CHAPTER 493: AN EYE FOR AN EYE

I knew what Tabletina was about to say before she finished it. The way she looked at me was unmistakable.

"We could copy the power of your magical eyes, Father. Just think about how much good it will bring to all of us! And all it will take is a tiny, tiny piece of your eye. It will heal in no time—I tested it on others!"

I looked with doubt at Tabletina, then at Papercraft—the bee with a prosthetic eye.

There weren’t any other bees with a prosthetic eye in the vicinity, and Tabletina didn’t mention that Papercraft’s eye was a special one.

"Tested it on whom?" I asked.

"Yes, on her," Tabletina said, following my gaze. "It turned out to be a necessary part of the prosthesis’ installation. Without a bit of flesh from an eye, the prosthesis I installed originally tried to mimic Papercraft’s skin and bone."

The bee nodded rapidly in agreement.

I took in a deep breath and released it.

This sounded like something that could cost me an eye. Also...

"This won’t work anyway, Tabletina. The system sight doesn’t come from my eye; it’s a part of the system which belongs only to me. It was given to me by gods—you think it can be copied so simply?"

Tabletina frowned.

"But what if it can, Father? Besides, this is only one of the incredible genes your morphotype has! Your stinger alone..."

I grinned.

"Oh, but why didn’t you say it sooner? I can give you as many stingers as you need."

I reached for my tail and pulled out one—sharp and with a droplet of venom coming out of the tip. The new stinger grew immediately in its place.

As soon as I gave it to her, Tabletina snatched the stinger from my hands, holding it carefully at the outstretched hand wearing a thin leather glove (popular among Physicians). A wise thing to do, since my venom was the most lethal among bees.

"Thank you, Father. But to copy your stinger launching organ and venom gland, as well as your electrical charge organ, I will need more than this." Tabletina let out a breath. "If you refuse, I won’t ask you anymore. I understand how my requests sound and that they might be... risky... But I can’t NOT make them! So, please, give me more samples of your flesh!"

I tilted my head. Then I tilted it to another side.

Tabletina looked me in the eyes. Her body was strung taut, and her expression was set in stone—the strongest sign that she was anxious to the extreme.

I knew that Tabletina was very passionate about her craft, and that this passion sometimes made her act unwise. But I also knew that she cared about my well-being most of all.

She wouldn’t have offered to take samples if she didn’t have full assurance that it wouldn’t harm me. In her thoughts was only the worry that I might find her abilities not enough. That she was unworthy of touching me with a scalpel... But there weren’t any fears of harming me.

I trusted Tabletina, so I couldn’t just refuse and make her think the opposite!

"Fine. Just be careful, alright? I will free a few hours for the operation."

Tabletina smiled her brightest smile.

"Everything will be top-notch, Father! You will be asleep the entire time. It’s a good thing you aren’t immune to poisons, or anaesthesia wouldn’t work on you like it doesn’t work on Beemarines..."

"But I have a gene that makes me unable to sleep."

Tabletina blinked and almost raised my stinger to her lips in thought, before catching herself and raising a claw instead.

"Even if the sleep is medicine-induced?"

I scratched my neck.

"Actually, I never tested this..."

"Oh, Father, but then we really should!"

***

In the end, I chose to just use local anaesthesia. With the plants mutating and evolving, many medicines became unreliable to use, just as the grain harvests became unreliable to eat.

At least a numbing plant juice pasta used as the local analgesic won’t be ingested by me.

Tabletina and several assistants, with extreme care, cut out tiny (less than a fingernail-sized) pieces of my body. They took a tiny sample from my left eye and slightly larger ones from my legs, arms, chest, tail and wings.

This cost me several health points, but the tiny wounds were healing rapidly thanks to my regeneration.

"Thank you again for sharing this with us! It’s a blessing we all will never forget... I swear!" Tabletina told me hotly. "Nurses, tend to Father! Bring him food, a drink—"

"I’m fine," I waved her off. "My wounds aren’t even bleeding anymore. But I’m going to rest now, so unless there’s something really important—"

"I won’t bother you," Tabletina said, nodding rapidly. "But we must hurry, too. The flesh samples can’t be allowed to rot."

"Of course. Good luck—I’d hate it if my flesh went to waste after I went through donating it!"

With these words, I stood up and left. The wounds might’ve been minor, but the procedure was still draining. I also knew that Amby wanted to see me as soon as possible after this to make sure I was okay. She’d be in the operating room if Tabletina didn’t tell her that this was unhygienic.

In hindsight, leaving Tabletina with my flesh samples but without supervision was a mistake. At the very least, I should’ve peeked into her thoughts and made sure all her plans were... reasonable.

Instead, the very next day, I was sucked into another logistical trouble in the Bee Empire—an especially large harvest that went bad because of a mutated weed. For the next week, the Empire Council couldn’t gather because Workharder and I left Hive Supremo to fix things in person (in astral projection, in my case).

In the meantime, bees in Hive Supremo were redistributing food and making sure that everybody affected by the shortage had help.

By the time I saw Tabletina again, it was way too late to change anything...