A week passed by and Lyn and Evergreen would pop back over to the bazaar whenever Lyn gathered more spider webs that could be traded for pollen. Each time felt magical for Lyn, who not only got to help feed the hive its much-needed pollen but got to hang out with Evergreen afterward, spending time together and exploring the sights.

After a few days of this, Lyn got her new spear, which was far better than what it was before, even if it was only a small improvement. It had even been slightly enchanted to better take her electric attacks and not break so easily.

As she spent time hanging around the bazaar, she noticed patterns that most of the insect-kin seemed to fill in. thought there were a few exceptions. But for the most part, moths tended to be the brokers, traders, and movers of goods around the bazaar. Butterflies were the artisans, doing painting, weaving, tailoring, and a few more. Ants and bees did the hard labor and construction and repairs. Dragonflies, or as they like to be called, dragon bugs/dragon insects, either were the guards keeping the peace, or couriers using their speed to deliver messages.

Then there were the mantises, who while not having their Instinctual need to eat their fellow insects, still were somewhat feared by the others. They wore monk robes and seemed to take care of the many temples and religious work necessary to upkeep and please the many insect gods out there.

Finally, the mosquitoes seemed to be the loner types, mixed with being an outcast in most insect-kin societies, even here in Alcray. They wore hoods to keep themselves hidden and were very secretive. They also took the odd job here or there and are the people you want to meet to stealthily gather info or do the more shady jobs around town.

There were a few more, but memorizing all the different insect-kin and insect-kin factions was a little too much for Lyn, so she left that part to Evergreen to take care of.

When they got back home, Evergreen took care of the organizing, the sorting, and even a few leadership roles. Really taking charge and making Lyn feel like she wasn’t as needed as she felt she was. Pushing her to tackle the spiders more and more often, training herself getting stronger, gathering the webbing, and cleaning it so as to sell it later.

But after a few days of this, Evergreen noticed the pattern and had Lyn start studying with herself as the teacher. Helping Lyn work through a few problems and setting herself up as a proper ruler of her followers. Even going so far as proclaiming herself as the aid/secretary of Lyn, since she knew very well what could happen if people started to wonder who really was in charge.

With this, Evergreen took full advantage of Lyn’s capacity for learning new things, teaching her everything she would ever need to know and then some. In fact, Evergreen was so impressed by Lyn’s seemingly ability to memorize and calculate scenarios and numbers, that she even started to use her as a calculator of sorts, as Lyn was able to crunch numbers that would leave even Evergreen confused and with a headache.

With the two working like this, they were able to slowly gather enough resources, pollen, and nectar to feed over a thousand workers, and with the pollen leftover, raise a few hundred workers from eggs to adults.

There was only one problem. It would take four months for a bee to go from egg to mature worker, a zapper five to six months. Not to mention, while they could now feed and take care of all the eggs they had, they still had the problem of getting more eggs. Without a steady source of new eggs, the future of a hive would look uncertain, meaning even if Lyn wasn’t going to be here after a few more weeks, she still needed to make sure the hive was going to be okay after she left. Or figure out how she was going to bring them all with her.

She went to talk about this with her sister and the young queen, to see what suggestions they had.

“Hmm…” her sister said. “Well… as you know… it’s not impossible for us to reproduce asexually, it just will be very, very slow. Our ability to reproduce is dependent on how much sperm we have and how much food we are given. The more sperm, the more eggs we can make. The more food, the faster we can produce those eggs. Without either… I can probably produce… maybe… one to three eggs a week? Maybe more if I really try and am given a lot of food.”

“And if you had all the sperm and food you could want?” Lyn asked.

“Oh, well… perhaps about twenty or more a day? I can set aside a few eggs to grow up as brood mothers, that would also help with the production of workers in the future.” Sister helpfully answered.

“And you?” Lyn asked, turning to the young queen.

“Probably double that if not triple,” she replied matter of factly.

“Can you also produce a brood mother?”

“Obviously, it's necessary for insect-kin hives such as ourselves to be able to give birth to brood mothers to help with the production of workers. Since insect-kin such as ourselves can’t produce so many eggs with our kind of body. Just be thankful that we don’t carry full children in our wombs like those mammals do, otherwise, that would be murder on our bodies and probably kill us if we had that many eggs inside of us at once.”

All three of them collectively shivered at the thought.

“And you Lyn? Are you also going to help lay eggs?” Lyn’s sister asked, curious.

