Energy is the force of life that runs through all living things, mages are those that can manipulate that force and Phoebe is one who has an infinite amount of it. With her at his side, Wasp's power and potential is limitless.
However, his greatest threat is still alive and seeking revenge for his last defeat. His brother Ratel has not giving up in trying to destroy everything that Wasp holds dear, his determination has only grown stronger. He has raised an army to begin attacking Wasp's homes, and he has a special surprise in store for Phoebe.
Peace in paradise has been shaken. Everything Phoebe loves is being taken from her, her entire life being thrown in chaos and pain. She has to be stronger for her people than she thinks she can be. Will she be the queen that they need or will her throne be toppled before she even has a chance to try?
I
One last strike. All or nothing. No more hedging. No more beating around the bush or waiting for an in.
He had spent the last few week doing nothing but finding each of his pathetic little towns and raising his army.
He was attacking. He was attacking now and he wasn't going to hold anything back.
"Wasp!" Dorone grumbled as he stomped through the palace. "Wasp? Where the hell are you?!"
Really, of all days to be late. Dorone was going to kick his ass the second he found him. He didn't care that this was technically Wasp's palace and that he himself was only Wasp's second – slash that – third in command. As of today Dorone was only third in command.
He couldn't say that he was minding the demotion considering that he still had all the same rights and privileges as before. He was still Wasp's right hand man. He just wasn't his queen. Which was fine with Dorone, he didn't swing that way.
However, the queen would tear him a new one if Wasp was late today. And they had about sixteen minutes before Wasp was late and Dorone got chewed out for it. He sort of felt like the best man at a wedding with a groom that was being uncooperative.
Dorone continued stalking through the palace looking for his best friend and official brother. He was dressed for the occasion, wearing his nicest clothes. The silver vest over the pink dress shirt really accentuated his dark skin while his black pants made his legs look long and slender. Dorone had been blessed with a face that reminded people of the good boy next door, something that he had no problems exploiting. It was accentuated with an earring that was still new enough to hurt in the shape of a tiny, silver wasp. The tiny wasp tattoo just above his thumb was the only thing that made it look like he wasn't heading for church. He looked damn good in his own, completely unbiased opinion.
It was a special day, everyone was dressing to the nines. People in the town of Nest didn't often get to go to formal events, Dorone's nightclub only hosted formal night twice a year. This chance to break out their best clothes was something no one was missing.
Except, of course, their leader, Wasp, who Dorone was having trouble locating at the moment.
He had to admit that he was avoiding Wasp's workroom out of simple hope. He really didn't want his brother to be working right now. However, he could only deny the inevitable for so long before he finally gave up and went knocking on the large, wooden door.
This was the only door in the entirety of Nest that no one but their leader could open. It was mage locked to make sure that the mage inside wasn't disturbed while he was working with experimental, potentially dangerous energy.
Dorone needed only wait for a moment before it swung open on its own baring the workroom to Dorone's eyes. It was a magical room with moss for carpeting and diamonds hanging from the high ceiling. There were books on every wall, long tables for studying, working, or storing incomplete projects. There was real earth under the moss, a big ass blue-green fire in the center of everything, and Wasp himself overseeing all of it.
Wasp wasn't good looking. He wasn't as blessed as Dorone was. He was kind of plain, truth be told. The only remarkable thing about him were his eyes. His eyes that glowed with the same blue-green power that the fire did. Dorone had been told by their beloved queen that those eyes were the most captivating part of Wasp's appearance.
They certainly burned - quite literally - at times. When Wasp was mad, when he was manipulating a great deal of energy, when he was staring down at his newest project as he was at this moment.
"I know you are not working right now!" Dorone snapped as he stomped inside. The soft moss and earth damped any force from his steps and ruined the effect.
Wasp looked up, grinning triumphantly. "It's working flawlessly, Dorone. Come look!"
"Leave the network alone and get your butt in gear." Doronr stopped at his side, glaring at him meaningfully.
Truthfully, he was lucky that Wasp was even dressed. With his black dress pants and vest with a pale yellow dress shirt, he looked very much like his namesake. Even his black hair fell in line with the look, as did the single gold band around Wasp's ring finger. Dorone couldn't see it from here, but he knew that there would be a small bee carved on the top of the ring that Wasp never removed. It was the only jewelry that he tended to wear. It wasn't a wedding ring though. Technically, by mage standards at least, Wasp was still unmarried to his queen.
Wasp ignored him in favor of looking at his latest creation. "I'm really quite pleased with how well this is running. A week after launch and all of the hiccups have been minor."
"You have ten minutes to get down to the square, and if you're late I suffer, so move it."
Wasp laughed. "I have plenty of time, Dorone. Calm down. The network was Phoebe's idea, she's just as eager as I am to see it working."
