Regina tried to split her attention again between the various tasks she had to cover. It felt like there was a lot she had to pay attention to: the fighting against the Esemen, Ben’s progress in Nerlia, the reinforcements for her hive, the general administration and development of it … All of it she had to at least check in on. And that didn’t cover more personal responsibilities like magic lessons for June or time to experiment and train her own magic.

It was also frustrating, because while she spent hours sitting down unmoving on her bed and watching intently through the psychic link, not much really seemed to be happening with the war. Janis was pushing towards the Esemen, with scattered units on a broad front, and occasional support from Whitor’s men. The Esemen tended to skirmish a bit and then give ground. It meant she had advanced reasonably far but hadn’t fought a real battle, and their numbers were largely untouched. Ben was progressing across Nerlia at a faster pace, but the Nerlian army had already withdrawn, the aftermath of the battle and the need to deal with the prisoners and rest his own drones giving them time to open the distance between them. At this point, the Nerlian army was more of a ragged remnant than ever before, although they still kept being sporadically reinforced from local holdings.

She shouldn’t complain about getting more time, since that would only allow her hive to build up their numbers further, but Regina still felt a bit uneasy, restless. She’d breathe a sigh of relief when this war was finally done with.

For now, that wasn’t going to happen in the next few days, though, although Regina supposed diplomatic initiatives might make it come faster. It would also depend quite a bit on Marquis Lyns’ progress in Cernlia. For that reason, she kept as close an eye as she could on him and his followers, too.

Lyns’ army was moving relatively slowly, although she supposed she couldn’t gauge everyone by the hive’s standards. It was at least a little more organized than it had been at the beginning of the war, and it seemed like most of the army’s strength had been consolidated behind a few lords. Kiara probably controlled a sizable portion of it, indirectly, politically speaking. Duke Bluegrass definitely had the most soldiers remaining, perhaps even more than Lyns himself. Regina had also heard that his duchy had been pretty much lost to the Cernlian crown’s forces, before, though. Lyns would make it a priority to retake that, and with Cernlian resistance as gutted as it was, it shouldn’t be too hard.

From Via’s reports and also what the Winged Drones could observe, it was clear that the marquis was meeting with a lot of nobles. Some of those meetings included Kiara, but most didn’t. Regina wasn’t sure what they talked about, exactly, since Lyns didn’t include any drones and clearly made an effort to keep them private, although she could guess the general thrust of it. He was securing his support, in addition to making plans to retake Cernlia. Probably starting to divide it up along new lines and centers of power, too.

Regina knew it would need careful attention. Nerlia was one thing, but Cernlia was more important to her hive. Their territory had been part of it once, and they had much stronger ties. It was also situated more squarely between them and the eastern part of the Gnomish Confederation. If Lyns took it into his head to counterbalance their influence by approaching her enemies … She’d need to keep a close eye on it. Maybe reinforce ties with Kiara after all. If nothing else, letting pure, stupid sexism ruin a bright young woman’s future was not an idea she liked. And if she wanted to introduce true reforms and restart technological and societal progress, not just to her own territory or one country, but the continent, she needed someone she could work with — ideally someone with a moral compass and a bit of vision beyond their own nose.

Regina considered it for a few moments longer, tugging on her mandibles, before she sat down and pulled out some paper and ink. She held her new pen over the paper for a moment before she started writing. The letter wouldn’t raise any alarms, but she did want to assure Kiara of her support, or at least her sympathies, and just creating a closer bond was probably good.

Regina had just about finished, debating how to close the letter, when a knock on her door accompanied a metaphorical knock in the psychic link, asking for her attention. Yes?

“My Queen, it’s time for your scheduled lesson with June Lyns,” Ira poked her head in, raising an eyebrow slightly, even as she kept her head slightly bowed. The overall impression was rather ruined by her expression.

“Yes, yes, I’m on my way,” Regina said, quickly adding a signature. Then she sighed and stood up. “Get this letter on its way to Kiara, would you?”

