The Bee Dungeon

“King’s queen mother, first Hive-Builder! Amazing, incredible!”
Imkomos grinned as a swarm of bees danced around her.
bees, apparently.
“You’re the amazing and incredible ones. This whole place is amazing and incredible! I cannot believe I didn’t know there was a God of Bees! But, first…let’s talk about this. You said Belissar made these?”
The bees zipped around as Imkomos approached a beehouse…Belissar’s Beehouse according to the God of Bees.
“Did! Amazing, incredible! King is best king!”
Imkomos looked it over with an exacting eye…then her expression softened. She made a warm smile as she gently brushed her hand along the sides of the beehouse.
“The spacings between the trays have changed a bit, did I put them too close with my last one? These grooves are more refined now, not as rough getting the trays in and out. And these hooks…did you start wrapping the hives for the winter? I see you’ve kept working on the design, boy. I’m glad.”
One of the bees, apparently a soldier bee with charred chitin, flew up to her and danced.
“King’s hives best hives! Warm, safe, magical!”
Imkomos grinned at her.
“Well, who am I to argue if it’s the gods and the bees declaring it so? Now then…Queens of the First Dynasty and Soldiers of the Battle Meadow Hives, was it? Tell me…what
has our boy been up to all this time and how did you meet? Much as I appreciate seeing where the beehouses went, I am far more interested in
.”
She imagined that Belissar’s birth parents would appreciate that topic as well. They weren’t as comfortable yet standing in the middle of a swarm of monster bees, but they were listening intently all the same a bit further away. And last Imkomos knew, Belissar was just the keeper of her small village apiary. A
deal must have happened if there were now monster bees calling him king…
A few minutes later, Imkomos gaped.
“Belissar…became a Tower Lord?! Blessed by the gods themselves?!”
“Did!”
Imkomos swayed about. Long had she revered the Tower Lords, those chosen by the gods to protect humanity from the Hunger, the arbiters of divine will upon the world. Well, since dying and spending time in the God of Death’s realm, she had learned that many of her beliefs had been concocted by those same Tower Lords and did not represent the will of the gods at all. Still, it was true that Tower Lords, if not specifically chosen by the gods, were still blessed by them and charged with fighting the Hunger.
And now the boy she raised had become one of them. No, not just one of them.
Tower Lord of the God of Bees, the god's favorite one among all she had blessed, to the point she would posthumously invite Imkomos to her realm simply because of association with Belissar.
“Boy…well done. You were even more amazing, more incredible than I ever could have imagined. I hope you’re showing those Tower Lords what real respect for the gods looks like!”
Another of the soldier bees began to dance.
“Is! Stung Tower Lords, stopped from burning hives! Was there, helped King sting before died!”
Imkomos froze.
“Belissar…is fighting the Tower Lords?”
“Is!”
Imkomos began to tremble.
“H-How? Belissar was no fighter and neither was I, it was all I could do to teach him how to drive off wild animals! How is Belissar fighting
Tower Lords and their Tower Guard?! How is he fighting the Hunger for that matter?!”
The soldier, however, did not seem concerned. Not only did she reply immediately, all of the soldiers bees around them joined her dance.
“With hive of hives!”
Imkomos paused…and then her eyes slowly widened.
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“Oh…oh! I see. Belissar always did throw himself into the beekeeping whenever he was upset or confused…or anything, really. So…he probably focused on taking care of you…and then you all fought for him?”
The soldier bees all happily saluted.
“Did! Fought for King!”
Imkomos smiled at them.
“Then I had better take care of you now. How about we see if I can’t learn to build the boy’s latest design?”
“Ok!”
Imkomos began to carefully dismantle the beehouse in front of her so that she could learn everything Belissar had changed since her death. As she did, the bees kept dancing.
“Karnuq helped too!”
Imkomos raised an eyebrow.
“Karnuq…are they the bear beastkin we saw with him? How did that happen? I didn’t learn the truth about them until after death, Belissar should have thought of them as the Tower Lords taught…”
“King met and talked to! Karnuq nice, helped King and gave flowers, so King helped!”
Imkomos blinked for a moment before smiling.
“Heh, that sounds like the boy. Leave it to him to befriend anyone who gave him flowers for the bees, even beastkin. Speaking of which, anyone else I should know about? Anyone else trying to woo the boy with flowers?”
