POBee 94.1 - The King's Request
This was fine.
The First of the Fifth was currently pacing about in her hive. Her first communers had just emerged from their cells. Her mind lit up with the dances of countless bees as the communers focused their attention on their queen and connected her to her workers’ mana as a result. It was nearly overwhelming, but the First of the Fifth did not organize a hive of peak efficiency by lacking will. She managed to organize the incoming information within her mind and get her bearings…and, as a result, caught a glimpse of the King walking through the Apiary. She had the worker in question escort the King, just in case he should have need of her, and so saw the conversations that resulted.
The King had…made a personal request to one of the other Apiary queens. The other Apiary queen that had evolved. The Apiary queen that had evolved specifically through access to a hybridized poisonous flower. A poisonous flower that had grown because the First of the Fifth’s workers had Cross-Pollinated poisonous flowers and mana flowers. A poisonous flower the queen had gotten access to because the First of the Fifth had then given up her own rights to a new flower type that her own workers had been responsible for in the name of loving bees.
This…was fine. Another bee had gotten to experience the personal favor of the King as a result of her efforts. This was good. Truly, she had demonstrated her love for all bees, and had become like her King. Which was why she was not even bothered by the idea of sending the Apiary’s hard work over to the Firstborn! Nor by the idea of the King handing over a full patch of mana flowers to an Apiary queen after she had gone and shared access to her own with those same queens!
This…was…fine…
She was halted in her thoughts by a loud buzzing noise, as well as a thousand urgent dances impressing themselves on her mind. It…appeared that thanks to her communers, the dances of her mind had been conveyed to her workers. Who were apparently agitated and preparing to marshal for war as a result.
Ok, maybe this wasn’t fine.
She took a moment to calm herself and then danced that all was well to her workers, and that they should continue with their work. She would not permit her own inner turmoil to impact her hive’s honey production. As her workers slowly stopped beating their wings and resumed their duties, she tried to take stock of the situation. She tried to come at it from a different angle, that of efficiency.
And from that point of view, the King’s actions made complete sense. The Flower Meadow queens’ lower honey production meant they couldn’t spare as much effort on Cross-Pollination or on producing specialized honeys. Yet, at the same time, the maddening honey and bee types that resulted from the poisonous flowers would certainly aid the King’s army more than it would boost honey production. So, if she set aside her natural hesitation to share honey between hives, it absolutely made sense to have an Apiary queen produce specialized honey for the Flower Meadow queens. It took advantage of their differing roles to achieve maximum effect for the King’s domain as a whole.