"Hold the line!" A commander yelled somewhere above us. Had that been closer than the last? Were the soldiers faltering? Were they going to break through the gates soon?

"Clelia" my Quartermaster shouted, "task at hand," I was about to apologize, but they'd already taken off toward the entryway.

I returned to work, peeling back one of the cradles I'd spent a lifetime creating. As I opened it, the child inside started to wriggle, exposed to the elements again. "Come here. It's okay," I whispered as I reached into the cubby and pulled out the baby.

They weren't ready to leave, but we had to go.

"Here!" one of my coworkers called. I turned and passed the child to them as its soft coos were drowned out by legions of footsteps above us.

For a moment, I locked eyes with Avicia as they took and then tucked the baby. They nodded at me, then looked to the door. "Are you coming too?"

I shook my head, "May the Keeper guide you," I offered as a blessing. Avicia stared for a moment and then shook her head as well. I'd trained her; She'd joined the nursery when I'd already seen generations rise in service to our Queen. "Go," I added.

"Clelia..."

"I will find you," I lied, "I'll be right behind you; I just can't- " I stopped trying to explain, "Get out of here! Take them to safety."

"The Queen will still need you when the sun rises, Clelia," Avicia turned away and took a deep breath. I thought she would add something for a moment, but instead, she took flight down the hallway, following other aides who had been given their precious cargo.

I steeled myself before setting on another cradle. They were well sealed, meant to keep the children safe from the harsh elements, but if the fortress was overrun they would become prisons.

The first lock on the cradle came away, and I pulled out my weapon to break the second; it wasn't like I needed to leave it in good condition for the invaders.

"The Queen!" Came a panicked cry from the stairway to the upper floors. "The Queen! They've found the Queen!"

A murmur swept over the room, and then a buzz. The shaken soldier stumbled down the last steps and then tumbled into the nursery. He was covered in a million small cuts, breathless from shouting and injury.

I pulled the child out of the cradle and held it close; it was somehow brave enough not to cry.

"They came from above," the soldier sputtered out, "th-there are too many. We're all going to-" they were cut off by two guardsmen covering their mouth and pinning the soldier to the floor.

It sounded like there were footsteps on the stairs for a moment, but then it became clear; It wasn't a soldier. It was a lockstep march of countless invaders.

My Quartermaster rushed over to the guards and pushed them off the soldier, exchanging quiet words as I passed the child I'd freed off to another runner. There wasn't time for a solemn exchange as the Quartermaster rose and spoke.

"Grab what you can now. We're leaving. Those who can fight, we're headed upstairs."

I took a deep breath and sent a silent prayer out to the wind that my lie to Avicia wouldn't be held against me. As I started toward the stairway, the Quartermaster met my eyes and shook their head. It was slow, apologetic.

I understood. I was old. I would be a liability in a formation. They were denying me a chance to fight and die for my Queen.

Just as I was about to turn away, my Quartermaster walked toward me. "Teach the young Clelia," they commanded, "they're going to need you."

"Yes, Quartermaster."

"Iris," they corrected before walking toward the militia.

I didn't stay to hear the speech, instead, I took off down the hallway as the last children were freed by others. I flew over the structures that had been built over generations, fixtures that had been carved by my friends.

I went to the walls.

The walls of the fortress had stood since before the Queens had guided us here with their infinite wisdom. They were built of the strongest materials I'd ever seen. They were mightier than mountains and had stood against storms.

But even with all their might, the walls hadn't been enough. As I erupted into the cool night air, I could see them, the invaders. From my vantagepoint, they resembled a black river that stretched across the mighty plains into the yawning void of the night. They had scaled the walls at dusk. Our soldiers were mightier and better trained than their savage masses, but it hadn't mattered. We numbered thousands. They numbered millions.

I was about to leave for the rallying point, a sky-piercing tree far from the invaders, but then I saw it. Our neighbors had a castle as mighty as ours, but it was besieged. They had just begun fighting off the first wave of the same invasion. They would be overrun.

It was the end of the world.

They say that the mysterious is the will of the Keeper. The hive sleeps and is suddenly clean. The walls crack and repair themselves. The Keeper did it all.

I'd dreamt once that I'd seen him. Massive enough to dwarf our fortress and surrounded by soldiers from every Kingdom. The preachers had said that it was impossible to know the Keeper from within the hive. Impossible to know his ways.

Impossible or not. He was the last hope.

I might have been old, but I still had wings. I took a leap of faith off the hive and shot off into the night, away from the tree, away from safety and toward the one place I'd seen the Keeper before.

There was something there as I approached, something massive and arcane, but it wasn't the Keeper as I remembered them. The Keeper was a pure being a white cloth, but this was a myriad of colours.

The end of the world didn't have time for perfection. I needed them.

I flew up to the Keeper and cried out, but he didn't deign to look at me. I landed on his massive form, and he didn't offer attention.

My Queen was dead. My home was ruined. I would be a blasphemer.

"Avicia, Iris. I'm sorry."

I plunged my weapon into the Keeper, pressing it into his skin and piercing divinity. He growled, and I could feel the air vibrate as he did. I tried to pull away, but my weapon was stuck fast.

Of course, striking a god was to invite death.

My vision began fading, but as I felt the world close in around me, I heard the Keepers' voice, somehow both soft and mighty.

"What's going on with the bees?"

I fell with the first step the Keeper took toward the hive. I dipped into the black.

"Ants!" The Keeper bellowed as a mighty war cry as the colony came into view. I would die, but divine wrath would sustain the hive.

For Queen and Colony.

---

/r/Jacksonwrites to join the colony. Thank you to Deco-nouveau for calling me out on misgendering the bees early so I could avoid later embarrassment.