The Bee Dungeon-Chapter 265: New Bee-lemmas?

Belissar called over his council to help him look over the counteroffer in more detail. Sehfitis furrowed his brow as he read it over, causing Belissar to raise an eyebrow.

“Is there a problem?”

Sehfitis grimaced.

“Not if what you’ve told me of the loophole is true but…this is a bargain with the fey, Tower Keeper. I intend no offense to your present company, but I must reiterate the fey are known to be tricksters, and they supposedly have some means of magically enforcing bargains. There is great risk in any agreement with them, as failure by either side to keep it is said to come with serious consequences. I’ve no confidence in my ability to discern any traps in the agreement and there is no going back once the it is concluded. I would much prefer to avoid such bargains in the first place…”

Belissar crossed his arms and frowned.

“Maybe but…is that more dangerous than the Tower Lord army the gods have warned us is coming? We could really use any help we can get when they arrive, and the gods seem supportive of dealing with the Compact too…”

Sehfitis sighed.

“That is true, so I suppose I cannot recommend refusing on suspicion alone. The specific danger I can see is that if the fey have lied to you about the supposed loophole in their Compact, you may find yourself under their authority. Less specifically…I am concerned that I cannot see anymore traps than that. Which means that to sign this agreement is to trust that the fey have been clear and honest when devising these terms.”

Belissar glanced over at the Circle masters. Nenavann made a troubled smile.

“I’d love to refute his concerns, but they are largely accurate when considering dealing with the signatories as a whole. Bargains such as these are indeed enforced by powerful magic and there is indeed no going back without great sacrifice as a result. And he is not wrong that to accept this bargain is to trust that Queen Vanieskon has dealt with us honestly, a poor assumption at the best of times. I would, however, say that this is one rare circumstance where she can be trusted. As deceptive and manipulative as she can be, she ultimately understands the stakes we’re dealing with. The Compact she helped forge between all the different fair peoples has kept peace between us for over a thousand years. I do not believe she would include any traps so dreadful as to make you regret the bargain as a whole. Even if she has lied about the loophole…the Compact itself is intended to maintain peace, not exploit its signatories, and since you would be a signatory rather than a citizen you’d have some means to resist attempts by the others to push you around.”

Belissar took a deep breath and glanced around at the assembled bees, karnuq, humans, and fair folk.

“So…is this an agreement we should take?”

There was further discussion on individual terms and omissions. Belissar was a little disappointed that the vast majority of his counter terms had been rejected, but Henilett and Nenavann had told him that would be the case. Something about letting the other side feel like they got a good deal by cutting out a bunch of stuff he didn’t really need. That seemed weird to Belissar, why come up with all of that just to end up with only the first couple things he thought of?

But setting that aside, no one else had any major objections to the counteroffer as a whole. And Belissar did very much want the Compact on his side when the Tower Lords showed up. So, as the conversation died down, he slowly nodded his head.

“So…I guess there’s a few adjustments we want, but as a whole…I think we can accept this?”

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Chief Rohsuak nodded. Sehfitis grimaced but begrudgingly nodded as well. The bees, of course, filled the air with the buzzing of a synchronized “whatever King chooses!” dance. Belissar took a deep breath.

“In that case, we acce…”

At that moment, Niobee frantically flew in front of his face.

“King! Broodtenders say spider-human eggs hatching now!”

Belissar immediately turned to leave.

“Sorry, can we put that on hold? We need to see how this goes.”

Nenavann nodded…and began following along.

“No, you are right, this takes priority. Would you mind if I observed as well? I would also like to confirm how it goes.”

Belissar just grunted a quick approval before running to the nearest shortcut. It was time to find out what newly hatched spiderkin were really like…

Belissar arrived at the Orchard grove quickly. All of his council had apparently followed along but Belissar wasn’t paying them attention at this point. He found worker bees buzzing around the eggs while the soldier bees hovering nearby assembled into their formations. He walked up right behind the closest soldier bee squad, as close as he could get without putting himself in harm’s way should the worst come to pass. Ｒ₳ɴＯΒЕs̩

He observed the spiderkin eggs more closely and soon saw one of them vibrate. He could feel mana swirling about within the eggs with far greater intensity than he had felt from them before. He didn’t even need to ask, he could tell the bees were right.

Chief Rohsuak seemed to notice as well.

“Here we go…”

One of the eggs began to vibrate more frequently and the brood tender workers swarmed around it. Belissar focused his attention on it. He saw different spots on the egg bulge out for a moment.

With a crack, a sharp spider leg pierced through the shell of the egg. One squad of soldier bees flew down and began to pull away at the edges of the hole at the brood tenders’ request. Another spider leg jabbed out and then another, lashing about to tear at the hole. Belissar nearly called out a warning to the soldier bees, but they moved out of the way with ease, even before Belissar saw the spider legs move.

Eventually, the hole was large enough that eight spider legs were dangling out of it. They flailed about for a bit before stabbing into the rest of the egg and the ground nearby. They then grabbed on and stopped flailing. The soldier bees took off from the egg at this point.

The legs began to contract and pull a spider body out of the hole. The soldier bees swooped down, grabbed onto whatever parts of the body they could grip, and then helped pull. A pair of human-shaped hands grabbed onto the sides of the hole as well, and then with one final pull the spiderkin emerged fully, flipping about and crashing onto the ground outside of the egg.

And so Belissar, for the first time, got a good look at a spiderkin with his own eyes, this one seemingly a girl. She was smaller than the others he had seen, coming up to about his chest. Her spider body, curiously, was not pitch black like those they had faced in the Underway. Rather, it appeared like that of a wasp spider, with black and yellow stripes and patterns.

Not unlike a bee’s.

Her human torso appeared like a child of about ten years or so. Chitin covered much of it, protecting her vitals like armor. It covered the back of her hands and fingers, ending in sharp claws. Her human skin, where it could be seen, appeared pale, and she had silky black hair coming down her back. On her face she had eight eyes: two big ones where the human eyes would be, a pair of smaller ones facing forward just below them, a pair to above and angled slightly to the side, and then a pair on the sides facing in either direction. The small eyes were all solid black, while the big pair were human, if a bit darker overall with schelera more gray than white. A pair of spider mandibles surrounded her human mouth, and Belissar just got the glimpse of what looked like a fang…or maybe a stinger…at the end of one.

Everyone held their breath as they waited to see what she’d do. Would she attack immediately, like so many others had warned him of? The spiderkin stumbled to her feet, quickly managing to get her footing and stand up. She shook her head and then began spinning her head around, spreading out her hands and extending the claws at the end of them while her spider jaws clicked together. Her gaze then landed on Belissar. She tensed and Belissar’s heart caught in his throat…

And then she made a big smile.

“King!”

She scampered forward to rush towards Belissar. She turned away just in front of the soldier bee squad hovering at ground level and began running around in circles. Belissar tensed but then stopped, blinking as he noticed the soldier bees weren’t reacting, not even buzzing at her. He looked more closely and his jaw dropped. She was not running in circles, but in a figure eight pattern, shaking her body occasionally at regular intervals. A pattern of movements and vibrations that he recognized…and that the Tower did as well.

She was performing a bee’s salute dance.