The Bee Dungeon

Belissar and the bees observed the wardens work until the day wore on. Belissar caught Wardmaster Varilold’s attention just as she finished up the ward she was working on.

“Thank you for showing us the wards, Wardmaster Varilold. It’s about time for the daily purification, so we’ll need to leave now.”

Wardmaster Varilold stood up from her kneeling position by the latest ring of mushrooms.

“Would you mind if I accompanied you? I would like to see your defenses in action if you don’t mind.”

Belissar was a little surprised at the question but he quickly recovered.

“Sure.”

Wardmaster Varilold nodded to him, then barked some orders out to the wardens. Once she was confident in them continuing their work without her supervision, she grabbed a handful of the ones on sentry duty to accompany them. Belissar and the bees led them through the shortcuts to the battle meadow, where the bee army and the karnuq hunters were forming up as usual. Chief Rohsuak saluted to him.

“Tower Keeper. I see we have guests today?”

Belissar waved between the two women.

Wardmaster Varilold extended her hand.

“Nice to meet you.”

Chief Rohsuak grabbed and shook it.

“The pleasure is mine.”

The pair smiled at each other as they shook hands and then settled back by Belissar’s sides. Belissar, meanwhile, rubbed his chin.

“…if you want to actually see the purification, should we move this room forward? For these daily purifications, the shades tend to get caught in the traps in the rooms ahead if we don’t.”

Wardmaster Varilold inclined her head.

“I’ll leave that to your discretion, Tower Keeper. Viewing the results of a successful trap will be informative as well. And if these purifications are a daily occurrence, I will be available to view several more going forward.”

Belissar started to think about it but ended up shrugging. If it was up to his discretion, then he could just go with his first thought.

“Niobee, could you let the queens know we’re moving the battle meadow first? The bee army should be ready to fight.”

“Ok!”

He turned to Chief Rohsuak as Niobee flew off.

“The karnuq as well.”

Chief Rohsuak smiled at him.

“I’ll inform the hunters, Tower Keeper.”

It only took a moment for Belissar to rearrange the rooms and then for the bee army and karnuq hunters to take up their positions by the entrance. Soon, they were ready to begin…

Varilold watched as the Tower Keeper’s forces arranged themselves. She could see all the way to the entrance of the room from her position near the structures in the back, so she simply stayed by the Tower Keeper’s side. She gave a subtle glance out of the corner of her eye to the wardens she brought along with her. They nodded and kept their hands on their blades.

Purifications were dangerous affairs from what she knew of the Circle’s experience. The Tower Keeper and his defenders seemed quite relaxed, but she didn’t yet know if that was from confidence or complacency, so they would need to be prepared for anything. Besides, anything involving the Hunger could go very wrong, very quickly, even for the fully prepared.

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And the Tower Keeper himself was but a child in her eyes, his demeanor made that clear. He was trying hard to put on a confident front, but that helped little before the signatories several centuries his senior at youngest. His room layouts and defenses spoke to a lack of formal knowledge and training as well, though he was starting to develop something of an organized plan. The wardmaster, as the one responsible for the survival of the Calwaskon Compact and now this dungeon as well, had to consider the case where she would need to take over his defenses.

On the other hand, this boy had survived when directly exposed to the Hunger that had claimed most of the mortal realm, without the benefits of the wards or the support of all the fair. She should not be too quick to dismiss him…and, indeed, the sight before hinted at an alternative explanation. Perhaps the layouts of his rooms and his traps remain simplistic because his focus lay elsewhere. The large and diverse bee army flying in well-organized formations up above was no mundane bee swarm, that was for sure. And Chief Rohsuak, though by years likely still a child by the fair’s standards, had the look of a warrior who had seen a great deal of battle and bloodshed. Varilold couldn’t say for sure just from one look, but she had a feeling the karnuq chief wouldn’t be so relaxed if the Tower Keeper hadn’t given her good reason to be.

