Path of the Hive Queen

Regina pinched the bridge of her nose, then held her hand up a little in a universal hold gesture. “Give me a moment.”

Galatea didn’t say anything, so Regina got her moment to think about what she’d just heard. Unfortunately, that didn’t make it better or give her any brilliant insights.

Regina had been cautiously optimistic when it came to the first real clash between her troops and the northern reinforcements the gods had gotten their enemies. She had expected the Empire to win, or at least hold their own. The danger had been more about the weight of numbers and endurance, in her opinion, and perhaps Champions or individual powerful magic.

She hadn’t expected them to use what appeared to be large-scale powerful magic — that implied even more danger, or to lose that battle. Not that she was very worried about the loss right now.

“So, let me get it straight,” she said after a minute, looking at Galatea again and then at the other few people gathered in the room. “The battle was going decently at first, our people held their positions, they shot down a few flying drones, but nothing too concerning. But then they employed a number of their mages to work an unknown ritual. This took many of our people out of commission and seems to have elements of soul magic or psychic ability, but you didn’t recognize it. Given the sudden losses, the retreat was decided. So we lost the battle and the fort but most of that force is intact. Those who didn’t die to this attack, that is. They didn’t employ it again.”

“A good summary, Regina,” Galatea agreed.

Regina sighed. “If we have to worry about our enemies pulling this stunt all the time, this will screw up our preparations a lot,” she stated the obvious. “But that’s not even the most concerning thing. You think they got this from the Mesen?”

“I don’t know,” Galatea said, clearly feeling frustrated. “I don’t know much more about any of this than you do. It’s the possibility that comes to mind, and we can hardly ignore it, can we? Of course, it’s still very much possible that the gods just unearthed something they stashed away for a rainy day. Or even developed something new. For all we know, something like this was used against them a thousand years ago and they reverse-engineered it now. But I haven’t heard of it before.”

Regina resisted the urge to close her eyes and pinch her forehead again. Of course. It can’t be that easy, I guess.

“We need to focus on ways to find out more information about it,” Mia said.

“I would just like to note that the strategic implications of this ability or ritual are not a laughing matter,” Max muttered.

Regina gave him a look. “Of course, and I expect you to work on that aspect,” she agreed. “It’s just that we need some way of estimating whether there will be any new unpleasant surprises like this. If it’s just this one thing, we can probably manage. At least if we can develop countermeasures against it.”

They all fell quiet for a moment, and she considered potential countermeasures. Spreading out their troops was an obvious option. So was trying to take out enemy mages before they could complete this ritual, or whatever it was. Of course, they would probably expect that and prepare defenses. It was also important whether a setup like they’d seen being used was actually needed or not. With our luck, they’ll innovate and make the ritual a lot more portable, she mused grimly.

“Is it possible to copy this thing?” Max asked.

Regina paused for a moment. That thought hadn’t occurred to her. “Copy it? You mean learn how it works and do it ourselves?”

He shrugged. “It occurs to me that we’re actually in a pretty good position to employ it, if we can. And it shouldn’t be that hard to observe them if they cast it again, right? Especially if we recall people who were close and analyze it with the psychic link.”

“Possibly,” Galatea said slowly. “If it’s just a matter of observing what they did, I’m sure you could figure it out. But it would probably be better to know the underlying principles. Especially if it does involve soul magic. For all we know, there might be non-obvious effects that could harm the caster or their surroundings. We wouldn’t want to stumble into that blindly.”

“Still, it’s an interesting idea,” Regina said. “We should definitely explore the possibility.” She sighed. “For now, though, I’m still more worried about the possibility that this signifies Mesen influence. What do you think, Galatea?”

Galatea stayed quiet for a moment. “We need to talk to Leian about this, and Alianais if possible,” she finally said. “I know last time she dismissed the idea that the other gods were compromised. But this is new evidence. Not enough to prove anything, but it’s worth trying to touch base again.”

Regina tugged on her mandible. “I guess I’ll speak to Iseis about it, and Anuis,” she said. “In the meantime, I’d like to discuss the specifics a little more. I had some time for training scheduled right now anyway. If you have time now?” She glanced at the others. “I won’t keep you. I’m sure you’re eager to start making plans.”

They nodded, answering in the affirmative, but Regina was already a bit distracted again.

She checked the psychic link quickly. The drones in the north reported no new information. Iseis was in her temple, alone. Anuis was currently not visible to her, at least not after a quick search. She might be underground a bit further away, or just disappeared into the crowd in a big city. Regina would ask both of them to come and speak to her soon.

“We could head to our lab?” Galatea suggested.

“Of course, lead the way,” Regina agreed with a smile. Obviously, she knew the way.

The lab Galatea meant was clearly the one where she and Iseis (primarily) worked on exploring soul magic. Or used to; they hadn’t had much time for it recently, for obvious reasons. Regina followed her to it in silence, ignoring the guards that still accompanied her almost everywhere and intermittently checking on the psychic link. For her part, Galatea seemed to want to wait until they had privacy to talk.