“Me?” Lyn replied, taken aback.

“Well, you did get acknowledged as a queen from our followers, and from what I heard from your sister you were originally meant to be the queen of your hive.” the young queen said, “so it makes sense that you have the ability to produce a few eggs asexually like us, or more if you can help get our hands on some sperm.”

“Hmm…” Lyn thought about that before shaking her head. “I want to save myself for my master… he is my mate, my personal and life mate, it would feel weird to take another’s sperm other than his.”

“Oh my!” Lyn’s sister's eyes widened. “You never mentioned that he was your personal mate! Or a life mate for that matter!”

“How scandalous!” the young queen said, but now looking very interested. “Tell us everything!”

“Oh… I don't know…” Lyn said blushing and embarrassed.

“No please tell us, I might finally get an idea of who this mysterious master of yours is,” Evergreen said behind them.

Followed by Anya who came along with the last shipment of pollen to check things out. “Indeed… that sounds like some very interesting bit of information that I would mind giving an extra barrel of pollen for…” she said with a smile.

Lyn turned her head in shock. “Oh! Err- Evergreen! How long were you there for…”

“Just a few moments, I only heard that last part, and would really like to know who this master of yours is. If you don’t mind telling me that is... who knows? Maybe I can join you in being life mates together with him.” Evergreen said with a coy and teasing smile as Lyn’s face got redder at the thought of being life mates together with her.

It didn’t help that they recently, and secretly, shared a kiss and that Evergreen was oddly the one who was aggressive in the pursuit while Lyn was left feeling weird and uncertain. Normally she tried to be a little aggressive with Van, she knew that she belonged to him and that he belonged to her so she felt comfortable being upfront about letting him know what she wanted. But with Evergreen, everything was uncertain, they didn’t have that kind of relationship, and Lyn had no idea why she liked Evergreen so much. Or why Evergreen lips always looked so kissable!

“Umm… well… if you really want to hear it… it’s not all that great.” Lyn floundered, wondering how she was going to explain everything. But she sucked it up and decided to explain anyway the best she could. And she decided she should probably start at the top. Taking a deep breath and letting it out to calm the nerves.

“Okay… here I go, and I'm only going to say it once, so pay attention okay?” they all nodded and Lyn began her story of how she became the personal and life mate of her master.

---

“And that’s how I got here… now you know…” Lyn said, finishing her story.

“Whoa…” Lyn's sister said, just amazed by everything she said.

“That's… amazing…” the young queen said, equally astounded.

“I can somewhat understand why you act like he’s some sort of god now at least…” Evergreen said, trying to compute everything Lyn said.

“I still can't believe it...” Anya added, though not exactly saying that Lyn was a liar either. “It’s one thing to say someone had the power to turn a bug into an insect-kin but to be able to turn a zapper into a storm fairy? Crazy! But if true…” she let that thought hang in the silence between them.

Evergreen nodded. “On its own, it's amazing that someone can turn a bug into an insect-kin. A rarity, sure, but not impossible. That already makes your master someone of note. But turning a bug into a fairy? Or a storm fairy for that matter? That’s… like… turning someone into a different species… not impossible mind you… but...” she stopped talking, not knowing what to say next.

“I can’t really explain everything that happened that day.” Lyn began. “But I know what I felt… what I sensed… when the connection formed between me and him. Maybe he can’t turn others into fairies like he did me. But I can promise you he probably could consistently turn others into insect-kin.” she finished, adamant that that was the truth.

Silence hung over the group at those words. Turning a bug or two into an insect-kin was already impressive enough as it was. A once in a lifetime kind of deal. But Lyn was going so far as to say that her master could do it consistently, repeatedly, meaning that there might be a chance to not just make a few more insect-kin, but perhaps dozens, hundreds even. Any hive with access to that kind of mage of such power would become absurdly powerful, very quick.

“Hmm…” Evergreen though quickly looking around. “Everything we just learned is to be kept under wraps. No one is to speak a word about it! While figuring out a method to maybe safely leak out a rumor that our hive might be able to… ascend a few bugs or insect-kin, particularly those who we trust, never mentioning how many times that’s actually possible. If we can do this, we can get a lot of recruits wanting to join our cause. Understood?” she asked, looking eyes with Anya about spreading such a rumor.

Everyone nodded, Anya getting the message.

