Chapter 499: Chapter 499
The day wore on as the talks proceeded. They were going well as far as Belissar could tell, while there was a lot of discussion over different details like military obligations and rights to land on the surface, the two sides were talking as if the overall alliance was a given. The talks also seemed to Belissar far less heated than his own talks with the Compact had been, the Compact’s representatives still disagreed even with each other, but none of them were questioning if they should even be having the talks this time.
So, though they had not and would not finish the talks today, Belissar felt positive overall. At this rate, the sigmaka would soon join the alliance fully and then the wardens could prepare defenses in every direction around his Tower, both on the surface and below. So, he was not too bothered when the sun began to set and both sides agreed to adjourn and meet again tomorrow. The bees and karnuq split up to escort both the sigmaka and fair folk back to their homes as Belissar returned to the Tower.
He was just getting settled back home at his Apiary farmhouse when the Fourth of the Seventh returned, dancing at her full speed.
“King! Found new flower! Amazing, incredible!”
“That is amazing and incredible! Did you bring it here or do you need me to go and get it?”
Before long, the Fourth of the Seventh arrived at the Apiary along with her escorts from the day. One of the breeze workers was carrying a mana-packed seed while riding on a nomadic soldier’s back and took off to present the seed to Belissar. Belissar smiled and stretched out his hand, looking at the seed more closely…
Flora Monster Symbiote
Description: The seed of a formerly parasitic monster plant, warped and mutated by experiments to become something else. It will only germinate within the body of a living animal, preferably a human, and transform its host to suit its needs.
Belissar’s smile stiffened.
“Hang on just a moment.”
He rushed back into the Apiary farmhouse, found an empty pouch, and brought it over. He opened up the pouch as wide as it could go.
“Put it in here, please.”
The worker bee happily flew over and deposited the monster seed into the pouch. Belissar let out a sigh of relief now that the seed was safely away from living things, then turned to the Fourth of the Seventh.
“Where did you find this?”
The Fourth of the Seventh zipped about.
“Ruins of King-thing hive! New one, bigger than others! What new flower?”
Belissar furrowed his brow even as he replied.
“Some sort of plant that grows…inside animals and people and turns them into…something else.”
The Fourth of the Seventh lost no speed.
“Amazing, incredible! Can grow flowers on King-things?! Scroll had flower on King-thing!”
Belissar froze again.
“There…was a scroll? With the seed?”
Belissar frowned, his mind racing. He knew from Sehfitis’ work that the nearby ruins were related to the Sorcerer Kings, as the spiderkin called them. Now the Fourth of the Seventh had found this monster seed within one…along with a scroll that had apparently showed flowers growing on people.
So…there was a good chance he was holding some sort of weapon of the Sorcerer Kings. Or…as the Tower’s description itself stated…an experiment. By the people who created the beastkin and unleashed the Hunger…
“…Fourth of the Seventh, could you send some bees to maybe pick up some of the scrolls, too? The…one with the flowers growing on people, if you could. And…be careful. It might be dangerous there, so maybe ask the bee army to help?”
Once the Fourth of the Seventh zipped off, Belissar ran towards the nearest shortcut.
“Niobee! Can you ask for the First Spiderkin Queen to meet me and then send someone to call for Tarwantrad?! We definitely need their help with this flower!”
Meanwhile, Belissar rushed over to Sehfitis’ home…
The First Spiderkin Queen came over quickly, while Chief Rohsuak had noticed Belissar running through the karnuq settlement and asked to join in as well. Niobee also proposed calling Frelis, an idea Belissar was most grateful for. It didn’t take too long after that for Tarwantrad to arrive and the Fourth of the Seventh to return. Belissar bowed his head towards Tarwantrad as everyone gathered around a table in Sehfitis’ home.
“Thank you for coming, Tarwantrad.”
“Of course, Belissar. You’re asking for my help with a flower! You think I’d miss this?”
Belissar gave her a brief smile before frowning again.
“Well, wait until you see what kind of flower we’re dealing with…”
He gingerly took the pouch with the seed and flipped it, depositing the seed onto the table. Tarwantrad leaned over and Frelis crawled over to look at it, presumably with their Tower and Flower powers, while Belissar read the description aloud for the rest of the group.
Once he finished, the room went completely silent. Tarwantrad’s smile had cramped at this point.
“Belissar…where did you say you found this, again?”
“The biggest ruins from the Sorcerer King’s Empire we’ve found so far. The Fourth of the Seventh found it in some sort of damaged castle…along with that scroll.”
The Fourth of the Seventh’s soldiers placed the scroll on the table. Belissar nodded at Sehfitis. The augur walked over and began opening up the scroll…his eyes widening as he revealed the illustrations on the scroll.
