Regina had a lot to do, what with ruling the Empire, pushing her reforms forward, restructuring the military, integrating the gnomes, training her students, intensifying her intelligence efforts in hostile countries — and yet, it felt like a part of her mind was always on what was happening in the south. Like she wasn’t able to properly be at ease until she knew what was going on there.
Maybe she was too spoiled by the psychic link. The knowledge that some of her people were out of her range, fighting and possibly being hurt, while she had to wait in ignorance, was grating. Maybe she got a taste of how most people in this day and age lived now, but that didn’t mean she liked it.
As a result of this, she had obviously spent some effort on the south. Max stayed for a while, and they were pushing progress on building their new road perhaps faster than was wise. After some deliberation, Regina shifted her ‘court’ to Forest’s Haunt again for a while, since it was closer, and meant her psychic range extended farther into the mountains. This time, like before, Ira stayed in Cera to handle some of her affairs, but the psychic link meant she was hardly out of touch with the rest of the people she worked with. Kiara actually seemed a bit relieved to get her own palace back for a few weeks, which Regina tried not to feel guilty about. They would hopefully be able to move to the new capital soon, anyway. For now, this also meant she was currently closer to Nerlia and the Western Confederation, so she decided she might as well take advantage of it.
Of her new psychic students, June and a few others accompanied her, while a few of them stayed in Cera. Madris had agreed to provide some oversight for them. Regina took the opportunity for a few more training exercises in the new environment, and she felt they were coming along pretty well. Soon, she would be able to actually use them for some tasks. Perhaps even screening people. By now, that felt more like an annoying chore than anything else, even if she still didn’t take her looks into people’s heads lightly. But it was astounding what someone could get used to.
They’d almost settled into a new routine when new developments captured her attention again. This time, it was a message passed from a soldier Dan had sent back — unfortunately with a good chunk of their Winged Drones, since they couldn’t have guaranteed his safe arrival otherwise. Max immediately sent more men to help escort him back once he was in range, and the psychic link meant the message was passed on quickly, giving Regina enough time to consider it.
She hadn’t spared much thought to the dwarvish settlements in the mountains before, which was clearly a mistake. Obviously they would be quite important if the Empire wanted to build a real trade route through the mountains. It seemed they were perhaps more present and confident than she’d expected from what Galatea had said and what Tim had reported, but maybe that shouldn’t be a surprise, either — they’d survived in the mountains, after all. Clearly the dwarves had to have some high-level people, if nothing else.
Regina knew she had to send people to talk to them, as quickly as possible. Dan had done well enough, for being unprepared, and it wasn’t like she fundamentally disagreed with his choices. He’d laid out some of his reasoning in the letter he’d sent along, and while he was wrong on some details, he’d correctly guessed the main position she would take. Regardless of whether fighting the dwarves would be feasible or a good use of resources, it was obviously much better to talk to them and come to a peaceful agreement. For a variety of reasons.
Which didn’t mean they had to give them everything they asked for freely. Regina knew she had the stronger position and she wasn’t above using that in negotiations.
Fortunately, she actually had people she could send as proper diplomats, unlike for her first efforts at reaching out to other people. One of the departments they had been building up was a foreign office, and although it was still very much under construction and in flux, they had a few people who were basically career diplomats now. Mostly minor nobles with previous diplomatic experience. But she would take what she could get. Of course, she also needed to send at least one drone along, for communication if nothing else. For that, she picked Via. She would have chosen Ray, but he was busy with the elves, and Via was already right there at the new base. Plus, sending a healer as her envoy should hopefully help show them that she had peaceful intentions.
Regina let the diplomatic party take some of their fastest flying mounts to get to the base the Empire was currently using for their project in the mountains, from which they would go on with an escort. It was still risky, but she had also received some information that should make it easier for them to meet the dwarves at a safe spot. And if they didn’t expect us to respond this quickly, they’ll just have to deal with it, I guess.
Regina was still very conscious of the old Hivekind base Tim had found in the south, and any deals she cut with the residents of the mountains — or the dwarves living in the cities beyond, she wasn’t sure how that would shake out — would only help them.
She had to wait until Galatea finally returned from another extended trip before she could ask another question she had been wondering, though.
“Why didn’t you talk more about the dwarves?”
Her friend visibly paused. They were currently standing on a balcony in one of the newer wings the drones had built into the main base, after Regina’s personal quarters had been moved. It was more accessible to the outside, while still being secure and providing convenient access to the nursery. The various hangers-on who’d come from the court in Cera were housed close by, but one layer of security lower. Right now, it just meant they had some privacy to talk while having a good view of the developing city.
