Path of the Hive Queen

Madris left on a stormy, overcast day that seemed to bode ill for her trip.

Regina had tried to dissuade her, and had even briefly entertained the thought of trying to stop her citing medical reasons. Unfortunately, or rather fortunately, Madris had made a speedy recovery. Healing magic took care of most of her issues, and with a bit of rest and good food she was almost as good as new after a bit. Madris' high Stats helped too. She was perhaps a bit skinnier — healing magic still had trouble entirely replacing nutrients a patient would normally consume over an extended period of time — and almost looked old(ish) for the first time to Regina, but she was clearly fit.

She did still have a bit of trouble speaking; it was improving, but not very quickly. Regina had recommended exercises. As it was, the ability to speak with her own people's specialists was one reason Madris had decided to return to the Eternal Dark. The other, she hadn't said but Regina surmised that she'd thought about her choices and her life when she felt like she might die and had made a decision. To no longer run away from it. It was a bit backwards, but Regina felt quietly proud of her teacher for that.

Granted, the latest letters from the Eternal Dark hadn't helped, speaking of rising unrest and a political shift as soldiers started getting dissatisfied and organizing to make demands. All while the winds of war seemed to be rising in the outer parts of the Eternal Dark. That part was not very encouraging.

Since she wasn't to be dissuaded, Regina spoke with Icnes and also had some of her veteran soldiers (who weren't currently on the front) assigned to accompany Madris. She probably didn't need them, but Regina had told her that it would at least make Regina herself feel better, which was true.

They otherwise didn't make a big production out of her leaving, since Madris might still have a target on her back.

In the meantime, Regina turned her attention both to using what she had learned from Madris about her enemies and to her other psychics. As it happened, the two things coincided a little, since she was trying to verify some things she had heard.

With Madris gone, it meant she could no longer teach the students, and Regina reluctantly sat down and carved some fixed times out of her calendar so she wouldn't neglect their education completely. Who needed sleep, anyway? Well, it wasn't quite that bad. At least with their growing psychic abilities as well as her own and her Imitation Link, she could keep talking to them relatively easily even when they were away. It was particularly important for those of her students who were accompanying the armies.

At least for now. Once they moved further away, out of her reach, it would get more difficult. But that was a problem for later, and at least they would still have each other. Regina wouldn't send any single psychics out into the war without backup. That would be a recipe for disaster. Especially with enemy psychics still out there and up to God-knew-what.

At least her own people probably had more psychics working with them, something Regina took a little pride in. It wasn't just her own students, who might have been more numerous, but were generally less experiences and skill; there was also Lianne, and the two younger psychics from the east.

Lianne seemed to have decided that joining the Empire on a more permanent basis was a good idea, although Regina almost suspected the older woman was avoiding her. She'd ignored any hints from the others that Regina would surely like to meet her and give her a warm welcome in Cera or New Anberg with casual indifference. Or maybe she just didn't want to travel that far. That was fair enough.

For now, Lianne was hanging around Tim and the other senior people in what had been the eastern army. She spoke to them occasionally and seemed otherwise content to do some psychic guard duty and make sure their enemies didn't sneak anything up on them. The other two, younger psychics who Madris had wanted to seek out, Peter and Suse, had also arrived there. Regina knew them even less, and neither did the others. They seemed sympathetic to the Empire, but that was no guarantee. Of course, she wasn't in a position where she could turn away any help someone offered, either.

At least June was still in range. The First Eastern Army — confusing name, Regina wished she could say she didn't know why Ben had chosen it, but she had her suspicions — had not penetrated that far into Esemen yet. They were still closer to her than the city of Prekan was, by a significant margin.

Owin sent regular reports, and she was in contact with them through the other drones and the psychics link. So were Ben and the others. Regina had also set up a direct link between them a few times. Over this distance, it was rather taxing, especially if she wanted to include enough people, so she didn't do it too often or for very long. Still, she had quite good communication with that army. Unlike the one currently marching through the Western Confederation.

