The queen gestured to two warriors that were bigger and had much more chitin armor on their bodies than the others. They skittered to Weylan, firmly took his arms in their hands from behind standing left and right of him and half carried him directly in front of their queen. There they made it very clear that he was supposed to kneel, which he did.

The queen lifted a slender hand and touched his forehead. "Royal Inspection!"

She looked at him for a moment, then pulled her hand away as if bitten. The warriors tensed and the two holding Weylan hurriedly pulled him back a few steps. Their claws clamped down on his arms like vices.

"An assassin? They dare send an assassin after me? I'll have you killed, filled with poison and dropped right at the Academy! Guard, rip off his head!"

Weylan vehemently shook his head, which was basically all he could do at the moment. "Wait! I'm not a killer! I just wanted to help Ulmenglanz return her god!"

The queen signaled her guard to hold. The giant insect's claw was already wrapped around his throat. She glared at Weylan. "What are you talking about? Returning Fliedabarr? I still honor the Lord of the Forest, but he is gone from this realm. The Voice told me, when I tried to pray to him at his shrine. That's when the holy relic appeared. A broken part of an antler, to symbolize his demise."

"Well, she was his priestess and she had visions about parts of his symbol that led us here…"

"Is she here?"

Weylan gulped. The queen didn't sound like she was about to murder him and his companions, but he wasn't quite sure. "What if she were?"

The queen lifted herself up higher. "I would honor any former priestess of Fliedabarr and receive her as a valued guest."

"Well, if you let me go, I can probably get to her before she leaves the hive."

"No need." The queen clapped her hands and his guards dropped Weylan and stepped back. Tiny blue glowing bees emerged from hidden crevices and zoomed away.

Workers brought several knee-high cubes of wax and placed them in a half circle around the queen. Weylan was invited to sit on one.

"Now, while we wait for your companions to arrive, tell me your story. All of it."

* * *

Weylan was still talking when a group of warriors escorted the rest of his team and the were-folk inside.

The queen was just shaking her head in disbelief. "How are you still alive? We haven't even reached the part about how you got into Wildeguard Academy and you should be dead thrice over! And I'm quite sure you left out plenty."

Weylan shrugged. "Well, mostly luck and good friends, I guess." Then he turned to the arriving group and frowned. "The were-folk… are still with you?"

Hrafnkel, the were-honeybadger grimaced. "The vent was a trap. Some kind of ward activated an alarm and suddenly dozens of were-bee warriors dropped from hidden holes or just burst right through thin wax walls. There wasn't even a fight. We gave right up."

The lead-warrior's feelers started to vibrate and glow slightly blue, as did the feelers of the were-bee queen. After a while, she smiled. "Seems your team led my children through a merry chase around the hive before they could be invited."

Ulmenglanz glared at her angrily. "Well, you should have sent someone who could actually talk instead of just wave around spears threateningly. We got the message after they stopped fighting each time they had a clear advantage."

The lead-warrior's face was made of unmoving chitin with no way to show emotions by facial expressions. But he still managed to express the extent of his frustration by body posture alone.

Faya joined in. "I spent all of my remaining mana to heal the warrior we almost killed. Maybe you could have given them some written message? A wax tablet or something? There seems to be enough of it around."

The queen snapped her fingers, the sound hard and loud due to the hard chitin they were made of. "Written message… Of course. I should have thought of that. I haven't seen a written word since leaving my village. That was… long ago. I don't know if I even remember how to write."

Darken stepped forward, ignoring the instantly raised spears of the guards. He bowed deeply. "Your majesty, I am honored to be invited to your presence. My name is Darken O' Mighty, master of the dark arts. I am sure the academy will be more than willing to send an instructor to freshen up your writing and reading skills, as well as provide plenty of paper, quills and ink."

The queen gave him a stern look. "The academy should have thought of peaceful trade agreements before trying to kill me."

Darken blinked. "They did?"

The warriors stood straighter and gripped their weapons harder as righteous fury made smell filled the room. "Yes! They did. Right after I established my first hive, they sent hunters for my head. The few children I had back then barely managed to ward them off to cover my retreat. I hid in dank and deep caves in and around the Everdark Canyon, until my swarm was big enough to openly build a hive again. And since then, every now and then, they have sent thieves to steal my precious honey and even my Gelee Royal."

Weylan had trouble following the quick changes in the mood of the discussion, so he stayed silent.

Darken didn't seem to be fazed by the queen's wrath. "I don't know what caused an attack on you, but that must have been more than two and a half centuries ago. I am but a first year in the academy, but I can't fathom that they bear you ill will. We have been instructed not to harm any of your hive. Only one of our teams had instructions to enter your hive and yes, they planned to steal from you. They were the stealthiest and surely had orders to avoid battle."

Weylan interjected. "I was told the academy tried to negotiate for Gelee Royal, but you turned down every offer."

The queen regally waved her hand. "I will not trade with that murderous scum!"

Faya's voice was full of compassion as she said. "Whoever ordered the attack on you died long ago. As have their children and probably their children's children. Isn't it time for peace? Contact with the academy could provide both sides with advantages. You must be lonely in these halls, with none but your children to provide you company."