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“This…I do not need to translate the writing to know what this is. These diagrams, these ritual formations…Tower Keeper, I believe this is some sort of ritual manual…or perhaps an experiment record. The experiments of…the wicked kings of old…”
The First Spiderkin Queen growled, while Belissar grimaced.
“Does it say anything about the seed? About…what they were doing with it?”
Sehfitis’ expression darkened.
“I cannot decipher the words at a glance. I may not be able to decipher them at all, the Conclave’s policy has always been to destroy any remnants of the wicked king’s magic so I have no knowledge of their technical vocabulary. But…I do not need to be able to read this to make a guess. The wicked kings of old were ever enamored with monster-human hybrids, between these…illustrations and the description of the seed, it seems obvious to me that they were trying to make a plant version of the beastkin.”
Meanwhile, Tarwantrad’s spine went as straight as a tree. She turned to Belissar, her eyes trembling.
“Belissar…can I tell Nenavann about this? And maybe the Wardmaster and Loremaster too. This…is probably dangerous for us to deal with alone.”
Belissar just silently nodded as he stared at the seed.
It took a while before Tarwantrad managed to return, the sun had already set and the night had begun. But Tarwantrad did return and brought with her Nenavann as promised. As well as the Wardmaster, the Loremaster…and Henilett, for some reason. Tarwantrad explained again what they had found, read out the description of the seed, and showed Loremaster Anyadre the scroll. The elf grimaced immediately and his expression only worsened as he looked over it.
Belissar was afraid to ask but had to anyways.
“So…can you read it?”
The loremaster nodded slowly.
“I can. Though part of me wishes I could not.”
He narrowed his eyes.
“Your suspicions are correct, Tower Keeper Belissar, Dungeon Master Tarwantrad. This is indeed an experiment journal detailing attempts to create a human-plant hybrid. Which means…”
All eyes turned towards the seed. Wardmaster Varilold jumped into action immediately, forming a dome of magic circles around the seed.
“It was good you brought this to our attention. I’ll handle this…”
At that point, Henilett cleared her throat.
“About that…wardmaster, it is not your decision to make.”
Wardmaster Varilold glanced over at Henilett and raised an eyebrow. Henilett responded with a light giggle.
“You see, wardmaster, the provisions regarding the handling of dangerous materials and lore only pertain to the Calwaskon Compact…which do not pertain to Tower Keeper Belissar or his lands in the mortal realm. The Estelende Compact, on the other hand, does not contain any such provisions.”
Wardmaster Varilold did not back down.
“Both Compacts require me to protect the land of the fair, the nexus door sustaining it, and the Tower that contains it. If there is a threat to Tower Keeper Belissar’s home, it is my duty to address it.”
“And is this a threat to Tower Keeper Belissar, truly? One, single, ungerminated monster seed? That could, at worse, turn one person into, gods forbid, a monster? For a dungeon master who deals with monsters, including flower monsters I might add, in everything he does? Who already has two bands of beastkin at his disposal? Or does it simply seem dangerous due to your personal dislike of all those old experiments the humans always got up to? This isn’t exactly unleashing the Hunger, you know?”
Wardmaster Varilold frowned. She stood in silence for a long moment before heaving a deep sigh…and then she dropped her magic.
“I suppose…you are correct. The threat is not significant enough to necessitate my intervention.”
She turned to Belissar and gave him an intense stare.
“Tower Keeper Belissar…I leave it to you to decide what to do. My personal recommendation is that this material be sealed away, whether by you or by us. I will, however, monitor the situation to ensure that the nexus door remains safe, whatever you decide to do.”
Belissar blinked. He…had honestly been expecting the Compact to tell him what they wanted to do with the seed, so he was caught off guard that the decision came back to him. Well, Sehfitis had said the Tower Lords would destroy the seed and the scroll, so he wouldn’t do that, but he had no idea what to do with it otherwise. He considered just handing it over for the Wardmaster to handle, given her intense response…but he guessed there was a reason Henilett convinced her to back down. And, well, while he trusted and liked Wardmaster Varilold specifically, his interactions with the Compact as a whole had been such that he wouldn’t just accept their decisions without at least thinking the situation over.
Thinking on it a bit more, Henilett’s reasoning was that it was something from the area he purified, so something he was responsible for. Indeed, it was the efforts of the bees that expanded the Tower’s purified zone enough to uncover the ruins, and the efforts of the Fourth of the Seventh’s hive to locate the seed in the first place. And, well, it was a flowering plant of some sort.
So, Belissar decided to do what he always did when he had an important decision to make.
