POBee 228.1 - Bee-ginning a New Empire?
A princess paced around the nest. Her every instinct told her to leave, to conduct her mating flight and build her own hive, but she did not, even though all the sisters she had been born with already had. She had been commanded to stay and her queen mother’s guards enforced the order. She buzzed her wings once more.
What was the point of a princess being born if she would not be permitted to establish her hive? Well, in an exceptionally generous show of mercy, her queen mother had deigned to explain this time. New lands had recently come available, but the Flower Tender, the only existence whose authority her queen mother acknowledged, had so far forbidden them from exploring or settling there. Apparently, negotiations were taking place with the new land’s own flower tender. A new species of bee might be arriving on the Flower Tender’s lands, while one of their own may be sent to settle the new flower tender’s fields.
So, the princess had no choice but to wait, no matter how frustrated she grew. This was an opportunity worth waiting for, should it come to pass. Her queen mother had already established dominion over these lands, as the first to evolve neither the rival hives nor the solitary loners had been able to resist her. All queens who lived here answered to her.
But if the princess should settle a new land, under the rule of a new flower tender, where her queen mother was forbidden from passing? Well, all she would need to do was subdue the locals and she would rule an empire of her own. The only of her queen mother’s children who would address her as an equal.
If the negotiations came to fruition, that was. There was nothing she could do about that, so she was left pacing about, waiting to hear what her fate would be.
“Daughter.”
Fortunately, her wait was at an end. She turned to find her queen mother approaching, flanked by her ever present guards. She made sure that her mana and pheromones were appropriately submissive, despite her agitation.
“Queen mother.”
Her queen mother didn’t bother to acknowledge her reply before stating her business.