“To be honest, I just didn’t consider it very relevant,” Galatea admitted. “The impression I got in the southern lands is that their remaining villages are scattered and barely held. Remnants that don’t really have a bearing on anything. I tried to find one a few times, mostly out of curiosity, but when I didn’t get more than the occasional dwarvish fighter, I just left.” She shrugged lightly. “In hindsight, I realize what I heard was biased and I shouldn’t have assumed.”
Regina nodded. “Were they hiding from you?”
“… Perhaps,” Galatea mused quietly. “I should also have realized hiding their villages was not a simple prospect, but as you know, I do less well with underground structures.”
“Well, it’s a moot point now. What else did you learn on your last trip?”
Galatea had already handed her another letter she picked up from Tim. Regina tried not to dwell on it too much after quickly devouring it. It seemed like the situation was getting a lot more complicated than she’d thought, and she really didn’t know what the best way to handle it would be. Clearly there were also a lot of details she was missing — there was only so much you could fit into a clearly hastily-written letter — so she didn’t want to mess something up for him by suddenly sending new and contradictory orders. And Tim hadn’t known the newest developments around the base himself when he’d written it.
"Political alliances in the south are shifting,” Galatea said. She stood still, stiller than a human would normally be able to, seeing as she didn’t need to breathe. But something about her still seemed reminiscent of shifting restlessly, maybe the movement of her eyes. “I didn’t pay too much attention to them in my previous travels, because I know they’re ephemeral. But in the region around these cities, borders are being drawn. Alliances are being made. I don’t think it’s about a war, as such — it felt more like a political shift. Maybe they’re developing zones of influence.” She lifted her shoulders slightly, indicating a shrug. “You would know better than me.”
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“Hm.” Regina leaned against the balcony railing, crossing her arms. “I need to get out of the habit of looking at these political situations as something fixed. Of course they’re in flux. If you have an entire part of the continent dominated by city states, some larger states may arise out of them sooner or later. Do you think our own actions played any part in it?”
“Maybe. I can’t tell you much, and like I said, this is more your area than mine.”
Regina inclined her head and glanced away, conceding the point. She was concerned by what she’d heard. Taking on a city-state or two was possible, even if they had to send troops through the mountains. An entire coalition or some kind of nascent unified state? With the logistical and practical challenges involved, she suspected it just wasn’t a possibility.
“Are you willing to travel south again and help Tim with his plan?” she asked.
Galatea watched her silently for a moment. “You don’t have anything else planned to try and help?”
“I don’t think there’s anything I can do,” Regina sighed. “I can’t travel south myself, that would leave the Empire vulnerable. We can send more troops, but I’m not sure that’s the best decision, and moving them over the mountains won’t be easy. I need the dwarves for that, and I’ve already impressed the importance of success on the envoys I’ve sent.”
“So helping Tim’s plan succeed is more important than keeping you up to date? Alright. I’ll do what I can, Regina, but don’t expect miracles. And don’t forget I’m doing this as a favor to a friend, not because I have to.”
“Of course, I’ll owe you a huge favor when this is over,” Regina promised. “Thank you.”
Galatea nodded and they fell silent, watching the city. Regina sighed and stretched out her psychic senses, feeling the life thrumming through the hive’s base and through the minds of her drones.
She paused. There was something odd … there. She honed in on it. A new, unfamiliar psychic signature, traveling quickly. From the other, simpler mind close by, clearly someone riding a tamed monster — and it had to be a high-level one, considering it was coming from the mountains. The sapient mind had good defenses, so there wasn’t much more she could tell, at least not from here and not without alerting them that they had been discovered by her.
“Regina?”
“Give me a moment, Galatea,” she said absently.
She searched for the nearest gathering of drones, which were unsurprisingly at the base used to build the new mountain route, and alerted them to the traveler. It only took a minute to assemble a decent swarm of Winged Drones with a few sapient drones along for the ride. Then she sent them to meet the person she’d found.
A better look showed it was a single figure in dark clothes riding some kind of giant eagle. They clearly noticed the drones’ approach quickly and raised their hands before tugging their mount into a downward spiral to set down on the nearest flat area. The flying drones spread out a bit and circled overhead, cutting off any potential escape paths without getting too close. Gale approached with a wing of other drones, also keeping out of easy range but getting close enough to talk.
And to see the person’s System description, which immediately caught Regina’s attention. Ren Lanisiosa, Golem Artificer of unknown level. She did know who this was, or at least, Tim had seen them before.
“Who are you and what to do you want?” Gale called.
“I come with peaceful intentions!” the artificer called back. They lowered their hood, showing a pale, narrow face framed by chin-length dark hair. “I would like to talk to the leaders of your Hive!”
