As soon as Regina told the others what had happened, Ben made his way north with a Winged Drone Mount. Regina felt a bit of her tension ease as he arrived and immediately started taking charge of the improvised army camp, hurrying their preparations and organizing their units.

Perhaps pressing on now wasn’t the wisest choice, but she’d be damned if she let Madris’ intrusion dissuade her from what she was going to do. Besides, none of the reasons for it had changed.

Despite the new urgency of trying to get everything prepared and ready, and the feeling of having too many balls juggling in the air, Regina found herself a bit distracted as she dwelled on the encounter and what she’d learned.

She’d known on some level that the Delvers considered themselves the heirs of human culture. It was probably a sentiment shared by many humans, in fact. After all, the previous civilizations on this world — her civilization — had been human, and had presumably been their ancestors. She’d just never taken the time to sort out how she felt about it … and now that she did, she had to admit she felt a little disturbed. And upset, almost offended.

Who do these people think they are? As if a little bit of old human blood makes them anything … This completely disregarded the fact that it wasn’t known how large a part of their ancestry came from actual survivors of the Cataclysm, and how much from humans who had come through the portal. And even that didn’t matter. Appearance or even ancestry had nothing to do with culture.

Culture was language, customs, religion, holidays, food and so much more. Even things she didn’t necessarily like or approve of, like gender roles. I might not remember painting eggs while waiting for the easter bunny to come as a child, but at least I know it’s a thing, dammit! Regina exhaled angrily and glared at a cluster of trees on the horizon.

The Delvers or others were clearly just trying to grasp the glories and accomplishments of her old people, probably in the form of technological marvels and artifacts, whether out of genuine if misguided admiration, covetousness, or to prop themselves up. Most likely a mix of all of those. She doubted they really understood what it meant. They’d never even referenced humanistic philosophy that she’d heard, or shown the slightest knowledge of or respect for the scientific method. The world wouldn’t be in the state it was in now if it was a thing, would it?

Maybe I’m being too uncharitable here, Regina admitted, exhaling another deep breath. The gods have clearly suppressed that kind of thing. She turned and walked back to where Max and a few others had set up a few rough benches. And I shouldn’t fall into the trap of thinking my culture was any kind of platonic ideal of civilization, either. Or ultima ratio.

Her lips twitched at the thought that she was suddenly talking philosophy to herself, but she shook it off and instead looked at the others as she joined them to see how they were doing.

They had all been quiet recently. For the last few days, really. Regina got the feeling they were trying to give her space, clearly sensing that she was experiencing some emotional turmoil. Right now, Max met her gaze and gave her a smile that felt reassuring, letting some of the tension drain out of her shoulders. He let her know wordlessly that he would support her no matter what, and that he trusted her.

It felt good to hear that, because Regina had to acknowledge she needed it. I really could have handled this better, she admitted to herself. To be fair to herself, she’d been given some weighty revelations without much time to really think about them, then gotten surprised by the Delvers’ appearance, and she’d already been exhausted. Still. She resolved to do better in the future.

Of course, she wasn’t the only one that could be said of.

Regina glanced at Galatea, who was sitting with the drones she’d taken underground, although they were noticeably giving her more space. Given what she sensed from the others, that wasn’t surprising.

“How did they find us, Galatea?” she asked. “I thought you were trying to protect me, or at least get me away?”

Galatea sighed. She looked glum, not an expression Regina had seen on her often. “Yes. I’m sorry. We probably shouldn’t have come back, at least not this soon, given what happened. They shouldn’t have still been here, but, well. She must have sensed you. Most likely, she was closer than I thought.”

“I see,” Regina said tonelessly. Now that the … well, joy, she supposed … of seeing her friend again had mostly faded, she wasn’t exactly feeling happy.

“I messed up,” Galatea said quietly, staring at the ground. “More than once.” She raised her head. “I’m sorry.”

Regina regarded her for a moment, then nodded. “Join me for a quick walk?”

“Of course.”

