Regina hadn’t hesitated to approve Janis’ decision to let Neralt interrogate gnomish prisoners and try to prepare a strategy of undermining their current leadership. Not that she actually needed to approve anything, officially, she just let Janis’ authorization stand without issue. For her part, Regina hoped something came out of that effort, and she was prepared to help it, within reason. Taking political aspects into consideration when selecting strategic or tactical targets for the war was hardly unreasonable, and they were in a comfortable enough position for some leeway.
In the meantime, however, she had other issues to contend with. Not that the war with the gnomes and its possible ‘solutions’ weren’t in her thoughts, she worried about it a lot, really. But she also had a lot of things to deal with.
The victory on Ins-On-A-Rock had freed her to concentrate more on her duties again, even while she kept an eye on what was going on in the captured city. Managing it was not a trivial task; there were a lot of gnomes living there, even though they found obvious evidence of evacuations ahead of the battle. Luckily, there were still food stores, so they didn’t have to worry about the civilians starving, but with commerce with other cities currently completely broken, the economy would struggle, to put it mildly. The Gnomish Confederation was interconnected. And that didn’t even mention the fact that its economy had been shifted to support the war, too.
Well, at least they had captured some weapons and could inspect their defenses, or what remained of them. Neralt and his associates would probably be quite interested in interviewing what remained of the leadership of the city, although Regina didn’t intend to leave that kind of thing solely to his efforts. But it was going to help in getting actionable intelligence for fighting the war on a tactical level, too.
Fortunately, she had people for handling all the details. Instead, Regina had to oversee the Empire’s domestic affairs, too. At the moment, she was focused on building up the ministries and departments they’d outlined, finding the right people to work with and giving them the resources they needed. It was a challenging but rewarding task. And then there was the new capital they were building. With architects found and brought on board, plans were being made and preparations continued apace. It was going to require a lot of people working on it, but recruitment was going well, too, and the first part had already started.
With all of that, Regina still had more personal business to attend to, too. Well, maybe not personal, it wasn’t like it wasn’t politically important. But she was, as far as she knew, still the best doctor they had (the only doctor, a part of her whispered), and she would make time for treating the worst injured people especially from the gnomes’ war. And then, of course, there was Florance, whose care she’d agreed to oversee. Finally, after a rather long wait, it was about time for her baby to come, which meant Regina’s time was required here as well.
Florance had been given quarters close to Kiara’s, as queen mother of Cernlia, but she was always close to the healers. Several of the hive’s, largely Attendants and their Evolution options, were here as well, and they kept an eye on her. Regina knew the situation was still awkward. June was gone most of the time, which might actually be a good thing. She still made sure the girl was notified when it happened, so she could be here for the birth of her brother if she wanted to.
When Florance went into labor, Reign cleared her schedule and went to check up on her. She’d already made sure they had a set of the best tools they could make, but she was thorough in preparing everything. “It’s possible we will need to do a Cesarean section,” she told Florance. “I don’t believe so, but we won’t be sure until later. It’s best to be prepared just in case. For now, the baby seems to be doing just fine.” She took half a step back once she was finished checking on her patient and no longer needed the physical contact, then disinfected her hands again out of habit.
They had set up one of the rooms assigned to healing, currently converted into a rough approximation of a labor ward. She had all the tools she might need. There was also enough space for visitors and anxious family members.
“Good to know, Your Majesty,” Florance gritted out.
Regina nodded. She knew this would take hours, and she wasn’t going to hover all the time. She could at least use the psychic link to get some other things done. For now, she discussed the options for painkillers she could give the lady, knowing she would definitely have to increase them later, and encouraged her to move around a bit.
“I see no cause for concern from a medical standpoint at all, Lady Florance,” she reassured her. “Do me one favor, though.”
“Your Majesty?”
Regina smiled a bit. “Don’t name him after his father.” We don’t need one more Nicholas of Cernlia with a claim to the throne, right?
Florance laughed reluctantly. “I suppose there have been enough of those in this family,” she agreed with suppressed amusement and a bit of exasperation Regina could sense.