It seemed like the Westerners were still avoiding a direct confrontation, or a pitched battle at least, but Regina suspected that wouldn't last very long. So far, they really hadn't managed to stop Janis, even if she'd slowed down after that first attack by their Champions. Further probing attacks and harassment had followed, but with much less effect. As the Imperial army instituted precautions and moved up their own elites who might counter the Champions, they dropped off. Evidently the enemy didn't want to risk losing too many Champions on these little expeditions.

It was also possible the Champions themselves were becoming fed up with the tactic. They presumably had a lot of influence in the decision-making process. Well, they would follow what the gods told them to do, of course. But Regina rather doubted the gods were directly directing the Western Confederation's war tactics, personally.

They wouldn't even be very good at it, Regina thought, sneering a bit despite herself. They might be old and experienced, but it's not like they're actually generals or anything. I doubt they can even estimate how much humans need to eat. Not that Deirianon is much of a peace god.

Luckily, their enemies were no longer the only Champions she'd ever seen, and Iseis was a priceless resource for finding out more about them and about how being a Champion worked. It was one reason she was currently standing outside in a courtyard, ignoring the light drizzle pouring down on them.

"Is there an issue with my preparations?" Iseis asked.

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Regina quickly controlled her expression and made sure her face was set in a pleasant mask. "No, I was thinking about something else, apologies," she said. "Your preparations look quite good to me."

They were probably a bit overkill, in fact. Iseis' new ability didn't rely on rituals or anything like that. That she was setting up what was, she'd explained, essentially warding circles to demarcate a region of space and to protect them, were simply precautions before testing it. Not that Regina truly understood them completely. Her studies into ritual magic had suffered from a lack of time and focus, there were so many other things to do and so much else to learn. She hadn't prioritized them since it didn't suit her strengths or talents; she just didn't have a knack for ritual magic, either. And while she'd learned some things from Iseis, she obviously lacked her expertise in spatial magic.

"I hope you've double-checked them," Max said. He honestly didn't have much of a reason to be here, since he wasn't a mage or anything. Except for curiosity. But he still liked to accompany her when he could, especially to things that could be dangerous. Which Regina supposed showed what he thought of this.

"Of course I have," Iseis replied, sounding almost a bit insulted at the questioning. "These wardings will work properly. And if you are ready, may we get on with this test? The rain is not comfortable for my old bones."

Regina nodded. Like herself, Iseis was wearing a high-quality coat with her hood up, which made it a bit harder to make out her expression, but she understood the sentiment. "By all means, whenever you're ready."

Iseis turned and raised a hand, which was probably just meant to help her focus. Then Regina felt the mana gathering, and a slight sound, like thunder from far away, paired with a brightly-colored flash of light that shifted between colors almost too fast to see.

They had decided not to be too ambitious with testing the new ability given by her Champion status, Traveler's Gates, even if it probably had a long cooldown. Though the description was very encouraging. Ben had looked as if Christmas had come early when he'd heard it, anyway, and Regina understood the sentiment. Semi-permanent portals could be huge, although it depended a bit on what 'semi-permanent' meant, exactly, and other details.

This gate felt odd to her senses, but not any more so than the connection between the temple and the southern Hivekind site. It was just more permanent, not something that needed to be activated. Visually, it was more impressive — like a gateway in space through which she could see the other side.

"Great, it worked," Max said.

The next moment, a hand came through the gateway and then Tia poked her head through. "It worked!" she beamed at them. "The portal looks nice, Iseis. We can see everything from here."

Max gave her a disapproving look. "That was reckless, Tia."

Tia shrugged, but did move back a little, so she was no longer physically in the gateway. Which didn't actually take up any space, Regina noted. It was like a flat plane connecting the two places on either end. "Someone was going to have to do this sooner or later. And no one sensed any danger or bad signs."

They would have warned her over the psychic link if they had. Regina stepped closer, passing her hand up and down through the gate. As expected, it didn't really feel like anything, at least physically. The sensation in her mana senses was more interesting.

