Chapter 392: Most Sincere Apolo-Bees |
Belissar wrapped up the council there and let Chief Rohsuak and Metsaitti return to the karnuq’s celebration. Urubran joined them as drink and pressure from her tribe convinced Chief Rohsuak to start showing off, lifting rocks while creating all shorts of shapes and colors with her fire magic. The Third of the Sixth stayed as well, sticking her tongue into the fires, no doubt trying to drink them and make honey from fire. Belissar chuckled and watched for a while as well, at least until the time came for the evening purification.
This one was handled by the digging and blinding bees as the usual night watch. As such, Vinoi deployed to the Hall of Purifying Light, her first battle since evolving. She couldn’t burrow into the stone floor of the hall, but she did use her new stealth ability while clinging to one of the walls.
A basic wolf shade formed this time. Vinoi dove down on it while it was still forming, it didn’t seem to notice her approach while it let out its usual howl. Vinoi drove her stinger into its neck, intending to poison the shade and then retreat.
Instead, her stinger pierced clean through the shade’s neck. The wolf monster fell to the ground and dissipated immediately. Vinoi’s antennae twitched as she spun about, clearly confused.
But confusion turned to joy as the other bees of her hive began zipping around her in a happy dance. Belissar smiled and shook his head. Apparently, they’d need stronger shades if they wanted to see Vinoi’s venom in action.
The next morning, Belissar made his usual rounds and then observed the morning purification. This time, the bee army had integrated the bumblebee sprayer the First Bumblebee Queen had shown Belissar earlier. An unlucky turtle shade got positively drenched in venom from the big bee, enough seeped into its shell that it collapsed before it left the Hall of Purifying Light.
The bee army queens were most excited by this development.
Afterwards, Belissar moved to add the latest bee spawner. He didn’t have much mana, just forty-three available at the moment, but that was sufficient for a lava bee spawner. Fortunately, since they apparently fed on the volcano itself, Belissar didn’t have to worry about adding more flowers for them.
So, Belissar made his way to the burning bees’ home Lava Field, where he was joined by the Third of the Sixth and Third of the Fourth. Chief Rohsuak was apparently still sleeping after a long night.
The burning bees and the ever-present Niobee all happily danced in reply.
“Ok!”
Belissar brought up the spawner and placed it on a section of volcanic rock. A small hole drilled right into the rock, creating a tiny burrow. Out from the burrow crawled a little bee, black and red in color. She currently lacked the rock shell Belissar had seen in the preview image, looking more like a burning bee than anything new.
She glanced around until she saw Belissar, then she flew up to him. She didn’t dance, instead vibrating and releasing pheromones to convey her salute. Belissar gave her a smile and held out his hand for her to land on.
“Hi there! Welcome to the Tower! This Niobee, the Conduit, and the Third of the Sixth and Third of the Fourth, the burning bee queens. They can show you around the rooms and help you if you need anything. Niobee?”
Belissar turned to Niobee. She flew down to land on his arm and join the new bee, touching her antennae with the lava bee’s and communicating. A moment later, she took off and began dancing.
“King! New bee says don’t need magic palace, doesn’t make hive or nest. Is like carpenter bees! Bee makes own nest in rock.”
Belissar rubbed his chin.
“Hm, maybe something like we did for the carpenter bees? But it’d have to be in the rock, huh? I’ll probably need Muuraqi’s help, then. I…don’t think he’s awake yet.”
Nor were most of the karnuq, the entire settlement had stayed up late into the night. But Niobee danced the negative in any case.
“New bees need eat, grow before can lay eggs, so don’t need nest yet!”
Belissar smiled and nodded.
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“Got it, we’ll make sure to figure something out before you do. For now, go ahead and do whatever you need to.”
The bee let out some salute pheromones and then took off. She circled around in the air for a bit, then flew off towards the nearest lava river, landed on the bank…and then stuck her tongue right into the burning lava.
Her chitin started to glow red as lava oozed out of it, then started hardening into black rock, making her look like the preview’s had. Once she had a complete coat of rock, she took off again, leisurely hovering over the lava and sticking her tongue out into clouds of volcanic smoke.
Belissar smiled and watched for a bit, until new arrivals took him away. The silver and green elves had arrived with food and farming supplies, which meant it was now time for him to deal with both the fair folk and the captives once more…
Belissar stopped by the karnuq settlement and gathered Chief Rohsuak and Metsaitti, who had managed to wake up at this point. The three of them, joined by Belissar’s usual escort of soldier bees, made their way to the nexus door room. A large group of green and silver elves were passing through the door, leading horse-drawn wagons full of supplies. Tarwantrad was among them and waved to him.
“Hi Belissar! Ready for more flowers?”
