The Bee Dungeon

Back at the start of the day, General Rippotis watched as bees surrounded him and his men, escorting them through the purified zone. Not the little worker bees he was used to, but bees the size of a hand and visibly more armed and armored. Bees bred for war.

That much was to be expected, though, if the lost Tower indeed belonged to the God of Bees. A lone Tower such as this would need to rely on monsters to survive, lacking the population to draw Tower Guard candidates from. No, that was not what drew the general’s attention.

The monster bees…were flying in formation. Layered, organized formations. The bees were split into little squads of about five bees each, which grouped up into little warbands spaced close enough to dive together on one target in sequence, but with enough room not to get in each other’s way on the dive down or on the fallback. These warbands were arranged into an even larger formation…a cage built in all three dimensions, ready to cut off and assault the general from every direction. An assault that would make use of altitude for more powerful dives, that could take advantage of the energy provided by superior altitude to combat a flying opponent.

It took all of General Rippotis’ self-discipline to keep his expression forward, so he contented himself with appreciating the part of the formation right ahead of him. This was no swarm of monsters. This was an army. A disciplined, organized, and well-drilled army that had learned some of the lessons of aerial combat, almost certainly through real experience. He knew some monsters possessed human-like levels of intelligence and he knew his own monster bees were smarter than he had expected…but still, he had not realized they were capable of this.

He couldn’t help a short daydream of what the queen commanders of the hives would manage if he truly allowed them to integrate into his army. But he quickly banished the thought, though the Conclave was rethinking nearly everything they did, he wasn’t ready to breed an army of monsters like the Sorcerer Kings of old.

Fortunately, they soon approached their destination and the general turned his mind back to the task at hand.

“No doubt as to which god this Tower belongs to.”

The banners confirmed it, this Tower belonged to the God of Bees after all. General Rippotis was glad the God of Light had intervened, Starami would have been assaulting the God of Bees’ Tower after all had the Conclave not changed course. Instead, the general had a chance to make peace and preserve the only known Tower of the newly discovered god.

But that is where the trouble would begin.

The general’s smile dropped as they landed. Silver elf warriors arrived to escort him into the encampment around the Tower, while a group of beastkin and a human led the rest of his contingent to a wyvern stable.

That alone…was a lot to process. The silver elves had been considered to be the “most civilized” of the fey by the Sorcerer Kings in ages past. They were known to have the most sophisticated societies and the most human-like lifestyle, as well as being highly-versed in magic, technology, and lore. That they had survived promised that this Calwaskon Compact would be the equal of the Conclave as a society…and possibly its better in any number of aspects.

Well, the silver elves were at least easier to negotiate with than some of the more primal types of fey, so their presence was ultimately a positive.

More concerning was the presence of beastkin and the human. General Rippotis was already concerned with the relationship between the fey and the Bee Tower, now he would have to account for beastkin being part of the equation as well. Were they servants of the Tower Lord? Thralls of the fey, or was there a wider alliance of fey and beastkin? Either case could prove problematic if these beastkin had any contact with the Towers conquered by the Conclave’s Grand Subjugations…

And then there was the human. Given that he spoke the language of the Conclave and was trained in the care of wyverns, he had to be a survivor of the group led by Lord Starami’s son…and now he was working for the beastkin and fey. Questions rose in the general’s mind about how they had convinced him, how many others survived, and what might have been shared. The fey may know much more about the Conclave than the Conclave knew of them…particularly if any of the higher ranked members of the expedition had also survived…

Unfortunately, the general had no chance to investigate any of these matters as he was brought to the largest building in the encampment…

After a tense greeting, General Rippotis presented his initial offer for peace. He had kept his offer simple: a mutual non-aggression pact to be sworn in the name of the patron gods of the Tower masters involved and restitution for the damage suffered by Tower Keeper Belissar from the Conclave.

The other parties had not responded to the offer one way or another and the general soon left the building for the day. He was guided to accommodations prepared for him while the the other party dispersed. General Rippotis had only met with representatives today and the other side was a coalition of factions, they would now have to confer with their leaders and with each other. He took the opportunity to confer with his own people, his connection to his Tower and its sworn defenders was shaky due to the distance and the amount of Hunger along it, but he still managed to pass along that he had arrived and made contact.

With that done, he allowed himself a small sigh. The start of the negotiations…could have gone better. Though, they also could have gone much worse, at least the other side had been willing to hear him out. That the fey recalled him was no big surprise, but it did increase the difficulty of his mission. He himself was surprised to see several familiar faces in the room.

Henilett, a dangerous trickster in her own right, but most well known for being the right hand of the Pixie Queen. Her presence confirmed the pixies had survived. And since the general had only met with representatives of the other sides’ leaders and none of the leaders themselves…Henilett taking that role all but confirmed Queen Vanieskon had survived as well, one of the worst-case scenarios for these talks. The general wished Konilias was here, he knew he wouldn’t be a match for the Queen of Trickery herself in a duel of words and schemes. He’d just have to pray the God of Fire was right to charge him with the task and proceed with as much caution as possible.

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Beyond that, the Sword Saint himself was present, a man General Rippotis wasn’t sure he could defeat even now. The black elves had survived, indicating the fey would be armed with all the great and terrible weapons the forgemasters could produce. The green elf representative was a surprise; he had not thought the green elves would have been willing to abandon their great forest. Erynmor, the Witch of the Woods, would be a terrible foe to face if she survived as well.

