And the answer was—no.
I looked up at the other bees with me: Bloodimina, Explanatory, my always-there bodyguards and a few others.
"We do have Agents working around that area, do we?"
"A few," Bloodimina replied. "But they report once in a week or even rarer, because we don't have a telepathic chain going there, and they need to send a messenger."
'The last report from them was six days ago, Father,' Whisper messaged us from her high seat. 'It was nothing interesting—the lord of the province is too busy dealing with his own lands and the border with the Barahi Kingdom to interfere with the civil war.'
Oh, right! This province was on a border with another kingdom, too! But other kingdoms were as busy with evolution-caused disasters as this one. Even with the God of Humanity spending his resources to help them, they had to be.
Farini opened and closed his jaws.
'Ah, Farini wants to add something.' Whisper brightened. 'He has a friend who lives in the province—they studied together. He might be of help, and Farini had already written him some letters about how good we bees are.'
'Yes, Farini, this is good. But you, yourself—you mission is here. While we are bringing back the cure, you can finish this civil war by taking over the High King's throne…'
Farini's disappointment upon hearing these words was clear even to me—his shoulders lowered. But he quickly caught himself.
'I will write a letter to my friend and implore him to assist you as much as possible, divine guardians!'
As for the rest of the plan, it was already clear.
Bees would travel on tamed dragons, which flew faster than any bee or horse. Then, if they need human help to save the dodo chicks, they will get this help from humans on the spot.
And I had to be there. This task was too important to leave to others!
They wouldn't even know what dodos look like. In this world, they could look very different from how I described them based on my Earth memories—then I only will recognize them thanks to my system's hints.
As for the difficulties we will surely meet on the place, if the bees that will travel with me on dragons won't be enough to defeat them, I had another thing prepared—a special cargo.
Originally, I wanted to leave it here—it was part of the reason I flew to the temple's opening myself—but now it will have a higher purpose.
Especially if the dodos weren't friendly to bees by themselves.
There was only one dragon waiting in my current location, and I knew we would need much more than that to fulfill this mission. Thankfully, traveling from Hive Supremo to the dodos' location would take about as much time as it took from this city—three or four days with good weather.
Dragons didn't like flying this far, but as long as it was only in one direction and with a good deal of rest, they should be amenable.
As soon as Farini wrote the letter he promised and gave it to me (the piece of paper was just a tiny note for a human, but it required a dozen bees to carry), I rode a dragon back to Hive Supremo.
The two-days-long journey was done fully alongside the telepathic chain, so even mid-flight I could stay in touch with forces both in the Bee Empire and in the human lands.
With this, I both explained to my dear wife why I had to leave the hive again (although she didn't speak about it and wished me only good tidings, I *knew* Amby will worry for me, just like I will miss her!), and prepared forces for the mission.
Bloodhero gathered the best of the best, most of them Beehounds, but there were several Commando and Warrior Bees that instead of a morphotype had chaotic mutations that were potentially more destructive or useful than morphotyped abilities.
There were bees with the ability to see in the dark, with infrared vision, those who could breathe fire and even those who could decipher pheromones—not just those of similar creatures, like the "Adjacent Pheromone Detection" gene, but anyone's. This advanced gene was called "Universal Pheromone Detection".
And of course, dragons. Ten black dragons (crows), who were the smartest and the most easily tamable dragons out of those we could notice. Unlike most beasts, they could be tamed even as adults. At least, to an extent.
(The efforts to train black dragons starting with chicks were ongoing, but slowed down by the facts that these dragons guarded their eggs well, and that they just aged too quickly.)
So, thanks to all the time I spent messaging to my subordinates from the back of a dragon, by the time I dismounted near the Hive Supremo, the operative group was ready to move out almost at any moment!
I stretched my limbs and looked at the sun, which was going down to the horizon. Technically, dragons still flew around at this time… Then I looked at the dragon who had brought me there.
Its massive black eye stared right back at me, and the beast let out a growl, which was quiet at first, then became louder and louder until the dragon even flapped its wings, making its dragon rider gasp and hold on to the dragon's harness.
"Yeah, buddy, I'm tired and hungry, too. Well, *you* won't be flying with us to this mission, anyway. But I… Yeah, I'm going to rest until tomorrow. Not much flying can be done until morning, anyway."
With this, I messaged the prepared operative group to rest as well and do their final preparations.
At the entrance of Hive Supremo, way above all the kilns and forges working at the ground level, I already spotted a familiar figure in a flowing green dress.
If I only had a few hours to spend with Ambrosia until I was going to leave again, I had to spend them well!