"Could you make it bigger or smaller? And how draining is it?" she asked, turning to Iseis.

The old elf looked thoughtful. "I believe I could make it bigger, but it would be taxing and there is a limit," she said. "It is unlikely I could make it big enough for more than two people to walk through abreast. And it does not drain me much to keep it maintained, although I think there might be a very slight drain."

Regina nodded, focusing on her mana senses. It was a shame Janis, Kiara or June weren't present, they could have helped with that. She did fancy she sensed a minor drain as upkeep to the portal, but it could be her imagination. Still, they would have to test removing Iseis from it.

"Someone should walk through," she noted. "I'll send a War Drone."

Regina mentally commanded one of a handful of drones standing nearby to go through the portal, which the drone did readily. There were no noticeably issues, and Regina called one of the Swarm Drones on the other side through the same way.

The portal currently went to one of their bases in Nerlia, in a relatively empty part of the country so they could hopefully hide it for a little longer. It was still close to a major river, so not a bad location if this turned out to be permanent. She tried to find out if reaching the drones on the other side was easier, in terms of her psychic range, but the site was still a little too close to be entirely sure.

With the first tests finished, Tia stepped through as well. She hugged Max and Regina and then went back. Then they asked a few more questions of Iseis.

"I am not sure if I will be able to maintain more than one, that will need tested," the Champion said patiently. "And the same is true for my distance from the portal. I'll step through to test if it works now."

Regina watched, but the gate didn't react in any way, and Iseis was still quite visible to her mind. She poked around the physical structure of the gate, then stepped back.

"Okay," Regina said. "I'll go through, too. Give me a moment."

Since it would shift the center of the psychic link, she took a few seconds to let everyone know and let the information percolate through the psychic link; her drones could at least look it up if they felt a shift and wondered. Then she stepped through the door. It was rather anticlimactic. She could sense the different surroundings with her magical senses as much as the regular ones, but the transition wasn't a big event.

"This could be a game-changer for the war," Max said.

"Hm." Regina craned her head back, looking up at the sky. It wasn't raining here, at least. She reached out with the psychic link. It had been ages since she'd been this far west.

"… Regina?" Max finally asked.

Regina blinked, opened her eyes fully and turned back to them. "There is another army approaching from the west," she said. "The Westerners must have raised troops from their western-most provinces."

She'd had hints from her intelligence network previously, but nothing substantial. It was a fair distance away and had never been a priority. But she could clearly sense the aggregated mass of human minds. They were still pretty far away, basically outside her range, but just on the edge of it enough that a big group like this was noticeable when she looked.

Unfortunately, that meant she didn't know any details about this army.

"From the west?" Iseis asked, frowning. "Shouldn't we have had more signs of them?"

"It's more like the west-south-west," Regina corrected. "They're at the latitude of the Great Forest, more or less. I assume they are detouring to the south to avoid the mountains. Possibly they're coming from the southern Rhine areas, or the neighboring regions."

Well, they would obviously be avoiding the Alps, too; she wasn't worried about them trying to pull a Hannibal (in the wrong direction) and passing over the Alps. She wished her enemies were that stupid. But there were several low mountain ranges north of there which had, from her readings, gotten even more inhospitable in places than they would have been in antiquity, even though other areas were still centers of civilization. Unfortunately Regina's old geographical knowledge — probably informed in part by personal experience, from what she'd managed to infer — was pretty useless now.

"I guess our dwarven allies will get to show us what they're made of," Max mused, frowning faintly.

"Not just them," Tia said, her tone serious. "The elves, too."

Yes, Regina realized, her eyes drawn south again, if they are trying to go through the Great Forest or even pass close by, the elves will be too close to ignore.

She smiled slightly. She shouldn't be happy about that, they were still her allies. But she supposed she was still, a little, looking forward to what was coming and what they would do.

A sentiment she would keep to herself lest it was misinterpreted, of course.