“Of course, my Queen,” Ira said, stepping into the room and grabbing an empty cup on her way to the desk. “Remember to wait on healing her until she can try something herself this time.”

“Oh, stuff it, Ira,” Regina replied, rolling her eyes.

“If you say so, Regina.” Ira smiled, then turned to fold up the letter and unerringly pulled a container of wax from the desk drawers to seal it.

Regina didn’t linger, just left the room and stepped out into the rest of this section of the base, then walked through the corridors outside. They’d built and expanded their outpost in Forest’s Haunt, to the point it was now their second-biggest base, behind only the one in the center of their land. With the crafting workshops and production facilities they kept building here, as well as the strategic position for the war, closer to the border, it only made sense. Regina took a tunnel that led her outside just beyond the village’s borders, since their base was built a short distance outside it.

June was waiting for her outside a side entrance, close to a relatively big, open hall they used for lectures, lessons, or projects requiring more space, although it was currently empty. Regina nodded to her, but didn’t say anything until they were inside. She sat on one of the desks, kicking her feet up on the arm of the chair beside it. June hesitated for a brief moment, before she sat down across from her without commenting on it. Regina watched her closely, but she was happy enough with what she saw.

“I am not sure what your education in magic has been like so far, but I am likely to be quite different as a teacher,” she began. “My approach is unorthodox, and I’ll have different priorities. Ask me questions if you don’t understand something.”

“Of course, Your Majesty? Master?” June looked uncertain.

“Whatever works for you,” she shrugged. “Now, you’re, what, seventeen? And you only barely have your Class, even if it is Mage. I assume there wasn’t much opportunity for you to gain Experience with your condition.”

June’s face tightened, but she nodded. A level ten had been pretty weak, but at least they didn’t have to worry about getting her a good Class.

“It doesn’t matter. Your low mana might make some things difficult, but it might also be good to start at the beginning, without bad habits or clashing experiences or training.” Regina paused. “I’d like for you to be able to work healing on yourself, at minimum, but healing magic is demanding and complicated. We’ll try, but don’t expect quick results.”

“I understand, Hive Queen,” she nodded.

“Good, then let’s start by just showing me what you can do.”

June nodded and frowned in obvious concentration as she started to use her magic. Regina leaned forward, watching intently. She brushed against her mind, faintly, just enough to get an impression of how June was thinking when she did her thing. Her mana senses were more helpful, showing the gathering magic and how the girl formed it. A moment later, a small fire flickered above her hand. Spark, her own first Spell. Then June vanished it and focused again, and Regina leaned back as a Magic Missile launched from her only to crash into the ground. June paused for a moment, before she cupped her palms, and Regina sensed as much as saw water gathering in them as she conjured it from the air.

“These are your Spells?” she asked, just to confirm. “Anything else? Have you ever cast a spell without the System’s help?”

“No, Your Majesty. Just those three. I don’t think I can do magic without the System, can I?”

“Not easily, and maybe not at your skill level,” Regina answered. “Your water magic seems to be pretty good, though, that’s something we can work on. Traditional healing magic is often water-based, actually.”

“I know, that’s why I wanted it,” June admitted.

“Well, you certainly seem to be good at it.” Regina cocked her head. “You don’t have any non-human ancestry, do you?”

June started and blinked. “No, I do not.” Judging from her tone, it was not a question one heard often, or maybe not one asked in polite company.

Regina wasn’t sure, but she did feel like there might be something slightly off with June’s magic. Maybe she was just seeing what she was half-expecting to see. Either way, it was weak enough that any detailed analysis was kind of difficult.

“Practice it a bit,” she suggested. “Show me a few more times.”

June did as she asked without comment, and Regina watched as the girl ran through her Spells again. It was easy to see that June had practiced, as much as her shallow mana pool probably allowed, at least when she was fit enough to do it. She wasn’t bad for someone low-level.

