Sting & Song

Benjamin Medrano

Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Epilogue

Heaven’s Fallen Preview

Sting & Song by Benjamin Medrano

© 2019 Benjamin Medrano. All rights reserved.

Contact the author at BenjaminPMedrano@gmail.com

Visit the author’s website at benjaminmedrano.com

Sign up for the author’s mailing list at http://eepurl.com/cGPT-b

Editing by Picky Cat Proofreading

Cover Art by Loputon

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Created with Vellum

For my Patrons. This book wouldn’t exist without them, after all!

Prologue

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Xinra said, the disbelief in her voice almost palpable. “A deific flush?”

All the gods stared at the cards laying on the table in front of Yonra. The deity was sitting back, grinning like a loon as he replied. “What? I told you that my luck had to turn eventually.”

They all looked at Besalk, and the god of luck quickly raised his hands defensively, protesting. “I had nothing to do with it! Yonra’s luck may have been abysmal every other game, but I’ve never used my powers for or against him.”

“In that case it means that Yonra wins,” Assyran said evenly, and he smiled as he added, “According to the rules laid down before this millennium’s contest, a deific flush means that all participants owe Yonra a major boon.”

Everyone was silent briefly, and they stared at Assyran for a long moment. He was the Balancer of Scales, which was why everyone was happy to have him judging their contests, at least most of the time. Then they looked at Yonra in trepidation, seeing the grin on the bearded, blond deity’s face.

“Uh-oh,” Fayliss murmured, the goddess of beauty eying him warily.

“Oh, don’t get your panties in a twist, Fay. I’m not going to ask you for anything you’ll object to. As a matter of fact, I know exactly what I want, and it’s a minor price to pay for all of you,” Yonra said, rolling his eyes, and all the others tensed more. Yonra was a god of chaos, and they never trusted him when he smiled like that.

“What might that be?” Xinra asked warily.

Yonra snapped his fingers, and a sheaf of paper popped into existence in front of each of the gods, including Assyran, who took it with a raised eyebrow and slight smile. The various deities picked the pages up, reading them as Yonra spoke.

“The world’s gotten too boring, so I want a new species. Nothing that will break the balance that you so desperately adore, but something interesting,” the deity said, grinning broadly. “What I want is—”

“Bee-girls?” Demask demanded, his deep voice filled with shock.

The others stared at the papers, then at Yonra. After a moment he replied mildly. “Yes, bee-girls. And bee-boys, but considering bees, they probably won’t be as common.”

“Why? What do you have planned?” Fayliss asked suspiciously.

“I don’t have anything planned, I just want to have some fun. I very carefully made sure the proposal won’t have anything that any of you object to,” Yonra replied, buffing his nails on his robe. “In fact, as long as you all agree to it, I’ll consider the favors… spent.”

Everyone looked at Assyran, and the deity smiled slightly. “The favors he’s owed are his to call in, not my own. The proposal appears to be within the bounds of merely two greater favors, let alone as many as he has won.”

“See?” Yonra said, and grinned. “Look, I’ll even agree to allow you to fix any problems that arise afterward, as long as the changes are kept to the minimum necessary to fix the issue. I just want my bee-girls, damn it.”

Fayliss looked over the papers, and after a moment she nodded slowly. “In that case… I will agree to this.”

The other deities hesitated, then voiced their own agreement as Yonra’s grin widened still more. And as their agreement was voiced, the world beneath them remained unaware of how much things were about to change.

Chapter 1

The giant bee quickly circled the rose, humming happily to herself. Half her inventory was full already, which meant that she was making good progress. The queen would likely be pleased with her. Still, it wouldn’t do to wander into range of a wasp or spider in her eagerness, so she examined her surroundings carefully.

The rose was large and attractive, and she practically salivated at the nectar she could smell from within. It would likely finish filling her inventory, and she didn’t see or smell any signs of danger. Not even from the fleshy creatures that occasionally hunted her kindred.

So the bee headed into the flower, her humming growing still happier.

* * *

The adventurers had cut their way deep into the hive, and many workers had fallen trying to block their advance. The attackers were two humans, a dwarf, three half-elves, and an elf, all of whom had taken precautions to protect themselves from the venomous stings of the workers. They’d taken some injuries so far, but in return they’d felled dozens of workers, and at last they’d made it into the queen’s chambers.

A swarm of workers, including several of the queen’s attendants, descended on the intruders desperately, and they could see the hulking figure of the queen past the attacking bees.

With a yell a human warrior waved his shield and stomped, creating a shockwave that knocked the insects back. The elf chanted briefly and extended her staff, and an eruption of lightning blasted through the bees, stunning them as they twitched and fell to the ground.

“Quick, get her while they’re stunned!” the dwarf called out, her voice clear.

The group charged into the chamber, all the wax cells around them glistening with honey and pollen, and the queen began to bite and sting as she tried to defend herself. They surrounded her quickly, though, and she began flagging as they landed several telling blows, including one of the half-elves burying a dagger in one of her wings to keep her from flying.

She staggered to the side as a hammer cracked her abdomen, and the attackers exclaimed in excitement as the other bees were starting to come to their senses. The queen felt the faintest sense of regret, wishing she could do something to protect her hive. In that moment she felt the offer, and she instantly seized the chance and agreed.

Evolve Hive into Apis Hive?

Evolving into Apis Hive

A flash of white light blasted through the hive, blinding the attackers as they recoiled in surprise. As the light faded, the queen found herself changed. Echoing in her mind was a statement, but she ignored it, instead looking down at herself in surprise at the same time as her attackers looked at her in shock.

The queen’s body was now more like that of her attackers, similar to that of a human, and with vision that focused forward. Her body was sheathed in black chitin armor, much like their warrior wore plate, but it had multiple yellow stripes across its surface and was cracked where she’d been injured. In one hand she held a rapier made of black chitin which shone with a layer of green liquid along its length. Beyond her attackers she could see her workers and drones, and they were slowly standing up again in shapes similar to her own, disoriented. Their eyes were black, with gold irises that looked faceted, and black pupils within, while each bore a pair of antennae. Most were workers, all of which were female, while the drones were male, as they should be.

“What the… bees don’t do this, do they? Could it be a curse?” a human asked, looking at one of the half-elves. “Don’t tell me we did this for nothing?”

“No, this isn’t something normal,” the half-elf replied quickly, her voice perplexed. “I’ll Analyze her—”

“For the queen!” one of the drones called out, raising his rapier high, and he charged the elven mage in the back.

“What—” the elven woman began, looking stunned, but she reacted a little too slowly, and cried out in pain as he buried his blade in her stomach.

The others swarmed forward, brandishing their weapons as the intruders struggled to react, trying to rebuild a defensive line.

“Royal Command, defend the hive!” the queen said quickly, her amazement turning to anger, and she felt mana surge, and a golden aura radiated from her, causing her subordinates’ speed to increase as their attacks hit harder.

“What in the hells?” the dwarf yelped, but at that moment more bees entered the chamber, all of them in their new, humanoid form, and each of them grew stronger as they entered the queen’s aura.

The attackers quickly fell under the flood of attacking bees. Their mage fell first despite the efforts of their priest to save her, then the bees focused on the lightly armored priest and rogues, until at last only the dwarf and heavily armored warrior remained. Even they fell, though the cost was another two dozen bees. At last it was done, though, and the queen took note of the message in her mind.

Evolution Complete: Apis Hive

Evolution Complete: Apis Queen Level 10

Level Up: Apis Queen Level 17

She considered the message for a long moment, then dismissed it with a thought. It didn’t matter, not really. Instead she looked at her hive and considered, then spoke firmly. “Deal with the fallen and the intruders. Keep their equipment; we have need of it.”

“Yes, My Queen,” a surviving attendant said, the woman curtseying deeply, a diaphanous golden gown attached to her armor.

“My Queen?” one worker said, kneeling and lowering her head. “Might I request thy wisdom?”

“Speak,” the queen ordered, feeling somewhat impatient with the woman. The number of dead she’d seen so far horrified her, and she wanted to know the full extent of the damage to the hive.

“I have been offered the chance to evolve into an Apis Warrior or to remain a worker. What would best serve the hive?” the worker asked respectfully, her head bowed, and the queen’s anger eased as she realized that the interruption was of use.

“Evolve, and secure the hive. Ensure that all intruders have been dealt with,” the queen ordered and scowled at the attackers. “We are displeased by this assault.”

“Yes, My Queen,” the worker replied, and quickly stood, a soft glow enveloping her body.

The hive set to work, and the queen smiled in satisfaction. Even if most of the hive had lost their wings, save for her and the most powerful workers in the room, she believed that the risk had been worth taking. After all, otherwise she’d be dead.

* * *

The bee unsteadily struggled to her feet and held on to the edge of a petal as she glanced over the edge of the rose. Only minutes before she’d been happily harvesting nectar and pollen, and now… now she was different. She swallowed hard as she saw the long, long fall to the ground below.

Then she asked plaintively, utterly confused by her situation, “What happened to my wings?”

Chapter 2

The apis worker waited hopefully for nearly an hour, thinking that maybe another member of the hive would happen by and might be able to help, or even summon help, but none of them came into sight, despite being near the edge of the hive’s territory. While a tiny part of her was tempted to risk jumping, the sheer distance to the ground dissuaded her, and worse, the only other stems she could potentially reach were covered in thorns, which dissuaded her from trying to climb down.

She licked her lips again, irritated by her new situation as she glanced up at the sky worriedly. The sun was sinking toward the horizon, and she really didn’t want to try making her way back to the hive in the dark. She wasn’t certain how well she’d be able to see in the dark and didn’t want to be out at night anyway. It’d be too easy to wander into a web, after all.

So instead she took stock of what she had, frowning as she settled down in the fragrant rose. She was wearing yellow and black chitinous armor, and she had a sheathed rapier at her side, made of the same material. Her inventory was almost completely full, with four of the six slots filled with pollen and nectar, twelve stacks of each in those slots, and the last two slots only had seven portions of nectar and three of pollen at the moment.

She hesitated, then tapped on her rapier curiously, wondering just what it could do. As she did so, she felt like she heard its description in her mind.

Worker’s Sting (Level 5)

Attack Power 8, Venomous

Crafted by the Apis to defend themselves, these weapons are made only by their wielders, and are destroyed when others use them to attack.

The worker’s antennae drooped, and she muttered dispiritedly. “Drat, that won’t help me get down. Maybe my armor can help me fly…?”

Tapping her armor, she got a similar description, though it didn’t improve her mood any.

Worker’s Chitin (Level 5)

Defense 7, Self-Repair

Crafted by the Apis to defend themselves, these armors only fit Apis, and quickly decay if their maker is slain.

“Well, isn’t that just terrible. Like finding a giant patch of clover and all of its nectar was harvested,” the worker muttered, shaking her head despairingly.

For a long minute the worker just sat there and moped, but she couldn’t manage it for long. Her instinct to do something was just too strong. After a moment of hesitation, she pulled out the pollen in her sixth inventory slot, leaving it empty for the moment. It took a little work to set the pollen in a spot where it wouldn’t blow away, but the worker didn’t mind. She just needed the inventory space for a little while, after all.

“Let’s see, this is a little different than I remember, but I think it’ll work,” she murmured, settling down cross-legged beside the pollen, then began rubbing her hands together quickly. For several seconds there wasn’t any result, but slowly the worker began feeling small, soft fragments forming between her hands. She paused, seeing the bits of wax taking shape between her hand, then smiled happily as she murmured, “Good, I can still do it! I was worried for a bit, there.”

She went back to work, and over about a quarter of an hour the amount of wax grew, until finally she finished it. The wax formed a hexagonal disc about an inch thick, and she admired it for a moment, smiling to herself. Then she put it in her inventory and started on the next one. If this was like before, she’d be able to make three pieces of wax each day.

It took a bit less than an hour, though not much, until she had three pieces of wax, and she couldn’t make any more. Perhaps others would be upset, but mostly the worker was relieved, since it meant that not everything had changed for her.

“Good, now that I have those… containers. I’ll make them to store the nectar and refine it into honey,” she said, nodding as she pulled out the last piece of wax and began rubbing and massaging it, kneading it almost like it was dough.

Slowly the wax took the form of a hexagonal wax jar about six inches on a side, then into a second jar. When she finished after another quarter-hour, she pulled out the next piece of wax and repeated the process, continuing to turn each of them into jars. Only when she had all the jars complete did the worker relax, letting out a happy sigh as she smiled, then quickly filled each with nectar. Each of the jars took four stacks of nectar, and she nodded happily as she put them away, the jars vanishing into the pouch on her belt as they took up an inventory slot, two slots now empty, though she quickly put the pollen she’d set out away, then harvested the rest of the pollen and nectar she could get from the rose. It filled up the two slots which had been partially full, which was both good and bad, from her perspective.

The good part was that she had the nectar stored, and had more inventory space now. The bad news was that she still hadn’t so much as heard another bee, which was worrying… and the sun was starting to set.

Glancing up, the worker frowned unhappily, then murmured, “This is going to be a long night… maybe tomorrow? Please, my queen… I don’t want to be stuck here.”

Even so, she couldn’t help feeling hungry, and after a few moments the worker reluctantly pulled out some of the pollen she’d gathered to eat it. She’d prefer honey, since pollen was usually used to make food for young bees, but it was better than eating the nectar.

* * *

Cora woke suddenly, sucking in a breath as she spasmed once, for an instant thinking she was still under attack, then she recognized where she was and let out the breath, struggling to relax.

The ceiling above her was vaulted, and all around the chamber were graven images of dozens of deities, each of them extending a hand toward the center of the room where a glowing green crystal floated, shimmering with power. Cora groaned, closing her eyes as she reached up to pinch the bridge of her nose, hating what she was seeing. Waking up in the temple was never a good sign, even if the fact she’d woken up meant that she’d cheated death. Again.

“Currency,” Cora muttered, and an instant later she knew exactly how much money she had left, and it made her heart ache. She had three thousand, six hundred and thirty-one coins, and it made her want to swear. She’d been so close to five thousand, when she’d be able to pay for access to the Tree of Life in Seldrim. Getting the funds had been the only reason she’d teamed up with Fedris and the others, and now… now she was even farther from her goal.

“Welcome back to the land of the living, Cora,” a man said, his voice soft and almost feminine.

“Hello, Ryan,” Cora replied, feeling resigned and just a bit bitter as she opened her eyes, looking up to see the androgynous priest, his long brown hair combed back to fall down his back. He was wearing his usual white robes, and his eyes were slightly bloodshot. After a moment she asked, “I don’t suppose any of the other members of my party avoided death, did they?”

“Only in the usual manner of speaking,” Ryan said, gesturing around them, his expression darkening as he shook his head. “Alas, Death claimed Fedris anyway, showing that she pushed her luck a little too hard this time. My sympathies.”

“Really? Well, crap. That makes me feel a little worse about worrying about how much my resurrection cost,” Cora replied, sighing heavily as she sat up, looking around as she did so.

Around the edges of the resurrection chamber were twenty stone altars like the one she had been laying on, and on several Cora could see the sparkling green outlines of most of her companions. Or at least her temporary companions, since their party had consisted of those who’d been willing to take the risk of raiding a hive of giant bees. The reservoir of royal jelly hives contained was valuable, and she’d been looking forward to her share.

“I can’t blame you. We never know when His Excellency will decide that someone’s time is up. However, as always, I must warn you that you are in grave risk of permanent death if you’re slain in the next month,” Ryan said gravely, offering a hand to help Cora to her feet. “I really would prefer you didn’t do that.”

“You aren’t the only one,” Cora said, letting out a soft sigh as she shook her head, exclaiming in frustration, “The hell of the thing is how close we were! We’d almost taken down the queen when suddenly the bees all flashed white, then were replaced by strange, human-like people with antennae. I didn’t have time to Analyze her before they attacked, and we were too surprised to defend ourselves properly.”

“They what?” Ryan asked, his eyebrows rising abruptly, and he winced sympathetically as he added, “That… is unfortunate timing for all of you.”

“What do you mean?” Cora asked, looking at the priest suspiciously, her eyes narrowing as she asked, “Do you know something about it?”

“Well… yes, of course. The gods sent a divine revelation earlier today,” Ryan said, looking distinctly uncomfortable. “A new demi-human species was created by them today, as a small percentage of giant beehives were given the opportunity to evolve into the new apis. It appears that your target hive was one of them, and that it had the unfortunate timing to occur during your raid.”

“They what?” Cora demanded, her eyes widening as shock rippled through her. “I haven’t heard of anything like that happening in millennia!”

“Not since half the beastfolk tribes had the same thing happen to them,” Ryan agreed, rubbing his chin unhappily. “The other priests checked, and this hasn’t occurred in just over three thousand years. That’s why I said the timing was exceedingly unfortunate for you.”

“That’s just… really? Was all the luck in the world against us? We were almost there!” Cora exclaimed in frustration, resisting her urge to wave her arms about, keeping in mind that they were in a temple.

“I know it’s frustrating, but there’s nothing we can do about what’s already done,” Ryan replied helplessly, shrugging as he looked at her in concern. “It isn’t like we can control what the gods do.”

“Of course not; it’s just… well, frustrating,” Cora said, her anger slowly turning to weary acceptance. While she’d love to rage about it more, it wouldn’t do anything to help at this point, and Ryan didn’t deserve her ire. She was sure that he’d be getting enough of that from the others, after all. In the end, she shook her head, letting out a sigh as she murmured, “Sorry, Ryan. I know you can’t do anything about it. I suppose I should just be glad I left my primary gear in town rather than taking it with me. I’d hate to have lost that too.”

“It’s alright, Cora, I know you weren’t angry with me. Besides, we’re used to bearing the brunt of frustration here,” Ryan replied, smiling warmly in response, shaking his head as he added, “This is just going to be a particularly bad day, since not many people who challenge more powerful creatures frequent our temple.”

“Fair, fair. Well, I’ll get out of your way before any of the others wake. You don’t need to be dealing with two or more of us at once,” Cora said, glancing back to see that Edwin’s body had mostly solidified. A tiny part of her was thankful she’d been the first to wake, since waking to him arguing with Ryan probably wouldn’t have been pleasant. “Thank you for tending to us while we were resurrected.”

“You’re welcome, Cora. Go with the gods, and do be careful,” Ryan replied, giving a shallow bow, then asked, “Would you like me to escort you out?”

“Thank you, but there’s no need for that. I know the way, unfortunately,” Cora said, letting out a soft, frustrated sigh.

She headed for the door, leaving Ryan behind as she entered the chapel, which was barely larger than the resurrection chamber. It depressed her to think about, since that meant enough people died to monsters to make such a large room necessary, but there wasn’t anything she could do about that. Instead, she paused near the shrine to Fayliss, looking on the image of her goddess as she considered. She hated to lose even more money after her death, but her faith quickly won, and she willed a few coins into her hand and dropped them into the bowl in front of the goddess’s statue.

“Thank you for shepherding my soul away from the gates of death once more, Eternity,” Cora murmured, bowing her head before the shrine deeply, and a sense of peace washed over her as she continued to pray. “I will keep your blessings in mind as much as I’m able and beg you to forgive my unthinking trespasses.”

After a moment more, Cora opened her eyes and headed for the front doors, beyond which she could see an acolyte sweeping the temple steps. She needed to retrieve her things from the inn and find dinner, then figure out how to recover from the massive losses she’d incurred. It wasn’t going to be easy, and Cora could just feel a headache forming.

Unknown to Cora, behind her, the ten coins she’d dropped in the bowl shimmered, then slowly evaporated.

Chapter 3

It was colder outside at night than the worker had expected, and she had been a little worried, at least until she’d wrapped herself in an inner petal of the rose as a sort of improvised blanket. The petal had worked rather well, and before too long the sun had dawned.

There still weren’t any signs of any other bees, or apis, for that matter, but there wasn’t much she could do about that. Instead, the first thing the worker did was begin making more wax to turn into jars. Once they were complete, she’d be able to store the remainder of her nectar to turn into honey. It wouldn’t be perfect, but at least she’d be able to get it refined within a day or so.

She also had to eat, which sparked a little more guilt in the worker, but she didn’t see much else that she could do, aside from climbing up to where she could peer over the edge of the flower again. It was a really long fall, and she didn’t want to risk it. She doubted she’d survive, as a matter of fact, but the risk was oddly tempting.

“I don’t like being up here,” the worker murmured forlornly, wondering what was going to happen to her. After a bit, she started humming softly to herself, trying to keep herself busy.

* * *

“So, what do you want to do?” Brianna asked, sipping at her juice, then grinned as she added, “Aside from drink yourself into oblivion over everything you lost, that is.”

“Oh, shut up,” Cora retorted, thankful she’d kept the potion for eliminating hangovers on hand. She ate her breakfast grimly, examining her friend and partner as she did so.

Brianna was a human, and a rather skilled Swordswoman, one that Cora suspected would qualify to change to a Knight or Weaponmaster once she reached level fifteen. She had short auburn hair that hugged the nape of her neck while still being attractive, and which almost covered one of her blue eyes. She was wearing a tunic and leather trousers that fit her tanned, athletic figure, and her broadsword hung from the side of her chair. She was also a good enough friend that Cora would hate to lose her, even if she did want to strangle Brianna at the moment.

“I told you that it was a bad idea to go into the hive with them, but no, you knew better. It was worth the risk,” Brianna continued, rolling her eyes as she ignored Cora to continue what she’d been saying the previous night. In all truth, that was what had driven Cora to drink so much, not her death and resurrection. Cora suppressed a sigh, waiting for Brianna to finish. “Instead you’re down over a thousand coins and are even farther from getting access to the Tree of Life than you were before.”

“I’m well aware of that, and you were wrong, thank you. We would have done it and been fine if the gods hadn’t chosen that moment to introduce a new species,” Cora replied tartly, sitting back in her chair and glowering at her friend, hesitating a moment before she admitted, a little embarrassed, “True, it was a risk. I knew that going in, and if we hadn’t seemed to have good odds after the first couple of chambers, I’d have left. Unfortunately, the nature of how things went wrong meant that I couldn’t do that.”

Brianna looked at her skeptically, crossing her arms and sitting back in her chair. Her friend’s response caused a flicker of honest anger, and after a moment Cora spoke coolly. “If you’re that insistent that I have to be wrong, maybe we shouldn’t be working together.”

“Wait, what?” Brianna yelped, her eyebrows rising abruptly. “Isn’t that a little—”

“Brianna, in the end what I did was a mistake, yes. However, you hounding me over it, insisting that my choice to take a calculated risk was wrong and otherwise trying to guilt me is beyond simply rude,” Cora interrupted, staring at her friend pointedly and noting the rising flush in the human’s cheeks. Cora paused, then continued bluntly. “It’s offensive, and not the sort of shit I need to be hearing when I damned well died yesterday. It’s horrible, especially for Fedris, and I’ve been admitting to the mistakes I’ve made. So would you let it rest already?”

For a long moment Brianna was silent, and Cora sat back, feeling slightly guilty as she saw her friend look down at her plate. Cora was just glad no one else in the inn was close enough to hear them, though a maid was coming closer as she cleared a table that’d been vacated by a group of new adventurers.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that you were taking it that badly,” Brianna said at last, letting out a soft sigh. “I just wanted to tease you, and I guess… well, I went a little overboard.”

“Just a lot,” Cora agreed, taking a deep breath, then letting it out. She hesitated for a moment, then continued more gently. “In any case, as long as you leave it be, I’ll be fine.”

“I can’t really leave you be, because the bees got you,” Brianna quipped, and Cora winced and groaned softly, shaking her head.

“You… you’re just mean, you know that?” Cora retorted, glaring at her friend.

“It was too good of an opening to pass up,” Brianna said unrepentantly, but she sat back as she asked, “Seriously, though, what’re you going to do? You’re nearly two thousand coins shy of your goal, now.”

“Mostly I’m planning to look at the board and see what jobs are available,” Cora said, sighing as she sat back, abandoning the porridge at last. It wasn’t that good, anyway. She considered for a moment, then grimaced and added, “I’m thinking maybe I’ll go for some of the rarer ingredient retrieval quests. I only have Basic Salvaging, but they pay well, and killing creatures in the open areas of the Flower Forest is a lot easier than delves.”

“Hm, well it’s certainly safer, and you really can’t risk death for a while,” Brianna said, sitting back as she thought, then grimaced. “I wish advanced forms of Salvaging and Harvesting were easier to learn and weren’t based on luck. It’d make our lives a lot easier.”

“You’re telling me. Only a handful of jobs get automatically Harvesting, let alone Advanced Harvesting,” Cora said, feeling even more resigned. “I actually considered taking one when I was younger, then I found out that you lose them if you train out of the class.”

“It definitely sucks,” Brianna said, sighing. After a moment she nodded, though. “That said, your strategy is probably the best. Even if it’ll take a long time, at least you’ll find plenty of minor drops to sell in the meantime, and you didn’t lose your best gear.”

“Exactly what I was thinking,” Cora agreed, smiling. “Want to see what quests are in later? Heck, maybe we’ll even find someone with Advanced Salvaging who’s willing to help.”

“Yeah, right. Like they’d be hanging out here, of all places,” Brianna replied with a laugh, grinning as she nodded. “But sure, we can do that. More coin is always good, after all… I need to upgrade my gear sometime.”

“Very true,” Cora said, sighing as she thought about her own gear, as well as the cost of getting to the Tree of Life. It was going to take a few weeks for her to recover even slightly, likely as not, but that was how things went.

* * *

“Hey, Cora. You trying to recover from the losses yesterday, too?” Negan asked, the man’s voice slightly nasal, and the brown-haired man looked a little disgruntled.

“That’s right,” Cora agreed, then paused as she looked at the Rogue, blinking as she saw the gear he was wearing. The leather didn’t fit very well and had coarser seams, while the daggers on his belt looked rather mundane. The sight was a far cry from the sleek black leather he’d worn the previous day, along with wickedly curved daggers in his belt. She hesitated, afraid to even ask, but after a moment couldn’t help herself. “You… you weren’t wearing your primary gear yesterday, were you?”

“You weren’t?” Negan asked, blinking, then scowled as he muttered, obviously dismayed. “Shit, you probably had the right idea. I lost more than I care to think about with that death… I guess I got blinded by the reward.”

“I was willing to take the risk, don’t get me wrong, but I didn’t want to risk the rest of my gear if we failed, so I pulled out the gear I replaced when I hit tenth level,” Cora explained, wincing at the thought of losing eleven hundred coins and her high level gear. She cleared her throat, shifting as she glanced at Brianna and added, “I had intended to take the old gear back home for someone else who wanted to become a mage to use, but… well, that isn’t going to happen, obviously. Not with the bees becoming demi-humans.”

“Damned apis,” Negan muttered balefully, his gaze hardening suddenly. “They just had to evolve at that moment, didn’t they?”

“We can’t change what the gods will,” Cora said simply, shaking her head as she glanced at the quest board, with various quests pinned to it. “What’re you planning for rebuilding your funds?”

“I’ll probably be going back to Maple Ridge,” Negan said, grimacing as he let out a sigh. “There’s a caravan headed that way the day after tomorrow, and my gear is bad enough that I don’t dare take on most of the quests around here. Once I’ve gotten my gear up to par, I might come back. At least I’ll be high enough level to take on the quests there pretty easily.”

“Fair, though you have my sympathies. For me… I’m planning on taking a bunch of gathering quests,” Cora said, wincing as she looked at the nearest one, which was asking for ten silvertulip buds. That wouldn’t be an easy quest, but the rewards were decent. She hesitated before admitting, “It’ll be time-consuming but is a damned sight safer than most of the other quests.”

“Ugh, yeah… I’d rather go back to Maple Ridge, personally. I hate how mind-numbing those quests can be, and you can find a hundred plants or animals without getting even one of the requested items,” Negan replied, shuddering slightly. “I’ll take a guaranteed reward, thanks.”

“Fair enough. I need to look at the board, though, so… good luck,” Cora told him and stepped away to look at the quest board more closely.

“There’re quite a few gathering quests, and they tend to have pretty good rewards, at least on the rare ones,” Brianna commented, now that Cora was done, and she tapped one, continuing. “This one, for instance… ten intact wasp poison glands are worth three hundred coins.”

“That’s because wasps can fight back. Most of the ones for plants are between a hundred and a hundred and fifty,” Cora replied, glancing at the silvertulip one again, confirming that it was worth a hundred coins with a wince, not liking the work that’d be involved, but it was better than the average of fifteen to twenty coins for common ingredients. “I’m not seeing many common ingredient quests, either.”

“Probably because that’s what a lot of newer people take to start out,” Brianna said, considering for a moment, then nodded slightly. “I think that we should—”

“Um, excuse me, I couldn’t help but overhear the two of you, but you’re planning to gather herbs and things like that?” a woman’s voice interrupted, and Cora glanced over and blinked.

The human standing behind them was wearing a blue tunic and pants with white trim, and she had a mace and shield, along with a simple circle holy symbol made of wood hanging from a cord. Her skin was dark, almost the color of mahogany, and she had warm brown eyes and hair. It took Cora a moment to overcome her surprise, since she rarely saw human followers of the Mother Moon.

“That’s right. Why are you asking?” Brianna asked in a friendly tone that Cora entirely understood, since warriors almost always appreciated the help of followers of the gods, as most of them could heal.

“Well, I’m working on fulfilling the requirements of my next job evolution, and it requires gathering five moondrop lotus seeds,” the woman replied quickly, looking slightly hopeful. “The problem is that they’re really rare, and no one I’ve partied with wants to do many of the quests where I can find them. I’ve gotten one already, but no more. Would you be willing to accept some help with your quests, and help me with my job? While I’d appreciate something of a share of the rewards, I wouldn’t want much.”

Cora smiled at the offer, tension she hadn’t realized had been there easing, and after a moment she spoke. “I entirely understand trying to get what you need for a job. I’m Cora, level eleven Mage.”

“And I’m Brianna, a level ten Swordswoman,” Brianna added eagerly, smiling as she asked, “Who might you be?”

“My name is Stella, and I’m a level ten Acolyte of Mother Moon,” the woman replied, bowing her head gracefully, another smile playing across her lips. “I’ve learned several healing abilities, so I should be able to help with any wounds, or even minor poisons. I take it you’re willing to allow me to join you?”

“Certainly,” Cora agreed, knowing Brianna wouldn’t object, from the look on her friend’s face. “I’d say we should just figure out which quests to take, along with how much inventory space we have, then we can figure out just how to split any rewards.”

“That sounds wonderful to me,” Stella replied, her smile widening as she stood up straight. “I’m good with whichever quests you’d like, and I have six open slots in my inventory.”

“Alright, well, I want to take this wasp one. I’ll bet we’ll run into a lot of them while gathering, and we might get lucky,” Brianna said, sounding much happier as she added, “Beyond that…”

They quickly began selecting quests, and Cora felt herself relax. These companions felt better than the ones she’d had before, and they’d probably be able to complete the jobs quickly enough to rebuild her funds. Hopefully enough for Cora to get to the Tree of Life before level fifteen, but she wasn’t going to hold her breath for that.

They’d probably go out the next day, she decided, unless the others wanted to go out immediately. She doubted they’d want to jump straight in, though. Most groups she’d been part of liked having a night to get acquainted before going into dangerous areas, and it certainly would make Cora feel more comfortable.

Chapter 4

The morning had gone well so far, and Cora was slowly relaxing around Stella as they slowly managed to coordinate properly. Brianna was excellent on the front lines, and Stella proved an excellent backup to her when they’d run into a trio of giant ants, while Cora took care of ranged combat.

Their gains hadn’t been terrible so far, but they also weren’t as good as Cora would have preferred. They’d gotten two of the silvertulip buds, one poison gland from a giant wasp, and several other items they needed, but they were still a long way from completing any of the quests. At the current rate, Cora suspected that it would take two to three days to complete any of the quests, and she glanced up through the stems and flowers above to see that it was almost noon.

The Flower Forest was an unusual area, in Cora’s opinion, though she’d heard of far stranger regions of the world, like the Glass Jungle, but it was also beautiful. Instead of trees and bushes, the entire forest was made up of titanic flowers that were as big or bigger than trees were in her hometown, and many rare alchemical materials could be found within it. On the other hand, it was also home to predatory plants and giant insects that were dire threats for any who dared enter the forest, and that was even without considering the kings of the forest, the gigantic flower minks. If Cora’s group ran into one of them, they’d have no choice but to run for dear life.

Still, it was a profitable area for most adventurers who’d reached level six or seven to explore in groups, even if other areas would be better once they reached the mid-teens. Personally, Cora planned to stay here until she was level fifteen, and she suspected Brianna had the same plan.

“Mosquito!” Stella snapped out, pointing her mace to their right, and Cora spun, catching the buzz of the creature an instant later. The human had sharp senses, Cora reflected, which made her wonder if she’d gotten a rare ability or the like, but it really didn’t matter. The elf spotted the monster quickly, and it was about fifty feet away, having just circled the stem of a daisy.

The mosquito was the size of a dog and disgusting, the spear-like tip of its proboscis enough to make Cora’s heart beat more quickly, but she didn’t pause to let it get closer. Instead she pointed her staff at it and snapped out, “Fire Blast!”

Mana surged into the staff as the crystal at its heart glowed a dull red, then formed into a pulse of fire that erupted into an orb the size of Cora’s fist and streaked across the clearing. The mosquito tried to dodge but wasn’t quick enough, and the bolt vaporized its wings, causing the creature to fall to the ground, twitching but not dead. Cora kept track of it, lowering her staff as she kept an eye out for more mosquitoes, but relaxed slightly as none came into sight.

“Ice Blast,” she said more calmly, and this time the crystal glowed blue before a shard of ice lashed out to strike the mosquito, this time putting it out of its misery. And hers, for that matter. After a moment she said, “I think that’s the only one… I don’t suppose anyone wants to check it for salvage?”

“Nope. I don’t need anything that comes from mosquitoes, and I hate them,” Brianna said promptly, shaking her head. “The only thing I dislike more are the ticks.”

“Me neither. We’re going to be pushing our inventory limits as it is, and I’d rather keep space for rare drops of things like plants or the like,” Stella agreed, glancing at the mosquito with a wrinkled nose. “That’s toward the river, right?”

“Yeah, which means there’re probably more mosquitoes that way,” Brianna confirmed, then gestured to their left. “Why don’t we go that way? I remember there being a fair number of tulips that way, and maybe some lilies.”

“Sure,” Cora agreed, smiling slightly as she looked around. “We’ll have to go through a rose patch, so keep an eye out for thorns.”

The others murmured their agreement as they turned to the left, avoiding the worst of the clusters of plants. Cora hoped they’d be able to find some of the lilies that Stella needed, though she also hoped they wouldn’t find them too quickly, as otherwise they might lose her help sooner than Cora would like.

Soon enough they saw the thorns of the tangled webs of roses, and Cora moved a little closer to the others, eying the vines warily. She’d run into spiders that blended in with the vines before, and from the way Brianna had tensed Cora thought she remembered the incident in question as well. That had been a bad day, and both of them had nearly died. The roses above them might be a beautiful shade of red, but that didn’t mean she could allow herself to be distracted by them.

Right up until the faintest strains of a song reached Cora’s ears, and they twitched slightly as the mage blinked, then asked, “Do either of you hear that?”

“Hm?” Stella asked, looking at Cora as she blinked, which pretty much convinced Cora that she didn’t have enhanced senses.

“Hear what?” Brianna asked, tensing visibly.

“I hear singing from ahead of us,” Cora said, frowning as she looked around in confusion. She couldn’t imagine an adventurer coming out here and singing, not with how easily it could draw enemies down on them.

“That… seems strange,” Stella said, frowning. The woman hesitated, then adjusted her shield as she added, “Does that happen often here?”

“Never, as far as I know,” Brianna said, frowning at Cora. “You think they’re trying to play bait? I don’t think it makes much sense, but it’s possible.”

“I don’t know. It seems to be between us and our destination, so… I suppose we may as well continue, if warily,” Cora said, taking a deep breath, then letting it out slowly. “I don’t know why anyone would sing here, though.”

“Fair,” Brianna agreed, and Stella nodded as well.

They advanced slowly, and slowly the song became clearer, though Cora’s expression turned from caution to incredulous disbelief as she heard what the words were. She didn’t say anything, waiting until the others heard it as well, as the slightly off-key voice sang.

“The hell?” Brianna asked, suddenly stopping, and Cora paused, a smile flitting across her face at the incredulous looks on Brianna and Stella’s faces, as all of them looked up toward a rose that had to be sixty feet off the ground, and which was the source of the song.

I’m a bee, I’m a bee, but not a bum-ble-bee.

I’m a bee, I’m a bee, and there’s a flower in front of mee.

Harvest the nectar to make the queen hap-pee,

Gather the pollen to feed the lit-tle bees,

I’m a bee, I’m a bee, but not a bum-ble-bee.

“I… have no idea,” Stella said, looking mystified as she looked up at the flower.

“I’m guessing that it’s one of those apis,” Cora said, suppressing her mingled anger and shock over the song. It was so silly she had a hard time connecting the song to the murderous creatures that’d swarmed her and the others. She blinked, then shook her head as she added, “It must be out gathering nectar and pollen. After what happened to me… I’d say we’d best get going. I don’t want it to attack us.”

“Bees rarely started fights out here, but you probably have the right idea,” Brianna agreed with a nod, looking around cautiously as she added, “I don’t want to have something that’s after her decide we’re an easier meal.”

“True, that’d be bad,” Stella agreed after a moment, straightening as she shook her head. “I just didn’t expect to hear a song here.”

“You aren’t the only one,” Cora agreed.

After a moment the other two led the way, and Cora followed them, keeping an eye out for trouble as the song began fading behind her. The lyrics were simple, almost like those that a child would come up with, in her opinion, but that made some of her anger toward the apis fade. If they were all like that, it might mean that they’d reacted instinctively to a threat, and that… was something she could understand.

A few seconds later, though, the song ended with a shriek, then an exclamation as Cora spun around. “Wasp!”

Looking up, Cora flinched as she saw a giant wasp sticking out of the flower, its wings fluttering as Brianna swore behind her.

Chapter 5

The worker screamed in both shock and pain, the stinger of the wasp ripping out of her shoulder as she yanked away from it. The venom quickly spread through her body like fire, and she shuddered, yet at the same time she recoiled from its snapping mandibles, dodging the stinger as it plunged toward her again as she instinctively drew her rapier.

“Wasp!” she exclaimed unconsciously, panic rushing through her, but there weren’t any other bees nearby, and the chances of making it overheat on her own were poor.

She’d been singing a song she’d come up with while considering other lyrics and trying to figure out if she could turn the flower petals into a rope or something when the wasp had attacked. She’d never faced a wasp on her own, and the thought of what it would do to her made her even more frightened. Frightened enough to do the only thing she could think of to defend herself.

“Stab! Stabstabstab!” the worker cried out, punctuating each of the words with a stab of her rapier, focusing on the wasp’s face as she did so, and they slammed home hard. Two blows bounced off its carapace, but one struck inside the wasp’s mouth, while another hit it in the eye, prompting a screech, and it backed off slightly, its wings fluttering.

The wasp looked like it was about to lunge toward the worker again, and she could see the venom dripping from its stinger, just as it was spreading through her body. If she let it take initiative, she was likely dead, so she took the only option she could think of.

“For the queen! Stab!” the worker yelled, and she jumped into the wasp, knocking it out of the rose as she grabbed one of its legs and stabbed it with her rapier, the blade digging into its body and almost accidentally severing a wing.

As the wasp began spiraling downward, its legs ripping at the worker’s armor, she reflected that this might be about to hurt.

* * *

Only a moment passed before the wasp recoiled out of the flower, and the flurry of exclamations from the voice caused a ripple of amusement and horror to wash over Cora. She flinched when a figure jumped into view with a battle cry. “For the queen! Stab!”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Brianna said, looking stunned, then flinched as they saw one of the wasp’s wings flutter off to the left as the apis and wasp spiraled downward rapidly.

“Mother help her,” Stella muttered, rushing past Cora, and the elf froze for a moment.

“What’re you doing?” she demanded, but Brianna passed her the next moment.

“Trying to help, duh!” Brianna snarled, and Cora swore under her breath as she followed.

They were nowhere near the two when the wasp hit the ground hard enough that the earth trembled beneath Cora’s feet. The wasp hit first, and the woman was nearly torn from its legs by the impact as she half bounced off it, her rapier ramming in deep, then the weapon flew into the air away as the wasp bounced and she was almost thrown across the clearing. Cora flinched as the wasp rolled, and the woman hit the ground twice before the twitching wasp came to a stop on top of her.

“Holy… did she kill it?” Brianna asked, skidding to a stop. “Wasps are usually a pain to kill!”

“Analyze,” Cora murmured, focusing on the wasp, and information flowed into her mind.

Giant Wasp (Level 5, deceased)

Attack Power 7

Defense 7

Abilities: Venomous

“It was a rather long fall,” Stella said, swallowing as she slowed down. She seemed about to continue when Cora spoke.

“It was only level five, so a bit on the low side for a giant wasp. Still, you’re right; the fall was long enough that it probably was what did the wasp in,” Cora said, swallowing hard as she looked up and flinched. “With it landing on her… that had to hurt.”

“Then we should help move it! She could still be alive,” Brianna snapped, and Stella nodded, the pair of them hurrying forward.

A tiny part of Cora was still reluctant to help one of the apis. She remembered one of those rapiers stabbing her in the back, and the way poison had burned her stomach. They’d given the same battle cry as the woman had before they’d attacked her and the others, and yet… yet at the same time she couldn’t help remembering the song. The silly, ridiculous song, and how the apis had shouted stab over and over again. It gave an impression of innocence that made her uncomfortable with her previous assumptions.

On the other hand, she wasn’t even sure if the apis was alive, and it wasn’t as though the others were going to stop due to her hesitation. As she watched, Brianna and Stella were grabbing onto the horse-sized wasp to pick it up, or at least to roll it off the apis. Brianna looked up and spoke sharply. “We could use some help here, you know!”

“I know, I know, sorry…” Cora said, shaking herself as she rushed forward, adding dryly, “I’m not exactly thrilled with them, you know. They killed me just a couple of days ago.”

“Yes, but those were other ones, probably,” Brianna retorted, bracing herself next to the wasp’s head. “Plus, you were in their home.”

“Fair, fair… on three?” Cora asked, taking a position that was just a bit closer to the wasp’s stinger than she would have preferred.

“That sounds good,” Stella agreed, though the woman was glancing at Cora curiously. She hadn’t explained exactly how she’d died, just that she had recently, Cora realized, and flushed slightly in embarrassment. At least she didn’t ask anything just yet, and Brianna didn’t elaborate.

“Alright, here we go!” Brianna said, and grunted as she ignored numbers, instead just bodily hefting half the wasp into the air, and Cora belatedly realized it probably would’ve been easier to drag the apis out from under the wasp than to move the wasp, but it was a little late for that, and she and Stella hurriedly tried to pick up their half.

The wasp wasn’t as heavy as Cora expected, though it was still difficult to move; the biggest problem was how awkward it was with few spots to hold onto the creature. In moments they managed to pull it to the side, then Cora’s hands slipped and the body fell to the ground with a crash, prompting her to jump back with a yelp as the stinger bounced a little too close for Cora’s comfort.

“Hey, careful!” Brianna exclaimed, and Cora looked up at her with a scowl.

“Maybe you should’ve grabbed the half which is hard to hold!” Cora retorted, and looked away as Brianna flushed in embarrassment, beginning to speak. “Now, how bad off is… oh.”

Cora’s voice trailed off as she looked over, paling slightly as Stella spoke grimly, rushing to the apis’s side. “She’s in bad shape, I’m afraid.”

The apis was laying on the ground, and a little amber liquid was leaking from the side of her mouth, along with several gaping holes in her armor, including one about the size of the wasp’s stinger in one shoulder, from which leaked more of the liquid. It was the woman’s blood, Cora realized belatedly, and looking at the woman she felt even worse about her hesitation. A belt with a couple of pouches was around her waist, her black and yellow armor was cracked all over, and her antennae were drooping, while her hair was a soft gold color with black highlights. She looked surprisingly humanoid to Cora, and her face had a look of innocence that was jarring.

“Minor Cure,” Stella murmured, her voice soft as a white glow surrounded her hands, seeping into the apis. “The wasp should be low enough level for this to work.”

“Mmhm,” Cora replied, swallowing, focusing on the apis as she murmured, “Analyze.”

Apis Worker (Level 6, critical health)

Attack Power 8 (disarmed)

Defense 7

Abilities: Unknown

“Well, that isn’t going to do much good,” Cora said, frowning slightly. “Though she’s only level six. That’s… a little low, even for a giant bee. I wonder why I couldn’t analyze her special abilities?”

“Doesn’t help that their weapons are odd,” Brianna said, frowning as she picked up the rapier and studied it, then shook her head. “It’s only level five, but it has good attack power, on the whole. Problem is that it can only be used once by anyone else.”

“She’ll live, at least,” Stella said, and glanced up as she added, “Isn’t she a demi-human now, anyway? I’ve heard they’re far more resistant to analysis than monsters, a lot like humanoids. Minor Healing.”

Red light flowed into the apis from the Acolyte’s spell, and Cora blinked, then nodded in understanding, feeling a little relieved.

“That’s right, I think I remember hearing something like that before,” Cora said, relaxing as she glanced at the apis, adding, “I’ve never met a demi-human before, so I forgot about it. Besides, most jobs have fairly predictable abilities, so I can pick them up with analysis pretty easily.”

“I suppose that’s true… I haven’t managed to pick up the Analyze ability yet, so I wouldn’t be the one to ask,” Stella replied absently. As Cora watched, the wounds in the apis’s body were steadily closing, though more slowly than she’d expected. The woman must have taken a lot of damage.