They were pretty quiet for most of the following hours. Regina checked in and split her attention between her patients and the psychic link. The former marquis was not here. Kiara had apparently not allowed him, and to be fair, he didn’t seem all that eager, either. Probably more gendered stereotypes about this not being a place for men (unless he just didn’t want to face his daughters.) Kiara herself was here, and June showed up pretty quickly, too. She had just walked in when Regina decided to get some more confirmation about one detail.
“So, Lady Florance,” she began. “Are there any more effects you have not yet mentioned that I should be aware of, with this?”
“You’re asking me?” Florance narrowed her eyes. “Aren’t you supposed to be the doctor? Milady.”
“Yes, but I’m not the healer who slowed down your pregnancy.”
She blinked. “You -“ she stopped and hissed lowly, hit by another contraction.
“It’s rather obvious, I knew you were already several months pregnant when you came to us, but it proceeded well from there, and that kind of thing doesn’t happen without professional intervention.” Regina had studied healing magic and associated Classes and Class Skills. It certainly wasn’t something Florance should have been able to do herself.
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“She didn’t say anything about it,” Florance admitted after a moment. “She was the third healer I sought out to try and help, to prevent complications and make sure I carried the baby to term.” This time, she didn’t say. “They weren’t very useful. But she said slowing it down would increase the chances a little.”
Regina nodded. “It did give your body a little more chance to adjust. It also increased the time window for accidents or other things to go wrong, so I wouldn’t have done it, but we’re past that now. We’ll proceed normally from here, though. Let me check.” She laid her hands on her stomach again and focused on her magic. It wasn’t an ultrasound, but that was fine. “Good, the little guy is still laying ideally, we won’t have to adjust anything.”
“Thank the gods,” Florance breathed out.
Regina waited a little longer, keeping a close eye on her patient, to make sure everything was going well. She gave it a little nudge with her magic once, making sure the baby was properly getting on course for his big entrance, but it was fine. “You’re doing very well. I’ll give you a slight magical numbing of the pain, but I don’t want to numb your sensations entirely,” she told Florance. “Are you alright with that?”
“Please do. I can take it.”
Regina nodded and focused her magic on the correct afferent nerves, leaning on them just a bit. I’m really glad I don’t have to put up with all this pain and bother all the time, she thought, shuddering internally at the thought of going through a typical pregnancy with her drones. Hivekind biology could be a pain, but at least it wasn’t that.
“You can do this, mother,” Kiara encouraged, taking her hands. “We’ll have a little boy in the family in no time.”
“Yeah. Regina is not going to let anything bad happen,” June added.
Regina suppressed a snort and kept monitoring it. She appreciated the faith in her skills, but she wasn’t sure that was the best track to take. Instead, she just made sure they were prepared, though.
“Now you just focus on pushing,” she said soothingly. “Keep breathing deeply.”
The rest of the birth was just a lot of worrying, pain and blood. Regina wasn’t sure she had ever attended to one before, but she knew what to do. She monitored Florance’s condition, ensured the baby was fine, and was thankful it was a pretty easy birth after all, with minimal need for medical intervention. She didn’t even need to consider surgery. Instead, she helped get the baby out, checked him over and cut the umbilical cord, before giving a more in-depth check with her magical senses. He started screaming like a banshee. Regina handed him off to Kiara and returned to focus on Florance. “A perfectly healthy baby boy,” she reassured her as she dealt with the afterbirth.
Florance had tears in her eyes as she accepted her son from Kiara, staring at him like she was afraid he would be taken away any second.
Regina cleared her throat. “I will heal you a little, but you still need rest and plenty of hydration. Give your body time to recover.“
June held the baby while Regina healed Florance, making sure her body would deal with the blood loss and trauma, then gave it back to her. “What’s his name?” she asked.
Florance huffed. “Well, I was considering naming him after our generous patron —“
“Please don’t,” June interrupted. Regina winced as well.
“What? Why?” Kiara asked.
“The male version of Regina is Rex,” June explained, “which means ‘king’. Seems like you might not like that name, sister.”
