Rythica normally didn't care much for physical contact. She could tolerate it for certain things, but in general, it was not something she particularly liked. She had long since realized that the humans around her tended to be clingy, using that as a way of expressing emotions instead of chirps, antennae wiggling, or colorful hisses. So while she stood there, her head still buried in Elric's coat, it was the implications of the embrace that calmed her anxiety more so than the hug itself. She was grateful for the gesture.

  The past couple of hours had been very trying. The small vex was already emotionally drained after being away from the safety of her nest for so long, and the small existential crisis only served to wear down her already frayed nerves to dust. So while she didn't normally feel that same connection that humans did from an embrace, there was a single exception to that rule.

  "I am sleepy. I am want go back nest, see Julia."

  Julia's Aura didn't touch her mind in quite the same way as Elara's tainted words did, but it was infinitely warmer. Right now, that's what the little girl needed the most. She missed her favorite human. She was too tired to worry about the new, unfamiliar drones popping up and just wanted to get away from it all.

  "Oh? You know Julia?"

  Rythica nodded, face still hidden from the world. "She my servant."

  "Ah, okay. So she's the one taking care of you? I see. Well, I believe today is Julia's day off if I recall correctly... Excuse me," he addressed the two servants currently speaking to Elara. "Do either of you happen to know if Julia is in the servants' quarters?"

  One of the two responded in the affirmative with a polite bow before continuing their previous conversation. The alchemist smiled with a grateful nod before standing up and giving Rythica a reassuring head pat.

  "Perfect. How about I take you to her, okay?"

  The noble woman paused her lecture and turned back slightly, giving Elric a hard glance.

  "I don't believe now is an appropriate time. Why don't you take Rythica back to her chambers for the evening? Julia can visit her tomorrow."

  Rythica felt the tiny flare of a mental touch alongside Elara's words, but it was fainter than usual, hollow, as if the big queen was running low on whatever power fueled them. The vex was slightly taken aback at the knowledge that Elara's strength, despite her high station, was not endless.

  By this point, the two servants had left to perform some task the queen had assigned them, while the blonde-haired servant from earlier had returned and had already started cleaning the stains off the floor. Elara stepped closer to the skeptical alchemist and motioned down to Rythica for her to follow along.

  "She's scared, Elara. She could use a friendly face, don't you think?"

  Rythica noticed that the alchemist wasn't convinced by her words, only momentarily slowed. Was that because he was another queen and thus immune like she was? Or was it because Elara's words were almost empty this time? Thinking about it harder, the first time Elara used the ability on Elric, he seemed to be completely persuaded by her story. So some queens could be affected by Elara's words, but not others? Why?

  Or was it because she wasn't human?

  Oh... right. She wasn't supposed to be part of this hive. They operated on different rules.

  Rythica glanced at the woman whom she had injured, the queen who was clearly upset with her and would no doubt make her displeasure known in time. The vex glanced back towards the alchemist, who readily forgave her crimes with open arms and was more than happy to escort Rythica towards her drone. She looked back and forth a few times as the adults debated, wondering who would win.

  She briefly wondered which queen was higher rank within the hive. Neither one seemed subservient to the other. Did that mean they were the same rank? Who led the hive, then? Was there another queen above these two?

  Elara had used her special words to influence Elric into believing her story. Did that mean in this hive, queens deceiving other queens was allowed, possibly even encouraged? And if Elara was out of special word juice, then that meant... She had no power here.

  Rythica grabbed Elric's hand with all four of her own and looked up at him with overly pleading eyes. She laid her antennae back and ducked her head slightly in a show of weakness and submission.

  "Please, I am want see Julia. You very good not-servant. The best. Please, let me go back nest, see Julia?"

  She placed his hand on the top of her head. She wasn't sure why humans were so fond of this odd gesture, but she saw his meager guard break down in real time.

  Elric smiled softly at her and nodded. "Of course we can. Don't worry, little one. Come on, let's go." He glanced back at Elara. "We can talk about this later, alright?"

  As Rythica followed Elric down one of the corridors, the small vex couldn't help back glance back at Elara, meeting her annoyed gaze with a small, petty smirk. The princess could play by the rules of this hive, too.

  Elara's eyebrows flickered down in a brief glare of indignance before it quickly subsided, replaced by a calculating look. And, after a moment, a small smirk of her own. The old woman turned and left, presumably to change into clean clothes. A display of approval.

  Rythica focused back on the hallway, her vex mind easily mapping out the twists and turns, noting every doorway and passage for later.

