“Hi, can hear?”

    The Firstborn swayed midair and loss control of her mana. Instead, she focused on the wave of mana that had just hit her, very much like that of a communer’s. So, once her drones had deciphered the message, she had them respond.

    “Fourth of the Seventh?”

    A moment later, another surge of mana hit her.

    “Wow, can hear Firstborn! Amazing, incredible!”

    The Firstborn could not help but join the Fourth of the Seventh in a celebratory dance. She instinctively understood what the power of the Fourth of the Seventh’s mana she felt implied, much less the fact that the Fourth of the Seventh could now send her mana all the way through the shortcuts without the aid of a communer. The Fourth of the Seventh had evolved. Truly a cause for celebration, a great victory for the hive of hives and one of her fellow queens.

    When she had finished dancing, the Firstborn took a moment to groom her antennae as she organized her thoughts. It was no surprise that the Fourth of the Seventh had been the first to succeed, the Firstborn had expected it would be either her or the First of the Fifth. And it was well-deserved, who else had innovated new ways of running and organizing hives? Who else had determined how to make the hive of hives a practical reality? What other queen would dare to scout the Beyond personally, exposing themselves to the dangers beyond the King’s realm?

    The Firstborn finished her grooming and took off once more. As before, she began to concentrate her mana not within her stinger, but around the exterior of it, as the karnuq had explained to her.

    The Fourth of the Seventh’s evolution was proof that she was on the right path. It demonstrated that a queen could indeed evolve by going beyond her instinctual role, changing to fit the desired focus of her hive. So, the Firstborn threw herself back into her training with no further doubts. All she needed to do now was fly forward as boldly as the Fourth of the Seventh and join her children in the task she set before them.

    Only for yet another set of news to reach her mana, this time from the Bee Barracks itself.

    Frelis awoke and crawled out of her cell, shaking her body and her wings. She began to groom herself but paused as soon as she caught sight of her leg.

    She had changed color. Her chitin was now a combination of bright purples and pinks.

    Then she continued her grooming. New color or not, she had work to do. She had slept for far longer than she had intended.

    She quickly greeted her queen mother before setting out. She wasn’t sure how long she had been in the cell, so she needed to check on her charge.

    The Third of the Sixth immediately danced her salute. She had remembered, recently, that she had only taken the first step on the path of fire. After evolving with the burning honey, fire no longer scorched her. She could handle truly immense temperatures that no other bee could, she could drink the hottest nectar with ease, and she could fly right through flames without harm. Her very blood and mana ran hot.

    But she did not breathe fire. She did not command the flames. She did not have fire running through her veins or her mana.

    The karnuq queen did. And had received blessings from the Queen of All Fire to boot.

    And now she would teach the Third of the Sixth how she did it.

    The Fourth of the Seventh’s soldier danced about happily, as did every one of her sisters. Their queen mother had evolved! She was now the biggest queen any of them had ever seen and could talk them all from anywhere! It was amazing, incredible!

    The soldier did have to wonder, though, what this meant for her. She looked down at the stems she had been weaving together. She was her queen mother’s first soldier, and still worked on the task she had been born to do. She picked the flax flowers, processed and dried them as the King had done, and then wove them into vines the hive of hives could use to carry things. Her queen mother had personally instructed her in this task at first.

    But her queen mother had only grown, along with her ambitions. She not only uncovered the wonders of the King’s realm, but now flew through the Beyond. She had set up a second hive, a feat no other queen had accomplished. And now, she had evolved to fly further and faster than ever before, to set up her own hive of hives until her children flew to every corner of the Beyond.

    The soldier’s heart swelled and her wings buzzed at the thought. But then, she had to wonder...should she continue on her original task? Her task didn’t seem particularly relevant to conquering the Beyond and she was a soldier. Shouldn’t she abandon these stems to go escort her queen mother?

    She was a bit worried she wouldn’t be able to change jobs well. She hadn’t trained to fight like the soldiers of the Flower Meadow queens, nor had she spent much time flying far and fast. She wasn’t sure she could keep up with her queen mother anymore, and wasn’t sure she’d be able to protect her from the dangers of the Beyond.

    It was then that she felt her queen mother’s mana jumping from sister to sister, until eventually it focused on her.

    “Wow, soldier is good at weaving stems! Amazing, incredible! Can make stem pollen baskets, like karnuq?”

    And just like that, all of the soldier’s doubts vanished. She immediately saluted her queen mother and began asking the communer to put her in contact with the scouts. Her queen mother not only wished for her to continue her task, but had assigned a new goal for her. Now, the only thought on her mind was to complete it.

    She did not notice some of her queen mother’s mana remaining in her body, soaking and absorbing into her own as she devoted herself to the task assigned by her queen...