Chapter 494: Chapter 494
Belissar watched the bees for as long as he thought he could spare, then approached the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter. He had been neglecting the upcoming meeting between the sigmaka and Compact for long enough as it was. The two sides had agreed to meet on the surface purified area just outside of Belissar’s Tower, so it would be up to Belissar to provide security.
As such, he requested that the Fourth of the Seventh fully re-scout the area just around his Tower and establish a screen that would watch the Hunger for incursions…or for incoming Tower Lords. He then requested that the bee army deploy patrols and guard formations during the actual meeting. The bees enthusiastically agreed and began work immediately.
Belissar then made his exit with a smile. The bees were busy organizing themselves within their new home and even Niobee flew off his head to go help them, so he did what he did best and let bees be bees.
Niobee had come to a realization. The Queen of All Tricks had left her guarding King’s body for a bit, let her be like King. She realized, in that time, that King was…alone. He had the hive of hives, of course, but he was not a bee like them. He had no hive of his own species as in the past.
Well, his past hive had been evil, constantly robbing King, so Niobee had initially been happy to be rid of them. But now…now Niobee couldn’t help but wonder if King needed more humans around, humans that would work for him like the hive of hives did. He did have the nice one and the untrustworthy old one, but Niobee didn’t trust them with such a role. They were, after all, originally part of the human hives that robbed and attacked King.
The Queen of All Tricks had revealed two potential solutions to the problem. One was that King could become more beelike and fully join the hive of hives, an option King was certainly going to attempt. But…Niobee had never seen a human evolve before. King had slowly grown larger over the years, but he had never changed shape or function. Niobee didn’t know if she could help him achieve it.
So, Niobee had to focus on the other option: becoming more like King. And that…is where Niobee immediately ran into an issue. She…had no idea how to do that. She knew she could grow and change herself when the Tower expanded, but changing from a worker to a soldier or making a soldier’s body more like a communer’s was much different than becoming like King…and unlike the former, she had no instincts to guide her in this task. She could only hope that bumble helper would be able to teach her.
And that led to her present realization, as Niobee flew before the assembled drones and communers she had been trying to teach earlier. The hive of hives desperately needed the drones to evolve as soon as possible so they could resume raising new queens and had made the task priority number one after King’s own commands. The First of the Fifth would give the drones swirled honey tonight, so Niobee had the rest of the day to try and teach them to use their mana like she did the Tower’s.
But for once, Niobee was not upset by the drones or their potential use of honey. Niobee now understood the truth about them. They were not useless by choice, rather, they had no instincts to help them work. A worker was innately drawn to the colors and smells and tiny-lightnings of flowers, a drone was not. A worker knew how to access the nectar from different flower shapes and how to stuff pollen into her pollen bags, a drone did not. A worker could inherently monitor the state of drying honey and use her wings to adjust the humidity in the hive, a drone could not.
The drones had but one instinct, one which the hive of hives had commanded them not to fulfill. So, what the drones were doing now was like what Niobee would soon do with bumble helper: trying to learn to do things without any instincts to guide them. Niobee realized these drones never chose to be useless, rather, they were trying harder than any other bee in the hive to be useful. The First Dronecaster had to replicate achievements in mana manipulation along the likes of Beero and the First of the Fifth just to find a role in the first place! That was the task these drones had to fulfill! That was the challenge they had to overcome just to become useful!
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Niobee once again resolved to help them, however she could. She stirred up the mana of the Tower around her, intentionally moving as slowly as she could while the drones and communers watched.
“Take mana, move ! Wrap around bee’s, stick to like pollen sticks to hairs, understand? Don’t? Never gathered pollen? Oh, drones, come. Let’s find pollen and show how.”
Niobee also realized the mistake she had been making while trying to teach them. She couldn’t understand at first why the drones, or even the communers, couldn’t replicate the feats she found so simple. But now, she realized, she had been doing all these things instinctively ever since she became a conduit, ever since the Tower’s mana began naturally flowing through her. Neither the drones nor the communers shared those instincts or the Tower’s mana. Niobee needed to teach them the very basics, the things so basic Niobee didn’t even realize she was doing them.
She spent the rest of the day slowly, painstakingly showing the drones and the communers every step she took whenever she sent the Tower’s mana to help another bee. More than once, she had to pause to think about exactly what step it was that she took, as she had never stopped to question it before. More than once a drone or communer would ask her a question that made her realize she had assumed they possessed an instinct that they lacked. But Niobee was patient, doing everything she could to explain or show every step that she could, as well as she understood it. She utilized the hive link to its utmost as well, showing them the process from her own perspective.
When she had finally finished going through all the steps, the drones and communers moved to practice. They had discovered that the drones could indeed receive more mana from the Queen of All Bees, though only a refill and slight expansion of their reserves, so the drones made sure to dance at her shrine before they began. Niobee used both the hive link and her innate ability to feel the bees of the Tower to observe their mana and offered advice and correction as needed.
The drones and the communers completed the dance…but nothing happened. Niobee buzzed her wings slightly. She was sure they had gotten the steps right, so what had gone wrong this time?
Then she felt a small pulse of mana through the hive link.
She spun about as quickly as she could and found one of the drones. His mana had successfully wrapped around a nearby worker that had two of the Fourth of the Seventh’s woven pollen bags wrapped around her legs, nearly pulling her down. The drone’s mana strengthened her wings and helped them beat faster, allowing the worker to pick up her pace despite her load.
The drone’s antennae drooped as Niobee marched up to him, but he managed to explain.
“S-Saw worker need help. Tried to help, with mana dance.”
Niobee’s antennae twitched. Of course! Niobee never danced with the Tower’s mana just to dance with it! She always focused it on a bee or a karnuq or another of King’s hive that needed help! She always had something to do with the mana when she danced!
“That’s it! Drone figured it out! Amazing, incredible!”
“Drones, communers, find bee that needs help, then try use dance to help!” Tʜe source of this ᴄontent ɪs N0velFire.ɴet
The drones and communers immediately perked up and began dancing among themselves. And since these were the bees responsible for communication within and between the hives, it barely took them any time at all to locate bees hard at work. Another drone completed a dance and gave more mana to a medicinal worker trying to help a broodmother recover. A communer was next, helping a breeze bee trying to circulate air in the tunnel between hive chambers.
One by one, each of the drones and communers found a bee in need and completed a dance, sending their mana to help like Niobee did. And each time one did, they flew back to Niobee and danced a salute. Their instincts now whispered to them, as did her own.
Niobee danced happily about and sent word to the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter. The empress had swirled honey cells prepared immediately, her workers came to escort the communers and drones to the cells right away. If all went well, the hive of hives would soon have new evolutions to present to King…and drones that wouldn’t die fulfilling their original purpose.
And Niobee had successfully helped the drones and communers fulfill a task their instincts never prepared them for. So, perhaps bumble helper would be able to help her and King complete a similar task of their own. Either King could join the hive of hive fully…or Niobee would bring the hive of hives to him. Either way, Niobee would ensure that neither King nor any bee he had raised would struggle alone ever again.