"Of course. Just not if it cancels her bonding ceremony! Jeez. I knew you were an idiot with women, I didn't realize the problem was this severe."
"Stop worrying, I'm coming." Despite his words, Wasp didn't move from his position above the table.
The network only existed thanks to Phoebe. If she hadn't come up with the idea, Wasp might never have done so himself. It was rather simple as these things go. The only difficulty had been the transition from the old system to the new one.
Phoebe had seen, a little over a month ago now, Wasp pulling an orb of energy from the lake at his post Second Point. That orb powered the entirety of Second Point. It kept the lights on, kept air circulating underground, and provided the people there with clean water and food. The power came from him through Nest itself, but it was routed through the orb sort of like a circuit breaker.
When Wasp had been rebuilding Second Point, Phoebe had suggested to him the idea of the network. Always happy to experiment and try new things, Wasp had begun initial planning on it immediately.
Now, not only Second Point but all ten of his outposts were connected to Nest through the network. It needed no circuit breaker power sphere that could easily be stolen as there had been in Second Point. The power circulated within Nest and all the other outposts smoothly and without Wasp needing to store the power on sight.
It had the added benefit of connecting the outposts which were scattered throughout the world to Nest and each other. The network provided a means of communication previously only able to be enjoyed by cellphones.
The fire pit in the center of Wasp's workroom had been replicated in each of the ten outposts. Those fires were smaller, generally about the size of a campfire. However that was the connection to the network and it was the center of the post.
The ultimate connection, the central nexus of the network, was this table. On it, like a 3D map, Wasp could see each of his outposts laid out before him. They each glowed with the blue-green of his energy, he could see the buildings and trees of them exactly as if he were to be looking over them from the sky. Being able to deal with warps and problems in any of the ten outposts from right here would save him a great deal of time that he normally spent having to actually travel to the posts himself.
Which reminded Wasp, "Oh, right. Dorone, I've been meaning to give you this."
Dorone looked over curiously as Wasp walked over to his fire and reached into the base of the flames. They didn't burn him, they were his. They came from him. When he pulled his hand back there were two bracelets in his hand.
They were thick, more like a bangles than bracelets, and made of gold. The centerpieces were diamonds about the size of a dollar coin that had been cut in such a way that they resembled a mirror.
Wasp turned back and held one out to Dorone. "This is your connection to the network. I've given one to all of the heads of the outposts as well as Phoebe. This one is yours, the other one is mine. It's like a wrist phone. Just say the name of the person you want to talk to and they should connect. Me and Phoebe have been testing them through all the different outposts, they seem to work great no matter the distance."
"Cool. Thanks." Dorone took it and they both slipped them over their wrists. Though it was big enough to slide easily over his hand, the moment it was on his wrist, the band tightened to fit. It wasn't uncomfortable, the metal was perfectly suited to sitting right where it was. Dorone admired it in the light of the magic fire for a moment. "Looks good on me. Now are you going to get moving or am I going to have to drag you out the door? We're down to...five minutes now, and the queen will have my head if you're late."
"Stop nagging. I'm coming." Wasp laughed as he turned away from the table and followed Dorone from the workroom. The mage lock on the door automatically reengaged as soon as the door shut behind them. "So, have you thought of a name for the network yet?"
"Yeah, I think I got a good one." One of Dorone's jobs, besides just making life easier for Wasp in general, was the design and naming of the traditions and positions in Nest. "I've decided to call it the Hive Mind."
Wasp laughed out loud, adding yet another thing to the list of things in his life that was a hive euphemism.
Basing it off of Wasp's name, it was Dorone that had thought of calling Wasp's hive Nest. He had named and designed the honeycombs that the people of the town used in place of money. It was him that started calling Phoebe simply Bee, allowing the natural evolution to Queen Bee which was what she was called now. Wasp was fairly certain – he certain wouldn't have been surprised to learn – that Dorone thought of that as well. It was also him that designed the ceremonies around Nest. The oath ceremony and the bonding ceremony being the two major ones.
The latter of which they were holding today for Phoebe. She was finally joining the hive as an official worker. Since it was such an auspicious day – their queen finally joining them and all – Dorone had gone all out and designed a truly fantastic ceremony for the occasion. Their queen wasn't getting the usual bonding ceremony. She got something special.
Now Dorone only needed to get his best friend there on time.
Phoebe was talking and laughing along with the rest of the girls that were around her. It was a happy day and the atmosphere around them reflected that.
According to Dorone's plan for her today, she had started by bathing in the new pools at the base of the waterfall. Cleaned in the water of Nest, he told her, made it seem special and ceremonial. She reminded him that she had taken a warm, private shower in the very same water in the palace just yesterday and he told her to stop mouthing off and do as he said.
