The Bee Dungeon-Chapter 264: An Offer to Bee-view

The next morning, after his morning routine, Belissar went over to the hunting field. The butcher queens flew out to greet him as he approached their hives. Squads of butcher soldiers carried slain rabbits to the corpse area nearby. Belissar tried his best to avoid glancing there, as he knew the butcher workers were hard at work foraging there…

The butcher queens happily zipped around him, allowing him to distract himself with happier thoughts.

“Hi there, looks like things are going well?”

The First Butcher responded for the group with her usual buzzes and pheromones.

“Well! Lots of meats, hives growing!”

Belissar smiled.

“Great, might add some more soon. I guess I’ll need to get an animal resource spawner…in any case, I was thinking of adding the new queens to this room, the bloodsucking ones. They would need to hunt too, though, so would that be alright? Will you have enough meat for you all?”

The First Butcher happily confirmed.

“Big sisters and big meat sisters shared, so will share with little sisters!”

Belissar’s smile grew wide.

“I’m happy to hear that. In that case, let’s say hi to your new little sister.”

The First Butcher buzzed and zipped about while Belissar began to place a bloodsucking bee queen spawner. This particular spawner appeared as nothing more than a small hole in the ground. Belissar shrugged and placed it by the butcher queen spawner.

The little hole flashed with light from within and out crawled the first bloodsucking queen. A little black and red queen with sharp mandibles. She shook herself and then took to the air, immediately zipping towards Belissar. Once close to him, she spoke by releasing pheromones, saluting to him as all newly born queens did. Belissar smiled and held out his hand for her, then Niobee encouraged her to land on it.

“Hi there, and welcome to the Tower and the hive of hives! This here is the First Butcher, a butcher bee queen, and the one in charge of this room. She’ll help you set up your hive.”

The First Butcher flew over and landed on Belissar’s hand as well so she could begin rubbing antennae and exchanging pheromones with the new queen.

“Hi! Am First Butcher, your big sister. Want meats or honey? Have both!”

The little bloodsucker queen didn’t seem to know how to respond at first, but Niobee joined in and helped explain things to her.

“Am…First Bloodsucker? Have blood or pollen?”

The First Butcher buzzed happily.

“Have lots of blood! Come see!”

Belissar just watched with a warm smile as the First Butcher led the First Bloodsucker into the air…at least until they landed on a rabbit in the process of being dismantled and butcher workers led the new queen right into its now empty eyesocket.

“L-Looks like they’re all good here, let’s leave them to it. Can you tell the rest of the queens about the First Bloodsucker, Niobee?”

Niobee, at least, did not seem disturbed by the sight at all.

“Ok! Leaf door scouts also say flower one, water one, and mean one back. King want to meet?”

Belissar nodded his head immediately. What great timing.

“Yes, I’ll be right there. Thanks for telling me!”

Belissar met with Nenavann, Tarwantrad, and Tamosmed, who brought the Compact’s counteroffer to his own. Belissar glanced around and raised an eyebrow. 𝘙ＡƝ∅𝔟Ё𝐒

“Is Henilett not here?”

Nenavann shook his head.

“She doesn’t have a reason to be here anymore. She did pass me some notes, though.”

Belissar nodded, and then they got into the counteroffer. It was…quite long, so it took them a while to go over it. The counteroffer contained many, many terms, but in general it boiled down to these major points:

- Belissar would become a signatory of the Compact. All lands under his protection, which would include all land in the mortal realm purified by his Tower, would be subject to the terms of the Compact as applicable. The lands under Belissar’s protection would be excepted from this and his subordinates, including dungeon monsters, would have full access to and use of those lands unless otherwise specified in separate agreements. Belissar was excepted from certain restrictions on Circle masters regarding land ownership, though they would still apply to him within the land of the fair. His Tower itself would remain under Belissar’s full authority, with the exception of the nexus gate room.

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- The lands under the Compact would be open to Belissar and his subordinates, though access to territories under direct authority of individual signatories would be at their own discretion and dungeon monsters would additionally fall under the terms applied to the Circle. Full access to the dungeons of the Circle would be permitted now at the discretion of each dungeon’s master. Some extra restrictions applied to him, such as requiring the permission of the Loremaster to access information at the House of Lore.