“One thing I’m wondering… where are her wings?” Brianna asked, gesturing at the apis curiously. “I’m not seeing any, and with her at the top of the flower…”

Cora blinked, looking at the apis, then up at the flower, and her frown deepened as her confusion grew. It didn’t make any sense for the woman to have been in the flower without wings, and for a moment she thought, then offered, “Maybe they can hide their wings? I’m not sure… I distinctly remember some of them having wings just before I was killed…”

“We’ll likely be able to find out in a moment,” Stella interrupted, her voice soft as the apis began to stir.

A moment later the apis opened her eyes slowly, muttering softly, “Ow… that hurt…”

The bee-girl’s eyes were black, and the odd faceted gold of her irises was vivid as she looked at Cora, Stella, and Brianna. Then, to Cora’s shock, she blushed and squirmed as she waved timidly.

“Um, hi?” the apis said, flashing a smile as she added, “Please don’t kill me?”

Whatever Cora had been expecting, that certainly wasn’t it, and Brianna burst out laughing.

Chapter 6

The worker felt a strange heat in her cheeks and belatedly realized she was blushing as she looked at the people who were over her. She’d learned a lot of words she hadn’t even had a concept for before, she realized unconsciously, but the laughter of the human with red hair made her blush even brighter red. It was odd, since she’d never seen red quite so vividly before. Even when she’d been in the rose, it just hadn’t felt so vivid.

There were three of them, and beyond them was the body of the wasp that had attacked her, which helped her relax slightly. They must have finished it off, which meant she owed them a debt. If nothing else, they’d healed her, so she’d owe them regardless.

The nearest of the three was a human with dark brown skin and hair, both which made the worker think of trees, but her clothing was more the white and blue of flowers, which gave the worker mixed feelings. On the other hand, she seemed to have been the one who healed the worker and she had a nice smile, though the mace at her side was a little worrying.

Behind her was an elf woman, one in an attractive red dress, one that made the worker think of a nice, nectar-laden tulip. She had sandy blonde hair, green eyes, and a staff in hand, along with a backpack. The last woman was wearing a breastplate and had a rather large sword, along with a rapier that looked like the worker’s in her hand, but at least she didn’t sound like she was about to attack the worker.

“Shut up, Brianna,” the elf said sharply, crossing her arms in front of her. “It isn’t funny.”

“Sure it is! Here you’re all worried about her being hostile, and the first thing she says when we see her is to ask us not to kill her,” the armored human said, grinning and nodding at the worker. “I don’t have any intention of doing that, not after your display. You did pretty well, killing the wasp on your own like that.”

“I… I killed the wasp?” the worker asked, taken aback enough that she looked at the body in confusion. They had to be mistaken. No worker could hope to kill a wasp on their own, not unless they were much higher level.

“You did, which was rather impressive. You were nearly killed in the process, though,” the brown-skinned woman said gently, and she continued after a moment. “My name is Stella, and I’m an Acolyte of Mother Moon. May I ask your name?”

The worker blushed again, fidgeting as she looked down, replying awkwardly in her confusion. “Um, I don’t have one. I… thank you for saving me, Stella. I didn’t expect to survive the fight with the wasp.”

“You don’t have a name?” the woman named Brianna asked, sounding surprised as she looked closely at the worker. “How could you not have a name?”

“I’m an apis worker. I was a giant bee worker,” the worker replied, more confused by the woman’s surprise than anything else. “I couldn’t talk until three days ago, so why would I have a name?”

“That does make sense… but wouldn’t they have given you a name afterward?” the elf asked, pausing, then adding, “Oh, and I’m Cora.”

The worker paused, considering for a long moment before she nodded. “I might have been given a name, I suppose. I don’t know, though… I haven’t been back to the hive since I changed.”

“Why’s that?” Stella asked, frowning as she stood, offering the worker a hand. The apis took the hand to stand, feeling a little relieved to be upright and on solid ground. The flower hadn’t been as stable as she’d have liked.

“I changed while inside the flower and lost my wings. It’s a really long drop, and even if I’d been able to get around to the stem, have you seen those thorns? They’d tear me apart!” the worker explained, gesturing at the flower. “I was waiting to see if any other members of the hive would come along when the wasp showed up.”

“Ah, that… would make sense,” Brianna said, nodding slowly as she considered, then offered the worker her rapier. “Here, take it. So you were stuck up there ever since the change? What did you eat?”

The worker took the rapier and sheathed it again, feeling far more relaxed now that she was armed. She paused at the question, though, frowning as she hesitated, then explained nervously. “Pollen, mostly. It isn’t what I favor, but it doesn’t last as long as nectar does once it’s turned into honey. Hopefully my nectar should be changing here in the next few hours, but I’m not sure on that.”

“Interesting,” Cora murmured, then glanced at the others. “Still, we have a long day ahead of us and ought to get moving. Are you going to be alright to return to your hive?”

“I probably could, yes. However, I owe you for saving me, and debts should be paid,” the worker replied, straightening suddenly. While she wanted to get back to the hive, she knew the queen wouldn’t approve if she returned without repaying others for their generosity. She hesitated a moment, then added, a bit hopefully, “Maybe there’s something I can do for you? I’m just a worker, so I’m not all that skilled, but I’d happily help where I can.”

“Um, I can’t think of anything,” Stella said, frowning as she added, “Besides, I don’t need you to repay me. My goddess wouldn’t approve of me leaving you to die, when you obviously aren’t malevolent.”

“We usually aren’t, unless attacked or if people invade the hive,” the worker agreed, and she missed how Cora twitched.

“Be that as it may, I can’t think of anything you could really help with, unless you know where to find lots of silvertulip buds or moondrop lotus seeds,” Cora said, unfolding her arms as she shifted. Just as relief began to wash through the worker, Brianna spoke as well.

“Beyond that, if you don’t mind, I’d like to try to extract the poison gland from your wasp,” the human said, gesturing at it and grimacing. “I probably won’t succeed, but it’s worth a try.”

“Why wouldn’t you succeed?” the worker asked in confusion, happily adding a moment later, “As for the tulips and lotuses, I know right where they are. I regularly harvest nectar and pollen from them, after all.”

Cora blinked, looking taken aback, and Stella suddenly smiled. However, it was Brianna who spoke first, looking like she was a little annoyed. “Oh, it’s just that since we don’t have the right abilities, the chances of us salvaging anything worthwhile off the wasp aren’t very good. The help finding the herbs we need would be nice, though. Even if it is a nightmare to try to get the items we need.”

“But… you need the poison gland, you said? Here, I’ll do it, even if wasps are icky,” the worker said, and turned to the wasp, taking a step closer as she drew her rapier and examined it.

“Wait, it’s not that—” Stella began, but suddenly fell silent as the worker made her first cut.

She hated the process, since it was so much messier than working with a flower or minerals, but the worker knew how to do her job, and that was something she was proud of. In moments she’d removed a section of wasp chitin, which she knew was an item that could go in her inventory, then efficiently removed the poison gland, carefully pulling it from the wasp’s body with a grimace.

“There, done. Yuck, that’s messy…” the worker said, turning toward Brianna, her nose wrinkled, then paused and blinked at their stunned expressions. She hesitated before asking, “Um, is something wrong?”

“You just pulled off wasp chitin and the poison gland, and you made it look effortless,” Brianna exclaimed, taking the gland and blinking at it incredulously, then sliding it into her backpack. “How did you manage that?”

“Do you have Harvesting?” Cora asked, looking at the chitin, a strange light in her eyes.

“Um, how do I check that? Is it something like when I touch an item and it tells me what it does?” the worker asked uncertainly. “I just did it. It’s what I normally do.”

“Just try to think of what abilities you have, and you should learn what abilities you have,” Stella offered, watching the worker closely.

“Alright,” the worker said, and followed the woman’s instructions. Information flowed into her mind, and she blinked.

Innate Abilities: Advanced Harvesting, Apis Crafting, Innate Armory.

Job Abilities: Expanded Inventory, Sacrificial Strike.

“Um, it gave me two sets of abilities, innate and job,” the worker said, frowning as she thought about the abilities. “What do those mean?”

Brianna cleared her throat and explained calmly. “Innate abilities are something you get for your species, and they don’t change, no matter what job you pick up. No matter what species you are, you can only get a maximum of three innate abilities. Job abilities are something you learn when you pick up a job. For demi-humans like yourself, that can be a job that you were born with. You analyzed her, right, Cora? What was she?”

“You’re a level six apis worker, so your job abilities must be ones gained for being a worker,” the elf said, examining the worker closely. “While you can learn any number of job abilities, you can only use up to ten at a given time. Changing them out takes a good deal of meditation. Well, you also can get learned abilities, but those are rare. It’s how Brianna and I learned Basic Salvaging.”

“Ah, that makes sense,” the worker said, feeling relieved as she smiled and added happily, “As for my abilities, I have five. I have Advanced Harvesting, Apis Crafting, and Innate Armory as innate abilities. For my job, I only have two. Expanded Inventory and Sacrificial Strike.”

“You have what?” Cora demanded, shock flashing across her face, and the worker took a hesitant step back.

“Um, what did I say?” she asked, looking at the other two, who also looked stunned.

“You… did you say you have Advanced Harvesting? As an innate ability?” Stella asked, staring at the worker intently.

“Yes, I did,” the worker replied hesitantly.

“Gods… when word of that gets out, there’s going to be a stampede of people trying to hire apis,” Brianna said, reaching up and rubbing her eyes. “I’d be among them, honestly.”

“Why are you all acting, um, shocked? I’m confused,” the worker said, her confusion only growing stronger.

“Harvesting and Advanced Harvesting are each better skills than Salvaging and Advanced Salvaging, but they’re also incredibly rare outside a few jobs like farmer. Trying to learn them is almost impossible at low levels, and I’ve never heard of anyone with even Harvesting as an innate ability,” Cora said at last her shock starting to recede, only to be replaced by jealousy. “Your ability… let’s just say that you probably could gather the items we’re looking for in a day, when I’ve been expecting it to take three or four at a minimum. You might be able to do even better than that.”

“Oh. Oh!” the worker exclaimed, realization dawning on her at last. Licking her lips, she asked, “Then… are you saying that you don’t have good odds of gathering the items you’re looking for?”

“No, we don’t. I need ten poison glands from those wasps, and I have a one in ten chance of successfully extracting one with Basic Salvaging,” Brianna explained, looking disgusted. “I hate having to do it, but we really don’t have much of a choice. Even Advanced Salvaging is a coin-flip.”

“Well, in that case I guess this is for the best!” the worker said, smiling suddenly as she continued. “I owe you for saving me, so I need to repay you. If I help you gather the stuff you need, that’d make you happy, yes?”

“Wait, truly? You’d do that for us?” Stella asked, her eyes lighting up suddenly, and she smiled widely as she took a step forward to take one of the worker’s hands, then paused, looking at the others. “What do you think? I’m all for it!”

“I don’t see why not, especially if it made our lives easier,” Brianna said, smiling warmly at the worker, then raised an eyebrow at Cora. “What do you think? You’re the one trying to recover from a death.”

“I think… it’s a good idea. The faster we complete the quests, the better off we’ll be. Even if it does mean Stella might be leaving sooner than later,” Cora said, mingled annoyance and happiness flashing across her face.

“A fair point, but we can discuss it later,” Stella agreed, and turned to the worker as she said, “Thank you very much!”

“There’s no need for thanks,” the worker said, heat rising in her cheeks as she spoke. “You saved my life, after all.”

“Fair, fair. It’s good to have you with us!” Brianna said, pausing as she frowned, then asked, “Do you have an objection to getting a name? I don’t like the idea of just saying ‘you’ or something like that.”

“I suppose it wouldn’t hurt,” the worker said, shrugging. She honestly didn’t care one way or another since she’d never had a name before. “If you’d like to give me one, I’d accept it, probably.”

“Well, you can consider it while we’re moving,” Cora said, gesturing toward the path. “Even with her help, we have to find the flowers to begin with.”

“Right, I can help with that! This way!” the worker said enthusiastically, and quickly headed toward the silvertulips, relieved to have something to do.

Chapter 7

“Breeze?” Brianna suggested, then grunted as she brought her sword down on a giant ant, severing its head as it focused on Stella.

“Enough with the names starting with a B, if you would. Especially don’t try to make them rhyme with bee,” Cora retorted, turning her staff toward the ant in the back and exclaiming, “Lightning Blast!”

Lightning flickered along her staff, then it leapt into the sky and was immediately followed by a much larger bolt of lightning that slammed into the giant warrior ant, electrocuting it. She liked the spell, but it required wide spaces to cast, which made it of limited utility most of the time.

“Stab! Run away!” The apis took that moment to dart in and stab a giant ant, unerringly targeting one of the gaps in its carapace. She stabbed deep into the ant, then fell back quickly, almost scampering away. Cora had noticed that she tended to narrate all her actions, even if she tried not to be loud, now. Behind her the ant convulsed slightly, probably from the venom on the rapier.

“Die, vermin!” Stella exclaimed, slamming her mace onto the ant’s head, which seemed to finish it off, as it collapsed immediately afterward.

“Is that all of them?” Cora asked, glancing around and frowning. “We seem to have been running into a lot of ants, lately…”

They’d been working with the apis for about an hour, and despite herself, Cora felt most of her distrust of the woman thawing as she saw how… how innocent the apis was, on the whole. She participated in the fights, despite being barely more than half their levels, and she immediately would harvest the rare items they needed from the plants. It hadn’t taken her even ten silvertulips before she had the buds they’d needed, and if things went well they should find Stella’s last moondrop lotus seed momentarily, which was stunning since it was pretty much the last item they needed to gather.

“I think that’s all of them,” Brianna said, and glanced at Cora as she added, “You haven’t helped with the names, anyway. Why don’t you suggest one? I still think Honey is a good name for her.”

“It does sound tasty,” the apis chimed in helpfully, licking her lips.

“Which is why it isn’t a good name for you,” Cora replied, sighing heavily. Pausing for a moment, she asked, “Do you know why there’re so many ants over here?”

“They have a hive off that way,” the apis replied promptly, waving to the south, then corrected herself quickly. “No, ants don’t have hives; they have colonies. But they live over there, so there’re more of them in this area.”

“Ah, I didn’t know that. I’ve heard most people avoid the north since the flower minks frequent the area,” Cora said, relaxing slightly. “It does explain the ants, though.”

“Flower minks… oh, those!” The apis’s eyes lit up with understanding, and she nodded quickly, smiling even more broadly. “Yeah, they like that area, since it has access to the river and other sources of food. They mostly left us alone… maybe we aren’t tasty to them? I don’t know.”

“I wouldn’t count on that being the case now that you’ve evolved,” Stella interrupted hastily, her eyebrows furrowing. “I don’t know how much you may have changed, but the minks seem to like eating humans and elves.”

“Unfortunately,” Brianna muttered, her expression darkening. “They’re pretty much unmatched in the area, and whenever we see them we’re forced to run.”

The apis looked back and forth between them, starting to look a little worried as she bit her lower lip, then shrugged, murmuring, “Well, if they want to eat us, they do. Nothing to be done about it. Anyway, that should be what we want…”

Moving forward, the apis adroitly bounced up several leaves to where the lotus’s blossom was, then shuffled around inside it. It really was strange how agile the woman was, if she hadn’t possessed legs a few days prior, but Cora wasn’t going to object. Instead she watched the woman’s antennae twitch as she worked, then popped out, holding a fist-sized seed in her hand as she grinned, exclaiming, “Found it!”

“You’re amazing,” Stella said, her smile broad as she stepped forward, and the apis dropped the seed into her hand readily. “I thought this would take forever, and you managed to get the seeds in barely over an hour!”

“It wasn’t much, really. I’m a worker, so this is what I’m meant for. We harvest things, feed baby bees, or apis now, make honey, and build the hive,” the woman said, shrugging happily, and Cora blinked, considering the apis for a few moments. “Having nothing to do is one of the worst punishments I can think of since I’ve been a worker for my entire life.”

“Joy,” Cora said suddenly, drawing the attention of the others.

“Hm?” Stella asked, putting the seed away carefully. “What do you mean by that?”

“It’s my idea for her name,” Cora explained, looking at the apis, relaxing even more as she explained. “You’re always so enthusiastic and happy, so I think that your name should be Joy.”

“That… well…” Brianna began to protest, then frowned, mulling it over for a moment as she cleaned off her sword, then sheathed it. After a few seconds she spoke, her tone grudging. “Alright, that seems like a good name, even if I wanted to protest after how many of mine you shut down.”

“It isn’t a bad one. Not a usual name for an elf to come up with, but not bad,” Stella said, looking at the apis as she asked, “What do you think, though? You’re the one being referred to, and I think you should have a say in the matter.”

“Sure? I mean, it sounds pretty, and it’s simple. I like simple,” the apis said, tilting her head in consideration, but smiled as she continued. “And I like being happy, so… I guess I like it! What’s the point in being sad when you’ve all your life ahead of you?”

“That’s a good way to look at it, I suppose,” Cora said, smiling almost unwillingly at the woman’s upbeat personality. It improved her mood more than she’d expected it to.

“Agreed! Now, then, do you want to come with us back to town, Joy? We’ve finished gathering what we need to, and we’re rather far from the hive, as I recall. It might be faster to go back in the morning,” Brianna offered, glancing at the others as she added, “We could always pay for a room at the inn for you, if you’d like. Well, I could.”

“Oh, that’s so nice of you to offer! But… I’ve been away from the hive for a while as it is, and I’m anxious to get back,” Joy replied, her happiness dimming slightly, then her face brightened as she asked, “Maybe I could come with you most of the way? That’d be safer, then I can go to the hive on my own once we’re close.”

“That seems reasonable to me,” Cora said, nodding in return, though she felt slightly disappointed that the apis was leaving so soon. She’d been helpful, and the idea of someone with her abilities coming with them was incredibly enticing. “I’d hate for all of Stella’s work to get undone, after all.”

“Beyond that, I definitely owe you, Joy. These seeds are going to help enormously in the future,” Stella said, smiling broadly at the apis. “If you ever need something from me, just let me know and I’ll see how I can help.”

“Alright, I will,” Joy agreed and followed quickly as Brianna walked down the path heading for town.

A few seconds later, the apis asked curiously, “What does it mean when you hit level seven?”

Cora couldn’t help a soft laugh, and she smiled. It was odd that she was going to miss Joy after so little time together.

Chapter 8

“So that’s the town over there?” Joy asked, shading her eyes as she looked toward the town curiously.

Cora smiled and nodded, wondering what the apis made of the town, but she didn’t ask more. Instead she replied simply, “Yes, that’s Seldrim. We’re staying in town for a while, at least until we get close to level fifteen.”

“If you need anything, you can come find me,” Stella added, smiling broadly, and Brianna nodded in agreement.

“Alright, I’ll do that! I don’t know what’s going on at the hive, so who knows what will happen, but I hope I’ll see you again,” Joy said, almost bouncing in place as she looked between the edge of the Flower Forest and the plains that separated them from the town.

“Travel safely. I don’t want to hear about you falling between here and the hive,” Brianna chided gently, shaking her head. “You’re only level seven, and there are a lot of dangerous things in the forest.”

“That’s why I’m traveling during the day. The nasty things mostly come out at night,” Joy replied promptly, grinning again. “Anyway, thank you for rescuing me! Bye!”

“Goodbye,” Cora said, and watched in amusement as the apis darted back into the forest, unerringly heading toward the hive. As Joy moved out of sight, she murmured, “That… is a very odd woman.”

“She’s nice, though,” Stella said, looking down at her belt as she added, “I can’t believe how easy she made finishing our quests, too.”

“True enough, and I’m pretty sure she helped me get over my dislike of apis. From what she said about defending the hive… well, I guess it’s like when a monster invasion comes for one of the towns. You fight or die,” Cora said, shaking her head as her smile faded. “It doesn’t help those who died, but… it’s something to think about.”

“Yep. On the other hand, think about it this way! With her help, we got at least five hundred coins apiece worth of gear, and enough wasp chitin to get someone to craft armor from. That’ll sell for about six hundred coins, based on what I saw in the market a couple of weeks ago,” Brianna said, smiling broadly. “That makes almost seven hundred coins in profit each, which is incredible for a single day of work.”

“Very true,” Cora conceded, her mood improving at the thought, smiling as she added, “Better than taking most of a week, even if that does wipe out a lot of the high-bounty quests for a while.”

“It could be worse,” Stella said, smiling brightly. “I mean, the quest givers could have the jobs up forever, right? Either way, we should go turn them in. I can’t wait to see Mark’s face when we do.”

The thought of Mark made Cora’s smile widen, remembering the patronizing look he’d given them when they took the quests, and how sardonically he’d commented that he expected to see them the next week.

“Ooh, that’ll be fun. Making him eat his words is always a good time,” Brianna said, her eyes lighting up.

“Then we’d best go,” Cora said, heading toward Seldrim at an easy pace. The day certainly had helped assuage some of her frustration at her death and losses… another four hundred coins would make up the losses for her death, at least. A hundred coins per level was not cheap.

* * *

“What the hell?” Mark exclaimed, the black-haired man’s jaw slack with disbelief as he stared at the items sitting on the appraisal table. His voice drew attention from several other adventurers, who looked over curiously. “How did you get all of this in a single day? Did Besalk personally bless you or something?”

Brianna laughed, and Stella smiled, glancing at Cora before she replied calmly, a note of amusement in the human’s voice. “In a manner of speaking, perhaps. We were fortunate enough to encounter an apis in the forest and learned something rather interesting.”

“An apis? Didn’t they kill Cora or something?” another adventurer asked, her voice relatively mellow and calming, though the redhead’s eyes had an edge that Cora didn’t like.

“Yes, they did. It rather hurt, and thank you for the reminder, Venn,” Cora retorted, glaring at her in return. “On the other hand, I think we’d do about the same if a group of monsters broke in here, so… it is what it is.”

“Still, what the hell does an apis have to do with you having all this?” Mark asked, frowning deeply. “Any one of these quests probably would’ve taken a day on its own, probably four or five with average luck. Did one of you learn Advanced Salvaging off the apis or something?”

“Hardly. Instead we saved her life after she fought a wasp, and she offered to help us as payment,” Brianna said, her smile widening as she added, rather loudly, “It seems that apis have Advanced Harvesting as an Innate Ability, so with her help we got pretty much everything in an hour.”

For an instant the entire room went silent, as every adventurer in earshot stared at them incredulously. Cora winced, bracing herself for what was coming, which turned out to be a wise decision.

“What in the ever-living gods are you talking about?” a man demanded, shooting up out of his chair, even as the adventuring guild all but exploded with noise, different people trying to talk over one another.

Stella laughed, shaking her head as she looked at the dozens of people, many of them trying to talk to Cora and the others, but it was hard to make anything out over the clamor. Even Mark was flinching, and Cora plugged her ears with her fingers, wishing that Brianna hadn’t broken the news like that.

“SILENCE!” a woman bellowed, and suddenly the room went quiet as everyone looked at the back of the room. Standing in a doorway, scowling, was a tall, muscular woman with multiple scars visible along her arms and long gray hair in a braid. She was more handsome than pretty, and Cora slowly unplugged her ears at the sight of the Guildmaster.

“Just as I was trying to finish up the paperwork for some promotions, you lot had to make a racket,” Guildmaster Isolde Hammerhand snapped, her frosty blue gaze sweeping across the crowd angrily. “What is the meaning of this?”

“Brianna and the others just claimed that these new… apis people have Advanced Harvesting as an innate ability!” Venn explained, though she looked far more nervous about Isolde’s arrival, which was as it should be. Cora had heard that Isolde was past level sixty, which meant she probably could tear apart everyone else in the guild hall at the same time.

“Really? That’s an extremely unusual claim,” Isolde said, her eyes narrowing as she focused on Brianna, folding her arms. “Well? What do you have to say for yourselves?”

“We aren’t claiming anything. We’re simply telling the truth,” Brianna replied, clenching her jaw for a moment as she looked at Cora and asked, “Right? We rescued an apis, and she offered to help us as a way of payment.”

“That’s correct,” Cora said, letting out a breath of nervous annoyance, wishing that her friend hadn’t dragged the Guildmaster into this. Especially as Isolde began glaring at her, which was quite intimidating. After a moment she continued. “She is, or was, a level six apis worker, and had Advanced Harvesting, Apis Crafting, and Innate Armory as innate abilities. She leveled to level seven while traveling with us and gathered nearly three dozen rare items in the process for us.”

Isolde’s eyebrows rose as she looked at the other two, and Cora saw Brianna nod, while Stella was behind her, but assumed she confirmed it as well. After a moment the Guildmaster nodded, her expression growing less severe as she spoke. “I see. Well, that’ll make them popular recruits for most parties, I’d guess. We’ll see if these apis even bother going out adventuring, though. Some demi-humans don’t like leaving their villages, and I suspect it’ll be more true of these, since they were bees.”

“That… is entirely possible,” Cora agreed, her annoyance fading as she frowned. “The one we met, we named her Joy, since she didn’t have a name, seemed very devoted to her hive.”

“Yeah, and that was after being stuck at the top of a flower ever since they transformed,” Stella chimed in, a little bemused as she added, “She didn’t have wings, and there wasn’t an easy way down.”

“Doesn’t matter. What matters is that they exist, and that’s no excuse for all of you making an enormous racket,” Isolde said, turning to the rest of the adventurers with a scowl. They shrank back at her glare, which was a relief for Cora, since she obviously wasn’t upset with Cora’s group. After a few moments the Guildmaster continued. “Calm the hell down. Whether the apis have a rare skill innately or not, it doesn’t make that big of a difference. If you can recruit one, great. If not, just work hard so you can get to higher levels. Things that are rare now are rarely as rare later on. So keep it the hell down, and get back to what you were doing.”

Everyone was quiet as the Guildmaster returned to her room. Only once they were sure she was gone did conversation begin again, though much more quietly this time.

“Right, so how about our rewards?” Brianna asked, turning to Mark, whose face was almost purple with indignation. Cora couldn’t help a smile of her own, and the man obviously took several breaths to steady himself before replying.

“Everything appears to be in order, so I’ll put these away and gather your rewards,” Mark said, his voice taut but civil, despite the frustration Cora saw in his gaze. He obviously didn’t like how they’d proven him wrong.

“Thank you,” Stella said, far more politely than Cora could have managed.

As he walked away, Brianna looked over and smiled, then asked, “So, do you think Joy got back to her hive safely?”

Cora thought for a moment, considering what she’d seen of the apis, then the route to the hive. Eventually she nodded, speaking calmly. “Based on what I saw of her, most likely. She was rather agile, and it isn’t that far to the hive, and it’s through the safer areas of the forest. As long as she doesn’t lose her sense of direction, she’ll probably be fine. It’s just a shame that she was so devoted to her hive. Her ability was damned useful.”

“Hear, hear,” Stella said softly, her smile widening as she glanced at them. “That said… you two looking for a more consistent third? You’re nice to work with, and it’s always good to be part of a group.”

“I’m certainly interested!” Brianna exclaimed, her eyes brightening as she looked at Cora hopefully. “What do you think? I don’t want to step on your toes.”

Cora’s eyebrows rose as she looked between them, then laughed softly, shaking her head. “What, you think I’m going to object? I was trying to figure out how to keep you around longer, Stella, with how we found all your seeds so quickly. Having a healer around reduces the pressure on us immensely, and I appreciate your help a lot.”

“Well, that’s a relief! I thought you’d approve, but… who knows for sure? Some groups take Acolytes for granted, or don’t like us,” Stella said, which prompted a stare from Brianna.

“Wait, what?” the warrior demanded incredulously. “Why wouldn’t they like Acolytes?”

“Apparently, one of them was of the opinion that all healers needed to stay in the back and heal from what he considered a safe distance. I told him where to shove his assumptions and left,” Stella replied, shaking her head in disgust. “Some of the cultures to the west are weird; it’s why I came to Seldrim.”

“I’ll believe it, if they acted like that,” Cora said, a little stunned. Sure, she’d seen some groups that had attitudes like that before, and after a moment she said, “Maybe we should exchange stories. I’ve run into people who think that all mages need to stick in the back, too, and…”

They quickly began to chat, and once Mark returned with their reward the three headed to the inn for dinner and a chance to relax. In Cora’s opinion, it’d been a very good day.

Chapter 9

“Huh, that’s neat!” Joy said, pausing as she saw the hive and blinked several times.

The last time she’d seen the hive, it’d been much like most hives, a large entrance into caves with honeycombs everywhere inside it. There wasn’t much to see from the surface, or at least there hadn’t been. That had changed, and she found the differences intriguing.

Buildings had sprung up around the cave, hexagonal structures made of what looked like a mixture of wax and wood pulp, and there were already at least two dozen of them, many fitted together much like a honeycomb should. An area had been cleared well around the hive entrance as well, and it looked like workers were building a huge hexagonal wall around the area out of the same mixture of materials, though she thought she saw some stone included around the base of the wall. It was only about as tall as Joy was so far, but there’d been a lot of progress already, and she could see a gap that must be intended as a gate.

Apis were moving around quickly, and Joy blinked in confusion as she saw that a few of them had wings and were flying. A tiny sense of betrayal washed over her, and she murmured, “Oh, that isn’t fair at all! Why do they have wings?”

“Because they hit level ten, of course,” another woman said, and Joy blinked, looking over to see another worker nearby, walking out of the bushes as she looked at Joy in amusement, and Joy instantly felt a sense of companionship as she smelled the pheromones of the hive.

“Wait, that’s the reason? Crap, I’m only level seven…” Joy said, her antennae drooping in disappointment for a moment, then perked up as she added, “Well, I’m almost there! It’s good to know they aren’t gone for good.”

“You’re welcome!” the other worker said, giving a friendly smile as she headed for the gate, and Joy accompanied her happily. After a moment the other worker asked, “I haven’t seen you around the last few days, though I think I remember you from before the change. Why didn’t you know about the wings?”

“I was at the top of a really tall rose when I changed,” Joy explained readily, shrugging as she added, “I couldn’t get down without my wings, so I was stuck there until today. I got attacked by a wasp, and some adventurers saved my life.”

“Ah, well, that means you missed all sorts of things! The hive got attacked, and we changed in the middle of it, then there’ve been all sorts of other changes,” the worker explained, waving her hands enthusiastically. “They had to give most of us workers ladders, now that so few of us can fly, too. Fortunately, the humblebees have been giving divine revelations to explain how everything works.”

“Humblebees?” Joy asked, growing more puzzled as she frowned. “I’ve never heard that one before, and it isn’t part of the new words I learned after our changes.”

“Oh, of course! I guess they’re what adventurers would call priests, or things like that? I guess that when the queen heard that priests were supposed to be humble, she thought it’d make a good joke to call them humblebees. So now that’s what they are,” the other woman explained enthusiastically. “They can heal us, too, which has been really nice! No coming back injured and just having to recover slowly.”

“Right, that makes a lot more sense. One of the adventurers who helped me was a job called an… Acolyte, I think?” Joy said, slightly uncertain. “She was the one who healed me and was pretty nice. So were the others, for that matter. Anyway, I see I’ll have a lot to catch up on… ladders aren’t as good as wings, but at least it’s a solution.”

“Agreed!” the worker said happily.

They were approaching the entrance at that point, and a larger woman with thicker armor was waiting there, watching them with narrowed eyes. Joy tilted her head slightly as she saw the woman had a shield made of chitin on her back, which was rather surprising. She hadn’t expected it, and the other worker seemed to notice her confusion.

“Oh, she’s an Apis Warrior, one of the new types we can evolve into if we reach level ten. The queen is the one who’s going to decide how many apis we need in each role, though, so we’re supposed to ask for directions if we’re given an opportunity,” the worker explained, then turned to the warrior and said, “She was stuck in a flower after the change and just got back, though I’m sure you noticed her pheromones were old.”

“I see. Welcome back to the hive,” the warrior said, smiling warmly as she waved the other apis through. The warrior paused, then continued, her voice grave. “The events of the last few days have caused an upheaval in the hive, and you aren’t the only apis who was missing, though I believe you might be among the last to return. As you can see, there are a large number of changes being made, and I’ve been told to direct any late returners to the dining hall. You can get something to eat while I inform one of the queen’s attendants of your presence.”

“Okay!” Joy said, smiling sunnily at the woman, then hesitated before asking sheepishly, “Where’s the dining hall, though?”

“It’s that building there,” the warrior said, pointing at the largest of the buildings that’d been built, and it looked like there were at least two floors, with a third under construction.

“Thanks!” Joy replied happily, nodding and heading toward the building. She wanted to drop off her harvest, but if she was supposed to wait for an attendant to speak with her, so be it.

As she walked Joy felt herself relax as she took in the pheromones pervading the compound, their gentle scent reassuring her that the queen was alive and active. If she hadn’t been, they’d need to help spawn a new queen, and that was always a time of crisis for the hive… or at least it was before the change. Joy didn’t know how it’d work as an apis, and she’d never seen a queen born since her hatching.

The other apis nodded agreeably to her as she passed, but didn’t stop as they continued working, just as they should. Even some drones were helping, which surprised Joy for a moment until she realized the compound was likely considered part of the hive now, allowing the males to venture farther. She paused at the door of the dining hall, looking up at the second floor, then shrugged and walked inside.

The walls of the room were a comforting shade of yellow, the wood pulp covered by a smooth layer of wax, and numerous tables with benches lined the room, with dozens of workers sitting at them, each with a wax bowl in front of them, most of which were partially filled with honey. The other bees were taking spoonfuls of honey as they chatted among themselves, and Joy saw a couple of apis behind a counter in the back next to a large container on the floor, a couple of smaller containers full of spoons and bowls next to them.

She immediately approached, smiling brightly as she spoke to them. “Hi! The warrior on guard duty said to get a meal and wait. How does this work? I just got back to the hive.”

“Oh, that’s simple enough! We just dish up your honey and you find a spot to sit,” one of the two said while the other one pulled back the hinged lid of the large container to reveal it was an enormous pot of honey with a wax ladle hanging from the edge. The worker quickly poured a ladleful of honey into a bowl as the other worker continued. “I don’t know what you’ve been eating, but honey is the best thing for us. One bowl of honey is enough to keep a working apis going for two or three days. Here you go!”

“Thanks! I’m sure I’ll enjoy it,” Joy said, smiling broadly as she took the offered bowl and spoon. She turned and looked at the tables, debating for a moment before she headed for an open table without any other apis. While she wanted to know what was going on around the hive, she also wanted to make sure there would be enough space for the attendant when she arrived.

Taking a seat, Joy immediately dipped her spoon into the honey and lifted it to sniff gently. The gently wafting smell of the honey, along with its purity, made her start salivating, and she swallowed hard before taking her first mouthful of pure bliss.

Honey had been good before her transformation, but she’d never been able to taste it the way she could now, and it was like… like nothing she could describe. Liquid sunlight in her mouth, spreading slowly with a flavor reminiscent of the flowers the nectar had come from. Joy savored the flavors for a long, long moment before reluctantly swallowing, smiling broadly as she looked down at the bowl and took another spoonful, then another as she listened to the others.

The other workers were spiritedly discussing the best method to build the new storage bins and housing from wax, and the subject was fascinating to listen to, at least in Joy’s opinion. The workers were apparently using new techniques to harden the wax further than it normally could be so they could build the walls, some sort of tempering process that the humblebees had taught them. It also made for more durable furnishing and dishes, which was why they were using it so much, and one of the others wasn’t terribly good at it yet.

Joy was intrigued enough by the discussion that she didn’t notice when someone else entered the room, at least not until the woman took the seat opposite her and spoke. “Ah, so you’re the stray worker who just returned. How are you?”

“Well enough, now,” Joy said, blinking as she turned her attention to the apis opposite her, and her eyes widened slightly, and she licked her lips before admitting, “I wanted to get back sooner, but I got stuck at the top of a really tall rose when I changed.”

The woman was taller than Joy was, though her appearance was very similar to Joy’s. Her armor had more yellow stripes to it, and prettier patterns, but she didn’t look that different. If one ignored her wings and how a translucent skirt of golden-yellow fabric hung from her waist, anyway.

“Ah, that would explain why you’d taken so long. Of the workers who were out, you are one of only five who were unaccounted for as of this morning, and two of you returned today. The rest… it’s unfortunate, but very likely that they died after their change,” the queen’s attendant said, shaking her head as her eyes darkened with sorrow, the golden iris literally dimming. “Their sacrifices will not be forgotten.”

“Yet we would all give our lives for the hive, even the queen if it were needed,” Joy said, nodding readily.

“Indeed, that’s precisely it. Which is why I’m sure you’ll understand the news that I have for you,” the attendant said, her smile gone now.

“What might that be?” Joy said, concern welling up inside her.

“This morning the queen took stock of our numbers, and the young apis who are going to hatch soon. The number of apis workers is about to increase enormously, and each apis needs two to three times as much space as they did before,” the attendant explained calmly. “As such, with you being relatively low level among the workers and rather old, she decided that should you return, you would no longer be a member of the hive.”

“What? B-but…” Joy began, all her happiness vanishing like the depths of winter had suddenly descended on her. The sheer shock was unimaginable, and she almost dropped her spoon as her hand trembled, and she paused for a long moment, then asked, her anguish managing to show in her voice, “But… why? I’m a worker… I could help build the hive up for the new apis, and… and…”

“It isn’t that we don’t understand that, but the number of new apis who’ll hatch soon is large, and the space we have available is insufficient. Beyond that, it’s simply…” The attendant paused, then sighed as she added simply, “You were away too long.”

“Oh. I… I see,” Joy said, her mood utterly crushed, at least for the moment. She was on the older side for a giant bee, she knew; it was only the older bees who went out foraging, but she hadn’t expected this. If it was in the hive’s best interests, though… she could understand that it might be necessary. The problem was how adrift it would leave her, and after a moment she looked up at the attendant and swallowed, then asked, her voice tiny, “How soon do I have to go?”

“You’re welcome to stay the night, and we’ll not send you away with nothing. If you wish to fill most of your inventory with honey, you may do so, and we’ll trade you some of the coins that we’ve begun gathering now that we’re demi-humans,” the attendant said, shrugging unhappily. “Beyond that, despite what we’ve said, the queen has another motive, and she told me to give this to you.”

The attendant pulled out a wax jar that was only a few inches across, and while it was the same hexagonal shape as almost all apis construction, this one tapered to a point and had a wax cork atop it. The sides were quite thin, revealing a white, glowing liquid inside the jar. Joy blinked in confusion, looking at it as the attendant set it on the table, then up at the attendant.

“Um, what is it? And what other motive did she have?” Joy asked, not daring to touch the jar just yet.

“This is pure royal jelly,” the attendant said, looking at it with a faint expression of longing, hesitating before she continued softly. “It’s kept for the cases that we lose the queen and need to replace her quickly. It can heal virtually any venom or poison, but its true use is if you reach level twenty, it allows an apis to evolve into an apis queen. Instead of a lifespan of two and a half short years, you’d be able to live up to a century. However, no hive can have multiple queens, so… to spread our people, she chose to hand out this to those who are no longer members of the hive. If you’re quick enough to level, you can create your own hive. It was the least she could do for you, if she was going to cast you out.”

“I… I see. That’s…” Joy paused, touching the jar nervously, then picked it up. She hesitated for a long moment before looking up at the attendant, then asked in confusion, “Why me? There have to be higher level apis… I saw a bunch with wings, and another worker said that we get them back when we reach level ten. They have to be closer to level twenty than me, so… why?”

“Because it’s very hard to get beyond level eighteen in this area; only those who travel beyond the Flower Forest have a good chance of getting to level twenty,” the attendant said, shrugging as she added, “You’re far more likely to succeed than most other workers or warriors here. Besides, while the jelly is valuable, it’s simply… the best gift she can give you.”

“Oh,” Joy said, hesitating for a long moment, then put the jar in her pouch. It felt oddly heavy, which was odd, but it did take up a full inventory slot. After a moment she took another spoonful of honey, feeling downcast. It didn’t taste nearly as good as it had at first, which was depressing. After a few seconds, she asked, “Um, now what?”

“Now you eat, figure out what you want to do with your harvest, and rest. In the morning we’ll give you some equipment and you can set out on your own, to see things no other worker has seen before,” the attendant said kindly. She hesitated before adding quietly, “A tiny part of me envies that, but losing the hive would be too much for me. I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright, I think. At least I won’t lose everything, and I made a few adventurer friends,” Joy said, her mood starting to bounce back as she firmly shoved her dismay aside. She smiled at the attendant as she added, “They even gave me a name! Is that common for us, yet? It feels strange, using a name.”

“Really?” the attendant asked, her eyebrows rising quickly. “No, we don’t use names, yet. What did they call you?”

“Joy, because they thought I seemed really happy,” Joy said, smiling at the woman as she shrugged, taking another spoonful of honey. “They told me that I could find them in town if I needed anything, so I’ll probably do that. Maybe they’ll have some idea of what I should do.”

“That seems like a good plan to me,” the attendant said, looking like she’d relaxed slightly. After a few moments she stood and nodded. “I’ll leave you to your meal, though. I hope you have a good evening.”

“Thank you,” Joy said, though she didn’t feel quite as happy as she had earlier. The other workers were looking at her curiously, and she resisted the urge to sigh as the attendant left.

After a moment she murmured softly, “What am I going to do now?”

Chapter 10

The other workers woke Joy as they began stirring and going about their duties, and she blinked owlishly, then pulled away from the others she’d been resting next to. The worker dormitory was a large room, with cubbies for them to put their armor into and newer cushions on the floor, though it wasn’t as comfortable as Joy remembered. Fortunately it was warm enough, with the dozens of workers who slept there, and she yawned as she sat up, stretching and feeling several joints pop.

Beside her another apis sat up, twisting to either side to limber up, and the woman smiled at Joy, speaking brightly. “Good luck with your traveling! I’m sorry you didn’t get to stay, but… the needs of the hive, and all of that.”

Around them the other workers were pulling on their armor and picking up their weapons. It was obvious they were preparing for their duties, and Joy felt yet another pang of disappointment to be leaving, but she didn’t let it show on her face.

“You’re right, even if I wish I could stay,” Joy agreed, smiling back at her. “Good luck with building the new houses!”

“Thanks!” the apis replied brightly, and quickly started putting on her armor.

Joy followed suit, checking her inventory again. She had a full stack of small wax jars, each filled with honey, plus the hive had exchanged her harvest for another two full stacks of honey. That gave her seventy-two units of honey in all, which should be more than enough. She also had the pure royal jelly, but between them they took up four out of her six inventory slots, which was troubling.

It was fortunate that they were going to give her some equipment, really, including a backpack. She was wondering what she’d get, but Joy wasn’t going to push too hard. She really didn’t want to leave the hive, but… she also needed to make use of the time she had. Hopefully she could catch Brianna, Cora, and Stella.

“Heh,” Joy surprised herself by suddenly giggling, then murmured, “I wonder why they all have names that end with an ah sound, and mine doesn’t? Well, maybe I can ask!”

The thought improved her mood, and she practically bounced out of the dormitory, intent on getting her things and heading toward the town. As much as she didn’t want to leave the hive, Joy didn’t have time to waste moping. There wasn’t any point to it, either.

So the apis hummed to herself as she headed out of the room, losing herself briefly among the swirling swarm of other workers, at least briefly feeling at home again.

* * *

“Morning,” Brianna said, yawning as she plopped into the chair opposite Cora, her hair a bit untidy.

Cora suppressed the urge to sigh and smiled as she took a last bite of her toast, savoring the jam that’d been spread across the top before she replied. “Good morning. I expected you to be down a little earlier.”

“Not everyone is an early riser, you know,” Brianna retorted, nodding to the maid as she added, “Just some porridge for me, please. And some water, I guess.”

“Right away!” the maid chirped, smiling and heading for the kitchen.

“Fair, and we did get more done than I expected us to,” Stella said, a smile on her face as she worked on her meal. “I understand taking it a little easy after that.”

“True, but I doubt we’ll have as easy of a time in the coming days. We took most of the high reward herbalism quests, plus we can’t guarantee that we’ll be able to get rare items again. It was mostly Joy’s help that allowed us to make as much progress as we did,” Cora cautioned, shaking her head and sighing. “Not that I would mind something like that, but…”

“True, true,” Brianna said, frowning unhappily as she considered. The maid returned with her food and the Swordswoman’s expression brightened as she said, “Thank you!”

“You’re welcome, dear,” the maid replied, smiling widely as she nodded and stepped away.

“What do you want to do, then? If the quests for ingredients won’t work… I know that you’re trying to be more cautious, what with your recent death,” Stella said, her smile dimming.

“Well, that’s the question, isn’t it? I was just thinking—” Cora began, only to be interrupted by a shout.

“Hey, Cora!” a man yelled, and the elf looked over, blinking as she recognized Burt, one of the town guards she was acquainted with. The man was in the doorway with a perplexed expression on his face. After a moment he spoke again. “I’ve got an apis who’s looking for you at the gates. Considering the other day, are ya willing to meet her, or should I turn her away?”

“What? That…” Cora paused, blinking at the others, then said, “Could Joy have come to meet us?”

“That seems likely, more likely than any other apis coming to find us,” Stella said, a pleasantly surprised expression on her face. “I thought she wasn’t going to show up, considering her attitude yesterday.”

“Um, do you want me to come meet her, or can I eat first?” Brianna asked, looking at her bowl, which she’d barely touched so far.

“Catch up when you can, I think. I’ve no idea why she came to see us, so I wouldn’t get your hopes up,” Cora said, smiling and pulling a couple of coins out to pay for her meal. She glanced at Stella and asked, “You coming, too?”

“Of course! She was fun to be around,” Stella said, smiling broadly as she followed Cora’s example.

“I’ll be there soon, promise!” Brianna told them, and Cora suppressed the urge to laugh at the eagerness in her voice. Obviously, Cora wasn’t the only one who hoped to get the apis to help them more.

“So, what’re you doing?” Burt asked, the balding man frowning as she approached. “You didn’t exactly answer.”

