“Kinda a crude name, mom. I was thinking something more like ‘Mind-numbingly Delicious Honey.’ Or ‘Honey so Mind-blowingly good it will make you fall in love with the hive.’ But Mesne says those names ‘aren’t marketable’ or whatever. I think they’re descriptive.”

“That doesn’t answer my question, Bella.”

Bella rubbed her chin. She didn’t seem embarrassed, or even concerned. In fact, her excitement was only building more rapidly. Like she was playing a game she knew she’d win. One she’d fought long and hard for.

“Well?”

“Well, you know my plans. Yes, I haven’t been able to make it work yet, but I can feel how close I am. You feel it too. Otherwise you wouldn’t be asking me about it. At first, I thought it was because you were toying with me. You had created the Linkers with little difficulty, just another type of bee that allowed you to control Minds. So you let me continue with my experiments, like an amusement. Letting me make my own sense of purpose, since my siblings were all better than me.

“But things changed. They changed, and I was separated from the changes. Stuck here, in this human city. I realized, when I saw the changes, that this wasn’t a punishment. It was a blessing in disguise. Other mother, well, she’s an odd one. I like her, though. And that was when I made my breakthrough. The reason I know you’ll let me continue with my experiments until I get this Mind-influencing honey right. How weird was it that mom, who could so easily make more Linkers, hesitated? What changed? The number of Linkers being made falls every day. It’s no wonder the others had to be told you were two, and they’ve probably been suspecting something weird, but I doubt even Trice has figured it out. Always an enigma, our Mother. Her tastes always changing. Fighting. My honey can be the perfect middle ground you both want. The merciless correction of you, the mom in my head. And the sweet smothering of the mom I haven’t met.”

“Wait, you knew we were two Minds before? Hold on, wrong question. You knew we were two completely different individuals because of our tastebuds?”

“The others suspected, but you knew they didn’t know. Of course, it was a shock to hear you were once a human. I didn’t know for sure, so to hear it confirmed was totally insane.”

“I don’t think I’m actually following you on why you think I’ll just let you keep making Mind-control honey,” I said slowly. 

“Still playing coy, mom? Ah well. The two of you have always been a mystery. Well, my breakthrough was for all of those things. Figuring out there were two of you and figuring out why you were actually letting me continue my expensive experiments. It wasn’t because you pitied me. It was because you had hope I’d succeed. Since the beginning, you’ve been stuck with one option. Most of the bees are fine with that option. Who cares how it’s done, as long as we can protect the hive, right? But when I discovered the two tastes fighting in you, I realized what had so many of my siblings wondering. Why don’t we produce more Linkers? Why do we, who could control all of Yiwi’s population, albeit with some difficulty, risk discovery by the humans? Why don’t we simply take the most efficient route and control them all?

“I can’t give myself all the credit, of course. It was only because you plopped me here that I discovered the truth. For there to be ‘others’, for there to be Minds not in the hive… its not terrible. There’s some good stuff there. And for those with freedom, humans especially, well, it’s a fearful thing. Losing control, that is. Some might like it. Hell, I know a couple mercs and stuff who have actually become real pleased not having to think for themselves much. But even they have a tiny problem. They never did and never will get to choose. And that’s the lynchpin. It’s the reason most of the humans hate us. It’s what we instinctively understand, but don’t care about. It’s what you two fight about. The fact that you, too, never got to choose. All you wanted to do with the mercs in the forest was talk. And it spiraled out of control. Someone a danger to the hive? Gotta Link ‘em, sorry.”

She spread her arms wide, and her smile wider.

“I saw that all you, and the humans of Yiwi want, is the ability to choose. Right now, your fake choice is to Link or not to Link. The Link is safety. No risk to the hive, only to the two of you. The other choice, the preferred taste of the mother I haven’t met, is too risky. Let them all go. Give them the choice now, only it puts the entire hive in jeopardy. Maybe I’ve never met her, but she’s still mom. She’d never do anything like that. So it’s a fake choice. The imbalance hurts you both. Especially because even if you prefer the taste of safety, the flavor you’ve been given is still gross. But you thought it was the only flavor of safety you could ever have. You call it Mind-control honey, but we both know that’s not what it is. It controls nothing. All it does, or what it should do, is sweeten the thought of our existence. The humans are an unruly sort. They despise discomfort themselves, yet would gladly stoop low to bring those they find discomforting as much of that despised feeling as possible. All we need to do is make sure the humans don’t find us so discomforting. A challenge, to be sure, but one I believe my honey can solve. The idea is to be slow acting, gentle, and delicious. When a human eats enough of it, a piece will click into place, and they won’t see us as monsters. They’ll see us as a fellow ‘person.’ No messy control, no forcing of choice. Even the honey wouldn’t be perfect, by design. I’m sure someone would still, somehow, find a way to hate us. It just brings an understanding to the table. Food is the key to the heart, after all.”