Belissar grinned.
“Always.”
Tarwantrad beamed.
“Great! Now then, before that, the silver elves have a surprise for you.”
Belissar tilted his head, but Tarwantrad did not elaborate. She just made a smug smile as she waved him towards the silver elf contingent. They were led by King Taranskare and Duchess Bereginna, along with another finely dressed silver elf man. The third elf looked familiar but Belissar couldn’t remember where he had seen the man.
King Taranskare led the trio up.
“Tower Keeper Belissar, thank you for welcoming us today.”
Belissar smiled.
“Thank you for your help with the food.”
King Taranskare shook his head.
“Think nothing of it, it is our apology to you. I regret that we silver elves have not welcomed you as either hospitality or decency would demand and hope you will allow us to make amends. With that in mind, Duchess Bereginna, Lord Aratodel, come present yourselves.”
Belissar’s eyes widened. Lord Aratodel…that was the silver elf dungeon master, if Belissar recalled correctly. So that’s who this was, Belissar had barely gotten a glimpse of the man previously so he hadn’t recognized him.
Duchess Bereginna stepped forward and lowered her head.
“Tower Keeper Belissar, you have my most sincere apologies for how I have treated you in our negotiations. You have proven a stalwart signatory and a credit to the Compact.”
Belissar resisted the urge to shrug. He instead held his head up high, as Chief Rohsuak had coached him for diplomatic events.
“I accept your apology. You sent your army to fight by my side went it counted. I hope we will continue to remain strong allies from now on.”
Duchess Bereginna looked up at him and blinked before lowering her head once more.
“You are most gracious, Tower Keeper. I thank you for your generosity.”
Next, King Taranskare motioned to Lord Aratodel. The silver elf dungeon master stepped forward…and then bowed so low his head nearly hit the ground.
“Tower Keeper Belissar, I apologize with all my heart! My treatment of you and my lack of hospitality were simply atrocious! I was truly blind to misjudge you so heavily! I do not dare hope that you could possibly forgive me, so I present myself to you for your judgement!”
Belissar blinked, uncertain what to do. This…was a completely different man than Belissar had met previously. He glanced over at Tarwantrad, since she had been there the first time.
Tarwantrad snickered.
“I gave him a drop of mana honey from the Third Daughter’s hive for his tea and then told him you gave me those bees…and that you have even better honey than that.”
Belissar smiled. His bees’ honey was amazing, after all.
“Lord Aratodel…I accept your apology. The tea plants you gave me are growing well and the Third of the Fourth is enjoying the books you gave me.”
Lord Aratodel looked up in shock, tears welling up in his eyes.
“Tower Keeper Belissar, you are more gracious than I could have ever thought possible. To hear that you have embraced the art of tea so…if my insult was of value to you, then my heart is glad. Still, allow me to make amends! I will give to you only the finest of my tea plants for your bees to enjoy, the boon you deserved from the start! And if you will introduce me to your tea-maker, I will instruct them with all the skill I possess! So, if you don’t mind, may I inquire about this…Third of the Fourth, was it?”
Tarwantrad replied in Belissar’s stead with a huge smirk on her face.
“Oh, the Third Queen of the First Dynasty of the Fourth Spawner is one of Belissar’s monster bee queen.”
Lord Aratodel’s eyes opened as wide as they could go.
“A bee…one of the ones responsible for that divine honey…is learning to make tea?”
Tarwantrad’s smirk grew.
“A Fire-type burning monster bee queen, in fact. She uses her entire hive to brew the tea, using their Fire mana to precisely control the brewing temperature. One of the wardens has been teaching her.”
Lord Aratodel began to tremble. A moment later, he threw himself on the ground.
“Tower Keeper Belissar, truly yours is a dungeon of wonders. I know I have made myself unworthy, but would you be gracious enough to introduce me to such a glorious personage as the Third Queen of the First Dynasty of the Fourth Spawner? This is…the greatest revolution in tea-making since its inception!”
Belissar was a bit overwhelmed, but Tarwantrad bursting into raucous laughter helped diffuse the moment, so he managed to nod.
“Sure, I’ll call her here. I’m sure she’d love to talk with you about tea brewing.”
Lord Aratodel looked up from the ground, tears in his eyes once more.
“Tower Keeper Belissar, truly you are the most noble among us. You have my eternal gratitude for your mercy and grace!”
Belissar didn’t think it was that big a deal, but he also wasn’t going to turn down free flowers for his bees. Besides, the Third of the Fourth would be happy if Lord Aratodel could teach her more about making tea, so it was all great as far as Belissar was concerned.
He wasn’t sure what had changed about the silver elves, but he definitely didn’t mind the way things were going now…