“We’re going to meet her, assuming she’s the apis we think she is,” Cora replied, resisting the urge to laugh. “We met one yesterday who was nice, and we think it might be Joy.”

“Huh, well, she’s at the northern gate, so… if you want to meet her, that’s where you want to go,” Burt said, his frown easing as he gestured over his shoulder and turned to leave, still speaking. “I know apis are demi-humans, but until we know whether they’re peaceful or not, we’re being cautious.”

“I don’t blame you, considering what happened to me. There are some demi-humans who may as well be monsters,” Cora said, thinking about dark elves unhappily. The distant kindred of elves weren’t among the more pleasant demi-humans, and Cora had only met one who was an adventurer. After a moment she added, “We might be able to figure out their attitude after meeting Joy, though. She was going back to the hive, after all.”

“We might not, too. Remember, she seemed to have almost absolute faith in the hive,” Stella cautioned, though she didn’t look like she was worried.

They were walking through the town’s streets, and as they did, Cora wondered what Joy would make of Seldrim. The town wasn’t huge—it was only a thousand people or so, aside from the adventurers—but it had sturdy walls and was mostly made of stone, though some structures were wood. The road was cobblestone, and it was completely different than the lush outdoors of the Flower Forest.

“Well, we’ll see what she has to say for herself. If you vouch for her, I’ll let her inside town, but she’d be your responsibility,” Burt said, frowning at them. He opened his mouth to continue, but at that moment a voice echoed through the air.

“Cora, Stella, there you are! I came to see you, but they won’t let me into town!” Joy exclaimed, bouncing up and down as the apis hopped into the air to look past the guards at the gate, and Cora almost stopped, stunned by the woman’s behavior.

The guards had perplexed looks on their faces, and obviously didn’t know what to do about Joy, since she wasn’t crowding them, but was standing back about five paces while several adventurers stared at her in confusion, and half a dozen townsfolk were watching in amusement as the apis bounced into the air over and over again.

“Calm down, we’re coming over, Joy!” Stella said, her smile widening a lot as she tried to suppress a soft laugh, then murmured, “Oh, she’s just… why does she amuse me so much?”

“I couldn’t say for you, but I think it’s how guileless she is. Believe me, I was willing to think the worst of her for being an apis, but… it was hard after she worked so hard to help us,” Cora said, shaking her head slightly. Looking at Burt, who looked perplexed, she added, “We’ll talk with her, then let you know what’s going on, alright?”

“Sure, I just… she wasn’t doing that when I left!” Burt said, looking a little incredulous. As he approached, Burt asked, “How long has she been doing that?”

“She started about the time you were out of sight, and didn’t stop until… well, now,” one of the guards said, grinning as he kept an eye on Joy.

“Geez,” Cora murmured, passing the guards and blinking as she looked at Joy.

The apis wasn’t hopping anymore, and she looked about how she had the previous day, though she did have what looked like a large, hexagonal vase held to her back with backpack straps. It had a large opening at the top, which was plugged, and Cora looked at it in confusion.

“Hello, Joy. How are you doing?” Stella said, distracting Cora a little, then prompted her to blush as she realized that she’d ignored the apis to stare at her equipment.

“I’m doing better than yesterday! I got a good night of sleep, a bunch of honey, and now I’ve come to find all of you,” Joy said energetically, and a serious expression crossed her face as she asked, “Why does my name sound so different than yours? You, Brianna, and Cora’s names all end with the same sound, and mine doesn’t. Does it mean something?”

“Ah, no?” Stella said, looking taken aback as she looked at Cora in a bit of shock.

“No, it’s just that ours only happen to have that sort of sound. I know a woman named Evelynn, for instance,” Cora said, feeling a little incredulous as she asked, “You didn’t come see us just because you wanted to know that, did you?”

“Oh no, of course not! I just wondered, so I thought I’d ask you when I got here,” Joy said, smiling warmly, without a hint of deception to her voice. Then she continued brightly. “No, I was coming to get advice on what to do since I got kicked out of the hive.”

“You what?” Cora demanded, her annoyance vanishing in pure shock at how casually the apis had delivered her explanation. “What did you do?”

“What did I do?” Joy asked, blinking at Cora, and the elf looked at Stella, a little exasperated.

“She’s asking what you did to get kicked out of the hive,” Stella said, her voice more patient than Cora’s would have been. “It seems rather extreme, to me.”

“Oh, that’s what you meant! I didn’t do anything; I just got back too late,” Joy said, shaking her head as her smile dimmed ever so slightly, which was probably the most forlorn expression Cora had seen on her face except when the apis had asked them not to kill her. The apis continued, her face brightening again. “See, we take up a lot more space now, and all the new apis who’re going to hatch soon… they had to make plans, and figure out how many of us would live there, you see? So when I didn’t get back in time, they decided which of us would have to go out and maybe found our own hives. They gave me stuff to get me started, including some coins, and sent me on my way.”

“I…” Cora began, then fell silent, utterly stunned by what she’d just heard, and by Joy’s reaction to it. The incredibly callous treatment of the apis was horrifying, but almost worse was how Joy accepted it without question. After a moment she asked, “Why are you not upset about it?”

“Why? Because it’s for the hive. They’re doing the best they can with the resources they have. I’m an older worker, and not very high level,” Joy said, tilting her head as she looked at Cora in confusion. “If it’s for the hive, I’ll accept it. Besides, what’s done is done. I can’t change it, so why be upset?”

“I do not understand you,” Cora replied after a long pause, slightly exasperated and incredulous. She looked at Stella, who had a shocked expression on her face.

“What? I thought my words were understandable… was it something I said?” Joy asked, a flash of worry crossing her face. “I haven’t been able to talk for long, though, so I could be making mistakes.”

“No, no, it isn’t that, Joy,” Stella quickly assured the apis, giving Cora a confused look as she added, “We’re just confused because your reactions are so strange, at least to us. Most humans would be angry about getting kicked out, or at least sad. I suspect elves would feel the same.”

“That’s right,” Cora agreed, looking at Joy as her emotions settled down, seeing realization dawn on the apis’s face. “I know I’d be furious to be kicked out without a good reason.”

“Oh! Well, I think there was a good reason. Even the queen would sacrifice herself for the good of the hive,” Joy said, shrugging as she smiled sunnily. “Anyway, now I’m a rogue worker, I suppose! I just don’t know what to do.”

“Well, are you going to cause trouble in town? That’s the guard’s biggest worry, and why they haven’t let you into town. Some demi-humans are hostile, so letting them into town is asking for trouble,” Cora explained, glancing back at Burt and the other guards, since Joy wasn’t exactly trying to keep her voice down, which was rather amusing in some ways.

“Oh, of course not! I have my stinger for if I’m attacked, but it’s only for self-defense,” Joy said, tapping her rapier hilt gently. “I just, well, wanted advice, I guess.”

“What sort of advice?” Stella asked curiously, taking a step closer to Joy.

“If I want to start a hive, I have to hit level twenty,” Joy explained readily, shrugging as she continued. “From what I was told, that’s when I can evolve into a queen myself. I just have no idea how to go about it. I’m just a worker, and we did all the labor around the hive, nothing more. I could tell you where all the nicest pollen and nectar in the area is, but much beyond that I don’t have a clue.”

“I see, well, that would be a problem. Burt, can we take Joy into town?” Cora asked, glancing back at the guard as she added, “I’ll vouch for her.”

“Alright, but it’s on your head if she causes trouble,” the guard replied, though his growl seemed more halfhearted than it had been.

“Of course,” Cora said, then glanced at Joy and asked, “So, do you know what coins are for? Since you said the hive gave you some, I mean.”

“Not a clue!” Joy replied cheerfully, her antennae perking up. “I’m guessing they’re used for something, but I couldn’t figure out what. I thought they’d take an inventory space, yet they don’t.”

“Come on, let’s go into town,” Stella said, smiling as she led the way and said, “Coins are used to buy things, Joy.”

“What do you mean by buy things?” Joy asked curiously, following quickly, and Cora couldn’t help a wince.

This would be an interesting conversation, that was for sure.

* * *

“I think I understand,” Joy said, shifting on the bench, facing the adventurers as she thought about what they’d told her. It was hard for her to comprehend to some extent, but she’d always known that adventurers and other species worked differently than apis or bees. After a moment she admitted, “It’s really strange, but I suppose I understand. It isn’t as though you’re all one hive, so it isn’t a matter of who needs items, I guess. At least it tells me what these coins are for, though.”

“How many do you have? If you’re going to be acting as an adventurer to level up, you’ll want to register with the temple, and you need at least a hundred coins per level to resurrect,” Brianna said, considering with a frown, then added, “That’s the fastest way to level, adventuring, though you can naturally level over time. The harder the things you do, the faster you level.”

“A hundred coins per level? I definitely have enough, then. The queen’s attendant gave me… four thousand, three hundred, and twenty-two coins,” Joy said, checking her currency again, then blinked at the choking sound Stella made, and asked hesitantly, seeing the shocked expressions on their faces, “Is something wrong?”

“You told us you had some coins, not a small fortune!” Cora said, staring at Joy in shock. “I’ve been scrimping and saving, and aside from buying my level ten gear, I’d only gotten up to almost four thousand coins before I died! How could they give you that much?”

“Um, the hive is big?” Joy asked, a little taken aback. Since they didn’t seem like they’d accept that answer, she asked, “Do you know how many bees were in the hive?”

“Nope. A lot, I can guess, but the exact numbers… that’s another question,” Brianna said, shaking her head. “Breaking into a beehive is often considered incredibly dangerous due to how they seem to have endless numbers.”

“Not endless, but a small hive has ten thousand bees in it. Ours was of middling size, which is why I’m not surprised they wanted to expand, with the additional space we’d need,” Joy corrected, shrugging helplessly at the idea of other people invading a hive, which made her distinctly uncomfortable. She pursed her lips, then added, “We take two to three times as much space now, so when you consider having to triple the size of the hive… even if they took losses during the change, that makes it a problem. Anyway, if even half the workers found a single coin, that would give a lot of them. Since I didn’t know what to use coins for, I suspect they had a limited idea, too. So, I’d guess they gave each of us they kicked out a large portion of the coins they had.”

“That… is an insane number of bees. I had no idea there were that many in the hive,” Cora said, her mouth slightly agape. She swallowed, considering for a long moment, then said, “I died in your hive, actually. I just… that’s at least ten times the population of Seldrim!”

“Oh, you were among the adventurers who attacked the hive?” Joy asked, a little taken aback, and a hint of betrayal rushed through her, though it faded almost as quickly as it formed.

“Um, yes? I’m sorry, but it isn’t like we knew you’d be turning into demi-humans,” Cora said, looking away in obvious guilt. “Besides, it didn’t work out, as you likely know. Are you going to hold it against me?”

“Of course not!” Joy said, blinking at her in confusion, frowning. “It’s not like you’re a wasp, who eat us! No, you died, and that’s that. Then you saved me, so…”

The others were staring at Joy again, but she decided to ignore it this time. They were being quiet, so eventually she asked, “So, you said that I could change jobs since I’m at least level five, right? Do you have any recommendations? I’m guessing that I won’t be able to level very fast if I’m just a worker. I have lots of supplies… plenty of honey for the time being, plus some camping supplies in my backpack.”

“That’s an odd backpack…” Cora murmured, shaking her head as she settled back and relaxed, smiling. “Anyway… what do you two think? I thought she was acting like a Rogue, with how she was darting in to attack then retreating.”

“A definite point, though if you were a Rogue I think you’d need to stop announcing your attacks, at least when they aren’t special abilities,” Brianna said, smiling as she considered, then added, “I don’t know… maybe aim for Swashbuckler? That’s a job you can get at level ten, if you start with Warrior. It really depends on what you want to do, really.”

“Both of those make sense, though I’d also consider becoming a bard since you were singing when we first heard you. Bards commonly use rapiers,” Stella added, nodding at the rapier at her side. “Since you have that Innate Armory ability, you’ve got a fair amount of freedom other people don’t have. How does that work, anyway?”

“From what a worker said in the hive, it allows me to make new equipment if it breaks, equipment appropriate to my role. Some of the warriors made bows, and I think it levels up, too,” Joy said happily. “I—”

The apis couldn’t identify the sound from behind her, but she instinctively ducked anyway, not sure what it was. Brianna yelped and knocked something away, which Joy identified a moment later as a rock, and she blinked in surprise.

“Amar, what the hell was that for?” Brianna demanded angrily, standing up and glowering as she stared past Joy.

Cora and Stella had also stood, and Joy turned, blinking in confusion as she looked at the two men standing behind her. One was human, while the other had pointed ears that weren’t as long as Cora’s, and the second one looked particularly unhappy.

“Those evil things killed Fedris!” the half-elf retorted, spitting into the bushes as he glowered at Joy, and if she hadn’t been sitting the apis would have stepped backward in shock at his expression. She’d never seen so much hate in her life, and she opened her mouth, but he wasn’t done yet. “If you think I’m going to accept a monster like that in the city, you have another thing coming to you!”

“It isn’t your choice,” Stella said, her voice icy as she glared at the man. “The gods created them, so perhaps you’d like to take it up with them? Or perhaps you’d rather argue with the city council, or even Isolde? I’m sure she’d love to have another interruption after yesterday.”

Joy’s confusion grew stronger, and she looked at Cora, then asked, “But… didn’t you die? Why is he upset about Fedris dying? Shouldn’t they have resurrected, too?”

“See? They don’t even have a basic comprehension of what it’s like for us!” Amar exclaimed, though his companion set a hand on his shoulder and rumbled.

“Come on, don’t make too much of a scene, Am. She looks pretty confused,” the human said, though he didn’t look happy with Joy. The apis looked at Cora and the others, her confusion only growing stronger.

“Even if we have the coin to resurrect, the chances aren’t guaranteed, Joy. Sometimes Death decides to claim us anyway, even if the chances are lower than one in a hundred, most of the time,” Brianna explained, then glanced at Cora and added, “The chance of permanent death is much higher if you’ve died in the last month, approaching nine out of ten, so Cora needs to be wary for the next few weeks.”

“Ah, I see. That’s terrible, and I’m sorry that your friend died,” Joy said, her eyes darkening as she looked at the man with newfound comprehension. She was beginning to understand that most adventurers were much like the queens, far more individual and important than workers or other members of the hive. She considered for a moment before telling Amar, her voice calm as she could manage, “I cannot say that I truly understand, as we apis only value the lives of our queens as much as you seem to value one another, but when I try to consider it that way… you have my sympathies. My former hive may have been defending themselves, but you’re simply acting according to your natures. I bear no ill will for such and hope that at some point you will not hold it against me.”

“You can take your apology and…” Amar began angrily, but after a moment his voice trailed off as he looked into her eyes. Then the man turned away, exclaiming sourly, “Forget it. I don’t have time to waste on this. Just stay the hell away from me.”

Joy watched him go, then turned to the women in confusion, asking, “What did I say?”

“I’m not entirely sure myself, but you’re… very strange, Joy. Most people in town would hate or fear those who attacked us, yet you don’t seem to bear any of that,” Cora said, shaking her head in obvious confusion. “I expected you to be angry with me for attacking your hive, in fact.”

“I was angry, for a moment. Then I realized that it wasn’t worth being angry, since you died. Death is bad enough, and the hive survived. The workers and drones who sacrificed their lives to defend it succeeded, and that’s what really matters to me,” Joy said simply, shrugging as she smiled. “Why should I keep being angry? Life is short; I want to enjoy it!”

“That is a philosophy I can get behind!” Brianna said, smiling broadly. “So, since you’re looking to level… why not team up with us? We’re looking at some quests for the next few days, and your help would be great! You’d probably want a new job first, but I wouldn’t blame you if you stuck with what you have.”

“Um, I’ll have to think about it a little. The jobs, not working with you! I definitely would like that, since I have no clue what I’m doing. You suggested becoming a Bard, Rogue, or Warrior, right?” Joy asked, mulling it over internally. She was torn between the first two options, since they seemed like they could be interesting.

“That’s right. If you’re considering that, let’s take you to the Adventuring Guild and temple so you can register. It’ll make your life a lot easier,” Cora suggested, sending another thrill of pleasure through the apis.

“Sure! Let me grab my things quick and I’ll be ready!” Joy said, bouncing to her feet and scooping up her backpack happily. The additional twelve inventory slots it added made her happier, even if several were occupied by her things.

Chapter 11

“Ah, so you must be an apis! The first one to register at a temple, too, which is rather interesting,” Ryan said, looking at Joy in interest that Cora suspected verged on attraction as well, which amused her. “What do you think of Seldrim?”

“Your hives are really, really weird. Everything’s so spread out, and it takes a while to get anywhere,” Joy said promptly, looking around curiously. “So this is a temple? Neat!”

“That’s right… though I must admit to being curious about your people. Do you have religion?” Ryan asked, glancing at the others as he said, “Also, I must apologize in advance. I’m just curious about the apis, since the gods haven’t told us that much about them.”

“Not a problem, Ryan. We need to ask her a lot of things, too, but it’s not fair to do that without helping out,” Stella said, glancing at Joy as she added, smiling, “Besides, I’m curious if they’re religious, too.”

“Apparently? I can’t say myself, since I was only in the hive for one night, but I was told that we got some priests, and since they were supposed to be humble, the queen named them humblebees,” Joy said, and the sheer ridiculousness of the name made Cora choke, even as the others froze and Brianna let out a laugh. Joy wasn’t finished, though, and she continued, smiling brightly. “Apparently the gods have been giving them frequent divine revelations to explain how the world worked after the change.”

“I… I see. Humblebees? Truly?” Ryan asked, a pained expression on his face, which was enough to force a giggle from Cora’s throat, to her embarrassment.

“Of course! The queen thought it would be funny,” Joy said, smiling even more broadly, and even Stella laughed.

“I suppose that would do it,” Cora said, openly grinning now. “I don’t suppose you know what deities they pray to?”

“Not a clue! Is there a deity of honey and flowers?” Joy asked, suddenly looking contemplative. “If there is, I’d guess they’d pray to one like that…”

“Maybe Fayliss? She’s the goddess of beauty…” Stella suggested, glancing at Ryan. “I don’t know of any deities of honey. Mead has honey in it, so you might be able to justify Edian, but I don’t think he’d be their patron.”

“No, I think you’re right on Fayliss being the closest,” Ryan said, obviously recovering from shock. The priest calmed down, considering, then nodded as he added, “Regardless, it’s good to know that your people do have priests. Perhaps I’ll be able to speak with some of them one day. Now, I believe Cora said you wished to register here to be resurrected if you die?”

“That’s right!” Joy said, smiling broadly. “I bet most workers won’t bother, but it makes sense if I’m going to be going out in the world with adventurers. Or am an adventurer, I guess.”

“Right, well, that’s certainly different,” Ryan said, smiling warmly now. He considered for a long moment, then gestured at them as he spoke. “In any case, I need to register you, Joy. If you’ll follow me?”

“Alright!” Joy chirped, happily following Ryan deeper into the temple to a large orange crystal that glowed behind the primary altar.

Cora looked at the stone and smiled as Ryan stepped next to it, explaining. “If you’ll place your hands on the stone and say your name? The stone will record the sensation of your soul and attempt to call to you should you die. If Death’s call is stronger, though, there is nothing we can do.”

“Oh, alright. Let me see,” Joy said, laying her hands on the stone, then yelped and giggled, speaking brightly. “Ooh, it’s warm! My name is Joy. Nice to meet you, mister rock!”

Stella laughed, and even Ryan smiled at that. Cora paused, then spoke gently. “You know it can’t answer you, right?”

“Yes, but just saying my name would have felt silly. I’d rather greet it and be done with it,” Joy said, taking her hands off the stone as she considered, then asked, “Does the stone work with death from age?”

“No, I’m afraid not. It’s only when a soul has departed its body early that someone can be resurrected,” Ryan said, shaking his head sadly. “It’s unfortunate, but the way the gods have designed our world. Is there a particular reason why you ask?”

“I’m mostly curious, but… thank you for your help, Ryan! I’m glad I met you and hope to see you again! Without dying, I mean,” Joy said, grinning broadly as she looked at the others, asking hopefully, “So, now what?”

“Now we go to the guild,” Brianna said, straightening as she exchanged an amused look with Cora. “Shall we?”

“Sure!” Joy said, following them happily.

The apis was craning her neck, her antennae twitching as she looked at the building curiously. It was odd how the woman seemed to breathe new life into everyday tasks, and that alone would have helped Cora to relax where she was concerned. For now, as they opened the doors Joy looked up and gasped, smiling broadly.

“Oh, that’s a lovely view! I didn’t realize we could see most of the forest when we went inside, but we can!” Joy said, humming under her breath happily.

Looking out, Cora and the others took a moment to look at the view, and Cora realized what the apis meant. The towering flowers and plants of the Flower Forest were easily visible from the hill the temple was perched on top of, and vibrant colors filled the horizon for as far as they could see. Admittedly, it wasn’t that far with the flowers in the way, but Cora knew the forest was over twenty miles across, which gave plenty of space for the various creatures within it to grow.

“It is pretty,” Cora agreed at last, nodding as she thought, then asked, “Are there other hives in the forest?”

“Five giant beehives live in the southern part of the forest, or lived there, anyway,” Joy said promptly, shrugging as she added, “I have no idea if any of them changed into apis, too. It’s an odd thought… but they wouldn’t let me join, so it isn’t really worth worrying about.”

“The guild is this way,” Stella said, gesturing off to the left. Joy nodded and followed as they started moving. There weren’t a lot of people on the streets, but those who were nearby looked at them curiously as they passed.

“I’ve been wondering… I know that being higher level is better. I figured that out from what knowledge I got when I changed, but I haven’t been able to figure out why. What’s the difference?” Joy asked, then frowned as she added, “Plus, my armor and weapon had an attack and defense power, and I don’t understand that either. Can you tell me?”

“Oh, those are easy questions!” Brianna said, smiling as she glanced at the others, asking, “You two want to field them, or should I?”

“Go ahead,” Cora said, smiling even more at the enthusiasm Brianna showed. She suspected her friend had been feeling like she wasn’t helpful and was relieved when Stella nodded as well.

“Right, so when you level up your body grows stronger in pretty much every way. It isn’t very noticeable most of the time, since it’s a gradual change, but your skin grows tougher, you get a little faster, your muscles can lift more or hit harder, everything. Even your mind grows a little bit more powerful, which helps for those of us who weren’t all that smart to begin with,” Brianna explained, tapping her temple as she grinned at Joy. “Most people don’t notice at all, since we tend to only level when we’re challenged, and that means that we go to areas where the challenges are near our level. That means that we tend to be facing critters that have gone through the same degree of strengthening, so we’re pretty much on the same level as one another. If a high level person comes into a low level area, though… whew, they can utterly wreck about anything they run into.”

“I see! Does that mean that high level adventurers and monsters are unstoppable, then?” Joy asked, her eyes bright with curiosity.

“Hardly that,” Cora couldn’t help interjecting, shaking her head as she explained. “Even if their bodies are tougher, they have weak points. You stabbed the wasp in the eye and mouth yesterday, mostly avoiding its armor, and that’s the best way to fight those who’re higher level than you. You aim for weak points that will take damage even if they are stronger than they were.”

“Which leads us to the discussion of attack and defense power,” Brianna said, unslinging her sword and hefting it as she smiled at it. “This is a level ten steel hammerblade and has an attack power of thirteen. Leveled equipment always comes in five level increments, at least beyond level one, and their attack power is always within three points of its level. The same is true of armor; mine only has a defense power of eleven, though. Heavier armor slows me down.”

“I see… which means my armor and weapon are pretty good for their level. But what do the numbers mean?” Joy asked, looking at the sword, then up at Brianna curiously.

“If someone with an attack power eleven weapon were to hit my armor, it’d have even odds of penetrating the armor,” Brianna said bluntly, sheathing her sword again, her smile fading slightly as she continued. “If they had an attack power of twenty-one, they’d completely ignore my armor and punch right through it. An attack power of one would bounce off uselessly, though. Essentially, the difference between attack power and defense power determines how likely it is to negate an attack. The damage… well, that depends on how hard they hit you, and where they hit. We’re not invincible, and an attack in a vulnerable spot can kill us instantly if it gets through our defenses.”

“That’s why so many armors cover as much of the body as possible, even if they might be thin in some places,” Stella chimed in, nodding in approval as she added, “That was a good explanation, Brianna. Definitely better than the ones I got as a child.”

“I believe it! A lot of people don’t like simplifying it that much; they prefer making it seem far more mystical, or like high level people are invincible. A rapier through the eye of a level fifty Blademaster is damn near certain to kill him, just like a level one Farmer,” Brianna said, snorting as she shook her head. “Now, good luck managing that, mind you. They’re so strong, fast, and tough that you’d probably get wrecked before you could blink.”

“Something else to keep in mind is that as you level you get additional abilities based on your job, as well as the chance to learn some abilities if you try. Basic Salvaging is pretty easy to learn, but most of them beyond that are hard,” Cora added, nodding in agreement, though she smiled wryly as she added, “Though from what I’ve heard, you don’t get many abilities at higher levels, not unless you get into the rarer jobs. It’s why I’m trying to save up to get a token from the Tree of Life. It’s the only way to get into the Lifeglow Initiate job, which is the easiest prerequisite to get into the Elven High Mage job.”

“Why don’t you just get the abilities from a bunch of jobs, then?” Joy asked, frowning deeply as she walked alongside them. “If you don’t get many at higher levels, it seems like that would be better.”

“You lose any abilities granted by a job when you change to another, unless they were learned outside the job,” Stella explained, shrugging as she added, “Besides, you can only freely change jobs when you’re below level ten, then you can change once each time you reach a level that’s a multiple of five.”

“Which isn’t necessarily wise. Just because you learn the abilities of a new job doesn’t make you any good at using them,” Brianna said, shaking her head as she sighed and explained. “My grandmother decided to switch from Templar to Sorceress at level twenty-five, then messed up in a fight, instinctively acting like she did before the change, and she got killed. You don’t want to mess around with job changes.”

“Ah, I think I get it, now,” Joy said, nodding thoughtfully as she pursed her lips, then admitted, “I don’t completely understand, but I suspect that comes with time. Right now I’m thinking of becoming a Rogue. While being a Bard sounds neat, I don’t know that I’d be comfortable with it, and the idea of being a warrior doesn’t fit, either. I saw an apis warrior at the hive, and that just didn’t feel like me.”

“Entirely fair! I just thought you could do a good job as a Swashbuckler, but you have to do what makes the most sense to you,” Brianna said, shaking her head as she added, “Not everyone is suited for every role and trying to force yourself into something you aren’t comfortable with can be a disaster.”

“Yeah. I took up Archer initially, because my friends thought it suited me, and it was… not fun. I mean, I could do it, but I’d have hated it as I leveled, unlike Mage,” Cora agreed, musing on the subject, then laughing. “Now, here’s the Adventurer’s Guild! Let’s get you registered and see about getting you a job change.”

Cora paused, seeing Joy looked up at the three-story building in front of them, one of the five largest buildings in the town by a large margin. Cora wondered what the apis thought of the building, but the only thing on her face was that ever-present smile.

“Alright! This sounds like it’ll be really interesting,” Joy said happily.

Stella chuckled, then pushed the door open for them to enter.

Chapter 12

Joy’s eyes widened as she took in the sight of the Adventurer’s Guild, inhaling slightly as she did so. This was only the second non-apis building she’d been inside, and it was just so big!

The apis found so many wide-open spaces with no apparent purpose odd, and it wasn’t like most of the walls had storage or other useful features that she could see. No, large parts of the walls were just smooth wood surfaces, plus the area to her left had a dozen tables scattered about, far more widely spaced than she would’ve set it up. Why did anyone need that much space between tables, anyway?

There was a wide counter near the back of the room with two humans behind it, one male and the other female, each with different shades of brown eyes and hair, and she saw a board next to the table with dozens of scraps of parchment pinned to it. There was also a long counter along a wall with a series of shelves filled with bottles on the wall behind it, assuaging Joy’s concern about the inefficient use of space somewhat, though there were dozens of mugs stored there as well. There were two exits she could immediately see, but more interesting were the people in the room.

There was an apis-thin human with a drooping mustache behind the bar polishing a mug as he looked at her curiously. Men and women were scattered through the room, and the sight of them almost left Joy breathless. A lizard-like man in blue leathers was drinking happily beside a dwarven man, while a human mage was speaking to a tusked orc shaman at another table. A small human woman with an axe almost as large as she was sat next to a man with wooden skin and a nice tunic, and the sight was almost dizzying, especially as attention turned to Joy and conversation grew quiet. Belatedly Joy realized that the majority of the people in the room were human, though how exotic the other people were almost made her forget that.

“Why are they staring at me?” Joy asked, looking at Cora instinctively. While the others were nice as well, the elf’s words sometimes felt like they had more weight to them, somehow.

“You’re the first apis in the city, and quite possibly the first one they’ve seen. Even if there are lots of you in the Flower Forest now, they don’t necessarily encounter us,” Cora explained, nodding to the crowd as she crossed the room, heading for the woman behind the back counter. “They also heard that your species gets Advanced Harvesting for free, so I suspect they’re considering whether to try recruiting you. It’s an incredibly rare ability, which makes almost everyone jealous.”

“That’s not really fair, Cora,” the orc shaman said, looking at Cora with a frown, his voice deep but melodious. “Some of us are just curious why you came here with her, since you said the apis you met went back to her hive.”

“She did, but apparently things changed and she was forced to leave the hive. Something about overpopulation due to their size increasing,” Cora replied, smiling warmly at the man as she added, “That’s Rukar, Joy, and he’s one of the wiser people in Seldrim at the moment. If you need advice, he’s a good person to ask. Don’t ask Fred, the mage next to him. Fred has just about the worst luck I can imagine, and as such I’m skeptical of all his advice.”

“You be quiet,” the blond-haired mage retorted, scowling at Cora as a wave of laughter rippled through the room.

“Had to leave, is it? That’s always hard on someone, at least in my experience,” Rukar said, examining Joy curiously, then the orc smiled slightly as he asked, “What are you planning to do?”

“If I level up enough, I can evolve into a queen and found my own hive, so that’s my plan at the moment. Brianna, Cora, and Sella are willing to teach me and have my company, so I’m going to become an adventurer and help them for now,” Joy replied promptly, then paused, considering for a moment before adding, “I don’t know how well I’ll do, but I figure that it’s the best option I have.”

“Poaching the newbie already, then?” a human asked, his voice a little sour as he looked at them distrustfully. “If she has Advanced Harvesting, that just isn’t fair.”

“Look, if Joy wants to, she can team up with other people. We’re happy to show her the ropes and explain things, but it’s her choice what she wants to do,” Brianna said, glowering at the man in question. “We just happened to meet her beforehand, and she’s chosen to trust us. So deal with your disappointment; don’t take it out on other people.”

“I don’t know anyone else, and I trust you, anyway,” Joy said, shrugging as she looked around the room, then smiled as she added, “Not that I distrust everyone else, but I don’t know them. What are we doing here, again? Registration, I think you said?”

“We’re also looking at your job change, which won’t be too hard,” Stella said, smiling as she nodded toward the desk. “Let’s get Marge to help us, and we can decide what we want to do after that, alright?”

“Sure!” Joy chirped, relieved to have a goal again. All the attention was slightly unnerving, as was how different the people in the room were from one another. A part of her longed for the soothing similarities of a crowd of apis.

“Hello, my name is Marge, and I handle registrations and promotions in the Adventuring Guild. From what I just heard, you wish to register, correct?” the brown-haired woman said, smiling up at Joy as she added, “I have to ask you, rather than relying on what your companions have said.”

“That’s right! Though I’m not entirely sure why I need to be a member,” Joy admitted, shrugging as she continued. “I don’t know much about adventuring, just what I knew as a bee, which was that they were dangerous.”

“Ah, I see. They really should have told you more, but I’ll summarize,” Marge said, her eyes narrowing as she looked past Joy at the others, and Joy turned her head to see Brianna look away sheepishly, while the other two looked embarrassed. Marge’s voice was brisk but calm as she spoke. “The Adventuring Guild provides emergency lodging, basic crafting, and item identification purposes to its members, as well as functioning as the primary avenue of receiving quests for most adventurers. While quests can be received from others, including in person, the Adventuring guild investigates each quest to ensure that the reward is fair, and also puts any reward in our vaults until the quest is completed to ensure the adventurers are not cheated. We do take a percentage of the reward to do this, but that’s entirely on the quest-giver’s side. We’re also information brokers and help the members learn what is going on in the world and allow adventurers to more easily associate and find members. Last of all, we are able to help our members switch jobs without finding specific trainers to do so.”

“Oh, that’s a lot more stuff than I thought!” Joy said, her eyes widening. She briefly wondered why the rewards wouldn’t be fair, then reminded herself of some of the warnings Stella had given about money, and that non-apis weren’t as helpful as her people were.

“I’m not surprised, if they didn’t tell you anything,” Marge said, smiling warmly at Joy. “Now, then, can you tell me your name and level? Your job would be nice as well but isn’t required.”

“Okay. My name is Joy, and I’m level seven. I’m currently an Apis Worker, but I’m planning to change jobs to a Rogue as soon as I reasonably can,” Joy explained, smiling at the friendly woman as she wrote a few things down, but paused as Marge looked up in surprise.

“Only level seven? Isn’t that a little low for this area? For the most part we don’t get people below level nine or ten, as it’s usually too dangerous for them around here,” Marge said, looking rather concerned. “I’d have thought you’d be higher level than that, too.”

“A lot of creatures in the Flower Forest aren’t that high of level, Marge. If they were, the adventurers would wait even longer before challenging them,” another woman interjected, her voice deeper than the others, and Joy saw everyone around her freeze.

Turning, Joy saw a woman standing nearby who was even taller than Brianna, had scars and weathered skin, and her gray hair was in a braid behind her that was rather pretty. Joy briefly wondered if her hair would look good in a braid, but it was the woman’s eyes that made her shift from foot to foot slightly nervous since everyone else in the room seemed almost scared of the lady. The eyes made her think of a cloudless blue sky, but cold as a north wind. Still, it wouldn’t do to be impolite.

“Hi! I’m Joy. May I ask who you are?” Joy said, smiling brightly at the woman. The woman blinked, then smiled and laughed.

“Joy, is it? I’m surprised at how chipper you are,” the woman replied, smiling more broadly now as she grinned down at the apis. “My name is Isolde Hammerhand, and I’m the Guildmaster here.”

“Oh! So… you’re sort of like the queen of the Adventurer’s Guild? This one, anyway?” Joy asked, trying to place where the woman would be in the hierarchy, and her question prompted more laughter from Isolde, as well as a wave of laughter from around the room as other people relaxed as well.

“Queen? Oh, that’d be hilarious, wouldn’t it? No, no… I’m not that important. I keep the peace here, with able assistance from people like Marge, and communicate with other Adventurer’s Guild branches so they aren’t taken by surprise by others,” Isolde explained rather kindly, making Joy wonder why all the others had been so worried when she arrived. Still, her explanation made Isolde’s position clearer, which was a relief.

“Oh! So, in a hive that’d make you closer to one of the queen’s attendants. Sorry for asking. I just wasn’t sure how to place your position in terms I understood,” Joy said, nodding happily as she relaxed. “This is all so strange to me, but interesting, too.”

“Asking isn’t a problem. It’s when someone feigns ignorance to try to get out of trouble that I have issues. You’re obviously not one of those,” Isolde said, looking at Joy closely as she nodded slightly. “You don’t seem like you’re going to give me trouble, which is good. I don’t like having to beat the idiocy out of some people.”

“Er, okay?” Joy said, suddenly taken aback. “I don’t want to cause trouble, honest! Mostly I want to level up, and maybe start my own hive someday. I doubt that will happen, but it’s worth trying.”

“Fair. So, do you think we’ll get more apis as adventurers?” Isolde asked curiously. “I haven’t heard of any joining the Adventuring Guild yet, and it’s one of those things that’d prompt messages to be sent out.”

“I have no idea. We apis do whatever serves the hive best, so if it’s for the hive, sure! If not, they’ll probably stay away,” Joy explained, tilting her head as she considered, then added as she wondered what a tapping sound was, “Maybe if the queen thinks we need to participate and sends an apis to join it’ll happen… I think it would be a good way of learning about things outside the hive.”

“Alright, that makes sense. Now, I shouldn’t interrupt any longer, from how Marge is tapping her pen on the desk,” Isolde said, explaining the sound at the same time. “Stay out of trouble, you hear me?”

“I’ll try!” Joy said, smiling again as she turned back to Marge.

The woman relaxed slightly and nodded at Joy as she spoke. “Well, that was the local Guildmaster, so introductions there aren’t required. At this point the only thing we have left is to take care of your job change and finish getting you your membership card.”

“Membership card?” Joy asked curiously, her antennae perking up a little, but it was Cora that explained.

“It’s just a piece of wood that’s enchanted to glow in a couple of different ways, mostly if the card is yours, and to show that it’s a legitimate card,” Cora explained, smiling a little as she added, “It’s mostly used to show we’re a member of the guild when we go to a new city, or if we can get special deals from merchants.”

“That’s right,” Marge confirmed, pulling out a thin rectangle of wood with a lot of strange symbols across its surface. She offered it to Joy and said, “Just pick this up and say ‘claim’ and it’ll be yours. It doesn’t take inventory space, either.”

“Oh, good!” Joy said, picking up the card. “Claim!”

A shimmer of multicolored light flashed across the surface of the card, fascinating the apis for a moment as she blinked, then it faded, which disappointed her slightly. She shook it once to see if it’d make the colors again, then sighed and slipped it into her belt pouch. It didn’t take up an inventory slot, just as Marge had said it wouldn’t, which made her relax a little.

“Alright, so, how do I change jobs?” Joy asked, her antennae perking up. “I’ve liked being a worker, but it sounds like it won’t be as useful for adventuring. Not that it’s a bad job, but…”

“As to that, if you’d follow me?” Marge said, standing up and circling around the desk. She waved Cora and the others back as she scolded, “Not the rest of you, just Joy! You can’t job change anyway, and I know you aren’t at a level where you can change.”

“We’ll be here when you get back, then,” Brianna said, glancing at the others before she inclined her head toward a table. “Shall we get something to drink while we wait?”

“Sure, we’ve been talking a lot this morning,” Cora said, and Joy watched them take seats in curiosity, then focused on Marge, who was waiting patiently.

“Sorry, I got distracted. Everything here is so new to me,” Joy said, smiling at Marge as she added, “I didn’t even know I could read until I saw some of the signs! I couldn’t before; I know that much.”

“That’s intriguing, but I suppose the gods had to provide something for your people once they changed you into apis,” Marge said, leading her way into one of the halls, pulling out a ring of keys with a jingle. “When I heard that your species had been created, I was a little stunned.”

Joy watched the woman unlock a door, but blinked at her explanation, confused for a moment, then asked, “Why?”

“Hm?” Marge asked, looking up at Joy.

“Why were you stunned?” Joy clarified, shrugging as she admitted, “I don’t really understand humans and elves… or the other species, I suppose. I’m just a worker.”

“You’re not just anything. You’re your own person,” Marge said firmly, opening the door as she explained. “As for being surprised, it’s because there hasn’t been a humanoid or demi-human species created in centuries, if not more than that. I know the priesthood keep better track than most people do, but I know it’s been more than a thousand years, so it happening during my lifetime is a shock.”

“Oh. That… that’s a long time,” Joy said, her eyes widening enormously as she thought about the length of time. That was more than ten times the lifespan of a queen and dwarfed the lifespan of a worker by so many times she could hardly imagine it. It took her a minute to shake off her surprise as she followed, admitting, “I can’t even imagine that. We’re rather short-lived, us workers, I mean. I know that hasn’t changed after becoming apis.”

They’d entered a room with a few chairs, and with numerous shelves around the room, each with wooden tablets neatly shelved like books. Marge gestured to the chairs and said, “Go ahead and have a seat. I have to ask… how short-lived are you? Like orcs? Most of them only live to sixty or so.”

“Sixty what?” Joy asked, frowning as she pulled out a chair and settled into it. The backpack was in the way, so after a moment she slipped it off and set the wax jug on the ground next to her. “I’m not sure what length of time you’re using.”

“Oh, of course. Years is what we use, which are a cycle of all four seasons. Each season is split into three months,” Marge said, looking at a shelf, then pulling out a wooden tablet. On it Joy could see what looked like stone handprints, and Marge walked over to slide the tablet in front of Joy.

“Ah, okay!” Joy said, relieved to have a frame of reference, then smiled as she shook her head. She knew what a year was, but the term sixty without a time frame attached wasn’t helpful to her. “No, they’re much longer lived than workers. We live for two and a half years, generally.”

“What?” Marge exclaimed, startling Joy into jumping, and she looked up at the human in shock. Marge was staring at her, the woman’s mouth agape.

“Um, what did I say?” Joy asked, her antennae drooping slightly.

“You really only live a bit less than three years?” Marge demanded incredulously.

“That’s right. From the day we hatch, really… we don’t have the same larval state your species does. I was never a… child, as it were,” Joy said, shrugging. She didn’t understand why Marge was so shocked, since her lifespan was normal enough for bees or apis. Pausing, she added, “Though queens can live up to a century, as I recall.”

“That’s so short, though,” Marge said, her mouth hanging slightly open.

“Perhaps for you, but for me it’s just how life is,” Joy said, deciding not to tell Marge that she was fairly old for an apis. She wasn’t entirely certain how old she was, but a rough guess was that she was a bit less than two years old. If she could become a queen, her lifespan would extend enormously, which made her appreciate the parting gift of the queen still more. After a moment Joy smiled brightly at Marge as she said, “It’s just what life is, so I may as well enjoy the time I have! How do I change jobs with this, then?”

“Oh, um, just lay your hands on the palm prints and will yourself to change jobs,” Marge said, obviously taken aback.

“Alright, I’ll do that!” Joy said eagerly, placing her hands on the handprints. She was curious how the process would work and willed herself to change jobs, though she wasn’t sure how to term it. She wanted to change jobs, anyway.

Fortunately, that seemed to be enough, because suddenly her mind drifted, and it was like she was abruptly somewhere else. Joy found herself standing in a large field, the grass trimmed short, and a human man in black was standing in front of her, a pair of daggers at his side.

“You wish to become a Rogue, and I will give you guidance. Only then will the abilities necessary to be a true Rogue unlock for you,” the man said without preamble, and he drew his daggers, speaking calmly. “Draw your weapon.”

“Okay…” Joy said, a little confused, but drew her rapier anyway.

Then the man attacked her, and Joy yelped and dodged.

* * *

“Two and a half years? That’s it?” Marge murmured, staring at the apis in the chair in disbelief.

Joy looked so vibrant and young, and yet she would die so quickly. She’d live for a shorter period than Marge had spent in her current position, and the very thought was mind-boggling to her. It was sad, yet Joy didn’t seem to mind. If anything, she seemed happy even with the possibility of a short life.

“It’s probably why she’s so enthusiastic. As she said, she doesn’t have time to worry about things,” Marge said and settled back to wait. Job changes usually took a fair amount of time to complete, after all.

Chapter 13

As she finished the job change, Joy felt like she’d been sitting in direct sunlight for far too long and needed to flop down in the shade. She’d been sent through a whole series of acrobatics, lessons on stealth, and combat practice with the man, and he’d had no mercy on her. As the world changed back to the room she’d been in with Marge, her head throbbed and she groaned softly, even as what felt like a silent voice spoke in her mind.

Job change complete. You are now a Level 7 Apis Rogue.

“Oh, my head… I feel like I haven’t had honey in far too long, but it’s different…” Joy groaned, clutching her head as she winced.

“Unfortunately, that’s pretty normal. People often get headaches due to the information the job change imparts,” Marge said, standing up and sliding the tablet away from Joy, her voice calm. “I’ve heard that it’s because the change takes only a couple of minutes outside, yet it feels like several hours to the person going through it. I don’t know how true that is, though.”

“I… don’t know, but I’ll be alright, I think. At least it’s fading,” Joy said, wincing as she shifted in the chair, then stood. She picked up her backpack as well, letting out a sigh as she added, “I’m a Rogue, too! An Apis Rogue… why does it add what species I am to the name?”

“I’m not sure, but it does that to every person, from what I understand,” Marge said, putting the tablet back where she’d gotten it from. “I also noticed your armor change, which surprised me.”

“What?” Joy asked, looking down reflexively, then paused, staring at her armor and belt. Instead of staying like it’d been before, the armor looked a little thinner than it had before, and the joints allowed a bit more mobility. There were also a pair of daggers on her belt as well as the rapier, which startled her, and she reached down to touch them.

Apis Rogue’s Dagger (Level 5)

Attack Power 5, Thrown

Crafted by Apis to be used at range, these weapons are finely balanced and made only for their wielders. They are destroyed when others use them to attack.

“Neat! I didn’t know my stuff would change with my class!” Joy said enthusiastically, smiling as she nodded to herself. “That explains why the guy was teaching me to throw daggers, too.”

“If you say so. I have to say, you find the simplest things amazing that it’s… heartening,” Marge said, smiling as she considered Joy. “Do you like your new abilities?”

“Well, they’re neat, that’s for sure. I’m going to have to get used to using them, but that’ll come with time,” Joy said, shrugging as she thought about her abilities, calling the list up.

Innate Abilities: Advanced Harvesting, Apis Crafting, Innate Armory.

Job Abilities: Enhanced Stealth, Flurry of Blades, Penetrating Strike, Rolling Dodge.

The abilities had been explained by the man briefly, and they were somewhat fascinating to Joy. Enhanced Stealth allowed her to hide more easily, almost blurring the air around her and making her steps quieter no matter the circumstances, which would be useful. Flurry of Blades allowed her to throw multiple copies of the same dagger in rapid succession, starting with just one additional copy, and more as she leveled. Penetrating Strike boosted the attack power of an attack by one, or increased the damage it dealt if she hit an area that was unarmored. Rolling Dodge was exactly what it sounded like, it made it so that she could move farther than might be expected if she chose to roll, including out of the range of spells, but it required practice to move very far.

