Drone

XIV

XIV

“So, this place is cheery.” Dorone remarked happily as he looked around the tense and gloomy palace.

The usually happy music that naturally floated through the air was silent. There wasn't even swarms of fireflies or butterflies floating around. There were other changes too; the air seemed heavier, the marble of the floor was darker. Subtle changes that spoke volumes more about Wasp's mood than even the frown on his face.

They were in Wasp's library. Not his personal one that contained personal works on mages throughout the ages but the bigger one in the middle of the palace that was just a collection of knowledge over anything and everything. Wasp was cataloging and organizing new books he had received from his Japanese Gate.

He had gone there yesterday and just returned to Nest about an hour ago. There had been no warps in the Japanese post but Wasp had been almost desperate to leave Nest. Considering that Dorone hadn't seen Phoebe since the day before yesterday and Wasp kept grumbling about her under his breath, it didn't take a great leap of logic to figure out why.

“If you're not going to be helpful, then leave.” Wasp snapped at him as he sent a book flying onto a shelf. It flew with more force than he intended and slammed into the shelve with such force that the entire thing started rocking.

“I'm not really into mindless work, but thanks.” Dorone smiled at him and jumped up onto one of the tables that littered the room and sat down comfortably. “I'm just here to remind you that you're supposed to be building Jean's house today.”

“I'm aware.” Wasp slammed a book down.

“Which makes me wonder how you plan on doing that with her energy sealed.”

“I'm going to use my own energy.” Wasp entered the next book into his catalog as he spoke. They were electronically logged. Wasp wasn't wasting magical energy on keeping track of his regular books.

Especially not when he had to build Jean's house later.

He had sealed her energy but he hadn't told her. Jean didn't need to know but she did need to be kept under control. Instead of informing her of her seal, he was just going to use his own energy to build her home. Until he found a way to control the vacuum effect that she and Phoebe had, he would simply have to fulfill her magical requests using his own energy or that of his hive collectively.

Normally, Wasp looked forward to these days. It was always fun to sit down with the worker in question and go through all the interesting and creative ideas that they had for their homes. Though there were many features that were shared as people saw others and liked them, no two houses were identical. One person had a tropical garden styled indoor pool while another had a basement kept in perpetual winter; Cosimo and Gabriella had an underground cavern network to store their wine and Dorone had a night club on his bottom floor. Based on the personality and skill set of the people living there every house ended up different somehow.

Wasp usually took great joy in building those dream houses. The look on people's faces as their imaginations came to life in front of them was fantastic. However, after his fight with Phoebe the other day, he wasn't really in the mood.

He couldn't cancel with Jean though. That would be rude and selfish of him. He had to serve his people first no matter what he felt towards Phoebe at the moment. Besides, Jean wouldn't at all be happy to know he was blowing her off because he was angry at her sister.

“Not to make you angrier, but you mind telling me what happened between you two?” Dorone asked with a friendly smile. He wasn't prying, he was trying to help his brother. Prying was just a side benefit that he wasn't going to deny enjoying.