The Bee Dungeon
POBee 289.1 - The Weight of the King's Bee-lief

The Sixth Daughter of the First Queen of the First Dynasty of the Fifth Spawner, the second of her line, and the first and currently only gravity queen, hung around the back of the queen council, in the shadow of the big bumblebee queens. She, like all queens, was invited to the King’s council, where the King determined the course of the realm. Where he called upon powers from the queens of all things to strengthen the hive of hives, raised new bees, and even created entire new realms for the hives to settle.

It was…quite a bit bigger of an event than she felt comfortable dancing in. After all, she had achieved and experienced little. The King and her queen mother both had praised her upon her birth…but what good was merely existing? Since then, she had done her best to raise a good hive, but that was all. She had done nothing out of the norm, nothing that would justify all the praise she had already received.

She had a unique power, that was true. Her hive could make things heavier or lighter and were the only ones who could easily forage from the gravilion flowers. But…so what? Making things lighter? If there was something heavy it was easier to just have a big bumblebee carry it. Make things heavier? She still hadn’t found a use for that. Gather from the gravilion flowers? And use the nectar and pollen for what, exactly? The only use the hive of hives found for it thus far was making more gravity bees like herself. It didn’t help unless they could do…something. And maybe some of her hive were starting to help with the purifications, but she was an Apiary bee. Her forces paled in comparison to even the weakest of the army queens. How much did her meager contributions actually matter?

In contrast, the sister she was born with, the First of the Fifth’s Seventh Daughter, had learned to make those moving hives, to the great praise of the King and the fair King-things. The Seventh Daughter had then gone on to collaborate with the King himself in building a moving hive for the Fourth of the Seventh. She had certainly earned a place at this council.

The Sixth Daughter, on the other hand, had not. She had not earned the praise she had received, the magical palace the King had built for her, or her place at this meeting. All she could do, therefore, was watch quietly, until the day she justified all she had been given.

So, she watched as the fair King-things got all agitated for some reason. One of the small King-things, the bumblebee helper, popped out of the bumblebee queen the Sixth Daughter was standing by.

“Huh? Beely, you don’t know what gravity is? Even though you have gravity bees and stuff?”

The Sixth Daughter immediately turned towards the bumblebee helper and fluttered her wings. The fair King-things…were talking about her unique power? Did they perhaps know something about it? She could not help but crawl up the bumblebee queen to listen more closely.

The fair King-things began to explain that her power was not merely how heavy or light things were. Apparently, all material objects tried to pull on all others. The pull was normally too weak to be noticed unless the object was extremely big or extremely heavy, but Gravity mana could make it much stronger. Things fell to the ground because the ground, which was really big, pulled them back towards it.

The Sixth Daughter’s antennae twitched about aimlessly as she considered this. It was true, wasn’t it? The reason the other bees didn’t like foraging from the gravilions wasn’t that the pollen and nectar were heavy, if that were the case they could have soldiers or bumblebees help. They didn’t like it because the gravilions pulled on them in all sorts of directions and they couldn’t do anything about it. Managing those pulls was how her own hive avoided the issue. And when they made things lighter or heavier…they were apparently weakening or strengthening the ground’s pull?

The Sixth Daughter was trying to wrap her head around this new perspective. She could tell by the twitching of antennae that all the other queens of the hive of hives were as well. Fortunately, the gracious King decided to ask the bumblebee helper to elaborate for them.

“So, gravity…pulls on things?”

The bumblebee helper got all excited and started waving her hands around.

“Not just pulling on things, Beely! Gravity is a kind of force itself! It can pull things, it can push things, it can make them fly or stop them from moving at all. It can crush things, or make them explode from the inside, or rip them apart! It can bend light, space, and even time magic!”

The hive of hives stood completely still, the Sixth Daughter most of all. What? Her little power, that she could only use to make gravilion pollen easier to carry, could do all of that? It was somewhat hard to believe. Even the King himself seemed doubtful.

“Wow, Gravity can do all of that?”

The bumblebee helper shrugged.

“Well, apparently. Mother Dearest likes to brag about her conversations with the gods and apparently they told her that. I tried gravity magic, but it was all complicated and stuff so I never got to the bending time part.”

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The bumblebee helper then began looking all around. Just as the Sixth Daughter was wondering what she was looking for, the bumblebee helper caught sight of her and grinned. She flew down to hover next to the Sixth Daughter, the Sixth Daughter buzzed when the small fair King-thing suddenly patted her back.

“But maybe your gravity bees here can figure it out!”

The Sixth Daughter quickly began dancing the negative. She didn’t know what bending time meant, but it sounded amazing and incredible and definitely wasn’t anything she knew how to do. The bumblebee helper laughed.

“Sure you can! You girls managed to surprise my mother of all people! Honestly, bending time is probably easier than that. Besides, you’re a gravity bee! You can probably do all the complicated parts instinctively. You gather from the gravity flowers, right?”