But the fey were not the only ones there. General Rippotis let out another sigh. His prediction had been correct after all, the Tower was under the stewardship of Tower Keeper Belissar. A man born under the Conclave of Tower Lords…but who had declined the title of Tower Lord himself. When General Rippotis considered the Tower Keeper had also declined to meet a member of the High Council and used a beastkin as his representative to boot…Tower Keeper Belissar’s opinion of his former people was abundantly clear.

A human with all the powers of a Tower at his command, with an army of beastkin and monsters, and who had dealings with the fey. General Rippotis couldn’t help but be concerned at how eerily similar the situation was to the Sorcerer Kings of old. A dangerous combination, even before considering the man’s hostility towards the Conclave. Before this, the Conclave would have made subjugating such a man its top priority.

But the God of Light, the God of Fire, the God of Water, and the God of Flowers all wished for him to make peace, not to mention the God of Bees who had blessed this tower and the man within it. Furthermore, the God of Light had confirmed that all parties involved, whether human, fey, or beastkin, were now all fighting against the Hunger, the true enemy of the world. Perhaps Tower Keeper Belissar was not following the path of the Sorcerer Kings, but charting out a new one. Perhaps they all had changed, and any resemblance to the past didn’t bear relevance on their present course.

Or perhaps none of that mattered in the face of the Hunger. Perhaps that was the gods’ purpose in sending him here, so that he would have to face the enemies of the past and find common cause with them. Perhaps he, perhaps the entire Conclave, had allowed the past to dictate their present to an unwise degree. How many lives had they spent subjugating rogue Towers that didn’t need to be fought? How many beastkin Tower Lords, all of whom had the skill to survive alone, had they slain in their misguided crusades?

General Rippotis glanced outside the barracks prepared for his contingent, out at the bee army flying patrols all across the sky. How might his army perform if he allowed the queen commanders to fight as these bees did? How far could they have pushed back the Hunger, how many sacrifices could they have averted along the way? Monster armies were one of the Conclave’s greatest taboos…but should they have been? Would the God of Light have created Towers that could spawn monsters if she did not intend for the Tower Lords to use them?

Perhaps that was why he had been commanded to make peace with a group that so resembled the Sorcerer Kings.

General Rippotis sighed one last time and then did his best to rest. No matter the case, he had a tough fight ahead of him, and he’d need every last ounce of wit he possessed to face it… Check latest chapters at novel·fıre·net

The next morning, General Rippotis was running himself and his troops through their morning drills when one of their hosts approached, one of the beastkin.

“The negotiations will not resume today. As an apology for the delay, Chief Rohsuak invites you to have breakfast with her.”

General Rippotis nodded.

“Thank you, I will attend.”

Was the other sides’ coalition not as unified as they seemed and taking their time coordinating a response to his offer? Was it an intentional snub to make him wait, a provocation to express their dislike of him? Was it a test of his commitment to the talks?

Konilias might know, but the general didn’t, so he decided to remain patient. In any case, the offer to meet with Tower Keeper Belissar’s representative was a welcome one. He certainly needed to feel out the Tower Keeper, so any chance to gain information would be beneficial.

Besides, General Rippotis had not missed Chief Rohsuak introduce herself as a fellow Disciple of Fire. Perhaps he could build some common ground with her. Perhaps she was even the reason the God of Fire took interest in this matter.

So, General Rippotis was led back to the negotiation hall, now set up for a small banquet. Chief Rohsuak was waiting at the table within and smiled at him.

“General Rippotis, welcome. Please, have a seat.”

The general gave her a grateful nod.

“Thank you for inviting me, Chief Rohsuak. I’m honored to join you today.”

And so, the two began their meal. After a bit of small talk, General Rippotis decided to tackle the issue head-on, as two Disciples of Fire should.

“So, Chief Rohsuak, you serve Tower Keeper Belissar?”

She gave him a knowing smile.

“Yes indeed. Just as he once served you Tower Lords.”

General Rippotis fell silent. He had no response to that, given all the Conclave had done to the Tower Keeper. Chief Rohsuak’s gaze turned piercing for a moment, twisting the knife in his chest for good measure, before she returned to a polite smile.

“He does have a question for you, if you wouldn’t mind our curiousity. You prepared a gift specifically for his bees, how was it you knew to do so?”

General Rippotis took a deep breath, but held her gaze. She met his straightforward assault with one of her own, all but asking outright if and how the Conclave was gathering information on the Tower Keeper. If this were war, he would have endeavored to obscure any such intelligence. But he was here to make peace and Tower Keeper Belissar was the injured party. It was up to Rippotis to take the first step towards reconciliation.

So, he decided to answer honestly.

“I didn’t know for certain, but I had enough of a suspicion to prepare for the possibility. The God of Bees rewarded me with Belissar’s Beehouse feature when I completed her mission. I knew then that the God of Bees held a human of the Conclave in high regard, but the Conclave had not known of her prior to that. Under the circumstances, I suspected he might be the master of the Tower that vanished from the Conclave’s lands, the same one the God of Fire asked me to preserve. Once I saw the bees and the Tower upon arriving, I had confirmation.”

Chief Rohsuak froze for a brief moment, though she recovered nearly instantly.

“I see, you have been blessed by the God of Bees, then?”

General Rippotis lowered his head.

“She granted me that honor, yes.”

Chief Rohsuak’s smile grew.

“Then you will certain appreciate this. This mana honey, straight from the Tower Keeper’s hives.”

Chief Rohsuak steered back into safe small talk, but the general hadn’t missed her pause when he mentioned the God of Bees. His intuition, long honed as a survivor of countless battles, whispered to him now. Something important had shifted, a major turning point that could decide the difference between victory or defeat. He elevated his focus, this breakfast conversation may prove far more important than he realized.

…perhaps he should have mentioned the God of Bees earlier?