Path of the Hive Queen

Unfortunately, Leian and Berren didn’t have their magical project set up within the confines of her psychic link.

Regina supposed that was to be expected. They probably wanted somewhere remote where they wouldn’t be bothered, and if they wanted to hide it from the other gods, the Empire would obviously not be a good choice. For that matter, if the Mesen had infiltrated the world or were going to, they might well put her own territory under special observation, as well. So no, this wasn’t particularly surprising. It was still a bit annoying, though.

Since the project wasn’t located within her psychic link, she couldn’t simply listen through a drone she sent there. She couldn’t move there personally without uprooting the psychic link, which would put undue strain on the Empire. In principle, it was something Regina could try as a test of their capabilities, if nothing else, but that should be properly scheduled. And at the moment, probably not the wisest decision.

In theory, she could of course try to force a connection with the psychic link anyway. With enough Keepers and specialized drones, she might be able to create a ‘chain’ that would connect to it. Of course, besides the effort this would take, she might as well put up a trail of signs reading ‘important secret project this way!’. The same basically went for trying to use portals instead, at least semi-permanent ones.

Instead, the only obvious solution was to send a drone in her place. Regina didn’t like it, since she wanted to see it personally, but that was the sort of thing she had to deal with as Hive Queen. And she could still look into their mind and watch closely, even with some latency; a deep-dive would give her basically the whole experience she would have, plus the benefit of their perspective.

As long as Leian and Berren agreed, of course. But they seemed to have expected something like this when Iseis made the offer — at least, it didn’t take long for them to agree to arrangements.

She had expected a laboratory. Maybe a big one, maybe one that was underground or carved into a mountain or something. What Regina hadn’t expected was that most of their work was apparently done outside. There were buildings, or at least covered structures, scattered around, which might have held other parts, but the center was dominated by a … clearing? Something like that — with a large biological mechanism, which looked a bit like something she’d have expected in horror artwork or maybe more off-the-wall video games.

To be fair, it wasn’t that big. Maybe a few meters across. But it was still a weird biological amalgamation, with what might be tubes or vines or possibly even muscles going this way and that and crossing over or under each other, colored patches that ranged from brown to poisonous yellow and green, and protrusions standing up in every direction. And a few parts might have been bioluminescent, though the clearing was surprisingly well lit and made it hard to tell.

Leian and Berren didn’t seem concerned. They welcomed her drone and gave him a tour of the premises. It turned out there were indeed larger laboratories beside this open-air construct. Those looked slightly more conventional, with mundane equipment like desks and cabinets and even a few tools she was fairly sure weren’t secretly hyper-advanced magical objects, but just mundane tools from this world. It was honestly weirder that it was just the two of them, although she supposed Galatea would also contribute.

“This would really need at least a team of five people, and while we’re competent enough Aishan, neither Leian nor I are truly specialized in this sort of magic,” Berren explained as he gestured at the setup. “This is rather crude, accordingly, in more than one way. Old magic, hastily dug up. We also lack much of the material and infrastructure a project of this size would ordinarily require. But we will make do.”

Regina supposed that made sense. She hoped it wouldn’t drag out the timeline too much, though.

“What exactly are you doing here?” he asked. “Is this an attempt at building a computer or something else?”

“In a sense,” Leian spoke up. She’d joined them quietly and now stepped up to the mechanism, running a hand across it. “The hard part is making it able to interface with the System. Our system, pardon the terminology, must be able to sense, read and process mana. This is not a simple matter, especially if we want its range to be as unconstrained as possible.”

“Is that why you’re using biological matter? For the mana?”

“It does help,” Berren agreed. “And the other materials we might want to use would be less available than growing our own.”

That was honestly fascinating. There’s still so much I could learn, Regina mused, watching as they continued giving a short tour of the place and explaining the bare basics of their work. I knew people weren’t the only organisms who could channel mana, monsters must obviously be able to as well, but I didn’t think of this implication.

“Are you also going to include soul magic? Search for foreign souls or something like that?”

Leian looked up, her expression briefly darkening. “We’ll see. And you’re not here just to talk about this project, are you, Jae? You want to talk about soul magic, and what your enemies have done.”

