The Bee Dungeon

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.

“Negotiations succeeded. Daughter will settle new flower tender’s land. Will allocate extra soldiers to swarm. Make rival hives submit, conquer if won’t.”

She nearly lost control of herself in her excitement at the news but managed to hold it together.

“As queen mother commands.”

Her queen mother stared at her for a bit before leaving without any further acknowledgement. One of the workers then told her to follow. The princess did so, her wings fluttering once she was sure her queen mother had left.

She was going to do it! She was going to settle new lands! And while she would subdue whatever local hives existed as per her mother’s command, after that? After that, she would have an empire of her own where her mother couldn’t reach…

All she had to do now was flight out, establish her hive, and subdue the locals. And she knew that neither of those would be any problem as she crawled out of the entrance of the hive.

The air buzzed with the beating of over a thousand wings. Her queen mother had allocated her a far larger swarm than her sisters had received in anticipation of the task to come. Thousands of workers hovered at the ready, prepared to build her hive…or to claim that of another, willing or not. They may not have had the venomous stingers some other species did, but they had powerful mandibles to compensate and the ferocity to take down the enemy even at the cost of their own lives. Should those prove insufficient, they could mummify an opponent with wax, resin, and propolis and deal with them at leisure, or could pile up on an enemy and cook them alive with their body heat. And, as if that wasn’t enough, her queen mother had granted her a trump card.

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In front of the swarm were a group of bees, each even larger than she was. Their chitin was thick, their wings powerful, and their faces tipped with huge mandibles that could crush, slash, and pierce in equal measure. No chitin could withstand their bite, no weapon, whether mandible or stinger, could pierce their defenses. Even the big solitary loners couldn’t match them. These were the bees that secured her queen mother’s rule after her evolution.

The soldier bees. And the princess had been granted a full twenty of them.

So, no. There was no hive of any species that could possibly stand against her. She would have these new lands and these new bees under her rule in short order. And then, she could begin building her new empire.

She took to the air as fast as she could fly…

The princess currently hid in the center of a tight ball of her workers, with the soldier surrounding them as best they could.

This…was impossible.

She reported to the Flower Tender with her swarm. The Flower Tender had personally guided her to her new lands and led her to a field of flowers. The locals had apparently gathered there to greet her.

The locals. The local hives apparently had soldiers of their own, no less intimidating than hers, with huge stingers and presumably venom.

They also had hundreds of them.

That wasn’t all, either. They had different types of soldiers, too, which dwarfed even the regular soldiers in size. They had soldier types larger than entire hives! And that was before she considered the giant, hairy ones that were even bigger!

What could she do against monsters like that? Have her workers try to ball them and cook them alive? There was a hive that radiated heat such that they distorted the air where they flew! Bury them in wax and propolis? There was a hive made of wax that was moving!

And she hadn’t even thought about the implications of the sheer mana density she was feeling from these hives. No, soldiers and swarms or not, she was outclassed in every way. Her queen mother herself would be outclassed by this army, even if she called upon every daughter and subdued hive to join her. Her mother's entire reign, the entire empire…it turned out they were just small bees in a much larger hive than they had ever imagined possible.

So, no. There would be no subduing these locals. Her queen mother would be lucky if they didn’t launch a counter-invasion once they learned of her existence. As for the princess…she would have to submit completely just to avoid being usurped herself, if they deigned not to crush her entire hive outright.

This being the case, perhaps it would be best to return to her queen mother. She would have to submit, yes, and become the lowliest in her queen mother’s empire, but that would be better than waiting in the mandibles of monsters she could never contend with. Well, assuming they could request the Flower Tender for protection from the counter-invasion and her queen mother’s empire managed to survive at all…

“Ok, let’s make the transfer. Grasp my hand, imagine transferring your monster over, and let the mana flow as it wills.”

Ah, she was too late. The princess shivered as her mana lurched. She felt the mana of the land drain out of her, only to be replaced by that of another. She knew now that she was tied to this land. The Flower Tender had asked her if she had been willing to move and at the time she had no reason to refuse. Now…now she was committed.

“Hi, I’m Belissar, welcome to my Tower! Let me introduce you to everyone and we’ll get you set up with a hive…they like beehouses, right?”

The new flower tender spoke to her…and the mana within her resonated. She had no choice but to submit. She had a brief thought as to whether the new flower tender might save her, but she quickly gave up on that idea. Her old flower tender had never interfered in the affairs of the bees, so there was no reason to expect that this one might.

And so, what hope she had fled as she left her swarm’s protective ball at the new flower tender’s command and allowed herself to be presented to her new masters. Or murderers, depending on how they deigned to treat with her. The latter seemed more likely as one of the giant bees larger than a entire hive descended upon her. Her brave soldiers tried to form up around her, but even they had trouble as the monster’s wings created powerful gusts of wind.

“Hi! Am Fourth of the Seventh! Welcome to hive of hives!”

The princess was taken aback as the monster started to…dance? Communicating in some foreign fashion, as opposed to biting her head off.

Two other bees approached the monster. One looked like a queen…except that she was the size of a soldier. The other seemed to be some kind of worker…were it not for the extra fuzzy antennae and the torrents of mana flowing through them. They danced with the first bee.

“Oh, good point! Am Fourth Queen of First Dynasty of Seventh Spawner! Nice to meet!”

The princess was even more taken aback. This…was a queen? These bees had queens larger than entire hives? A queen that could crush her soldiers by sheer bulk and blow them away with the mere beating of her wings? There was only one way for her to respond.

“I submit. Please don’t kill.”

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