If there is one thing I am learning about the Chemkan Bee Project, it is that the ideas are far easier to grow than the ecosystems required to sustain them. Today was devoted almost entirely to the search for a suitable granular plane to house my bees, once I attain them. What I imagined, at first, would be a simple matter of locating an available venue and securing it has instead turned into something far more complicated.

I began early this morning, before even my first class, with a fresh round of search queries. The results were numerous, to put it mildly. There were hundreds, actually thousands, of available venues scattered across the Retunian Commonwealth. Some were lush and already partially cultivated, others were barren and waiting for transformation. Some are located near major population centers, others so remote that reaching them in person would require long-distance gyroplane flights.

At first, I cast the net wide. I told myself that distance mattered little to my agenda, that I could make this work given the right conditions. The priority was creating an environment within necessary for the Chemkan Bee survival. My mind drifted back to the moment, yesterday, when Dr. Jaynes told me, "You are not simply planting. You are building a system that must sustain itself when you are not looking."

So my priority was, regardless of location, to find the one venue just right for what I needed. I searched, and searched, and searched. By mid-morning, the list did narrow slightly. I eliminated planes with atmospheric cycles already installed and hard to manipulate, those with either poor soil data or none at all, and those with species already in them. I eliminated, also, those requiring special certification from the Circlarian School of Spellcrafting; not all of them did, thanks to certain pre-programmed scriptwritings. Nonetheless, too many did. And I eliminated those whose leasing costs were... well... absurd.

Then I filtered by proximity. And that was when things became frustrating, because once I narrowed the search to something remotely feasible for a full-time student, the options collapsed almost entirely.

There was only one I found even remotely feasible for myself. One. And it is in the province of Chemko.

At first glance, it seemed perfect. Its internal environmental settings seemed good, with its climate calibrated to a temperate summer range, ideal for Chemkan Been pollination cycles. The soil composition, which was already established, seemed okay for the plants I anticipated using. There were even notes indicating prior success with other environmental scientists with other planes under the same venue.

But then I saw the cost: two hundred credits per month.

It was the most expensive of all of them by a long shot. I might have lost my mind for a moment there, staring at the number, wishing that it would change if I simply refused to accept it. And of course, it did not.

Then there was the commute. Even with the advent of gyroplanes, traveling all the way out to Chemko regularly would require careful scheduling, likely cutting into both study time and Third Level Society engagement. And the Chemkan Bees, as I have figured, would not tolerate neglect.

And that brought me to another issue: maintenance.

I brought all of this up with Dr. Jaynes today, after our midday class. I had hoped-perhaps naively-that he would offer some workaround, some lesser-known alternative, some hidden resource I had overlooked. And I knew at this point that I was feeling desperate.

He listened, as he always did, with that steady, patient focus. Then he gave his answer. "You are correct in bringing up that they need consistent care," he told me. "You would need to visit daily, at least in the early stages, for things like hive establishment, environmental monitoring, and plant-bee interaction. It all requires observation..." Then he leaned forward at his desk and looked me in the eye. "Unfortunately...I don't have an answer to your predicament. However, I will encourage you to consider that finding a venue should not be your first priority. Not with the search method you've been using, that is."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"You are at Cabotton University, after all, Maxima. There are many resources here, both formal and informal. Ask around. Speak with other students, faculty...hey, maybe even Third Level Society members. You may find access to shared spaces, unused granular planes that aren't advertised on OCEA. Maybe a collaborative project already ongoing may help."

"I'll definitely consider."

"Also, you may do well to consult the Library in Cabotton proper, not just for records but for contacts. OCEA is one thing; networks are another."

Network was a word I've been familiar with for a while now. I've used them for things such as questing in the Third Level Society, but have not yet applied them to my project. I thanked Dr. Jaynes, of course. And I left with not a solution, but a new direction.

I shifted my gears entirely for the remainder of the afternoon, most of which I spent questing with Bernard and Maggie in the Arturian Realm.

We met, as our avatars, on Planet Arturia proper, along one of the quieter sections of shoreline. There was something about that as a setting that made things feel more personal to me. Part of it was the opportunity to connect more as close friends. There was Bernard, engaging as his avatar, the independent Airmaster Adam. Adam was standing at the edge of the front balcony of a pre-Steam-Era airship, looking up at the sky, and appeared to be gauging the weather. Maggie's avatar, Koen, arrived moments later, still carrying that slight air of uncertainty but growing more confident nonetheless.

