BD - PONon-Bee 352.2 - Grave Doubts

Starami furrowed his brow. What precisely had occurred? Had the fey struck with all their might immediately as the kobold crossed through the rooms? Or did this Tower have a room so dangerous that it was instantly fatal to a kobold? It made no sense…by normal Tower logic, that was, but this was a Tower under the sway of the fey. He could not rule out that the fey would have thrown in a room entirely mismatched with the Tower’s primary patron, it would be just like the fey from the tales to do so.

Plus…now that he thought about it, the fey themselves would prove capable defenders even before considering the Tower’s abilities. A fey warrior was said to be on par with a Tower Guard even without a blessing, the fey’s wards and enchantments had already proven the equal of any Tower trap, and they could likely use their tricks and glamours to manipulate monsters whether bred or spawn. Besides, what need did they have to spawn a monster army in the first place when they already had access to necromancy? Any inefficiency in their Tower’s design could be covered by the fey themselves, so Starami decided to throw away his previous assumptions. The fey were under no obligation to follow the ideal methods of mortal men.

In any case, Starami needed more information, as he was not willing to risk stronger dragonkin, much less his elite Tower Guard scouts, until he knew what sort of danger he was dealing with. So…he sent another kobold, but with red scales.

Kobolds had very few redeeming features, being largely inferior to dragonkin and even normal humans in almost every way, but they did breed very quickly and had a notable adaptability to different mana and environments. As such, Starami possessed a variety of kobold sub-species, attuned to different mana types and climates. They generally did not vary enough in performance for him to care, but if he was facing a dangerous room, then perhaps a kobold more suited to it might survive long enough to give Starami a glimpse of what he was dealing with.

And if not, then all he lost and all the fey’s necromancer gained was a single kobold.

So, Starami sent in a kobold grown in a Fire-type room, specifically one from one of his kobold spawners. He focused all of his attention on the kobold, reaching out through all of its senses to obtain any information he could.

The kobold was instantly annihilated like the first, telling him nothing.

Starami then sent in a kobold with blue scales, grown by bodies of water.

The kobold was also killed…but it lasted half a second longer. Long enough for Starami to get a small sense of what had killed it. The room had been pitch-black so he hadn’t seen anything, but he did briefly feel water pressing in on the kobold before it died.

Starami frowned. So…a Water-type room capable of crushing a kobold, even an amphibious one? That or a fey Water mage of such power as to do the same, but in either case, Starami needed someone capable of resisting a likely ungodly amount of water.

That…was a problem. Water-type dragonkin existed, of course, but Starami had not raised many, nor had many of his peers to his knowledge. The stronger Water-type dragonkin tended to be fully aquatic, or at least had difficulties traversing land, and thus would be useless for the purpose of the coup. It was a field they planned to explore after their victory, not before.

So…he would have no choice but to send in his Tower Guard, specifically those skilled in Water magic, into a room which could still hold unknown dangers. Starami took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

They hadn’t even gotten past the first room and the fey’s Tower was already proving far more vexing than a Tower its size had any right to be.

***

Starami gathered his Water mages and any Tower Guard with a blessing even roughly water-aligned and had them march into the Tower. There, he encountered yet another problem, before they made an attempt on the room.

The elite scout group that cleared the first room…were now barring the way forward. They had been bowing at the shrine at the end of the room, in continuous prayer while Starami had arranged the next assault group. They rose and blocked the door once they saw the next group approach.

Starami frowned as he sent a Tower message to his sworn defenders.

“Captain, what is the meaning of this?”

The captain of the scout group looked meaningfully at empty space as he replied.

“My lord…I am sorry, but this is wrong. The God of Light herself protects this place. We can’t assault a Tower blessed by her, we’ve never done such a thing! No human has!”

Starami narrowed his eyes.

“You swore an oath, captain. Your loyalty is to me and to the God of Dragons. I am ordering you to stand aside.”

The captain winced but remained in place.

“I am sorry, my lord, but I can’t do that. I swore oaths to the God of Light and to humanity as well.”

