The Bee Dungeon
Chapter 275: Bee-vious Dealings?

Later that day, Henilett arrived as expected. Princess Finnakynne followed Belissar to meet with Henilett in the nexus door room.

“Ah, greetings, Princess Finnakynne. Will you be joining us today?”

Finnakynne gave a grin that didn’t reach her eyes.

“Yep! Why do you ask, Heny? Is there something you’d rather I not see, perhaps?”

Henilett met Finnakynne with a smile of her own.

“My, Princess Finnakynne! Are you taking an interest in negotiations with third parties? Her Majesty will be ever so pleased you’re finally resuming your lessons on contracts and diplomacy!”

Finnakynne and Henilett both giggled at each other with smiles still on their faces…but for some reason Belissar did not feel much mirth in the air.

“So…the agreement?”

Henilett turned to him without breaking her smile.

“Yes, of course, Tower Keeper. Here is the official document for your review. Queen Vaniekson has already taken the liberty of signing this one, so if everything is to your liking you may put it into force at your leisure.”

She procured another scroll from some unseen pocket and held it out. But before Belissar could reach for it, Finnakynne zipped through the air and snatched the scroll out of Henilett’s hands.

“Excuse me, Beely, but allow me to review this. I still can’t believe you let Neny and Tarwy advise you on pixie contracts, you really are just forty, huh?”

Belissar blinked.

“…I think I’m in my twenties? I don’t know how old I was when Mrs. Imkomos found me and I stopped counting after she passed but…I know I’m definitely not forty yet…”

Finnakynne shrugged as she opened up the scroll.

“Close enough. Now, let’s see what mother dearest wants with you…”

Finnakynne began mumbling and humming to herself as she read through the agreement. She frowned, then she furrowed her brow, then her face scrunched up and twisted several times, then she scowled. Her humming and mumbling turned to grunting and high-pitched whines as she began to speed up her rolling of the scroll. She finished, snapped the two rolls of the scroll together, and then whirled on Henilett.

“Heny! What in all that is fair is…this?!”

Henilett just stood with her hands behind her back and an innocuous smile on her face.

“Why, your highness, whatever do you mean?”

Finnakynne jabbed her finger towards the other pixie.

“Don’t play dumb! This…this…this is straightforward! Direct! If I didn’t know any better, and Daddy forgive me for saying it, I’d call it honest! It seems positively generous!”

Henilett just tilted her head.

“Yes? Is that a problem?”

Finnakynne narrowed her eyes.

“The problem is there’s no problem! You’re telling me that mother dearest is just going to…play nice with Beely here?! There’s no way! So, either mother dearest has somehow lost her mind…or she’s going all out and devising a trap so devious even I can’t see what it is!”

Henilett just place a finger on her chin for a second…until a sly grin began to form on her face.

“Why, Princess Finnakynne, I must say you seem awfully protective of Tower Keeper Belissar.”

Finnakynne froze.

“Huh?”

Henilett’s grin only grew.

“You, who never cared for Her Majesty’s negotiations with the other signatories, finding them, and I quote, ‘soooo boring’, are now attempting to audit her dealings with the Tower Keeper? I am most curious to your motivations.”

Finnakynne unconsciously took a step back midair.

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“That’s…i-it’s only natural! I already made a deal with Beely! This is my place for mischief!”

Henilett just quirked up an eyebrow.

“Oh?”

Finnakynne glared at her.

“And Beely’s the one making the amazing honey! Mother dearest herself said don’t mess with the sugar! I’m just making sure no one does!”

Henilett tilted her head again.

“And you believe that Her Majesty would risk disrupting the production of said honey herself?”

Finnakynne growled. Henilett’s grin grew and she slowly slid up to the pixie princess.

“Not to worry, Your Highness. Her Majesty is far more concerned with the opportunities Tower Keeper Belissar presents in the mortal realm and in the war with the Hunger than with the Tower Keeper himself. As you have seen, the deal here will not be to his detriment, nor will it restrict his dealings with other parties. If you have personal plans for our new signatory here…then that is between you and him. Her Majesty would only approve of you…conducting some personal mischief here, as you put it, so long as it does not disrupt the production of honey.”

Finnakynne’s face turned red and she clenched her teeth.

“That’s not what I meant! Just, ugh! Just don’t trick Beely or I’ll tell the bees not to give you any more honey! I’m friends with them, you know!”