“Speaking of recruits…” Lyn said, turning to Anya and trying to change the conversation to something else. “have you been able to convince a few to join us in our goals of acting like a bulwark against the wasp horde, or even to combat it?” she asked, with some hope in her eyes.

Anya shook her head sadly. “Sorry Lyn, not many insects want to join such a small hive with so many queens and not even a high queen to lead them. That kinda spells trouble when the hive slowly grows too big without someone at the top. So we only have a few dozen, mostly those who are just desperate enough to do anything if it means a consistent meal each day.”

“That’s fine.” Lyn said with a shrug, “if anything, you can go looking around the poorer parts of town. I don’t care where they come from, so long as they are willing to work and follow.” but now that she said her piece, was thinking hard on what she could do to draw more people to her hive.

“Is there anything else I could do to draw people to our cause?” Lyn asked Anya.

“Hmm…” Anya thought about that. “You could probably join in the tournament that's going to start soon. Lots of people like to watch, and if you show that you're strong and that you're looking for people to join, perhaps you could gain a few followers…”

“Then there's buying help. Either by paying a wage, or buying outright from a few hives that don’t mind selling some of their excess eggs and workers.” Anya continued, ignoring the looks of disdain on all three queen’s faces.

“You can petition for help or ask for patrons to support your cause, which could give you the resources to grow your hive considerably. Though they might want you to do something for them from time to time. Or perhaps joining a hive alliance, a rarity, but if you can somehow pass their strict requirements and then convince them that fighting the wasp horde is worth it or a true danger you’ll have a lot of firepower at your back. But that also means you will be dragged into other’s wars should it happen, and you will have to pay tribute to the leader of the alliance and deal with their politics.”

“There are many ways you can get people to follow you, so don’t be discouraged if one doesn’t work out the way you want it to. I can arrange for a few meetings if you want as well.”

“If I were you, I would go to the tournament first, you seem like you would fit right in and it would be a great place to train. It also would be a great place to spread your name, get people talking, it will make it easier when you are introduced to people with real power. The prize money doesn’t hurt either, even if you lose, you win.” Anya said with a mischievous smile.

“Thanks Anya, you really have been a great help,” Lyn said graciously.

Anya’s smile turned more genuine. “No problem child, always glad to help a friend of a friend, and someone with so much potential to…”

Lyn smiled awkwardly. “About that… we’ve been thinking… would you like to join us? Like actually becoming a part of our group?” she asked, nervously.

Anya seemed a little taken aback by that, but she smiled all the same, a little touched. “Sorry girls, I don’t think I would be much help. Not to mention, it would take far more than just a please and thank you to convince me to get behind anyone free of charge. I’m already doing you all a huge favor as it is. Though I can understand that you may want me for my connections, logistics, business acumen, talent, and large business chain. I mean, who wouldn’t want me?” she said somewhat proudly yet also a little jokingly.

Lyn then turned to share a look with her sister, then turned back to give Anya her full serious attention. “I thought you might say that… you are a businesswoman after all. So what if I offered… this…” Lyn then pulled out a small jar of glowing blue honey. Making Evergreen and the young queen gasp. Anya for her part seemed to almost suspect that Lyn would pull something like this, but even she couldn’t help widen her eyes a little at the sight before her.

“Royal zapper honey… even rarer than the regular zapper honey… it might as well be a one-of-a-kind item… hmm…” Anya said, looking at the jar, thinking it over.

“Not only that.” Lyn began, but you… well… every queen that joins… if my master will allow it… will have access to his sperm…if possible…” then quickly thinking on her feet. “Not to mention you said anyone with access to someone who can turn bugs into insect-kin would become very powerful. Even if not the sperm. I can still, probably, get him to ascend a few bugs of your choice. What do you say?”

“Hmm…” Anya was now thinking very hard. This was probably a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but there were also the cons of having to help fight off a wasp horde. “I don’t think you can quite promise those things… but an interesting offer all the same…”

Silence followed as Anya closed her eyes in silent meditation and thought for a long time. Only after what felt like forever did she open them again with a smile. “I think you have a deal. It will be a pleasure to work with your group from now on,” she said, reaching out and gently taking the royal zapper honey into her hand.

All the queens looked relieved, having someone like Anya on their side would greatly boost their productivity and logistics, and probably get them good deals on just about everything. Even Evergreen was surprised that Anya joined, but it only set her up to be more excited for the future to come and the possibilities that lie before them.