Starami slowly rose to his feet. He was completely silent as he walked towards the Tower, with a look on his face that silenced all who saw him as well. He entered the room, his footsteps echoing across the hall. The scouts noticed him first and fell silent, the water group turned around and quickly parted to the side to let him through. He stepped up to the scouts and locked eyes with the captain.

“So, captain, you are breaking your oath?”

The captain stood firm and shook his head. He pointed to the Shrine of the Gods just under the giant bee statue, one with an offering chest for each of the gods in the hall. Gold coins, a dragonclaw dagger, and a shattered bottle of wine littered the ground before the shrine.

“My lord…the God of Light is the savior of humanity, the one who gave us the Towers to begin with! Your Tower! It can’t be right to assault a Tower under her protection, even a rogue one, and the God of Light confirmed it. I prayed and made offerings at the shrine over there, to her and to her fellow gods as I have with every Tower assault before, to let them know our quarrel is not with them…but they rejected me outright. They spat out the offerings, they ignored my prayers. What we’re doing here is against the God of Light’s will, that much is clear! Please, my lord, call off the assault! We can’t fight against humanity’s savior!”

Starami narrowed his eyes.

“I see…and all of you feel likewise?”

He passed his gaze over the other scouts. Some hesitated to meet his eyes, but all of them nodded in turn.

“Very well…you are all traitors, then.”

Starami took a deep breath and exhaled dragonfire upon the entire scout group. Most of the scouts screamed and perished quickly. The captain managed to draw his sword and take a single step forward before he succumbed as well.

Starami then turned to face the rest of the Tower Guard in the room, most of which were staring in shock. Starami stirred up the full strength of his mana and unleashed it upon them, causing the whole room to flinch.

“Such is the fate of all oathbreakers and traitors! Your first oaths are to me and to the God of Dragons! Is there anyone else here who dares to break their oath?”

The room went deadly silent. Starami looked each of the higher-ranking Tower Guards in the eye, making sure each of them understood.

“Then remain wary! You are not fighting a mere spiderkin band or a wayward human. You are fighting the fey! They will use every means to deceive you, they will resort to every trick to confuse you, they will treat nothing as sacred as they toy with you! They will assault your mind as well as your body with everything they can, including the gods themselves! Therefore, I am forbidding any further worship at this room’s shrine. Campmaster, I want the assault camp rearranged so that the statue resembling the God of Light is not visible. Do not let the fey use her to shaken your resolve! And you, captain, make your preparations and move into the next room!”

With that, Starami stormed out of the room, the Tower Guard scrambling behind him to enact his will. He made a point not to look at the God of Light’s statue staring down upon him. He had already lost one irreplaceable group of veteran Tower scouts to doubts. He would not entertain any more.

***

In a large cavern absolutely coated in webs, a large spiderkin woman rose from her hammock. She climbed down from the hammock and onto the big web bridge that led through the center of the cavern to her throne. She loomed over the spiderkin bowed on the bridge and crossed her arms.

“Are you certain this report is accurate?”

The spiderkin below her did not dare look up but nodded without hesitating.

“Yes, my queen. The vanguard followed up with a very detailed description of the corpses and are bringing them back to provide physical proof. The vanguard’s captain swore on her life.”

The spiderkin queen could not help a hiss.

“I will have it if she’s wrong. But if not…once you receive the corpses and confirm they’re genuine, send word to the God’s Nests, to the Queen of Liberation herself. Tell her the war she foretold is upon us. Tell the army we march immediately, I will go with them and take personal command. If the report is true, if the time has finally come…then we have Sorcerer Kings to kill.”

Author’s Note:

Ugh. More non-bees being silly. Two more PONon-bees in a row, this one so silly it doesn’t deserve a bee name. How long has it been since the last POBee? How long must we suffer this torment? Can’t we just let Niobee give them the sting already?

And now there are even more silly non-bees involved, ugh. Don’t tell me there will be even more PONon-Bees coming!

Anyways!

How long will we suffer this torment? What other nasty tricks do the fey have in store for the silliest of non-bees? Will we suffer even more non-bees getting involved? Tune in next time, to find out!