In all, it was an interesting set of abilities that Joy was going to have to get used to, and she was curious how they’d work. On the other hand, it’d also reduced all her personal inventory slots to only ten stacks rather than twelve, which made her relieved that she’d moved her honey supply to her backpack. Somehow it’d retained the twelve stacks, which was useful.

“Well, I’m sure that Brianna and the others are waiting for you. Shall we go?” Marge asked, her tone slightly more pointed now.

“Oh, sure! Sorry, I was just thinking about my abilities and got distracted,” Joy said, almost bouncing as she slipped on her backpack again. “There we go! One apis, ready to travel!”

Marge’s eyebrows rose as she looked at Joy, almost looking confused, then shrugged and replied mildly. “As you say, Joy.”

Joy wondered what she’d said, but bit back the urge to say something. She didn’t want to make Marge unhappier if she wasn’t pleased about something, after all. Instead she followed Marge out into the lobby again, then winced as music and loud voices assaulted her ears.

Even more people than before were in the tavern area, which was a little closer to how Joy would like it, but they were so noisy that she flinched, especially when she saw a group of humans in a corner, using wooden devices to make the music. They were instruments, the apis realized a moment later, though this was the first time she’d ever seen something that made music.

“Ah, there you are, Joy! I was wondering how long it would take!” Brianna called out cheerfully, smiling broadly as she held up a large mug. “You didn’t even take long enough for me to finish my first drink!”

“That’s probably for the best,” Cora said, eying the human as she took a sip from her own cup. “If we took longer, you might have managed to get drunk.”

“How’d it go, Joy?” Stella asked, her hands folded in front of her, and she looked at Marge as she added, “Thank you for taking care of her, Marge.”

“I just was doing my job,” Marge said, smiling a little as she added, “Also, she was significantly better behaved than some adventurers, so it truly wasn’t bad.”

“As for me, it went well! I got my new job, and a bunch of abilities I’ll have to practice. Well, more like four abilities, but they’re still useful. Plus my armor and weapons changed, which is neat!” Joy said, smiling broadly as she gestured at her armor and belt.

“I’m glad to hear it. What abilities did you pick up?” Cora asked, tilting her head as she explained. “Sometimes people get rarer abilities when they level up in a job, so not all Rogues have the same abilities.”

“Enhanced Stealth, Penetrating Strike, Flurry of Blades, and Rolling Dodge,” Joy explained without hesitation, taking a seat, then perked up as she took a sniff, her antennae extending slightly, then wrinkled her nose as she exclaimed, “Ugh, your juice has gone off!”

“It isn’t juice, it’s wine,” Cora said, blinking at Joy in obvious confusion. “Fermented grape juice, in this case, in fact, and it isn’t bad for the price.”

“You… you deliberately drink juice that has gone off?” Joy asked, a little taken aback.

“Want to try my mead? It has honey in it,” Brianna asked, grinning as she offered her mug, and at the scent Joy recoiled.

“No, no… ugh… that’s just… ew…” Joy said, shivering and shaking her head. “No, no… I’ll stick with water, honey, and nectar, thank you. It’s all I need, and that smells terrible.”

Brianna and Cora looked taken aback, Joy noticed, as did several other nearby adventurers that looked at her skeptically. At least Stella didn’t look too upset, just a little curious as she took a sip from her mug, which had a juice that also smelled like it was a little off to Joy. It was apple juice, the apis realized after a moment, but at least the Acolyte wasn’t trying to offer it to Joy.

“All you need? What do apis eat, anyway?” Stella asked curiously, looking like she savored her drink before swallowing.

“Um, honey, nectar, and water, mostly. Pollen, too, but that’s mostly for our young to help them grow up quickly,” Joy said, shifting slightly farther away to avoid too many fumes from their cups. “I have a large supply of honey on me, enough for several months at a minimum.”

“Several months? What, do you have your entire inventory full?” Brianna demanded, staring at Joy in shock.

“Of course not! I have containers full of honey, and I only have to eat about every other day at most,” Joy replied, shaking her head as she smiled happily. “I have seventy-two portions of honey, which is plenty. Plus, I can always make more if I find nectar.”

“That… is impressive. The better part of half a year’s food, if you’re right about eating every two days,” Cora said, her eyebrows rising in surprise. “I had no idea you were carrying that much.”

“Yes, well, my backpack can hold up to twelve items in a stack, and my containers each can hold four stacks of nectar or honey. I wish I could hold more than a single stack of full containers, but it just doesn’t work that way,” Joy said, growing a little sadder at the thought. “That’d make it a lot easier to carry things.”

“I’ll bet. I’m guessing your equipment is just specialized for apis, which makes sense,” Stella said, nodding slowly as she smiled more, looking at Joy’s backpack, then explained. “As for the containers, that’s something which affects everyone, Joy. A single creature cannot have more than a single stack of filled containers in their inventory. They can’t even fill all their inventory slots with single containers that are filled, it just doesn’t work.”

“Best guess is that it makes caravans and wagons necessary, though why the gods did it this way is unknown,” Brianna added, taking a deep pull from her mug, which made Joy wince again, not understanding how the woman could drink something that smelled so foul.

“Oh. I guess I’ll just have to ask, if I ever meet one,” Joy said, mentally making note of the question. She doubted she’d ever have a chance to meet a deity, but it was always possible. Finally, Joy asked brightly, her enthusiasm picking up again, “So, what are we going to do? I know you talked about finding a quest to do, so… what were you thinking? I don’t have any idea what sort of quest would be good, so I’ll let you three decide.”

“That’s one of the things we discussed while you were changing jobs, as a matter of fact,” Stella said, nodding at Cora as she continued. “We don’t dare take too many risks for the next few weeks, but that doesn’t mean we need to stick to simple quests.”

“That’s right. Some of the quests posted are what we refer to as fetch quests, essentially what we did with you before,” Cora explained, smiling slightly as she swirled her wine, then took another drink before continuing. “Others are delivery, hunting, and scouting quests… really, those are the big ones. We were considering the last. Brianna, care to explain, since you found it?”

“Sure, I can do that,” Brianna said, finishing her mug and setting it down with a happy sigh. The human leaned on the table, grinning broadly as she looked over at Joy. “The quest we’re looking at is to go investigate the Ragged Keep in the Ragwood west of town. The Ragwood separates Seldrim from the Outer Goblinlands, and whenever they decide they want to raid the area, the goblins set up camp in the Ragged Keep. Our quest would be to check if they’re there, and how large of a force might be there. If it’s small enough, we get an additional reward for clearing them out, otherwise we bring back word of what we found.”

“That seems simple,” Joy said, relaxing a little as she thought back. “And goblins… I saw some of them once. I’m not sure, but I think it was last year.”

“Truly?” Cora asked, her eyebrows rising. “I’ve never heard of goblins being seen in the Flower Forest, and from what you’ve said, you’ve never left it.”

“Nope, I haven’t!” Joy agreed, smiling broadly as she shrugged, adding, “I’m not surprised you didn’t hear, though! They went into the lair of a flower mink with a couple of them wearing furry clothing. Then they came running out, screaming as the mink chased them, one of the goblins in its mouth. I didn’t see them after that.”

“They… oh. Oh my… those were probably goblin beastmasters. They were trying to tame the mink, and…” Stella began, and she was visibly fighting back a smile, a battle which failed as she began to giggle.

“It chased them?” Brianna asked, her eyes shining. “All the way out of the forest?”

“I don’t know. It really didn’t matter to me at the time,” Joy said, happier now that her friends were smiling again, and she added, “They weren’t running that fast, though, so I doubt it.”

Cora’s snicker was almost muffled by the cup at her lips, but Joy caught it anyway, and her smile widened still more. She liked making her friends happy, as it was so much better than being sad.

“Well, that’s an entertaining mental image,” Brianna said, chuckling softly as she smiled. “Well, how about we rest for the day, then go out tomorrow? We’ve spent a large part of the day already, and I don’t want to get caught in the open when night falls.”

“Sure!” Joy said, feeling even better.

While the three women couldn’t replace her hive, anything was better than being alone.

Chapter 14

The night passed slowly for Joy, and at last she rolled out of the bed and moved to the window, pressing her fingers against the cool panes of glass as she looked up at the stars. The stars were beautiful, in a distant, stark sort of way, and she let out the faintest of sighs, trying to improve her mood.

It was hard, though. She was alone in the inn room, one that seemed enormous to her, at least for the lodging of a single person. The innkeeper had been apologetic as he explained that all his larger rooms were taken, but that just made Joy’s confusion deeper when she saw the room. It was large enough that she couldn’t touch any two opposite walls, or the floor and ceiling, so she didn’t understand what the problem was when it came to size. No, her problem was how cold it was, and how alone she felt. No, she longed for the warmth of the hive, the faint droning sound of bees constantly at work, and the breathing of others in the same room.

After a moment of hesitation, Joy reached down to her belt, and into the pouch on it, and carefully pulled out the jar with the pure royal jelly. It glowed softly in the room, and she let out a soft sigh as she stroked the side of the jar with one hand, then tapped it, willing herself to know what it did.

Pure Royal Jelly (Level 1, Consumable, Unstackable)

Created and purified by giant bees or apis through great effort, this substance is extremely nourishing and possesses powerful antitoxin properties. Creatures which consume pure royal jelly rapidly heal from most wounds and are immune to all natural poisons and magical poisons of level 75 or lower for one hour. This also neutralizes any poisons currently effecting the partaker.

Special: An apis or giant bee larva which consumes this item evolves into a queen of their species over the course of one day. An apis or giant bee of at least level 20 may consume this item to evolve into a queen.

“Maybe I’ll have my own hive in the future. Not that I’d know what to do with it. I’m just a worker… or was a worker,” Joy murmured, stroking the jar as she smiled and shook her head, sighing softly. “I shouldn’t be making decisions. It isn’t what I’m meant to be… and yet, it’s what I have to do.”

She looked at the jar, then slipped it back into the pouch and her inventory. Joy didn’t want to drop it, not since she knew that it was incredibly hard to make.

Watching the clouds move slowly across the sky, Joy sighed and wistfully thought back on her wings, wondering how high she could have gone. She’d never wondered that as a bee, and now… well, when she reached level ten she could find out.

“I don’t think I’m going to sleep,” Joy murmured, shaking her head as she turned away from the window. “That being the case… I suppose I’ll go outside and practice a little.”

Joy picked up her things, preparing for the day as best she could, then headed for the door. There was no point to sitting around and brooding, not when life was as short as it was. She may as well do something productive instead.

* * *

Cora suppressed a frown as she looked at the stairs again. It took all her self-control to keep from tapping her foot, and that mildly frustrated her. She shouldn’t be so anxious about when a new teammate would arrive, yet she was.

“Where is Joy?” Brianna asked at last, pushing her plate away as she verbalized why Cora was frustrated. “If she doesn’t come down soon, she isn’t going to have time to eat.”

“You’re assuming she’s going to eat like we do,” Stella said, shaking her head as she continued. “Remember, she said she only needs to eat every other day, and she might have eaten yesterday.”

“Perhaps, but I’d expected her to be downstairs by this point,” Cora said, glancing at the humans and relaxing slightly. “She was eager enough to get to work that I thought—”

“Ah, pardon me, but are you talking about the bee-lady? The one with the antennae and black eyes?” a maid asked, pausing in the midst of clearing a table.

“That sounds like Joy,” Brianna agreed, and grinned as he added, “Unless another apis has come to town without us hearing about it.”

“In that case, she’s been up since a few hours after midnight,” the maid said, relaxing slightly as she nodded at the door. “The baker said he saw her shortly after he started on bread for the day, and she seemed to be practicing with her weapons in the nearby drill grounds.”

“What? That makes no sense!” Brianna exclaimed in surprise, looking at Cora and Stella incredulously. “That would mean she got barely any sleep!”

“Still, it would explain why she hasn’t come downstairs,” Cora murmured, frowning deeply, at least until Stella spoke up.

“She might not have been able to sleep, you know,” the Acolyte said, her voice measured as she looked at them chidingly. “She’s in a city that’s nothing like anything she’s ever known, was kicked out of her home, and everything has changed for her. I can understand wanting to get up early, even if I’m concerned that she might have exhausted herself.”

“Fair,” Cora conceded, then sighed as she added, “I just wish she’d contacted us, rather than waiting for someone to let us know!”

“True, that,” Brianna grumbled, sighing as she pulled out a couple of coins to set on the table. “Anyway, we can go get her, then get on the road. The sooner we check out the keep, the sooner we’re back in town.”

“I’m just trying to decide whether I’m hoping there’re goblins in residence or not,” Cora said, paying for her meal as she stood as well, mixed feelings swirling through her. “It’ll pay a lot more if they are, but at the same time, that’s also a lot more dangerous for us.”

“I can’t say that I blame you,” Stella said, smiling as she added, “Mind you, I don’t want to get in a position where I risk death anyway. Even if the odds are good that I’ll resurrect in the temple, I prefer not testing my luck.”

“Mm…” Cora didn’t reply directly, as much as she agreed. While she didn’t want to die again, she also didn’t want to belabor the subject, which was what risked happening if they kept going.

“Either way, we’ll see what’s at the keep and decide what to do based on that,” Brianna said, leading the way out of the inn, sounding much happier now. “Hopefully Joy’s in good condition, but we’ll see. If she can’t pace herself, she won’t last long as an adventurer.”

Stella nodded in agreement, and while Cora didn’t say anything, she completely agreed. Pacing yourself was essential for an adventurer, especially planning on both going into a dungeon or questing ground or when ensuring you had the strength to escape. That was the main reason most young adventurers died, because they were worn out from a fight and couldn’t make it back to safety. In a lot of ways, Joy struck Cora as a beginning adventurer despite her level.

“…we could teach you a lot too, you know,” A man’s voice was barely audible from ahead of them, and Cora frowned slightly at the coaxing tone to his voice. “We’d really appreciate your help.”

“Sorry, but Brianna and the others taught me lots already, and it’d be mean of me to group with someone else without even taking the time to repay them,” Joy replied, her tone sunny as she refused, also explaining the situation to Cora as they rounded the corner. “I enjoyed the sparring, though! You three are really, really good, and it helped me figure out how to move better.”

Ahead of them was the training yard, with sands that’d been pounded by innumerable adventurers, scarred wooden target posts, and dozens of practice weapons. Cora had rarely used the training yard, since it was usually used by prospective adventurers, not ones who’d started on their careers unless they switched jobs. On the other hand, it made perfect sense for Joy, though Cora found herself startled when she saw the apis.

Despite how little sleep she had to have gotten, Joy looked perfectly awake and not at all like she’d been up the majority of the night. She had a cheerful smile on her face, only the faintest sheen of sweat on her brow, and she honestly looked better rested than Brianna had when she first stumbled downstairs. With the apis were three adventurers, the sight of which made Cora blink in shock. Brianna barely choked back a laugh, for which Cora was thankful.

The man was in a suit of ornamental plate, a type of armor that sacrificed defense for looking far prettier than most other level ten armors, and he’d obviously taken it to get it customized further since the armor didn’t normally come in red and blue, with gold trim. He had a similarly ornamented shield hanging from his back, and at his side was a beautiful longsword. He was blond-haired, blue-eyed, and quite handsome, which set off alarm bells in the back of Cora’s mind when combined with the women with him.

One woman was a half-elf with refined features, an expensive-looking ivory staff in one hand while she wore seemingly simple white robes that shimmered faintly in the afternoon light, but Cora recognized ironweave mage robes when she saw them, as they were one of the most expensive level ten robes available. The half-elf had beautiful auburn hair that was in intricate braids, and her smile was warm as she looked at Joy, if slightly brittle at the moment. Cora suspected she was a white mage, which was impressive since few people could afford the requirements to become one.

The other woman was human with short brown hair and blue eyes that were unusually vibrant, and she had a pair of daggers on her belt as well as leather armor with elaborate gold patterns across it. The woman had the look of someone ready to move instantly and swiftly, which reminded Cora of some of the more skilled warriors from her hometown. More notably, both women were quite attractive, which gave Cora a few suspicions about the man.

“Hello, Joy! We didn’t know you’d gotten up before us, and if the maidservant hadn’t mentioned you were over here, we’d still be waiting,” Stella said, smiling as she took the lead.

“Oh, Stella! Sorry, I was restless and couldn’t sleep, so thought I’d try to get used to my new abilities,” Joy replied, looking up suddenly as she smiled widely in return, looking as enthusiastic as always. “James and his friends helped me a little, which delayed me from coming back as early as I’d planned.”

A flash of annoyance crossed James’s face at the interruption, but only until he looked up at them, at which point the young man’s face instead lit up with pleasure as he smiled at Cora and the others. The two women looked over curiously, and Cora thought she saw jealousy in the half-elf’s gaze when she saw Cora, which was something she’d unfortunately grown used to. Some half-elves resented their kin, for a variety of reasons.

“Ah, much is explained,” Cora said, nodding politely to James and his companions as she smiled slightly. “Thank you for keeping Joy company, as it appears she needed it.”

“No thanks is necessary, ladies! I simply saw that she was on her own and practicing on your own rarely teaches you everything you need to learn,” James said, flashing a charming smile at them as he continued. “I was just telling her that I had a most lucrative quest that I could use help with, and her skills would be invaluable in the attempt.”

“I’m sorry, but I promised to help them. I don’t take my promises lightly, either,” Joy said firmly, shaking her head as she let out a sigh. “It’s sad, but I can only be in one place at a time.”

“Very true,” Brianna agreed, looking at Joy in concern as she asked, “That said… are you going to be alright to go on the quest today? If you didn’t sleep much and didn’t eat… well, it worries me.”

“Oh no, I’ll be fine. I only need a little sleep, and can work for a day straight if I need to. I’m used to working for at least three quarters of the day as it is, and all I need is more food. Since a meal of honey lasts two to three days, I’m perfectly fine,” Joy quickly explained, shaking her head rapidly. “I can go whenever you’re ready!”

“Glad to hear it,” Brianna said, smiling warmly. “In that case—”

“If I may interrupt… perhaps all of you would like to join us on our quest? As I said, it is rather lucrative,” James interrupted, taking a step forward so he was subtly between Joy and Cora’s group. “Eda, Helen, and I could use the help.”

Cora blinked, looking at the other two, who glanced at her. Stella was the one who pursed her lips, then asked, “If I may… what quest are you talking about?”

“We’re trying to collect luminous titansteel ore from the Blackstone Mines,” the half-elf explained in a soft voice, and Cora flinched at the item and location name, which confirmed her suspicions.

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me! No, no way in hell are we going in there,” Brianna said flatly, shaking her head as she crossed her arms. “Joy, you don’t want to go there, either. The Blackstone Mines are a dungeon suited for level twelve to fifteen adventurers, not someone who’s level seven. A lot of monsters in there would have good odds of outright ignoring your armor.”

“But—” James began, only for Cora to cut him off.

“Beyond even that, the rest of us are only level ten and eleven, and I died not long ago, so am waiting until Death’s gaze has moved on before trying anything too risky. I’m afraid your quest is entirely too dangerous for me to be comfortable with,” Cora said calmly, shaking her head. “My apologies, but unless Stella feels otherwise, I think none of us is inclined to enter the Blackstone Mines for a few weeks at a minimum.”

“No, not until I’m level twelve,” Stella said quietly, smiling as she added, “The best of luck to the three of you, but that is above what I’m comfortable with challenging just now.”

James’s smile turned rather forced, and Cora could see the annoyance in his eyes, though he hid it exceedingly well. After a moment he nodded, replying graciously.

“I see. Well, I suppose we’ll just have to do it ourselves, then. Good day to all of you,” James said, nodding to each of them, then looking at Joy for a moment before he added, “You know where to find me if you change your mind, Joy. I’m sure your talents could be put to much better use.”

“Thank you for the offer, James. Good luck on your quest!” Joy replied happily, and watched the man leave with his two companions. Only when they were out of earshot did she look at Cora and the others, asking. “Why did he seem upset that you weren’t willing to go with him? Or that I wouldn’t, for that matter.”

Stella looked at Cora, then spoke, her voice soft. “He’s a noble, Joy, and they sometimes have certain… assumptions, mostly that others are willing to fall over themselves to serve them.”

“It isn’t just that,” Cora said, shaking her head as she sighed. “He’s also one who’s been groomed as a Hero. The women with him… you noticed how they deferred to him? I’ll bet you that his family found women the same age of his with good potential and groomed them to be his companions, for when he started questing to defeat demons. Luminous titansteel is a rare drop, and noted for being one of the primary materials for demon-slaying weapons. Looking for it this early is… unusual. Besides which, I’m guessing he wanted us to join his group as additional supporters.”

“Gods preserve us from egotistical would-be Heroes,” Brianna muttered, shaking her head in disgust. “Does he not know what the mortality rate of Heroes is like? Let alone for their companions?”

“Some people don’t care, or they’re the ones who’re sure they’ll survive in the end,” Cora said, letting out a soft sigh.

“Um, I have a question… what’s a Hero?” Joy asked, looking positively perplexed, and Cora couldn’t help staring at the apis, her mouth slightly agape.

“Are… are you serious? You don’t know what a Hero is?” Brianna asked, looking at the apis in disbelief.

“Of course not. I was just a bee, so I don’t know a lot of things,” Joy said, shrugging as she smiled at them. “I figure if I don’t know, I should just ask.”

“How about we explain on the way to the keep?” Stella suggested, smiling gently as she shook her head. “This… is going to take some work, hm?”

“I entirely agree. I’ve never known anyone who didn’t know about Heroes,” Cora said, shaking her head as she sighed, then smiled. “Let’s get going, shall we?”

“Sure!” Joy chirped, and began following them as they turned toward the gates.

“This’ll be interesting,” Brianna murmured softly.

Chapter 15

“Where do we even start?” Stella asked, a hint of frustration in her voice that made Joy feel a little bad about her question. Not enough to retract it, but enough to make her wonder if she was missing something incredibly important.

“Simple enough, with the truth. See, the world has three… factions, let’s call them, Joy. We’re part of one faction usually called the kingdoms of light, the species who like living pretty freely and generally letting each other do our own thing. Oh, there are some who’re more of jerks or who want to take each other’s things, but generally we’re pretty benevolent,” Brianna said, grinning as she shook her head and sighed. “Though to be perfectly honest, there are humans on the other sides as well. But that’s another subject; I’m trying to make this simple. There are also monsters that are more organized and malevolent, as well as those who want to prey on others. They’re generally called the evil kingdoms, but that’s generalizing too. In between are a few kingdoms and species that want no part of conflict, generally being rather insular and xenophobic, or those monsters that don’t have particular intelligence.”

“Okay… I think I understand that. So giant bees and other creatures like that are the third group,” Joy said, nodding in understanding, though she had problems grasping some of the ideas. She knew what the concept of a kingdom was, but the idea of something so huge was mind-boggling.

They followed the road around a boulder and Joy inhaled slightly, seeing a few dozen farms on the fields to their left, farmers out tending to their crops while wide plains laid beyond them, while to the right was the Flower Forest some distance away, and a normal forest a couple of miles ahead of them. It was pretty peaceful out, which made Joy happy. It meant the others could explain things safely.

“That’s right. Now, Heroes are members of the kingdoms of light, generally speaking. Mind you, someone doesn’t become the Hero until they succeed in their quest, even if they have the Hero job,” Cora interjected, her voice soft as she shook her head. “Heroes are those who’re out to take down the Demon King.”

“Or Demon Queen. Or Dark Lord, Lady of Shadows, King of Fiery Ruin…” Brianna added cheerfully, marking off each title on a finger.

“The what?” Joy asked, her confusion growing even stronger at their banter.

“Shush, Bri. You’re confusing her,” Cora said, glaring at her friend in affectionate exasperation.

“Fine, then. You weren’t the one explaining to begin with,” Brianna retorted, grinning broadly as she ambled along the road.

“Well, I am now. So, the kingdoms have been in conflict for a very long time. Every century or so, or a century after the last one has died, a powerful individual arises among the kingdoms of darkness. The individual is generally called the Demon King, though each of them tends to come up with their own titles to show they’re different. The last one was the Lord of Oblivion, for instance,” Cora explained, wrinkling her nose in distaste. “They tend to try to conquer the kingdoms of light, so the Heroes try to put an end to the Demon King before things go too far. It’s a bloody affair and leads to lots of dead adventurers.”

“That’s the main reason most adventurers try to avoid adventuring with prospective Heroes. It tends to end poorly for those around them even if they succeed,” Stella said, while Brianna nodded in obvious agreement.

“Ah. I guess that wouldn’t be fun,” Joy said, her head aching slightly at the explanations, though she understood them for the most part. She thought, walking along at a steady pace, her eyes drawn to the side by the sight of a field of clover, and Joy forced herself not to go start collecting nectar. The impulse was strong, but her life had changed. Besides, she wasn’t sure how many flowers she’d have to harvest from to get a single unit of nectar. Eventually she asked, “So, do the Heroes stop the Demon Kings every time? I’m guessing the Lord of Oblivion was stopped.”

“Well, not every time. At least not at first,” Brianna said, her smile fading as she scratched her head unhappily. “There isn’t one right now, but we’re expecting a Demon King to arise any year now. As for previous ones… the one that did the most damage and lasted longest was… the Iron Queen?”

“That’s right,” Stella said, her smile gone as she shook her head. “She was an orc martial artist, and her reign was close to three centuries before a Hero defeated her. It’s often called the Tenfold Calamity, since before that was the strongest point in the history of the kingdoms of light.”

“Ooh… that doesn’t sound good. Why hasn’t one side just… beaten the other entirely? I mean, if things go badly, a hive can be wiped out, which obviously I’d want to avoid with my hive, but it makes sense to try to get rid of evil hives. Like wasps,” Joy said, bouncing a little as she hopped onto a rock alongside the road. She found it fascinating that her sense of balance seemed to have improved on changing jobs.

“It’s been tried, and that’s what led to the Iron Queen,” Brianna said, her voice a little sour, and Joy perked up a little more.

“Oh? Why did it lead to her?” Joy asked, honestly interested now.

“It took a long time to figure it out, but in the end it goes back to how more challenging situations cause us to level faster,” Cora explained, the elf glancing at the others as she smiled thinly. “When we start crushing the kingdoms of darkness, it’s making the situation harder for their entire population, so they start leveling faster. Meanwhile, things get safer in our own lands so we level slower, and the balance of power starts to shift. It’s practically impossible to completely defeat the other side under those circumstances, and when a Hero or Demon King appears when their side is in a situation like that, they become absurdly powerful quickly, which tilts the scales dramatically.”

“Ooh… that sounds like it’d be bad, yes. So I’m guessing that the Iron Queen was during one of those periods?” Joy asked, internally cringing at the idea of a side growing incredibly powerful that quickly. It helped her understand the idea when she thought of it like a couple of hives jostling over prime flower territory, though she didn’t say that.

“That’s right. For the most part, the kingdoms try not to push the other faction to the brink of defeat when they have the advantage, now, though there are always those who think that this time it’ll be different,” Cora said, shrugging and smiling wryly. “At least we don’t have a Demon King at the moment, as that’d be unpleasant, and the kingdoms are mostly evenly matched. It helps me relax when I think about it that way, since I really don’t want to get stuck in the middle of a war.”

“I’ll agree there!” Joy said, hopping off the rocks as she looked at the forest in the distance, frowning before she asked, “So, how far is it to the… Ragged Keep, was it? I’ve never been out of the Flower Forest, and mostly stuck to one section.”

“Well… that’s a little hard to say. If you look there, can you see the rock outcropping jutting out of the ridge?” Brianna asked, stopping and pointing into the distance.

Joy paused to peer into the distance, trying to spot what Brianna was talking about. It took a minute for her to pick out the ridge in question, then the outcropping, which was almost hidden behind treetops, and finally she nodded.

“I see it! It blends into the forest pretty well, especially when we’re this far away,” Joy said, smiling happily at the human.

“Practice helps, as does knowing the area. In any case, the keep is just a little ways past that outcropping, so we’re going to be traveling for a good part of the morning. It’s why we wanted to get moving early,” Brianna explained.

“Ah, I see! Well, I don’t see, but okay!” Joy said, nodding vigorously, then her antennae drooped a little. “Farther than I wanted, I guess. I’m not use to traveling long distances.”

The others laughed, and it was Stella who spoke gently. “I’m afraid this isn’t a long distance, Joy. We can get to the keep and back in a day while walking, while there are places that are weeks apart.”

“Um, right. I should’ve realized that,” Joy replied, blushing as she looked down, and her reaction only seemed to make them laugh harder.

Chapter 16

Joy took the time to make her daily wax discs while they walked, something which the others watched curiously. By the time she was done, she had nine of them, which was enough to do quite a bit, based on everything she’d learned from the other workers. While her wax crafting couldn’t do anything, it was still far more versatile than she’d expected. The main thing she needed was to have the wax available if she needed to make something, which was why she was taking up an inventory slot with the discs.

Even so, that only took about a quarter of the time they were traveling. Oh, there was a good bit of conversation, ranging from what the farms were for to what it was like to grow up as a bee. The descriptions prompted looks of horror from Brianna, Cora, and Stella, but that was fine with Joy after she learned that they raised cattle and other animals to be eaten. At least with chickens they mostly ate the eggs, even if the idea made Joy nauseous.

Fortunately, they’d moved on to other subjects, and Joy hoped desperately that food wouldn’t come up again. Neither she nor they seemed to enjoy those conversations, and it’d make Joy much happier not to think about what they were eating.

As they drew closer to the forest, Joy studied the trees curiously. She’d seen trees before, primarily near the edge of the Flower Forest, but she hadn’t ever gone into other areas. It was simply far more efficient to gather pollen and nectar from the flowers, which were the size of entire trees outside the Flower Forest. There was something nice about the colors of the trees, though, and Joy felt herself relaxing as she heard the soft hum of bees from time to time, these ones tiny enough it caused a burble of delight to well up inside her, and away from the strange city of humans and other people.

Her delight dimmed as Brianna stopped a good hundred paces from the forest, eyeing it warily before the woman nodded grimly, unsheathing her sword. “Alright, here we are, the Ragwood. Home of boars, wolves, coyotes, widowmaker spiders, and other unpleasant creatures that I always forget. Is everyone ready?”

“Not really, but I’ll do my best,” Joy replied, her tone light despite her nervousness. “I didn’t realize it’d be quite that dangerous.”

“Most places adventurers go are. Mind you, there are areas that are relatively safe, too, but with risk comes reward. You wanted to level up, didn’t you? Here’s your chance,” Cora said, unlimbering her staff as she smiled, adding, “Don’t worry, this is relatively safe compared to the Flower Forest. Most of the creatures are going to be about level five, so you’ll have an advantage over them, if not as much as we do.”

“Okay, that sounds better than I thought it might be,” Joy said, relaxing slightly at the description, though she was still nervous about going into an area the others thought was dangerous. She was still a little fuzzy about how much of a difference their levels would have, so she wanted to be careful.

“We wouldn’t be trying this if it was particularly dangerous, promise,” Stella replied gently, rolling her shoulders as she added, “It’s just that it’s wise to be prepared rather than having your weapons slung when a spider drops out of a tree on you.”

“They do like doing things like that,” Joy agreed, glancing at the trees warily. “That and weaving webs to catch unwary bees.”

“At least you believe us about that. Some new adventurers are skeptical,” Cora said, pausing for a moment before she admitted, “On the other hand, they weren’t bees. You have far more experience with spiders than us, I suspect.”

“Not really. I just tried to avoid them,” Joy said, wrinkling her nose as she added, “They were about as dangerous as wasps, but nowhere near as mean. Spiders won’t come into the hive hunting for us, after all. Well, not that I know of.”

“Alright, enough chatter. Shall we?” Brianna asked, her tone brisk now. “I’ll take the lead, while Stella’s going to guard Cora in case of an ambush. What about you, Joy?”

“I… well, I’ll follow you and watch for things that want to eat us,” Joy said, watching Cora grip her staff in both hands, the elf looking far more alert now, while Stella had her shield properly secured on one arm and a mace in her left hand. Taking a breath, Joy focused on stepping more carefully as she moved closer to Brianna.

“Good idea… and good job, trying to hide immediately,” Brianna said, nodding in approval as she smiled. “Just try not to hide from us, hm? I’d hate to have you get in trouble and not be able to help because we didn’t know where you went.”

“Oh, of course!” Joy agreed, blushing slightly. She hadn’t thought of that possibility, and it was something she definitely wanted to remember.

They started into the forest, and part of Joy was surprised that they didn’t immediately run into a monster. None of the others relaxed, and instead they continued forward at a steady pace, only a little slower than they’d moved outside the forest. Fortunately, the road continued under the boughs of the trees, allowing them to move relatively easily.

The aspect of the forest that Joy hadn’t expected was how it seemed to muffle a lot of sounds, while others were amplified. The flower forest didn’t have the countless leaves that rustled in the wind, and in most places sunlight could more easily reach the ground, which was disconcerting, to say the least. Still, she didn’t have time to adjust to the area since the others had continued forward already, making her have to step more quickly to keep up.

Only a couple of minutes into the forest Brianna suddenly lunged forward, swinging her sword as Joy scrambled to mentally catch up, but before she could react there was a snarl which cut off abruptly, and blood sprayed across the forest floor as the coyote was launched backward, its neck half-severed.

“One mangy coyote down, countless more to go,” Brianna said, looking around for a moment before she relaxed slightly, stepping forward to wipe off her sword on its body. “Not that they’ll be showing up immediately… looks like that one was on its own.”

“How did you even see it? I didn’t notice it until after you’d started attacking!” Joy said, blinking in surprise as she looked at the dog-like creature, wincing at the sight of its blood. Truthfully it didn’t bother her that much, but she didn’t like the sight of the red blood. It was just… unnatural to her.

“Practice, and I had a better angle to spot it,” Brianna said, glancing around as she smirked. “I am good at what I do, Joy. We just really haven’t had a chance to show each other our real capabilities.”

“If you’re going to talk like that, maybe you should get a room,” Cora interjected dryly, mystifying Joy and prompting a sudden blush from Brianna and a chuckle from Stella.

“I didn’t mean it that way! Get your mind out of the gutter, Cora!” Brianna protested, looking away in obvious embarrassment that only heightened Joy’s confusion.

“Um, what’re you talking about? I’m confused…” Joy said, looking between them in curiously. “Mind in the gutter?”

“Ah… she was implying that Brianna’s comment suggested that she was attracted to you, Joy. That she might want to have intercourse with you,” Stella said delicately, her cheeks flushing ever so slightly as the woman cleared her throat. “I didn’t interpret it that way, but Brianna and Cora have been friends for a while, and like teasing one another.”

“Stella, not you, too!” Brianna protested, her cheeks turning an even deeper red, and understanding rushed through Joy at last.

“Oh, sex! Alright, that makes more sense, though I forgot that in other species, almost anyone can have sex,” Joy said, smiling as she shook her head, a little amused. “I don’t see why you’d want to have sex with women, but if you want to that’s your choice. I can’t, either way.”

“What? Why not?” Cora asked, looking at Joy in shock. The others were staring at her as well, prompting Joy’s confusion to rise again.

“Uh, I’m a worker? Or was a worker, anyway,” Joy said, looking at them curiously. “Only queens can lay eggs, so they’re the only ones who have sex. I don’t have the bits for it.”

“But… you’re female, I can see that much!” Brianna protested, glancing away to look at the forest as she added, “I suppose we shouldn’t be having this conversation here, but… I have to ask!”

“Well, I guess? Really, it’s a question of how we’re fed as larva… if we get lots of royal jelly we become queens, but we don’t get the same bits if we don’t get much,” Joy said, shrugging as she smiled. “I could have been a queen if they had, but it didn’t happen. The queen wouldn’t do that anyway, not until she was close to death, or if the hive needed to split. Either way, if I reach level twenty, I should be able to evolve into a queen. I suppose I’ll need to find a drone or ten at that point, too.”

“A drone or ten?” Cora asked, her eyebrows shooting upward. “Isn’t that a rather low number of other apis?”

“Ah… drones are the males among bees, Cora,” Stella interjected, her blush growing a little brighter.

“Wha… oh! Oh, of course,” Cora said, her embarrassment growing much more pronounced as she looked away. “That… well, in that case it sounds like a lot of men to me.”

“Not really. The queens have to lay a lot of eggs, so…” Joy paused, thinking about things, then wrinkled her nose. “It’s an odd thing to think about. I didn’t know a lot of this consciously before. Anyway, I think my old queen had two dozen drones from other hives around. They’d go trade them, as I recall, to strengthen the hive.”

“I… see. That’s so weird,” Cora said, shaking her head in shock.

“I think eating things other than honey is weird,” Joy pointed out in return, shrugging.

“Ah, enough of this, I think. You got your answer, Cora, so we’d better keep going. We’re wasting daylight, you know,” Brianna interjected, her tone slightly scolding.

“Alright. Sorry, Joy, I just… your people are so different I have a hard time understanding you sometimes,” Cora said, looking a little chagrined.

“Not a problem, I don’t blame you for wondering. I’m really curious myself!” Joy chirped, smiling warmly.

They began to move again, and after a minute Joy began growing used to the environment, though she still found some of the differences fascinating, and she very quietly hummed at a tiny honey bee that passed, enjoying the soft music of its passage. The small ones weren’t even as intelligent as she’d been before turning into an apis, but she felt an odd kinship with them anyway.

About ten minutes after they started moving, Joy saw something that set off every survival instinct she had and froze, speaking quickly. “Stop!”

“Hm? What is it?” Brianna asked, suddenly halting, her sword raised and ready.

“The tree,” Joy said, nodding at a rather large tree on the right side of the road.

The tree didn’t look that out of place in the forest, but Joy could see and smell the freshly turned soil around its roots, as well as the faint, rotting scent in the air. Beyond that, while the leaves looked relatively normal, they weren’t fluttering the same way as those on the other trees, while most of its branches were thicker and more gnarled. It looked unnatural, and she coiled herself to move, staring at it.

“What… Cora? What is it?” Brianna asked, taking a cautious step away from the tree as she added, “I’m not sure it’s a threat, but now that you point it out, that tree looks… off.”

“That is a carnivorous maple,” Cora said, her voice flat and almost grim. “They aren’t too fast, but they’re tough ambush predators, and if we got close we might be in trouble. They’re also damn rare for this area, and a level eleven creature.”

“Oh, lovely. I’ve heard of carnivorous trees… they’re a complete pain in the ass to fight,” Brianna said, scowling suddenly as she looked at the tree even more warily. “They have a huge reach and tend to ambush people. Thanks for spotting it, Joy.”

“It was the smell, mostly. I could smell the ground had moved, and something rotting,” Joy said, wrinkling her nose slightly. “I’ve never heard of carni-whatsit trees before, but it’s a plant. I’m good with plants.”

“We appreciate it, believe me,” Stella said, eyeing the tree unhappily. “Now, what do we do? Fight it?”

“A huge part of their advantage is reach, and I have a couple of fire spells, but even so, the fight could be problematic. We could warn anyone in the keep that we’re coming, or use enough resources that we couldn’t clear it,” Cora said, frowning slightly as she considered. “How about we circle around it instead? If the ruins are clear or we don’t have to use too much mana, we could always kill it on the way back. It’d give a good chance of Joy leveling, after all.”

Brianna nodded, relaxing slightly as she looked at them, a grin flickering across her face as she spoke. “That sounds really good to me, for the most part. What do you think, Joy?”

“That seems fine to me. I don’t really know how hard it’d be to kill, and I don’t think my rapier would do much good. Or my daggers,” Joy said, looking at the tree skeptically.

“You’re right there, though being able to move does weaken the tree enough to allow killing it far more easily,” Cora said, letting out a heavy sigh as she rolled her shoulders, visibly trying to relax. “There were far too many trees like that near where I grew up, so I… dislike them. Let’s leave it at that.”

“I can’t say as I blame you,” Stella murmured, and nodded as she looked at Brianna. “Brianna, would you mind leading the way?”

“On it,” Brianna said, warily heading into the forest as they gave the tree a very wide berth.

Joy followed, just as happy they weren’t going to end up being eaten by a tree. Wouldn’t that be a poor second day out on her own?

Chapter 17

“There it is…” Brianna murmured, pushing a branch aside gently as they looked toward the building, and the human scowled as she added, “And there are goblins.”

Joy looked at the structure as her eyes widened, a little shocked at the sight. Oh, it wasn’t as pretty as the temple in the town, and the lines of it were atrocious to her sense of aesthetics, but the moss-covered ruins were incredibly large and imposing. The dark stone keep towered fifty feet over the forest, larger than the temple or any other building in town, even if part of it was collapsed and crumbling. She thought the hive was larger, but someplace like the keep would make the perfect place to found a new hive, at least in her opinion. It certainly was large and sturdy enough to hold a proper honeycomb while it was being built.

The apis shook off her distraction to focus on the guards outside the gate, or what passed for guards. Even in her inexperience she wasn’t particularly impressed by the creatures, as one of them was laying back against the wall and snoring, while the other was sitting on a rock, gnawing on what looked like a piece of meat.

The goblins were shorter than most of the humans she’d seen, about the size of dwarves, and had wiry bodies that were rather thin, along with bat-like ears that made Joy shiver. She might not have ever seen a bat, but they were practically embedded in bee memories. In any case, the goblins also had greenish skin and fang-like teeth from what she could see. The two goblins were wearing dirty, tattered leather armor, and what looked like rusted swords at their sides.

“They look a little… bored,” Joy said uncertainly, frowning. “Are they really a threat?”

“Don’t judge them by their appearances,” Stella said quickly, shaking her head as she explained. “Goblins have exceptional hearing and are stronger than they look; since they don’t get fat, it’s pretty much all muscle, and they have to eat a lot. Coupled with them breeding incredibly quickly, more than one city has been overrun when they let a horde of goblins build up.”

“That’s right. Give a goblin the chance, and it’ll rip your arm off to eat it,” Cora said grimly, her eyes narrowing a bit. “Their territories border a few elven lands so we have something of a hatred of them, to be honest. It’s why I don’t like them. On the other hand… Analyze. Good, they’re only about level four. This must be an advance party.”

“That still doesn’t tell us how many of them are in the keep,” Brianna said, hefting her sword thoughtfully. “We could go back now, you know. It’s enough for the reward, at least.”

“A whole hundred coins apiece, yeah. I’d like to see how many are around… if we can take out the advance party, that’ll give each of us five hundred. That’d be nice,” Cora said, frowning. “Question is, how do we get a look without alerting them?”

Joy looked around, thinking for a moment, then pointed off to the side of the building. “Um, there’s a fallen bit of stone there, which I could climb to get a look through one of those tiny windows. I couldn’t fit through it, but I’d definitely be able to get a look.”

“Wait, that… well, wait a second. That might work, since you’re a Rogue. No way in the hells I could, but with Enhanced Stealth maybe you could get to the arrow slit,” Brianna said, looking at the rock, then at Joy in concern. “Are you sure you want to take the risk, though? You haven’t been a Rogue for even a full day yet.”

“I have to try sometime, and it isn’t like I’m going to be far away,” Joy pointed out, nodding at the spot as she shrugged. “I’m pretty sure I could run quickly enough that you could come help, at least if they spot me. If I circle around, I think I can get there without coming close to them.”

“I think it’s worth a try. I’m not sure how much you’ll be able to see through the arrow slit, but if I remember right, that portion of the interior is missing a few walls, so you might be able to see a fair bit,” Cora murmured, nodding as she smiled at Joy. “Thanks for offering, Joy.”

“Just take care of yourself,” Stella said, a smile flickering over her lips. “I don’t want to have to heal you more than absolutely necessary.”

“I don’t want to need healing. I’ll try to move quickly,” Joy promised, then took a deep breath as she started circling around the side of the keep, carefully moving between trees and among the underbrush. It was hard to avoid twigs and other things that would make noise, but that was part of why she’d been practicing all morning, in order to get used to her new abilities.

It took a few minutes, and along the way Joy paused at the sight of a nice lilac bush. Despite all attempts to the contrary, Joy couldn’t resist stopping to sniff them appreciatively, wishing she had a chance to collect the nectar within the beautiful, fragrant blossoms. It was only for a moment, though, and she quickly continued on her path cautiously, keeping alert for more goblins. She didn’t want to be stabbed, and they were just scouting at the moment.

Fortunately, when she peeked through the bushes toward the keep, it didn’t look like there were any goblins in sight. Even better, she could faintly hear the sound of snoring from the one goblin, which she hoped would help cover any mistakes she made. That being the case, she turned her attention to the pile of rubble, examining its rather dubious stability.

The pile of rubble had certainly seen better days, and she suspected it’d once been part of the walls of the upper part of the building. On the other hand, most of the pieces looked like they were intact, giving a few solid-looking places to stand. That didn’t help with the strange, fluttering sensation in Joy’s midsection, but she ignored it, murmuring softly, “Well, here I go.”

She stepped lightly, pretending she had fluttering wings that allowed her to barely touch the ground, and Joy bounced off a rock that was solid and quickly climbed the rubble, from one chunk, to a pillar, then onto the skull of a gargoyle that was the perfect point to get up onto the highest wall. Nothing moved more than the tiniest bit while she climbed, and in moments Joy was able to stand up on her toes to look through the tall, narrow window that the others had called an arrow slit.

The slit was much wider on the interior than exterior, which helped her get a look to either side more easily, which Joy certainly appreciated. Even so, her eyes widened as she looked around, as the room was lit by firelight, which revealed several goblins lounging about, along with what looked like barrels and sacks along one wall.

There were also a couple of bows in the room that didn’t look very sturdy to Joy, but she wasn’t going to examine them too closely. The three goblins she’d seen told her enough, and she carefully turned away, settling onto the stonework as best she could as she examined the pile for the best way down. She didn’t see anything that was too likely to make noise, but she wanted to be sure. She bounced carefully from one rock to the next, then to the ground with the softest sigh of relief she could manage.