Which was why Phoebe had dressed in this flowing white gown after bathing. Though that was normally part of the bonding ceremony, her's was cut slightly different. It was trimmed at the neckline, the bodice, and at the hem with a single gold band. It matched the ring on her finger that itself was a gold band that formed a sort of flower at the top, in the center of which was a piece of amber with a golden wasp embedded inside.
She was sitting on the banks of the pools at the moment on a blanket as her many female friends that she had come to know in the last month fretted around her. They were painting her nails gold, putting on her make up, and adorning her with a great deal of gold jewelry. Because the jewelry was made personally by Wasp for her, Phoebe took to wearing a great deal of it every day. It balanced just on the edge of being gaudy without going over. She was the only person who would wear jewelry at her bonding ceremony.
All the gold she wore really accentuated the honey gold of her hair and made her tawny brown eyes blaze brightly. Hair that was being pulled back and braided by Gabriela while others passed her the white flowers that was so abundant here in the Nest to put into her hair.
Phoebe smiled as they worked and looked around Nest. Even after living here for a few months it still took her breath away to look around.
The large waterfall they sat at the base of fed into a series of pools and hot springs that had only recently been created. It also fed the river that cut through the town of Nest which was settled in a beautiful, emerald green valley that was coated in the white flowers that were also in Phoebe's hair.
No two houses in Nest were the same as they were all created based on their owners wishes and wills, and yet somehow they all blended together in perfect little utopia. It was startling to think that just beyond the rocky walls of the mountains and the barrier that acted as their sky and protected them, laid the barren land that was Antarctica.
Wasp had built this land from nothing more than the energy given to him by his people from a single cave in one of the mountains. As a hive mage he took the energy of other living things and used it to manipulate the world around him. This entire valley and his ten outposts had been built in only seven years. The more than a thousand people that served and provided him with their energy were the happiest people on earth.
And it was a family that Phoebe was finally, officially joining today.
She had already been living in Nest for months now. Wasp used her energy on almost a daily basis for many things. That made her a drone. Connecting her energy directly to his today would make her a worker and mark the moment that she was supposed to have been allowed into Nest for the first time.
However, due to some strange circumstances with Wasp's brother Ratel and her own weird power, Phoebe had been forced to move into Nest early.
Ratel was a problem that they were afraid hadn't been completely dealt with yet. His body hadn't been found, they were sure that he was still out there. But that was a worry for another time.
Phoebe's power, strange and rare as it was, was something that she rarely worried about at all lately.
Unlike most people who made their own energy and could only handle having so much, Phoebe was constantly absorbing it and had no limit to how much she could have. In fact, every time Wasp used her energy she immediately replaced it. She had no control over the power. It did what it did without her knowledge or permission.
The two of them still knew so little about it. All they knew was that Phoebe could never be drained of her energy and that it was hereditary. Phoebe's sister, Jean, had also inherited the power. Likely from their father who had passed away when they had been children.
With Phoebe and Jean, who both had limitless energy, Wasp himself was a mage with limitless power.
But that was not why she was joining his Nest as a worker. Phoebe smiled down at her ring which glinted in the sunlight.
It was on her ring finger but they hadn't been married. A mage marriage was far more important than a normal marriage as it couldn't be undone. So Phoebe and Wasp weren't married. However, they were as close as they could be without performing that ceremony.
Wasp had already met Phoebe's mother. As anyone could have guessed, it took no time at all for the charming Wasp to get Phoebe's naturally loving mother Molly in love with him despite her initial dislike of Wasp who was known as a gang leader in her hometown. Molly adored Wasp and was convinced that Phoebe had moved in with him somewhere out of town. She wasn't totally wrong, she just didn't know about Nest and what it was.
So the memory spell that had Molly convinced that Phoebe was still in the house could finally be lifted. The only one still in place was the one that told her her youngest Jean was still in the house.
As if she knew that Phoebe was thinking about her, Jean cleared her yelled loudly.
"Yo, Phoebe! Wake up."
Phoebe blinked and focused on her sister who was sitting across from her. "Did you say something?"
"Yeah, we said you're done and it's time. Let's go." Jean jerked her head almost rudely. Jean, at only eighteen, was more than a bit of a brat. Until just recently, she and Phoebe had been constantly arguing. They only resisted now because Phoebe had her role as queen of this Nest to think of.
So she smiled at her sister's abrasive attitude and got to her feet, her jewelry jingling gently as she did so. She slipped her feet into a pair of gold slippers and smiled at the girls around her who were all looking just as eager and happy as she felt.
Together, they all turned and began the walk back to Nest and the town square where the event would be taking place.
The town square was decorated with white and gold streamers and flowers and the bright, happy faces of the people who called Nest home. The outposts had opened yesterday and workers that normally didn't even live in Nest had flooded the valley for the chance to see their queen's ceremony.