Jae paused for a moment, thinking that he would really prefer it if his Hive Queen or even a more senior drone was here or available in the psychic link. “Yes,” he finally said. “We’re concerned about their new attack. It’s clearly related to soul magic, and they shouldn’t have access to that. Even the gods shouldn’t, should they? Is this something they could have gotten from our new enemies?”

Leian sighed, turning to face him more fully. “Unfortunately, it’s hard to be sure. I haven’t heard of this specific technique before, but it’s an innovation that makes sense, on the face of it. It’s possible the Mesen developed it. It’s also possible one of the smarter gods adapted it, but yes, they would have had to gain soul magic knowledge from somewhere. It’s technically even possible another faction invented it.”

Jae frowned. He was here because he had some medical expertise, but nothing on soul magic. “What can we do against it?”

“Try and study it.” Leian shrugged. “When I have the time, I’ll do the same. With some luck, we’ll come up with simple countermeasures. If not, I should be able to figure out how it works and how to replicate it eventually.”

Jae glanced around. “But this project still holds priority for you?” he ventured.

“This, and trying to set up a few other safety measures against the other gods. If they’ve fully turned against us, I need to be prepared.”

That was that, apparently. Berren made a comment about their research and the conversation developed in the same direction as before. Regina paid attention, even if she wished she could press them more on this topic.

Once she learned a few basic principles, it was surprisingly easy to understand at least most of their explanations.

She focused on the rest of the visit, then slowly, reluctantly, disengaged from Jae’s mind. Well, not completely; she still stayed connected to him.

Are you alright? Regina asked, noticing him shivering slightly.

Yes, of course, Mother, he assured her. It’s just a bit weird, but I’m completely fine.

She could tell that was true, so Regina didn’t linger on it. I was wondering about their interface between the biological and magical components, she asked instead. Obviously, you can store information in cells, whether that’s in DNA, RNA, or protein structure, or actually, other options as well. It sounds like they’re taking advantage of that. Is this purely for information storage? How do they separate the actual ‘functional’ genome or transcriptome from it?

Oh, I’m not sure, Jae answered. I didn’t ask about that. Sorry.

That’s fine. Did you ask what sort of biological material they’re using? From which organisms? That microscope capture didn’t look like the tissue had cell walls, and the cells did have nuclei, but there was also no circulatory or lymphatic system, right? It looked a bit odd. Did their people just make something new?

Apparently, they had. Regina discussed the details with Jae a bit further, but he didn’t have answers to all her questions. It was a bit frustrating. Fortunately, they had also taken this into account when they made arrangements.

She sent Jae back for now, only checking in via the psychic link to watch as Iseis transported him back, instead of coming along personally. They wouldn’t be able to do this too often. Regina supposed she should count herself lucky that Leian was cognizant of the need to ask questions and communicate in a two-way manner, even with restrictions.

For now, she had to wait until she heard back from them. Regina tried to put it out of her mind as she had a snack and visited the bathroom, and added a few more eggs to the hive. Then she focused on the psychic link again, splitting her attention between some reports she had received.

Unfortunately, just because the war might be getting more dangerous and they also had to worry about the Mesen didn’t mean other issues disappeared. On the contrary, they instead only seemed to get more urgent. The Empire was still only a few years old and anyone saying it was actually settled was probably either blind or lying. The nobles’ conspiracy was a case in point. Rooting them out, as far as they had, might have helped, but it still probably wasn’t enough. And it wasn’t only the human nobles who might have issues with some things.

In particular, there were the gnomes. The government of the Gnomish Confederation, their new Executive Council, was still holding, but it was apparent there was rising dissatisfaction. The protests and near-riots had stopped, apparently, at least for the moment. But from the report Regina read, most people agreed that it was still boiling beneath the surface.

And it was probably understandable. They weren’t happy about sending soldiers to fight and die for the Empire, after their recent losses in their own war. And it was more than that. Many people likely still weren’t fond of the Empire. There was protest against ‘bowing to an unelected monarch’.

Maybe I should be proud of them, Regina noted distantly. She felt cold and had to consciously stop herself from clenching her fists.

This was what she wanted, wasn’t it?

For people to assert their rights and advocate for democracy … And the gnomes aren’t like the local humans, she consciously reminded herself. They had a democracy. Sure, it was undermined and turned kind of totalitarian, but it was restored. More or less. They should cherish it. Shouldn’t I actually be happy with this? Even if it’s really damned inconvenient right now?