The queen fell silent, contemplating her words, then slowly nodding. "It seems like weeks ago to me. Few things change in the hive. Time flies by unnoticed… I will consider it. But why do they need Gelee Royal that desperately?"

The students looked at each other, until Weylan reluctantly spoke up. "We don't know exactly. But there's talk they need it to negotiate a peace with the Goblin Empire."

The others looked at him in surprise, but none more so than the queen. "The goblin what?"

"The Goblin Empire? It covers most of the territory north of the Wildewood."

She shook her royal head. "Never heard of it. There have been some goblin raiding parties trying to enter my territory, but since their first raid I've placed wards all along the canyon. Goblins are easy to distinguish by smell. None have since reached my hive. I doubt they need Gelee Royal. Their first and only raiding party into my hive swarmed inside like ants. They ignored stores of honey and wax. They fought their way directly to my quarters. I barely escaped, but it seemed they didn't care for me. Only the Gelee Royal. They stole my whole stash, since I foolishly stored all of it in one place."

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Darken held up his hand. "Wait… When was that?"

The queen had to think a while before answering. "It was a while before news of the end of the Necromancer War reached my hive. They were led by a female goblin alchemist, throwing exploding gourds left and right. The goblins were blowing biting poisonous dust from hollow reeds at the faces of my warriors. It was a massacre. I've built up the hive and increased the number of warriors tenfold."

"So, that was about two centuries ago. They probably used up all of it a long time ago."

The queen held up her hands in frustration. "Why do they even want it? Only a few of my workers are born with the ability to create it. I need it to survive and sometime in the future, when my long life nears its end, I will feed it to a larva and breed a new queen to succeed me. It doesn't have the live-extending effect on other races."

Darken looked thoughtful. "Maybe not in its natural state, but it surely has tremendous power if refined in an alchemical elixir. I would really love to experiment with it, if I may."

"You may not." The queen's tone was final.

Ulmenglanz had calmed down a bit and now sounded more reasonable. "If I may ask, how do you know it has no effect on other races? Have you tried?"

The gaze of the queen stared into the distance, remembering something in the distant past. "I was curious why the goblins wanted it, so I asked Herbaeus, a priest of Fliedabarr who lived up in the forest at the canyon's edge. He often traded skins and animal parts for honey." The queen smiled reminiscently. "My warriors could have gotten those themselves, but he was always so polite and he really liked honey. And he told good stories. Anyway, he used a ritual to commune with his god and confirmed my instinctual knowledge. On non-insect races, it has only a faint rejuvenating effect. It can be used to reduce wrinkles, but little more."

Faya whistled. "That would be reason enough for many humans to desire it."

The queen looked doubtful. "Really?"

Weylan smiled. "You haven't been with humans much lately, have you?"

Everyone nodded in agreement.

The queen seemed a bit miffed. "And what is your reason to want it?"

Weylan shrugged. "As I said, I don't know exactly. I've overheard some things. It sounded like they wanted to trade some ingredients for peace with the Goblin Empire. It did sound like it was for one specific elixir and that the last two were very hard to get. The last one almost impossible."

The queen was quiet for a while. Then shook her head. "I just can't wrap my head around the fact that the Wildeguard Academy has problems dealing with some upstart, so called 'empire', of goblins. They attacked me with what I suspect was their full force at a time I was still weak."

Ursa moved around on her wax-cube uncomfortably. "Do you mind if I return to human form?"

The queen gave her a friendly wave to do as she wanted.

The were-bear stood up, stretched and cracked some of her joints. Grey light started shining from her eyes, getting brighter and brighter. Then with a snap, her body shrunk down in a flash of grey light and mist. Her fur halters and short trousers shrank with her, still fitting tight, instead of falling loosely to the ground.

Darken grinned inwardly. The prudish programmers had again opted for decency instead of realism.

Ursa's now long, and a bit messy hair still held the same red-brown color of her fur and her eyes the same deep brown irises. Her skin was tanned and she still looked muscled, not in a bodybuilder way, but in the way of someone used to actually working hard at her job. She sat down with a relieved sigh.

The queen looked at the two other were-folk expectantly.

Sigrun, the were-she-wolf followed suit and also changed into a woman. Middle aged and unremarkable, apart from her silver-grey hair and her amber eyes.

Hrafnkel waved her invitation off. "I'm good. I rarely use my human form."

Faya gave the were-honeybadger a surprised look. "What does your wife say about this? Doesn't she mind?"

"Nah. Found a same-heart partner. She loves running her claws through my fur."

Weylan looked at him. "Same-heart?"

"Same heart-animal. She's also a were-honeybadger. It's rare, since there are so many different heart-animals around. Most keep to their human form to have a common base, but the animals ticks and preferences still stay. Can be hard sometimes."

Ursa stopped trying to get her messy hair in shape with her hands and chuckled. "Try having a fox-heart partner in winter."

Faya looked confused, but Weylan instantly joined in the laughter. "Yeah… I can imagine that."

Faya narrowed her eyes at him, and he explained. "Bears hibernate, while foxes remain fully active in winter."

