Regina spent so much time immersed in the psychic link that she almost forgot to eat, and probably would have if Ira didn’t remind her. Being hundreds of kilometers away apparently didn’t stop Ira from worrying about her. When Regina finally stood up, she felt stiff and had to control her expression not to wince and get another lecture from Max.

It felt good, though. Trying to sense through the psychic link, instead of just talking to people, gathering reports and running the hive, was almost refreshing. She felt like she was growing more proficient with her psychic abilities by the minute, and even if she didn’t find anything, that made the time spent well worth it.

Regina took a quick break to attend to biological necessities, then continued, although she made herself actually focus on her regular job this time. Immersed in the psychic link, it felt like the hours just flew by, and she wasn’t entirely sure how much time passed.

Ironically, what finally brought her out of it was another feeling in the psychic link. Kind of, at least. She wasn’t entirely sure what she was feeling at first, although it also felt familiar.

Regina stood up, stretched again, quickly gulped down a cup of water, and then set out for the hatchery. It wasn’t like the hatchery at the main base, but a room they’d set aside to store eggs while they were developing. A few drones stood guard, even here, but Regina passed them by without stopping.

Up close, it was easier to see what it was she’d sensed. The new eggs of the new Template she’d unlocked were off to the side, set apart from the others a little. They seemed a bit bigger than the other Swarm Drone eggs, at least compared to War or Winged Drones, though not as much as the sapient drones’ eggs. Regina crouched down and inspected them carefully.

There was something like a soft pressure in her mind, through the psychic link, coming from the eggs. It was subtle and she wasn’t even sure she would have sensed it if she hadn’t gotten better with her psychic abilities, not to mention sensed a lot of hive eggs, although she also suspected it would be growing stronger.

This time, she was pretty sure this wasn’t something the System had built, at least not originally. It felt more like an instinct. I knew, or was at least hoping I would be able to shape Swarm Drones more directly in the future, Regina considered. But I didn’t really think of that just working with a new type. Now she felt stupid. Then again, maybe she really would be able to adjust more of the other Templates’ drones in the future.

She still couldn’t actually design them or anything, but she felt like she could influence the direction the drones took, along which path they developed. It felt like there were a few options, roughly outlined, and she could probably even do something else if she worked at it. She could make them bigger and stronger, trading speed and subtlety for strong melee fighters, defensively oriented tanks. Or she could go the other way and leave them small and slight, but quick, maybe even stealthy. She could play around with the wings and try to make something like a better Winged Drone, maybe one with ranged capabilities similar to Shooters and Fliers, although she didn’t think they’d be very good. She could even make drones more specialized towards the underground, for digging tunnels and exploring them in the dark.

Regina lingered around the eggs, waiting until she was pretty sure the changes took and were being implemented. It would clearly take a while until the eggs were actually hatched, and she was curious what the results would be like. Maybe it would actually take more time, or the duration would depend on what changes and choices she made? She wasn’t sure.

Either way, this gave her some good variability, though it also meant she needed to be there for the new drones, so she couldn’t act too freely. It was an annoying limitation. Maybe she’d be able to entirely operate remotely through the psychic link, in time. Or decide their trajectory just after creating the eggs in the first place, at least.

Then she had to leave, since a Hive Queen’s work was never done. At least not hers. Regina took the opportunity to go for a walk and considered doing some training, but decided she didn’t have the time for that. She might also have to push back her next lesson with June, which sucked. Although, she wanted to take the opportunity to ask June for more information on the political situation and what might happen next. She wasn’t her sister, but June was still smart and she’d grown up in the upper reaches of Cernlia’s nobility even if she’d been sheltered.

Kiara was too busy to talk to her much at the moment, anyway. The Cernlian army, soon to be the official one, was advancing deeper into their country. Right now, they weren’t encountering any resistance but instead stocking up on supplies and preparing for more difficult work ahead. Not that Regina really thought there was much danger. The deceased king’s army was pretty much gone, the soldiers that had remained deserting or even going over to Marquis Lyns’ side. She suspected some of them just went home and took up their civilian jobs again. They would’ve probably been in time to help with the harvest, at least mostly. She wasn’t entirely sure how long it would take normal people to travel the country, under the circumstances.

Regina was still happy with it. The less she had to worry about feeding the rest of Cernlia or Nerlia, the better. The hive was doing its best, and she was really lucky that drones could eat pretty much anything, but they were still hitting a limit to how much food they could produce, especially for exports. It was already slowing down their growth, and … at the rate this was going, she might have to take more territory just to be able to keep their agricultural production at the required level. Granted, I was pretty much planning on doing that anyway, but it’s still an issue.

That thought prompted her to check in on Nerlia and how their negotiations were going. Syman had clearly sent word back home, he’d even allowed Ira to see him use a Class Skill that looked a bit like a bolt of light streaking off, and they were moving quickly. Probably anxious to get everything sorted out as soon as they could. Regina supposed everyone here was worrying about the harvest, after all. She had a much better appreciation for why summer was historically the campaign season by now.

It led her to considering who she would send as an envoy or ambassador to further negotiations, a line of thought she really didn’t like. Bea and the other drones with her except Ken had died and she still hadn’t gotten Neralt or Ria back. But she’d have to establish diplomatic connections, so there was no getting around it.

Marianne was actually still coming closer, though. Regina focused in on her again. She’d been checking on her off and on for a while, tracking her progress toward the edges of the occupied territory. The woman was always surrounded by other people, Esemen soldiers and probably leaders, so it would be hard to get her alone even if she had a way to actually establish communication.