Regina sighed. She could just imagine what Janis would say.

Shaking her head, she focused on the actual report in front of her. Apparently, the Historical faction was gaining in prominence again? It had lost a lot of members, but was gaining new members rapidly now. And that seemed to be an area of concern for the drone who’d written this report, noting that nationalists and quiet sympathizers of the old regime seemed to be drawn to it. Tikimaken and Tikelikel were still in charge, but the rhetoric of some members of the factions was getting sharper. Well, either way, this was probably something she couldn’t do much about. Intervening in their internal politics would only make things worse.

She was almost glad to be interrupted and distracted from the reports when Jae returned. Regina raised her head. Rather than dropping him off, it looked like someone, probably Iseis, had just sent him directly through a short-lived portal. He’d appeared in the garden and was making his way inside. She stood up to meet him in the outer office.

“How did everything go?” she asked.

“Fine, but Iseis complained about how we’re doing this,” he answered. “She said we should just set up an office to act as a liaison and receive notes, and maybe even a few ancillary laboratories somewhere within the psychic link’s range. We can’t keep teleporting individuals back and forth all the time. That’s what they said, at least.”

Regina nodded. “Maybe not a bad idea.” She had been thinking about ways to reorganize some parts of what they did, especially regarding research and science in general. She’d considered some kind of central, advisory council. Maybe they could integrate it with this.

“They also answered your questions, my Queen,” Jae added. “I’ll show you?”

Regina dove into Jae’s mind again, submerging herself pretty deeply and experiencing his most recent visit through his eyes and ears. She paid attention to the answers and explanations Leian and Berren gave. In a few cases, she would have liked to ask a follow-up question, but it was nothing critical.

“It’s good that Regina has some background in the subject,” Leian had commented at one point. “I can be confident she’ll understand at least at the mundane level.”

Once she mostly retreated from Jae’s mind, Regina wasn’t sure how to feel about that. Her medical knowledge was awesome, sure, but she’d never thought it would be helpful in understanding extradimensional bio-magic traditions. And it was clear that even if Leian and Berren didn’t specialize in it, their people’s grasp of it was probably more advanced than anything she’d learned.

Still, she wasn’t exactly going to complain about that. Especially if she might be able to recreate one of these ‘mechanisms’ with a bit more info; or at least a much simpler and more limited version.

Before she could discuss it in more detail, Regina sensed Iseis herself appearing where she must have just transported Jae. She immediately started hurrying inside, toward Regina’s own position. Regina cocked her head and reached out, sensing the excitement and urgency the old woman felt.

She still exercised her patience and waited the minute or so it took Iseis to make her way to them, despite her age. In the meantime, she let Jae know and reached out to a few other people in the psychic link.

“Did you forget something when Jae visited?” Regina finally asked when Iseis entered the office.

The old elf shook her head. “No, I’m coming to inform you — Leian finally found the first real traces of Mesen activity.”

Regina straightened up. “Really? How and where?” she asked quickly.

“They did a test run of the system after sending Jae off,” Iseis explained. “It picked up faint, strange magical signatures. They’re analyzing what they found more deeply now, I think, but she seemed pretty convinced that it was related. I’m supposed to tell you and make preparations so we’re ready when they do have confirmation.”

“Okay, that makes sense, I guess. What sort of signatures did they find, and where?”

“Rather far away from here,” Iseis answered. “I’m not sure about the details of what they sensed, yet.”

“Can you be more specific?”

“Antarctica.”

Regina whistled lowly. “Well, I suppose that meets the criterion of a remote, uninhabited place.”

“There probably aren’t many animals or monsters there, wherever they are exactly, which could help hide it from the System,” Jae commented.

Regina shook her head. “Well, are they going to investigate it themselves or send someone? Can we help?”

“I believe they are putting together a team of sorts,” Iseis answered. “I’ll be involved, as well as Galatea. Maybe a few other people from your Empire and allies. We’d also like some military forces ready in case it turns out to be necessary.”

Regina nodded. “We can arrange that.” She was already reaching out to the psychic link again to start making preparations.

It was a shame she probably wouldn’t be able to come herself, she’d kind of like to see this. Though it would be dangerous, and Max would never allow it even if she wasn’t the center of the psychic link. She’d just have to wait.

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