It wasn’t that Regina didn’t trust her drones to overhear their conversation. Obviously, they wouldn’t use it against her, and they would probably still hear it, anyway. But she would feel marginally more comfortable having privacy, and she thought that Galatea especially would, as well.

“I’ve been feeling inclined to be, well, forbearing, not just because of the kinship I feel with you,” Regina began, running a hand through her hair. “From what I understand, you’ve been living on your own in a cave for a thousand years, with only occasional visits from one person, and Leian isn’t exactly the most sociable company. And I presume the fact that you’re not a human or even former human, and so there have to be cognitive differences, doesn’t make things easier.”

“It hasn’t been as easy as I naively assumed,” Galatea admitted after a moment of hesitation. “Although I thought I’d been managing well enough.” She grimaced. “Maybe not, if the Delvers got much more from me than I thought. Anyway, I assume there’s a ‘but’ coming?”

“I’m annoyed,” Regina said simply. She wouldn’t raise her voice or express anger in similar ways, that wouldn’t help anything, just stated it.

“Understandable. I will do better going forward, Regina.”

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Then Regina paused. She wasn’t sure how to put this. She wasn’t even entirely sure what she was feeling. In the end, the words just jumped out. “Were you sabotaging me?”

Galatea whipped her head around to look at her. She didn’t immediately voice any denials, and the words hung in the air for a bit.

“To be honest,” Galatea finally admitted, “I am a little worried that I might have subconsciously sabotaged you.”

“Oh?” Regina ran her hands against the rides of her wings under her jacket to stop herself from clenching them into fists.

“It would have to be subconscious, because I can’t consciously sabotage you, Regina.”

“And you resent that?” Regina asked softly.

“I don’t know,” Galatea said quietly, shaking her head. “I’m not sure what I feel.”

Regina nodded. Looking at it objectively and rationally, she couldn’t blame Galatea for resenting the situation. That didn’t mean hearing this didn’t upset her. I mean, I did probably save her life, she thought irritably, then stomped on that thought. She was not going to act entitled about this.

They two continued walking for a few seconds in silence, in an arc around the edge of the camp. Small swarms of Winged Drones passed above them, flying low. Regina felt their presence in her psychic link, like all the others drones in the vicinity.

“Galatea,” she began speaking. “I don’t want to make you do anything you don’t want to do. How about this. You can leave with my blessing and no hard feelings. I won’t ask anything of you, or involve you in anything. I’ll even order you to do it, if that would make you more comfortable. I’ll still treasure our friendship.” She stopped and met her friend’s eyes. “Or, if you want, you can hang around and help out, but I need to be sure you will be resolved.”

Galatea’s eyes widened. “You’re not telling me to leave you alone, are you?”

“No. Of course not.” Regina smiled at her, but the smile quickly faded. “I just don’t think it would be fair to either of us to leave this in some gray, in-between area. I don’t want to have to watch my back around you, and more importantly, I don’t think it would do either of our mental health any good if …” She shrugged. “If you have to struggle between instinct and what you would choose for yourself, I guess.”

Galatea just stared at her for a moment. Regina didn’t know what was going on behind those immaterial eyes.

“I don’t want to cut ties with you, Regina.”

“Then don’t,” Regina told her. She sighed and started walking again, elaborating after a second. “This isn’t a decision I can make for you. I certainly can’t tell you how to feel. If you need some time to consider and try to sort out your thoughts, well, take all the time you need.”

They were heading back to the others now, and Regina saw Max watching them with a thoughtful look, though he turned away after a second. Galatea seemed agitated, but then her presence calmed.

“No,” she said, shaking her head, then chuckled ruefully. “I don’t need that. I’m sorry if I’ve had my head up my butt, Regina. I am not going to run away. This is my home, too, and more importantly, you’re my friend. The only real friend I’ve ever had, if I’m being honest. It doesn’t matter why else I might feel compelled to help or protect you. You’ve given me too much, anyway. You don’t deserve for me to be a bitch about it.”

Regine smiled, feeling like she’d just spread her wings and caught an updraft. “Thanks, Galatea,” she said quietly.