The Imperial palace wasn’t exactly unfamiliar to Regina, but she found the atmosphere a bit strange. Clearly, people had picked up on the recent tension, even if they didn’t know what caused it. They had managed to keep the news under wraps pretty well so far. It hadn’t been long, and it probably helped that few people had any idea of the Mesen, or knew much about what had happened in ancient history surrounding the Cataclysm, even if that knowledge had been spreading more widely. It had become kind of a popular motif in novels and artwork, at least. But thinking about it, most people who recognized the name would probably interpret it through a religious lens.

Regardless, people seemed a bit uncertain about what was going on, and braced for bad news. Regina couldn’t exactly blame them, but it was still not a nice thought; she didn’t want to worry about her people’s morale in addition to everything else. At least it was only a subtle difference so far.

They reached the lab relatively quickly, and Regina looked around. It hadn’t changed much from the last time they were here. A desk and cabinet held carefully organized notes on their experiments. The booklet Berren had given them was locked in a safe placed in another corner of the room. Or so she assumed, until Galatea walking over to retrieve it confirmed that assumption.

“You haven’t made much progress recently, have you?” Regina asked.

“No, I was too occupied with other things. Especially Leian and Berren’s project,” Galatea answered.

“Right. How is that going?”

Galatea turned, floating back until she leaned against another cupboard. “Not well,” she admitted. “At least for me. I can’t contribute much. They asked me for information, but most of what they’re doing is outside my specialty.”

“The computing part, or biological magic?” Regina asked.

“Mostly the latter. From what I understand, it’s not really Leian’s specialty either, which is a little ironic, given that the Aishan were famed for such things. But her focus lies in other areas, as we know. Berren had a more classical education, I think, but also more focused on direct and offensive applications.”

“So the issue isn’t just recreating something they know, but developing it,” she surmised.

“Yes. I’m sure we’ll get there eventually. For now, there’s not much I can do until they ask for my help with something specific. There are a few hurdles, but once they’re past them, I think I can contribute more,” Galatea explained.

Regina nodded. “Does it have any bearing on this new technique from our enemies?”

“Not as far as I know.” Galatea sighed and stepped closer again, putting the book down on the table in front of them and opening it. She leafed through a few pages before stopping somewhere in the middle.

“You know how to sense souls,” she started.

“In theory, yes,” Regina answered. “I should probably practice more.” She hadn’t had much time for that. Although she had recently decided to take more time for her training — and delegated some of her responsibilities for that reason — so she really should probably focus on it now.

“There are, in general, two things you can see relatively easily once you know how to do that,” Galatea continued. “One of them is Soul Names. The only person we know of with one is Leian, and her case is probably more complicated because she’s a goddess, too — and a good soul mage herself — so this is of limited use. The other is soul bonds. This is a broad category, apparently. We also know of one case here; Leian, again, and Berren. If you’ve seen his soul, you’ve seen a bond from him to her, like a chain hooked into the outer layers of his soul.”

“I think I’m following so far.” Regina nodded. “So are soul bonds related to this area technique they used?”

"Possibly,” she said. “It’s the closest I’ve found to it, at least. Berren made a note here —“ she gestured at the book — “that soul bonds like familiar and partner bonds have inspired certain techniques that essentially mimic some aspects of them temporarily. This also allows them to be imposed on other people unilaterally. Which may allow someone to impose a variety of effects on other people with no visible cause, often confused for psychic powers. Though this footnote also says psychic powers may be included.”

Regina frowned, thinking about it. “So, do those bonds have the sort of effects we’ve seen here, maybe weakened or modified somehow?”

“Draining someone’s energy or altering their mental state is definitely possible,” Galatea replied. “Putting someone to sleep or making them fall unconscious is probably the easiest and most wide-scale effect without being specific. We’ll have to investigate further to really confirm which it was, exactly.”

“And the way it was done? This ritual, or whatever it was?”

Galatea nodded, flipping through the book again. “This isn’t directly connected, but he also mentions such rituals. Actually I’m not sure they would be considered rituals in the local tradition, but it is actually what they’re called in this. There’s a diagram —“

Regina craned her neck and peered at the picture. It looked more like an illustration than a diagram to her. Simply-drawn figures in a specific formation casting magic, illustrated by lines and squiggles. Berren or whoever he’d copied this from had clearly not placed much value on the artistic expression. But the point of it was clear enough.

“Methods of allowing several people to cast soul magic together,” Galatea said, tapping at another line with script in an unfamiliar language — similar to what had been on the door in the eastern old Hive base they’d found, though.

“So, you’re speculating that they combined these two things,” Regina surmised. “Using this method to cast a large soul magic effect, and specifically using one of these techniques that can impose simple effects on several people temporarily.”

“Basically, yes. That’s my best guess so far.”