Only when she was sure that no one was going to raise the alarm did Joy slink back into the trees and circle back toward the group… only to almost shriek despite herself when she came face-to-face with a wasp.

The wasp was tiny, barely the size of the smallest joint of a finger on Joy’s little finger, but even so she barely strangled the scream before it became more than a gasp. Instead she instinctively swatted it with one hand, sending the horrid creature flying into a tree as her heart pounded with incredible speed.

“Wasps. I hate wasps,” Joy muttered, shuddering with every breath she took, watching the wasp almost drunkenly take flight again, and before the evil little thing could come after her, she fled.

Brianna looked up and smiled as Joy came out of the bushes, then her smile froze as she saw Joy’s face and asked, “Joy? Are you alright? They didn’t spot you, did they?”

“No, no… I’m fine, I just ran almost face first into a wasp on the way back, and it was not fun. I hate them, even if they’re tiny,” Joy said, shuddering slightly. “Did you know a wasp can bite a bee in half with, like, one chomp?”

“Um, no, I didn’t,” Brianna said, looking slightly taken aback, even as Cora smiled a little. “I suppose that would be rather intimidating.”

“It is. I don’t care if they’re small, they’re still scary,” Joy said, taking a deep breath, then let it out as she relaxed. “But it’s not next to me, so I’ll be fine. Now, um, right, the goblins! That’s what I was scouting.”

“That’s right. Could you see much?” Stella asked, looking at Joy with a smile. “If you couldn’t it’s not a big deal, but information would be nice.”

“I could! The windows are much wider on the inside than outside, which let me look around. There were several fires built inside, and I could see three goblins, along with some bows, a whole bunch of sacks, and several barrels,” Joy reported, frowning as she admitted, “I wish I could tell you more, but it was a bit dark inside, even with the fires, and there was a limit to what I could see.”

“Honestly, that tells us a lot,” Cora said, her eyes brightening as she straightened. “If there are a lot of sacks, that means this is the very first advance party. They must have brought supplies so that the main force wouldn’t have to scavenge when they got here.”

“And that means that we can sabotage their efforts if we destroy the supplies!” Brianna said, her voice much more enthusiastic now as she grinned. “Plus, these transport groups usually aren’t that tough, comparatively.”

“Though we really shouldn’t get too enthusiastic. That’s a good way to get in over our heads,” Stella cautioned, and Joy nodded in agreement, though truthfully she was barely keeping up with what the others were saying. The Acolyte continued calmly. “The question is, do we go for a frontal assault? That could be dangerous.”

“There isn’t much of a choice, there,” Cora said, and Joy blinked in confusion.

“Why isn’t there a choice? There are multiple entrances, aren’t there?” Joy asked, looking at the huge building as she continued. “All the hives I know of have several entrances and exits… there’s just too many bees coming and going to do anything else.”

Brianna smiled as she explained. “This is a keep, Joy. They’re meant to be strongholds, where a small force can hold off a larger one for a long time, and one of the ways they do that is by limiting how many people can attack at once. Only having one entrance is common. Oh, there are often secret escape routes or the like, but this keep is so old that no one knows where they might be.”

“If they exist at all, that is,” Cora said, letting out a sigh as she shook her head. “No, that’s part of why they don’t want a goblin force to get entrenched here. If they manage to get a full raiding party and the supplies, it’s really hard to get them out of the keep, Joy. That’s why destroying their supplies would be so useful.”

“Alright, I suppose so,” Joy said, looking at the building and frowning as she looked at the large, wooden doors.

While the doors were old and scarred, if they closed she could see them being a serious obstacle to get past. On the other hand, the goblins weren’t exactly attentive, and there was a fair amount of cover between them and the goblins. She considered a little more before looking at the others again.

“Well, if we don’t want them to hole up… how about I sneak close again? I practiced a lot with my throwing knife this morning, and I think I can get rid of the one that’s sleeping if I can get within… oh, half our current distance? If I’m spotted, we could just attack anyway, right?”

“Well, yes, but you’re taking a risk, doing that. Remember, you’re the lowest level person here,” Cora said, frowning. “They’re level four, and judging by their gear, they probably have an attack power of four. Brianna’s armor has a defense of eleven, as I recall, so she’s got very good odds of deflecting their attacks, while you… I don’t know how good of defense your armor gives.”

“Seven, so it isn’t terrible,” Joy said promptly, looking at Cora steadily as she shrugged. “I’ve run into wasps before, though usually we fought them in groups. You’re going to be right behind me, so I don’t see why I shouldn’t try.”

“Let her, Cora,” Brianna said, her tone level as she met Joy’s gaze and smiled. “I can’t say it makes me happy, but the idea makes sense. If we coddle you, you won’t get any better, Joy, so… I say we let you do this. Besides, I was going to ask you to lightning blast the group before we charged, Cora, so why not just be prepared to hit them if they spot her?”

“Well… I guess that would work. Are you sure, Joy?” Cora asked, her eyebrows furrowing with her obvious concern, and Joy felt her mood improve still more as she realized she’d been accepted by the group fully.

“Of course! I want to help,” Joy said, smiling broadly. “Besides, it isn’t like I’m not used to combat, right?”

“Just don’t have a wasp land on you again,” Stella said, and Joy made a face as the others laughed softly.

Instead, she pulled out her dagger and began sneaking closer to the goblins, hoping she’d be able to pull things off.

Chapter 18

Joy barely breathed as she looked over the edge of the rock, seeing the goblins from even closer than before. A part of her wanted nothing more than to get away, since they were obviously predators. Bees weren’t, and neither were apis, so her instinct was to avoid them if there was any choice in the matter.

The difference was that she was doing this for her hive, such as it was. Not that Joy would tell the other women that she considered them that. They might misinterpret it, after all, and it was a very makeshift hive, without even a queen. That should be depressing to her, but for some reason it wasn’t. It made them all close to equals.

That was part of why she was willing to go so far for them, and Joy focused on the goblin ahead of her, controlling her breathing and emotions as she focused. The other goblin had about finished its meal, which didn’t give her much time. She raised her dagger, taking a deep breath as she prepared to throw it—

“Eek!” the goblin screeched as the gnawed bone with a bit of meat attached to it suddenly bounced off Joy’s head. “Humies! Humies are here, everyone!”

Joy hissed and threw the dagger at the suddenly rousing goblin, but the impact of the bone threw off her aim, and she belatedly said, “Flurry of—drat, I have to say that first!”

A flash of lightning split the air as it streaked past Joy and hit the ground between the two goblins, who shrieked as the afterimage of the bolt seared itself into Joy’s vision. When it ended the two goblins fell to their knees on the ground, howling in pain but not dead.

Brianna let out a war cry that startled Joy as she rushed out of the underbrush, her sword in both hands, and right behind her was Stella, though the Acolyte wasn’t making much noise. Instead, Joy belatedly drew her rapier as she followed them, then winced as Brianna beheaded the goblin that’d been eating as it tried to stand. The other goblin managed to regain its feet, but only barely blocked Stella’s mace.

“Bri, hold the gate!” Cora called out, quickly emerging from the woods as she grimaced, barely audible as she muttered, “Fire Blast.”

An orb of flame shimmered, then leapt from the tip of Cora’s staff to streak toward one of the thin windows on the keep, and Joy flinched as a blast of fire ripped through the room and out the arrow slit. The apis quickly ran to help Stella, who barely dodged as the goblin viciously bit at her arm, pressing it back with her shield. Brianna darted through the doors while howls of alarm began echoing through the keep.

“Sorry!” Joy gasped out, rushing up behind the goblin as she spoke, taking a breath and hissing out, “Penetrating Strike!”

Her rapier glowed as Joy wondered just what she was saying she was sorry for, but it really didn’t matter. She thrust the rapier forward and winced as it struck the goblin’s armor, bent slightly, then punched through it and out the front of his chest. The goblin’s eyes went wide as he looked down, clutching at the rapier, but Joy quickly pulled it out, feeling ever so slightly nauseous.

The goblin fell to the ground, and Stella nodded at her, smiling briefly as she said, “Thanks! Come on, let’s go.”

Joy shoved her discomfort aside as she nodded, following as Stella raced toward the doors. It wasn’t the combat that discomforted her, she knew that much, but Joy wasn’t sure what it was, and she didn’t have time to think about it. If she did, it could get the others hurt. She did pause long enough to collect the dagger that had missed, holding it in her left hand as she followed Stella.

The point about delaying was driven home when she rushed through the door and blanched, as Brianna cut down one goblin while dodging the attacks of two others. Even the pain from the side of her head faded in comparison, because two more goblins were drawing arrows on the other side of the large antechamber, and there was no way Stella could reach them before they attacked, not with Brianna and the nearby goblins in the way.

“Flurry of Blades!” Joy spat, barely thinking about it before she threw the dagger at one of the goblins, and as it left her hand a black copy of the dagger appeared in her hand, and just as quickly she threw it at the second goblin. The first dagger slammed into the goblin’s shoulder, causing it to yowl in pain, but the second one bounced off her target’s armor before shattering into shadows that slowly faded.

In the corner of Joy’s eye she saw Stella bring her mace down on a goblin’s head and winced as it fell in a bloody mess. Unfortunately, their success was short-lived as another four goblins rushed out of the corridor to their right, most of them singed and screaming their own war cries.

“Ack!” Joy yelped, jumping forward and into a near-instinctive roll as the uninjured archer shot at her. Her practice proved useful, as she managed to spring back to her feet at the end of the roll, just in time to dodge the rusty sword of one of the new goblins. She danced back and stabbed it, resisting the urge to babble in panic.

Cora slipped through the doors at that moment, extending her staff as she spoke firmly. “Fire Blast!”

This time the fire that emerged from her staff was far more concentrated, and it streaked across the room into the uninjured archer, who had a moment to scream before it was immolated. Joy dodged another slice by the goblin and stabbed in turn, almost breathless as the blade pierced the creature’s arm, and she recoiled, bouncing backward as the others ran into Brianna and Stella, which only resulted in sprays of blood that weren’t from either human.

“No, you die!” the goblin exclaimed angrily, trying to swipe at Joy again, but she dodged, her breathing coming hard and fast. Her pulse was like a drum, and she swallowed hard.

“You first!” Joy said, but he avoided her stab, just as another bolt of fire lanced across the room, prompting her to flinch.

“Damned vermin!” Brianna exclaimed, and another goblin screamed, then fell silent.

Joy suddenly realized the only goblin left standing was the one attacking her, and she swallowed hard, glaring at the goblin, then blinked in surprise.

The goblin’s arm was swollen, and his breathing was labored as he glared at her, sweating hard. He took a step forward, gasping out, “Gonna… eat… you…”

The goblin collapsed as she watched, and Joy looked down at him, then at the others in confusion as she asked, “Um, what happened?”

“Your rapier is venomous. I’d suggest you finish him off, rather than letting him suffer,” Brianna said, her breathing coming heavily, and Joy could see a bruise beginning to form on her forearm.

“Oh, right!” Joy said, and she quickly stabbed the goblin through the heart, flushing as she realized that she’d completely forgotten about the venom in the rapier. It wasn’t as if she’d had much of a chance to use it since her transformation, so it made some sense.

“You think that was all of them?” Stella asked, looking around cautiously.

“Most likely. Goblins tend to run to the fight except when they know they’re losing horribly, and they didn’t have much time for that,” Brianna said, wiping off her sword on a body as she frowned. “Which isn’t to say that one or two might not be hiding somewhere, waiting to ambush us, but that should be most of them.”

“Sorry I messed up. I thought I was about to get rid of the one, then it hit me,” Joy said, guilt rushing through her as she looked at the ground.

“Don’t worry about it. Mistakes happen, and the goblin looked up just as you raised your hand. It was a case of bad timing, nothing more,” Cora said, smiling at Joy in amusement as she added, “Believe me, that could’ve gone a lot worse. At least it didn’t have an axe or something in its hand!”

Joy blanched at the idea, swallowing hard as she nodded vigorously. “That’d be bad, yes. I didn’t think of that.”

“Either way, you did your best. Everyone makes mistakes, just live and learn,” Brianna said, stepping over a body, then removing Joy’s dagger and wiping its blade clean. The woman offered it to Joy with a smile. “Here, so you don’t forget it.”

“Thanks,” Joy said, smiling at the woman in relief. A tiny part of her had expected them to be upset with her, but obviously not. She glanced around and asked, “Now what? You said there might be more, right?”

“That’s right, which means we go through the place room by room, and if we don’t find any more goblins, we destroy any of their supplies we don’t want,” Cora said, wrinkling her nose in distaste as she added, “Which would be most of it. Believe me, Joy, we feel about like goblin food the way you do about ours. It’s pretty terrible.”

“Ick,” Joy said, shuddering at the idea. She sheathed the dagger, taking a deep breath before she nodded at them. “Well, if we’re going to do it, I guess I’m ready.”

The others nodded, and Joy followed their directions as the group slowly worked their way through the keep. Joy quickly realized it was made up of an enormous number of relatively small rooms, which made going through them relatively difficult, especially with how many broken walls or sections with holes there were. Still, they made progress reasonably quickly, and only one goblin attempted to ambush them, only to be cut down by Brianna almost instantly.

A rather large amount of supplies was in the keep as well, enough that Joy frowned, and once they’d started going through them she asked, “How did they get all of this here? I don’t think barrels this size would fit in my inventory, even my backpack. Maybe if they were empty, but not full.”

“They probably had pack animals with them, and sent them back with part of their group,” Cora replied as she went through one of the sacks, wrinkling her nose in distaste. “It’s pretty common for goblins to do that since they have to eat so much. They also might have a larger inventory where food is concerned, but I’m not sure. I’ve never known a civilized goblin, even if they’re technically demi-humans.”

“They’re demi-humans? I didn’t know that!” Joy said, her eyes widening in shock, which she was fine with since it meant she was distracted from the horrid smell. “I thought they were monsters, from what you said!”

“They’re generally considered monsters since they don’t produce any clans that are friendly, unlike orcs or kobolds,” Brianna said, shaking her head as she chuckled, glancing at Cora as she added, “Heck, even dark elves tend to have a lot better reputation than goblins do. They have at least a few redeeming members of the species.”

“It doesn’t change the fact that most of them are evil monsters,” Cora retorted, setting the sack aside with a sigh. “This doesn’t have anything useful in it. Stella?”

“Well, I found a shield that might sell for a decent amount, which I suspect was looted from an adventurer, but aside from that all I see is a lot of rancid food,” Stella said, looking up from her own sack. “And a lot of poor quality arrows, I suppose.”

“Which aren’t worth the inventory space to carry out,” Brianna muttered.

“Um, is there anything you’d like me to do? The smell of the food is making me nauseous,” Joy asked, fidgeting and almost bouncing in place. She hated to not be doing much but going through the supplies would probably make her ill, and she didn’t know what was valuable anyway.

“Well… we cleared the place out, so it should be fairly safe to look around…” Brianna said, visibly hesitating as she looked at the others. “What do you think?”

“Maybe you could look for any hidden treasure, Joy?” Stella suggested, tilting her head as she looked at the apis. “Rogues tend to find things like that more easily. It’s not likely that you’ll find anything, mind you. So many people have picked over the keep that it’s likely to be completely empty, but it’s always possible they missed something.”

“Sure! That seems like it’d be interesting, and if anything else, I know how things are built. Well, bee-things, but I can tell when space is missing!” Joy said brightly, perking up at the idea of something that sounded interesting.

“In that case, why don’t you go take a look around?” Cora said, smiling as she added, “But if you find something, or happen to be attacked, call out! Anything that’s left could be trapped, and I don’t want you getting hurt.”

“Right!” Joy said, nodding vigorously, then almost bounded out of the room as they laughed behind her.

* * *

“She’s doing pretty well,” Brianna said, setting aside the barrel she’d opened. “Most new adventurers aren’t nearly as enthusiastic or brave as she is.”

“I think it’s her background. A lot of people don’t have much danger in their lives, while she was a bee, like she’s said before,” Stella murmured, picking through a bag carefully. “Plus, she doesn’t seem to do things by halves. If she decides to do something, she throws herself entirely into getting it done.”

“That she does. I… find myself surprised at how much I enjoy her company,” Cora said, looking up as she smiled at Stella. “That said, you know she’s not going to find anything, right? I can’t count how many adventurers have come here, and they’ve almost all scoured the place for treasure.”

“True enough,” Stella admitted, but shrugged as she continued. “Chances are, she won’t find anything, but it gave her something to do. Besides, miracles can happen, you know.”

Brianna chuckled, and Cora smiled and nodded. “That’s fair. Well, let’s hope one does this time too, hm?”

Chapter 19

Joy looked around, her antennae perking up as she tried to track down the source of the breeze she sensed. The keep really was large and rather drafty, which had given her an idea beyond simply looking for unused space in the walls. She’d found several spots so far where treasure might have been hidden, but in each case she’d been disappointed to find that other people seemed to have found the caches first. Still, since looking for hidden compartments wasn’t entirely working, she was trying to find where the air moved to track down ones that might not be quite as obvious. Plus, if there was decaying wood in compartments she might be able to smell that as well.

Now she was in the basement, which was mustier than Joy liked, but it also made the air flow a little more obvious than it might be elsewhere. Unfortunately, she still hadn’t found anything, which was a little disappointing, but she wasn’t done yet. The heavily reinforced chamber which had been broken open in the basement reminded her of a smaller queen’s chamber, but it’d been obviously emptied for ages, and picked over several times. Which was why the faint breeze from the back wall drew her attention.

“Let’s see… there has to be something,” Joy said, barely able to see in the dim lighting of the room, her gaze focused on the crumbling wall. She was trying to look at it analytically, but it was hard when the construction was so different than what she was used to. After a few moments she stepped closer and stiffened as she heard an ever so faint clicking sound and looked down.

The only reason she could tell the stone she’d stepped on had descended slightly was because of the thick layer of dust on the floor. For a moment Joy was tensed to dodge, remembering the lessons from becoming a Rogue, then relaxed as she realized nothing else was happening. Instead she picked up her foot and heard the sound again, but this time she also heard the faint clicking sound from the wall ahead of her, and Joy began to smile.

“I knew it; there is something here!” Joy said happily, wishing she had her wings so she could flutter them. She debated looking more but decided to wait. “I need to tell the others!”

Turning away, Joy quickly moved back upstairs, moving around several loose steps she’d found on her way down, only one of which had contained a hidden compartment. An empty one, sadly, but she’d still found it. When she reached the top of the stairs, though, Joy’s antennae perked up abruptly as she suddenly went on edge, smelling one of the worst things she remembered from being a bee. Smoke.

Smoke meant fire, and that was something that could wipe out an entire hive if it got going inside. Worse, it also tended to put bees to sleep, which was why the hive went on alert at the slightest scent of smoke.

“Not good, I have to get the others and—oh,” Joy paused, blinking as she turned a corner to see the antechamber and the space outside the keep.

In front of the keep were the others, along with a roaring bonfire onto which they were tossing sacks, while several barrels were already ablaze. It took Joy a few seconds to put thing together, then she blushed as she realized that of course the others would burn the items to get rid of them. She wasn’t sure how else to get rid of them, aside from throwing them into a river or a flower mink’s den. It just had never occurred to her what they’d do.

“Joy? Is something wrong? You look upset,” Stella asked in concern, pausing after heaving a sack onto the fire.

“No, no… I’m just used to fire being a really bad thing, so when I smelled it, it made me want to find and warn all of you. Then I realized you’d started the fire,” Joy said, embarrassment making her shuffle her feet.

“Ah, well it isn’t like we told you. We just finished up here, so were going to come find you in a minute. Are you done, too?” Brianna asked, rolling a barrel into the edge of the fire, then backing up as she shaded her eyes.

“Yep! I found a bunch of hidden places, but other people must have found them first,” Joy explained, then grinned as she added, “But then I found something in the basement! I’m not sure, but I think it’s a hidden door. I was going to look for the trigger but remembered your advice about coming to get all of you.”

“Wait, you really found something?” Cora asked, her eyebrows rising. “I thought… well, a lot of adventurers have come here over the years, Joy. I wouldn’t expect to find anything new.”

“I guess somebody else could have found it before, but there’s no way to know without opening it,” Joy replied, shrugging as she smiled, adding, “I’d rather hope I found something useful after I messed up earlier.”

“You didn’t mess up. Bad luck happens to everyone at some point,” Brianna said, glancing at the others as she asked, “What do you think? Should we go take a look at this hidden door?”

“Of course! The Ragged Keep was home to some pretty high level people at one point, and anything from that time could be rather useful,” Stella replied immediately, smiling as she paused, looking at the fire. “The question is, what do we do about the fire? I don’t want to risk it going out of control.”

“An excellent point, Stella,” Cora agreed, and glanced at Joy with a wry smile as she asked, “Are you willing to wait until most of this is ruined, Joy? I’d rather put out the fire before going to investigate the door.”

“That would make me far happier. I don’t like fire much,” Joy said, nodding vigorously as she shifted to try to keep the smoke downwind, but it seemed to be following her for some reason.

“Alright, then we’ll let this burn for a while, then go look at the door,” Brianna said, heaving the last sack onto the fire and stepping back to dust off her hands. “At least it shouldn’t take too long, with as greasy as most of this is.”

“Even if it smells foul,” Cora muttered, to which Joy nodded vigorously.

“Yeah. I hate smoke. It made me all sleepy before, and fire could destroy huge parts of the hive. It isn’t fun. Better than wasps, but not much,” Joy chimed in, watching the fire warily.

“Fire is rather dangerous. Don’t worry, we won’t let this one get out of hand,” Brianna assured her, grinning. “We chose a spot without much for it to burn for a reason.”

Joy nodded, and finally gave up trying to dodge the smoke, instead covering her mouth and nose as much as she could, along with lowering her antennae so they caught the least air possible.

It took a while for the fire to burn, despite what Brianna said, and Joy found herself fidgeting before long. She couldn’t do much, and the others weren’t doing anything either, just waiting for it to burn, so she tried to keep watch for anything that might sneak up on them. Finally Cora stood up, picking up her staff and pointing it at the charred pile.

“Ice Blast!” the elf said firmly, and an orb of blue energy flashed out to slam into the fire.

A wave of frost partially flashed into steam, and Joy yelped, backing off still more as the flames were abruptly quenched, and far more quickly than she’d expected. The others didn’t seem too surprised or dismayed, despite being closer to the fire, so Joy calmed down after a moment, blushing as she spoke.

“You startled me,” the apis said sheepishly. “I didn’t expect that.”

“Sorry, I just figured it was about time,” Cora said, shrugging as she brushed her hair back and wrinkled her nose. “I definitely need a bath once we’re back in town. Everything will smell like smoke, otherwise.”

“Which means looking at this door sooner than later. Care to lead the way, Joy?” Stella asked, a note of hope in her voice.

“Sure! It’s downstairs, this way!” Joy replied and led the way away from the steaming remains of the fire, the others close behind her.

The trip didn’t take long, not since there wasn’t much to distract them, but as they approached the room she’d found the odd breeze in, the others slowed. Joy paused, looking back at them curiously, only to see that they were frowning.

“In the treasury? Joy… this area was pretty much the first place to be searched. Chances are that whatever you’ve found was looted a long time ago,” Cora said, looking at the walls closely. The elf murmured something, and her staff’s crystal began shining with dim radiance.

“The… treasury? Is that why the walls look so sturdy?” Joy asked, blinking as she looked around. “I thought it might be the equivalent of the queen’s chambers.”

“No, something like this is only used for the vault in human structures. It’s where they store most of their wealth,” Brianna said, rapping her knuckles gently on a wall as she shrugged, smiling slightly. “Though I suppose that it isn’t that different from how you regard your queens. Still, even if there aren’t good odds of finding something impressive, we may as well take a look, Joy. Don’t get discouraged!”

“Oh, I won’t! It’ll be sad if there isn’t anything, but we may as well look!” Joy said, her antennae rising, and she quickly led them the rest of the way into the room and pointed at the wall.

“This is where I felt the air moving… there’s a really, really minor breeze coming from the wall. I could barely sense it. Plus, when I stepped here, I heard a click from the wall,” Joy explained, pointing at the spot she’d stepped on. At their looks of concern, she continued. “I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a trap, not after my training to become a Rogue. I suppose it could be one that broke, but I don’t see any spots where something could come flying at me.”

“Alright, that is a little odd,” Cora admitted, frowning, and she looked at Joy as she asked, “Step back, if you would? And everyone keep quiet.”

“Okay,” Joy agreed, stepping away and watching curiously.

Cora stepped into a position where she’d be shielded by a pillar and extended her staff, carefully pressing down on the stone Joy had pointed at. There wasn’t a click at first, not until the elf increased the pressure a fair amount, and it was barely audible even now. Cora frowned slightly.

“I heard the click, too. Joy’s right, that didn’t sound like a trap. If anything, it sounded like the tumbler of a lock,” Brianna said, and Cora nodded slowly.

“Right… and it sounded old. I wonder if no one noticed this before because it used to be well maintained? The keep has been slowly deteriorating over the years, and even the best mechanisms will break down if given enough time,” Cora said, looking around as she frowned. “But if it isn’t opening, the question is how to open it.”

“I didn’t hear whatever it was you did, but based on what you’ve said… what if there’s more than one place you need to press?” Stella suggested, tilting her head slightly. “I mean, if you were building a secret door, you wouldn’t want someone to blunder into opening it just by stepping in the right spot, would you?”

“Oh, good point! I didn’t think of that!” Joy said, her eyes brightening at the suggestion, delighted to have learned something new.

Brianna nodded and grinned. “Sure sounds better than trying to break down the wall! We can always do that if we can’t figure out a way to open the door. It’s a lot harder to put the door back together.”

“True. The question is, where would another button be?” Cora asked, looking around the room thoughtfully.

“Well… I’d put it in arm’s reach,” Joy said, and the others all looked at her, prompting her to blush again and quickly explain herself. “I mean, if you don’t want someone blundering into it, you’d want them to press both at the same time, right?”

“Hah! Not bad at all, Joy! Let’s see… I’ll check the wall, one of you check the pillar, and someone else the floor? I don’t think we can fit four people into the space,” Brianna said, laughing as she smiled and stepped toward the wall.

“I’ll keep watch, since I couldn’t hear the mechanism to begin with. I must not have good enough of hearing,” Stella said, smiling slightly as she nodded to them.

“In that case, I’ll look at the floor. I doubt it’ll be there, but you’re more experienced than me,” Joy said, and Cora nodded.

“As you like,” Cora said, smiling as she began examining the pillar closely, her fingers pressing against different parts of it gently, obviously searching for any button that might be there.

Joy began scouring the floor, and for a minute the room was essentially silent. It was comfortable to Joy, since they were all working, at least aside from Stella, and she quickly fell into the rhythm of things, pressing and moving in a circle around the point she’d studied, while Brianna was pressing different bricks. A faint clicking sound from the wall drew her attention after that minute, though, and Joy raised her head to see Brianna smiling as she pressed on a brick at about chest height.

“Found it!” Brianna said triumphantly, grinning. “Want to step on the other one again, Cora?”

“I can do that,” Cora agreed, and the elf stepped on the stone again just as Joy stood up.

With a cracking sound, a section of the wall receded slightly, then there was a grinding sound as it slowly slid to the side, revealing a small room behind it. The room was only a couple of paces across, and it had incomprehensible patterns across all the walls, which made Joy’s eyes go wide, not understanding what she was seeing. At the same time, a silent message sounded in Joy’s mind.

Level Up: Apis Rogue Level 8

“Er, what’s this? Those look like spell runes, not like a secret treasure hoard,” Brianna said, taking a wary step back.

“One moment, let me take a look,” Cora said, blinking as she took a step toward the opening, staff in hand as she murmured a word, causing the crystal to shed more light.

“Spell runes?” Joy asked in confusion, not really expecting an answer.

“Physical magic, like enchanted weapons or permanent spells, require runes to be carved and inlaid with appropriate materials,” Stella replied, startling Joy slightly as she stepped up next to her. The human smiled as she continued quietly, obviously trying not to distract Cora. “It’s really difficult to create enchantments, something which can’t be done below about level thirty, from everything I’ve heard. Most of us get by with potions and temporary enchantments until then.”

“Ah, that makes more sense. Then, um, why would this be here? I thought most things in the forest were below level ten,” Joy said, puzzling over the revelation and trying to understand why something which required high levels would be here.

“That wasn’t always the case. Over time things change, Joy,” Brianna said, shrugging as she considered, then continued softly. “The Flower Forest is going to change with the apis hives there. I wouldn’t be surprised if the increased competition makes resources scarcer and causes more battles between the creatures that live there. More fights mean that they’re going to start leveling more quickly, until eventually it becomes a higher level region. Once this area was much higher level… but that was before one of the goblin invasions struck. They destroyed most everything, and after that the creatures had to crawl their way up to their current strength.”

“Oh, okay. That’s… wow. I didn’t realize things could change like that,” Joy murmured, her eyes widening a little. There was so much she didn’t know.

“Mm, I think I’ve figured out what this is. It appears that the original keep had a hidden secondary treasury, and this is a two-way teleportation platform to or from the other treasury,” Cora said, a hint of excitement in her voice as she looked at them. “If it is, it’s entirely possible that it’s intact!”

“What? That’s… well, I’d say ridiculous, but…” Stella said, her voice trailing off in disbelief, her mouth slightly open.

Joy perked up, but before she could say anything, Brianna spoke in a far more cautious tone. “That sounds incredible, Cora, but the question is, is it safe? We opened the door without a single trap or hitch, so I don’t want to try something and get torched by an enchanted trap. If someone higher than level thirty set a trap, none of us would survive it.”

“That doesn’t sound like it’d be fun,” Joy said, her smile fading slightly, even as her worry grew again. “I wanted to help, not put us in danger.”

“Brianna’s worries are legitimate, but I’ve seen teleporters like this before. My hometown has one designed to teleport the children to safety in the case of an attack, and when I became a Mage I got to study it for a while,” Cora said, smiling reassuringly as she reached out to tap the runes with the base of her staff. “The enchantments on these can’t send us to the other end if it isn’t safe enough for us to survive there, with sufficient air or the like. That said, it does include a few safeguards, but I can see them. If you don’t say the right word before activating the platform, it’ll stun the person with lightning magic and set off an alarm. It isn’t designed to kill, thank the gods.”

“Better. Not good, but it sounds much better than what I feared,” Brianna said, letting out a breath as she relaxed.

Stella nodded, crossing her arms as she opened her mouth, then paused and closed it again, frowning. Cora was also standing there, and the contemplation on her voice made Joy curious as she looked at the others.

“What’s wrong?” Joy asked at last, not understanding why they were standing there. “I mean, I thought you wanted the treasure, but now you’re standing here without saying anything, and I can’t figure out why.”

“Oh, we want the treasure, especially me, but it is dangerous. There isn’t anything saying that there couldn’t be a terrible trap on the other end, or a more complex way of stopping us from returning easily,” Cora said, shaking her head as she let out a sigh. “Oh, I want to go, Joy, but it’s dangerous. The smart thing to do would be to send someone to scout and return… but that’s just wrong. For one thing, I’m not sure that anyone but me could figure out how to come back from the other end. On the other hand, if all of us go, that could leave us without anyone to call for help. I think the truly intelligent thing to do would be to give up on whatever’s on the other side and let the Guildmaster know about this. We’d get a reward, even if it wasn’t as much.”

“I just hate the idea of giving up something like that to other people,” Brianna muttered, her arms crossed as she glared at the teleporter. “It could be an unprotected hoard of treasure that’s completely amazing.”

“Or it could be an empty hoard because someone got to it first. Or trapped,” Stella said, tapping her shield idly, then looked at Joy in concern. “Honestly, if it weren’t for you, I’d say we may as well risk it. The nature of being an adventurer is that there isn’t reward without risk. But you’ve only been an adventurer for a day, Joy. You shouldn’t have to take risks like this so soon.”

Cora nodded, biting her lip as she did so, then sighed as she murmured, “Even if I died recently… oh, I want to take a look. We should be able to come back easily, but… ugh, it’s such a hard decision!”

“Oh, um… Brianna? Do you feel the same way?” Joy asked, looking at the Swordswoman, who looked at Joy sheepishly.

“Is it that obvious?” Brianna asked, running a hand through her hair as she nodded slowly. “I do. Something like this is an opportunity that can completely change the future of an adventurer. Even if it’s risky, I would love to have that chance.”

“In that case, let’s go!” Joy said, and all of them looked at her in surprise as she smiled at them, happy that they were trying to consider her feelings as she continued. “Just finding the door helped me reach level eight, so why not? I’m not going to hide in the bushes when you want to do something; I want to do the most I can!”

“Well, if that’s how you feel, I don’t see any reason not to take the risk together,” Cora said, smiling slowly as she looked at the others. “Agreed?”

“If Joy’s willing, I see no reason why not to,” Stella said, adjusting her shield before unhooking her mace again.

Brianna nodded in agreement, smiling as she drew her sword. At their reactions, Joy drew her rapier, guessing they were just getting ready in case something bad was at the other end of the teleportation. It made sense to have their weapons in hand in case of emergencies, it was easier to react quickly.

“Well, if that’s settled, everyone onto the platform. Once you’re all on, I’ll activate it,” Cora said, smiling as she stepped into the rune-carved chamber.

Joy immediately started forward, before even Brianna or Stella, and she felt a faint, strange tingling sensation wash over her as she stepped into the room. It almost tickled, and she felt her antennae twitch a little.

“That was odd,” Joy said, giggling softly.

“Hm?” Cora asked, looking at her curiously.

“Oh, the tingle as I stepped in here. It kind of tickled my antennae,” Joy said, pointing at them, which prompted a soft laugh from Stella, and a smile from the other two.

“That was the magic imbued into the enchantments,” Cora replied, tilting her head as she thought, then added, “Though come to think of it, you’re right; it does tickle a little, doesn’t it?”

“Mm, but it wasn’t bad,” Joy agreed, humming happily as she smiled. “Now, will this be bad?”

“No, you should just feel a popping sensation, then we’ll be at the other end. Everyone, be on your guard,” Cora directed, and then she began murmuring something under her breath.

The tickling sensation returned, a little stronger this time, and Joy blinked. In that moment she felt a soft popping sensation, and it suddenly was much, much darker, with only Cora’s staff providing illumination. A foul odor suddenly assaulted Joy, prompting her to gag for a moment, but she didn’t have much time to worry about that or the faint buzzing sound she could almost feel in her bones.

No, far more important were the human-like figures that suddenly turned toward them in the dark room with glowing red eyes, and as they stepped into the illumination with a clattering sound, Joy paled as she realized that all of them were nothing more than bone and scraps of dried skin wearing tattered armor and with weapons.

Brianna swore and charged, while Joy whispered, “Oh phooey.”

Chapter 20

“Hells, skeletons! Stella?” Brianna barked out, her blade slamming into the closest figure and sending the skeleton flying back into the others. It knocked them over in a heap, but there were more in the passage, dozens or more of the creatures, and they didn’t seem badly injured since they started getting up slowly.

“I’m on it!” Stella said, hastily putting her mace away and pulling out the wooden necklace she was wearing, which had a simple circular disc on the end of it. Joy paused, debating what to do, but Cora spoke first.

“Keep them away from Stella, Joy! Your weapons won’t do much to skeletons,” Cora directed, then swore foully as she looked around. “What in the hells happened here? It’s like the damned place collapsed!”

“Alright,” Joy replied, glancing around, but she didn’t have much time to take in the room around them, not with unstable footing and the skeletons stumbling out of the gloom.

What little she saw reminded her of the upper floors of the keep, with how they’d crumbled, and debris covered the floor, the difference here being the oppressive darkness and lack of open air. It was quite stifling, on the whole. Next to Joy, Stella began speaking softly, and the wooden symbol began to glow with a cool blue-white light.

“Mother Moon, your faithful calls for your aid…” Stella began, her voice calm as could be, but her words kept coming more quickly and fervently as the first skeleton managed to get past Brianna.

Brianna cursed, a rusted dagger plunged into her upper arm as she slammed a skeleton into the wall, shattering the figure, and Joy quickly blocked the one that was advancing on Stella, blocking the swing of its sword, startled by its strength when it almost pushed her back. She didn’t expect something made of bone to do that much, and she quickly kicked it in the sternum, sending the creature lurching back rather than so close by. Its jaw rattled unsettlingly at her, and Joy felt a shiver go down her spine. She did not like these things.

“Ice Blast!” Cora exclaimed, and the orb of blue light lanced out past Brianna and exploded, though Joy was confused when it didn’t seem to do much to the skeletons. At least not until she saw them begin to slip and slide on the now-icy ground, many of them falling and unable to get to their feet.

“Thanks!” Brianna gasped, heaving a skeleton back and hammering another with her sword, this time managing to behead the thing, which caused it to collapse in a heap of bones.

Joy ducked the swing of her opponent this time and tried to follow Brianna’s example, only to have her rapier bounce off its neck uselessly, and Joy fell back unhappily. “Crap!”

“Joy, dodge!” Cora snapped, and Joy quickly dodged to the side as the elf spoke, her staff outstretched. “Fire Blast!”

An orb of fire hit the skeleton and immolated it, sending charred bones bouncing across the ground, and Joy gasped out, “What’re we doing? If I can’t hurt them…”

“Just wait, any second now…” Cora said, extending her staff as she threw another orb of fire at a skeleton on the edge of the ice patch.

That’s when Joy realized Stella’s necklace was glowing really brightly, and the priestess held it high as her voice rose. “May thy holy power purify the dead and grant them rest!”

The symbol on her necklace shone brightly and pulsed with light, which blasted outward across the room in a wave that briefly illuminated each brick and stone it passed over. And when it hit the skeletons, the creatures shivered, and many of them burst directly into ashes as what they’d been wearing fell to the ground in a clatter. Some didn’t explode, though even most of those fell apart, while at last only two of the skeletons were moving, though these were far more lethargic than the others.

“Amazing job, Stella!” Brianna exclaimed enthusiastically, ruthlessly destroying one of the skeletons, and an instant later Cora destroyed the other with a ball of fire. With the fight over, Brianna cursed, pulling the dagger still embedded in her arm free as she asked, “That said… could you look at this for me?”

“Certainly, though I’ll warn that I’m not going to be able to do much more after that. Purifying that many undead uses a lot of mana,” Stella said, rushing over to the Swordswoman.

“Purifying?” Joy asked, looking around warily, afraid more skeletons might show up.

“Followers of the gods of light, particularly Acolytes and their advanced jobs, can use their holy symbols to purify the undead, which weakens or destroys them outright,” Cora explained, and grimaced as she added, “Unfortunately, from what I’ve heard it consumes mana for every undead in the area, which is why she’s probably mostly out of mana. There were a lot of undead, and while fire is effective against most of them, I could only guarantee destroying one if I focused on a single target at a time.”

“Ah. Well, it explains it. What else are they weak to? I tried to attack one, but like you said, my weapon didn’t do much,” Joy said, slowly relaxing as she forced herself to breathe again.

“For skeletons, blunt weapons,” Brianna said, grimacing as she shook her head, watching Stella slowly murmur a prayer that enveloped her arm in green light. “That’s why I wasn’t doing much, my weapon wasn’t good against them either. If it’d been zombies I would’ve been in much better shape. Hells, why were they even down here? I saw both humans and goblins among them! For that matter, what is this place?”

“That’s an excellent question,” Cora said, turning to look at where they’d appeared, and the elf scowled unhappily.

Joy took a moment to look around as well, and this time she was more easily able to identify things, even if she didn’t fully understand them.

The room had once been heavily reinforced, though the area the skeletons had come from was broken open, with an appearance that looked almost like it’d been chewed open to her. It was definitely odd, but Joy ignored that, as well as the rumbling sound she heard in the distance. The more pertinent problem was that the ancient chests that’d been in the room were broken open and empty, while empty sconces adorned the wall and, most importantly to her, the section of the room with the runes for the teleporter was collapsed, with pieces here and there around them.

Also nearby were a couple of figures, one in rusted armor that’d covered their entire body, but which had been caved in by an immense blow, and another that was about seven feet tall from what Joy could tell, though it’s lower body was crushed by a half-collapsed ceiling. The figure had been wearing lighter armor, and while the flesh was long-gone, the skull bore triangular fangs that sent a shiver down her spine.

“We’re trapped,” Cora said, her voice flat as she looked back at the others. Her worry was obvious even to Joy, and the apis frowned.

“What? I thought you said that it was a two-way teleportation platform!” Brianna exclaimed, looking up quickly. The wound on her arm was only a thin red line, and the green glow guttered out as Stella let go.

“It was. The problem is that someone deliberately destroyed it on this end, Brianna. If it’d just shattered, I might be able to piece it together, but I wouldn’t be sure it’d even function. They destroyed some of the core enchantments, though, so this is a simple… well, pretty simple pile of useless rubble,” Cora said, hitting one of the blocks with the base of her staff unhappily. “We might be able to salvage some precious metals from it, but that’s about it. I have no idea if there’s even a way out of here!”

“Goddess preserve us,” Stella said, her expression much tighter at this point.

“Um, of course there’s a way out,” Joy said, honestly a little puzzled at their reactions, pointing at the exit.

“Joy… sure, that may lead out of here, but there’s no guarantee it leads to the surface, or a way out,” Brianna said gently, obviously trying to be patient, and Joy couldn’t help a sigh as she shook her head and sheathed her weapons.

“Don’t tell me you forgot someone had to build this place, did you? Workers had to carve these walls and the thing that moved people back and forth,” Joy said, smiling at them as she folded her arms and looked at the group. “I was a worker bee, so of course I thought about it. Sure, they could have blocked it, we did when we found an area we didn’t want to go into, but that could be fixed. I hear water that way, so I think it’s a good place to start.”

“That’s… actually a really good point,” Cora said, the unhappiness on her face slowly clearing as it turned to hope. “It isn’t like they could’ve teleported down here sight unseen.”

“And much better than being trapped underground with no way out,” Brianna agreed, looking up at the ceiling nervously. “I’ve never been fond of being underground. It always feels like there’s far too much weight above me.”

Stella nodded, considering the exit suspiciously for a moment, then asked, “So, should we give it a try? I don’t like the idea of getting stuck down here. I have rations, of course, but…”

“Shouldn’t we look for stuff? I mean, we came down here,” Joy said, frowning as she pointed at the skeleton with the sharp teeth. “I don’t even know what that is!”

“Well… as you say, that is unusual. If I’m not mistaken, it’s the body of a Goblin Lord,” Cora said, looking at the corpse in trepidation. “We’re lucky it didn’t rise as undead, since we’d all have died.”

“Gods… I heard a goblin has to reach level fifty to become a Goblin Lord,” Brianna said, looking at the corpse in horror, and that was enough for Joy to take a careful step away from it.

“That sounds really bad,” Joy ventured, swallowing hard.

“It was,” Stella agreed, then smiled, nodding toward it as she added, “On the other hand, the fact it got crushed by the ceiling coming down just goes to show that they aren’t invulnerable. You do have a point, though. If we’re here, we may as well look and see if there isn’t something we can use. For all I know there might be a teleportation crystal, and that’d solve our problems quick.”

“Teleportation crystal?” Joy asked, looking around for anything that looked like a crystal, but not seeing one immediately.

“Another item, one that allows a group to teleport once,” Brianna said, smiling wryly as she added, “I doubt that there’s one, but we should look. It’s not like it’d hurt any.”

“Well, if you’re going to do that, how about I try to get those precious metals? I don’t know what anything valuable would look like, anyway,” Joy suggested, and the others nodded in agreement.

“Not a bad plan. Don’t take your time, though, the sooner we get moving, the happier I’ll be,” Cora said, looking around as she hesitated, then the elf admitted, “I’m just… worried. Something has me on edge down here.”

“Alright,” Joy agreed, wondering what it was that had the others on edge. She didn’t feel any different than normal, even if she wasn’t happy about being stuck down here.

On the other hand, she was far more optimistic about their odds than the others were.

Chapter 21

It took a while for Joy to pry the gold and silver out of the carving of the teleportation array, but that was mostly due to how intricate they were. It was almost effortless, prying each piece out in turn with her knife, but it took time to do each section. While she worked, she idly watched the others go through the wreckage, and it looked like they’d found a few things, which made her more hopeful.

“And… another sword I can’t use, damn it,” Brianna said, sounding disgusted.

“Why can’t you use them?” Joy asked, popping free another piece of platinum as she spoke, then cleaned off the edge of her dagger. She’d examined the metals, and their descriptions had been pretty boring, since both metals appeared to be mostly used for decorations. “We have them, don’t we?”

“The farther above your level gear is, the harder it is to use. Armor will be heavier or trip you, weapons will be hard to wield, and things like that,” Stella said, sighing as she added, “While these aren’t great for their level, they’re still far higher level than us. I think everything we’ve found so far is about level forty, and pretty standard for that level.”

“Drat, that doesn’t sound good,” Joy said, frowning as she looked up. “Does that mean we’d have trouble if there is a teleportation crystal?”

“No, things like that aren’t restricted by level. Even a level one fisher could use an elixir around level ninety, it’d just likely be something of a waste,” Cora said, smiling wryly as she continued. “Though I’ve heard some nobles pay for elixirs that are high level for their children, ones which permanently make them stronger in various ways. I think it’s insane, but it does give them an advantage at low levels.”

“Oh,” Joy said, digesting the information for a moment before nodding as she smiled. “I suppose that would make sense. Apis would probably do it for our queens, but no one else. They’re important, after all.”

“From the sounds of things, it’s likely you’d be able to afford it,” Brianna said, shaking her head. “I’ve never heard of a group combining all their coin like you do.”

Joy shrugged, continuing to pry out the metal, though it didn’t take her too much longer. While the designs were intricate, there was only so much space for them to cover, and eventually she ended up with two tidy piles of gold and platinum.

