Unsurprisingly, adding yet another important and complex topic to be discussed, namely the foundation of a new Imperial capital, extended the summit. It was starting to get apparent that the other delegates, who’d supposedly come to witness the peace-making after the recent war, had less to contribute and less reason to be here by now. It might be best to either continue this in a follow-up conference or establish some other thing to build on it with just the Nerlians and Cernlians, and, of course, the hive. She made plans accordingly.

Regina was still a bit conflicted about the prisoners who’d attacked her. They were assassins guilty of attempted regicide, on the face of it. On the other hand, they’d been mentally influenced. Presumably, if not for that, they wouldn’t have actually gone through with the attack. Not because of moral scruples, of course, but because of the risk. Still, it mattered, didn’t it?

“They were still the kind of people who would have easily accepted a bribe to kill you, my Queen,” Max said when she brought up the matter. “You shouldn’t worry too much about them.”

Regina stared at him for a moment and shook her head with a bit of exaggerated drama. “Did you get all your understanding of morality and ethics from me? Because that would be a problem. I don’t think you quite understand them as well as you should.”

Max shrugged. He truly wasn’t bothered, which only annoyed Regina more. “We trust you to handle this. The last time we talked about that kind of thing, you called my attitude moral cowardice, I think,” he noted.

“I did,” Regina acknowledged. And I wasn’t wrong, was I?

“I think most people would be happy to just have their subordinates trust their judgment. Kiara doesn’t have a problem with it, does she?”

“It’s different for Kiara. She and her subordinates are playing by a given set of cultural standards and norms, and can trust that they all at least mostly keep to them, or accept the consequences when they don’t,” Regina disagreed. “It’s hardly the best kind of system, I suppose, but at least they do generally have scruples and lines in the sand. Do you and my other children?”

Max frowned a bit, chewing on his lower lip. “I think you’d need to define those first.”

Regina shook her head. “That just proves the point, doesn’t it? I won’t pretend to be any sort of saint, but the idea of people with our kind of power and no moral limits is more than a bit scary. At least in principle, I don’t think I could be scared of you if I tried. But … I know I could just order you all to follow a specific set of rules, my rules, but that wouldn’t make it any better.”

Max frowned more deeply, but he didn’t say anything else. She could tell he was upset, mostly because of her own attitude and what it meant — a clear lack, a standard she wanted them to meet and was disappointed they didn’t — but she wasn’t sure if he actually understood the point she wanted to make. She’d found it hard to phrase it properly and it felt like she’d failed the attempt.

“Anyway,” Regina continued, determined to move on, “we do still have a few other things to take care of, more pragmatically.”

Max continued to regard her for a moment, before he nodded, the matter of moral and ethical standards set aside for now. “That new capital you’re building?”

“Well, I’m not sure I would put it like that, it will probably take a bit until we can actually start building,” Regina said with a smile, shoving any uneasiness she felt to the back of her mind. “For now, we’re just getting started with the planning. I’d like you to talk with Mia, actually, get some idea of where we’re at and what ideas and suggestions you have that should be included.”

Max nodded. “You should involve Ben if you want input on the military aspects and what is needed for that.”

“We will, but your input is welcome, too. That goes for pretty much everyone. You should also probably start to prepare for any security arrangements we need for my official coronation. Consider this me doing you the courtesy of giving advance notice. It will be a bigger ceremony; we’re going to sign the official set of treaties binding together the Empire of Central Europe, including the first document of the constitution, then.” In many ways, it would be the real start of the Empire, even if it had been proclaimed here a few days ago.

“Noted,” he said drily. “Will I be responsible for the security of Kiara and the other high-profile delegates, too?”

“Do you want to be?” Regina frowned. She hadn’t really thought of that. “You should at least liase with their respective people, I guess.”

Max seemed happy enough with that and was starting to get antsy to get back to work, so Regina wrapped up their meeting. Things hadn’t yet devolved to the point of her needing to schedule official meetings with Max, thankfully. A conversation between other appointments was fine. Right now, she had some time free to continue to contribute to the hive’s numbers and take a bath in the facilities they’d arranged, which were a lot less comfortable than her bathroom in the hive’s central base, but she bore with it.

Ira helped her get ready to continue, as usual being just where she was needed and staying quiet and calm to not bother Regina. She had other duties and more important things she could be doing, but Regina knew if she pointed that out, her assistant would be unimpressed and just do what she thought was best anyway, which meant ‘attending to’ Regina. Via and Ira were the two drones she knew most given to that, ironically enough. Still, Regina had never tried to protest very hard. She liked being cared for as much as anyone, and producing new eggs for the hive was both an important task and not without strain, physically.

Today, she soaked in the bath for long enough to soothe her muscles and deal with some of the discomfort she was feeling. It seems like holding back in terms of creating new drones for some days in a row might cause slight issues, she noted. In other circumstances, Regina might try holding off completely for however long she could and see if there were any actual side effects, or if it was just a matter of disrupting routines the body was used to. She couldn’t justify that experiment now, though, and in the end, she was just as glad about that. Then Ira started massaging her shoulders and wing joints and Regina just focused on the moment. Although she really did want to go flying sometime soon, it had been far too long since she’d stretched her wings for more than a minute.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“You spoil me too much,” Regina sighed as she finally got out of the bathtub. “I’d say a girl could get used to this, but I’m afraid I’ve already gotten used to it.”

Ira smiled, only slightly, but she could sense her feelings in the psychic link and knew she was pleased. “Just doing my job,” she responded. “And I’m glad you’re not fighting us on this. It’s good to see you a bit more relaxed, Mother. You’ve been tense lately.”

