The envoy from Iliyan was, in fact, more of an envoy than a strike force or military detachment sent to capture the base. They clearly went to some effort to make this clear.

  Almost everyone in the group had a relatively low Level, with many of them clearly having Classes that were not focused on combat. The few who did have higher levels and more martial Classes tended toward Paladin, or others that implicitly assured some righteousness. Against other people, it might have been a very interesting diplomatic ploy.

  Galatea was pretty sure that aspect would be lost on her current companions. Drones like Tim didn’t exactly have the same cultural conditioning as local humans, and Owin and most of the lower-ranking officers were Delvers, with a slightly more complicated relationship with it.

  Tim had complained about the location of the base supposedly being secret but leaking everywhere, but Galatea tried not to let it bother her. He was probably entitled to a bit of whining. Still, he probably also knew that the secret was pretty much out already. Lucian had tracked its location with his adventurer, Iliucin obviously knew about it and it would have been unrealistic to hope that Iliyan hadn’t noticed the battle, even if they’d missed the previous occupation.

  No, secrecy was not a defense that was going to hold much longer, even if it wasn’t already completely frayed at the edges.

  Still, that didn’t mean one had to reveal all their cards, or so Tim said, so he met the Iliyans inside the base but almost directly by the entrance, stopping them from getting a better view or, hopefully, from gauging the size of the place. The soldiers had managed to drag some tables and chairs together and there were some refreshments available, even if the quality could probably be improved. Sitting down and talking over food was still a much more relaxed and amenable atmosphere. Galatea would have suggested doing it this way if Tim hadn’t decided on it himself.

  To their credit, the diplomats from the city-state didn’t act like this was unusual and hid any discomfort they might have felt pretty well. They started with some small talk, exchanging pleasantries with Tim and the others who chimed in occasionally. Galatea listened, but didn’t pay particular attention to the words. There might be interesting nuggets of information buried in them, but she didn’t much care about their babbling or the minor details, and, frankly, it wasn’t her job.

  Not that she had any job at all, but the principle still held.

  She was also a little distracted trying to sense the empty space below the base, and what it did to mana. It wasn’t easy, but now that she knew what to look for, she wondered how more mages couldn’t have noticed it. Perhaps her own senses were a little different, but there was certainly something of a void. It also seemed vaguely familiar, not necessarily in the sense of a familiar sensation, but that she felt she was missing a reference to something she knew. It wasn’t ‘twisted’ mana like she was intimately familiar with, though. That much she could say with certainty. Unless it hid behind a wall of this more obscure phenomenon. Either way, she felt very reluctant to actually venture down there and get too close to it.

  She still might go down, while exercising healthy caution and taking care not to draw closer than necessary, but if they did end up trying to rely on teleportation, she wouldn’t volunteer. An area, material or artifact that could completely disrupt and cancel out the flow of mana sounded particularly dangerous to a mana-form like her. If she was to test her immortality, she’d prefer not to do it in quite this stupid a way.

  Galatea tuned back in to the conversation enough to make sure Tim didn’t say anything stupid regarding this little discovery. Fortunately, he didn’t. He was smarter than that. He managed to steer the conversation away from the base or its contents pretty well, only satisfying their curiosity with some surface-level observations, metaphorically and literally. He managed to get the fact across that there was little to be found here, everything of value long since taken or destroyed, without quite coming out and saying it.

  Luckily, that seemed to be enough for Iliyan’s agents. They seemed a little more interested in the political situation than the historical site of cultural value to the new people, anyway.

  “Of course, I understand, however justified the war, conducting military operations requires a lot of resources,” Tim was saying understandingly. “The logistical burden is great. My people are fortunate in both requiring less care in some ways and having means of meeting such requirements.”

  Galatea frowned slightly. Was he … trying to bribe the city-state? Well, I guess it might work, she supposed.

  “That it does,” the lead diplomat said. He looked rather unimpressive, more of a scholar or bureaucrat rather than a warrior, but a warrior might have been a worse envoy for them in a negotiation like this. “We cannot simply give up out of fear that expenses will be too high, unfortunately. Our enemies will not, and having our fields and villages burned is unlikely to make the financial situation better. I am sure you understand that as well, given your empire’s recent war.”

