Chapter 185: Chapter 185

Belissar spent the next hour practicing his own honey-making spell. He was trying to make different honey types, like medicinal or lightning honey, but it was slow going. The honey kept coming out the same and he wasn’t sure how exactly to vary the pattern to adjust it. He asked Beero what she and the lightning bees had done…but their honey-making spell pattern was the same as his. It was just that they already had lightning moving along with their mana, so it got caught in the spell.

So, eventually, Belissar came up with another idea. He realized it had been quite a while since he had spoken to Juosiutik, so he made his way over to the karnuq’s settlement. Chief Rohsuak guided him to a stone building in progress. Juosiutik caught sight of them and rushed over.

“Sacred Den Master! Um, sorry I sort of…stopped the lessons…”

Belissar shook his head.

“It’s ok. I, um, sort of forgot too. I have a question though, if you don’t mind?”

Juosiutik nodded her head repeatedly.

“Of course! What can I help you with?”

“Great, well, you know how there are different honey types?”

Juosiutik froze solid, blinking repeatedly.

“This is First of the Fifth’s worker. First of the Fifth’s hive interested in new honey types, wants to hear if karnuq knows.”

Belissar smiled and nodded.

“Ah, that’s a good idea.”

He turned to Juosiutik.

“Would you mind speaking with my bees on this? This is a worker from a queen called the First of the Fifth, she’s the expert on honey making.”

Juosiutik stared in silence for a moment, and then burst out nodding repeatedly as quickly as she could.

“Yes! Of course! This…this is big. The possibilities here…”

She took a deep breath and then turned to the worker.

“Tell me everything. Tell me all about your honey and I’ll tell you everything I know about potions.”

The worker paused for a moment before turning to Belissar.

“Queen asks King if ok?”

The worker then turned back to the Juosiutik and began dancing.

The worker then began to explain in detail the process by which they made mana honey from various sources, and how that honey could then be used to evolve existing bees. Juosiutik listened in silence, her eyes fixed upon the dancing bee as she nodded along.

“It sounds like…the bees are practically making potions within themselves in the first place. This is…”

She rubbed her chin and hummed for a moment.

“What about a mixture? Have you tried drinking nectar from multiple sources before processing it into honey?”

“Queen says have but makes honey quality worse.”

“I could see that occurring too. Maybe the ingredients clashed…or it could be a matter of timing and processing. Does your queen remember which flowers exactly she mixed and when in the process she mixed them?”

“Remembers. First is...”

The bee began dancing in detail while Juosiutik followed along.

“Hm, I see. I’m not as familiar with the flowers for the maddening honey, but sleepy chamomile should go along with the medicinal herbs that grow in the Sacred Den. Would it be possible to add the sleepy chamomile nectar at this point in the medicinal processing…”

And so Juosiutik and the First of the Fifth began talking via communer and worker, with Juosiutik speaking louder and louder and the worker bee dancing every more quickly. Belissar quickly lost track of their conversation.

“Um, seems like you both have a lot to talk about. I, uh, need to take care of something, so if you don’t need me I’ll take my leave. Um, let me know if either of you need anything?”

Juosiutik flushed and nodded.

“Ah, right! Thank you, Sacred Den Master, for everything. I’m sure we’ll be able to make something great!”

The worker bee, on the other hand, saluted and proclaimed “King best king!”

And with that, Belissar took his leave and left them both to it. With the two experts on the job, he had no doubt they’d come up with something better than anything he could think of, so he decided to address a mixture of his own. He made his way back to the Apiary and to his farmhouse within, then opened one of the jars waiting there and took a whiff. He nodded and poured out a bit into a wooden mug. He took a drink…

His eyes lit up. It…was mead. In some ways, it tasted like regular old mead. But in other ways…it was something…more. That was perhaps the best way to describe it. Mead…but more. The taste was fuller and lingered longer on his tongue. The warmth spread through his body more quickly and felt even more pleasant. Likewise, he could feel mana suffusing through his body, mixing with his own as it spread the sensation of the mead throughout.