As Regina had said, they managed to get through the - in Janis’ opinion, rather tense - interaction with the representatives of the new confederation without major incident.
Regina had wanted avoid open conflict, for them to stay diplomatic and to seem unconcerned, so Janis buckled down and acted accordingly. She raised an unimpressed eyebrow at the document, shelving it carefully, then turned back to the envoys and offered sincere congratulations. Then she asked, as pleasantly as she could, after their efforts and general health, complimented them on their achievement and praised the apparent drive for unity.
“It has always been our belief that growing friendship and unity between nations will lead to a peaceful and prosperous future,” she said.
“Quite right, Your Highness,” one of the men agreed pleasantly.
Fortunately, it was about then that Regina finally showed up. Janis didn’t let them see it, but she did relax a bit at the Hive Queen’s entrance.
It prolonged the visit a bit, with Regina repeating many of Janis’ compliments and questions in other words, but eventually, they seemed to have covered enough conversational ground and satisfied the dictates of politeness. In her opinion, anyway, and it wasn’t like anyone here was really eager to stick around each other and talk, despite what it would seem like on the surface.
Once they left, Janis exchanged a long look with Regina. They were beyond the need for words at this point; even if they hadn’t had the psychic link or Regina’s ability to sense her emotions, they probably would have been. Regina hadn’t closed herself off and if she focused on it, Janis could sense the vague concern she felt. She was contemplative, but there were flickers of curiosity, too.
They didn’t say anything else, though. There wasn’t much to say.
Once Regina was occupied sorting through some documents and speaking to other people in the Hive, Janis slipped away to go talk to Kiara. One of them should probably do so anyway, and it would make more sense for it to be her. Besides, she wanted to discuss this with her girlfriend. Although there are a few things I probably shouldn’t say too explicitly. She shrugged at the thought. June had asked her about conflicting loyalties or what she’d do if she had to choose between her love and the Hive, her family, but Janis wasn’t worried about that. They were all adults and aware of where they stood; Kiara wouldn’t ask her to betray the Starlit Hive any more than Janis would ask her to give up her throne. Her primary loyalty was to Regina, just as Kiara would say hers was to the people of her country, and they were both fine with that. It didn’t make their relationship worth any less.
Right now, Janis had to contain herself and listened mostly in silence as Kiara wrapped up a meeting with some of her advisors. Once their conversation had come to a halt, though, she stepped forward and greeted them. The Cernlians other than Kiara bowed deeply to her and even Kiara followed suit with a half-bow of her own, since they were in public. Janis returned it with a bow of her head.
“It’s good to see you,” she greeted her. “I assume you wish to talk?”
Janis glanced at the others, noting their expressions, then back to Kiara. “It seems you’ve heard the news, then?”
“Is it true, Your Highness?” Margaret Bluegrass cut in. She seemed excited, although maybe not in a good way. “That group of backwaters has formed not just an alliance, but founded a new federation?”
Kiara gave her a sharp glance. Probably more because of the chance someone could overhear than because she disagreed, Janis guessed. Not that Janis herself was very broken up about whatever they called each other, she just didn’t know the other parties well enough to know if it was true.
"I suppose,” she agreed with an amused look, deciding to ignore the byplay. “The Western Confederation. Not a very imaginative name, I suppose they used up all their creativity on getting this done.”
“It is, what’s the phrase, short and sweet?” Kiara shrugged.
Janis inclined her head in agreement and got back on track. “The Empress is unwilling to change her plans for this summit. We’ve expressed our congratulations and hope to be invited to a formal commemoration ceremony. Until then, please do not show that you are upset about this, even if it should happen to be true. They are no threat to us and it is best to remain unconcerned. Do you understand?”
The other people present exchanged looks and most of them nodded.
“If that is the Empress’ wish, certainly,” Kiara agreed. “I will convey my own congratulations and aim to form positive ties with them.” A look at the other humans made it clear what she expected of them.
“Do we know who their leader is?” June asked. “Or anything about their structure or hierarchy?”
Janis shook her head. “That was not in the notice we were given.”
Several of the men glanced at Daine, who cleared his throat. “It will take a little time to find out,” he said.