  “True,” Tim agreed, leaning back a little and projecting confidence. “It was quite a drain, although the gnomes have paid some reparations after their unprovoked attack, and the empire is doing quite well in peacetime.”

  “It is, My Prince?”

  “Oh, yes. Not to brag, but the Central European Empire is quite large. A large population means a large tax base, as I’m sure I don’t need to explain to you. Recent reforms have shown considerable success. And while we are currently restructuring our military, having a standing professional army does have some advantages as well. The Empire’s coffers are full enough to spend some coin on projects of more spiritual or cultural importance rather than purely pragmatic.”

  The southlanders were quiet for a moment, exchanging quick looks and clearly parsing what Tim had said.

  “That is impressive,” the Iliyan said. “I believe I see why you are here, Prince Tim. We would, of course, not dream of interfering with such important cultural projects for the Hivekind. Unfortunately, the current aggression makes it hard to guarantee the safety of even our own people, let alone esteemed visitors, it pains me to say.” He paused, then clearly decided to push the conversation forward a bit. “Our forces and resources must be allocated pragmatically, securing our safety and interests, which includes not leaving potential routes to the city open.”

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “Of course,” Tim agreed, nodding graciously. “I am sure we can come to an agreement regarding a contribution — as a token of the Empress’ favor and to help ensure that our reclaiming of this part of our heritage goes smoothly without being molested by enemies. If you are open to it, a more comprehensive treaty is certainly possible as well, to cement a working relationship between our people, perhaps even an alliance, and give us all some peace of mind regarding potential hostilities.”

  Galatea stared at him for a moment, but Tim looked entirely innocent and seriously diplomatic, not like he’d just offered a bribe and then an alliance treaty to a city that was, at best, an enemy of an enemy. She hoped he knew what he was doing — but then, he probably had some specifics and defined goals in mind, and it wouldn’t be much of a real alliance. Or one between equals.

  “I see,” the diplomat said, not breaking stride. “That is a very gracious offer, Your Imperial Highness. We would be more than pleased to accept.”

  They kept talking some more, going into a bit more detail, but Galatea let her attention drift as it was clear they’d come to an agreement. She doubted the Iliyans actually bought the line that this was purely about spiritual or cultural importance, but it didn’t look like they would risk fighting the Empire about it, so that was all that really mattered.

  Instead, Galatea returned most of her attention to the analysis of the ambient magic. She tried to examine the space below them and what the other mages in the base were doing. A few discreet applications of several spells to manipulate sound waves also let her listen in on discussions further away; the contained nature of the tunnels helped in that regard. Zephyr was apparently methodically examining every meter of the lowest levels, while others were still more focused on healing the injured, doing other tasks, or simply resting.

  It took a while until the negotiation was finished, and both sides signed a draft agreement they’d come up with. Galatea had read over it, but didn’t see any cause to comment. As she’d told Regina, the political aspects were not really her area of interest and Tim seemed to be doing well enough. He had managed to come to an agreement with the city, with the possibility of further cooperation in the future. That was what they’d wanted. She doubted Regina would be upset about paying a fee to the city government so they’d let them operate in their backyard. Especially not when she could just Conjure the gold and diamonds she could use to pay them easily enough. A minor detail Tim had neglected to mention.

  Eventually, the envoys left, and Galatea stayed with Tim as he lingered after seeing them off, watching the group disappear through the tunnel. “So, what do you think?” he finally asked, turning to face her.

  Galatea shrugged, crossing her arms. “Normally, when people talk about bribery in terms of diplomacy, it’s a bit less literal. But if it works, it works. I think you can be pretty sure they’re not going to attack, at least.”

  Tim nodded. “Yeah, I think so too. It would be pretty stupid of them, anyway. They got what they wanted either way.”

  “Beyond gold to finance their war?”

  “Well, that too, now, but I meant that it’s in their best interest to let the Iliucins and us fight over this base. At least it will cost Iliucin soldiers they can’t send against them.”