As for me, I am still learning the ropes. But today did feel different. Our airship lifted from the dock, lightly and in short order, and rendezvoused with our client: an unarmed airship carrying a shipment of botanical specimens, moving between a minor post on the North Shore and another on the South Shore; we would be the escorts. The quest proceeded without us needing to use our weapons. But there were complications. There are always complications.

This time, complications arose in the form of a sudden storm, which forced us to reroute a little bit further south than we wished. That brought us into the path of opportunistic raiders. But they were nothing like Otto's pirate collective; in fact, they had the same kind of rope-and-sail airship we had. They attempted to intercept us, but Bernard used wind redirection spells to outmaneuver them. Again, we did not need to use our weapons.

Maggie surprised me, though, with rope navigation skills she had gained since the last time. At some point after the storm and pirates, I spotted that the bad weather had caused one of the cargo rigs on the unarmed airship to begin destabilizing. I pointed it out to the others, and Maggie's avatar, Koen, immediately took out a rope-and-hook and swung over to the other airship. With a flurry of more ropes, Koen re-secured the rig. It was not perfect, but it would hold for the rest of the trip. The captain over there patted Koen on the back, saying, "I thought we would lose that. Well done!"

"You are full of surprises!" I said, half-joking, when Koen returned to our airship. In all seriousness, however, I aimed to acknowledge others' strengths. I've begun to realize the importance of mutual support, mutual encouragement. It added to the momentum of confidence-building within all of us, I could tell.

I felt "lighter" emotionally after the quest, a feeling deeply contrasting from that of despair and frustration which I felt in the morning. Also, I felt "collaborative optimism," which helped me prepare for the Dungeonmaster re-election meeting between my brother and the rest of the crew.

"Don't be alarmed, everyone," began Aledon, his gaze on his comm tab, which he had open and scrolling through OCEA updates, "but her influence is spreading a bit faster than we would have hoped."

"Tell me it isn't Monika," I said, half-serious.

Rolling his eyes, he turned his comm tab screen toward us. It was, indeed, an OCEA post made by Monika, this one reading a simple motto: "Don't let the fear turn us into the very same false thing we fear in the first place."

"It's a well-crafted statement," I said. "I'll give her that."

"Layda shared it," said Elisabeth with a tone of dread while glancing at her own comm tab. "And Karyanna."

"Sara too," Madison added.

Suddenly, for a moment, the room grew quiet, with an air of panic combined with awkward silence. For a moment, no one knew what to do.

"It is resonating, as we all can tell," said Aledon, finally, with a tone of measured acknowledgment. "She's framing the narrative."

"It sounds reasonable," admitted Bernard, leaning back in his chair. "That's the problem."

"Reasonable, but vague," I added. "Incomplete."

"Good point," said Aledon, who then closed his eyes and concentrated on his thoughts. "Monika is not wrong about the concept of fear, I will admit...What we need to do, though, is get out the message more that ignoring a threat doesn't make it disappear."

"I get what you mean," said Madison. "But looking at the Ticketer lately, we already have a reputation for being paranoid."

"I think we should find a balance," started Elisabeth. "Focus more on what Aledon can do as a Dungeonmaster, should he win."

"We've been through this already," replied Madison through gritted teeth. "I love you, Elisabeth, very much. I really do. But that's precisely what we've been doing up to this point...and it's not working!"

"Maybe focus even more on the optimistic agenda," I offered. "Like barely mention Stamp even a little bit."

"I'm just worried we'll come off ignorant like Monika, though," Aledon started.

"For God's sake, people!" Madison stood from her chair. "We've...been...through...this! I feel like we're going around in circles!"

Another awkward moment of silence followed, broken only when Elisabeth said, "I don't get it. It was working before. I remember seeing the uptick in favorable comments right after we started the optimistic approach...and then I noticed things turned sour over the past day or so with no explanation, no indicators on OCEA or Ticketer."

"I wonder if there's some behind-the-scenes motive at play," I said.

"Good point, Maxima," said Bernard. "And I think I know what that is. I did hear whisperings, both out here and in Arturia, of the Meghan Wen thing."

"Aw, come on," Aledon said in frustration, throwing his hands up in the air. "That was water under the bridge since last year."

"Not if it's a tool Monika could use..." ventured Madison.

Elisabeth glanced at me. "I think Maxima has no clue what we're talking about," she said to Aledon. "Care to enlighten your sister?"

"Very well," said Aledon, cringing and turning toward me. "You're friends of Meghan Wen by now, right?"

"Yes," I said, not sure where this would be going.

