This was supposed to be a nice day.
Ballistas were being built in all our hives—both large immobile ones and a smaller type that several bees could haul over air. The First Train, according to reports, had almost reached Hive Rich despite suffering three storms on the way, where everybody was already excited to see it and get its cargo.
Good news all around, except this one.
A visibly tired and dirty (not from her camouflage) Beehound Quietstep brought a written report to the Royal Chambers, and, with my blessing, slunk away from the crowds and the hive. I inwardly wished her to have a good rest—hers wasn't a simple journey by any ans.
"I should arrange a separate living space built for them," I muttered absentmindedly. "Let's add this to the orders pile."
The organization was really working well recently. I just had to write an order on the wax tablet, sign it "Father", and pass it to one of my many Attendants—or to Ambrosia, whoever was closest.
Then, it will be done! Only more complex things required my direct input.
As Ambrosia currently sat opposite of , reading her own reports and writing her own orders, she was the closest.
"Mhm. I will see to it," she said, taking the tablet from . "Outside living spaces will free more space in the Hive Supremo itself."
I shrugged.
"We have access to iron pickaxes now, though. It will take ti, but we can just dig out more buildings right in stone. They will be more solid, too. And the rocks that pillar mountains are made of are pretty soft as far as rocks go. They remind of listone."
Although they were definitely not listone or any other stones, I could rember seeing. Similar, but not similar enough.
Ambrosia nodded, not lifting her eyes from her wax tablets.
"I will make plans. So what does the report say, Necty?"
A half of the report was a rough map; the rest was a description of her journey with a list of landmarks and such.
Quietstep took the most direct route from the human settlent, and I had to applaud her navigational skills.
According to her description and the map, humans lived 9-10 days of flight away from the Bee Empire. Most of this area comprised thick forest with nurous pillar mountains—even giants would have a harder ti traversing that.
Even so…
"With giants' massive steps, it would probably take them a day or two at most to reach the Bee Empire if they took a direct route. Damn," I shook my head. "We've been lucky to not have t any humans earlier. Alright, at least now we can send the language research team after them."
Before Ambrosia could comnt, an Attendant entered the chambers.
"Father, there was another report for you. A Beehound shoved it in my arms and flew away just like that!"
I chuckled.
"Yeah, that's them, alright. Give it here! Oh, it's also from dragon riders. The Woe's team again. Let's see if they got sothing unusual today."
This team of dragon riders has been flying on Woe to and from the human settlent with regularity. A dragon could reach it in just a couple of hours, although Scourge, Disaster and Woe needed significant food motivation to be bothered.
The dragon riders have been a source of preliminary research for Explanatory's language team. They watched humans act, counted their numbers, and even gathered information about individual ones. The perfect mory of Beehounds was incredibly helpful there.
From those reports, I estimated that the human settlent was a small village—it had only 17 houses, and if each hosted a full family, it was still below 100 people. The Beehounds have counted 87.
Not that I could call a village of giants "small"! It was big by definition! Giant, even!
They had so fields—fields of trees which were like grass to them—and brought down entire pillar mountains for building materials.
Our hives were tiny to them, and now they were in danger.
My typically optimistic mood dimd significantly the more I read of the report—aloud, because Ambrosia was also listening intently, with a slight frown that added special charm to her already beautiful face.
"The riders say that a crowd of ten humans, carrying things, left their village in the rough direction of Hive Rich."
Ambrosia's frown deepened.
"This happened faster than we hoped. So what now? You said that diplomacy takes ti—we don't have it anymore. Only ballistas."
"Yes, 6 thousand of them, according to the last report. And most of them are at Hive Rich, exactly where we need them to be." Craftsn worked fast, and motivated Craftsn worked even faster. The implented ballistas technology gave an average of 3 military points per ballista and 150 developnt points for its completion.
"This will be the first step of our 'diplomacy', Amby. Humans… I know them. I am—was—one! Compared to bees, they are greedy, self-centered creatures, but there's one thing they share with bees. Xenophobia! They will never peacefully trade with so literal insects unless we show them we can't be bullied."
Moved by emotion, I stood up and raised my clenched fists. Oh, how I hated to be in my current circumstances, forced to make choices I already made.
"We killed three of them, and we will kill ten if they attack us. We will kill even a hundred, if necessary. Only after we show humans power that will make them piss their pants and only then, THEN, we might hope for actual peace!"
"Peace… but on our terms," Ambrosia said slowly, and a dark smile blood on her face. "Oh, I understand it all now. We won't kill them all—they will be conquered alive. Like a subjugated beehive—or a tad dragon. They will do whatever we say because they know we can kill them easily. And if they are useful enough, we will let them live."
Whatever determination and fighting spirit I had—they all dimd next to that small smile. I suppressed a shiver.
"Amby, did you just invent slavery all by yourself?"
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