De Ja Vu.
The feeling that you've been here before.
De Ja Vu
To stand in a place you've never been, but to somehow know the feel of its moonlight on your skin... to somehow know the shimmer of its white and gold flowers by your feet.
Han had never been here before, yet... he had.
He stood in that flower field, that place where he had lost Chul, the battlefield where he had first bested a god. Yet it wasn't that field, because this one was not theirs.
This place was his.
He knew this because they did not — could not — watch him here... there were no stars.
"Han Kim," a voice whispered from behind him, soft as rain.
He knew that voice.
"Beelaques," he grunted.
And there she was, a woman of gold, skin so soft and pale it seemed carved from moonlight. A goddess, with limbs so slender he wondered whether flesh and muscle truly coiled her bones. A beauty he had only seen once before... and yet he knew that was a lie.
He had never seen her before, for this wasn't Beelaques.
He was not sure how he could tell; it was a feeling. Perhaps —he thought at that moment— it was the same way bees could tell each other apart, despite looking identical to the eyes of mortal men.
"Who are you?" he asked, after a moment of silence had passed. 'And why did she call me by my full name?' he wanted to add. Beelaques had only ever called him whisperer, or false whisperer. Was this woman even from the Hive?
She sized Han up; despite her petite appearance, she stood 2 meters tall, a giant of a goddess. "You are smaller than the visions," she said, running the softness of her fingers over his cheeks.
"That doesn't answer my question," Han shot back, slapping her hand away. He already knew what the woman was trying to do. Beelaques had done it once before: a kiss to his forehead.
He didn't know exactly what the gesture meant, but he knew it was a sign of dominance. And he was done letting the Hive stalk above him.
She nodded at his gesture. "And braver still, it seems," she said, bowing now. "Congratulations on your triumph against Duchess Beelaques."
Han's face twisted in confusion. The word 'Duchess' had come in a sudden rush of thought, an idea translated instantly into the English title. It was only then that he realised all their previous words had been communicated seamlessly through the Hive's thought language, bypassing the need for audible sound. He had been conversing in High Apodia without knowing it.
"Duchess?" Han asked in plain English. He was under the assumption that Beelaques was a queen.
The woman shrugged at that. "It seems I have overstepped my responsibilities," she replied, now in plain English as well. "Forgive my constraints, Sacred Whisperer, I come only to explain your Apiary."
Han's eyes narrowed at the mention of Apiary.
Yet another term he did not know.
The woman seemed to notice this. "Your Hive within the Hive."
'Then... this place is a Hive?' he thought, taking a moment to appreciate the scenery.
Now that he looked closer, this field was a dozen times smaller than Beelaques's. Where hers had spanned across the horizon, Han noticed that the light of the moon went dark a few kilometres in either direction.
But apart from that, it was the same. Down to the sweet-honey scent that wafted in the air.
"You have birthed the first of your council, I am told," the woman said. "I am also told, Beelaques had not explained how your council will work," she added. "That is why I am here."
Han scoffed at that. Of course, Beelaques had failed to tell him this. He had the feeling that the witch had only told him about the tower and Arcitect because she absolutely had to... if not only because she was expecting him to die on the mission.
"So, go on," he sighed. "How does it work?"
She bowed again, lower this time. "If I may, speaking in this... tongue is inefficient," she said. "I ask that we converse again, in High Apoidea... if the whisperer pleases."
"Ahh, right," Han replied. "Yes, we may," he said, confused about whether he should be bowing back or not. Regardless, he quite liked this woman's way of speaking. It was refreshing to know that not everyone from the Hive was as cold and abrasive as Beelaques.
The woman stood up straight before opening her mouth.
Han didn't even hear her buzzing, as the warmth of her 'words' was radiated into his mind as thought born from idea. And in that instant, he knew a great many new things.
For one, the 'pupa' wasn't actually a living thing. It was more like a sentient shell, a body that could move and converse, but one without a soul.
It was only once this pupa gained a soul, could it evolve.
And there lay another piece of new information.
It would evolve, not into a bee, but an actual child. The thoughts the woman had shared with him did not get into the biology of it, but it seemed it would be born of this demi-human form that Han had evolved into. And from there, grow rapidly until reaching adulthood.
And finally, the last new piece of information, and perhaps the most important. In order for it to gain a soul, Han would have to convince one from the Hive to be reborn. Slashing its direct tether to the grand Hive and making itself subservient to his.
This, he knew, was not going to be an easy task.
"We may begin when you are ready. You only need to say the word, and I will create the link to the rest of the Hive," the woman said.
'Wait, wait. I have to convince these bastards? How? How the hell am I supposed to do that?'
He felt like a politician on the stand; not knowing exactly what he needed to win the debate, only that he would have to lie to win it.
Han smiled awkwardly. "What about you?" he asked. "Would you join my Hive?"
The woman looked at him with a straight face. "No."
Han already suspected she'd say as much; however, it still hurt to be rejected. "Why?"
"I am not a thrill seeker," she said. "I am not one of those fragments which wish to live beyond the hive."
'Thrill seeker?' For the first time, Han considered that these 'god' beings actually had lives. And for a moment, he wondered what life within the Hive looked like. From the titles they had — queen, duchess, etc— they likely lived in a monarchy of some sort?
No, that was wrong. To begin with, who even said they lived? These were creatures who spoke in thought and saw themselves as both a collective and an individual at the same time.
He doubted his imagination would do the true reality justice. But that was besides the point. For her to mention 'thrill seeker', it must then mean that some 'fragments' of the hive are chasing thrill.
He smiled. 'I have bait,' he thought.
Now all he needed was a hook, then luck would decide whether there'd be a catch.
Han's mind began to build a case in the background, diving into the parts of him that sought 'thrill', and made him such a fragment of the Hive called 'thrill seeker'. Like a detective, he began peering into the minds of the criminals he sought.
And what he stumbled upon was that of him that had been born only after arriving in Apocalypse.
His bloodlust.
A toothy grin appeared on his face.