The forr queen of queens stared at the capped wax pot before her. She felt mana pulse as the bee within stirred. Now…now would be the mont of truth. Now would be the most decisive mont of her hive, more even than her first battle where her empire was born.
The past few weeks had been…trying. The newcor, in the na of an empire called the hive of hives, gave tributes of honey not only to her, but to all her subject queens. And since the newcor used soldiers to deliver that honey, it was a display of both wealth and power unlike anything her subjects had ever seen before, even from the queen of queens. In a single instant, every queen in the empire knew which hive was the most powerful.
Her empire had all but disintegrated in the days that followed. Her reputation kept her subjects in line for a ti…but the newcor made it clear she would protect any queen from reprisal from any other, while the Flower Tender had forbidden violence between hives. The newcor’s honey tributes also made the forr queen of queen’s control over the best foraging spots irrelevant, as her subjects were no longer dependent on her good graces to feed their hives. One by one, her subjects broke away from her authority until only her daughters even entertained her envoys. Every queen now grew her hive unfettered, soon every queen in the Flower Tender’s realm would beco a legitimate threat. She was no longer the ascendant queen, rely the second strongest among soon to be many.
But what could she do? The Flower Tender had made her will clear and the forr queen of queens would not compromise on fulfilling it, not even to preserve her own empire. The Flower Tender had only ever directly commanded her once before. She had been a re mundane bee back then, unable to even understand the Flower Tender’s words beyond vague impressions. The Flower Tender had brought her to a palace built by the Flower Tender personally, gave her nectar and pollen filled to the brim with mana, and commanded her to eat and rebuild her hive. It was then that she beca a monster, a true defender of the Flower Tender’s realm. It was then she conquered all other bees and beca queen of queens.
Nothing was more important to her than the Flower Tender’s will. Indeed, the revelation that she had been acting against the Flower Tender’s will was a heavier blow than the loss of her empire. So, she did not resist as the newcor built her hive of hives. Instead, the forr queen of queens did as the Flower Tender commanded and observed the newcor, attempting to learn her ways as the Flower Tender desired.
What the forr queen of queens found shook her to her very core.
The newcor had naively invited the forr queen of queen’s scouts into her hive. She had not only allowed them to investigate anything they wanted, but she also actively explained her hive to them. The forr queen of queens still couldn’t believe this, but apparently that was how the hive of hives’ empire functioned. They shared resources and information to strengthen all hives simultaneously. The forr queen of queens could not argue with the sheer wealth and power that had apparently resulted, but to this day she could not determine how the hive of hives maintained its rule when its subjects were strong enough to break away at will.
She had been able, however, to learn as much as she liked about the inner workings of the newcors hive and the bees she had received from that hive of hives. The honeypots were apparently the secret of the newcors wealth, able to process vast amounts of honey quickly and so free up many more workers to go out and forage raw nectar and pollen. The communers were beyond convenient, enabling the newcor to imdiately communicate with scouts in the field…or with other hives.
It had been yet another shock to learn the newcor remained in contact with the hive of hives empire in the new realm…and that they could mobilize even more forces and resources if the newcor had required them. The newcor’s already overwhelming army was apparently only a fraction of the might the hive of hives had been prepared to employ. The forr queen of queens had been dood from the start. Speaking of dood, she had dreaded the fate of the daughter she had sent against the hive of hives in her ignorance…but the newcor had told her that apparently her daughter surrendered on arrival and had beco a subject of the hive of hives. The best outco the forr queen of queens could hope for in the face of such overwhelming power.
It was therefore no shock to learn of the powerful new soldier types the newcor had available, it was only natural such an overwhelming bee empire would possess such forces. In fact, up to there, all she learned of the newcor’s hive made sense to her. The hive of hives had power unlike anything she had imagined possible, but that was not what had shaken her.
What had shaken her were the monster bee gardeners. Her scouts initially reported a new kind of worker not only present within the newcor’s hive, but also visiting from other hives of the hive of hives. Observations of the new workers along with an explanation by the newcor revealed their purpose: these gardeners not only foraged more efficiently, they tended to and spread flowers.
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They were mini-Flower Tenders, bees that could do the sa job as she. Bees that could help the Flower Tender with her main focus, that could help the Flower Tender’s primary defenders. Bees that were closer to the Flower Tender than the forr queen of queens.
