Path of the Hive Queen

Regina stood at the edge of the village once more, looking out at the fields and watching as Kiara and the knights she’d taken along rode away. She smiled and almost waved before she caught herself. Then she glanced at Janis, who stood beside her and looked like she wasn’t sure how to act, either.

Even after Kiara had acquiesced, there’d still been a lot left to settle. There still was. Kiara had made it clear that she was going to ask her father for his agreement, but at least they had a provisional deal. Presumably, someone would be sent soon to finalize it. They still had to settle the status of the baron and the village, but Regina suspected the castle would be more important to the marquis. For now, Kiara had officially ordered Neralt to cooperate with Regina, and work with them to defend the village from ‘any threats that might come’.

Regina wasn’t about to hand this territory over to anyone else.

She shook her head to dispel those thoughts and focused on the mage girl. “Let’s do this now, if you’re ready, Janis.”

Janis looked a bit hesitant, but she nodded. “Of course, Lady Regina. What should I do?”

“Just Regina is fine. And you don’t really need to do anything. It might be best if you give me your hand or something, though.”

Janis nodded and held out her hand. Regina gripped it and focused on the second Class Skill she’d received from the System. She felt a slight shiver in her mana as Infect activated, and her own mana reached out to Janis.

The process seemed similar to when she’d used it on monsters. But the human didn’t resist or try to get away, she simply stood there and let it work. After a moment, Janis started shivering uncontrollably. She swayed, but managed to keep her feet. Her eyes rolled up before she closed them. Tia stepped forward to steady her. Regina focused on the mana she could sense, watching as her own interacted with Janis’ and seemed to settle into her.

Overall, it was more peaceful than with Dark, and went more quickly. After a few minutes, Janis’ shivering had subsided and she straightened her posture again. Regina felt a tenuous connection to her mind, but it seemed like it was only barely there, still being assembled, and she couldn’t get much information from it.

“Are you okay?” Regina asked.

The young woman breathed out deeply, then nodded. “That was strange,” she answered. “But I think I’m alright. This is - quite interesting. I didn’t realize joining your hive entailed magic like this.”

Regina nodded. Then, she tentatively focused on the mage and tried to bring up her status. It took a moment of intense focus, but then the System made it happen.

Regina internally nodded to herself. This was about what she’d expected. Janis had what seemed to be a pretty big mana pool, but she was a dedicated Mage. Her stat distribution was mostly what she’d expect, with a clear focus on the mental stats, although those still looked pretty high.

“Let’s get back,” Regina said.

They turned around and started slowly walking back into the village. She noticed that Tia kept close to Janis, surreptitiously preparing to support her should she stumble. Regina approved of that.

“Will you teach me your Spell?” Janis asked.

Regina chuckled. She wasn’t surprised at how fast that question came. “Of course. I intend to teach you several of my Spells that could be very useful. I’d like to start with my Basic Heal Spell soon.” Janis might need to learn a lot of new material, if what Regina had heard was true, especially for the Conjuration Spell. Heal might be more practical.

Janis looked a bit surprised again, perhaps because of the Spell’s name. The psychic link was still consolidating, and it seemed more stable now. Regina tentatively tried to touch it, and got a blurry sense of Janis’ mind. It was harder than with her drones, or even the other minions. She could clearly sense Janis notice and react to the contact. As if by instinct, her mind seemed to harden. It didn’t keep Regina out — couldn’t, probably, not the way they were now linked — but it did make it harder to see anything the mage wouldn’t want her to see. Still, Regina was hopeful that Janis might be able to contact her on her own, without Regina focusing on it.

“I still don’t think I understand your hive very well,” Janis said. “You’ve grown a lot in the last few weeks, too.”

Regina grunted affirmatively. She turned her focus to somewhere else for a moment and called up another System screen.

There were a lot more members in her hive now than in the past, especially considering the Swarm Drones, and —

“Wait, why are you listed as a demihuman?” Regina blinked and turned to stare at Janis.