"And it was either today, or yesterday, I believe, that she turned 18. I think it's today."

"Oh...?"

"Never brought up age, huh?" said Aledon. "Understandable. But here's the problem: Last year, she started here, sixteen going on seventeen. She was seventeen by the time she came to us, because it was well into October of last year. She really wanted to join and quest. And she seemed to have an exceptional knack with avatar knowledge and skills, something she tells me she did in her free time before she came here. She was eager to join, but you know, there's an age limit to the Third Level Society, right?"

"You remember the onboarding questionnaire, don't you?" said Madison toward me.

"Right," I said in response.

Aledon continued. "So she came to us wishing to join. Of course, she was told that she had to wait for another year. But by the end of October, it became increasingly widely known that she was quite talented at avatar creation. An increasing number of Members felt the age rule unfair. And before long, a petition was submitted to allow Meghan to join last year as an exception. I personally signed on and loudly endorsed her. The only issue was that, for as many people who supported this, there were those who opposed it. Monika, for one, said that doing so would open us to all sorts of legal liabilities. The Bookkeeper, at the time, recused himself from the discord and called for the Membership to vote. And it was very close, but ever so slightly, a margin gave the majority to those against Meghan Wen joining. We took our losses, Meghan Wen and I and the rest of the coalition, and went on with our lives.

"But Monika did not," Aledon said with another cringe. "She, for the longest time, went on and on publicly about how I was reckless in how I approached the Meghan Wen issue. She actually called for my expulsion from the Society. That failed, thankfully, but it was about an entire semester and a half before her group got tired of the subject. I thought that was dead, but now I realize that it was simply dormant."

I realized in that moment that there was nothing to fix with the Meghan Wen thing. So I shifted gears and turned to Elisabeth. "You've been doing poll-surveys with Members recently?" I asked her.

"I've approached about 600 of them as a sample. About 400 of those opt out and refused to participate," said Elisabeth. "But with what I've had, there's been, roughly, 51 to 55 percent favorability. I know it's close, but it's always been the majority in favor. Nothing leaning toward Monika in terms of numbers, or I would've remembered."

"That's really damn close though," objected Madison. "Especially factoring in that two-thirds flat out refuse to answer."

"I know, Madison," I asserted. "And I know that we've been going around in circles talking about the optimism balance thing. But I think at this point, the only thing we have left going for us is stability. I know our balanced optimism approach hasn't been getting the same response it did last week. But holding course there demonstrates solid leadership. And that, combined with Elisabeth's numbers, limited as they are, we have hope to run on to continue for the next two days as a fighting chance."

"Maxima's right," said Aledon. "And I feel we're going to pull this off. So let's hold course with our current plan."

***

Responsibility. Balance. Integrity.

Three words to describe the Chemkan Project. The same three words describe Aledon's re-election.

The only difference here is the deadline. Aledon's is in two days. Mine is in four years.

With the bees, I felt, initially, that the searches, costs, and logistics could be resolved by an approach with clear parameters. But I realized it wasn't so simple. Not only were the parameters so vague and complicated that I almost had a nervous breakdown, but there was, indeed, a responsibility afterward, one burdened by care, consistency, and attention. One slip there and the entire Project collapses.

All the same for Aledon. Except it's not bees; it's his reputation as a Dungeonmaster.

Dr. Jaynes speaks of ecosystems. Aledon speaks of leadership. And hell, Monika speaks of fear. It's all the same: both the future Bee habitat and Third Level Society are, in their own ways, vulnerable.

That doesn't mean broken, though. Not yet, anyway. The Chemkan Bee habitat does not yet exist. I still have control over its fate. The Third Level Society exists, and I alone do not have total control over that. But there, we all do collectively.

And then there's the University as a whole, even more vulnerable than the Society or the bee habitat. Arnold Stamp is an ever-growing threat to all, regardless of how seriously they take him, I'm beginning to realize. And Monika, with her agenda of ignorance, is just as bad for the Society, at least.

Is our side too reactionary, though? I have to think for two seconds.

We've been saying a lot, warning people about Stamp. Monika decried us for it. She even used the word "reactionary" to describe us at one point, if I remember.

But then again, what is her agenda?

That's what woke me up just now. Nothing. There's nothing she's been saying about her own agenda. It's all been about how Aledon and friends have been too "reactionary." And that's a bit reactionary of Monika, isn't it?

Oh, the irony.

And that's our path to winning. The Society votes on Aledon in two days. Hopefully they'll understand the irony too.