Beesekai [A Monster Reincarnation Isekai]

The bees were silent. Right. Now they will begin to cheer, talking about the greatness of the hive and whatnot, which would be super embarrassing. Even so, I prepared to bask in the glory for just a teeny bit before I was forced to quiet them down to continue.

They started quietly chattering with each other.

“A body?” Bess asked to her left.

Belle thought for a moment before whispering back. “Probably that human woman. If there are two Minds in one body, it seems like a reasonable desire for Mama- er, Mind Mama, to want more control of her actions.”

“Isn’t Mind Mama originally the bee? Why should she debase herself to live in a human’s body?” Beryl, her gaze never leaving the Valkybees, interrupted from Bess’ right.

In a whisper, Beck shared their concerns with Bedivere about the low priority given to the Linked humans in Yiwi. They also mentioned the potential consequences of Linking Lahim in Lemonholm. Bedivere quietly reassured them, though he hesitated to give any concrete solutions, only saying that they should discuss it with Beatrice in more detail.

The Valkybees kept shoving each other like children.

“Calm yourself. I can already feel your distress rising. Any more and the rest of the hive will feel it.”

Me? Distressed? About this sudden uncomfortable situation? Surely not. Okay, but seriously, what the hell was going on? Were they ignoring me? Did they hate me now or something? Somehow, I hadn’t noticed that something was going terribly wrong. Ah. I’d failed them, hadn’t I? What could I do to remedy it?

“Enough. Remember your place. Remain strong, hold your head high. If you are too distressed to properly comprehend what is now coming through the Link, then stay your course. Speak about the role of each bee in the coming future; they may be uncomfortable being told about things they cannot work on. Remember, they crave work. Let them work.”

“Ahem. Enough.” I spoke, but my voice felt oddly far away. How annoying.

“Those are my personal goals, but you all should be busy as well. The dome is finished, but there is plenty of construction to be done within the hive. There are plenty of eggs that still need caring for. And our military capabilities are clearly more important than ever. I need you all to continue working your hardest to grow the hive’s power. The outside world is dangerous. We need to be prepared.”

Once again, the bees stayed silent for several moments. Then they began muttering. Again. For the first time, maybe ever, their voices through the Link sounded more like buzzing than words I could understand. Was the Link deteriorating? Was that why they were doing this? No, it couldn’t be. My antennae twitched. Was this actually an enemy attack? Had the Human somehow managed to find its way to the hive? An old feeling rose in me, something that was supposed to be tucked away. Screeching car tires turned into a roaring crackle, turned into a heart-stopping roar. It echoed in my Mind, and I was a little ball of light, floating on a gentle river, taken from my proper place in the world. My only companion was the shadow that stole me away, ferrying me from that horrible noise.

“That is quite enough. Night is falling, and Mother has endured a difficult day. We will turn this conference into a longer meeting over the course of the next three days, as there is still much to discuss.”

Beatrice’s voice cut through the buzzing like a sword through night. I barely registered her tapping my shoulder and leading me away, back to my chambers. Was it time to make more eggs? I had been struggling to do so while dealing with the stress of Lemonholm. My thoughts were messy and scattered, held together by my Mind. My Mind, and Queen, who was wrestling with the B-boxes to stuff everything inside. The instant she did, allowing the B-box to disappear into the distance towards the corner, my thoughts cleared.

“Beatrice,” I said slowly. “That was a mistake. I’m fine now, so we should go back and continue the meeting. It’s not that late yet.”

I struggled to meet her eyes out of pure embarrassment, but her thoughts were clear to me, so I looked. She wasn’t looking at me with a scary neutral expression, nor was it disappointment. She was expectant.

“…Never mind. That fight was freaking exhausting! I think we need to find another way to get the Valkybees to get their energy out, cause sparring with Bedivere and each other just isn’t doing it. Any ideas?”

“Of course. Bedivere has brought a similar concern to me before. I have conceived of some labor they can do…”

For a few hours, I just listened to Beatrice’s plans as the moon quietly appeared in my little window. The dark treetops did nothing to block its shine, and the river ended up reflecting a massive silver plate. It was nostalgic.

                                                                                                    

“Uh. Highqueen? Are these daydreams truly going to happen every time we have any sort of discussion?”

“You know what, Feltan? Maybe now that you’ve said that, I’m obligated to daydream every single time we talk.”

“…”

I thought my tone was more of a joking one, but I felt oddly conscious about it. Speaking to someone in that way had never really gone well for me. People were much more receptive when you were direct - no room for miscommunication there. That sort of tone was easy.

“Whatever may please you, I suppose. As for your request, it is impossible. In fact, I think I should speak to my father about creating a rule to prevent anyone from even trying such a thing.”