And with that, she stormed off. Henilett giggled and turned to Belissar, who had simply watched the argument in silence.

“She is very fun to tease, at least while she is still young and inexperienced.”

She then cleared her throat and procured another scroll, since Finnakynne had flown off with the previous one.

“I do apologize for making you wait, Tower Keeper, but here is the agreement. Not to worry, it is identical to the one our princess absconded with, we’ve long since learned the value of making multiple copies.”

Belissar blinked but took the scroll.

“Right…”

As before, he used his Tower sight and Tower messages to check over the scroll with a group of bees that had memorized the negotiations he had with Henilett earlier. The deal was as they recalled. To start with, the pixie queen would give a gift of rare flowers to Belissar in gratitude for his contributions to the Compact and then they would open diplomatic relations with each other. A representative of the pixie court would be allowed to reside in his Tower for the sake of future communications, though he could restrict their access to any given part of it save the nexus door room and whatever room he chose to house them in.

The pixie court would have the right to trade with Belissar and his Tower’s residents, which would be arranged as regular visits by merchant caravans unless Belissar allowed them long-term use of his Tower’s land at a future point. The right was merely to send merchants to offer deals, neither side was obligated to conclude any, and there were numerous terms and conditions designed to protect Belissar and his Tower’s residents from exploitative deals. Queen Vanieskon did make it a point to state that acquiring mana honey would be their primary goal, though it was not formally required that Belissar offer it.

The pixie court also would be permitted to send a scouting mission to the mortal realm beyond Belissar’s Tower, in order to determine if a pixie outpost was feasible and desirable at this time. If they decided it so, both sides agreed to negotiate in good faith on land rights for such an outpost, and on travel rights between the outpost and the nexus door through Belissar’s Tower. Belissar had brought up the sigmaka, so the agreement included that Belissar make a request to introduce the sigmaka to the pixie court and that he would have the right to consult with the sigmaka before concluding any land deals.

But the part that was initially most surprising, and most exciting, to Belissar was the military alliance. The pixie queen offered a wide range of support, from using pixie scouts to help locate and ward off threats from the mortal realm, to pixie advisors supporting not only his Tower but friendly Circle Masters and even the wardens whenever they were assisting him, to the pixies making available direct reinforcements for purifications and invasions, all to be used or passed on at his own discretion and available against any and all threats, Hunger and otherwise. What surprised Belissar were the terms Queen Vanieskon wanted from him in exchange: she apparently did not expect him to reciprocate equally. She did ask Belissar to protect pixies in the mortal realm from unprovoked attack as per the Estelende Compact, but she did not expect him to help the pixie court against their enemies.

Instead, she asked him to continue expanding against the Hunger, to assist the Compact against the Hunger, and to share any knowledge he had gained from his battles against the Hunger with the other Circle Masters. All of which Belissar was already doing or planning to do. The pixies were offering a great deal…and not really asking anything of him at all.

Belissar furrowed his brow. This had sounded great at first and Nenavann had explained why Queen Vanieskon had offered this, but Finnakynne’s reaction had him a bit suspicious.

“…could you explain why you’re offering all of this? I mean…fighting the Hunger is something I have to do anyways, so you aren’t really getting anything?”

Henilett smiled at him…but this time she did not giggle or puff her chest up.

“I was wondering if you would ask that. Queen Vanieskon told me exactly what to say when you did.”

She flew up to him and looked him in the eye. For the first time since she arrived, she dropped her smile.

“Queen Vanieskon, ruler of the pixie court and greatest of all pixies, thus decrees: The Hunger is a danger that threatens us all, that has brought doom to every corner of this world, to all things both fair and foul alike. You, Tower Keeper Belissar, have stood against it and reclaimed the world from its grasp, if but a single step of it. There is nothing Queen Vanieskon could take from you that is more valuable than the hope of reclaiming more. As long as you push against the Hunger, Queen Vanieskon and all who she commands stand beside you. What you have been doing anyways…is worth everything to us. So, please, for the sake of our hope and the world itself…let us help you.”

Belissar stared at her wide-eyed for a moment, then began to nod. Nenavann had told him as much so he had heard it before…but it was another thing to see the always smug and smiling Henilett say it so seriously. Even now, she looked at him with an intense gaze without a hint of a giggle or smile.

“…I see. In that case…please do.”

Belissar signed his name on the bottom of the scroll, right next to where Queen Vanieskon already had.

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