“Fair ones! Flower one brought lots of flowers! Other fair ones brought flowers too, even evil one!”
Imkomos froze yet again.
“Wait…fair ones…does that mean…
?!”
“Does!”
Imkomos began to tremble once more. She had learned many tales she believed about the beastkin to be lies and exaggerations concocted by the Tower Lords. She had heard no such thing about the tales regarding the fey…who were now attempting to woo her highly bee-focused and not particularly socially-experienced boy with flowers.
“Please, tell me more about what’s going on! Please tell me they haven’t tricked him into some infernal bargain!”
And so, the bees began to relay all they had learned from the hive of hives and God of Bees regarding Belissar’s circumstances. Mrs. Imkomos was not relieved to hear that not only was there a fey flower dungeon master visiting him on the regular and a magically binding compact that he had signed with blood but that a pixie princess and her entire royal guard had gone and taken up residence in his Tower!
And Belissar had happily accepted all of this…because the Tower Lords had gone and attacked him and were planning to do so again. Belissar’s choices were now deception by the fey or destruction by his own people…
And so, Mrs. Imkomos…and Belissar’s birth parents, for that matter…now awaited further news from the Bee Dungeon with great trepidation.
But they were not the only ones with eyes on the Bee Dungeon…
The world was covered with flowers. Flowering ground cover spread across the ground, creating rainbow fields shimmering in the breeze. Flowering bushes created walls, both carefully cultivated and well-ordered gardens as well as wild thickets covered in thorns. Flowering trees filled the skies with color as their petals dropped and drifted through the air, while dandelions and other gliding flowers caught the wind and soared even higher.
It was those trees, in particular, that began to move, shifting closer together as they began to grow. A forest of flowering trees twisted together, forming into a body of wood. The God of Trees and Forests made her debut, her hair now a bright rainbow as it formed out of flowers instead of trees. The God of Trees and Forest opened her mouth…
“No!”
But the God of Flowers shouted her down before she could say anything. The God of Trees and Forests just chuckled. The God of Flowers stood down in a field below, facing away and shaking her head.
“This is my mission! This is Bee's and my collaboration! You can be in the dungeon with us, Tree, but I won’t let you take this joint child from me!”
The God of Trees and Forests shook her head.
“Oh, but I’m not, Flower. No, far from it. No, I’ve come to offer you that which you desire most.”
The God of Flowers scoffed.
“I already have what I want, Tree!”
The God of Trees and Forests grinned.
“Is that really true, Flower? Is a Flower-Bee hybrid monster really
that you want? Wouldn’t you be more interested in a more…intimate binding of your and Bee’s power? Wouldn’t you prefer a being that not merely represented both of your authorities…but that carried and combined them, truly?”
The God of Flowers scoffed again.
“You know as well as I that the God of Light doesn’t allow that sort of thing on World One anymore. No incarnations, no demigods, no avatars, no divine subordinates, no divine artifacts, nothing that truly carries our power, unless channeled through the dungeons. Blessings only, oracles and conduits at most.”
The God of Trees and Forests leaned forward and spoke softly.
“Yes…except for…those that already exist.”
The God of Flowers frowned. The God of Trees leaned in closer and chuckled.
“I’m sure you’ve seen the God of Bees’ latest collaboration. Her first ever demigod champion, one of the very few direct expressions of divine power left in World One. One allowed only because she was conceived before the divine withdrawal, even though she was not born until much later.”
The God of Trees grinned again, displaying all her woody teeth.
“But Mischief’s little demigod is not the only expression that yet persists. Not the only divine seed still waiting to sprout, still charting out its nature and its authorities. Not even the only one already within the Bee Dungeon.”
The God of Flowers remained silent. The God of Trees and Forests reached out, branches growing out of her fingers and smaller branches growing out of those until they were they were small enough to wrap around the God of Flowers’ shoulders.
“And…one could be yours. Could be ours. Yours, mine…and Bee’s, altogether. I am not unwilling to share…with those willing to share with me. Our authorities align, after all, far better than Bee’s and Mischief’s, wouldn’t you agree? And now…now you have an opportunity to bring it to fruition far sooner than planned. Our joint expression of power growing across the world, spreading bees and flowers and trees wherever it goes. Is that not a world you would like to see?”
The God of Flowers still did not respond…but she began to tremble. The God of Trees and Forests continued to smile…