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BD - POBear 254.2 - The Losses We Bear
🕑 Added 2025-04-07 20:05:00 +0000 UTCJuosiutik huddled in a corner of her home. She shuddered as her tears flowed. She still heard buzzing in her ears, still felt the sting on her shoulder. She felt prickling sensations all across her body.
She had known, logically, that Belissar commanded great power. She knew that one word from him could end her life or seal the fate of her entire people. But now, she realized, she hadn’t believed that Belissar himself was powerful. She had ascribed his power to the bees and the tower he commanded, not to himself.
After all, Belissar was a small and kind person. Any average karnuq, herself included, could pick him up and toss him over their shoulder with ease. She had never seen him wield a spear or slay a monster. And in all their interactions, he had been kind and patient. He let her talk, listened to her words, and had no issue studying under her teaching. She hadn’t noticed but in her mind he had become some sort of assistant or apprentice, or perhaps even a younger brother.
But not today. Juosiutik couldn’t smell mana like Noigakkuq, but she hadn’t needed to. Belissar’s mana had become visible to the naked eye. It had pressed upon her on all sides until this little boy had seemed to loom over her even with his small size. It made her ears buzz and her eyes dart around, as if she were surrounded by a swarm of angry bees on all sides. It was a display of raw power she had only ever seen from Chief Rohsuak.
And then there had been the spell-bees. What sort of power and control did Belissar have that he could cast that many simultaneous spells subconsciously? To fill the air with spell forms brimming with barely contained mana? She hadn’t thought anyone could ever match Chief Rohsuak…but now she had to wonder if Belissar would. Or if he already had and just none of them had noticed. This was a Tower Keeper who apparently dined on precious mana honey every day…now that she thought about it, it would be strange if he hadn’t grown powerful.
It was such that she hardly would have even noticed the surrounding bees joining in had it not been for Niobee hovering right in her face. She now knew, truly and clearly, that Belissar could end her by himself, no bees required. That he was far more than the small and agreeable boy he appeared.
And she had been the first one to provoke him to anger, to cause him to lose his temper outright. She shuddered again and sobbed.
Then there was a knock at her door.
“Juosiutik? May I come in?”
Juosiutik didn’t manage to respond one way or another. After a bit, Chief Rohsuak opened the door and walked in. Juosiutik tried to wipe her eyes and stand up but Chief Rohsuak waved her down.
“None of that, now. You’ve held it together long enough. It’s time to let out your tears.”
Juosiutik wanted to refuse but through her tears she saw that Chief Rohsuak was crying as well. At the sight of the Blazing Berserker herself, the one who had led them through countless dangers, shedding tears, Juosiutik’s own flooded beyond control. Chief Rohsuak sat down beside her, lending the girl her shoulder.
After a while, eventually Juosiutik’s tears dried up. She brought her knees up to her chest and crossed her arms over them.
“I…think I really messed up this time, didn’t I? What…what is the Tower Keeper going to do with me?”
Chief Rohsuak smiled and patted her shoulder.
“Don’t worry about that. Belissar was worried about you, though he was truly angry, he didn’t mean to frighten you. He still cares about us, and you.”
Juosiutik sighed and buried her head in her arms.
“I…just wanted to avenge my parents, and stop those…spiders from hurting anyone else. I didn’t realize how Belissar had lost his own parents. Now…I just don’t know what to do.”
Chief Rohsuak shook her head.
“You already have. We used your potions to great effect in the battle, the spiderkin queen even cited your death cap potion as what sealed her fate. Thanks to you, we have destroyed a spiderkin nest outright.”
Chief Rohsuak’s face fell, though she kept a sad smile.
“Now, though, you will learn what I have. You can rage and rampage all you like, but no amount of vengeance will bring back what you lost.”
Juosiutik teared up again but managed a small nod.
“Then…what do I do now?”
Chief Rohsuak looked up.
“Remember who you lost and grieve for them. Then, look forward and live on. Our present lives were achieved by the sacrifices of all we lost on the way. Let’s honor them by making the most of what we now have.”
Juosiutik looked up. The sun was shining through her windows, illuminating her home. Her home…now that she stopped to think, the mere fact that she had a house would have been unthinkable just months ago.
“…ok. But…what about Tower Keeper Belissar and the spiderkin? They’re dangerous even as children, aren’t they?”
Juosiutik’s face scrunched up.
“But…I don’t want to remind Belissar of the people who took his parents either. What do we do?”
Chief Rohsuak shrugged.
“We trust in the Tower Keeper. He has given us all of this, he has defeated shades and spiderkin and forged alliances with sigmaka and fey. He can handle a few spiderkin children if it goes poorly.”
Chief Rohsuak then made an amused smile.
“Besides, who’s to say what will happen? It’s not as if we’ve ever tried to raise spiderkin eggs before. Perhaps the Tower Keeper will show us something new, yet again.”
Chief Rohsuak chuckled, then rose to her feet. She stood up straight over Juosiutik, her expression turning serious.
“That does mean that we must consider the real possibility that the Tower Keeper raises spiderkin and keeps them around for good, should they act differently from the ones we know. Should that occur, I’ve no doubt that Belissar will value them the same way he values his bees and us. If we wish to continue our lives here and to repay Tower Keeper Belissar for all he has and continues to give us, we will need to accept that these spiderkin are not the ones who haunted us on our journeys. We must not hold them responsible for our losses, nor attempt to punish them on their kin’s behalf. Can you do that, Juosiutik, daughter of Susiguk and Parantamik?”