Regina sighed, tugging on her mandible. “And the Mesen can do this, I assume.”

“I haven’t heard of them doing something like this, exactly, but it seems pretty clear they’re capable of either in isolation, at least,” Galatea said. “And I wouldn’t be surprised if they had developed something like that. We don’t exactly have much up-to-date information on their capabilities.”

Regina nodded slowly. That wasn’t surprising, given everything else. “And the gods, could they come up with something like this themselves, without outside help?”

“Leian probably could,” Galatea said consideringly. “Alianais, maybe, depending on how much she learned from their enemies previously. A year ago, I would have said the others definitely couldn’t. But that was before they attacked Janis with a new curse we haven’t seen before involving soul magic …”

Regina turned away for a second, pulling another chair over and sitting down heavily. “We still aren’t really any closer to figuring out what their source is,” she said. “Just that they have one. Whether someone stashed away knowledge for a rainy day or they were somehow influenced by the Mesen …”

“I think that raises another question,” Galatea said. “If the Mesen were directly responsible, why would they do this? Why not act much more openly? Why only give the gods a few techniques to fight us? I mean, it’s not impossible, but we shouldn’t immediately jump to the conclusion that this is what’s happening, either.”

“Hm,” Regina grunted. “I suppose you have a point.” She sighed. “For now, can you just teach me more soul magic? I want to understand what we’re dealing with better.”

“Of course.”

The next hour or so was productive, if rather frustrating. Regina got a refresher on how to see souls and then practiced it. Meanwhile, Galatea explained a few more things about the principles behind this kind of magic and specific techniques.

There was one thing she noticed, though. Seeing Galatea’s soul was relatively easy, especially with her friend’s help. Looking at her own soul was a bit more difficult, but interesting in another way.

“There’s something different,” Regina noted. “I mean, beyond the fact that I’m a former human soul in a Hive Queen. There’s this … thing, you see?”

It was a little dismaying to realize her history was basically written in her soul, actually. She was familiar enough with her mind to know what it looked like in that sense. Her memory loss — of her previous life’s personal memories — was noticeable, even if the holes had, basically, shrunk and healed over as she lived more time in this life and settled into her identity. But similar traces were still visible in her soul. The outer layers were a bit tattered in a few parts, and more uneven than Regina suspected they were supposed to be. At least it wasn’t a big deal — most of these layers seemed pretty healthy, as far as she could guess. The other thing that had caught her attention was a … denser patch at the side, for lack of a better word. It was like something was growing onto her soul there.

“Oh. That.” Galatea floated a bit closer, peering at her, and nodded.

“Have you seen it before?” Regina asked. “You don’t seem concerned.”

Galatea shook her head. “I did see it, but I didn’t think it was worth bringing up, since I wasn’t sure,” she answered. “But you don’t need to worry. Unless I really miss my guess, you’re basically starting to get a Soul Name.”

“Huh.” Regina blinked in surprise. “Really?”

“Yeah. If it was something more nefarious, Leian or Berren would’ve said something. This isn’t really new.” Galatea shook her head. “Still, you probably won’t actually get one unless something changes radically, so don’t worry about it.”

Regina frowned. “Why not?”

“Leian said a lot more people start getting to this stage, but few of them actually get the needed weight from the ‘verse to realize it,” Galatea explained. “Basically, from the information here, you need to embody the Name and you need to be known for it by a lot of people. Like, think billions. Unless we actually get contact with other worlds, which I don’t think we exactly want to wish for given the current situation, I’m not sure there’s enough people in the world for it. It just means you’re known to a lot of people here. Millions at least, I guess, which makes sense.”

Regina tugged on her mandible. “I see. That’s a shame, I suppose, but it’s not like I was expecting one. I’m still a bit curious about it, though. Can you tell which Soul Name it is? I mean, what it says?”

“It’s not exactly a realized Soul Name, but if I had to guess, it’s ‘Hive Queen’.” Galatea shrugged. “Which is a good thing. If you’re worried about not being a proper or good enough Hive Queen … well, the universe apparently disagrees. Or something, don’t ask me whether it can actually have an opinion. But yeah.”

“There’s something else you’re not saying,” Regina noted.

“Well,” Galatea made a face, “if you’re getting this Soul Name this early, it probably means there isn’t any other Hive Queen close by, in cosmological terms. I mean, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was an established Soul Name, and even one that several people can have at once. But the universe, or whatever, filling it this soon means it’s probably an ‘empty slot’ here?”

“So there’s not another Hive Queen hidden away on Earth,” Regina concluded.

“Yes, pretty much. I mean, probably not.”

Regina pinched the bridge of her nose again. Well, I wasn’t really hoping for that anymore, anyway.

“At least you’re making good progress, being able to see it,” Galatea said encouragingly.

“Yeah, sure,” Regina muttered.

She was going to have to consider ways of dealing with this new attacking technique. Just being able to see souls clearly wasn’t enough.

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