  “True,” Galatea conceded. She tapped her fingers against her sleeves, adding a slight ringing noise, and the sound waves traveled through the tunnels. “I don’t think Regina is going to be very happy that you basically ignited a war between all these cities just for cover to help your goal here, though.”

  This visibly made Tim pause. His posture wilted slightly, and his head dipped before he raised it to look at her, eyes slightly wide. “You really think that’s …?” he trailed off.

  “Sorry, I should have put that better.” Galatea smiled reassuringly. “And even if Regina might be angry, she knows you’re doing the best you can and she won’t blame you for hard decisions in a difficult position. Besides, we all know they are fighting or would have been fighting anyway.”

  Perhaps not as hard or as long than if Tim hadn’t come here and kicked all of this loose, though. Arranged a deliberate increase in tensions and ‘incidents’, offered to pad the war chest of one contender. Then again, who knew? The base was still here and people had been searching for the same thing they wanted.

  “Should I have done it differently?” Tim wondered, running a hand over his head in a gesture that reminded her of Regina.

  “I don’t know what else you could have done,” she said honestly. “Besides, it’s too late to change course now. Maybe these city-states will work things out without an actual war. We still need to wait and see what Lucian does with Iliucin. For now, we should focus on the issue in front of us. The political situation seems to be sorted, for now.”

  “Right.” Tim straightened up, putting a bit more emphasis into his steps. “This woman you thought could help us, you still haven’t told me much about her. Do you want us to wait until we can talk to her to continue?”

  “I think we might as well start digging. Besides, it’s really something I want to get Regina to weigh in on. I was going to check in with her anyway.”

  “You don’t seem very enthused,” Tim noted, taking a corner into another room and slowing down. They were pretty alone right now.

  Galatea sighed, another affectation that was becoming a habit. “I don’t know. She’s the second choice, anyway. Who I really wish I could talk to about this is Leian.”

  “But she’s still unavailable?”

  “It seems so.” Galatea waved a hand airily, dismissing the matter. It was bad enough talking about it with Regina, she didn’t need Tim to start acting concerned about whether she was missing a friend, too.

  In reality, Galatea wasn’t — or well, she was only a little bit worried. Mostly because she didn’t know where Leian was. She had a suspicion … but is that even possible? Either way, there was nothing she could do about it until the goddess in question answered some attempts to reach her. She didn’t think that would take too long. Leian would know better than to go incommunicado for very long, she knew the situation was a bit delicate at the moment. And unlike Regina, Galatea wouldn’t worry about the other gods doing something nefarious; she doubted they could truly, actually stop Leian. Not forcibly.

  “I’m going to guess this mystery woman has something to do with it, then,” Tim said drily.

  Galatea hesitated for a moment, then acknowledged that there was nothing for it, she might as well say this much. “Yes. Her priestess or something like that, I don’t know all the details.”

  “I didn’t think she had an actual cult and temples.”

  “Maybe not, but it would be stupid to assume she has no agents in the world, wouldn’t it?”

  Tim conceded the point with a nod. He was probably thinking that Regina would want to talk to this priestess for her attempts to talk to Leian. The thought had occurred to her, too.

  “Regardless, I’m going to let the others start digging downward,” Tim said. “You’re welcome to watch and advise. I promise we’ll be careful. Maybe you can even bring a Worker with you when you come back?”

  Galatea gave him a look, but nodded slightly. “I’ll see what I can do.”

  “Good. And I’ll write a letter. Maybe a few letters this time,” he muttered.

  Galatea smiled and briefly touched his shoulder, even if he wouldn’t be able to feel it much. “You do that,” she said. “I can drop letters for your siblings off.”

  In all honesty, she was a bit impressed that Tim hadn’t cracked but had lasted this long without asking if she could bring him back for a visit, or anything like that. The temptation had to be big. But his Hive Queen had sent him here and hadn’t recalled him yet, so he’d continue to do his duty to the Hive and fulfill his mission.

  Loyalty, Galatea mused, is a strong force. Innate and encoded or not.