“The System helps you perform magic, but it’s not fundamentally necessary. In essence, it’s just shaping mana using your will to follow certain patterns …” Regina explained. She borrowed heavily from what Galatea had taught her as she continued, giving an overview of mana (little was really known about it) and different kinds of magic (at least she knew a bit more about ritual magic now). Then she discussed how to best shape mana, something everyone was probably doing a bit differently, but there were a few basic commonalities.

June watched and listened attentively, with an intent focus Regina rarely found even among her drones. It was almost uncomfortable, but Regina could tell how much the young woman valued this learning. For her, it was at least a possible way out of suffering, uncertainty and obscurity, and she wouldn’t miss this chance.

Regina paused. “Do you understand?”

“Yes, I believe so, Queen Regina.” June nodded firmly. “With what do we start?”

“First of all, we’ll teach you about the world,” Regina answered with a small smile. “Physics, chemistry … biology and medicine.”

June seemed surprised, but after a brief hesitation, she nodded silently.

Regina smiled and pulled out some of the books they’d prepared from a nearby desk. They were closer to roughly bound folders of handwritten pages, but in this case, appearances would be deceiving. These were probably worth their weight in gold to the outside world. The hive had been using them to teach not only young drones but also select humans from their territory, but she’d collected a whole set for June. One needed a good grounding to use magic to its full potential, after all.

While June started quietly going through the first folder she showed her, Regina took a moment to examine the girl. June was promising to be a good student, which was nice. She didn’t want more headaches to deal with than she had to. And actually preparing to hold lessons had made her realize that she’d need a more thorough education, and more time and effort, before they could really try to leverage her magic.

The next hour and a half was spent quietly reading and discussing the introductory primer Regina had written, mainly basic knowledge of physics and chemistry. June clearly had trouble wrapping her head around a few of the concepts, but she tried and she was bright enough.

“Good,” Regina finally concluded. “To give you an idea of what to expect, I want you to learn a healing Spell, and Basic Heal seems like the best choice. It’s difficult and this won’t be easy, though. Do you understand?” She waited for June to nod again before she continued. “To start, I’ll demonstrate the Spell and I want you to pay careful attention to what you feel.”

She stood up and took June’s hand, giving the girl a moment to collect herself and marshal her focus. Then Regina cast the Spell, this time careful to shape her mana clearly and as slowly as she could hold it.

It wasn’t as easy to heal June, even treating just the superficial symptoms, as with the greater version of the Spell. It did well enough, though, at least clearing most of the mucus and excess water out of the girl’s lungs.

"How do you feel?” Regina finally asked, lowering her hand and taking a step back.

June paused. She was frowning, probably in thought. “I am not sure. It was … somewhat odd. I felt like I was truly feeling what you were doing, but it was a bit different from your usual healing. I realized the start of the Spell much quicker, though. Did you only focus on the lungs this time?”

“I did.” Regina smiled. It was a good sign that June could tell as much. She hadn’t healed many people outside her hive, but she was pretty sure most couldn’t do that. She also thought she might have felt a slight stirring in the girl’s own mana, although she wasn’t sure.

Either way, Regina was more certain now that she was on the right path with this.

“These are yours, for now.” She handed her the folders. “Take care of them. We will have another lesson as soon as I can fit it into my schedule.”

“Of course, Your Majesty.” June bowed deeply as she grabbed the folders, turned on her heel and left.

Regina sat back on the desk, sighing and running a hand through her hair. This might be an interesting side project, but it would take time and effort, and she wasn’t completely sure about the political implications of teaching Lyns’ younger daughter.

For now, she turned her attention to other matters. A quick look through the psychic link revealed that some of Ben’s drones had met the apparent diplomatic delegation from the Nerlians. They’d made peaceful contact and were escorting them towards him at the moment. She probably needed to make sure arrangements were made there, and think about who to send to speak for her, since she couldn’t meet them in person. The joys of being a Hive Queen.