And so, Varilold simply waited as the Tower Keeper called out the start of the purification. Her wardens tightened their grip on their blades and began to stir up their mana. She herself focused her attention on the gate leading outside the Tower. She frowned ever so slightly as a chill ran down her spine when the Hunger began to coalesce midair. She never truly got used to its presence, not even after all her years of fighting against it.

But now was not the time to dwell on the Hunger. She looked to see how the Tower’s defenders would respond…

A wave of black and yellow rippled through the sky as the entire bee army began to move. At first, Varilold was concerned that discipline might be breaking down…but she needn’t have worried. As she looked closer, she saw that the formation was not breaking but rearranging. They formed a cage around the shade, with several more, larger cages surrounding the first. Varilold allowed a small smile on her face. The bees quickly prepared a layered formation with reserves ready to catch an adversary that broke through the initial encirclement. Their quick rearrangement spoke to a great deal of practice.

Then, the shade emerged from the mass of Hunger and let out a screech. Varilold now understood the purpose of the bees’ formation as a bird shade now flapped in the sky…and was immediately set upon. Bees began diving down before the shade had even finished coalescing and stabbed stingers into its wings the moment it appeared. The shade’s initial screech grew higher in tone as the bees drove it down into the ground. From there, bigger bees each with a spear of a stinger dove down from high above the formation, the other bees just barely moving out of the way as they plunged down from above. They pierced straight through the incapacitated shade before it managed to pick itself off the ground…and it was done.

Varilold rested her chin on one hand while holding her elbow with her other. For the most part, she could put her concerns about the Tower Keeper to rest, as she had predicted his focus had gone into his bee army. They had immediately identified the nature of their opponent just from the position of the Hunger, smoothly rearranged their formation to match, and struck the enemy with a coordinated blow. It was clear they had a great deal of experience with these shades and had developed the tools to handle them.

What had Varilold thinking was the purification itself. With how exposed this Tower was to the Hunger, Varilold had expected a battle far worse, worse at least than the purifications the Circle dungeons experienced. Instead, they faced a single small shade that was immediately dispatched.

What could be the cause? Was it because the Tower Keeper was conducting purifications on a daily basis and keeping down the amount of Hunger to be purified at in any single battle? Was it because of how they linked the Circle dungeons to wards covering the entirety of the land of the fair? Was it related to the powers of the dungeons themselves and the differences in how the Tower Keeper had grown his? Maybe the dungeons were meant to be exposed to the Hunger and they had hamstrung the Circle from the start…

Varilold didn’t have enough information to figure it out one way or the other. What she did know, however, was that if this was how things were all the time…then perhaps the Compact and the Circle had been entirely too cautious in their approach. For all she knew, her own approach and her own wards may have doomed the land of the fair to a slow death when they had the tools to push back all along. Her chest tightened around her heart at that thought.

But she squashed any regret. She had done as best she knew and the land of the fair had survived to this day, this day when she now had the chance to learn the truth and correct her course if necessary. So, rather than teaching the Tower Keeper how to defend himself, she needed to learn from him what he was doing. And if she did…perhaps she could finally go on the offensive in this endless war.

The Tower Keeper turned to her afterwards.

“So, what do you think?”

Varilold smirked at herself. What did she think indeed? What could she think about this young little human who seemed to overturn everything she thought she knew with every day they interacted with him? What did she think about a human child of a few decades and a bunch of bees not even a year old potentially doing more against the Hunger than she had in over a thousand years as the defender of the entire Compact? What did she think of the possibility that she might have doomed the entire land of the fair and that it would now be a human that would save it?

“I think we have a lot to learn from each other, Tower Keeper. Let’s defend our homes, together.”

What she thought was that now, just maybe, they could find a way to win, and nothing mattered more than that to the Wardmaster of the Compact. So, she resolved that she would let nothing threaten this Tower and its Keeper, whether foul…or fair…