>>31018271Thank you for the feedback. Feeling unfinished was one worry I had about this part, so I'll have to give that topic more thought. There's a reason why some things may not feel fully explained, though. Although this chapter is technically the end of the fic, its events will be relevant again in the future. I'm trying to figure out how to put this into writing, but basically, TQF was kind of like a test of writing two stories that overlap and coincide.
And by that, I mean TQF is actually a sort of side story to the Combee story I mentioned, in the sense that some characters (mainly Crimson--not "Scarlet", by the way--and Taranza) appear in both stories, both stories take place in the same setting, and their events happen concurrently. My plan was that both fics would be able to act as complete stories alone, but if read together, they'd provide a bigger overarching plot, flesh out the characters more, that sort of thing.
So, if this story doesn't stand on its own as a finished product, I want to fix that. To that end, before posting this reply, I went back and modified it by adding one scene showing what happens once
Taranza exiles the Combee. Specifically, they
give up their grudge against the Ribombee and begin looking for a new queen to follow. Hopefully that ties up that plot thread better.
As for the honey, I personally feel like that's fine as is. They're making the honey to have a means of powering up and defending themselves against potential foes, and that's all one needs to know in this story. And as for the queen and her subjects, I couldn't find a way to fit it in easily, so I figured I could try leaving it up to interpretation. But if you really think it needs to be changed, I'm open to suggestions for how to improve it. Maybe I'll go back and add a scene at the end that shows Crimson trying to treat her swarm better, but I don't know how to add it in without breaking the story's flow.