“I won’t do any monster experiments like the Sorcerer Kings, but as for the seed…Frelis, what do you think about it?”
Frelis crawled over and once again looked over the seed, wrapping it with her mana and tapping it with her antennae before dancing her reply.
“Seed…strong. Has lots of mana, will make good flowers. Needs someone work with. Wants grow inside and help.”
Belissar blinked again.
“Help? So…it won’t hurt whoever it’s planted in?”
Frelis’ dance slowed but didn’t stop.
“Will…change. Might hurt. But won’t kill. Doesn’t want to kill, wants make strong.”
Belissar slowly nodded.
“Ok then…do you think the hive of hives could use that flower if we planted it?”
Frelis’ dance picked up speed again.
Nenavann exchanged glances with the wardmaster and loremaster before turning to Tarwantrad.
“Tarwantrad, can you confirm that?”
Tarwantrad nodded and walked over to the seed, wrapping it with her own mana as Frelis did. Her eyes widened.
“Huh…I didn’t notice at first but…I think Frelis is right. Which…would make sense, right? A monster hybrid experiment shouldn’t kill its host, right?”
All of the older fair folk grimaced. Even Henilett’s smile faded. Nenavann replied for her.
“It’s…not death that we’re worried about…”
He paused, and then glanced over at Chief Rohsuak. His expression softened slightly.
“Well…I suppose it doesn’t necessarily have to end badly. The question remains though…Tower Keeper Belissar, to plant this flower, you will have to plant in on someone…transforming them into something else. A monster hybrid of some kind, and how much of their original self would remain is…uncertain. Who or what would you plan to use it on?”
Belissar…didn’t answer. That was a good question that he didn’t have an answer for…
The God of Flowers wishes to offer you a quest. Accept?
Belissar and Tarwantrad both suddenly froze, then glanced at one another. Tarwantrad spoke first.
“You got a quest too?”
“Well, one was offered. I didn’t accept it yet…”
Tarwantrad made a knowing smile.
“I’d guess I know what it is. The God of Flowers just sent me a mission…to convince you to use the seed.”
A moment later, Tarwantrad paused again…and then her smile grew. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ novel{f}ire.net
“Oh…the God of Flowers really wants Belissar to use the seed. Almablom just entered my dungeon and is shouting at me right now.”
The older fair folk all exchanged glances at that, holding a silent conversation with their eyes. Meanwhile, Sehfitis trembled…but ultimately sighed.
“Tower Keeper Belissar…to use that seed is to embark upon the same path as the wicked kings of old…but the gods have made their will abundantly clear. I…have resolved to follow their will as they state it from now on. I cannot help but…advise you to listen when they speak.”
Belissar hummed…and then shrugged.
“Well…I guess I should see what the mission is first, then.”
New mission received: USE THE SEED ON A BEE! PLEASE! AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!
Belissar was stunned for a moment. He had expected the mission itself…but not the force with which the God of Flowers requested it. For a brief moment, he thought of an excited Juosiutik…
“So…the God of Flowers wants me, very strongly, to use the seed on a bee.”
Nenavann’s eyes widened as far as they could go.
“…ah. Using the seed on another monster…I…hadn’t thought of that possibility. That’s…an entirely reasonable way to use it, come to think of it. It’d just be another monster evolution, practically no different than what we do with our monsters all the time…”
Wardmaster Varilold rubbed her chin, then grunted once.
“I can approve of that use, provided it is done in a controlled location away from the nexus door. I would still like to observe when it happens, if you don’t mind, Tower Keeper.”
Loremaster Anyadre sighed.
“Well, I suppose using it on another monster presents far less concerns, practically and ethical, compared to using it on a person. It…doesn’t feel like it though, I must admit.”
Henilett, meanwhile, just giggled lightly.
“As we have already established, it was Tower Keeper Belissar’s decision to make from the very start.”
Belissar thought about it. There…was the possibility of a bee being hurt, and the bee would certainly be changed. But…as Nenavann said, was that any different from other evolutions? From the Third of the Sixth nearly immolating herself in burning honey, or the Firstborn putting herself in harm’s way, or the First of the Fifth laying eggs in gravity and slime honey? All so that they could evolve into something new altogether?
Belissar decided to trust in the God of Flowers and in the bees.
“Frelis…can you take care of the seed and see if you can figure out what it would do to a bee? And then…Niobee, let’s ask the hive of hives what they think.”
Both bees danced immediate replies.
Loremaster Anyadre took a deep breath.
“So…one of the last of the human Sorcerer Kings’ vile experiments will be reborn. Let us hope the God of Flowers is right about this…”