The Bee Dungeon
Chapter 292: A Bee's Cup of Tea?

The day wore on and the time came for the daily purification. Belissar encountered a surprise when he went to trigger the battle.

Please select a purification strength:

- Minor (Cooldown: 6 hours)

- Minor+ (Cooldown: 12 hours)

- Small (Cooldown: 18 hours)

- Small+ (Cooldown: 24 Hours)

Belissar blinked only for a moment before remembering that, yes, when the expansion purifications increased in strength, so too did the strength of the daily purifications he could perform afterwards. Likewise, the cooldown of the smaller purifications also decreased, he could even do multiple minor or minor+ purifications a day if he wanted to.

“King ok?”

Belissar was pulled out of his thoughts by Niobee dancing on his head. He gave her a smile.

“I’m fine, there’s something we should talk about with everyone tonight, though. For now…let’s begin.”

Belissar selected the usual small purification for today. A small+ was equivalent to previous expansion purifications, so Belissar wanted to give his defenders forewarning before using them as the daily fight. He wasn’t going to conduct a purification every day that would result in casualties, after all, so he would talk to his council tonight and decide together if their defenses could handle it. If not…he might consider conducting multiple weaker purifications now. But that, too, would require some planning, if nothing else he would need to warn the sigmaka that a purification might occur while they were challenging the Tower.

Not to mention that, presumably, swarms of ant or wasp shades might show up in the daily purifications. So, for now, he went with the usual small strength. This time, a couple of wolf shades appeared…and were quickly done in by the Dirt Tunnels’ traps. The wardens didn’t replace the explosive wards and the bees used maddening wax instead of toxic for the candles, but even then the changes the fair folk had advised him to make greatly increased the difficulty for the wolves. Those that made it past the initial pit traps were completely intoxicated in the candle tunnel as the small number of wolves just couldn’t find the pixie magic-hidden candles like an ant swarm could. Eventually they collapsed and the digging bee soldiers moved in to finish them off.

Belissar found himself encouraged by this and even felt optimistic that maybe they could handle small+ purifications without losses. Even if they couldn’t just yet, the Tower had plenty of new flowers, bees, perks, and boons the bee army could use to grow stronger.

But he put those thoughts aside, for now it was time to celebrate and reward the bees and their allies. And tonight, he had something new planned. As the bees and karnuq began to prepare for the victory celebration, Belissar found Tarwantrad, who had just arrived to join in, grilling Wardmaster Varilold on how the purification went since she herself wasn’t allowed to help anymore. Belissar wasn’t sure if he should interrupt but he did want to get started on his task so he had no choice but to step in.

“Hey, Tarwantrad, sorry to interrupt, do you know how to make tea? Or maybe one of the pixies or wardens does? Could one of you help me?”

Tarwantrad blinked out of her glare towards the wardmaster and turned towards Belissar. A moment later, she beamed.

“Of course, I would be happy to!”

Wardmaster Varilold chuckled.

“If you wish, we can provide assistance as well. Aredlig!”

At her call, one of the wardens marched over and saluted, a silver elf man.

“At your service, Wardmaster.”

Wardmaster Varilold turned to face Belissar instead.

“Aredlig here makes tea for the wardens, he should be able to advise.”

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Aredlig let out a sigh.

“It’s not that I want to, it’s just that no one else seems capable of brewing a tolerable cup…”

The wardmaster smirked.

“And that’s how he got the job. Well, you heard it from the man, he’s the best tea brewer in the wardens at present. I’m sure he could teach even Dungeon Master Tarwantrad a thing or two.”

Tarwantrad rolled her eyes. Aredlig turned to her and inclined his head.

“Ah, Dungeon Master Tarwantrad, it’s an honor to work with you. I am very fond of your herbal blends.”

Tarwantrad blinked for a moment.

“Oh…thank you. Glad you like them. And if you like those, wait until you add Belissar’s honey to the mix.”

Aredlig smiled.

“I’ve been looking forward to it. Tower Keeper Belissar, it is an honor as well.”

Belissar followed Tarwantrad’s example.

“Ah, thank you. Hope you’ll enjoy it.”

Aredlig’s smile turned into a full-on grin.

“Oh, I’m sure I will. And I would be happy to assist with the tea brewing. Would you mind showing me your blends and pots?”