“There we go! Who wants to carry it?” Joy asked, looking up curiously.

They looked at one another, and after a moment Cora spoke, looking at Joy with a wry smile. “How about you carry it? From the sound of things you have a bit more open inventory slots than we do, and we can rearrange things once we get out of here.”

“Sure, that’s fine with me,” Joy agreed happily, quickly sweeping it up and into her backpack. She quickly noticed that each pile made two stacks of metal, which wasn’t bad at all, though she wasn’t entirely sure how much they were worth.

The others appeared to have mostly finished as well, as they were standing up, while sliding the handful of pieces of gear they’d found into their own packs. Each looked like they had two or three items, which Joy hoped would at least help them make a decent profit back in town.

“No luck, then?” Joy asked, looking between them curiously.

“I’m afraid not. We’re going to have to get out of here the hard way,” Brianna said, frowning as she looked at the hole, then at Cora. “How hard is it going to be for you to maintain the light? I have some torches, but those aren’t going to last that long, maybe an hour apiece.”

“Well, I can maintain it for most of the day, but it’ll take a lot of mana. If I was higher level… well, never mind that,” Cora said, sighing as she shook her head. “No, I’ll maintain it, but I’ll let everyone know if I’m getting to the point it’d be risky to run into something deadly.”

“I can create light as well,” Stella chimed in, frowning as she continued. “On the other hand, I also use it for healing, so…”

“Yeah, I’d rather have you able to help than not,” Brianna said hastily, shaking her head and sighing. “I suppose we’re going to have to see if we can find our way out.”

“I know about caves a little! The hive was underground, after all,” Joy chimed in, practically jumping at the chance to help. “I could take the lead, if you want!”

“If you want to, I wouldn’t object,” Brianna said, blinking as she looked at the other two, neither of whom objected.

“Right, then let’s go!” Joy said enthusiastically, heading for the exit.

The others followed, and Joy quickly found herself in a larger cavern, a good deal of rubble scattered around them, likely from when the room had been broken into. She looked around and immediately frowned, seeing three different exits from the room in the dim light that Cora provided. After a moment she came to a decision and nodded.

“One moment,” Joy said, and quickly stepped past a pile of rubble as she approached the nearest of the exits.

Pausing, she closed her eyes and inhaled slowly, tasting the air as her antennae rose to full extension. The air didn’t seem to be moving, and it smelled mustier to her. Opening her eyes, she went to each of the other two exits and did the same. The air from the second exit was fresher with the faint taste of fresh water and humidity, and was close to opposite where they’d entered the cavern. The last exit felt like the air was moving into the tunnel, and Joy didn’t smell much from it, though it did seem moldier.

“Joy? What were you doing?” Stella asked as she turned back to them.

“Smelling and feeling the wind. I can sense the air moving with my antennae,” Joy said, pointing at them as she smiled. “I think the air’s moving more from the one over there, plus I smell water from it, so I think that’s our best bet. I didn’t see any tracks, really… I bet anything down here avoids the skeletons.”

“That’d make a lot of sense. Undead usually kill everything in the area, but don’t tend to roam far,” Stella said, nodding as she smiled wryly. “And you feel the wind, huh? I had no idea.”

“It’s how I could tell how fast I was going when flying,” Joy said, grinning widely as she looked at them. “What do you think? Straight?”

“Mm, if you think that the best bet is straight, I’m going to believe you,” Brianna said, and Cora nodded quickly.

“Agreed, I don’t know the underground as well. I’m good at keeping a mental map of places, but this is far outside my expertise,” Cora said, letting out a breath of relief. “I’m glad I didn’t come down here on my own. I’d have died to the skeletons, most likely.”

“That would’ve been terrible,” Joy said, a little taken aback at the prospect.

“Well, it didn’t happen,” Stella said, nodding to the exit. “Shall we? I’d like to get back to town sooner than later… we really should’ve put up a warning or something in front of the teleporter.”

“Hindsight is perfect, unfortunately,” Brianna said, looking around warily as she nodded. “But yeah, I won’t be happy until we’re out of here.”

“Then I’d better get moving,” Joy said, heading down the passageway confidently, though she did take care to move as quietly as she could.

She didn’t want to draw enemies to them, after all.

Chapter 22

Travel through the tunnels was unfortunately slow, though Joy was happy to note that the passages were relatively easy to move through. She’d been in tunnels that would have been difficult for humans to traverse when she was a bee, and how easy these were to deal with buoyed her hopes that they were on the right track. Not that the others seemed to realize how unusual the easy passage was, with how many times she heard one of the others curse as they almost tripped.

The sound of water grew still louder as they moved as well, echoing through the tunnels with a dull roar. They were fairly close when Joy paused, looking at the wall closely before she nodded firmly, speaking loud enough that the others could hear her. “Yep, this isn’t normal! Humans must have come through here. Or other human-ish species.”

“How can you tell?” Brianna asked, looking at the wall as she frowned. “I don’t see anything…”

“It’s these,” Joy explained, reaching up to touch several lighter marks on the stone wall, mostly covered by moss. The striations in the stone weren’t natural, and she pointed up, adding, “See how the tunnel here started to get narrower, then didn’t, and the stone is all uneven? It should’ve kept getting narrow, but these are where something hit it hard and split the rocks. I’ve seen it with roots, but none are here, which means somebody did it on purpose.”

“Ah, that explains it… though I doubt I’d notice if I saw something like this again, even with your explanation,” Stella said, looking at the passage and frowning. “That said, that water is pretty loud. It almost sounds like a waterfall to me.”

“You aren’t wrong, that’s what it sounds like to me, too,” Cora agreed, looking at Joy curiously. “Do you know much about that, Joy?”

“Um, no? What’s a waterfall?” Joy asked curiously, tilting her head at them.

“Er… it’s where a river or stream goes off a cliff or high edge of some type and falls a distance, usually a pool below it,” Brianna said, blinking at her. “You’ve never seen one?”

“Nope! That sounds interesting, kind of like a continual rainstorm,” Joy said, perking up curiously, imagining what that would be like.

“Sure, if being under a rainstorm was like getting hit by a hammer,” Brianna replied, instantly destroying the pleasant scene Joy was imagining.

“Um, really?” Joy asked, looking at Brianna in shock.

“Enough water can hurt rather badly, Joy. I’ve been told that falling into water from high enough isn’t much different than falling on bare dirt,” Stella explained gently, and Joy’s antennae drooped for a moment.

“I see. Well, best that I hear now, rather than learning the hard way!” Joy said, her mood improving after only a moment of dismay. “Onward!”

She quickly headed forward as she realized there was a faint glow from ahead, and the rumbling grew still louder as she did so, to the point that Joy began cringing from the overwhelming sound. Hearing anyone else would be almost impossible, and after a few moments she emerged into a wide cavern, and Joy almost gaped at the sight.

The cavern wasn’t dark, as the sides had large sections of a glowing green fungus of some kind, but that wasn’t what really surprised her. No, it was how a river rushed into the cavern from a huge tunnel to her left and out into midair, where it fell downward in a cascade of white foam tinted green by the light. Joy was standing on a wide ledge that protruded out over the cavern, and she edged forward to look down, where she could see the water descending into a rock-filled pool below before rushing out of the cavern.

Joy jumped as Brianna touched her shoulder, then relaxed and smiled, though Brianna nodded toward the part of the ledge next to the river itself. It took Joy a moment to realize what she was pointing at, then she realized there were the remains of what looked like support pillars of some kind on either side of the water, and she cautiously approached the spot alongside the others. The look of dismay on their faces was obvious, and as she looked, Joy understood why.

The river wasn’t terribly wide, no more than twelve to fifteen feet at most, but simply looking at the water was enough to concern Joy, since falling into the river and being swept away would be a distinct danger, and the stone throughout the room was entirely too damp for her taste. It took some effort to keep from slipping, which would make jumping the river difficult. And since there were only a couple of fragments left of what had once been a wooden bridge wide enough for a person, that was a problem. All that was left were some rotten pieces of wood with a few fragments of rope attached to them in the postholes.

For a long moment they simply stood there, and Joy frowned, considering for a moment as some of her memories began rousing. Before she could do much, though, Cora pointed back toward the hallway, saying something that was drowned out by the rumbling water. The elf began carefully picking her way back toward the tunnel, and everyone followed her.

“There, I think I can hear myself think now,” Cora almost shouted as they finally got far enough away. “The bridge is a good sign, but I don’t think there’s any way I can jump that, not with how slippery it is.”

“Agreed. I might make it, but I don’t care for my chances,” Brianna said, crossing her arms. “You think there’s another way out?”

“There might be, but… yes, Joy?” Stella began, but paused as Joy raised her hand.

“I could build a bridge,” Joy offered, and they stared at her for a long moment.

“How would you do that? I haven’t seen any crafting materials around, and if you were planning to use stone, that’d take a long time,” Cora said, gesturing at the water. “We don’t have days or weeks for something like that.”

“Weeks? No, nonono! You don’t understand!” Joy exclaimed, shaking her head quickly, a little startled by the suggestion, and she hastily explained. “No, I’d do it with my crafting ability! When I went to the hive, the other workers explained how to use it better, now that they have to use buildings. They said we can temper the wax, which hardens it enough to be used for things like that. I even have enough wax, with how wide it is. Probably.”

“Er, really? I would’ve thought that something like a bridge would take a long time. Besides… could wax even hold my weight?” Brianna asked dubiously, shifting as she glanced back down the hallway. “I really wouldn’t want to fall into the river.”

“It would!” Joy assured her, grinning as she looked at them, explaining quickly. “We discussed a lot of building stuff, and I know how to do it. Most of the bridge would be hollow, since I’d honeycomb it, which makes it sturdy and light. There wouldn’t be railings, though.”

“I didn’t expect that,” Stella murmured quietly, frowning for a moment, then looked at Cora as she added, “For railings, though… I do have a rope, as do you two, yes? We could always rig a rail of sorts, or at least tie one around the waist of someone.”

“That strikes me as rather dangerous… but yes, we do,” Cora said, her voice a touch reluctant. She looked at Joy for a long moment, studying her face, then looked at Brianna and asked, “What do you think? I could go either way.”

“I’d say let her do it. We know there was a bridge there, so it’s a better bet than trying to find another way out,” Brianna said, looking at Cora for a moment, then she smiled. “Besides, Joy wants to try, so why not?”

“In that case, its settled,” Cora said, glancing at Joy and smiling wryly. “What do you need us to do?”

“Nothing, really! Let me go look at the postholes, though. I want to make sure I have a good idea of where things are before I build this,” Joy said brightly, grinning at them. “Then we can get back somewhere quiet to get to work.”

“Alright. Just let us know if you need anything,” Stella replied warmly, her smile gentle.

“Sure!” Joy chirped, and she rushed down the hallway again, enthusiasm overtaking her quickly.

Even if she’d been cast out of the hive, a part of Joy still thought of herself as a worker and craved the opportunity to build or gather things. This felt far more natural to her than combat did.

* * *

The work took about as long as Joy expected it to, and it took a bit of effort for her to ignore the way the others stared at her throughout the project. Brianna in particular looked stunned as she watched, which was strange to Joy, as amazing as she found all of their skills, and what Joy was doing was nothing special.

Not that Joy entirely understood how she could do some of things she did, though. The nine discs of wax had been easy to melt together, and she’d kneaded them until they were malleable before setting to work. She easily formed hundreds, then thousands of honeycombs as she built a long board only six inches wide at most, while the surface was a smooth plane of wax, which, after some thought, she decided to embed sand into to make the surface rougher and easier to keep a grip on when it was wet.

Anchoring the ends was relatively easy, as she built posts in that would fit into the holes that had helped anchor the wooden bridge. Even the tempering felt almost instinctive, as her hands heated the wax to the point she felt like it was going to melt again, then allowed it to cool slowly.

Eventually she paused, looking down the length of the plank, from one set of anchors to the other, and she nodded, letting out a soft sigh as she murmured, “Done. That took a little longer than I thought it would… I hope it fits.”

“I’m pretty sure it will, based on what I saw,” Cora murmured, her voice soft, and she sounded impressed, to Joy’s surprise.

“Oh? I can’t be sure, myself. I think it will, but I’m not sure,” Joy said, grinning at her. “It wouldn’t be the first time I messed up.”

“Mm, none of us could build anything like that, let alone so quickly. If it doesn’t fit, so be it,” Stella said, looking at the others as she asked, “Agreed?”

“Definitely. Do you mind if I test my weight on it now, though? I can’t say that I’m not worried about that,” Brianna said, climbing to her feet, looking around the dark tunnel.

“Sure!” Joy replied happily, setting the end of the bridge down so it was resting on the supports. “I’ll need help getting it into place, of course. It’s too big for me to do myself.”

“That would be a problem… maybe we can use a rope and slowly lower it like a drawbridge,” Stella suggested quietly, watching as Brianna carefully put one foot on the bridge, testing it for a moment before she stepped fully onto the middle.

The bridge flexed under Brianna’s weight, and Joy’s gaze was fixed on it, hoping she’d built it correctly. She smiled as the bridge held up well, looking up to meet Brianna’s gaze.

“Alright, this is impressive, Joy. I honestly didn’t think you could make something that could hold me out of wax,” Brianna said, looking startled as she bounced a little, and the bridge flexed under her with every movement. “I’m not sure I’d trust more than one of us on it at a time, but if it can hold me, I bet it can hold any of us.”

“Oh, really? You mean you’re finally admitting you’re the heaviest person here?” Cora asked, a teasing note to her voice.

“Cora, I will hurt you,” Brianna retorted with narrowed eyes, hopping down to the floor, and for a moment Joy was worried, at least until Cora and Stella laughed.

“Come on, let’s go get this into place,” Stella said, climbing to her feet as she nodded to Joy. “You did excellent work, Joy. Thank you.”

“Oh, not a problem! I rather enjoyed doing it, and I’m glad I had enough wax. I mean, we could’ve always have waited until tomorrow if I hadn’t, but this lets us move more quickly,” Joy chirped, grinning as she prepared to pick up the bridge. At least it being hollow made the bridge fairly lightweight. The problem was how awkward it was.

“I certainly appreciate it. Now, the sooner we get it into place, the sooner we can get out of here,” Cora said, raising her staff to give them more light.

Joy nodded and started down the hallway happily, humming under her breath as she went. Though she did have to wonder why Brianna giggled at the tune she was humming.

Chapter 23

Cora watched with the faintest hint of disbelief as Brianna and Joy slowly lowered the bridge into place. It wasn’t that she didn’t believe they were managing it, but more that Joy had so perfectly made a bridge from almost nothing, even if it was narrow.

Joy was holding the base of the bridge next to the holes where the old bridge had been anchored while Brianna held a rope tied to the other end of the bridge and carefully lowered it so the ends would rest on the other bank. It was a little off-kilter, Cora noticed, but it had to be, since the holes on the other side were still occupied by some debris.

It was strange to admit to herself how much she’d come to appreciate Joy’s company in a short time, Cora had to admit to herself, even if it was only in the privacy of her own mind. The apis was enthusiastic and did everything she could to help them, which was more than Cora could say about a few other adventurers she’d partnered with over the years, including on the ill-fated delve into the hive. She’d have to thank the apis properly after they were out of the caves, Cora decided. Not that she was sure how to go about that, with as simple as Joy’s diet was. It wasn’t as though she could buy the apis a drink, really.

The bridge lowered into place at last, and Cora could almost hear Joy cheer over the roar of water, but if she did it was barely audible. The way Joy bounced to her feet, grinning all the way, was quite visible, though, and Cora couldn’t help a smile. The apis quickly pointed at the rope, her waist, then the other side, gesturing excitedly to Brianna. Cora suspected what was coming next, and exchanged worried looks with Stella.

Unlike what Cora expected, the apis didn’t try to walk across the bridge like it was, even with a rope tied around her waist. Instead the apis secured the rope, then crouched down on her knees and slowly scooted across the bridge a couple of inches at a time. It was barely wide enough for her to do it, and it was so silly looking that Cora did laugh, thankful that no one could really hear her.

It didn’t take long for Joy to reach the other side of the river, at which point the apis stood up and calmly cleaned out the holes to anchor the bridge and looked at Brianna, who nodded to her. The two of them settled the bridge into place, then Joy removed the rope and tied it to a nearby stalagmite. Brianna did something similar, and quickly enough they had a makeshift rope bridge, even if the rope wasn’t nearly as sturdy of a railing as Cora would prefer. At least it was on the side toward the waterfall, so if they slipped they probably could catch themselves on it.

When Brianna gestured them forward, Cora and Stella approached, while Cora eyed the water nervously. She could swim well enough, but everything she’d heard about water running through caves indicated the chances of surviving would be almost nonexistent if she fell in, since she’d get pummeled against rocks all the way. When Stella looked at Cora, gesturing at the bridge and tilting her head, Cora shook her head and motioned Stella forward instead, trying to steady her nerves.

Stella carefully made her way across the bridge as Cora watched, and as the human picked her steps Cora’s worries eased. The bridge might have already become damp from the spray off the river, but it looked like the sand that Joy had put into the top let Stella keep her footing easily enough. Stella didn’t have the best sense of balance based on the way she swayed, but with the aid of the rope she made her way across the bridge in less than a minute, easing Cora’s mind a lot.

When Stella stepped off the bridge, Cora took a deep breath and started forward, her heart beginning to pound as she did so. She hated how hesitant she was, but there wasn’t much other choice, as far as she was concerned.

Every step was almost torture, as she feared that her boots would slip, or that the bridge would crack beneath her feet. The possibilities were haunting and distracting, and she often found herself gripping the rope far more tightly than she should have.

That was what made it so surprising when she reached the other end at last. Cora had been so focused on carefully putting one foot in front of the other that she hadn’t realized she was almost there, and the sensation of stone beneath her feet was a relief, so much of one that she almost lost her balance as she stepped off the bridge. Joy caught her, and the apis was smiling broadly at her, then looked back at Brianna expectantly.

Brianna untied the rope on the other end to put it around her waist, then the human took a look at the bridge as if gauging it, before walking briskly onto it, moving quickly enough that Cora’s heart leapt in her chest, afraid that any moment Brianna would slip and fall into the water. They might be able to pull her out, but that wasn’t guaranteed by any means.

Fortunately for her nerves, Brianna made it across the bridge incredibly quickly, and she grinned as she untied the rope and began coiling it, gesturing toward the exit with a quirked eyebrow. Cora nodded, and they quickly headed toward the exit, something which was a distinct relief for Cora.

It took a little while for them to get into a quieter area, mostly due to how the roaring water echoed in the tunnels, but at the same time Joy was keeping an eye out for danger, something Cora certainly appreciated. One thing she did notice as they moved was that the walls had been artificially widened here as well, which she found interesting. Eventually they reached a slightly wider area where the tunnel forked, and that was also just quiet enough they could talk again, even if Cora’s ears were still ringing.

“Excellent work, Joy. That bridge worked perfectly, and if anyone else gets stuck down there, it’ll help them get out,” Brianna said, sticking her pinky in her ear to clean it out. “The question is, where do we want to go from here? There’s another fork, and I can’t hear much of anything right now.”

“True enough. Joy? Can you tell what way to go?” Cora asked, looking at the apis, who tilted her head as she looked at the exits.

“Probably! I just need a minute to dry off my antennae and see what I can find. There’s an odd smell in the air… I can’t quite place it,” Joy said, her golden gaze fixed on the exits.

Cora frowned at her reaction, then shrugged as she looked around. Unfortunately, she didn’t see any obvious signs of what direction they should go, which was mildly irritating. She hated the idea of wandering around underground, she’d be far more at home in the middle of a forest. Even the Flower Forest, for that matter.

“I don’t smell much of anything,” Stella said, looking around and wrinkling her nose as she added, “Well, aside from wet rock and mold, anyway.”

“Oh, well, I guess I’m just imagining things,” Joy said, shaking her head sheepishly. “I just thought I smelled other insects.”

“Insects?” Cora asked sharply, her attention suddenly fixing on Joy. “What do you mean?”

“Uh, well… a lot of insects leave scent trails to follow. I thought I smelled one,” Joy replied, obviously a little startled.

“I… didn’t know that,” Brianna said, her brow furrowing as she glanced at Cora and Stella. “Do you think we’ll be safe? We haven’t seen any signs of insects, and there’s no way to know whether they’re small or giant.”

“I have no idea. The good sign is that the skeletons weren’t that powerful, but other creatures avoided them. On the other hand, we aren’t exactly in the best shape if it comes to a fight,” Cora said, considering her mana reserves unhappily for a moment, then asked, “What do you think? Should we rest here, and continue in the morning? I don’t want to be weakened if we run into monsters, particularly swarming ones.”

Stella nodded, looking at the others, and Joy simply shrugged, speaking simply. “I don’t mind! I still need to dry off my antennae to sense things properly, and the sound in there is throwing off my hearing, too. I’m sure having a chance to rest will help, though.”

Brianna simply started taking off her pack, and Cora let out a sigh of relief as she began following suit. The real question she had was whether or not they’d be able to figure out a fire or other source of illumination, since she didn’t have the mana to keep up her light spell the entire night.

* * *

The next several hours passed slowly, at least from Joy’s perspective. She was bored as the others set down their bedrolls and tried to get comfortable. The only thing that was a little more interesting was when Brianna mentioned wanting some light source, and Stella immediately told them they couldn’t have a fire, since it might cause problems. Joy didn’t even have to chime in that insects definitely would smell smoke, and it could draw attention.

Instead Joy had suggested grabbing a couple of clumps of glowing fungus from the river cave, and when they’d agreed she and Cora had gone back for them. It was relatively easy for Joy to collect, and she’d quickly brought them back for the others. The fungus didn’t provide much light, but it was enough for them to get by without Cora’s spells, which was the important part.

The others worked out a basic watch schedule, where Brianna and Joy took the first half while Cora and Stella rested, then they’d switch watches. For the most part Brianna didn’t talk during their watch, just keeping an eye out for anything to come out of the dark. Joy didn’t really mind, though she did find she was a little restless. Something in the scents that pervaded the tunnels was familiar, and not necessarily in a good way. It didn’t help that Joy wasn’t used to being with so few others, either.

Eventually Brianna woke the others, and it was their turn to keep watch, so Joy wrapped herself in the blanket the handmaiden had given her, laid her head on her pillow, and tried to sleep.

She imagined the others would find it amusing that she had an easier time sleeping here than she had in the inn. It still wasn’t easy, but she fell asleep before long.

Chapter 24

Joy blinked in confusion as she looked around a room that glowed with glorious light. It was a huge, vaulted chamber with a ceiling far above her head in a dome, intricate patterns of golden paint drawing the eye ever upward, while alcoves were to her left and right, and a longer hallway was ahead of her. Blue, green, purple, and red jewels filled gilded coffers to her left, while coins spilled over the floor all around them. To her right was an alcove filled with weapons and armor, each of them bearing runes that burned with light, sending a shiver down her spine. In front of the apis was a wide hall with a dais, atop which was a throne set with glowing jewels. She glanced behind her and saw a garden of breathtakingly gorgeous flowers that caused Joy’s breath to catch in her throat, and drew her attention away from exquisite baths that were a little closer.

“Do you desire power? Do you desire wealth?” a soft voice whispered in Joy’s ear, and she yelped, jumping and spinning around, looking for the speaker, only to find there was no one nearby.

“What? Who’s there?” Joy asked, reaching for her stinger, only to have her hand close on thin air, and she looked down to see she was virtually naked, without her armor or weapons, which alarmed her even more. “Where am I?”

“Do you wish for authority, to rule over others? Beauty which can topple empires?” the voice continued as if it hadn’t heard Joy, which prompted her to frown and edge away from the center of the room. The voice was making her feel distinctively uncomfortable, and her head was a little fuzzy, as if she’d gorged herself on too much honey at once.

“Um, no? I guess I might want to found my own hive eventually, but it isn’t really because I want to rule things. I’m a worker. And what point is there to that type of beauty? Toppling things sounds bad,” Joy replied, frowning as she looked around more. She just didn’t understand what was going on.

“I can offer all of this to you, all you have to do is pledge yourself to me. Take a place at my side and I will give you everything that your heart desires,” the voice said, its tone surprisingly seductive, urging Joy to follow it, and she wrinkled her nose, wondering why she couldn’t smell anything, a little annoyed.

The only problem was that none of its offers sounded terribly appealing to her. Now, if it’d been offering a massive flower garden like the one she saw behind her, maybe she would’ve been tempted, but the rest didn’t sound interesting at all. Maybe power, but that was just so she could level and drink her pure royal jelly to evolve. So her answer was fairly straightforward.

“No,” Joy said, crossing her arms unhappily. “You took my stuff, dragged me who-knows-where, and are hiding. I don’t know who you are, but you’re really rude.”

For a long moment the room was silent, before the voice spoke again, even quieter this time as it murmured, “No? So be it. If you reconsider, I’ll be here waiting. No one else can give you what you truly wish for.”

“You didn’t even listen to me. Now what…” Joy murmured, shaking her head as she turned to head toward the gardens, then paused and blinked as the world slowly went dark around her, and she seemed to lose control of her body. It was incredibly disorienting, and the lack of sight caused a bit of panic to well up inside her, especially as she suddenly felt like she was mired in sap, with something constricting her limbs.

The apis began struggling, feeling more and more trapped with every passing moment, like a bee who’d run into a spider’s web. The thought caused the scene to change, and Joy felt terror flash through her as she realized she was surrounded by massive, silken strands of a spider’s web, and nearby was a huge black spider, its bulbous body creeping toward her as its fangs dripped venom. If she didn’t get out quickly, she was going to—

“Joy? Joy, are you okay?” Cora’s voice interrupted, and Joy’s eyes snapped open, focusing on the elf above her, the woman’s concerned face barely illuminated by the glowing fungus.

“Huh, wha… what happened, I was just…” Joy replied, confusion washing through her, just as the memories of what had happened began to fade. Not entirely, but she looked down to realize that she’d gotten tangled in her blanket, and she blinked, then looked up at Cora, blushing as she replied. “I’m… I’m alright. I just thought I was tangled in a spider’s web and that it was going to eat me. What was that? It was so realistic!”

“You… were you having a dream? Well, nightmare, if you thought a spider was going to eat you, but even so… have you never had one before?” Cora asked, looking surprised, and a bit skeptical.

“A dream?” Joy asked, her heart pounding as she untangled her limbs and sat up slowly, trying to calm down. Brianna seemed to still be asleep, while Stella was glancing over at them occasionally, looking concerned. Joy thought about it for a moment, and the meaning of the word ‘dream’ filtered up out of her unconscious, allowing her to consider it, then she let out a slow breath and shivered, murmuring, “A dream, that’s what it was. No, I’ve never had one before. I don’t think bees dream, and I haven’t slept well until tonight, except for the night in the hive.”

“Huh, I suppose that makes sense. I never thought about dreaming being unusual, but if you haven’t dreamed before, I guess it would be traumatic, especially a nightmare like that,” Cora said, shivering slightly as she murmured, “A giant spider that had you tied up… ick. Spiders are disgusting enough as it is, even without being tied up.”

“I don’t disagree there. They’re one of my least favorite opponents in the Flower Forest, but are depressingly common,” Stella added, nodding and smiling wryly. “Honestly, if there was a closer area that was good for our level and didn’t have insects, I’d probably go there. Alas, that isn’t the case.”

“Oh. Well, yeah… that was the second part of the dream, anyway. The first was weird, even if I don’t remember it as clearly anymore,” Joy said, frowning. “It was almost like something was offering me something.”

“What? That sounds odd… it was a dream, though, and things like that happen,” Cora said, pausing and tilting her head to look at Stella. “Isn’t that right? If I remember right, Mother Moon has some dominion over dreams.”

“To some degree, yes. Sometimes dreams simply take fragments of your life and combine them in odd ways, or it’s your subconscious trying to tell you something,” Stella said, nodding as she smiled gently. “There are lots of possibilities, Joy, so you shouldn’t worry too much.”

“Alright… but what’s the sub-whatsit?” Joy asked, a little confused by the word.

Stella paused, blinking at Joy for a moment, then spoke hesitantly. “Er, think of it as your instincts. Sometimes they’re trying to tell you something, but sometimes a dream is just random.”

“That makes more sense to me! I’ve never felt something like that before, so it had to be random, then,” Joy said, letting out a breath as her heart finally finished calming down. She considered, then smiled a little as she added, “I don’t think I’m going back to sleep, though. That got me a little anxious, and I don’t need a lot of sleep anyway.”

“If you say so. Just don’t be too loud, since Brianna is still resting,” Cora said, nodding toward the human, who had barely stirred in the last few minutes.

“Sure!” Joy chirped, untucking the blanket, and making a mental note to make sure it wouldn’t tangle around her in the future.

She figured that she’d put the bedroll away, then get to work making her wax for the day. As useful as it’d been the previous day, she didn’t want to neglect it.

Time passed, and Joy wasn’t sure how much of it, but she also didn’t worry about it much, since time was a relatively ephemeral thing as far as she was concerned. It didn’t matter nearly as much as company and the chance to live her life as she wished to.

When the wax discs were stowed in her inventory, Joy took a minute to examine her things and ensure her armor was in good condition, since she’d felt entirely too vulnerable during the dream. She honestly didn’t remember much of the dream, just that she’d been without weapons or armor and had been annoyed at whatever offer it was. Oh, there were a few fragmented other memories of it here and there, but for the most part she simply couldn’t remember, which was rather vexing. Worse, the more she tried to remember, the fainter the memories became.

Eventually she simply decided not to worry about the dream since it didn’t seem incredibly important. It bothered her a little, though. More important was how Brianna finally woke.

“Ugh, why’s it… oh, right, we’re underground,” Brianna mumbled, yawning and clawing the tangled hair out of the way as she looked around blearily. She took a moment, then asked, “So… cold food, I take it?”

“Thinking with your stomach, I see,” Cora replied, obviously amused as she glanced toward the fungi and continued. “As we don’t have a fire, that’s right. Unless someone else has a miraculous pile of wood, or the ability to heat food?”

“No, I’m afraid not,” Stella murmured, and Joy firmly shook her head.

“Nope! Fire in a hive? Yuck, that’s a bad idea,” the apis explained, shivering a little, then hesitated before admitting, “Still, something to eat doesn’t sound like a terrible idea. I don’t need a full meal, but maybe a snack…”

“So we finally get to see you eat? Shock and amazement!” Brianna said, grinning broadly as she asked, “Honey, then?”

“Why would I eat anything else? It’s tasty and good for me,” Joy replied bluntly, pulling out a container of honey and her bowl and spoon. The others were getting out their own food but watched in fascination as she poured a quarter-bowl of the amber liquid, licking her lips in anticipation as she caught its heady scent.

She tried to ignore their food, by comparison, at least until she realized they were going to be eating what amounted to large, hard-looking crackers. The sound they made when the women broke the round discs up was sharp, and Joy cringed, looking up from her bowl.

“What is that?” Joy demanded, unable to believe anyone would try to eat something that sounded like it was made of wood.

“Hardtack. It’s the most common ration for adventurers since it doesn’t really spoil if properly stored,” Stella explained, dipping hers in a tin mug of water, then nibbling on it. “I always keep a week’s worth in my pack, just in case.”

“Ditto,” Brianna murmured, eying hers unhappily. “I have some stuff to cook, but that takes a fire.”

“Um, does it at least taste good?” Joy asked, wincing at another cracking sound. “That sounds… hard.”

“Not really,” Cora said dryly, shaking her head. “It’s enough to keep people going, not tasty. Some people will break them up and make them into a pancake instead, or add something to make them taste better, but like Bri said, that takes heat.”

Joy hesitated, looking at them, feeling a little conflicted, then offered hopefully, “Would you like some honey? It tastes good!”

“Um, well… actually, that doesn’t sound like a bad idea. At least it’d be better than eating this plain,” Brianna said, looking a little happier as she hesitated, then extended a section of the cracker toward Joy.

“Alright, let’s see if this makes it better,” Joy said, using the spoon to put a dollop of honey onto the cracker. She was still dubious, and a part of her thought it was a waste if they didn’t like honey much.

Brianna rolled the cracker back and forth to get a good layer across the surface of the cracker, then took a bite. The sound was still sharp, but Joy’s wince turned to a smile, her antennae perking up as Brianna’s dubious expression turned to a smile, and the woman took her time chewing properly before swallowing.

“Oh, that’s much better! The sweet taste does wonders, even if the bread is really hard. Thanks, Joy!” Brianna exclaimed, grinning at her, and relief surged through Joy.

“That does sound good, but… do you have enough to really share, Joy? I remember you saying you had a lot of honey, but I don’t want you to do without,” Stella said, looking curiously at the apis.

“I’ve got plenty! I’ve got enough for a few months, and I can always make more if I get nectar,” Joy assured her, taking the time to pour more honey into the bowl, so it’d taken a full portion, then put the bottle away. She continued calmly. “It takes about three days for two stacks of nectar to turn into one of honey, so it won’t take too long to replace.”

“In that case, I definitely would like some. While I may not complain the way Bri does, I don’t generally care for hardtack,” Cora said, gently smiling at Joy as she added, “Besides, honey has always been something of a treat for me. It’s usually used in different types of baking or making mead, but every so often my aunt would make honey candies, which were lovely.”

“Oh! For some reason I thought that honey wasn’t something you liked, since you didn’t seem to think eating it was very good,” Joy said, relief rushing through her. “I just… well, I worried.”

“Not good? It’s just that it’d be too wasteful,” Stella said, her eyebrows rising as the others came close to get some honey from Joy. The Acolyte explained gently. “See, outside of the Flower Forest, beehives are tiny. There are beekeepers who gather honey, but it’s relatively rare, and we aren’t meant to eat only something like that. Like Cora said, it’s a treat for us, not something we’d eat on its own most of the time.”

“Ah, okay, that’s better,” Joy said, nodding happily as she doled out the honey. She truly didn’t mind sharing, since it was so easy to produce.

“Thank you, Joy,” Stella murmured softly as she took a bite of food, then let out a soft sigh of contentment.

“Definitely,” Brianna added, grinning broadly as she glanced at Cora, teasing. “I think recruiting you was one of the best decisions we’ve made, in fact!”

Joy blushed a little as Cora kicked the human, her mouth full, and the apis replied happily, pleasure rushing through her. “I’m glad to hear that! I’ve been trying to be helpful, since I’m lower level and don’t know much, but I wasn’t sure how much good I’d do. I did get us stuck down here, after all.”

“That wasn’t your fault,” Stella said simply, shaking her head. “If I’d happened to find it, this would probably have turned out the same.”

“Agreed,” Cora added, nodding and smirking a little as she continued. “If anyone, it’s my fault for not considering that the other end would be broken. That said… do you have any idea which way to go?”

“Um, both sides seem to be pretty close to the same, so I think they probably connect somewhere, but the wind feels a bit stronger to the left,” Joy said, extending her antennae upward to feel the air flow again. The night of sleep had helped them recover from the pounding pressure in the river cave, so she was able to sense a little more nuance to the air, along with a faintly familiar scent, one that bothered her. She couldn’t quite place it, which disturbed her. Eventually she admitted, “I still smell that familiar scent, but I can’t place it. I must not have encountered the source, before.”

“It isn’t a worry. If we run into something hostile, so be it,” Brianna said pragmatically and smiled a little more as she added, “Heck, that’s pretty much inevitable! The key is to be prepared as we can be.”

“Indeed,” Cora murmured, chewing her hardtack as she contemplated, and Joy began eating herself, savoring the honey snack. Eventually the elf murmured, “The left seems like the best idea, then, if it’s a little stronger.”

Stella nodded, working on eating her own food, and Joy smiled as the human added, “I’m glad we have you with us, Joy. You’re making navigating far easier.”

“I’m glad to be here!” Joy chirped happily, and redoubled her efforts to eat more quickly.

They needed to get moving soon, after all.

Chapter 25

Despite her initial feelings about being stuck underground, Cora had mostly adapted to the situation by this point. She’d delved into enough dungeons, including large ones that forced adventurers to rest within, so it wasn’t like she hadn’t experienced it before.

The most worrying aspect of their situation was that they didn’t know where they were, or even what way led outside for certain, though Joy had been a godsend from that perspective. The apis might not be perfect, but since leaving their campsite the woman had helped them bypass several corridors, and had stopped Brianna from moving too far down a hallway that was encrusted with a mold that Cora had belatedly realized would’ve attacked her. Instead, they’d made a good deal of progress already.

On the other hand, things might be changing, since Cora turned a corner and saw a glimmer of illumination from ahead of them, a pale white glow that definitely wasn’t from the sun, which put her on her guard. Brianna stiffened as well, and Joy hesitated, her form going ever so slightly indistinct as she peeked around the corner, then relaxed and gestured them forward.

“Glowing rocks,” the apis said softly, frowning as she added, “I also hear… thrumming?”

“Thrumming?” Cora murmured, pausing and focusing for a moment, trying to see if she could hear the sound as well. She didn’t really hear anything, not at first, but then she began to feel something. A faint vibration through the ground, which made her pause, then she asked, “Maybe do you feel a vibration? I’m not hearing anything, mind you.”

“That… could be it. I don’t know how to describe it,” Joy said, shrugging and pointing around the corner. “That’s the lights, though. It’s pretty!”

Brianna looked around the corner and swore, prompting Cora to cringe as she looked past her friend and understood why. The walls of the tunnel ahead of them were glowing with veins of what looked like glowing ore, and that… was bad. Because she instantly knew where they were, and it didn’t make her even slightly happy.

“What is… oh. Is that what I think it is?” Stella asked softly.

Cora grimaced as she nodded, murmuring, “Analyze. Yup, it is.”

Luminous Titansteel Ore Vein (Level 15)

This ore vein contains luminous titansteel, a legendary light-aligned metal that can be forged into weapons that are the bane of creatures of darkness. It is also difficult to mine without losing its beneficial properties.

“What is it?” Joy asked, looking back and forth between them in confusion, looking like she was growing concerned.

“Luminous titansteel. That means we’re in the depths of the Blackstone Mines, and that… that could be really bad,” Brianna said grimly. “I would’ve thought we’d have run into a monster by this point, but we’ve been lucky enough, and—ah, crap.”

As Brianna spoke, there was a soft rumbling from a wall, and something began emerging from the ore ahead of them.

“You just had to say something, didn’t you?” Cora snapped, and she added, “Analyze!”

Titansteel-Laced Elemental (Level 14)

Attack Power 16

Defense 16 (Weak to Shadow)

Abilities: Ablative Armor, Crushing Blow

“Elemental, weak to shadow, really tough and strong!” Cora told the others, and at the same time the figure fully pulled free of the wall.

The elemental was big, almost seven feet tall, and it was almost as broad, with huge, barrel-like limbs and legs. Fortunately there were lots of cracks and places for weapons to find purchase, but that didn’t comfort Cora, not when they were about to have to fight something way above any of their levels. Worse, she knew that it’d almost certainly go straight through Joy’s armor.

“Uh-oh,” Joy murmured, and then, despite everything Cora expected, the apis rushed forward.

“Joy! That’s not what—damn, Bri?” Cora exclaimed, raising her staff as she prepared for the combat, grimacing as a pair of glowing white eyes appeared atop what passed for the elemental’s head.

“On it!” Brianna said, and charged forward, her sword in both hands, and just before she reached the elemental she ducked, exclaiming loudly, “Power Strike!”

The sword glowed brightly as the warrior brought it around, just in time to hit the side of the elemental’s arm as it punched at Joy. The blow chipped off rubble from the arm and jarred it to the side, and the crash of it hitting the wall echoed through the tunnels, prompting a wince from Cora.

“Hope that doesn’t bring in friends,” Stella muttered, and the woman charged in, now that she had her shield properly set.

“So do I,” Cora muttered, then pointed at the elemental as she channeled her mana. “Ice Blast!”

* * *

“Precise Strike!” Joy said, activating her ability, then yelped as the rapier hit the elemental’s joint, then bounced off again. “Ow!”

“It has a sixteen defense, Joy! You aren’t going to have much luck doing any damage!” Cora called out, the elf moving to the side as she concentrated, then threw an orb of electricity at the elemental, causing faint popping sounds through the stone figure.

The others were attacking the creature as well, and Joy wasn’t happy with how it was going. While Stella had managed to deflect a blow with her shield, everyone had heard the wood crack, and ever since the Acolyte had been favoring that arm, while trying to deal damage to the elemental where she could. Brianna was dodging as best she could, but she had some blood trickling down her face, which was not a good sign.

Worse, Joy didn’t think she’d managed to do any damage to the thing so far. She’d tried, a bunch of times, in fact, but every time her attacks had bounced off, and she finally understood what the others had meant about a creature with high defense being able to just ignore attacks that weren’t strong enough.

Falling back, Joy racked her brain, trying to think of some way to contribute. The problem was that she just didn’t see how she could. The elemental was huge and heavy, so she couldn’t trip it, and just a single look at how her attacks had been negated meant that she doubted her armor would do anything. She suspected most giant wasps would get crushed in a single blow, for that matter.

At that moment Stella brought down her mace on the creature’s back hard, and Joy winced as some of its body shattered and began falling away, even as Stella hastily dodged a swipe of the elemental’s arm, one which hit the wall and sent a spray of rocks flying across the room. Joy dodged most of them, but a couple bounced off her armor anyway. Her attention was drawn away as she saw a bright, glowing crystal in the middle of the creature’s back.

“That’s its core, get it!” Cora exclaimed, and immediately followed by throwing a ball of fire at the elemental, which turned so the orb slammed into its shoulder, only causing a few crackling sounds.

“I’d try, but this thing is—gah!” Brianna yelped, barely dodging a swipe of the monster’s arm, and beside her Stella was scampering to keep from being struck as well. “The tunnel is just too narrow!”

Thoughts raced through Joy’s head, but she quickly came to a conclusion that the elemental was ignoring her because she hadn’t been able to hurt it. It was trying to deal with the threats first, which gave her an opening.

“I’ve got it!” Joy volunteered, taking an instant to sheathe her rapier and pull out a dagger, then she rushed forward, rolling across the ground with her ability, which allowed her to take advantage of the elemental’s wide stance. Even so, she had a moment of panic as a pillar-like leg slammed down on the spot she’d passed through an instant before.

“Joy!” Stella yelped, even as Joy rolled to her feet, her pulse pounding loudly in her ears.

“I’m okay!” Joy replied, then murmured, “That was close. Now… core!”

The apis took an instant to look at the elemental’s back, then jumped on it, slamming her dagger into a crack with a grunt as her feet scrabbled for purchase on its back. The monster lurched, sending her swaying as she yelped, but a foot caught on another craggy bit of its lower body, and she reached up and grabbed the core firmly. Joy grinned broadly, delight rushing through her at successfully getting her hands on the big glowing gem.

Her touch caused the elemental to lurch back more, though, and Joy’s delight vanished as she saw herself rapidly approaching the wall, and the mental image of what would happen if the elemental hit the wall flashed through her mind. The thought didn’t please her at all, so Joy tightened her grip on the dagger and gem, planted her feet on the elemental’s back, and launched herself free, ripping the core free with an ease that startled her. In fact, it came free so easily that Joy bounced off the wall an instant later.

“Eep!” Joy managed, bouncing off the wall, the glowing core grasped in her hand. She stumbled as she hit the ground, trying to keep from falling, but was afraid the elemental was going to crash into her… but only for a moment, as she looked up and blinked.

The elemental was standing where she’d last seen it, almost vibrating in place, but otherwise frozen. A moment later cracks worked their way up its legs, across its torso, and down its arms. Slowly the monster began crumbling into a pile of stone and glimmering white veins of metal, leaving Joy staring at it, her mouth agape. On the other side of it, she could see the others staring at her in disbelief.

Level Up: Apis Rogue Level 9

Ability Gained: Minor Speed Burst

“Joy, what did you do?” Cora asked, looking down at the elemental for a moment, her face barely visible in the dim lighting, but she was very obviously shocked.

“Um, you said to get the core. So, I grabbed it,” Joy said, looking at the elemental’s body, then up again as she asked nervously, “Wasn’t that supposed to happen?”

“She meant to destroy the core! That’s the easiest way to destroy elementals, at least ones like this,” Brianna said, leaning against the wall, breathing hard as she stared at the core in Joy’s hand. “Heck, I didn’t think you could just yank one out like that.”

“Because you can’t. The cores are anchored in place, so trying to remove them is almost impossible,” Stella said, blinking, then murmured, “Minor Healing. Anyway, I don’t know how you did that.”

Green light surrounded Stella’s shield arm at her spell, and the pain on the woman’s face slowly eased as she let out a sigh of relief.

“Well, I just pulled on it, and it came right out,” Joy said, looking at the core in confusion. It was glowing like the ore around them, but brighter, since the crystal was rather large. It was about half a foot long, and a little over an inch thick, and rather heavy at that.

“I… think I know why,” Cora said, and looked at Stella wryly as she asked, “Did any of the people you’ve heard of trying to remove the cores have Advanced Harvesting?”

Stella paused, looking up and considering, then smiled wryly. “No, I don’t think I’ve heard of that. Since I don’t think more than a handful of adventurers get Advanced Harvesting until high levels, well…”

“By that point they’d be used to destroying the cores first,” Brianna finished, shaking her head slowly, smiling as she looked at Joy. “Congratulations, Joy. You just managed to figure out a fast way to destroy earth elementals and collect one of their rare drops at the same time.”

“I wouldn’t say fast. If Stella hadn’t exposed the core, there’s no way I could’ve gotten to it. Plus, it was ignoring me because my attacks kept bouncing off,” Joy said, blushing as she shook her head, looking at the core as she hesitated, then asked, “Why is it valuable?”

“Artificers use them to create golems and other constructs. While they can create heartstones from other materials, that usually requires a much higher level than the rest of the construct, so if they can get an appropriate elemental core, they can repurpose it to power a golem earlier,” Cora said, glancing at Brianna as she added, “I hear that some nobles like paying for golems as guards, so they’re pretty valuable.”