  "Are you good friends with Julia?" Elric suddenly asked.

  "Julia is best," Rythica replied simply.

  "Oh?" He chuckled. "Well, that's good to hear. She's a very kind woman."

  The girl nodded. Julia was always nice. Except when it came to bath time. Did she need to make her take a bath every few days?

  Rythica considered a question of her own, one that had confused her a bit while watching the exchange between him and Elara.

  "Why you no use mind word like Elara?"

  "Mind words?"

  "Yes. Word make you believe thing. She use on you but you no use back."

  Elric nodded slowly, an odd expression crossing his face. "Is that so? ...I see. Well, thank you for letting me know."

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Wait, he couldn't feel it? It felt so obvious to her. In hindsight, Rythica wondered if she might have made a slight mistake by telling him that.

  "No, I can't use 'mind words,' as you say."

  "Why?"

  "I make potions, not words like my cousin, Elara. Elara likes to play word games with those from other Houses, you could say. They all complete and try to trick each other. Never bothering to study the proper sciences, just trying to steal power from others." He shook his head. "It's quite a sad situation, I think. Remember, if you want to go far in life, stick to your studies and learn as much as you can. Study hard, and you can do anything."

  The vex listened intently as the man unveiled the secrets of infinite power to her.

  Soon enough, they were down two flights of stairs, despite already being on the ground floor when they started. The door before them was unremarkable, not sticking out more than any other door they passed.

  "Here we are, the servants' quarters. This is where Julia and the other servants stay when not working."

  This was Julia's nest? Despite the inconvenience of coming here instead of her own nest, Rythica had to admit she was a bit curious to see where her drones slept.

  As the door was opened, she took in the room. It was fairly large, full of random pieces of furniture like sturdy tables and comfortable-looking chairs. There were a few bookshelves and pictures dotting the walls, but nowhere near as finely decorated as the rest of the House. Around the edges of the room were a handful of doors. From the few open ones she could see, she surmised many led into much smaller sleeping chambers, each containing a handful of beds. Perhaps a few of the doors opened to other types of rooms? There was also a large hearth at one end of the room with multiple huddled chairs around it.

  In those chairs, she saw several figures she didn't recognize alongside Julia, and hesitated at the doorway. There were a few other people walking around the large gathering area, but thankfully, they were keeping to themselves, lounging on sofas and napping, or huddled over a desk and scribbling away.

  "Come on, don't worry. Julia's right over there. I'll guide you over, okay?"

  He gently squeezed her hand and made his way into the room slowly, giving her time to adjust. Her stride firmed quickly, already growing numb to seeing so many new faces in a single day. The alchemist gave her a reassuring smile and picked up the pace to a casual walk. Once Rythica saw her drone's face directly, she felt a bit better.

  "Julia!"

  Rythica hurried a few steps forward, keeping a wary eye on the unfamiliar drones. She was mildly surprised as she noticed the proportions of two of them, a full head and a half shorter than the height of the standard ones. She didn't know the drones came in such small sizes! It must be convenient for getting into hard-to-reach places. Though they were still much bigger than her.

  The woman looked back over the side of her chair, her eyebrows raised as she saw Rythica. The small queen noticed a look of unrecognition for an instant as she took in Rythica's current appearance, followed by a beat of hesitation as her eyes flicked to the two small drones sitting cross-legged on the ground.

  "... Rythica? How did you get here?"

  Rythica hurried up to Julia and hugged her knee, her taunt muscles already loosening as the warm, comforting Aura embraced her.

  "Hello, Mrs Julia, Mr Steve. I apologize for interrupting. Little Rythica, here, was getting a tour of the estate when there was a small accident. She requested to be brought to you. I hope you don't mind."

  "O-oh! Is everything alright?!" The woman sat forward, suddenly alert.

  "Don't worry, ma'am. Everything has already been taken care of. Rythica was feeling a bit overwhelmed, is all."

  She relaxed as she pulled the small vex up into her lap. "Ah, I see. I knew Mistress Elara was planning on giving Rythica a tour at some point, but I had assumed she would have let me know beforehand." Her tone went flat towards the end before picking back up with a more pertinent question. "What happened? Was anyone hurt?"

  "Just a minor potion mishap," he lied. "I'm sure news will spread about it eventually. I apologize for interrupting. I'll leave you all to the rest of your evening." Elric gave a polite nod as he stepped out.

  The rest of the drones watched on with confusion.

  At last, one of the smaller drones spoke up. "Momma...?"