“You didn’t find out they were planning this,” Margaret muttered. Judging by their expressions, some of the others agreed with her, and Kiara made no move to speak up for her courtier.
Maybe she was a bit upset that this had blindsided her, too.
Personally, Janis was a little annoyed that others they worked with who could have found out, like Madris, had either been too distracted by other matters or didn’t deem it worth telling them. Although I suppose it wouldn’t have made any difference in the end. What could Regina have done, throw them out of the summit? Try to prevent it forcibly? That would only have presented a much larger risk of sparking a war, and wouldn’t have stopped them from starting this confederation anyway.
She shook her head to dislodge these thoughts and looked at Kiara, catching her gaze. They smiled slightly at each other and Janis shifted closer. Even in a public setting where they couldn’t (or at least shouldn’t) be openly affectionate, having Kiara look at her always made her feel ten kilos lighter.
Then Janis forced herself to pay attention to the conversation again, although she hadn’t missed much. There was a bit of speculation, but it seemed pretty useless, not going anywhere. She was starting to think these people really didn’t know that much about their neighbors. Well, their neighbor’s neighbors, which she supposed would explain it. And without something like the hive’s psychic link or, even better, the Internet Regina and Galatea talked about, information wasn’t passed that easily, so that was that. The Cernlians were probably more concerned with their eastern neighbors. Which meant especially Esemen.
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Hm. She wondered how long it would be until the Esemen tried to join this Confederation?
“How are their relationships with the Esemen?” she asked abruptly, cutting off a winding discussion about signature imports that was starting to devolve into an argument. “Do we know anything about that?”
There was a moment of surprised silence, but Lord Daine answered promptly. “An astute question, Your Imperial Highness. We don’t know as much as I would like, but their relationship seems to vary depending on the nation in question. There are a few who will oppose their membership or any attempt to forge closer ties, even if others push for it. Has the Principate joined this Western Confederation yet?”
Janis thought back to the documents she’d read and the words of the delegates. “No, it doesn’t seem like it.”
“Then they most likely will shortly. Still, it might be relevant. But Liongen is part of it, and will disagree with extending a hand to the Esemen, I am sure.”
Janis nodded, remembering the name on the list. “That’s something, at least.”
“We will have to pay particular attention to their internal disputes and how their foreign policy is likely to shake out,” Kiara said.
From there, the discussion continued by retreading some of the same ground briefly, before it petered out. Janis shifted impatiently on her feet. She only had to wait a little longer until Kiara dismissed most of them, though, sending her advisors back to their work. Daine lingered with a questioning look, but she waved him off, until only Margaret remained with them. Duke Bluegrass apparently had an important meeting with some other duke from Nerlia, but he might not have stayed anyway.
Now that they had a bit more privacy, Janis relaxed and walked closer to Kiara. She rested a hand on her shoulder and enjoyed the brief moment of her girlfriend leaning into her.
“How much of a problem is this really going to be?” June asked.
Janis shrugged, taking half a step back. “Who knows. It depends on if they actually want to pick a fight with us, physically or otherwise. This might well just be a defensive reaction. If the Empire settles down and we don’t conquer anything for a few years, they might thaw and be ready for a diplomatic approach.”
Left unsaid was the fact that with the war against the gnomes, there wasn’t much of a chance of the Empire being fully at peace or avoiding some kind of conquest for a while.
“I’d like to know more about who we’re dealing with, learn more about these countries,” Janis continued, glancing at Kiara.
“We have some books,” she offered with a smile. “I will give you a few that should have useful information.”
“Thank you.”
With the psychic link, that information should be spread soon enough, although they’d have to be careful of its reliability.
There was a moment of silence, as everyone considered the situation. Or maybe they thought about something else. Janis wouldn’t bet against June practicing mana shaping or something. If she was subtle enough, she wouldn’t be able to sense it.
“There is one other thing,” she finally began. “How are things going back in Cernlia? Specifically, the southern border?”
Kiara frowned. “There have been some reports of increased activity from the gnomes, scouts getting into our land and the like.”
“Really?” Janis stared at her for a moment. “There’s been gnomish activity in Cernlia, and you didn’t think to report it to us?”