The Sixth Daughter was doubtful but did dance the confirmation that she could forage from gravilion flowers. That was about the only thing she had proven she could do. The bumblebee helper then patted her back again.

“Then you’re already doing some of the complicated stuff! Really, figuring out those gravity fields is really hard for the rest of us.”

The Sixth Daughter paused at that. Was it really? It came naturally to her workers…but it was true that no other bee seemed to do it. Not even her queen mother, or the intrepid Fourth of the Seventh. Even Frelis, a gardener blessed by the Queen of All Flowers herself, left the gravilions to her hive.

There was no doubt that her power was unique, it’s just that she didn’t know what to do with it. Which is…exactly what the fair King-things were saying, wasn’t it? That if she learned different ways to pull things, she would start being able to do more things?

Wait…wasn’t that exactly what she had been wondering all along? Her wings started to buzz. Maybe…maybe this was her chance. Maybe if she started exploring her power, she would be able to do amazing things. Maybe she could start to fulfill the King’s faith in her.

She gingerly turned to face the King, to see what he thought of these things. She found him smiling at her like he did when they first met.

“That sounds amazing.”

And there it was, again. She hadn’t yet actually done anything, and yet he had already praised her. But maybe…she had a way to try now.

She stood in a daze as the conversation moved on, considering how her hive might start trying to use her powers. She was vaguely aware that the hive of hives was discussing the choices, but she had no input she deserved to give so she didn’t end up paying attention.

At least until she felt the mana of the entire hive of hives press down upon her, that is. The First Daughter, her eldest sibling, sent a mana dance her way.

“Sixth Daughter, what think?”

At first, she tripped over herself. The First Daughter…was asking her something? She must be mistaken, why would the greatest of her siblings ask anything of her? But then the First Daughter repeated the dance. There was no mistake, the First Daughter had directed a question to her.

Which was a bit awkward. She stumbled over her feet as she was suddenly very aware of the entire hive of hive’s attention on her.

“…don’t know what discussing.”

After getting out her question, she tried to bury herself in the bumblebee queen’s hair. The First Daughter, however, didn’t seem bothered and instead began an explanation dance.

“Hive of hives discussing new rooms for King’s realm. Think floating lands good, army queens say enemies can’t reach unless can fly, Queen Mother thinks good for gravity flowers. But hive of hives would need Sixth Daughter’s help, room is weird like by gravilion flowers. Sixth Daughter think can handle?”

The Sixth Daughter forgot to cling to the bumblebee’s side and fell back to the ground. Huh? The hive of hives…needed her help? The First Daughter, noticing her confusion, reiterated the King’s explanation of the potential rooms. Particularly, one that apparently was filled with Gravity mana. The same mana that filled her.

The Sixth Daughter hesitated for a moment. She still hadn’t done anything, so could the hive of hives rely on her? But…if the mana was the same as by the gravilion flower, then that was something she could handle. It was just about the only thing she had achieved. The unique power she had from birth, the thing the King and her queen mother had praised her for.

If she could not do this, then what could she do? For what did her queen mother raise her if not for this?

So, even though she tripped over her steps yet again, she danced out a confirmation.

“T-Think can, if same as gravilion then should be able to.”

The First Daughter thanked her and then the hive of hives’ mana withdrew. She shook herself and waved her abdomen about to catch more air. But then, events transpired that would cause her to freeze once more.

The First Daughter, apparently, had only been waiting for her response, and now relayed the hive of hives’ consensus.

“King, hive of hives think Floating Isles best!”

The Sixth Daughter immediately turned to stare at the First Daughter. Wait, the hive of hives had made a decision based on her answer?!

But before she could object, the King smiled and nodded.

“Got it. Then…I think we’ll go with Floating Isles and Venom-Poison Mixtures, since the new room and feature aren’t Fire attribute?”

King?! The King himself made a decision on the fate of the realm based on the hive of hives’ answer that was based on her answer?!

The various fair King-things all began to nod.

“Good choice, Belissar. If you want, we can probably help you with the desert. I have desert flowers and you already have Fire attribute stuff, so we can probably dry out a field with some work.”

“Hey, don’t forget me, Tarwantrad! I already gave Beely mirage flowers, you know!”

The Sixth Daughter spun around, but apparently the King-things were not opposed to the choice either. And so, before she knew it, before she could object, the King had made his choice and turned to her once more.

“Ok, we’ll go with that then. Hope you’ll like the new room!”

The Sixth Daughter trembled. What…what had she done? The King had made a decision based on her answer…and now was going to make a new room in the realm that the hive of hives needed her, of all queens, to handle. But…it was too late. The decision had been made.

She had no choice, so she had better start figuring out this power of hers soon. The King and the hive of hives were now counting on her to do so...