At Regina’s nudge, he came a bit closer. “And what do you want from them? Why should they receive you?”
“Because I have some information they may want. I only wish to know more, not to harm your people. With respect, sir, anything else I will only discuss with someone privy to your secrets.”
Regina frowned to herself, hesitating for a moment. If she took control of Gale or otherwise fed him words, she could talk directly to this person. But if they didn’t know she could do that yet, she’d be showing some of her cards. Besides, she was curious enough to want to talk to them properly.
She communicated her intentions to Gale, who grimaced, but didn’t try to protest. “Come with us,” he ordered the artificer. “One wrong move and we will shoot you out of the sky.”
“Of course. I will not resist.”
They took off, this time with the artificer’s beast surrounded by hive drones. The sapient ones still kept their distance. Regina watched for a moment longer to make sure they made no sudden wrong moves, then returned her focus to her surroundings.
“We’re getting a guest,” she told Galatea. “I need to prepare some security measures.” Max wasn’t with her right now, but she could already imagine what he would say.
It only took a bit of time to arrange things to her satisfaction, and then Regina waited. She made herself focus on her work and talked to other people in the psychic link instead of simply tracking their progress. At least the group still made good time, the flying drones were rested and the southerner’s mount was clearly pretty high-level. She assumed they hadn’t tamed it themselves, but that meant they had access to substantial resources.
Finally, the escort set down outside the base and several of the security team Max had left behind were there to take their guest into custody. Regina had decided it didn’t matter if they saw the surface areas of the base — there was now enough traffic in the public portions of it that keeping information contained entirely would be unfeasible, anyway — so they went straight to their destination. Lanisiosa was given a bit of time to freshen up, then escorted to her. Regina had vetoed the expense of building a separate throne room for this base, but there were several rooms which could serve the purpose, and with a heavy, ornate chair on a slight dais as well as more decorations put up, you couldn’t tell this had been meant as a common room for the hive originally, before they’d restructured. Several people standing around importantly helped, too.
Ira had decided to add some formality to intimidate their visitor, so Regina was introduced with all her names and titles while Tia, the only one of her princes or princesses currently at the base, stood beside her throne and got an honorable mention as well.
Lanisiosa was clearly uncertain even if they tried not to show it — and Regina really needed to ask their gender at some point, but it wasn’t high on the priority list right now — but they dropped to one knee after only a moment and bowed their head. “I am Ren Lanisiosa of Iliyan, Master Artificer of the Shadowed Path of the guilds of Terahdokni. Thank you for allowing me an audience … Empress.”
Regina raised an eyebrow slightly. As far as she knew, Terahdokni was very far to the south, and shouldn’t have anything to do with what was happening. There was a slight question in the title too, as if they were wondering if ‘Hive Queen’ would be better.
“You seem quite far from home, Master Artificer,” she said. “You claim to have information for us and to want some in return. Speak.”
They raised their head hesitantly, meeting her gaze. “I speak of affairs of the Hivekind,” they said hesitantly. “I have been investigating what remains of an old Hive. I did not know there were any left alive today, or I would have come to you sooner.”
“You are clearly behind on news, Master Lanisiosa,” Regina drawled. She glanced around the room, but didn’t dismiss anyone. There were only hive drones or those she trusted to keep their secrets here. And it was obvious what they were speaking of now, so she might as well bring it up. “You must be quite brave to come here, either way. You were seen somewhere you should not be, perhaps meddling with what you should not have.”
The artificer pulled a face. “I had no intentions of disrespecting your race or memory, Your Majesty. I am not your enemy.”
“And yet, your tools are being used by those in conflict with my people,” Regina said in a low tone.
They bowed their head without answering for a moment. “The people I am working with are perhaps not as wise as I would wish,” they finally said.
“A poor justification,” she scoffed, playing it up a bit. “Is your promise of information equally poor? I tire of your equivocation.”
The artificer licked their lips and straightened up, meeting her gaze squarely again.
“I know what they are seeking in the old base, and what you may find there, Your Majesty. I know where what remains of the Hivekind’s knowledge is hidden. It should be yours to hold, so I will gladly tell you what I know. I only ask for some slight measure of your knowledge in return.”
Regina leaned back in her throne, resisting the urge to grin. “Now, Master Artificer,” she said, “I believe we may have a productive conversation.”
Spreading her own knowledge was what she was doing already, she’d simply censor what they got. But she felt her rising excitement mirrored in the others in the room at what they might learn now. And even if it was overstated, she should still be able to use the golem artificer against their allies in the south to secure control of the base.