Galatea grinned, even if it still looked a bit forced. “I can’t promise never to cause trouble again. I’ll try my best to make up for it, though.” She paused. “And I should probably try and talk to your drones more.”

“It might not be a bad idea,” Regina agreed. She would advise Galatea to get to know them for more than selfish reasons. As she’d just mentioned, the AI was pretty poorly socialized, at least from a human perspective. Forming a few more connections couldn’t hurt.

It wasn’t until they’d returned to the others and Galatea had left her side to strike up a conversation with Tia that Regina realized that, if you didn’t count her hive members, Galatea was also the only friend she had, ever since she could remember.

She dismissed that thought and turned her mind back to the challenge in front of them, or rather the camp around her. It was getting harder to hide it now with all the traffic, but they’d decided that speed was more important than perfect stealth. Anyone who wanted to scry on them here would already know something was up, anyway.

Right on cue, a large flock of drones bustled by, preparing some cut wooden logs to set up basic fortifications and turn into carts and wagons. Regina moved out of the way, and the small gathering of her current group scattered. She looked after the laborers for a moment, reflecting on the weirdness of her Templates. They still mostly had War Drones doing manual labor in the hive. She supposed the old Hivekind might have used robots or something. Her own hive’s types were pretty well adapted to a medieval-tech fantasy environment, but things like that still remained to hint at it. Or maybe she’d just messed up somewhere.

Sighing, she turned her attention to the psychic link and the drones who couldn’t be here. Most of her senior hive members were still elsewhere, doing their own jobs.

Tim was already reorganizing the small army remaining in the mountains, which had been growing steadily due to the Drone Breeders they’d assigned to it, to split off some reinforcements. It would be a balancing act to make sure they remained combat ready and effective, while not just letting fighters who would be needed elsewhere sit around uselessly. He’d been asking their elven ‘volunteers’ for advice, but Regina didn’t want to tell them too many details, and they didn’t understand the hive’s structure and setup that well, anyway, so their help was limited. Currently, he was deep in conversation with several senior drones regarding the matter, so Regina let him be.

Instead, she focused on the drones in their main base. It was bustling with activity, also preparing for the new fighting they expected to start soon. Ace and others had been revamping the defenses again, mostly small changes this time.

While she was mentally paging through her contacts, Regina got a call from someone else. My Queen, do you have a moment? Janis asked.

Of course. Regina replied, then leaned against a remaining tree. She hadn’t really talked to Janis in a while. What’s up? You need anything?

Kind of. I’ve been talking to the Lyns ladies. She paused, and Regina mentally gestured for her to continue. They’ve been asking to see you, and honestly growing a bit impatient.

Regina groaned and leaned her head back against the tree’s bark. I see.

You did promise to treat them, Janis reminded her. Florance’s pregnancy still seems to be going well, but everyone’s a little worried about June.

She hasn’t been doing worse, has she? Regina frowned. She’d almost forgotten about that, she realized now, and absently tugged on her mandible as she considered it.

No, not really, Janis reassured her. Pretty sure it’s just that the improvements she’s had due to your treatment are wearing off. She’s not actually worse off than before.

I was preoccupied with other stuff, Regina admitted. But I definitely still intend to treat her. I’m their doctor, after all, she added wryly.

I know, Janis said. Gotta admit, the girl’s been growing on me a little. I hope I’m not just bothering you.

Not at all, Regina assured her. I’ll try and go for a visit as soon as I can. It might be a little harder going forward. If nothing else, I can always work through another healer, I guess. At least for routine treatments.

I’d be happy to help. Anyway, I should be heading to class now. See you later, Regina.

Take care, Janis.

Regina withdrew her mind and pushed off the tree, brushing off her clothes. Janis was teaching some of the younger, more recently hatched Witches and Attendants. Something else she wished she could be there for, but Regina simply didn’t have enough time in the day for everything she wished she could do.

Instead, she headed off to go talk to Ben and get an estimate for when they would cross the border.