Juosiutik looked up as Chief Rohsuak gazed down upon her. She took a moment to think, knowing Chief Rohsuak wouldn’t appreciate a hasty answer. Could she? If these spiderkin were different, would she be able to acknowledge that? Would she ever be able to see any spiderkin as anything but her parents’ killers?
She glanced around and her gaze fell upon one of her potions sitting on a shelf. The energizing potion that was her mother’s pride. The one that she had recreated with the help of Belissar and his bees. She teared up once more.
Chief Rohsuak was right. In the end, destroying an entire spiderkin nest hadn’t brought back anything that she had lost. But working with Belissar had, if only one small part. Juosiutik swallowed her tears and looked back at Chief Rohsuak with a firm gaze.
“I don’t know if I can. But…for the sake of Tower Keeper Belissar and our lives here, I will try. I won’t push him on this again and I won’t harm the spiderkin if they really are different.”
Her face fell.
“I…didn’t realize Belissar had lost that much too. I owe him an apology, don’t I?”
Chief Rohsuak smiled once more and held out her hand. Juosiutik grabbed it and rose to her feet. Chief Rohsuak nodded at her.
“That would be appreciated. Indeed, we are not the only ones who have lost much. We had no room to consider others back when we were traveling, but now that the Tower Keeper is assuring our safety it is time that we start. The Tower Keeper especially. He has not shared all the details with us, but it is clear that the human Tower Lords did not treat him or his family well.”
Chief Rohsuak then paused and rubbed her chin.
“I think it would be wise to apologize to the bees as well. They are extremely protective of Belissar and dislike anyone who so much as upsets him.”
Juosiutik nodded and shuddered a bit as she reached up to her shoulder.
“Yes, I will.”
Chief Rohsuak smiled.
“Good. In fact, there may be something you can do for them both.”
Juosiutik perked up at that.
“What is it?”
Chief Rohsuak waved over to Juosiutik’s hearth.
“You might already be aware, but just to remind you Tower Keeper Belissar is evaluating additional blessings for the Tower from the God of Fire. One of them essentially turns cooked food into potions, he wishes to know if there is any kind of cooked food that suits bees. If you could think of anything, he would greatly appreciate it.”
Juosiutik’s eyes sparkled. She had truly been distracted if she had missed hearing about that!
“Food as potions? That’s amazing! He has to pick that one!”
Chief Rohsuak held up her hand and chuckled.
“In that case, we must find something cooked for the bees.”
Juosiutik nodded and began to rub her chin.
“Hm, I’ve only ever seen them drinking things. Would drinks work?”
Chief Rohsuak nodded.
“If I recall correctly, drinks were indeed included in the description.”
Juosiutik hummed to herself. She caught sight of her mother’s potion once again and stiffened. Her eyes went wide.
“Huh…what about an herbal infusion? Mom used to make a sleepy chamomile infusion by boiling it. Maybe if I mix in some honey, the bees would be able to drink it?”
Chief Rohsuak’s eyes lit up.
“That sounds like an excellent place to begin.”
Juosiutik nodded.
“I’ll start right away!”
Chief Rohsuak chuckled as Juosiutik began running around to fill a pot with water and grab some sleepy chamomile. She turned to leave Juosiutik to it…but then Juosiutik stepped in front of her.
“Ah, before that. Thank you, Chief Rohsuak, for taking care of me. Now…and all this time.”
Chief Rohsuak smiled from the depths of her heart at that.
Author’s Note:
I was going to bee-moan starting the week with more non-bee silliness, but then it resulted in the dangerous one working for the sake of the bees, so I’ll allow it. That’s right, dangerous one! Work for King and the hive of hives!
You had better, after making King feel bad. Niobee’s keeping an eye on you, and she does not suffer King to feel bad! She stung away the entire tone and genre of the novel for doing that!
Anyways!
Can Juosiutik find a way forward from her losses? Will she manage to make something the bees can enjoy? Will she bee forgiven by King and Conduit? Tune in next time, to find out!
Comments
AEgamer1
Well, I'd love to take credit, but it's actually a secret technique I learned from a writer's subreddit. As an easy way to come up with fantasy names for those of us who aren't Tolkien, you take a word, translate it into two different languages, then smush the resulting words together and voila. Unique names that sound like they're all from a single fictional culture, but without requiring you to actually invent an entire language from scratch. A level up from fantasynamegenerators.com!
Tsorov
I don't think I've ever seen somebody acknowledge how creative the names in this book are. Not the bee ones, those are proudly generational, but the Karnuq ones. I don't think I've ever seen this much diversity in a different species names. Especially names that are not just borrowed from human names, or at least adjacent. Or maybe these are all names from the authors home and Germany is just that much behind in naming.
Fernando Oliveira
Thanks for the chapter. Loved it. Glad to see Juosiutik working through her grief. She's still got a long way to go but the first step has been made. Having her focus on herbal infusions, or teas as the laymen think it is perfect. She should be able to produce a variety that the different hives can try. I imagine some will have different preferences based on their nature. Burn bees liking the spicier kinds and toxic bees liking the deadly concoctions for example. So slight off topic but I was reading on huntsmen spider, they're a type of spider that regularly forms symbiote relationships with human cared for hives. When bees die normally they are dragged outside of the hive and once night falls the harvestmen take them. So we have our memorial for the bees, this eliminating their primary use. However the spider kin might be better attuned to death magic as a result. Perhaps they could work side by side with the butcher bees to create the death room? They'd probably be great at hunting rabbits and they're probably pretty good at disposing of things the bees can't easily consume. Might be something to look into.