- Belissar would keep the nexus gate open and protect it to the best of his ability. The wardens would be permitted access to the room containing it and would be permitted to set up defenses there at their discretion, though they were to inform Belissar to prevent accidents. The Compact would assist with the defense of Belissar’s Tower in its entirety in addition to the nexus gate. Belissar and the Compact both agreed to not to harm each other’s people, including the bees and other dungeon monsters, and to assist each other against the Hunger and unprovoked aggression by third parties, though the latter was subject to a very extensive list of terms and conditions also found in the Compact’s own equivalent. Belissar and the Compact would coordinate with each other before either declared any offensive wars against third parties.

- Belissar would retain authority to conduct diplomacy and make binding agreements with third parties in the mortal realm on his own, so long as those agreements did not involve the Compact or violate his agreements with them. He would be permitted to relinquish his and the Compact’s authority over purified lands to any preexisting inhabitants at his own discretion. He would consult with representatives of the Compact before relinquishing authority over uninhabited lands to third parties, though the Compact was not to restrict his dealings without good (and extensively specified) cause. His existing agreements with the sigmaka would be recognized and respected by the Compact. The Compact and its individual signatories, likewise, would consult with Belissar before making any agreements with third parties in the mortal realm. The expectation was that Belissar would not restrict the Compact’s dealings without cause, but he was permitted to veto any agreements involving him, his subordinates, his Tower (including movement through the nexus gate), the lands under his protection, or that would violate existing agreements with other parties at his discretion.

- Belissar would assist in the defense of the lands under his protection and any citizens of the Compact present there. This was, of course, subject to a very extensive list of terms and conditions, not least of all requiring citizens of the Compact to respect his bees, his people, and any agreements he had with third parties as well as to avoid provoking them. Belissar and his subordinates would have similar protections when in the lands under the Compact that were not under his authority. The signatories of the Compact would make regular material contributions to him to fund these defenses.

Belissar’s head was spinning from reading term upon term with exception upon exception and endless clarifications and definitions…but the overall gist was that in exchange for keeping the door open and safe, the Compact would help him fight against any invaders, Hunger or otherwise. The lands his Tower purified would pretty much stay his, the Compact promised not to hurt the bees or the karnuq, he’d be allowed to visit the Compact if he liked, and the Compact would pay him for protecting the nexus door and any of their citizens on his side of it.

There were some other restrictions on him compared to the usual Compact citizen, but Nenavann explained that said restrictions would be a given anyways once it was revealed that none of the terms of the Compact would apply to him or his lands. He’d be negotiating with individual signatories for stuff like visiting the House of Lore anyways. Once the Compact itself was subtracted, the only responsibilities he had were to keep the nexus door open and let the wardens protect it, to help the Compact out if they were attacked, to check with the Compact before starting any wars, and to protect any citizens of the Compact out in the mortal realm. Nenavann pointed out that the Compact couldn’t be attacked if he wasn’t first, since the only way in and out of the Compact was through his Tower, and that once it was revealed the Compact held no authority over his lands no citizens from the Compact would be able to visit without his permission in the first place.

But there was one term in particular that stood out to Belissar.

“Ok…so…what about this one here? The one that says I’m supposed to cooperate with all attempts to mediate peace with the Conclave of Tower Lords specifically?”

Nenavann’s face turned grave.

“Indeed. We received word from the God of Flowers, God of Water, and God of Fire, by both oracle and mission, that a Tower Lord is headed towards your dungeon. It is likely that a conflict is inevitable, but the gods have requested that we make all efforts to prevent it from growing into all out war between this Conclave and the Compact. Since you are the target of this Tower Lord, it goes without saying that we cannot make peace with them unless you do as well.”

Belissar scowled at first…but his face softened as he remembered his own message from the gods.

“Ah…yes, the God of Bees warned me a Tower Lord is coming as well. Just so you know, I’m going to defend myself from them and I’m not going to let them hurt the bees or the karnuq or the spiderkin…or even the sigmaka if I can help it. But…since the gods are asking…if the Tower Lords will stop attacking me and stay away, then I guess we can make peace or something. As long as I won’t have anything more to do with them, then I don’t care.”

The anger building in his chest made him wonder if that last bit was a lie…but at the end of the day his priority was his bees and his people, as well as the gods that had taken care of him and were siding with him now. So, as angry as he was at the Tower Lords…if they would just leave him alone then he was willing to do the same. His anger wasn’t worth unnecessary bee deaths.

But if they weren’t…then Belissar wouldn’t let them do as they pleased.

Nenavann just nodded his head.

“That is more than enough. It goes without saying that we will only make peace if they will as well.”

Belissar slowly nodded. He’d need more time to check the vast amount of terms…but he was thinking that this might be acceptable. And if so…then he’d secure the Compact’s help to protect the bees. And if he did that…then perhaps all of this would be worth it in the end.