The Fourth of the Seventh danced about happily. She was big now! Big enough to carry both her first communer and the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter on her back, like the Conduit carried her queen mother Velebee! It was amazing, incredible!

    She wanted to carry them outside and show them the mini-hive, but she knew they both needed to stay with the main hive. Maybe once their daughters grew up a bit more! For now, though the Fourth of the Seventh decided to take care of the hive before she left again.

    It ended up being really easy! She was big now, but the worker eggs were still small, so she could lay a ton of them! She could lay as many right now as she would have if she just stayed in the main hive all the time! So that’s what she did! It was a bit hard to fit in between the trays now, but by beating her wings she could wrap the eggs with wind and they would just glide to their cells. It was amazing!

    She quickly filled up all the cells set aside for brood, and then kept going...and going. She then felt her communer rapidly dancing on her back.

    “Queen mother, what doing?! Too many eggs, hive can’t feed, can’t tend!”

    The First Daughter, amazingly nice queen that she was, started to volunteer to take care of the eggs but the Fourth of the Seventh danced first.

    “Is ok! Can tell eggs to sleep now! Won’t hatch until communer tells to!”

    Her communer stumbled.

    “Huh? But...will starve if don’t give honey?”

    The Fourth of the Seventh danced the negative once more.

    “Is fine! Eggs tough now, filled with mana! Don’t eat much if sleeping, so will be fine until hive is ready!”

    The communer stilled at that. Eventually, the First Daughter replied for her.

    “Fourth of the Seventh is amazing!”

    The communer slowly danced her agreement. The Fourth of the Seventh thought they were the amazing ones and danced as much.

    Soon, though, she could feel her children tighten their grip once more, so she slowed down and stopped looping. She turned her attention to her original purpose. Now that she was high above even the trees and the King’s realm, she tested her big eyes.

    She could see...everything.

    If she let her gaze wander she could see a vast landscape all around her. She could see the trees stretching out to the south and east of the Tower. The north cleared out to plains and meadows with a river winding through it, and she could see more of the ruins of hives built by humans or karnuq or something like them here and there. The west began to rise, the flat land around the tower becoming hills. She could see all the way to where the King’s power fought against the Hunger!

    If she focused her sight, she could see with amazing detail. Colorful flowers caught her eyes and she found that even from here she could make out the colors of their petals. If she looked at the trees she could see their leaves and branches! The trees to the east started to grow bigger than the ones close to the tower! If she looked at the plains she could see more stones placed on the ground in straight lines, and walls made of fallen trees, like the ones the King, the karnuq, and now the Third of the Third liked to build, dividing the plains up into squares!

    She wanted to soar over the trees and the plains and investigate all these things, but she turned and began to descend instead. She had promised her communer to wait for her escorts to evolve first, so she wouldn’t start the scouting just yet. Instead, she glided down to the first set of ruins and checked on the mini-hive there. She considered laying eggs there, a new part of her instincts wanting to turn the mini-hive into a true hive, but she did not. At the end of the day, she still wanted all of her children to hatch in the warm mana of the King’s realm before they braved the Beyond. So, after confirming all the bees she left there were fine, receiving their reports, and brushing up against them all, she made her way back to the Tower.

    To explore all the new parts of the Beyond the King had purified, she needed her escorts to evolve, so it was time to bring them home! Maybe she would help the soldiers weave stems again while she waited, it had been a while since she did that herself!

    Belissar smiled to himself as he watched Frelis and the Fourth of the Seventh both explore their new powers. Frelis seemed to have evolved, though the Tower didn’t inform him of any new bee types, so perhaps a god’s blessing worked differently than regular evolutions?

    However, Belissar suddenly stiffened as he compared Frelis and the Fourth of the Seventh. He realized something. Something very important.

    The Fourth of the Seventh had unlocked a new evolution. A feat previously matched by only one other bee: Beero.

    So, Belissar turned to Niobee.

    “Hey, Niobee.”

    “Yes, King?”

    He hummed to himself.

    “Do you think the Fourth of the Seventh would like a name?”