It had been then that the forr queen of queens understood the Flower Tender’s will. The forr queen of queens and her entire empire had only ever taken from the Flower Tender’s flowers, only ever benefited from the Flower Tender’s work. This newcor and her hive of hives could participate in that work directly and give back to the Flower Tender in a way the forr queen of queens never had.
And then she learned that one of those gardeners had been blessed by the Queen of All Flowers herself.
She knew then what she had to do. She had withdrawn all the scouts and envoys keeping track of the her forr subjects. She had pulled back her armies, she had abandoned the outposts. She had halted her vigil over the less bountiful foraging spots, no longer concerned if the other queens made use of them or not.
She had then turned her entire hive’s efforts to a singular task. All scouts had been tasked with observing the gardeners as closely as they could. All envoys had been assigned to speak with the newcor and envoys from the hive of hives to glean as much information as possible. The most skilled of her foragers had even gone to work with the gardeners directly, to try and mimic their ways. From these efforts, they had learned that the gardeners were filled with Nature mana, the sa kind that dwelt within every plant and flower.
She had thus mobilized her entire hive. All foragers had been sent to the flowers with the densest Nature mana in all the Flower Tender’s realm. The honey-makers had worked harder than ever before, processing and reprocessing the honey beyond what they had done before to pack as much mana into it as possible. Even the soldiers took part, inspired by the newcor the forr queen of queens had them help gather and transport balls of pollen back to the hive so that the foragers could remain out by the flowers.
She had taken the resulting honey and bee bread and mixed it with the tributes she received from the newcor. Then, she had taken the oldest and most skilled of her foraging workers, had lined them up before cells packed with the best honey she could produce, and had given them the sa command the Flower Tender had once given her.
Eat and evolve.
And now, after a terribly long period of waiting, the first of those workers was stirring within her capped wax pot. Now the forr queen of queens would learn if her efforts had borne honey. Now she would find out if she had successfully learned the newcor’s ways. Now she would learn if she had fulfilled the Flower Tender’s will…and if she and her hive could fly at the Flower Tender’s side and join in her work.
Now she could find out if she could repay the Flower Tender for all she had been given. Or if she would be left with nothing but the broken shell of an empire as newcors the Flower Tender had not raised supplanted her.
Mandibles pierced through the top of the wax pot. The forr queen of queens moved to tear the cap off herself and then out crawled the worker…
No, out crawled sothing else. A bee larger than any other worker, covered in fuzzy hairs and with fluffy antennae on her head. A bee…filled with Nature mana.
The bee’s antennae twitched. The forr queen of queens held her pheromones, unable even to bring herself to ask. But her child knew what was at stake here and so took it upon herself to report. The forr queen of queen’s antennae twitched back as her child’s pheromones contacted them…
“Queen, worked! Know how to tend flowers now!”
The forr queen of queens nearly collapsed, but she knew now was not the ti to show weakness. Instead, she took to the air and spread a blast of mana and pheromones across her entire hive.
“We succeeded! Will join Flower Tender!”
Her entire hive erupted into buzzing, while pheromones flooded the air. The forr queen of queens basked in the success. She would not be abandoned by the Flower Tender after all.
And then the ground began to shake. The forr queen of queens rushed out with her soldiers…and found the Flower Tender herself running towards her hive. The Flower Tender stopped before them and looked down on her with wide eyes.
“My stingless queen…did you do it?! Did you evolve a stingless monster bee gardener?!”
The forr queen of queens gave a command to her children, then hovered up to the Flower Tender and proudly released her pheromones.
“Did!”
As she commanded, her workers brought out the newly evolved gardener a mont later. The Flower Tender bead like the sun and began jumping up and down, shaking the ground.
“YES! You did it! You really did it! We have gardeners now! We have our own gardeners now! This…this is amazing!”
Now, the forr queen of queens was too overwheld to respond. The Flower Tender’s response was unlike anything she ever imagined. She could barely comprehend the sheer joy coming off the Flower Tender…when the newcor arrived.
The forr queen of queen braced herself. How would the newcor respond to this? How would the newcor react to seeing the forr queen of queens raise one of her own gardeners, who were originally a bee type of the hive of hives?
To the forr queen of queen’s surprise…the newcor broke out into a happy dance.
“Wow! Stingless queen raised own gardeners, and now can too! Amazing, incredible!”
The forr queen of queens watched as both the Flower Tender and the newcor danced with glee over her achievent. As the Flower Tender sang her praises and celebrated in the sa way she had when the forr queen of queens had first evolved.
And in that mont, she thought…losing her empire to this hive of hives was worth it after all.
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