My eye twitched. The sun was already visible over the nearby mountain range by now, and I was getting a tiny bit frustrated. I had been trying for hours to get Feltan to understand my request. I wanted his help in figuring out a way to put Queen's Mind in Yelah's body. But now that he finally understood, he was rejecting me?

“Come on! Part of the reason I even asked you to train me in the ways of Mind before was for this exact thing. You know I’m going to try anyway, right? If you ask me, better to help me and prevent some sort of disaster than the alternative.”

No reaction; Feltan and his round body just continued rocking back and forth. I couldn’t see them, but if I had to guess, he’d have severe bags under his eyes. While his dad was still the de facto leader of the fernen, Feltan still did most of the legwork as a tribe leader. As if that weren’t enough, he was the appointed liaison between his people and the hive. Was he trying to sneak his way out of this because he was overworked?

I sighed. “Well, I’ll give you some time to think about it and come to the right conclusion. Let’s talk about something else then. We’ve never really talked about other stuff before, have we? Um. How about your family? Your dad is around - what about your mom? How about your grandparents? All I really know about is a previous Highchief that made a deal with Yiwi’s City Lord a long time ago.”

Feltan didn’t stop rocking, but he turned towards me now. Great. I asked about his missing mom. Brilliant. I am truly a conversational savant.

He turned away. “My mother died when I was a but a babe. A disease, I was told. Nothing extravagant; she chose to ease her suffering by returning to the forest. My grandparents were gone before I was born. My father’s father, Felotan, was a truly great Highchief. It was because of his ideas that the shroud avoided us, left us in peace for decades. The Highchief you have likely heard of, the one who engaged the first City Lord of Yiwi to a Battle of the Minds to win protection for the forest, was my great-great-grandfather, Highchief Faytan. This was over 200 years ago.”

He stopped there. Was that it? He had answered my questions as directly as possible, deviating little from the straight facts. I could understand that. But how was I supposed to go from here? Was he awkward like me?

“We have clearly seen Feltan interact with his people, and even the humans, in a very natural manner. I think he just dislikes you.”

“So, does that mean you guys keep a detailed record of your history? I know you use scrolls for paperwork - which is hilarious in a forest-dwelling species of creature, by the way - so do you record your history there, too?”

Although his facial language was imperceptible to me and I couldn’t see his eyes, it was impossible to miss Feltan’s look of utter horror.

“The names of our ancestors? In metal? You have learned some truly disturbing things from the humans. In no capacity would we send our history to live within the confines of that cold world. We carry our knowledge within ourselves, and so it stays within the forest.”

“So, what are all the details of the battle with the first City Lord? I’m intrigued. It’s not something that’s mentioned in any of the history scrolls read by the humans in Yiwi; the only things I’ve learned about are the fernen words taught to every citizen of Yiwi to keep the peace when entering the forest.”

“Who would need to know such things? The Highchief challenged the City Lord in order to protect the forest. He won, and here we are.”

I scoffed. Sure, buddy. Personally, I liked to know why certain things had to be done. The fact that the deal was still being upheld 200 years later was more than a little unusual to me. Or, it would be if I didn’t have the knowledge of the current City Lord. He didn’t know the exact details of what happened either, but he definitely wasn’t adhering to the outcome of the old Battle out of a sense of honor. Neither had his predecessor. No, the humans were, of course, chomping at the bit, ready for the moment they could take control of the forest for themselves. It just so happened that the deal with the fernen was mutually beneficial. Even more so when the shroud appeared.

“Whatever, man. You decide about my request yet?”

“As it turns out, the very first Highchief is the only one I am not related to. His name is unknown. He lived hundreds of years ago, perhaps a thousand. And because all of this information is missing, we know that it is better left unknown. But we know that even since then, we have been tasked with protecting the forest, and so we have always known of our singular duty. It really is no wonder my father has delved into the lutice weed. A millennia-old duty, failed under his watch.”

His voice took on a melancholy aura, even as he ignored my question. So all it took to get him to open up to me was to annoy him? I truly am talented. It did suck for his dad, though. If my ancestors made a promise and I was the one who fucked it up, I’d be knee deep in that lutice weed to take a load off my Mind. And while this was all interesting and nice, I had a singular goal at the moment.

The reason I was asking Feltan for help was purely due to the fernens’ capabilities with Mind. I had several theories on how to get our Mind transfer to work, but executing them was a different story. Besides the potential risks involved, there was simply no precedent. Messing with a Mind itself was not something recorded anywhere in my bank of human knowledge, and any thoughts about it were extremely taboo. I had wondered if the fernen had any idea, considering how different they could be from the humans, but apparently they’d never even considered the possibility of manipulating Minds. Or they probably had, but they never freaking bothered to write it down.

“I will help.”

“Hm?”

Feltan sighed in annoyance. “I said I will help you with your affront against nature. However, I would set conditions. I cannot force you to do anything, so these are more like hopeful requests. Please indulge me.”