A slight stir went through the drones. Janis winced a little and Regina saw her eyes darting around for a moment. Then she shrugged sheepishly. “The System tells you that? Well, I suppose I am … not actually a human. Technically.”

“Then what are you?” Regina looked her new hive member over quickly, but she’d had the presence of mind not to let her question sound accusatory. She tried to express only friendly curiosity. “Some kind of changeling or shapeshifter?”

Janis pulled a face. She was silent for a moment, then sighed. “I’m a monsterblood, Regina. Literally, I suppose.”

“Aren’t we all?” Tia bumped her shoulder affectionately.

Regina smiled at that. “You mean actual descent from a monster, or something like that?”

Janis nodded. “An elemental, as far as I understand it. They’re sapient monsters,” she explained, clearly noticing their lack of understanding. “One of very few kinds of monsters that can breed with humanoids. I don’t know much more than that. Most demihumans are simply their own people. A dwarf of werecat or whatever else doesn’t actually have human blood, or any real relation to monsters. But there are a few exceptions, halfbreeds like me.”

“Well, that’s interesting,” Regina said, sincerely. “What kind of elemental was your ancestor? Which element?”

The Mage shrugged. “If I had to guess, probably fire. I don’t know any details. It had to have been several generations back, although, apparently, there are several descendants of elementals in my ancestry. People tend to seek out those similar to themselves, evidently.”

Regina nodded again. That made sense. Although, if she understood it correctly, that meant Janis was mostly human. Maybe. She didn’t understand how such crossbreeding would work, there was doubtless magic in play. It probably explained why she had a natural talent for magic, at least.

The mention of her ancestry seemed to have sapped some of Janis’ excitement, and they kept walking in silence. Regina hesitated for a moment as they reached the center of the village. She didn’t actually have much of a plan for what to do with Janis, or where to put her.

“If you’d allow me, Regina,” Max spoke up. “There’s quite a bit our new member should know about the hive, and you don’t need to be there for all of it.” The tentative way he said the last part clearly implied that it might be better if Regina wasn’t there for some of it. “If you like, I could show her around, introduce her to the others.”

“Of course.” Regina glanced at Tia and Ada, who seemed eager to help, as well. “Take your time, Janis. And come find me once you’re done and have further questions. Otherwise, this psychic link might also be able to help.”

“Yes, m’lady. I have so many questions about that.” Janis almost visibly brightened up again. “Is it how you command the War Drones and the others like them?”

“Yes. Although they follow spoken orders as well.” They needed to test out whether that worked for Janis, too. It should.

“And it will let me contact you?”

“Hopefully, at least at some point.” Regina sighed a little. “The others still have trouble with that. I’m hoping you might learn to use it to locate me, at least, or something like that. I suppose we’ve got time to experiment.”

Janis nodded. Then Tia gently tugged on her sleeve and they turned to go. Regina mentally added clothes for Janis to her list of things to arrange. Unlike the drones, she presumably wouldn’t want to go without or only partially covered in a pinch. Although Regina was still looking for better clothes for herself, too, so that didn’t change much.

“You’re tense, my Queen,” Via said, appearing close at her side in a manner she must have learned from Max. “Maybe you would like to take a bath, to relax?”

Regina rolled her eyes. “I think we should continue with teaching you two about physics and magic.” She hesitated for a moment. “Although I guess there’s no reason we can’t talk in the bathhouse.”

The village’s open bathing facilities were popular, but the pair of older women at the entrance cleared out quickly as soon as Regina and the others arrived. Regina decided to not worry about it and instead enjoy the bath. She even let Ira wash her hair. She had no idea where they had gotten proper soap from … although she dimly remembered that existed in the middle ages, so it probably came from the village.

After getting clean, they walked out to the other edge of the village, while Regina kept talking about magic. She found it hard to fit her own insights, which were mostly instinctive, into words. Maybe having Janis around would be a boon in that regard, as well. Surely, in the weeks she’d been at the marquis’ castle, she’d read some books about magic, even if she hadn’t before. Still, Regina found it helpful to put her thoughts and knowledge together properly into teaching others.