“Also used to be a typical name for a dog,” Regina mumbled quietly. She had to stifle a chuckle. It would be a very ironic name, considering all the succession struggles.
“So,” Florance continued in a tone of tired patience, “I decided to name him after an inspiring historical figure. Say hello to Robin Luis Lyns.”
Regina listened to his sisters coo over the baby and looked him over once again. Robin Luis had small wisps of dark hair and baby-blue eyes that might turn into any other color with time. He was pink and upset and kind of cute in a very squished way. “A fine name,” she decided, nodding at Florance. “Pretty short and sweet.”
June glanced at her and smirked. “Not everyone needs to have four given names, Master.”
Regina gasped theatrically. “Oh, really? Whatever will I do with the rest of mine?”
Kiara chuckled, then looked like she wanted to add something, but didn’t. Regina figured Florance had chosen the name for political reasons, obviously, but she couldn’t help but be a little touched.
Instead, she just asked to hold the baby again and perform some routine tests. She weighed him and measured his height, both solidly in the healthy range, and checked that his breathing was clear of obstructions. Then she checked his immune system, what there was of it. Normally, she would have administered some vaccinations to babies, but they hadn’t come that far yet. She’d just have to rely on her magic.
“There is one thing you should note,” she said, keeping her tone calm.
Clearly, it was still enough to alert the family. They all stilled and turned to her. “Is it something bad?” Kiara asked, her eyebrows drawing together.
“Not necessarily. First of all, the boy’s got magic. It’s not much yet, obviously, but he’ll develop a proper mana well with time and be able to choose a corresponding Class in the future.”
They nodded. That wasn’t particularly unexpected considering both his sisters were talented with magic. “I’m not seeing the bad news yet,” June said.
“His mana is … slightly weird. I assume it has to do with Lady Florance’s experiences,” she said with a glance at her, shaking her head. “It feels a bit like the twisted mana I’ve encountered before.”
Florance sucked in a sharp breath. “How bad is it?” she asked urgently. “Is it going to harm him? What can we do?”
Regina raised a hand calmingly. “It shouldn’t harm him,” she said. “A person can clearly live with that kind of mana. Just look at Galatea, it’s arguably similar for her but much more intense, and she’s basically made of mana. It won’t even be like June, I think. I will be monitoring the boy, of course, but it doesn’t seem to be a problem. If he’s literally born with it, his body should be able to handle it. If any other symptoms do manifest, we can teach him to manage it.”
They all nodded with varying levels of relief or doubt. June seemed the most concerned, unsurprisingly. “He won’t get sick like me?” she asked quietly.
Regina shrugged slightly, careful not to jostle the baby she still held. “I doubt it. If he does, we can handle it.”
They all let the silence build for a minute, while Regina gave them time to digest this. She handed the baby off to June again, who looked down at him with a complicated look on her face.
“It’s going to be fine,” Kiara finally said, nodding decisively. “We’re just going to need to be a bit careful, but he’s part of the family, and he’ll have access to the best healers if it comes to that. For now, Mother needs rest. And we should announce the birth of the new prince. I’ve already ordered a nursery set up, in the east wing. June helped, of course. And I know you offered to let him stay with the hive, Regina, we appreciate that and I’ll come back to it later.”
Florance gasped, her eyes flying from her newborn to Kiara as she stiffened. “No. Please, daughter — my Queen —“
Kiara blinked and leaned forward to catch one of her hands in hers. “Mother, calm yourself, that’s not what I meant. I wasn’t going to separate him from you. The nursery is just opposite your rooms, and I thought you would visit the hive with him. I am not going to force you to do anything.”
Florance visibly relaxed, wilting back into the bed. “Of course. I’m sorry, Kiara, I just …”
“It’s been a tense time for everyone,” June said, handing her little brother back to their mother, who clearly made an effort not to clutch at him too tightly. The little boy just slept through it all.
This family really still needed to work out their issues, Regina thought. Well, at least they seemed to be off to a good start. She wasn’t going to get involved. Well, not unless I really need to, Regina considered. She’d make that clear to them too. But she rather doubted she would.