  Rythica suddenly became a lot less sure about her decision to come here after noticing so much attention on her. Her goal was to get away from everything, not draw in even more unwanted attention. Julia seemed to sense Rythica's distress, as usual, and pulled her close.

  "Everyone, this cute little bug is Rythica. I've been taking care of her for some time now for the House. Rythica, this is my family."

  Wait, Julia had another family? Rythica vaguely understood that word from the stories the drone had read her, but failed to see the difference between a family and a hive. They felt like the exact same concept to her. So maybe she was just confirming these drones were also part of the hive? Rythica would have already assumed as much, given they were so deep within, so why bother reaffirming it? Maybe the word family meant a hive within a hive, somehow?

  "This is my big guy is my husband, Steven. He normally works down at the docks. It's a tough job, but he's a big, strong man." She gave Steven a playful smirk.

  "I do what I can." He smiled back, amused, and gave a playful flex of his arm.

  Steven was a tall man, much taller than any of the other people she had met so far, and was built with more muscles than seemed physically possible, especially in his arms. He had very tanned skin and smelled heavily of salt. He reminded Rythica a bit of those jerky strips Julia always fed her as a treat. There was a strange picture on one of his arms, a fish of some kind, drawn directly into his skin. His outfit was unusual, very clearly not the higher fashion of the nobles, but also not a servant's garb. Something casual and dull in color. It rather matched the outfits of the faceless masses she had seen out the window.

  Julia pointed at one of the two smaller drones. "This handsome young man is my son, Todd. He's already eleven years old and growing into a fine young man. Say hi, Todd."

  He waved awkwardly. "Hello."

  The boy had messy, short brown hair. Like his father, his eyes were hazel-colored and set in a small, perpetual squint. He was also dressed in simple-looking clothes, though they were in much better condition than Steven's. He had a smaller nose and thinner jaw than Steven as well, veering much closer to Julia in appearance. He was thin and wiry, though she thought she noticed hints of muscles forming on his body. His demeanor was curious, if still a bit guarded at Rythica's presence.

  "And that adorable little girl is my daughter, Talia. Ten years old and as smart as they come. She has a bright future ahead of her. Say hi, Talia."

  "Hi!" She was much more enthusiastic than Todd with her wave, nearly toppling herself over in her boundless energy.

  She had long, dark hair that was tied back in a braid, ending in a blue ribbon. Like Julia, she had the same soft brown eyes that seemed to smile all on their own. While her face was a bit rounder, she still resembled her mother in most respects, but she definitely had her father's nose. She wore a simple green dress, a bit shorter than her mother's and in a lighter color, which allowed her to show off the many beads and woven trinkets on her ankles.

  Rythica merely stared as she took in the others, still feeling a bit unsure. She gave a small wave back to the other drones.

  Julia looked upon her family, her face radiating contentment.

  "Now, Rythica's had a long day, so let's give her some space, okay? Steven, would you mind?"

  The smaller drones looked at Julia, clearly full of questions. Talia raised her hand to ask some, but her inquiries remained unaddressed as Steven picked up a book and resumed the epic tale.

  The vex felt slightly more comfortable as everyone's eyes drifted away from her, but she still would have preferred the privacy of her own nest.

  "Hey, are you okay?" Julia whispered in her ear.

  The vex shook her head. "I am want go back nest," she muttered.

  Julia squeezed her tighter, the warmth of her Aura flairing for a moment as if in response. It helped a bit, and Rythica leaned back into it.

  "Was it a really bad day?"

  Rythica nodded. "Too many new. I am hurt Elara. Am was scared."

  The girl had half an ear listening as Steven continued reading about something called a ship, and a creature called the ocean was trying very hard to destroy it.

  There was a short pause before Julia continued. "Was it an accident?"

  She nodded.

  "Okay. Don't worry, alright? I won't let anything happen to you. You won't do it again, right?"

  A shake of the head.

  "Good. Then just try and relax for now, okay? You want to listen to the story?"

  Rythica debated for a moment before confirming that it did sound kind of neat. She was a bit curious as to what the 'sea' was.

  The princess settled in and tried to let the events of the day fade to the back of her mind, taking comfort in Julia's Aura, which seemed to grow stronger with every passing month. She followed the ship as it ventured along through roaring winds and weaved through serpentine rocky passes, searching ever onward for a treasure worth a kingdom's riches.

  The last thing Rythica remembered before finally drifting off to sleep in Julia's lap was something about spotting land on the horizon.

  Thanks for reading! I really appreciate all the amazing feedback and support. I hope you're enjoying the story so far and are having a wonderful day.

  We also have a !