Belissar nodded. He had asked the karnuq to retrieve the box of tea stuff he had received from the silver elf dungeon master, so he picked it up to show to Aredlig.

“Here, I just got this the other day.”

Aredlig blinked and glanced at Tarwantrad. She smirked.

“You see…Belissar here has never head of tea before, much less brewed it.”

Aredlig gaped and stumbled.

“Never…heard of tea…”

It took a bit of time before the tea brewing could begin. Fortunately, Tarwantrad helped him get started, while Aredlig managed to gather himself in time to assist with the actual brewing. It…ultimately didn’t seem that different to Belissar from making an herbal infusion. Aredlig talked a great deal about different topics such as roasting, seeping, temperature, time, and whatnot, most of which went over Belissar’s head. Tarwantrad reassured him that, at the end of the day, if he put tea leaves into hot water, he’d have a tea.

Well, Belissar could understand where Aredlig was coming from. It reminded him of his own experiments with mead: anyone could mix water and honey and wait for it to ferment, but there were a lot of different things he found he could do to adjust the end result once he started to dig deeper. He imagined it was similar with tea brewing. Still, there was one thing Belissar needed to confirm before he would commit to learning the art of tea.

Would the bees like it? Belissar knew they liked the herbal infusions he had made previously, but would they like this tea plant specifically? To find out, Aredlig brewed a cup and placed it and a shallow dish before Belissar. He glanced up.

“Niobee, could you try this? Tell us if you like it or not.”

“Ok!”

Niobee flew down from his head. Belissar poured a bit into the shallow dish and blew on it to cool it down. Once sufficiently cool, Niobee dipped her tongue into the drink. Aredlig held his breath while Tarwantrad stared in fascination.

And then Niobee began dancing around.

“Like! Bitter, but like! Tastes like how good flower smells! Amazing, incredible!”

Aredlig exhaled his breath and then smiled.

“I am honored by your praise.”

Belissar grinned and tried a sip himself. It was a bitter taste…but one he could get used to, especially if he mixed it with honey. And so, Belissar, Tarwantrad, and Aredlig prepared some batches of tea, both with and without honey, so that the bees and karnuq could all have a taste, with the wardens and Royal Pixie Guard contributing their own tea stockpiles. Finnakynne, helping the bumblebees as they helped the Apiary bees bring in honeycomb, suddenly started snickering. Then she stopped and her eyes went wide. She zipped down to Belissar.

“Beely! I just realized I should really tell you this before it happens!”

Belissar tilted his head.

“Tell me what?”

She waved her hands back and forth, rapidly pointing between the tea and the spiderkin children who were carrying things at Chief Rohsuak’s direction.

“Spiders! And tea! Tea makes spiders get drunk! It’s, like, a common thing pixie kids do to get spiders to drink tea! I, uh, don’t know if it does the same thing to spiderkin, but I thought you should know. In case, you know, you didn’t want it to happen, even though it might be kind of funny…but they’re also kids, so I thought maybe you might be upset if that happened? I, um, wasn’t sure…”

Belissar blinked.

“Oh. I see. Thanks for letting me know. Let’s…make some herbal infusions for them instead tonight.”

Finnakynne’s face scrunched up.

“…should I be proud of myself, or disappointed?”

So, with the potential concern of drunk spiderkin averted, everyone finished their preparations. Soon, the tea was set out along with the usual fair of honeycomb and karnuq cooking. Belissar lifted his own cup of tea.

“Good work everyone. Congratulations on another victory!”

And with that, the banquet began. The bee queens, at Belissar and Niobee’s prompting, were the first to approach the dishes of tea left out for them. Belissar smiled, though, as he watched the various workers, soldiers, and other bee types hovering around them. He had a feeling they would react much like Niobee did.

“Amazing, incredible!”

And they did. The Fourth of the Seventh zipped laps around the whole battle meadow, kicking up a gust of wind each time she passed over the banquet. The First of the Fifth was practically dancing circles with Juosiutik and her Third Daughter over the possible uses of the drink. The Third of the Fourth, once Belissar had informed her who had brewed the tea, was buzzing around Aredlig, asking him all sorts of questions about how the tea was brewed, which he was all too happy to oblige.

Belissar grinned. It seemed tea would be worth growing and learning to brew after all. He would have to thank that silver elf dungeon master…after asking Tarwantrad what his name was again. A gift that made the bees this happy was one he definitely appreciated.