Regina still tracked her locations and the relative positions and distance to other clusters of minds that represented the Esemen force distribution. They were clearly making an effort to keep her away from the hive, at least for now, playing into the defensive strategy they were already pursuing. She didn’t expect that to last very long; they were clearly bringing her in now for a reason. She wondered if they’d heard about her negotiations with Nerlia. Even if they hadn’t, they might have just seen it coming. Given the situation, it probably wasn’t too hard to see where things were going.

Regina smiled a little at the thought, even as she walked through the door of her current abode. A few War Drones scuttled out, and her smile widened. The others had kept renovating her new digs, mostly when she was not there, so as not to disturb her. She wasn’t even sure when she’d given up protesting that sort of thing. As long as everyone else in the hive had enough space, she didn’t mind if her … well, her children wanted to give her nice things. I suppose I am the only one of us — except for Janis, but she’s not Hivekind — who actually wants to sleep alone instead of cuddling with her family, who needs her space. She frowned at the thought. Hell, even Janis is warming up to cuddle piles, I think. The memories that brought up almost made her laugh again. The psychic link connected all of them and also made it easy to see what might have been private in other circumstances, although she tried not to pry or spy on them. Having Janis cuddling into Dan and other drones when she dropped off from exhaustion at the front was pretty cute, though. Although that only underscores the difference, I guess.

Regina dropped into an armchair, upholstered in the fur of a monster a few young Warriors had killed, and put her feet on the low table as she made herself relax. Not having Ira around was making her think about these things, she supposed. And recently, ever since she’d accepted the need to be a ‘proper queen’ for the outside world, really, she’d been falling into that pattern.

Regina sighed and picked up the twisted wreath of metal lying on the table, where Mia must have dropped it off. It wasn’t quite a crown, or even a tiara or coronet, at least not yet. She turned it over in her hands, watching the twisted gold, silver and electrum reflect the light. I guess I’ll want a big gold octahedral one, eventually, although we can skip the crosses and stuff, she thought, snorting and laying it back down. She still kept staring at it for a moment before wresting her gaze away. An Empress’ crown. Eventually. I guess.

They were going to need to make new flags and banners, too, though that wouldn’t be a problem.

For now, she put the crown away and tried not to think about when she would need to put it on for the first time. Well, not that she would strictly need to, at any point, but she’d already decided she would play into the political traditions and customs of the day (at least to a point), and if she was honest, she kind of wanted to, even. Regina sighed and let her head thunk back against the headrest of the chair, staring into space for a second.

Luckily, someone knocked on the door right then. Regina sat up, startled. She hadn’t known they were there, at least not right away. She knocked the unfinished crown off the table and stood up to open the door, telling the drones outside it was fine. As if summoned by her thoughts, June waited outside, shifting her weight from one foot to the other and apparently trying to suppress the bit of anxiety she was feeling.

Regina was a little surprised none of the drones had warned her while the girl was still further out, but she supposed they really hadn’t wanted to disturb her. It was probably a good sign they let June come this close, though.

“June,” she greeted her and mustered a smile. “Come on in.”

The young mage ducked her head. “Thank you, Hive Queen.”

Regina sat back in her armchair and waved June to one of the other chairs, but the girl hesitated and remained standing. She frowned a little as she looked around the room, her eyes lingering for a moment on the floor, before she met Regina’s gaze again.

“Is something the matter?” Regina asked, leaning forward in concern.

“Master …” June began, then shook her head with a little shrug. “I’m not sure. I have been working through those books you gave me and trying the healing Spell you showed me, too. I have not succeeded in actually casting it yet, though. At least, I don’t think so. But I’ve been having trouble again recently. I barely ate anything yesterday and spent, well, some time vomiting it back up. I feel like breathing has gotten harder as well, again. Not terribly, but like a bad day before you started healing me.”

Regina stood up and stepped closer to her, holding her shoulders. “I’m sorry,” she said softly. “That sucks. It’s a good thing you came to me, though. May I?”

June nodded, and Regina pushed her magic again, trying to delve deeper into what it told her of June’s biology. It didn’t paint a good picture. She was right, it was a lot closer to how she’d been just before a healing session when Regina had been busy before, or when she came here in the first place. She’d only used Basic Heal last time, but it hadn’t been that long.

“I suspect you’ve really been pushing your magic lately, haven’t you?” Regina asked finally.

June frowned, but nodded. “Yes, I have,” she admitted. “I’ve spent more time with my mana pool empty than anywhere close to full. I - I don’t want to waste your time or disappoint you when you’ve taken me as a student.”

Regina smiled and patted her shoulder. “You couldn’t do that,” she assured her. Then her smile faded and she frowned as well. “Well, this is concerning. I suppose, at least, my suspicions that your condition is magical in nature, or rather connected to your magic, has been confirmed.”

“It seems so,” June agreed softly.

Regina glanced around, briefly dipping into her psychic link. Then she stepped away. “Alright, this calls for deeper investigation. Congratulations, June, your study plan has been accelerated. We’re going on a field trip.”

June blinked. “A field trip, Your Majesty?”

“A field trip,” Regina agreed. “I’ll see if Galatea has time, but we’ll go anyway. I know a place where we may be able to gather some more data on this, or at least get a comparison.” She smiled and turned around. “Pack lightly.”

“Yes, Master,” June said.