After about an hour, the human (or partly human, apparently) mage joined them. Her hair looked a bit frizzy and she’d clearly earned the drones’ trust, considering none of them accompanied her. Or maybe that was due to the existence of the psychic link, and Janis properly integrating into the hive. It was good timing, anyway.

“Good, you’re back,” Regina greeted her. “Do you have any questions?”

Janis shook her head. “None that the drones couldn’t answer. I’ll probably have more questions in the future, however.”

“Feel free to ask.” Then Regina smiled, feeling a bit excited. “Let’s talk about magic. What Spells do you have?”

Janis hesitated for a moment, probably because this was critical information. “I have Spark, Firebolt, and Magic Missile, as you already know,” she began, waiting for Regina’s nod to continue. “I also recently learned Magic Armor and Fire Manipulation. Beyond that, I’ve been studying a few other Spells to get one of them. I won’t have access to the books now, but I think I can get there with a bit of work, especially for Haste.”

“That’s good.” Regina didn’t bother to hide that she was impressed. The Spells sounded useful, if maybe a bit like a typical beginner’s arsenal. Flame Manipulation might play well with Janis’ Firebolt, and its Fireball upgrade Regina was planning to teach her.

“I’d be happy to teach them to you,” Janis said. “I’m sure you’ll learn them quickly. Although, how many Spells do you already know?”

“I’ve got Spark, Magic Missile, Fireball, Basic Conjuration, and Basic Heal,” Regina answered after a moment of thought. Janis was a member of her hive now, and in a place she controlled, so she didn’t see the need to hold back this information.

Janis’ eyes widened. “Basic Conjuration? Isn’t that a higher-tier version?” Then she shook her head. “But this means you already have five Spells, two of them an upgraded version. Even if you’re already at level 26, I don’t know how many more Spells you can learn. It might be better not to pick my own.”

Regina frowned. “Why?”

“Well …” Janis shifted and tugged at her sleeve. “According to what I was taught, every Spell you learn is like a pattern for your mana, and it imprints on and shifts your mana in small ways. It gets more difficult to hold so many patterns in your memory, but you also need to adjust the mana flows and distribution in your body - largely subconsciously - and having many spells can cause issues. When you level up, with larger mana pools, you can afford to learn more Spells.”

“I see.” Regina hadn’t known there was a limit to how many you could have, although this explanation did make some sense. “How big is this limit?”

“There’s no fixed number. It depends on the mage and what Spells they learn.” Janis shrugged. “But most people can only have five or six Spells before their first Class Progression. It might be related to why the System offers a choice of Spells at certain levels but holds back when one learns Spells on their own.”

Regina frowned again, but thoughtfully this time. “You mean … the System defers the allocation of new Spells to people who learn them from other sources?” She had noticed something before, when considering at which levels she got her Spells.

“That’s right. At least, it’s what most people seem to think.” Janis glanced at Via and Ira. “Generally, people with access to proper teachers and spellbooks tend to have more Spells than those who don’t, but the Spells the System grants do mitigate that to some degree. I talked to an adventurer who only learned his Spells from leveling up, and he was a perfectly capable and competent mage.”

I guess there’s more nuance to this than I thought. But it’s good news that the actual trained mages won’t have that many spells to throw around, I guess. Regina nodded. “Let’s train together a bit,” she said with unfeigned enthusiasm. “I can decide which of your Spells, if any, I want to learn later.”

Janis smiled, and Via and Ira perked up, too. Clearly, they were all eager to do some magic together.

Regina was struck by the sudden thought that Janis might be the closest thing to a peer she had, at least in terms of someone she had friendly interactions with. Her drones were all, well, her drones. Anuis was nice, but also much older, and Regina still didn’t entirely trust the elves.

She shook her head and focused on the moment. Maybe this was a chance for friendship, maybe not. She still wanted to pay attention, and she didn’t get many chances to show off a little with her magic.