make mana?”

The drone’s antennae drooped as well.

“Sorry…”

Beero began buzzing and dancing about.

“Soldiers need fire and lightning evolve…but drone is drone. Did something no drone did. Thought might change, deserves to…need fire and lightning after all? Or…”

Beero paused. Fire and lightning were still out of the question. The drone might be able to manipulate them in a joint cast if one of the battlecasters provided them…but that wasn’t the same as generating the attributes in his own body. And even if he could cast now, it would still be too dangerous to try that. It still came back to the mana issue.

And Beero predicted that the mana issue was likely the problem, more than learning how to cast. Even new soldiers of the fallen hive, who could regenerate mana on their own, had to expand their mana reserves before they could attempt to evolve into battlecasters. Even if they had both fire and lightning and knew how to cast a mana stinger. So…even if the drone learned everything she knew…it still wouldn’t be enough?

Beero’s antennae drooped again. Was it truly impossible? Would the drone always remain a drone, at the mercy of his mana reserves? Even if he could cast spells, he wouldn’t be able to join the battlecasters without mana of his own.

But she buzzed her wings and picked up into the air.

“Wait here, will check on something.”

Beero refused to give up. There had to be a way to solve the mana problem and enable the drone to contribute as he wished. If merely learning to cast wasn’t the key, then she’d just have to try something else.

She flew to one of the communers donated to her hive, this one by the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter.

“Have…request for your queen mother.”

Beero tripped over herself and paused, even as the communer danced her acknowledgement. As much as the queens called Beero their equal…it was hard for her not to think of herself as a soldier. A soldier who had been crippled and then given so much by her hive at a time when she couldn’t repay it. Even now, the hive of the fallen only functioned as a separate hive because of all the workers and honey donated to them by the others. Beero thus hesitated to request any additional resources. Could she truly ask for more after all she had been given?

But she thought of the drone. She thought of him simply perishing after all he had done for her, after teaching her how to fulfill her new responsibilities to the hive of the fallen.

She refused to let that happen, no matter what she needed to do. So, she gathered herself. She forced herself to speak not as a soldier making an insolent request…but as the equal queen the others claimed she was, making a proposal for the future of the hive of hives.

“Have something to try. Need First of the Fifth’s new honey to try. Can get?”

She then forced herself to stand still while the communer danced and awaited the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter’s response.

After a moment that felt like an eternity, the communer’s antennae glowed and she began to dance once again.

“Queen mother says ok! Looks forward to Beero’s try, says tell if works!”

Beero collapsed…and then once she recovered, began a rapid happy dance. Maybe, just maybe, with the hive of hives help, there might still be hope for the drone…

Author’s Note:

POBee time! Beero’s…still trying to make drones more useful, huh? Well, I guess if anyone could, it’s Beero. Or the Fourth of the Seventh, of course, but drone talked to Beero first so we’ll let her handle it this time. Indeed, First of the Fifth’s First Daughter approves of all attempts to act like the Fourth of the Seventh, so good job Beero! You are proceeding according to the First Daughter’s plan!

Just, um, don’t tell the pixies we’re using swirled honey on drone experiments.

Anyways!

What will become of the Second of the Sixth? What will become of the drone? Is this experiment worth using swirled honey? Tune in next time, to find out!