“Lately?” Regina muttered. “I guess I know what you mean. It feels like everything is changing, a little at a time. We’ve finally found something like an equilibrium and there I go upsetting it again with grand ambitions and founding new nations. Building a new capital will definitely change our day-to-day, too.”

Ira shrugged, unconcerned. “Life is change,” she philosophized, with another small smile. “What matters isn’t the place where we live, we’ve got a few of those, too. And personally, I wouldn’t be upset about closer contact with other people, either. I imagine in the long run, the more adventurous and cosmopolitan of us can go with you to the new city, and the ones who don’t like it can stay at the hive’s bases. Plus, we do still have a war to fight.”

Regina nodded, returning Ira’s smile. “It’s a good thing you are already one of my main advisors, because if you weren’t, I should definitely offer you the job. And yes, the war. The Gnomish Confederation is not taking any of this calmly, I believe.”

Not that they had any real intelligence on what went on in the Confederation in that regard, but it was easy enough to guess. The war had kept going and she really needed to pay more attention to it, even with the summit taking up so much of her focus. The gnomes had not launched another big attack after their partly successful infiltrations a few days ago, but Regina was pretty sure that the hive had yet to see the last of the consequences of that, much less any follow-up tries they might make. And now that she was explicitly responsible for Cernlia, too, she really needed to secure that country against the gnomes as well.

At least Kiara was aware of it and was doing her best to try and prepare to join the war. At least, Regina had told her to do it, but not to rush too much. Cernlia was just recovering from its own civil war and said recovery took priority over any contribution to the hive’s war with the Gnomish Confederation. Realistically, the Delvers would probably have more of an impact, anyway, and they were already starting to help. Several of the leaders she’d met before weren’t here because they’d been traveling to the border or otherwise preparing for war against the gnomes.

They were disturbingly eager for it in light of Regina’s thoughts on their racism, but she wasn’t going to complain about that part. Hopefully, good relations with the elves would cancel out whatever bad blood or reinforced prejudice they’d get from fighting the gnomes. Assuming it would make any difference, she didn’t get the impression that the Delvers and the Gnomish Confederation had a good relationship at all to begin with, anyway.

The elves were another thing she had to deal with, of course. They would be affected by the founding of the Empire as well. They needed a new treaty, or ideally a set of treaties to regulate things like access to the underground ruins and the monster population in the Great Forest. Regina wasn’t interested in claiming any territory there, she was happy to recognize their claim of the forest, but she couldn’t just let the ruins go and she also wanted to maintain good relations with Ariedel.

“There are few things we truly want from other nations, Hive Queen,” Anuis had written in her latest letter, just a few days before the summit. In it, she had also announced she wouldn’t be able to make it after all, but was hoping to be chosen as a diplomatic envoy or commander of a military escort for one the next time it was needed. “Peace would be nice, but something we rarely depend on when it comes to humans.”

Regina hoped that formally recognizing their territory, establishing diplomatic relations and negotiating trade deals would help, if not guarantee peace, then at least let the elves see that she meant it. They had a rather conflicted history with Nerlia, to say the least, and Cernlia wasn’t much better. The hive was an ally, of course, but the Empire would incorporate all three of the nations, even with her at the helm.

Besides, there was always the elephant in the room when it came to the Hivekind.

“We hope that there is no bad blood regarding historical conflict between our races, Your Majesty, and that we can step forward into the future,” the chief delegate from the Elvish Free State had told her.

Regina had smiled in response, trying not to show that she’d rather frown at him. She knew the elves had been part of the alliance of people fighting against the previous Hivekind, of course. It sounded like pretty much every race had been. Some were more apologetic about it than others. Still …

“I wish the same,” she’d told him.

She hadn’t outright said it was fine, and she hoped she’d said nothing that would be construed as official forgiveness for the past.

Regina still wasn’t even entirely sure which side would need forgiveness, but — what she’d heard, the hints from others like Galatea and Leian, did paint a picture. And there was very little that could ever justify genocide.

Still, this was politics. And they had to find ways to live and work with each other. Political expediency or not, Regina did want to work with the elves. Even considering what happened in the past, no one could change what their ancestors did, and it wasn’t this generation — well, okay, it was more likely that elves who had been in a position of responsibility for what had happened were still around, compared to any other group, but she would just have to grin and bear it. Until and unless it could be thoroughly addressed.

For now, Regina had suggested they continue negotiations, in order to work out such things as immigration and border regulations and an academic exchange, even mutual defense. Something that will, hopefully, eventually lead to them joining the Empire. For that purpose, they would set up a smaller diplomatic conference after the peace summit ended, which was already dragging on and would need to conclude soon.

Regina herself wasn’t going to be present for all the negotiations, she did have a lot to do, but she’d at least drop in occasionally for important parts and treaty signings. She was half-hoping it would lead to a longer process, negotiations carrying on ideally until the elves had a satisfactory local autonomy agreement to vote on annexation. Although there probably would be more than one round of negotiations for that.

They seemed to be on the same page, and Regina received an official missive welcoming diplomatic envoys of her choosing to Ariedel for diplomatic talks with the Empire that evening.

It wouldn’t make it as easily accessible to her, but Ariedel was generally well within her range nowadays and if the elves want to host these talks, she wasn’t going to refuse. She just needed to pick some good representatives from Nerlia and Cernlia to join the negotiations, and hopefully establish something like a permanent embassy in the elven city.

Truly, an Empress’ work was never done. At least organizing diplomatic envoys was much less fraught than military campaigns. Regina preferred the former if she had to choose, anyway.