Epic of Bee

"That would make the most sense. You have the same abilities as us, and if you went through the formalities, our people would accept you. They would just need to see you, the Queen, fight. As much as I disagree, our people believe that strength makes a good leader. My husband is a good example of how strength does not make you a good ruler," Shiva explained, transforming into the flying platform we had traveled on before.

"Shiv! That hurts! I was a good ruler!" Rai Cait declared, grabbing at the right side of his chest.

"No, you were a ruler that let everyone else do the work for you while you adventured around! It was my sisters that ran the capital and me! After witnessing Ashia and fighting her, I am almost tempted to try and join her harem of women! At least she takes care of her responsibilities and cares about the wellbeing of her people!" Shiva growled dangerously over a speaker.

"Hey! She has already taken one of my wives! I can't lose you too! If you leave, then the others will too… Ashia, would you want a strong man such as myself?! I could be your first man in this world!" Rai Cait declared, and I groaned.

"Men are not my thing, and I refuse to let one between my legs. I like women, and that is just the way it is. As for you, Shiva, I might consider your offer if you were not his wife, but I already took one as he said. I will need your help if we are to take the Meccat under my watch, and I will need someone to watch over them while I am out. You would be the Queen in my place," I explained as I floated onto Shiva with my girls.

"Queen? But that is your job," Shiva said, but I shook my head.

"My job is to delegate people to the jobs that I can't do myself. You can do this job because you have already been doing this before. The difference is that now you will be recognized for it. If the people respect my power, then they will respect my choice. If I take them, they will have no choice but to listen to my commands. That is the catch with my Queen System. If you join me, you are under my explicit control, and if I tell you something, you will have no choice but to listen to me," I explained, and everyone looked at me in surprise.

"Is that really true? I have been watching you, but I never would have guessed that your abilities were great. That is a terrifying power," Rai Cait said, and I nodded.

"As a trade for your explicit loyalty, I will grant you now only greater power but the ability to grow. You will have the chance to become more than you could have ever on your own under my guidance," I explained.

"So, we trade our freedom for greater power? But we have to do anything you say, even if that means dying, right?" Sakura asked, turning to me with crossed arms.

"Sakura! Do you really think that Ashia would do that?" Helaina exclaimed, but I put my hand up.

"Yes, that is absolutely true. If I tell you to die, your heart will stop, and not even your magic will be able to stop me. You cannot attack me nor defy me. If I order you to do something, you will do it whether you want to or not. I will control your life," I said, holding nothing back, and Sakura stepped back, arms falling to her side as we started to move on Shiva.

"You are just telling me a bunch of things that are making me less sure about the choice that I made!" Sakura said in despair.

"Yes, I am. You must be absolutely sure of the choice that you are making. I will not accept you unless you accept me yourself," I explained, stepping forward and taking Sakura's hands in mine. "I will never ever ask you to give me your life. I will never ask you to do something I am not prepared to do myself. I will never blindly order you to do something. I will only order you to do things if that means saving your life or something that absolutely needs to be done."

"I know all of this, you are more than just this, but this is really scary. I know who you were, or I think I do, but after being trapped by the person I loved for all this time, I worry," Sakura said, looking into my eyes.

"I understand that, and this is why I am telling you everything, so there is nothing that is a surprise. You have had your trust broken, and I know it is not an easy thing to mend, but I will work on it. Like I said before, take your time to think about things," I explained, and she nodded.

I turned back around, but Rai Cait was gone. I didn't blame him for leaving, but he deserved to feel bad after what he did.

It wasn't like he was a bad person, but this was one hell of a mark on his character for me. I don't even know how someone like that could become a God, but Beezli was rough around the edges.

The Risen weren't Gods, even if they fancied themselves that way. These were just ascended Heroes that rose to fame, just like Hilda.

From what I could tell, this fame was subject to what the people who worshiped them felt. That meant if the hero only needed to get the support of the people, in whatever way they needed, but that did make sense.

'Hilda, how did Beezli become a god? Are you all chosen because of your feats?' I asked as we traveled to where the vampires were staying.

[Gods are chosen when they are born. How we live our lives will show whether we are Risen or Fallen. It is all a cycle, but I was waiting for you because you are the only one that can break this. I want to be able to move on. You and I both know there is more outside of the FIRE. I want to know what the Everclock is and what we will have to do to reach the next level. Ashia, I have been stuck here for far too long, and I didn't realize it at first. Slowly I realized there was more after A1 and B2 left, but I was a callous Goddess at the time.]

I understood what Hilda meant. Knowing there was more would always make you wonder as much as reliving lives is fun.

'Thank you. I will get us to the Everclock, I promise that, and we will retrieve your real body before we do that. I would leave before things are fixed here as much as I want to leave. Tyler is going to have to work like a Busy Bee if he plans to keep up with me.'

The path opened up to a cavern very similar to the one the vampires had been in before, but much smaller and with better housing. I had to admire Rai Cait's ability to control his body to create such a thing.

We stopped, and I floated up slightly with the girls, and Shiva transformed back into her humanoid form. She made a show of adjusting her lab coat, but it was a part of her body that she had control of.

If Shiva wanted, she could probably make herself look like anyone, but there would still be the hard-line like she had now. There might be other Meccat that could do that specifically.

That would be great to get a few to work with Ben Dover. That still made me laugh and giggled out loud.

"What is so funny?" Sakura asked, and I turned to her.

"I have a spy that has the ability to be completely forgettable. It is a truly amazing ability, but it works on our own people as well, and he has made a few jokes with it," I explained, and Sakura raised an eyebrow, tails swishing.

"What kind of jokes?" Sakura asked.

Helaina came up behind me and hugged me, waking my menagerie of pet friends up from my shoulder.

"Sorry! I didn't mean to wake them up, but I want to hear the joke too!" Helaina giggled, and I turned back to kiss her with a smile.

"He said his name was Ben Dover," I said with a giggle, and Helaina started to laugh right away, letting go of me.

"I don't get it. His name is Ben Dover? What is so funny about that?" Sakura said, and I put a hand over my mouth.

"Bend Over," I said, and Helaina laughed even harder, and even Shiva tittered.

"I will not!" Sakura shouted, and I burst out laughing, slapping my knees, and making all the cats jump up and fly off me.

Helaina gasped for breath on the ground, and Shiva held her stomach as she laughed.

Sakura looked pissed, and I calmed myself mostly as she spoke.

"What is wrong with all of you?! Why are you laughing at me?!"

"Ben Dover is his name, get it? Bend over, Ben… Dover," I said, trying not to laugh.

"Oh my God!" Sakura said as her tails stopped, and she turned bright red. "Umm, I guess I can see what happened here…."

Everyone burst with laughter again, and Sakura was forced to join in with us.