“They were sparse and unreliable,” Kiara answered. She sounded a bit defensive. “I wanted to get more information first.”
Janis rubbed at her forehead. “And now you have the information that this activity is increasing?”
“A few more reports than usual in the last few days.” Kiara glanced at June, then crossed her arms. “You have to understand, Janis, this is not like your hive. I do not generally get much information from there. There would be better infrastructure in the capital, if we were there instead of here, it wouldn’t be much better even then. Messages need to be sent with messenger birds if not magical means. Generally, it’s used only for important information and key orders. And that’s not getting into the difficulty of dealing with the local nobility in a given area, I cannot exactly talk to all of them at once.”
“I know that,” Janis said stiffly. It wasn’t like she hadn’t grown up in Cernlia, rather than the Hive. “What did you actually learn? Do you have those reports?”
Kiara glanced at Margaret, who nodded and quickly excused herself from the room, presumably to fetch them. Janis used the time they waited to contact Regina and update her on what she’d just heard.
They waited in silence until Margaret returned, bringing with her some messages, mostly small sheaves of paper with cramped handwriting. A few were obviously transcripts, not letters.
This doesn’t sound good, Regina commented in her head. Janis could sense her slight agitation and some annoyance. Granted, part of that could be from being disturbed while she was in the bathroom. Janis could vaguely sense Ira there as well. She had to agree with Regina’s sentiment, though.
She read through the messages and reports quickly. Janis had to concede that Kiara wasn’t wrong, what they did have wasn’t very substantial. Few people had actually seen any gnomes and even then not up close. Still, taken together, it was an obvious pattern. Kiara had alerted the locals to be more thorough in investigating any hints and chasing down intruders. That makes it a bit hard to be sure if the frequency actually is increasing, Janis noted to Regina.
In this case, I think it’s better to be safe than sorry, Regina commented grimly.
Janis nodded slightly. Then she read through them again, just to be sure. She paused for a moment, diving into a deeper connection with Regina, before she turned back to the humans.
“It shouldn’t be much longer until we get the next report, and I’ve tasked Lord Daine with looking into it,” Kiara spoke up, clearly seeing that her attention was on her now. “Then we can know what we’re dealing with.”
Janis sighed and walked over to drop into a chair. “Kiara, how is your country’s military faring?”
Kiara winced slightly. “Well … the lords have all recalled their men and mostly disbanded the armies they raised. I’ve done the same with the men from the Lyns March, they’ve been gone for too long. There are still some men-at-arms, of course, and adventurers and mercenaries whose contracts are still ongoing.”
“But we have the Hive, right?” June asked. “We don’t actually need the soldiers right now.”
Janis looked from one sister to the other. Neither of them have actually seen the war against the gnomes, she reminded herself. To them, it has to be distant.
“Of course the Hive will protect you, as was promised,” she said. “But … this is a concern.”
“What do you want us to do?” June asked. “Or her, rather, I’m not really involved here and I have other tasks.”
“Thanks, sister,” Kiara muttered.
“Kiara,” Janis said, straightening up a bit. “Regina has some orders for you. She wants you to secure the southern border of your country, which is now a border of the Empire. Actually secure it, not send a few people to investigate and a few additional patrols and call it a day. Since Cernlia is part of the Empire now, the gnomes will probably see it as an enemy and a valid target. Not that I think they would have held back from attacking Cernlia before.”
June made a face. Kiara’s eyebrows were drawn together in a look Janis hadn’t seen on her often. She hoped she understood. Even a hint of the Gnomish Confederation considering an invasion of Cernlia had to be considered a priority.
“To that end,” she continued, “you will raise some additional troops, just to be sure. You will also send reinforcements to the south. If the local conditions permit it, you should build some new outposts. Make sure all nobles and adventurers’ guilds and the like are aware of this. You won’t have to manage it alone, the Hive will send troops if necessary. We’ll also provide logistical support like before, as much as is necessary. Keep us apprised of your progress.”
Kiara nodded slowly. “If that is Her Imperial Majesty’s will, I will of course comply.”
Janis stood up and rolled her shoulders. “Good. Thank you. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to discuss this and make plans with Ben and Tim.”
It took effort not to turn back and look at Kiara as she left.