Despite myself, I resisted the urge to clap as Bella took a bow. For a long time, I’d resisted coming to see her because I was afraid of what she was doing. A Mind-control honey was her original idea, after all. I shut her out then, because in my heart of hearts, I knew she was right when she said I wanted her to succeed. The Linkers were, in Queen’s opinion, problematic. She’d always made that clear. Maybe I wasn’t the biggest fan, but above all else came the hive’s safety. Even now something was compelling me to sic a couple Linkers onto the Bear and Beaver. Not to mention the fernen. Mind-control honey would have been a way to spread complete control far and wide. Make the hive completely safe. If everyone was Linked, there was no risk. No fear. 

But Bella’s proposed solution, the changes she’d made to her plans… 

“Its very good. Perfect? Perhaps not. Better than our current methods? Certainly.”

It made sense Queen would be following this closely, occupied as she was. She was actually terrified of Bella’s success. Mind-control honey was like a nightmare, a parasitic substance a hundred times worse than the Linkers, because it would require no subversion. No sudden attacks. Just eat a little honey, so deliciously sweet and coveted by this world without much artificial sweetener, and boom. Linked. This new method was, as Bella said, somewhere in between. Morally questionable enough to bother Queen, and with a caveat that bothered me.

“You make a compelling case for sure, Bella. I just have one concern. More control is preferable, sure. But that’s not the only thing I’d be worried to lose.”

I could feel Queen roll her eyes, and saw the Bear, Beaver, and several fernen look at her in confusion. For the second time in our conversation, Bella seemed perplexed. It wasn’t long before a glint of understanding appeared in her eye. She didn’t give herself enough credit; any comparison against her siblings could only be stark in her own Mind. Maybe that’s part of how she recognized our internal conflict so quickly.

“Ah, information, huh? Can’t get anything past you, mom. Good to see, good to see. We should talk more often, huh? Anyways, yes, you make a fair point. Without the Link, you’re losing a ton of past, present, and even future info any given Mind has. My honey can’t resolve that. I guess I don’t even really have an argument against it. That would just be a price to pay, sadly. The good thing is, at least Linking might become easier, if it still needs to be done. And from what I know, you can store an entire memory anyone has, so at least you’ve got a ton of knowledge already. We’ll need to think of other ways to get said info out of people’s heads. I can think on it, if you like.”

She ended with a shrug, entirely unconcerned about my rebuttal. It was a weak one anyway, more like listing off the pros and cons of her plan. She already knew she’d won the game to sway me and was just playing along with my feeble attempt at disguising the fact I was won over. Not that the point of information didn’t concern me. Knowing every Linked creature’s thoughts and history was invaluable, to the point I’d call myself nigh-invincible within my territory. If I had Linked just one of those Knights… Nah. They probably had similar mental defenses to the MIS. I suddenly smacked myself on the forehead.

“Bella, are you testing the honey on Bob on purpose?”

“Maybe~.”

So she wasn’t just trying to win against me by selling me her plans. She was even trying to get ahead by controlling an MIS agent, the only Mind I’ve struggled to keep in complete control over. 

“Are you trying to get the vault open in some roundabout way? Even he can’t do that.”

“Maybe~.”

Bob’s vault had been a bane, and here Bella was, trying to sneak out from under me and open it. This was another reason I was scared of her. Her ambition that stretched as far as outdoing me was unlike her closest siblings. I could only think of the Valkybees matching her hunger. But I had to admit, if there was anything that could impress me, it would be getting that vault open. Not that I couldn’t. With how powerful our Mind was, even if it was a bit fractured at the moment, I was certain I could force the vault in Bob’s Mind open. I had almost done so when we let that old bag in Yiwi escape to her MIS buddies. But her knowledge of us was nowhere near what Bob knew. And if what I could glean from Bob was true, opening that vault would be like opening Pandora’s box, except the thing that would leap from inside would be the entirety of the MIS. 

I shook my head.

“Well, for now, at least, we’ll let you continue. Maybe use a test subject other than Bob, though. Probably lots of weaker Minds that might be more reliable subjects. But man, you gotta do something about that level of food usage. It would grow on trees, but we don’t have many of those still lying around, you know?”

Bella pouted. “I’d love to, trust me, but I just can’t get it to work and I don’t know why! The only progress I’ve made is by throwing more food at the problem.”

“Maybe you just need a change of perspective?”

She shrugged and slumped her shoulders. I knew she was fishing to get me to help her directly, but honestly, I didn’t have the first clue about how to make Mind-influencing honey. Unfortunately, I had to leave that all to her. And maybe poor Bert, but he had plenty of work on his shoulders. With Bella so focused on her experiments, he’d been offloaded with most of the thought-intensive tasks in hive food logistics she plain didn’t want to do. How lucky were we that he actually liked that job?

Actually, how lucky were we that most of the bees liked their jobs? It made things so much easier than working with humans who might get forced into roles they don’t prefer.

I left Bella with her thoughts as she zipped towards the tent, and I settled in to sleep. I didn’t usually sleep much, but ever since Queen had gone over to Yelah, I found myself slumbering far more, and way more deeply too. Maybe I had to figure out a way to use Mind to stay awake and productive. Could be useful. Regardless, with thoughts of Bear, Beavers, honey, and humans floating around my head, I drifted off to sleep, blissfully unaware of what I’d wake up to the next morning.