Wasp stepped up to the large fountain in the center of the square and looked up at the jets of water that were shooting high into the air. Dorone really had gone all out for the design and plans this time.
A hush fell over the crowd as Wasp lifted his hands, both of them glowing brightly. They all enjoyed watching him manipulate energy.
The blue-green energy spread from his hands in long ribbons and began wrapping themselves around the fountain in the square. The loud crack of stone breaking and moving echoed through the valley as the fountain's shape began changing.
Before all of their eyes the water spouts began cutting off and changing direction as a large stone slab grew in the center of the fountain.
Wasp stepped up onto the rim and put his foot down confidently towards the pool of water. Instead of getting wet, his power summoned a step stone. Then another and another as he walked across the water towards the slab. The alter was traditional for the ceremony.
Wasp lifted his hand into the air and the energy in it began solidifying. The crowd cheered as the shape of the ceremonial dagger took shape. For the occasion, Wasp had created a special dagger. This one was had a gold hilt with a diamond blade that glinted in the sunlight.
He lifted his other hand and summoned from his own personal library the leather bound book that contained the bonding instructions. He knew them by heart but the book was traditional as well.
Only once both of them were sturdy in his hands did the crowd look away and begin parting ways.
Wasp smiled as Phoebe walked towards him. She looked like a vision, every inch the queen his people called her. Despite creating the entire outfit himself there was just something breathtaking about seeing his beloved actually in it.
Phoebe stepped up onto the rim of the fountain and into the water just as confidently as he had. The stepping stones appeared for her just as faithfully as they had for him, and she walked towards the alter.
Setting down the dagger and the book, Wasp took Phoebe's hand and helped her up onto the stone. He picked up the dagger laid her down with the point pressing into her chest.
All at once his people stopped cheering. Instead they took up a melodic, slightly hypnotic hum that rumbled through the air comfortingly.
Wasp waved his hand across the book which opened on its own. The pages began flipping as though in a strong wind before coming to an abrupt stop at the exact page that held the bonding spell.
Wasp lifted the dagger into the air, calling out something in a language that none but him understood. It was simply an expression of gratitude for the energy he was receiving, spoken in a dead language. But because of that, it sounded exotic and powerful.
The blue-green glow of his energy coated up the length of the dagger, refracting off of the diamond and shinning onto the faces of all present. Still shining, Wasp lowered it and pressed the tip against the center of Phoebe's chest.
"Do you, Phoebe Meliponini, swear your allegiance to this hive?" He asked in a loud booming voice.
"I do." she answered confidently.
The tip of the blade sank into Phoebe's skin. It wasn't painful. It felt kind of tingly, nice in a way.
"Do you swear to maintain the secrets of this hive from any and all who seek it?"
"I do."
The blade slipped in a little more. Phoebe could feel it connecting that infinite well of energy that was hers.
"And do you swear your loyalty and your energy to me?"
"I do."
The blade slammed to the hilt in Phoebe's chest cutting off the humming.
She couldn't help it. She cried out as her back arched off of the alter. It didn't hurt. It was just so odd. There was no way to describe the feeling of having her energy so suddenly and permanently tapped into. She knew this part was coming, she had seen her sister do the same thing, but she could still do nothing to prevent herself from doing it as well.
Unlike Jean's ceremony when Wasp had been unprepared of the pull of the power she held, he was ready for it now. He felt Phoebe's power pull on him, powerful enough to suck the entity of his and his hive's energy into her. It was easier to resist this time. It wasn't quite easy, but he didn't have to put every fiber of his focus into keeping just that from happen.
Phoebe's eyes began blazing the same blue-green of Wasp's energy. Everything up to this point had been only for show. This was the true bonding and Phoebe could feel it. It was strange but wonderful to know he was connecting to her this way.
Because Wasp was ready for her power this time, it took less time to bind Phoebe than it had Jean. After only a few seconds he pulled the dagger from Phoebe's chest and pointing it to the sky.
Immediately, the gathered crowd began roaring as bright happy music broke out. Everyone was clapping and dancing and cheering as loud as they could.
Wasp, ignoring them all for the moment, slipped his hand around Phoebe's neck and lifted her up so he could place a loving kiss on her lips. The cheering only got louder at the sight and Phoebe smiled into his mouth.
This was it. She was really a worker now. After so long, she finally belonged to Nest.
When Wasp pulled back, both of them were smiling.
The flashing of the diamond on her bangle that connected to the network distracted her.
She released Wasp to look down at it. He looked at his own and was surprised to see it doing the exact same thing.
"What...?" Phoebe looked at him, confused.
Wasp touched the center of the diamond and closed his eyes. Not before Phoebe could see them begin to glow with his power. He was probing the network, looking for the problem.
It didn't take but a moment and his eyes were snapping open in fear.
"Milan."
"What? Wasp, what's wrong?"
"The Milan outpost is under attack!"