“That’s right. And a luminous titansteel core like that… well, it might not be valuable on its own, but I’ll bet you that a high level Artificer would love to get their hands on that. They probably could upgrade it and manage a light-aligned golem of much higher level, which would be really pricy,” Brianna said, grinning as she told Joy, “I’d put that away and save it for when we reach a big city. I don’t want you getting cheated on its price.”

“But… but isn’t that taking something from the rest of you? We beat the elemental together, and I don’t think I should take it. I mean, I leveled up off the fight!” Joy protested, a little shocked that Brianna was suggesting she keep the core.

“Really? Congratulations! That’s really fast, but considering your level, and what we’ve been fighting, it makes a lot of sense,” Stella said, smiling broadly as she glanced at Brianna, adding warmly, “That said, we wouldn’t have the core without you, and someone has to carry it. I figure that we can split any profit when you sell it, eventually, though I wouldn’t be upset if you took more of the coin at that point.”

“I wouldn’t mind a loan to help cover my job requirements in the meantime, either,” Cora added with a laugh, then nodded toward the walls. “That said, there’s something else that’s more immediately useful to us, I think.”

“Hm?” Joy blinked, then her eyes lit up in understanding. “Oh, right! What was his name… James and his friends were coming here for the ore, and wanted help! If we’re down here already, you’re thinking we can get some ourselves.”

“That’s right, but almost more importantly to me, the ore glows,” Cora said, and stopped, as if that was all the explanation she needed to give.

“Well, yes? I guess it does,” Joy agreed, wondering what Cora was getting at.

Cora looked at Joy, then sighed and asked, “Do you think you could make a lantern or something from your wax, with a piece of the ore in the middle? It’d give us light without having to spend mana.”

“Oh, of course! That’s a great idea!” Joy replied, excitement rushing through her as she grinned. “I’ll gather the ore quick, then, and then make the lanterns!”

“In that case, I’ll tend to our injuries in the meantime. That monster hurt,” Stella said, wincing as she unslung her shield and grimaced as she added, “Plus, it looks like my shield needs a fair bit of maintenance.”

“Sounds like we all have our jobs!” Joy said, and grinned as she turned to the ore in the walls, examining it critically.

The apis may have never mined ore before, but a part of her instinctively knew that she could do it. Even better, she was pretty sure she wouldn’t even need tools to gather what was exposed. Tools would certainly make it faster, but she worked with what she had, nothing more.

As the others chatted behind her, Joy busily got to work, all the while wondering what her new ability did.

Chapter 26

“Speed Burst is a reasonably common ability, one which you can activate to increase your movement speed for a short time. Yours is the least powerful version, and doubles your speed for about a second when you activate it, and also gives you the reflexes to adjust your course during that time,” Brianna explained, looking closely at the makeshift lantern that Joy had made. “It doesn’t work on attacks, just on moving around, and more powerful versions last for longer, though I’ve never heard of anyone going at more than five times their speed, or for more than about six seconds.”

“That sounds like it’d be really useful!” Joy chirped happily, her hands busily stroking the wax into the shape she wanted as the rest of them watched, and Cora couldn’t help a little disbelief at the sight.

It’d been bad enough to watch Joy turn nine wax discs into a surprisingly sturdy bridge, even if Cora knew that ingredients for crafting rarely were the same size as the resulting items, but it still made her feel strange on occasion. Plus, despite the fact Joy had only seen a lantern a few times, the apis was making startlingly good facsimiles of them, though with a glowing chunk of ore at their centers.

The ore wouldn’t provide quite as much light as Cora’s light spell, but it was much better than expending mana on spells, and beyond that she, Joy, and Stella could carry them, which would be better, since Stella didn’t want to risk her shield being entirely destroyed. Besides, the light was even more important now, since Joy had collected five portions of the ore from the walls, plus one more from the elemental’s remains, which had extinguished their glow. From what she knew of Advanced Harvesting, the ore would come back in time, but that would take a while.

“You know, I wonder if the reason I got the ability was because I dodged around the elemental? I mean, that would have been really useful for getting behind it,” Joy said, her tone musing as she shaped the handle for the lantern with an easy twist of her wrist. “I don’t understand a lot… I’m guessing the gods decided to make things this way, but I do wonder why.”

“You aren’t the only one who’s wondered about that. I think most clergy and philosophers have, at some point or another,” Stella replied, smiling as she looked at Cora in amusement, obviously entertained by the apis’s attitude. “But you likely did get the ability based on your actions. It’s common wisdom that the more you use a particular style of combat, the more your abilities will gravitate toward that.”

“It’s part of the reason I vary my spells, really. I don’t want to become a dedicated fire, ice, or lightning mage; I want a variety,” Cora added, hoping her interjection would add some context for Joy.

“Good! I like it when my decisions make a difference,” Joy said, her grin almost stunning, and her gold eyes glittering in the light. “There, that’s the third lamp!”

The apis set down the lamp proudly, and for good reason, as far as Cora was concerned. It was much better made than the first one had been, though all were sturdy and functional. Each shone with soft white light, except where it radiated through the yellow wax. Even so, the three lanterns would give more than enough light for their purposes.

“Excellent work, Joy. You’re a life saver,” Cora said, smiling as she glanced at Brianna. “Bri? Mind handing over the lantern to someone who can carry it?”

“I could carry it! I just couldn’t properly use my sword while holding it, and I don’t think this would survive being dropped,” Brianna replied, offering the lantern to Cora with an exaggerated sigh.

“Yeah, that wouldn’t go well. I tempered the wax, so it’s tougher than it might otherwise be, but a sharp impact would probably break it,” Joy said, blushing a little, which was such an odd look, since it made her cheeks look like a brighter shade of gold.

“Good to know; I’ll try not to break mine,” Stella said, smiling as she added, “Who knew that wax crafting would be so useful?”

“Not I, but I’m happy to have learned better,” Cora said, standing up and nodding toward the exit. “Shall we continue? The sooner we get out, the better, from my perspective. Though we may as well pick up any luminous titansteel along the way. It’s a useful material, and if we’re going to be down here anyway, I don’t see why we shouldn’t.”

“Agreed,” Brianna said, grinning as she stood up and stretched. “Now, I just hope we don’t run into too many elementals like that. Full level fifteen monsters aren’t supposed to be common in here, they’re usually level eleven or twelve, as I recall.”

“Right!” Joy said, bouncing to her feet cheerfully and picking up the lantern she’d made for herself. The apis approached the exit cheerfully, her antennae perked up as she listened, then nodded. “I don’t hear anything, so I’ll get moving.”

“Just be careful. We may have lights, but that also makes it more obvious when we approach,” Stella cautioned Joy, who nodded vigorously.

“Oh, believe me, I don’t want to get squished,” Joy assured her, grinning. “I’ll be careful, promise!”

“Good,” Cora said, following the enthusiastic apis with a smile of her own.

She did feel much better about their situation now that they knew where they were, though. At least there had to be a way out.

* * *

Joy wasn’t the happiest apis in the world, but things had been going well. They’d continued their explorations, and quickly run into a nest of tunnels that reminded Joy of ants. It was ironic, since she’d been told the wooden supports indicated it’d been built by humans just before they ran into a cluster of giant ants about two feet long. That hadn’t been terribly pleasant, but she’d managed to kill one of the six ants.

More interestingly, they’d managed to find five more veins of the ore, and Joy had collected another twenty-seven portions of luminous titansteel ore. The others had been pleased, and after a bit Brianna explained that they needed nine apiece to be able to make a weapon and armor from the metal, since three pieces could be refined into an ingot, and a weapon needed at least one ingot while armor needed two. Unfortunately, they’d also run into a number of what the others called slimes, something Joy had never seen before.

The translucent white, gelatinous creatures had rippled and flowed across the ground, and one of them had slapped Joy, burning her where it got around her armor, and she’d quickly learned to keep her distance where she could. The others taught her there was a nearly invisible core inside them that was the source of their animus, and if you could hit it you could kill the creatures pretty much instantly. The slimes were disgusting, but at Stella’s urging Joy had managed to collect some disgusting liquid from them, which the Acolyte told her was used to create some types of healing potions.

She hadn’t leveled again yet, but they also hadn’t been through a truly difficult fight in a while, which the others considered fortunate. On the other hand, the others had leveled at last, which improved her mood, and made Joy hopeful. Joy wistfully dreamed of getting her wings back, but level ten was tantalizingly out of reach for the moment.

On the other hand, she paused in the hall, the smell she hadn’t recognized growing stronger, and she could hear what sounded like metal clashing against metal, and maybe even curses.

“Um, I hear something odd from that way,” Joy said, pointing at a passage to their left, glancing back at the others. “It sounds like metal hitting metal.”

“Adventurers,” Brianna said instantly, looking hopefully at Cora as she spoke quickly. “If they are, they could lead us out of here! Not that your directions are bad, Joy, but we’re kind of wandering blind in here.”

“I don’t blame you! I’d like to get outside, too, so if we can find the way, so much the better!” Joy replied, grinning broadly. “You two agree?”

“Definitely,” Cora said while Stella nodded, glancing at her staff as she added, “Though they could be in trouble, so I think we’d best get moving.”

“Alright!” Joy exclaimed, and quickly headed down the passageway, humming to herself as she trotted down the hall, her antennae alert for changes in air flow. It wasn’t quite as easy to follow the sounds of combat as she’d prefer, but she did her best.

The sounds of squeaking and panted curses echoed down the hallway as she moved, and the clash of metal grew louder. The sound was worrying enough that Joy picked up the pace, the increased pace causing her lantern to move more, sending the light wavering across the walls like it was being carried by a honey-drunk bumblebee.

Finally, Joy realized the squeaking sound was from creatures as one chittered excitedly, and a familiar male voice roared. “Get away from me, you vermin!”

“Dinner!” a chittering voice exclaimed in reply, then others took up the chant. “Din-ner! Din-ner!”

“Ah, hells. What are motini doing here?” Brianna demanded behind Joy.

“Doesn’t… matter, not when… they sound… like cultists,” Cora replied, her breath coming in gasps as she strove to keep up. “Is that…?”

“It’s James,” Joy replied, and winced as she heard a cry of pain, hoping they wouldn’t be too late, and all the while the chant was still going.

A few moments later Joy reached a sharp corner that she briefly considered slowing to round, but instead she didn’t slow, instead hopping up to bounce off the wall, using her legs like she’d seen some grasshoppers do to bounce into the hallway without losing speed, and as she did so she came into sight of a battlefield.

The passageway ahead of them was an approximately cross-shaped intersection, though the hallways didn’t quite line up, and the opening in the middle was a little wider than most of the passages they’d encountered until now. The far hallway had collapsed a little ways past the intersection, but it was relatively narrow, which was probably the only reason James was still alive.

James was in the gap, bleeding from a shallow cut on his cheek, while it looked like his armor had been penetrated several times, based on the splashes of blood marring the surface of it. He had his shield out, and was limping backward as he slashed at his attackers wildly. He looked like he was almost in despair, at least until he spotted Joy and his eyes lit up with hope.

What truly surprised Joy were the opponents, though. Over twenty fuzzy creatures were in the tunnel, crowding toward James as they stabbed with crude spears. Each of them was about three feet tall and wore tattered leather armor, and they looked a lot like what her subconscious whispered were marmots, though they were larger than she expected, and the fervor in their eyes was unnerving. A few of the creatures held lanterns with flickering flames, while another half-dozen of them were bleeding on the ground, yet their companions appeared to be ignoring them. Unfortunately, the light from Joy’s lantern attracted attention, and several of them spun to look in Joy’s direction.

“More sacrifices!” one of them squeaked, pointing at Joy and the others.

“You first!” Cora exclaimed, and Joy saw a flicker of orange light from behind her as Cora cast her spell. “Fire Blast!”

The orb of fire shot past Joy’s head at an uncomfortably close distance that sent her antennae twitching away from it, then detonated in the middle of the cluster of creatures. Several of them went flying through the air with tiny shrieks of pain, but while it looked like the attack had taken out nearly a quarter of the motini, the others quickly arrayed themselves so their spears were pointing toward Joy.

Options flickered through Joy’s mind, but with the lantern in hand she didn’t have time to draw a dagger, so she went with a simpler idea. She faked that she was going to jump, and as the nearest motini began raising their spears, she instead rolled toward them, coming to her feet at the end as she thrust at them, a single word almost involuntarily escaping her lips. “Stab!”

Joy blushed an instant later, even as she recovered her rapier from the creature’s body, hoping none of the others had heard her, since she really was trying not to narrate her attacks.

“Cleaving Blow!” An instant behind her, Brianna charged in like a wasp, her first swing knocking the spears out of her way, then she activated her ability, which cut through two opponents and sent another two flying backward, leaving a gap for Stella to fill.

Stella didn’t use any special abilities as she filled the gap, instead laying into the defending rodents almost calmly, the lantern in her other hand, so Joy focused instead on her own battle, pleasantly surprised that they’d managed to deal with almost half of the opponents in their opening attack.

Not that it was quite as easy after that. The motini quickly began marshalling themselves, attacking with a suicidal fervor that reminded Joy of ants, and one grabbed her rapier after being stabbed, trying to hold her in place for another to attack Joy. Joy managed to throw them both off, but the experience shook her, prompting her to keep her distance as she dodged spear-tips and looked for openings.

The fight didn’t take long in the end, as Joy’s companions cut through the motini surprisingly quickly. At last two broke and ran, fleeing down the tunnel to the left as James collapsed to one knee, panting as he did so.

Brianna took a moment to survey the bodies, only relaxing when she didn’t see movement, then looked at Joy with a slight smile as she asked, “Stab, was it?”

Joy blushed again, looking away as she cleaned off her rapier, clearing her throat, then saying, a bit unsteadily, “It, um, just slipped out. I’m trying to be better! But, what about James?”

“That’s the question. Are you alright?” Stella asked, approaching the young man as she frowned. “Where are your companions?”

“Gods, you’re real! I thought I was going to… please, you have to help them!” James exclaimed, dropping his sword as he abruptly grabbed Stella’s arms, a pleading expression on his face. “They’re in danger, and if I lose them… gods, I don’t know what I’ll do! I thought I was going to die, and they’re… they’re…”

“Calm down!” Brianna barked at him, frowning heavily as she stepped across the bodies as she continued coldly. “Panicking isn’t going to help at all. Why don’t you let Stella treat your injuries, and you can tell us what happened?”

“A-alright, I guess so,” James replied, taking a deep breath as he let go of Stella’s arm and shifted so he could settle down onto a rock.

Joy looked the creatures over, letting out a faint sigh of regret. She really did wish she didn’t have to fight, but she waited for Cora to approach, and followed the elf over to the man. She was curious what had happened, but was happier that the others were here to take the lead.

Chapter 27

“We decided to come to the Blackstone Mines anyway after meeting all of you yesterday, but we didn’t want to dive into things. We took the day to scout the route and make sure it wouldn’t be too dangerous, then we decided to delve inside,” James said, wincing as Stella bandaged one of his arms. “At first it wasn’t too bad… there weren’t many monsters, and I was thinking you were all being overly dramatic. That’s when everything went wrong, though.

“The first sign of any problems was when we found several of the tunnels on our maps were collapsed, all of them leading to the deeper passages where luminous titansteel is supposed to form. We debated turning back when we found that, but decided to explore more, figuring there had to be a way past them,” James explained, and gave an unhappy grin as he said, “We were right, and it was guarded by a bunch of slimes around a couple of elementals. That was a tough fight, but we managed. Then we delved deeper, and walked right into an ambush. The motini you saw? That was barely any of them. There were hundreds of the damned things, and they mobbed us. We stacked their bodies like firewood, but they kept coming, saying something about their Dark Lord and sacrifices… and that’s when the others told me to run and get help. Unfortunately, the way we’d come in was blocked, so I ran in the direction of the other exits my map showed. I checked a few of them, but then these… creatures caught up. Can you help? Do you have a better way out?”

“Crap. That doesn’t sound good… and no, we don’t,” Brianna said, looking at Cora grimly, and the elf felt her face settling into a more impassive mask, entirely agreeing with her friend.

“We ran into a teleportation platform in the Ragged Keep, and it brought us down here, to a broken platform. We were trying to get out when we ran into you,” Cora explained, her voice taut. “Worse, there shouldn’t be motini down here. They’re not native to the mines, and with what you said about a Dark Lord… we’re in trouble, I think.”

“Uh-oh,” Joy murmured, and Stella surprised Cora with a soft laugh.

“Indeed, I think you’re speaking for all of us, Joy,” Stella said, looking up as she considered, then asked, “Who wants to bet that this… Dark Lord, whether they’re actually the Dark Lord or not, came here specifically to prevent anyone from getting luminous titansteel here, at least for a time? And if so, that he deliberately had the tunnels collapsed, save for where James came in?”

“No way I’m taking that bet,” Brianna said unhappily, letting out a sigh. “Plus, the term sacrifices has my teeth on edge, and a couple of nasty little things got away. We’re likely in trouble.”

“Um, a quick question… what are motini? They seemed intelligent, so can we reason with them?” Joy asked, tilting her head curiously, and Cora could see the hope in the apis’s eyes. James also gave Joy an incredulous look, but fortunately he didn’t say anything.

“Unfortunately not. Motini are a notoriously fecund species of demi-humans, but they have a problem as well. They’re extremely gullible and devoted, so once they make up their minds to follow someone, they never really waver,” Cora explained, grimacing a little as she thought about the furry menaces. “I’ve heard of a handful of them who are reasonable, but the majority of the species aligned themselves with the Dark Lord’s minions centuries ago, and each generation follows in the footsteps of their predecessors. They aren’t going to listen to us, they’ll just charge at us fearlessly to carry out their leader’s orders.”

Joy’s face fell a little, and the apis’s antennae drooped slightly as she murmured, “Oh. That isn’t good at all. I hope Eda and Helen are alright.”

“Hopefully. The question is, how long has it been? It sounds to me like the three of you got separated only a little while ago,” Brianna said, looking at James pointedly.

“Er, I’ll admit that I lost track of time in my haste, but I doubt it’s been even an hour since the main attack,” James said, hesitating as he thought, then asked, “Should we really be sitting here? The two who escaped might bring more of them down on us.”

“Better here than in a wide-open space. Here we can at least hope to hold off an army of motini,” Brianna said, glancing at Cora as she said, “Why don’t you make plans while I keep watch.”

“You said you had a map, didn’t you?” Stella asked, gently finishing her treatment, which left multiple bandages across the man’s arms. “Can we see it?”

The man nodded and reached into his pouch to pull out a rolled up map, speaking in a slightly less anxious tone. “Of course! It isn’t complete, but it gives a good idea of the mine layout.”

Cora leaned over, and on looking at the map her eyes narrowed, worry flickering through her. She’d always known that the Blackstone Mines were extensive, but she hadn’t expected them to be over two miles across, and those only being the mapped sections. The map showed a rat’s nest of tangled tunnels, and it took her a long moment to make sense of things, as she started picking out the spots the map said commonly had ore, as well as the entrance.

Looking at the map, Joy asked, “Where are we? This is the first map I’ve seen…”

“Ah, the collapses were at these locations, and we entered the deeper tunnels over here,” James said, tracing a line of tunnels rather close to the entrance, then pointing at a larger tunnel that led to an area full of larger chambers, along with a caption of ‘Ruins’ for the area, which instantly set Cora’s teeth on edge. The man continued a moment later. “Based on my escape, I think we’re down here.”

James was pointing at a section toward the bottom right of the map, and Cora winced. The tunnels weren’t really mapped much beyond the point, and over three quarters of the mine complex was behind what she assumed was the motini blockade. Worse, all the good ore deposits seemed to be behind that, and to her it looked an awful lot like a funnel to force intruders into a killing gallery, since the area he’d entered through had a lot of spots for an adventuring party to be ambushed.

“This doesn’t look good, and this… ruins, is it? Are you thinking what I’m thinking, Cora?” Stella asked, tapping the spot on the map as she looked up in concern.

“Possibly. We came out in one set of hidden ruins, so if the people who built Ragged Keep hid one thing in the mines, who’s to say they didn’t hide others?” Cora said, taking a deep breath, then let out a frustrated sigh. Still, this gives us an idea of what options we have. The answer is, not much. Do you know if any of these other tunnels connect to the surface, James?”

“I heard that there were from my mentors, they’re the ones who gave me the map, but they didn’t show me where they were,” James said, shrugging helplessly as he added, “Sorry I’m not much help, but if I’d known where they were, I would’ve gone for those exits instead.”

“It’s alright; there’s nothing to be done about that. More importantly, Joy has a good sense for air movement, so if we can get close, she should be able to lead us out,” Cora said, her gaze hardening as she hesitated, then continued. “I think our goal should be to rescue your companions, then run. We can circle around to the back of the area with ruins, where they’ll probably be held, given the motini desire for elaborate rituals, and try to rescue them. I hate to give up the fast way out, but I’d rather avoid getting mobbed like you did.”

“You’re not going to hear me argue. I just want to make sure they’re alright,” James said, visibly relaxing as he nodded.

“I think you have the best idea, and we can’t make proper plans anyway. We don’t have enough information,” Stella said, letting out a sigh and glancing at Joy. “Joy, your opinion?”

“I have no idea! It sounds good to me, though. They were both nice, and I’d hate to see them get hurt if we can help,” Joy said, her response surprisingly straightforward, at least from Cora’s point of view.

“Then we have a plan. Bri, did you catch all of that?” Cora asked, standing up, and James quickly rolled up the map and put it away.

“Not all of it, but enough. And I’m also hearing movement, so I think we’re about to have company,” Brianna said, her sword out as she tensed in the passage. It’d be hard for any motini to get past her, Cora knew, which would allow them to cover her flanks handily.

“Let’s dissuade our unwelcome guests, then get moving. We don’t have time to waste, but I don’t want to have an entire war party on our tails,” Cora said, adjusting her grip on her staff.

“Um, we don’t have tails, though. At least not that I can see… do elves normally have tails?” Joy asked, and Cora couldn’t help pausing to stare at her.

“No, Joy. It’s just an expression that’s usually used to say that someone is being followed closely,” Stella said gently, and Cora shook her head, moving behind Brianna with a smile. Joy’s lack of experience could be both amusing and annoying at times, and at the moment it was a bit amusing, which was good under the circumstances.

“Oh, that… well, I guess it makes sense. If you followed something close, you probably would step on its tail,” Joy said, realization dawning in her voice.

“Here they come!” James warned, pulling out his sword and stepping up beside Brianna, who moved to give him room.

Setting aside her amusement, Cora took a deep breath and focused on surviving the next couple of minutes.

Then they could see about rescuing Eda and Helen, and escaping the mines.

Chapter 28

Joy paused and caught her breath, slowly relaxing as Brianna paused at the entrance to another cavern, this one dark and quiet, which she’d quickly learned was a good sign. Behind her she could hear the heavy breathing of the others, and a tiny part of the apis wondered why only she and Brianna didn’t seem to have trouble catching their breath after long runs. The thought was brief, though, since their situation wasn’t exactly pleasant.

They’d dealt with the first group of motini well enough with only minor injuries. Cora had explained afterward that most of the motini were only level eight or nine, which helped, as did their lackluster gear. Even so, there’d been a lot of them, and immediately afterward they’d left the area, heading in the direction Cora had decided on, after looking at the map. For her part, Joy felt like she’d lost a bit of her purpose now that the others had a direction to go, but she tried to keep her spirits up, especially since they’d encountered two more groups of motini along the way, though at least the second group had been fighting slimes when they ran into them. That had allowed them to destroy the rodent-people without too much trouble.

“I think we’re getting closer.” Brianna said, reaching up to wipe her forehead and leaving a smear of blood as she did so, looking around. “What do you think?”

“Based on the layout of tunnels we’ve passed, you should be right,” James agreed, leaning over as he took deep breaths. “I hope they’re alright.”

“As much as I agree, we don’t know that they’ll be where we’re going,” Brianna cautioned, looking back at James seriously. “The motini could have set up anywhere in the mines, or even have excavated a warren for themselves, for all we know. Not many adventurers come in here anymore, so we’ve no idea how long they’ve been down here.”

“True,” James admitted, taking a deep breath, then straightened, looking back at Cora and Stella, then at Joy. He hesitated before asking, “Do you think we can do it?”

“I have no idea,” Cora said, shaking her head, then grinned a little as she added, “On the other hand, why not try? I’m not going to just lay down and die, not under these circumstances.”

Joy nodded vigorously in agreement, smiling broadly. “Yeah! I have too many things I want to do, see, or try to die here. I just want to make sure everyone else has those chances, too.”

“Then we’d best approach. At least motini can’t see in the dark,” Stella said, pausing for a moment, then looked at Joy as she asked, a note of trepidation in her voice. “Joy, I hate to ask it, but would you be willing to scout ahead without the lanterns? If they see us coming it would be bad.”

“Wait, isn’t she the lowest level one of us? That’s really—” James began, his concern abrupt and obvious, but Joy interrupted.

“Sure!” Joy said brightly, smiling brightly in return as she shrugged. “I’m pretty good at being quiet, and I seem to be able to see better down here, if only a bit.”

“Just be careful,” Cora said, taking a breath and nodding. “It should be two right turns after this to the big cave, Joy.”

“Got it,” Joy said, smiling and heading past Brianna, who nodded to her and said, “We’ll be right behind you, so if anything goes wrong, just shout.”

Joy nodded in reply, then focused on moving quietly as she continued down the tunnel, keeping her antennae up and alert for the scent or sound of more motini. It didn’t help that there was a faint musk of them pervading the tunnels, which was the scent she’d been unable to quite identify earlier. Still, she thought it likely she could tell when she was coming up on a concentration of them… like now, really.

She’d already passed the first turn, and slowed down as the scent of motini and smoke began filling the air, along with the faint sound of chittering. It wasn’t too close, but with how sound echoed in the tunnels Joy didn’t want to move too quickly, not since she didn’t want to bring down hundreds of enemies on her friends, or endanger Eda and Helen more than they already were.

So slowly Joy made her way toward the tunnel, noting lots of muddy footprints taking a branch of the tunnel ahead to enter the room she heard the noises from. Unfortunately, when she came to the corner of that tunnel, she quickly found it curved so that she couldn’t see far. On the other hand, the incredibly dim tunnel did make it obvious that there was a lot of firelight from the room ahead, so she slowly crept down the passage, her hands on the hilts of her weapons.

The cavern which came into sight was huge, at least compared to every other chamber Joy had seen, and she gawked for a moment before regaining her focus, looking around the room as her sense of wonder grew. So did her worries, but that was to be expected.

There were four ancient pillars that looked similar to those in the room they’d teleported into in the cavern, each holding up a section of the ceiling that looked rather unstable to Joy’s eyes. The broad room had other fragments of what might have been stone buildings or panels on the walls, some of them forming barriers, but far more important were the motini throughout the chamber.

At a glance Joy guessed there were about three hundred of the rodents, and they’d built their own ramshackle structures in the room, wooden warrens that looked like they were about to collapse. The aesthetics put Joy’s teeth on edge, and numerous fires burned in pits around the room, providing dim illumination as well as something for them to cook food over. What was on the spits didn’t bear thinking on, in Joy’s opinion. She didn’t like food other than honey to begin with.

She looked around for a moment more, and as she did she finally caught sight of two things, a door and a cage. Or maybe two or three cages, since the cage she saw was split into multiple chambers that she could see, and inside them were female figures in rags… worse, Joy could see more than just two inside, while what looked like their equipment was strung up on a rack a half-dozen feet away.

The door was a little more interesting, since it opened in the stone wall, almost like the rock had split perfectly smoothly to make an elegant arch. There was glowing blue-white light from within, and Joy couldn’t help a shiver as she saw it. It didn’t look quite like the light of the luminous titansteel she’d seen before, but it was similar, and a lot brighter.

Even so, Joy looked around the chamber carefully, and her training with the Rogue teacher had her examining the room with a different perspective than she might have had otherwise. The ramshackle structures of the motini were ugly and didn’t seem to have a rhyme or reason to their placement, but she did see a lot of hiding places she could possibly use to move through the cavern. It wouldn’t be easy, but she thought it was possible. Even so, she didn’t rush, instead pausing and creeping backward. Only when she was out of sight of the cavern did Joy turn to find the others, who’d hung back a couple of turns.

“Did you find anything?” James asked immediately, the man shifting anxiously from foot to foot.

“Yes, I did. I think Eda and Helen are there, along with others. I saw a cage on the other side of the room with several women in it, and their gear was a little ways away. There were also lots of motini, and…” Joy began, and quickly explained what she’d seen, though she had to pause and clarify multiple details for the others. She didn’t have the same grasp of language as they did, after all.

Eventually she finished, and the others paused, considering for a long moment. It was Stella who spoke first, her voice soft. “That is a lot of motini. Even if we went through twenty without too many problems, I’m pretty sure that many would overwhelm us.”

“Beyond which, I doubt that’s all of them,” Brianna said, shaking her head. “They’ll doubtless call for reinforcements, which would make a bad situation worse. I’m guessing there’s an entire warren of them down here, now.”

“Well…” James began, hesitating before he asked, “Joy? Where was the entrance of the tunnel, compared to the cage? And where were the pillars?”

“Um, there were four pillars, one near us, one on the opposite side of the cave near the entrance and a bunch of their buildings, and two to either side. The cage was nearest the one on the right, near-ish the glowing cave,” Joy said, thinking back on the layout of the cavern.

“Hmm…” James murmured, obviously thinking.

“James, you obviously have an idea, what is it?” Cora asked, a hint of exasperation in her voice. “The longer we sit here, the more likely they are to discover us.”

“Oh, I understand that. It’s just that this would be dangerous, and I’m trying to decide if it’s worth the risk,” James replied, taking a deep breath, then continued grimly. “See, my family owns a number of mines and quarries, so I know a fair bit about this sort of thing. I… am considering suggesting we destroy the support pillar nearest the other exit. I can’t say for sure, but I don’t think there’s enough mountain above us to bring down the entire ceiling unless the pillars are in absolutely terrible shape.”

“Um, how would we even do something like that? None of us are Miners, and that sounds like it’d require us to run up to the pillar and hit it, which would be incredibly dangerous,” Brianna said dubiously, crossing her arms.

“No, no… I’ll have to see the pillars myself to be sure, but I’m pretty sure Cora could take out a pillar with two or three spells, if they’re as old as Joy thought,” James said, looking at Joy with a nervous smile.

“My spells rarely do much to walls or structures. I don’t see why they’d be effective against stone pillars,” Cora said, before Joy could say anything.

“Thermal shock, that’s what the Miners I’ve worked with called it,” James quickly explained, straightening a little. “They said that if you get rock really cold before heating it, or the reverse, you can cause it to crack or even shatter. If it’s already cracked, and you hit it with a few ice blasts, then fire blasts, I think you could bring it down.”

“Really?” Brianna asked, looking a little skeptical, but Cora had a thoughtful look on her face.

“No, he might be right. While I haven’t heard of something like that, my mother often said not to put the glass vials from her alchemy straight into the water when they’d been on the fire. She said they could crack… that’d be the same idea, right?” Cora said, looking at James, and he quickly nodded.

“Exactly! You’d have to hit it pretty rapidly to have much of an effect, but I think it’d work. The question is whether we’re willing to take the risk or not,” James said, and he paused for a long moment before admitting, “Though I will say, I’d rather the girls were killed by a cave-in than by being sacrificed… the odds of them resurrecting would be far higher in that case. I’d prefer they didn’t die at all, but…”

“Um, why would they have a better chance if they were squished?” Joy asked, and the others fell silent for a moment.

Eventually Stella sighed and murmured, “If no one else will tell her, I will. Joy, a ritual sacrifice gives the deity it’s dedicated to a… claim on the soul of the victim, for lack of a better term. It isn’t a strong hold, but it’s enough that sometimes the deceased is dragged through the gates of death entirely. If the chances of resurrection are normally nine out of ten or better, a sacrifice drops it to as low as six out of ten. And there’s always a minor chance of the dark god getting their soul. Most adventurers would rather be killed than be sacrificed because of it.”

“Oh. That… doesn’t sound like it’s good. I’d really prefer they didn’t die at all, though,” Joy said, frowning and looking at the others as she hesitated, then asked, “So, um, what are we going to do?”

“I think we should let him look at the pillars and see if it might work. If it won’t, there’s no point to talking about it further,” Cora said, letting out a breath as she asked, “Any objections?”

When no one said anything, Joy cleared her throat and asked, “Um, if it does look like it’ll work… do you mind if I sneak over to near the captives? Once you attack, I could try to free them and help them grab their gear and run. I really don’t want to risk them more than we have to.”

Cora studied Joy for a moment, then smiled as she murmured softly, “You are such a kind person, Joy. Alright, if that’s what you want to do, I’m not going to stop you. Just try not to be seen, or to get crushed, alright? We still have to get out of here again.”

“I’ll try, promise!” Joy agreed, and stood as the others began getting ready.

Chapter 29

“Unless I’m very mistaken, the plan will work,” James said, looking up at the ceiling critically. “If anything, I worry that the ceiling might not collapse on that side of the room at all.”

“Is that really a concern? With that many motini, I worry about what’ll happen if reinforcements show up,” Brianna murmured, watching the room nervously. “I don’t even know how you can tell how many of them there are, Joy.”

“Compared to the apis in a hive, this isn’t that many of them,” Joy replied, shrugging as she looked at James nervously, waiting for him to reply, as he was chewing his lip.

“I think it’ll come down. If the bottom of the pillar shatters, the weight should bring down part of the ceiling with it, and that’ll do the job,” James said at last, letting out a breath as he looked at Joy, adding, “I won’t blame you if you don’t want to get close, as risky as it is.”

Joy looked at him incredulously, but bit back her initial response, pausing for an instant to consider her own feelings. The others… all of them were cautious about taking too many risks, and at last it dawned on her why that was. From the perspective of an apis, every human, elf, or other adventurer like them may as well be a queen. They had long lifespans, a lot of individuality, and they just didn’t have the same mindset that Joy had. Joy knew on a fundamental level that she wasn’t as important as a queen, and if she died… well, it would be a minor loss in comparison. She’d prefer not to die but taking the risk for others was entirely acceptable.

The others wouldn’t agree with that, though. She knew that, almost as instinctively as she’d realized why they were so different, so Joy simply smiled at him and shook her head, speaking happily. “I’m going to help them, one way or another. Just give me a little while to get in place, Cora? I’m going to have to be careful, but I’m pretty sure I can manage it.”

“If you say so. If the collapse looks like it’s going to hit you, though, I expect you to run,” Cora said, looking at Joy with a hint of suspicion, which made Joy wonder if the elf knew what she’d been thinking.

“Of course! I may be willing to take the risk, but I’m not suicidal,” Joy replied, taking a deep breath, then nodded. “I’m going, then.”

“Be safe,” Stella murmured, just as Joy darted into the room, dodging directly toward the first pile of scrap wood she’d decided would make ideal cover.

No cry of alarm went up, to Joy’s relief, and she began slowly moving through the shadows of the cavern, darting from one piece of cover to the next, whether they were composed of ancient rubble, motini houses, or even racks holding ragged-looking clothing. The musk of the creatures pervaded the air, making Joy wrinkle her nose a little, but she wasn’t too annoyed by it. Far more important was getting by the motini themselves, which was made easier by the bonfires being in the center of the cavern, giving her plenty of shadows to work with.

A handful of the rodent-like creatures were moving around the edges of the cavern, but not many, and there was far more activity near the opposite entrance, Joy noticed, along with a little near the glowing cave. That concerned Joy, since the cage was near the cave, but she wasn’t too worried since she thought she saw a good hiding spot not too far from the cage, even if she could now see a pair of motini guarding it.

There was something odd about the glow, though, and Joy paused about halfway to the cage, hiding behind a chunk of stone as she looked at the cave, her antennae perking up a little. She didn’t smell anything odd from the cave, or at least not really, compared to the musky scent of motini. No, the oddity was something to the light, she decided. While it looked a little like the luminous titansteel, she thought there was an odd red undertone to it, almost drowned out by the rest of the light. It sent an unpleasant shiver down her spine, even if Joy wasn’t sure what was causing it.

After a moment Joy shook off her curiosity, resisting the urge to mutter to herself as she stealthily made her way over to the hiding spot she’d decided on. Hiding in what looked like the area where the motini cured hides wasn’t pleasant at all, and the smell was horrific, but at the same time it meant that none of the motini seemed to want to get close, and Joy settled in to wait.

Cora obviously didn’t know how long it would take Joy to get into position, as the elf waited a minute, then two. Joy was starting to get a little anxious eventually, worried someone might approach anyway as she kept an eye out for approaching motini, including one who went to chat with the guards by the cages. To distract herself, Joy instead focused on the women in the cages, though she winced sympathetically at the injuries she could see.

There were four women in total, including both Eda and Helen. Both women had a few cuts and multiple bruises, and they were almost unrecognizable, with their hair mussed and clothed in what was little better than rags, and their hands were tied behind their backs with sections of rope. The two were in one cell, while in the next were another pair of women who were in even worse shape. They were in essentially identical clothing, and as restrained, but the two humans had obviously been there for longer, as they were somewhat filthy, and their cuts had scabbed over. One had long, tangled blonde hair almost the color of honey, while the other had somewhat shorter near-black hair, if not completely black.

Joy couldn’t say for certain, but neither of the women looked like warriors to her. Unfortunately, her hiding place didn’t let her get a good look at the rack holding their gear, or she might have been able to figure them out better. On the other hand, Eda and both other women were gagged, which had to mean something.

Suddenly a ball of ice launched across the cavern, causing Joy’s gaze to snap upward. The glowing projectile slammed into the far pillar, creating a rime of frost over the stones, but before it even hit another orb was in midair. Somewhat to Joy’s astonishment, the motini didn’t even seem to notice what had happened for the most part, at least not for a couple of seconds. About the time the first cries of alarm started going up, the second blast of cold slammed into the pillar, followed by a third.

The motini started moving every which way in a panic, many of them rushing toward the buildings to grab weapons, and that took the vast majority away from Joy. In fact, even the guards were craning their necks to try to look toward Cora and the others, and were barely audible to Joy.

“What that?” one asked, “Why ice on stone? Useless!”

“Heard about infidels!” the other replied excitedly. “Stoopid infidels! Make good sacrifices, though!”

Joy considered that for a moment, the way the two were craning their necks and exposing their throats, as well as the general distraction of the rest of the motini and decided to act early. Besides, the captives were stirring, squirming to their knees as the cages were too small for them to stand.

She slipped a dagger out of its sheath, and muttered, “Flurry of Blades!”

Unlike the other times, this time Joy didn’t screw up. The first throw unerringly hit the far motini in the throat, and the second one struck home almost as well. The two creatures clutched at their throats, gurgling softly as they fell, but Joy didn’t hesitate, pulling out her other dagger as she hopped over the barrier she’d been crouched behind and ran for the doors, just as the first fire blast hit the pillar.

“Joy?” Helen asked, her eyes widening in shock as she stared at her. “What are you—”

“Shh! Keep your heads down, if James’s plan goes as expected, any moment the pillar will—” Joy began, but as she was cutting the rope that held the cage door shut, there was an immense crack from the pillar, followed by shrill squeaks of alarm.

Joy jerked the blade through the rope and spun, flinching at what she saw. The pillar was visibly shattering, just as another orb of fire slammed into it, and she could see it shudder, then there was a grinding, popping sound as the upper part started sliding off the bottom and dust began sifting down from the ceiling above. Joy suddenly decided she really didn’t want to be facing the mass of stone when it came down, and she turned away, quickly slashing the rope on the second cage as well, but she didn’t have time to do much more than that.

For an instant she thought the world had ended, as the squeaks of fear turned to screams of terror, as the rumbling sound made Joy think the entire cavern was coming down, the lights of the bonfires wavering wildly in the wind unleashed by the collapse. Her sense of sound vanished as the rumbling crash echoed around her, and the only reason Joy wasn’t knocked off her feet was how she was holding onto the swaying cage. Still, she was—

“Joy? Joy!” The woman’s voice was distant, and a ringing was echoing through Joy’s head, as she blinked, her vision slowly clearing from the darkness, and she found herself half-slumped over the wooden cage, dust filling the air.

“Wh-what…?” Joy managed to gasp, blinking in confusion as she tried to move her legs, an ache managing to pierce through her foggy thoughts, one from the back of her head. Her legs twitched, but after a moment she managed to get them to work again.

“You got hit in the head! Are you alright? We have to go, before anything else goes wrong.” Helen said, and as she spoke Joy reached back to touch her head, flinching at the pain and wetness, and when she pulled her hand away, it was wet with amber blood.

Joy’s stomach churned a little at the sight, but a moment later she shook it off, which was something of a mistake, as she felt a wave of nausea. Forcing it down, Joy blinked a couple of times, then carefully crouched and grabbed the dagger she’d dropped, replying unsteadily. “I… I see. Just a moment, I’m a little woozy.”

“Alright, but you have to understand, if the demon comes out and sees us, we won’t have much of a chance at all! We have to get out of here, and quick,” Helen said rapidly, looking at the others, who made sounds of agreement through their gags.

“Demon?” Joy asked, a chill running down her spine, then she motioned Helen out as she continued. “Come out, I’ll free you, then you can help the others. I’m not sure I trust my hands right now.”

Helen quickly shuffled her way out of the cage along with the others, and when the human turned, Joy carefully used her dagger to cut the ropes holding the woman’s arms behind her back, mostly thankful she didn’t actually cut Helen, with the way her fingers were trembling. The woman gasped, quickly turning and rubbing her wrists where raw red marks had been left, then took the dagger.

“Yes, demon. I’m not sure how high level he is, but he made my skin crawl. Do you know where our things are? I’m willing to abandon them if necessary, but I’d like to be able to defend myself.” Helen said, quickly cutting the gag free of Eda’s mouth, then freeing her wrists.

“Oh, um, it was over there,” Joy said, gesturing in the direction of the rack where she’d seen their gear, the ground feeling like it was moving slowly under her feet. “I… um…”

Her voice trailed off as she caught sight of where the pillar had collapsed. In truth she’d seen it before, but it hadn’t registered, with how woozy she was feeling. The cavern hadn’t fully collapsed, but a huge chunk of the cavern roof had come down, filling that portion of the cave in a mass of rubble. She couldn’t see any sign of the buildings that had filled that portion of the cavern, and she didn’t hear nearly as many motini. In fact, she only saw a group of them heading toward the entrance where Cora and the others were, and they weren’t incredibly numerous.

“Thank you, Joy,” Eda said, her voice scratchy but familiar, and when Joy looked at her the half-elf smiled gratefully. “Is James alright? You said his name, earlier, before the ceiling collapsed.”

“Oh, he’s with the others. He told us how to break the pillar. We’d better get going; we’re going to try to find an exit,” Joy said, looking over at the other two women as Helen quickly freed them.

“Agreed. Let’s grab our stuff and move,” Helen said, grinning at Joy as she pulled the other dagger out of the motini it’d struck. “Mind if I hold onto these for a minute?”

“Sure, but they’ll break if you hit anyone with them,” Joy replied, and quickly followed the others as they started rushing toward the other rack.

There was a sudden, high-pitched squeak as they came around a corner and were face-to-face with a motini. Before it could react, Joy drew her rapier and lunged forward, managing to skewer it before it could do more than begin turning its spear toward them, though she ruined the effect by stumbling and almost falling flat on her face.

The black-haired woman caught Joy, sounding surprised as she spoke. “Careful!”

“Sorry, my balance is off,” Joy slurred, flushing as she regained her balance, and the woman let go once she was sure Joy wasn’t going to fall.

“I believe it. I wish we had time to properly heal you, but—ah, there’s our things!” Eda exclaimed, and rushed toward the rack, almost tearing her items down in her haste to get them.

Joy followed a bit more sedately, looking around for enemies, but her vision wasn’t quite tracking right. She kept looking at the same things, but not quite recognizing them until the second or third time, which was both confusing and a bit frustrating. She was honestly startled she’d even hit the motini, with how her vision was off-kilter.

Of course, that was when she heard a detonation from behind her, and Joy spun, blinking as a shower of purple-black energy erupted from the mass of stone, revealing the tunnel once more, along with a figure inside it. Joy couldn’t see him clearly, but his angry voice boomed loudly through the chamber. “Who dares attack my servants? Surrender and I’ll give you an easy death!”

Something about the voice was familiar, but it was Eda’s voice that distracted Joy, as the woman spoke softly, a note of fear in her voice. “Oh no, there he is! We have to run!”

“Then grab your stuff and let’s go!” one of the other women snarled, and Joy turned, seeing that they hadn’t really even gotten into their armor, instead most of them finished stuffing all but their weapons into their backpacks and threw them on. “Joy, is it? Where to?”

“Where they’re fighting! We’re going to find another exit,” Joy replied, nodding toward the other tunnel, and immediately regretting the motion.

“Got it.” Helen said grimly, tossing Joy’s daggers back toward her, and as she fumbled with one, the human drew her own weapons and raced toward the fight Joy could hear raging near her friends.

It took a few moments for Joy to get the first dagger into its sheath, and she hesitated before sheathing her rapier as well, leaning down to pick up the other dagger. By the time she straightened, the others were almost out of sight, and she quickly darted after them unsteadily. A tiny part of her wished they hadn’t been quite so quick, but she couldn’t really blame them since they were all but naked and had been kept captive.

The path was even more haphazard than it had been previously, Joy quickly found, as a couple of the huts had collapsed into what passed for a street, while rocks had landed in the path and there were more motini along the way. Unfortunately for the rodent-folk, the others weren’t in a forgiving mood and they cut through them like a praying mantis through a giant fly. Joy was a little startled by their efficiency, but she suspected they were higher level than she was to begin with.

“Learning that Analyze ability would be useful…” Joy muttered to herself absently, and nearly tripped on a rock in her distraction. That delayed her a moment, but she caught her balance again to follow.