"I don't hibernate, but I prefer to sleep long and have much rest and quiet. While Eldkysst is most active at night and during twilight hours." Ursa clarified.

The queen wiped a tear of laughter from her eye. "I didn't even realize how much I missed having someone to talk to. Maybe…" She paused, looking insecure for the first time. "… the were folk or people from the academy could visit me sometimes?"

Ursa bowed her head. "We'd be honored."

Hrafnkel shrugged. "Well, that depends how much honey you're offering."

The queen gave him a stern glare. "It's already hard to feed a hive this size. I'm afraid we have hardly any excess honey."

Ursa rubbed her chin in thought. "In normal bee hives, we put in sugar syrup and sometimes fondant in exchange for the honey we take."

The queen's eyes lit up. "Fondant? That could work. Bring me a basket full and I'll try if the workers can eat it. I'd be willing to trade for a like amount of honey."

Ursa licked her lips at the thought of honey. "Done!"

Weylan interjected. "Well, on the topic of trade, where did you get that nice riddle door behind the waterfall?"

The queen grimaced. "We found two of Peituwin's tokens on a team of intruders that tried to sneak into the hive two or three weeks ago. They were spotted and dispatched. Three of them were revenants, their corpses disappeared. Only the were-mole they had with them to dig the tunnel into my hive left a body."

Sigrun shot to her feet. "Skamryn? That's where our old miner went to? We've been looking for him for a week, since a neighbor found his house empty. Hearth cold, food spoiled on the table, and some traces of a short fight."

Faya jumped up from her wax cube, ignoring the tension of the guards in her fury. "They kidnapped him from his home? This is an outrage! Who were those revenants? We'll find and kill them again and again, until they leave our world for good!"

The queen noticed her hearth-fire pendant for the first time and bowed. "A priestess of Lieselotte? I would beg your blessing on this house before you leave. It would mean much to me."

While Faya was still composing herself, the queen continued. "As for the revenants, they wore masks to hide their faces. I can only say, that the one in chainmail had orange hair, as he lost his helm in the fight."

Weylan groaned. "The other ones were an anubian that used druidic type spells that killed plants and rotted stuff and a slutty dressed woman with a staff with a sparkling crystal ball on its tip?"

The queen looked sternly at him. "Yes, on both. Do you know them?"

"They are already enemies of ours. We didn't know they were in the area. They should be in Mulnirsheim, far in the south."

Silence fell, until the queen addressed the dryad. "I have been told you were a priestess of Fliedabarr before he… vanished?"

Ulmenglanz gulped, then nodded. The memory wasn't pleasant.

The queen bowed. "Then you are welcome here. Now and always. I have revered the Lord of the Forests for all of my life. His shrine has brought blessings upon the harvest and peace to my heart. His priest visited the valley long ago. He was lost in the canyon and my workers brought him to me. I offered hospitality and he returned a year later with everything he needed to build a shrine."

The dryad looked at the shrine and reverently bowed her head for a silent prayer. After she finished, she addressed the queen again. "What about the silver relic? Did the priest put it on the shrine?"

The queen shook her head. "No. It appeared right after I was informed of Fliedabarr's passing. I assumed it was a symbol of his demise. Part of a broken antler. Your friend here tells me you have another theory?"

Ulmenglanz nodded once. "I do not know for sure, but I have the feeling, if I manage to unite his holy symbol, I'll be able to do… something. Hopefully to return him to this realm. I do feel like that is not something that will happen soon. I'll probably need to get much stronger and higher level to perform such a task. I'll also need many more resources, paraphernalia, and of course allies."

The queen raised her voice. "All aid I can grant for this task shall be yours."

The dryad contemplated the offer, then came to a decision. "I have two parts already. I have feared to lose them on my travels, so I left them in a place I think is the most secure. I would ask you to allow me to return here before I return there and take the relic with me."

The queen stared into the dryad's eyes as if to read her mind, then nodded. "I will believe you. You may claim the relic at any time. Until then, my elites will guard it with their lives."

The students and were-folk cried out, when two monstrous were-bee warriors appeared next to the queen and marched over to take position next to the shrine. They were bigger, more muscular and much fiercer than the other warriors. The elites held no weapons, but their claws seemed fully able to tear apart even full plate armor.

Darken couldn't hold himself back any longer. "How are you doing that? Hiding yourself and some of your guards? I've seen invisibility spells and they don't work that perfectly."

The queen shrugged. "I'm a sorceress of nature and you are in my place of power. My variant of the invisibility spell works very well, but only if the target is standing perfectly still. I don't expect you to want to learn this version."

"I can't cast normal spells anyway. I was just curious. Thank you."

Some humanoid worker types appeared carrying wooden bowls of honey and cups full of nectar, as well as some with water.

The atmosphere became increasingly relaxed, and the group chatted about a variety of topics. Weylan was worried that the other students, especially Silvea, might be worried about them. After a brief discussion, the students drafted a letter, which one of the worker bees took away. Towards evening, the queen invited her guests to spend the night in the hive, which everyone gratefully accepted.

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