Ahead, a blast of lightning sent multiple motini flying, and relief rushed through Joy at the sight of her friends. Brianna cut down a trio of attackers, while to her left Stella was dealing with some motini who tried to slip past. On Brianna’s right was James, who was using his shield to fend off a couple of attackers while he lashed out with precise blows. Behind them was Cora, her staff glowing as she channeled her mana, and the elf’s eyes glittering with the elements she channeled to support them. There were only a couple dozen motini between Joy and her friends, and she felt her hopes rise.

The only warning she had was a flicker of purple, along with a brief rush of wind, and Joy’s reactions simply weren’t fast enough in her state. The next instant something hit her from behind, and she felt her armor give way slightly as she was slammed forward, then onto the ground. Joy was stunned and unable to do anything, and before she could react, a gauntlet with claw-like fingers wrapped around her neck and picked her up.

Joy suddenly found herself face-to-face with a demon, and she could see the curiosity as he spoke in a surprisingly smooth, attractive voice. “Among the vermin, I find something of interest. What in all the hells are you?”

Chapter 30

The demon wasn’t what Joy had expected, and she blinked twice, looking into his eyes. He was tall and powerfully built, as big as any of the human adventurers she’d seen, and he was wearing black and red armor that gleamed dully in the light, spikes protruding from the shoulders and a couple on the gauntlets as well, while a sword hung from his waist. A pair of wings protruded from his back, leathery ones that were alien to Joy, but looked rather powerful. His skin was paler than any other person she’d seen, and she could see a couple of fangs from between his lips, but he was handsome, and his mid-length black hair and snake-like red eyes complemented that. The problem was that he didn’t look happy with her at all, and she couldn’t come up with a response. Besides, talking would be hard when she was being held by the throat.

“Urk?” Joy managed, and the demon sighed.

“Ah, yes, you do need to breathe to answer, don’t you?” the man murmured, and loosened his grip slightly, his eyes narrowing. “Now what are you?”

“I’m… a bee. But not a bumblebee,” Joy replied, her mind scrambled enough that she went with the silly song she’d made up while trapped in a flower. A flicker of confusion, then of annoyance, crossed the demon’s face, but that’s when her friends seemed to notice what had happened.

“Joy!” Stella’s shout was startling, but Cora responded even more directly.

“Ice Blast!” Cora exclaimed, and Joy saw a glitter of blue-white light approaching from behind, and the demon’s gaze turned beyond her as he scowled.

“Insects,” he muttered, swinging Joy aside and raising his left arm as he spoke. “Unholy Shield.”

A purple-black shell of energy sprang up around the man, including Joy since she was in his hand, her hands trying to loosen his fingers, but it was like trying to make an ant let go once it’d bitten into something; his fingers didn’t so much as tremble. The glowing orb of Cora’s spell splashed off the barrier uselessly, and the fleeing women had paused, looking back in horror.

Joy’s mind finally caught up, and she realized she might be about to die. The problem was, she had no idea how powerful the demon was, but he was strong enough to effortlessly block Cora’s spells, and that was bad. Her thoughts raced, but it was the sight of the lantern in Cora’s hand that made her remember something. They’d said that luminous titansteel was an ingredient in making demon-slaying weapons, and that meant—

“I expect a better answer than claiming you’re a bee, girl. But first, let’s punish the mage for her impertinence,” the demon said, and he pointed at Cora, grinning as he added, “Venomous Bolt.”

Green energy coalesced around his finger, like a snake had appeared, then lanced across the room at Cora. Joy’s friend tried to dodge but it was simply too fast, and the elf screamed as it slammed into her, knocking her backward. That made Joy’s decision for her, and before the demon could turn his attention back to her, her hand darted into her belt pouch to grab a sharper shard of ore.

“There, now that she’s dealt with, you’ll tell me what you are, or you’ll—agh!” the demon screamed as Joy’s hand lashed out at his eye with the shard of luminous titansteel, but unfortunately Joy’s aim was off. The pointed shard skittered across his forehead above his right eye, leaving seared burn marks that exposed bone, then down across his eye and cheek before he threw her.

Joy barely had a moment to feel relief as she flew toward her friends, then she hit the wall hard. This time she blacked out, though, which was something of a mercy.

* * *

“…she going to be okay?” Brianna’s voice was filled with concern, and Joy’s eyes opened slowly, almost blearily as she sensed messages hovering in the back of her mind.

Level Up: Apis Rogue Level 11

Ability Gained: Basic Apis Flight

Evolve into Apis Warrior?

Joy declined the offer to evolve absently, her body aching, and a white glow enveloping her. It took a moment, but she realized she was in a cave, and Eda was over her, the half-elf’s hands glowing as she looked back at Brianna. Eda had clothing on now, Joy realized belatedly, and she didn’t hear the sounds of motini anymore, even if there was hard breathing.

“She should be fine any moment. My healing spells are potent enough to deal with simple injuries. I’m much more worried about Cora, and of what will happen if Alethus catches us,” Eda replied, her lips pressed together tightly. “If Joy hadn’t attacked him, we wouldn’t have gotten away, but he’s enraged now. He’ll never let us go.”

“What happened? I remember getting thrown, then everything went black,” Joy interrupted, blinking up at the others, and their eyes snapped back to her, relief flickering over Brianna’s face. The glow around Eda’s hands faded slowly, and Joy blinked, then realized that even if she was aching, she wasn’t dizzy anymore.

“Joy! I was just getting worried, especially with how you were bleeding after he threw you. You hit the wall hard, and if it hadn’t been for your attack, I think the demon would’ve come after us immediately. As it was, we grabbed you and ran. Once we thought we had a chance to breathe, we stopped to heal you and Cora,” Brianna said, letting out a breath and shaking her head, her expression betraying worry. “Cora isn’t in good shape, but we’re all alive.”

“Oh,” Joy said, slowly sitting up as she tried to clear the fog from her mind.

The others were in the room, and as she watched Helen was strapping on the last of her armor, while Stella was helping Cora. The sight of the elf sparked concern in Joy, though, since the elf was incredibly pale and sweating. Stella’s grim look wasn’t reassuring, either, so Joy hesitated, then asked, “What happened to Cora?”

“She’s poisoned,” Eda said grimly, shaking her head. “Alethus, that’s the demon, is level forty-eight. The poison he inflicted on her is level forty-five, which is far beyond our ability to cure.”

“I’m just lucky he obviously wanted me to suffer,” Cora replied, giving Joy an unsteady smile. “I’m not going to be casting any spells, I’m in too much pain for that, but we’ve good odds of making it to town, so they might be able to cure the poison.”

“First we have to get you there,” Stella said, her tone sharp as she looked at Joy and asked, “Speaking of which, are you able to move, Joy? I’m sorry, but you’re the best person to try to find a way out of here, and carrying you was slowing us down.”

“My head’s a little fuzzy, but I think I can move,” Joy replied, setting most of her questions aside as she stood up, then looked at the other two women. The blonde was wearing tight-fitting trousers and leather armor, while she had a staff in hand, while the black-haired woman was in brown robes and had a staff of her own. She considered, then asked, “What’re your names, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“I’m Jean, and this is Marilyn,” the blonde said, nodding to the black-haired woman as she flashed a smile at Joy. “Thanks for getting us out of here, but I’d really like to make sure our escape is successful. Based on what we saw, I agree with Eda. The demon is going to come after us, and he’s going to be pissed.”

Joy nodded, and looked toward James, who had the map out and was frowning at it. After a moment he looked up at Joy and blinked, then asked, “Yes, Joy?”

“My head is fuzzy, but it isn’t that fuzzy. Do you know what direction is best to look for an exit?” Joy asked, tilting her head at him, then glancing at the three tunnels that exited their cavern. “If we get close, my senses will work better.”

“Ah, of course, and the demon might have a better idea of the layout than we do,” James said, hesitating for a moment, then pointed at a tunnel to their right as he said, “That way is to the north, I’m pretty sure. It’s a little dangerous, since that side is nearest the heart of the Flower Forest, but it’s also the tunnels that are closest to the surface.”

Joy nodded and looked back at the others, asking, “Then, um, let’s go?”

The others nodded, quickly standing, but Joy couldn’t help another spike of worry as she saw how unsteady Cora was. She really wanted to check on her friend further, but she didn’t have time to do that, not if they were being hunted. Instead she turned and started toward the tunnel James had indicated, straining her senses as best she could to try to sense the outdoors.

The good aspect of them trying to go to the Flower Forest was that she knew those scents and would be much better at finding them. Unfortunately, having something as powerful as the demon chasing them wasn’t something she liked thinking about.

A moment later, Brianna spoke up, a bit of surprise in her voice. “Hey, when did you grow wings?”

“I leveled up while I was unconscious. Twice, even!” Joy replied, flashing the human a smile, then veered left as they came to another tunnel. She didn’t want to pause more than absolutely necessary, since every moment could count for Cora.

* * *

“You lied to her,” Stella said, her voice so soft Cora could barely hear her over the throbbing in her head.

A tiny part of Cora wanted to laugh at Stella’s comment, but instead she felt her stomach heave, agony searing through every vein as she breathed. If Stella weren’t helping carry her, Cora knew she wouldn’t have made it more than a few dozen steps on her own. In fact, she’d argued that they should leave her behind once Eda and Stella had realized how potent the poison was, but the others had flatly refused to abandon her.

“Yes, I did,” Cora gasped, limping along as best she could, watching as Joy paused at an intersection, her antennae twitching a couple of the times, then chose a passage to their right.

“Why?” Stella asked bluntly, obviously not entirely happy with Cora. “She doesn’t deserve to be lied to.”

“I know. I just…” Cora began, then her breath caught in her throat as a particularly nasty spike of pain seared through her and she stumbled. Stella caught her, though, and when the pain passed, Cora continued weakly. “She’s so… happy. I don’t want to ruin that.”

Stella snorted softly, but didn’t reply for a long moment, following the apis as they moved quickly down the tunnels. Eventually the other woman spoke quietly. “I think you’ll hurt her more by not trusting her, but that’s up to you. I’m going to do my best to keep you alive for as long as I can, even if there’s only so much I can do.”

“Fair,” Cora managed to reply, then cringed as she heard Joy yelp, and Brianna rushed after her, closely followed by Helen and James.

The sound of combat was short and brutal, and by the time Cora and Stella rounded the corner, ten motini were laying on the ground dead. The sight of them sent a flicker of fear through Cora, since there was no way in all the hells they could deal with someone who was level forty-eight. Even Joy managing to blind the demon had been the product of his arrogance, not the apis’s strength.

Still, they had a chance to escape, and Cora was going to do everything she could to try to make sure the others survived, even if her own chances were slim. Besides, she might resurrect back in town, even if she didn’t have much faith in that.

At the thought, Cora silently began mouthing a prayer to Fayliss. Even the slightest favor from her goddess might make all the difference in the world.

Chapter 31

“Where are the others?” Alethus demanded, scowling down at the cowering motini in frustration.

His face was throbbing from the burns the strange, gold-haired woman had inflicted on him, and Alethus cursed himself again for getting careless. He was fairly sure he’d lost his right eye entirely, and burns from holy materials pretty much always scarred, which angered him even more than losing the eye. He could get that much regenerated, but he’d always liked how handsome he was, and someone ruining it was frustrating. Maybe he could get the scars taken care of, too, but it still annoyed him, and he would make the woman pay.

“Dead? Squished? Don’t know, Dark Lord! I simple motini,” the creature protested, its arms laid flat on the ground as it prostrated itself.

A part of Alethus couldn’t wait to get away from the motini, no matter how good of minions they might be. Their musk permeated everything, and they weren’t terribly intelligent. He’d also accomplished his primary goal for the trip, though he’d have preferred to give the motini more time to properly entrench themselves. That would’ve allowed them to overrun the nearby town and keep anyone from getting luminous titansteel from here for a while.

Alethus shook off his distraction and focused on what the motini had said, though, forcing his hand away from his eye. He frowned, then asked, “Where did you lose contact with them?”

“Yes, yes! They were moving toward the caves of the great beasts! The ones that smell of fish and flowers!” the motini replied instantly, and Alethus couldn’t help a sudden smile.

“The flower minks. They’re going to run themselves straight into a dead end,” Alethus murmured, satisfaction rushing through him as he straightened more, ordering, “You! Get the rest of your people organized again and clean up the mess. I want to see progress when I return.”

“Yes, yes, Dark Lord! Your will be done!” the motini said, sitting up in obvious relief.

Alethus ignored him, instead heading for the exit, mentally plotting a route to the spot in question. He doubted the adventurers would be able to get there before him, and while there were a few routes around the flower minks, they weren’t obvious, and the group would be hard-pressed to defeat even one of the gigantic creatures. That would give him plenty of time to catch up and make them pay for their trespasses.

* * *

“Uh-oh,” Joy said, stopping suddenly as she took a deep breath, then frowned, looking back at the others. The smell didn’t worry her, but based on what she’d been told, that wasn’t the case for anyone else.

“What’s the problem? Is the tunnel blocked or something?” Brianna asked, coming to a halt, and the others lined up behind her. Cora was looking particularly bad, which worried Joy even more, but she didn’t have time to think about that.

“No, that’s not it. There’s a good breeze coming through here, so I’m sure we can get out. The problem is the minks,” Joy said, looking at Brianna and the others in worry. “I smell a bunch of them, like one of their nests.”

“Oh no,” James said, paling visibly. “Do you think we should turn back?”

“That might be the best choice, if—” Helen began, only to be interrupted as a voice echoed through the tunnels.

“Come out, come out, little adventurers! There’s nowhere for you to hide.” The smooth voice of the demon caused everyone to flinch, and from the way it resonated, Joy was quite sure he’d already reached a spot that would block any potential retreat.

“Crap. He’ll go through us like a goblin through a pantry,” Stella muttered, paling a little, and Joy could see panic beginning to dawn on the faces of the others. Then a breeze came from a different direction, and she sniffed, then smiled.

“No, I don’t think so,” Joy said, grinning at them as they looked at her in surprise. She looked at Brianna and said, “Bri, would you go down that way and be really quiet? I think that path will lead outside, and I don’t smell minks down there.”

“Wait, why me? What about you?” Brianna asked, while they heard loud whistling from the demon.

“I’m going to lead him to the minks, and hopefully distract him. They don’t like intruders, so…” Joy let her voice trail off and shrugged. “I’ll catch up in a bit, hopefully.”

“That’s insane! They’ll attack you, and—” Eda began, but Joy cut her off with a raised finger.

“No time to talk! I’ll be okay, probably. Now go,” Joy said sternly, and as the others headed past the deceptively shallow-looking stones to the left, Stella paused.

“You’d better come back to us, Joy,” Stella said, looking at Joy seriously.

“I’ll do my best,” Joy promised, shooing her away. “Go on! I need to taunt him.”

“If you say so,” Stella said, and as she helped Cora forward, the elf gave Joy a weak smile, sweat dripping from her chin as she moved.

Joy looked after them in concern, hesitating just a moment, but shook her head firmly to clear her thoughts. She just hoped she wasn’t making a mistake, and took a deep breath, then let it out to give her friends a bit more time.

Finally she could hear the demon getting closer, though, and Joy called out, “Hey, big stupid-head! I’m over here, so come find me! You have the mind of an ant and the attitude of a wasp!”

The instant she finished, Joy turned and raced down the tunnel leading to the flower minks, deliberately making noise as she ran.

* * *

“I’m what?” Alethus said, standing there for a moment, a little stunned and even more confused.

It was obvious the woman who’d yelled at him had been trying to insult him, but the first insult was childish, as was the demand to come and find her. The last insults, though… they were like nothing he’d heard before, and honestly didn’t offend him. If anything, they amused him, which was a shock after his earlier anger.

“I’m going to capture her,” Alethus decided, nodding to himself as he came to a decision. “I’ll drag her home and figure out what she is. If she isn’t worth my time, then I’ll make her suffer.”

But to do that, first he had to capture her. Fortunately, that wouldn’t take too long, he expected. She wouldn’t go out to where a flower mink could attack, even if she was obviously trying to draw him away from the other adventurers, or maybe pull him into an ambush by them. Either way, he wasn’t concerned. If they ran, he’d just run them down later, or leave before they could bring anyone dangerous down on his head.

In the meantime, Alethus broke into a jog, intent on following the insulting, surprisingly interesting woman who’d injured him. He couldn’t help a smile, since at least he’d be able to work off a little frustration.

* * *

Joy slowed down as she emerged into a much, much larger cavern, the end of which opened into a familiar-looking sea of towering flowers. Massive piles of pillar-like straw were around the cavern, along with large rocks and even some plants as well, while the scent of flower minks filled the air, all but overwhelming the flowers. Joy was tense, hoping that she hadn’t miscalculated, and she flinched as she saw one pile of straw shift, and a huge nose twitched as it breathed, but when it didn’t do anything to her, she relaxed a little and walked further into the cavern, picking her steps carefully.

Then she froze as she heard a rather loud exhalation from behind her. She paused, then slowly, carefully turned around… and stopped entirely.

Above the exit she’d walked through was a large, stone outcropping, and on top of that was a mink, its lustrous black fur coat marred by scars, and its eyes open as it looked at her curiously. One of its paws twitched, and for the first time she realized why adventurers would fear them so much. Just that paw and its claws were as long as she was tall, and Joy was fairly sure the mink could swallow her in a single bite.

Fortunately for her, it didn’t move or make any other indication it was about to attack. On the other hand, a moment later she saw a purple glow from down the tunnel, and she took a couple of careful steps back as the demon came into sight.

The demon looked much the same as he had before, save that now his right eye was closed and swollen, and a jagged black mark trailed across his forehead and down across the eyelid to mar his right cheek. He was holding a glowing purple ball of seething flames that worried Joy, and she tensed herself to dodge at any moment.

“Ah, there you are. None of your companions in sight… so I must assume that you tried to draw me away from them. Unsurprising, but I’ll hunt them down,” Alethus said, staring at her as his eye glittered in the light, a smile playing across his lips as he continued. “Also, you must have realized that you walked into a den of flower minks, no? Well, you destructive little adventurer, I’ll give you a chance. If you surrender properly, I’ll allow you to live without pain, at least until you bore me. Then I’ll end your life swiftly and painlessly.”

“Er, that doesn’t sound very good to me. I like my freedom, and you just sound mean,” Joy replied, taking another step backward, hoping he’d continue forward.

“Mean? That all depends on your perspective, I suppose,” the demon replied, reaching the edge of the tunnel, and Joy’s heart almost stopped as he paused there for a long moment. Then he took another step as he continued, his tone almost lazy. “I believe that power is all that matters. If you have power, you make the rules, so why not strive for more power? You’re weak, so weak that you’ll easily die if you keep moving, girl. The flower minks will tear you apart in moments, even if you managed to injure me. So you can die, or probably die. It’s your choice.”

Above him the scarred mink blinked once, then raised its head, examining the demon from above speculatively. It didn’t do anything more, but it was enough to reassure Joy.

“Um, if that was the case, I might take your offer,” Joy admitted, then smiled brightly at him. “On the other hand, I know something you don’t know.”

“And what’s that?” Alethus asked, his eyes narrowing a little. Above him, the mink stood, eerily silent, and bared its teeth.

“Minks don’t like the taste of bees,” Joy replied simply.

Alethus had an instant to look confused, then the mink let out a chitter just as it lunged downward and bit the demon. Joy heard a cry of shock, and the mink shook its head back and forth hard, then let go, sending the demon flying into the wall with a deafening crash.

Behind her, Joy heard several more chitters, and glanced back to see several smaller minks slip out of their nests, and her smile grew larger.

Chapter 32

Ever since coming to the Blackstone Mines, Alethus had only been injured once. The injury had only happened because he’d underestimated the woman in black and yellow armor, and if she hadn’t struck his eye with the luminous titansteel, it wouldn’t have done anything at all. It’d been long enough that he’d become confident that nothing in the area could injure him at all.

That made the impact against the wall of the cavern all the more shocking, as he felt the bones in his wings bend and nearly snap under the impact, while he slammed painfully into the wall hard enough that he coughed up blood. Even if he was over twenty levels above the level of the region, the physique of a flower mink was based on its size, and the creatures were incredibly strong. The only saving grace was that his defense was too high for them to penetrate his armor, but that wouldn’t prevent them from pulverizing his body if he kept getting slammed into the wall.

Catching his breath, Alethus flicked his wings so he’d at least land on his feet, but before he could even reach the ground a second mink’s paw swiped through the air and hit him, launching him back toward the center of the room. Alethus grunted in pain as he bounced off the ground, then the other wall.

There was a buzzing sound now, but the demon ignored it, as at least this time he had a moment to catch his breath before the first flower mink reached him.

Punching the mink in the nose, Alethus grunted as he felt the creature’s nose break, and it let out a squeal as it backed off, oozing blood, which gave him another moment to snatch out his sword, and he growled, “Unholy Burst!”

A wave of purple magic raged out of his body in a sphere, blasting the minks back, though not nearly as far as he’d prefer. All of the beasts were injured, and Alethus cursed under his breath as the big, scarred one lunged forward, its claws ripping through the air like scythes. He blocked the blow with his sword, and grunted as it drove him back slightly, though his strength at least mostly matched that of the flower mink. The problem was just how much weight it had behind its blows, and there were five of the creatures.

“I shouldn’t have given her a chance,” Alethus muttered balefully, frustration and just a hint of admiration rushing through him. It’d been years since he’d been put in a situation like this, and as he dodged the swarming minks, he cut one’s paw deeply, regaining his confidence.

The battle raged, hot and fast, as he fought the creatures, saving his magic for if he had a true need for it. The biggest advantage he had was that only two of the minks could get at him at any one time. Finally, he sank his sword into one of their necks, dropping the monster as he grinned.

“There we go! One down, four to go. Then I can hunt down that annoying—” Alethus began, and was almost knocked over when the big mink hit him again, and the demon snarled, “Would you stop that, you stupid beast?!”

“Penetrating Strike!” The happy chirp from behind Alethus chilled his blood, and the next instant a searing, stabbing pain ripped through the back of his left knee. He let out a cry of agony, his leg collapsing beneath him, and he heard the woman scamper away as she added, “Speed Burst!”

The next moment one of the minks swiped at him from the other side, and even with interposing his sword, he was thrown into a wall again, and this time the pain was definitely worse.

“I don’t know, I think they’re kind of cute!” the woman said brightly, and Alethus glared back at her, noting her strange eyes, with black sclera instead of white and golden irises. She was grinning, her rapier dripping with his blood as a set of insect-like wings fluttered behind her, and the minks began warily approaching him, caution in their eyes.

Alethus only had an instant to decide what to do, and while he probably could get out of this without risking death, the risk was just a little too high for his comfort. It was possible, if unlikely, that the minks could kill him… and he made a snap decision, gritting his teeth and glaring at the woman.

“I’m going to hunt you down and end you, woman. This isn’t the last you’ve seen of me,” Alethus said flatly, and he saw her blink in confusion. Just as one of the beasts was about to lunge, Alethus snapped out, “Teleport!”

The world vanished in a whirl of purple light, and pain rippled through Alethus’s body as magic assaulted his injuries. He’d recover, though, and he’d achieved his goal.

A moment later Alethus appeared in a stone room with exquisite red wall hangings, and he gritted his teeth, then called out, “Servants! Summon Letha!”

The sunlight through the stained glass windows was a little higher in the sky here, and Alethus glanced at the sun, then growled before setting aside his anger.

Vengeance could wait.

Chapter 33

Joy blinked as the demon suddenly vanished and watched as the flower minks moved closer, sniffing at the spot where he’d been, and slowly, ever so slowly, she felt herself relax. She’d been sweating ever since the fight with him had begun, and was shocked at how much damage he’d done to the enormous creatures. None of the minks had come out of the fight without injuries, and she looked up at the big one and smiled a little.

“Um, thank you. If you hadn’t been here, that would’ve been… well, bad. For me, I mean,” Joy said, unsure if the mink could understand her. She swallowed, then added, “I’m sorry you got hurt. I’d offer you some honey, but I know you don’t care about it… and…”

Joy’s voice trailed off as the big mink leaned down and sniffed at her curiously. She held very still, hoping it wouldn’t decide to swat her or something. If that happened, she had no doubts that she’d end up dead, after seeing what had happened to Alethus.

Fortunately, the mink just sniffed a couple of times, then ambled back up to its perch and laid down heavily, shifting in place so it could keep an eye on her. Joy watched the others do about the same thing and softly let out a breath, thankful she hadn’t angered the immense creatures. Instead, she took a moment, bowed to them respectfully, then headed for the tunnel slowly and carefully.

The important thing was to get to her friends, then to get out of the mines. It had been a long, long day.

* * *

Joy quickly followed the path she’d sent the others down, and was thankful that it didn’t branch, even if some parts of it were narrower than she’d anticipated. She had to turn sideways to make it through two points, and once she even had to take off her backpack and crouch, which made her a little more worried. It didn’t help that she’d briefly gotten used to normal light, which left her feeling mostly blind at times.

After a couple of minutes she heard something, though, and Joy felt a hint of relief as she heard voices, relief which quickly turned to worry as she realized what they were saying.

“Can you do anything to help her?” Brianna asked, her voice panicked. “She’s died once this month already, and if she dies again—”

“I know!” Eda snapped, her voice taut. “I’m only level fourteen, though! This is a level forty-five poison, and no one below level thirty is going to be able to neutralize it. I heard her lie to Joy, but I’m not lying now, not in this situation. The poison is going to kill her within an hour, and short of a miracle, nothing we can do will help her. We can’t reach town in that time even if we aren’t run down by the damned demon.”

“What, do you want to abandon her, then?” The voice was Helen’s, and Joy quickly approached, fear welling up inside her.

“Of course not! I’m just saying that we can’t afford to sit here, no matter what. She’s dying, and we can hope she—” Eda said, then stopped as Joy came around the corner and caught her attention. “Joy?”

The eight others were huddled in a narrow passageway, one that was a little wider than the others. Cora was the only one laying down, her head in Stella’s lap, and the elf was white as chalk, even her sweating having stopped, and while her eyes were halfway open, Joy didn’t see any movement from the elf. That scared her, and the worry in the eyes of everyone else didn’t help.

“Are you alright, Joy?” Stella asked, looking at her in worry. “What about the demon?”

“Did you lose him?” Marilyn asked, then glanced at Cora and fell silent.

“No, he’s not going to be a problem, though. I led him to the flower minks… he ran, somehow. He said something like tele-putt, then vanished in a flash of purple light,” Joy said absently, staring at Cora, then at Stella and Eda. “I heard Eda just now. Is… is she right, about Cora?”

For a moment everyone was silent, then Stella sighed and nodded, her voice soft. “Yes, she is. Cora… well, she understated how quickly it was acting earlier. I don’t know if anyone in town would be able to save her, either. Unless they have a fairly high-powered antidote… well, there’s no chance, anyway. I don’t know that there’s anything that can be done.”

Joy didn’t say anything as memories flashed through her mind. Of how the first thing she’d seen outside the flower was Brianna, Cora, and Stella. Of how the others had treated her so kindly, when Cora had been killed in Joy’s hive. The memories of the brief time they’d spent together… and of how she’d felt like they were almost like an adoptive hive. And the hive… well, that brought to mind a solution. It would be a sacrifice, but…

“I can,” Joy said bluntly, and she swung off her backpack.

“What? How can you do anything about it?” James asked, his eyes going wide in shock. “You’re not even a mage!”

“When I left the hive, they gave me a gift. It’s a consumable, and it can neutralize any poison of level seventy-five or less,” Joy said, and pulled out the glowing white bottle, feeling like a lump was caught in her throat, and she swallowed hard so she could continue. “Pure royal jelly. One of the most valuable things in the hive, and the queen gave me one. It’ll heal her, completely.”

“You have what? Why would they even have something like that?” Jean asked, her eyes widening enormously.

Joy ignored the question, instead opening the bottle and handing it to Stella, speaking quickly. “Here, give it to her. I don’t want one of my friends dying when I can save her.”

“I…” Stella began, her eyes darting to the bottle as she took it, then she nodded slowly, her voice growing softer. “Of course. Thank you, Joy.”

“Thank you so much. We’ll repay you for it, promise,” Brianna said, and Joy waved off the thanks, instead focusing on Cora.

Slowly and carefully, Stella tilted the spout against Cora’s lips, and the glowing liquid slowly poured into the elf’s mouth. Fortunately, Cora swallowed almost unconsciously, and the liquid rapidly drained from the bottle, taking with it Joy’s chance of becoming a queen herself. Not that she was going to say anything about that. Not after how Marge had reacted to hearing how short of a period that apis workers lived.

“There we go,” Stella murmured, the last of the jelly slipping into Cora’s mouth. “Now all we have to do is… oh.”

Cora’s skin began to shine with a soft radiance, and as it did, Joy saw the flush of health return to her friend. Then, as Cora’s eyes drifted open, the apis smiled in relief.

* * *

Cora didn’t understand what was happening at first as she opened her eyes. She didn’t remember losing consciousness, for that matter, but she did remember the incredible pain that’d racked her body for a while and wished that she’d been able to draw the demon off instead of Joy. Unfortunately, there was no way she’d have been able to convince Joy of that in the time they’d had.

The lack of pain briefly made her think she’d died for good, or even had resurrected in the temple, but the sight of Joy smiling broadly at her changed Cora’s mind, wings fluttering behind the apis happily as she bounced in place. Cora blinked, then realized she was glowing, and everyone else was looking down at her, with a bit of envy in a few of their gazes, but predominantly they looked relieved.

“Um, what happened? Why am I glowing?” Cora asked, then hesitated and continued. “For that matter, what happened to the demon?”

“He said tele-putt, and vanished,” Joy said helpfully, and Cora blinked as James sighed.

“It’s a teleport, Joy,” James corrected her gently. “It’s a spell that allows someone to instantly move long distances.”

“Oh, that makes more sense. I should have remembered, after the way we got down here, but didn’t realize it was a spell, too. The word sounds similar, though,” Joy said, nodding cheerfully.

“As for what happened and why you’re glowing, Joy had an item from her hive that not only neutralized the poison, but made you immune to any poison for an hour and healed you,” Stella said, shaking her head slowly as she stood up. “I understand why it’s one of the most valuable items in the hive. I’m guessing that the glow shows that it’s active.”

“You… oh, Joy, thank you! I didn’t know… I mean, I couldn’t have asked for that,” Cora said, looking at the apis in shock, warmth welling up inside her, along with a little guilt. She’d never done anything that would’ve made her think Joy would use something so valuable on her.

“I… well, you’re kind of like my hive now. If I didn’t help you, what sort of apis would I be?” Joy said, shrugging, then continued, her tone a little happier. “Anyway, let’s go! I’d like to get back to town, so we can warn people not to go into the teleport thing.”

“We also need to warn the guild about what happened here, and maybe get answers,” James added, offering Cora a hand to help her up. As she took it, he continued. “I don’t know what someone of his level was doing here, but it can’t be good.”

“True enough,” Brianna said, smiling warmly and giving Cora a hug as she glanced at Joy. “That said… care to lead the way, Joy? For all I know, there might be more minks ahead.”

“I don’t smell any, but sure!” Joy chirped, and quickly slipped past them to lead the way.

Cora shook her head and muttered softly. “Does that woman even know the meaning of the word rest?”

“She is a worker bee, or was,” Stella teased, laughing as she moved past Cora, then paused and murmured more quietly, “That said, you, me, and Bri need to talk in private once we’re out of here. I learned something… startling a bit ago.”

“Alright,” Brianna agreed, and Cora nodded, feeling a little puzzled as she followed the others in their trek outside.

Even if she was curious, Cora was eager to be in the open air again.

Chapter 34

Brianna plopped into her chair heavily and let out a groan, obviously relaxing as she muttered, “Dear gods. I thought things would be easier after we got back to town, not even harder.”

Cora let out a soft snort, adjusting in place to get more comfortable. She looked at her friend with a raised eyebrow, asking, “Whatever gave you that idea? I knew from the beginning that Isolde wasn’t going to take the news of the demon lightly. I’m honestly surprised she let us clean up at all before getting interrogated.”

“Agreed,” Stella said, her voice oddly subdued as she toyed with the mug in front of her, and Cora eyed the Acolyte curiously.

They’d all managed to level at least once after the events in the Blackstone Mines, which cheered Cora up a fair amount, plus they’d gotten out alive, and even had managed to get back to town without too much trouble. It’d been Stella who’d paid for the private room at the inn, and Brianna had spent the last hour explaining events to the Adventurer’s Guild. Cora had helped a little, but been dismissed to rest, while Eda and Helen had dragged Joy out shopping, supposedly because they wanted to thank her for the rescue, and then James, Jean, and Marilyn had decided to go with. If it hadn’t been for Stella’s comment about wanting to talk in private, Cora probably would have gone with them to keep Joy from being overwhelmed, but… in the end, Joy had seemed happy to have a lot of others around.

“What are they planning?” Cora asked, looking at Brianna as the woman poured herself a mug of ale from the pitcher on the table. “Isolde asked you to stay behind, after all.”

“Well… I think she knows more than she’s telling, because one of the other retired adventurers muttered something about being worried about a seal, and Isolde shushed him before he could say anything more,” Brianna explained, her tone thoughtful as she took a sip of her ale. She paused for a moment, then continued. “They’re planning to clear out a path to the cavern where we rescued the others so they can investigate it properly. Considering their levels, I’m pretty sure the motini aren’t going to know what hit them.”

“Ooh, that… well, that doesn’t sound good. And anything involving a seal raises my hackles. I don’t want to think about how many nasty things have been sealed away over the centuries,” Cora said, a shiver of fear running down her spine.

“Agreed. I just hope that they stopped whatever that demon was after, considering his level. Still, Isolde is more powerful than him, so if he teleported back to the chamber, he’s in for a rude surprise,” Brianna said, smiling wryly as she settled back and looked at Stella. “That said… so, what’s this about, Stella? You wanted to talk in private, and I’ve been trying to figure out why.”

Cora nodded in agreement, looking at their companion curiously, but she didn’t speak. Especially when she saw the human bite her lip, one hand reaching up to grip her holy symbol. That was worrying, but she didn’t interrupt.

“I… saw the description of the item Joy gave me to save you, Cora. It’s pure royal jelly… have you heard of it?” Stella asked, glancing up at them, and a jolt of surprise rushed through Cora, as well as a hint of confusion.

Brianna’s eyebrows furrowed, and she shook her head. “No, aside from when Joy said what it was in the caves.”

“I haven’t heard of pure royal jelly, but the reason I was delving into the hive before I died was to get royal jelly,” Cora said, shifting uncomfortably as she explained. “It’s a very valuable ingredient, common in higher level potions and antitoxins. My share was supposed to get me better than two thousand coins.”

Stella’s eyebrows rose at that, and Brianna whistled softly, nodding slowly as she murmured, “I see why you went in there, I just didn’t remember the item you were after. I knew it was valuable, but… pure royal jelly must be really valuable.”

“It’s a level one, non-stackable consumable that can neutralize any level seventy-five natural or magical poison for a full hour, and can heal virtually all wounds in seconds. You tell me how valuable that is,” Stella replied, and Cora inhaled sharply, her eyes widening enormously. Something like that would go for… she didn’t even know how much, but a potion that could do all of that would probably run several thousand coins, if you could find it. That Joy had sacrificed it for her was stunning, and made her want to thank the apis even more than before.

“Dear gods. Why would they give her something like that, though? She was really low level,” Brianna murmured in a stunned tone. The question did make Cora wonder the same thing, though, even if she wasn’t going to argue about it, especially under their circumstances.

“That’d be because of its special ability. I… don’t think you realize what she gave up. I’m stunned she was even willing to use it, yet she didn’t hesitate at all,” Stella said, reaching up and rubbing her eyes.

“Gave up what?” Cora demanded, her worry growing stronger, now. Stella’s attitude was worrying. “Would you just tell us, already?”

“It… pure royal jelly is used to evolve giant bees or apis into queens,” Stella finally said nervously, looking up at Cora. “It works with their larva, or for any apis of level twenty or higher. That was what would have allowed Joy to evolve into a queen, Cora.”

It almost felt like someone had punched Cora in the stomach when she heard that, and she couldn’t breathe for a long, long moment, her thoughts tied in knots. It took a moment, then she protested weakly. “B-but… when she came to us, she said that her goal was to level up so she could evolve into a queen! I thought she could do that naturally!”

“So did I,” Stella said, looking down at the table unhappily. “Until I saw the item, anyway. I… suppose it’s possible she has another, but I doubt that.”

“Holy… well, that’s just… wow,” Brianna said, her mouth agape. Then she took a breath and let it out, glancing at Cora as she continued. “What do we do?”

“I… well, first, I need to thank her even more than I already have, obviously,” Cora said, her stomach clenched tight, and she hesitated for a long moment, then nodded slowly. “Then, once I have my share from everything we’re going to sell off… I think I’ll go visit the hive. Hopefully I can buy her a replacement. Even if it means I can’t afford to get my new job… she probably saved my life.”

“You won’t do it alone,” Stella said, looking up from the table at last, a slight smile playing across her lips as she shrugged. “If it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t have the moondrop lily seeds I needed, either. Honestly, we got an enormous windfall out of the mines, so if I need to spend a lot of that on helping her… well, it’s only right.”

“Agreed,” Brianna said, nodding firmly as she grinned. “You won’t do this alone, Cora.”

“Thank you,” Cora said, smiling slowly, warmth rushing through her at the support of her friends.

Before they could reply, Cora heard Joy’s voice from the front room, sounding bright and excited. “Bri, Cora, Stella! Come look, come look!”

“What the…?” Brianna asked, giving Cora a puzzled look, then stood and headed for the door, and Cora followed her.

“Joy? What’s the commotion—” Cora began, then stopped dead in the doorway as she caught sight of Joy and couldn’t help staring.

Joy wasn’t in her armor for the first time since Cora had seen her. Instead, with the other adventurers standing around her, and most of the people in the inn staring at her, Joy was in a dress. And not just a dress, but a full, bright yellow ball gown with layers on layers, and the apis was grinning broadly.

“I look like a daffodil!” Joy exclaimed, sounding like that was the loveliest thing in the world.

Cora managed to retain a straight face for a moment, but only until Brianna burst out laughing, and the smile that crept over Cora’s face was irresistible, especially since Stella began chuckling softly behind her.

On the other hand, it just reinforced Cora’s determination to pay Joy back for what she’d done for her. The apis was too good of company to do otherwise.

Epilogue

“Are you doing well, My Lord?” Minna asked, bowing deeply before him. As she did so, Alethus watched the warrior appreciatively, glad that she’d chosen to serve him. The brunette was attractive and powerful, especially now that he’d infused her with demonic energy. He’d hoped to get a few of the other captives to turn to his service as well, but then things had gone wrong.

“I’m doing well. Letha does excellent work, as I’m sure you’re aware,” Alethus said, flexing his knee, then reaching up to run a finger over the scar across his eye. It wasn’t as bad as he’d feared it might be, and in the end he thought it might be more intimidating to others than disfiguring, so Alethus was leaving it for now. Besides, the scar would serve as a reminder not to be too overconfident.

“Well, of course, but I did want to check. I’m startled that anyone who was low level could injure you, let alone one of these new apis,” Minna said, straightening gracefully, a faint smile on her face.

“I was overconfident, and if she’d been a little better I might’ve died. I shudder to think about what would’ve happened if she’d hit me directly in the eye instead. It’s a reminder that I’m not invulnerable… not yet, at least,” Alethus replied, shrugging. “Now, then… how are the preparations going for the next stage of the plan?”

“Quite well, My Lord! The soldiers are in high spirits and have been training diligently, so when it comes time to strike, they’ll be ready,” Minna said, the smile appearing fully as she nodded to him. “I’m ready to send out our agents as soon as you order it.”

Alethus smiled and looked at the table next to his chair. Laying on it was an intricately carved metal shield, one only four inches tall. The sigils set into it glittered softly with magic, not showing the true power contained within the seal. After a moment he nodded, reaching down to tap the shield.

“Send them out, Minna. If they succeed, let them know that they’ll be heavily rewarded as well,” Alethus replied, and Minna saluted in response.

“It shall be done!” the woman said, and turned to leave.

Alethus watched her go, then turned his attention back to the sight before him. Green fields shimmered under the morning sun, and the demon smiled slightly, happy that his domain seemed to be doing well.

“Soon… soon I will have far more than just this,” Alethus murmured softly.

The End

* * *

This came a long way from where it started. Originally, Sting & Song was intended as a couple of chapters to get a silly idea out of my head. Then, I decided to share those couple of chapters to my Patrons on Patreon, along with chapters of some other projects that I personally thought would be more popular. When I asked which ones people liked most, though, Sting & Song was the most popular by an overwhelming margin. Admittedly, there weren’t a huge number of votes, but 83% of them were for Sting & Song.

Because of that, I decided to write the story for my Patrons. I’m not sure when it would’ve seen the light of day without them, to be honest, and I intend to continue with the story beyond this book, though since the series is a side project, it’ll be slower than my primary books.

I should say that I’ve found Joy a wonderful change of pace on a personal level. She’s bright, happy, and generally endearing to write, which is important to me. You definitely haven’t seen the last of our apis, that’s for sure!

I hope you enjoyed the book! I also just finished another trilogy, Mantles of Power, a short while ago.

Thank you all for reading Sting & Song! You can find Heaven’s Fallen below!

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If you want to find more of my books, you can find them at the following link.

Books by Benjamin Medrano

If you want to see early drafts of my work or help select secondary characters to be illustrated, you can always join my Patreon, or you can get early chapters of upcoming novels and their announcements through my newsletter, both linked below.

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Also, if you’d care to review this story, I’d greatly appreciate it! Again, thank you for reading Sting & Song. You can find a preview of Heaven’s Fallen on the following page.

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Prologue

Agony seared through Isalla as the wind whipped by her face in a dull roar that suppressed all other sound. Pain radiated from the numerous wounds she’d received, most notably from her back, but also from a half-dozen other wounds and the virulent poison that seeped through her body like dull flames. Worst of all was the collar around her neck, its spikes buried in her flesh as it slowly pumped more of the poison into her.

If Isalla still had her wings, she might be able to redirect her course somewhat, or even get help, but Haral had taken pleasure in severing them with a flaming sword that cauterized the wounds. The poison steadily weakened Isalla as well, and with the tendons severed in her arms and legs, her limbs were worse than useless for trying to change her course as Isalla fell from the clouds.

The fall was long, and if she could have Isalla would have cursed the traitors who’d ambushed her. As she fell through the towering clouds, the light abruptly shifted, growing duller and more muted as the clouds changed. She’d left the heavens, Isalla realized, trying and failing to swallow her saliva. The traitors obviously didn’t want her dying in the heavens, as they’d dropped her in a location that connected to the mortal world. Anger rushed through her in waves, but the anger was threaded with fear. Fear of what Haral might be planning.

Yet there was nothing Isalla could do, as she watched the clouds of the mortal world around her pass by, until they opened before her to reveal the approaching vistas of the ground below, from towering, green-swathed mountains to rolling plains with the glittering ocean in the distance. It was as she looked directly below her that Isalla’s fear grew yet again, for there wasn’t ground beneath her.

Directly below her was the heart of the mountain range, and the vast, cavernous cone of a volcano yawned open before her… yet one without lava within. The smoke rising from it came through yet another portal, and at last Isalla realized what Haral’s plan for her truly was. She’d fall through the gateway into the lower planes, into the very hells themselves, and there was nothing Isalla could do to stop it. If anyone used magic to look for her, it would appear as though she’d gone on a foolish crusade into the lands of their enemies.

Isalla struggled, trying to change her course, but her arms simply flapped uselessly at her sides as panic grew within her. She plunged into the sulfurous smoke, and she began to cough, agony spiking through her with every breath that passed. Unconsciousness would almost be a blessing, but it eluded her.

She fell into the volcano, helplessly watching as she closed on the portal, seeing the winding paths and roads which demons took into the mortal world pass by. She braced herself as best she could as she plunged through the ink-black portal, and into the sulfurous clouds of the hells.

The skies here were different than those of the heavens or the mortal world. The world was darker, with the skies a deeper crimson, while the clouds were nearly black. Below her she could see the expanse of one of dozens of immense, magical mountains that pierced the sky of the hells and gave the demons access to most of the portals into the mortal world.

A magical gust of superheated air hit Isalla, and she grunted in pain as it caused her wounds to flare with agony again, her eyes watering as she was magically shunted away from the mountain and sent spiraling outward over the dark landscape.

At last Isalla’s fall was nearing its end, and she felt her stomach tightening as she descended toward the ground like a falling star. At least the end would be quick, she hoped, though the sheer length of the fall had almost been worse than being killed by a demon. As she descended toward a huge forest, Isalla closed her eyes and braced herself for the end, anguish rushing through her at the thought that she’d never have the chance to stop the psychotic zealots who were in the heavens.

The impact of a branch against her shoulder sent Isalla spinning, and she tried to scream in pain, only to have it cut short by the collar. Isalla’s mind was swimming, the poison even hotter in her veins as she braced herself… then stopped.

“Now, just what do we have here?” A woman’s sultry voice asked curiously.

Isalla opened her eyes, barely retaining consciousness, and found herself hanging motionless in the air just a few feet from the rocky ground, streamers of purple light wrapped around her. She was in the middle of a forest of black trees, and she looked up at the speaker… and if anything, her terror grew even greater. And with it, something inside her snapped.

A woman stood nearby, the purple light extending from her fingers. She was beautiful, with pale skin and deep violet eyes, but it was the narrow purple horns extending from her brow and the swaying tail behind her that truly terrified Isalla. The robes the woman was wearing were black and shrouded much of her figure, but her hair shimmered almost like obsidian in the light as she looked at Isalla curiously, her purple lips pursed.

And then, as despair overtook her, Isalla lost consciousness at last.