The city of Veragles was big. Bigger by far than Cera or Nerlia-city, from what he’d heard. It was probably even bigger than the gnomish capital, whose name Tim always found difficult to pronounce. People were crammed together in the inner parts of the city and houses sprawled outwards like a massive, constantly shifting carpet made of brick, stone and wood in the outer parts. It made him almost glad Regina wasn’t here, he didn’t know how his mother would have dealt with the hive of humanity (pun totally intended) that was this place.

From what he’d heard, it was one of the biggest cities in the lands south of the mountains, but Tim still found it faintly remarkable that there were several others as big or bigger than this.

Not that it would have been anything to write home about in the old world. At the end, Vienna had sprawled over a much larger area and had a population in the eight digits, according to Regina’s faint memory and Galatea’s data.

Still, the fact that this area tended towards big cities was an interesting data point. For one thing, he suspected it had to do with the city’s relative proximity to the mountains, which housed lots of scary monsters. Building tall walls and huddling close together was an obvious response for the people living here. It did also have an impact on the political structure, though.

Unlike the cities he’d thought to compare this to, Veragles wasn’t a capital or even a large city of a large nation. It was the center of its own city-state. It also wasn’t a monarchy, at least not really. The patricians of the city elected a prince to rule over them for a given amount of time, usually a few years — when someone wasn’t trying to undermine the system or attempting a coup and declaring himself Prince for life, which had happened a few times — but they were usually more of a figurehead, from what Tim gathered.

It meant there was a shifting array of factions, usually merchant princes who got rich off trade, who really determined the politics of the city. And this meant that Tim was the guest of only one of those factions, rather than the city as a whole. Oh, they made an attempt at recognizing his status as an ambassador to the entire city-state (and others), and he’d been approached by several nobles of other factions. Still, in truth Archmage Lucian had grasped the opportunity to make connections to his people, more than anything.

Which would be fine, Tim supposed, if it didn’t also feel a little like the Archmage was using him for his own political ends. And by extension, using the Empire and his Hive Queen. Maybe that was just a fact of life when it came to diplomacy, he just found it a little difficult to tell where the line ought to be.

At least Lucian was a gracious host, who’d quartered him and his party in his (very richly appointed) mansion in the city and was helping them attend parties and diplomatic events across the city; even planning one of his own to, ostensibly, introduce Tim and help his goal of forging diplomatic connections.

It should have been a nice vacation from the war. In some ways, it was.

They’d been here for a number of days now and Tim could say he’d made progress. Trade talks with several merchant princes, even discussions with religious and cultural leaders, and he’d impressed some of the more martially inclined grands of the city in a duel.

In retrospect, fighting that duel just because someone had made some comments about Janis might be a bit much, but at least he wouldn’t be insulting her in the future. Tim had made certain of that (deadly certain, one might say). And he’d been looking for an opportunity to show off, not because he wanted to, but because he sensed it might help them get taken seriously.

It therefore didn’t surprise him that people now acted more sanguine about his desire to go out into the city and see the people. He knew they wouldn’t get to decide anything of political importance, but being shut off in the mansions of the wealthy and the elite wouldn’t get him a real picture of what was going on in the city. It didn’t take a genius to see how far removed they were from the common citizens.

And Tim enjoyed being out and about. Walking down the streets with a few companions, taking in the street criers and looking at the graffiti decorating some stone houses, getting some street food from vendors. It was surprisingly good, a bit spicier than he was used to from Cernlia. It spoke of trade routes stretching to and across the Mediterranean Sea and perhaps further. He was glad they’d managed to discreetly change some of the gold they’d brought for local currency.

Obviously, Tim and his companions attracted a lot of stares, though. He was currently accompanied by only one other drone, Ash, as well as Anuis and several of the humans. The city actually had a substantial population of non-humans from what he could see, but they clearly belonged to different races and there was no one even close to a Hivekind. He did see some dwarves and other demihumans and even a few elves, though.

“Have you talked to others of your people?” he asked Anuis in a murmur, leaning closer to her.

She raised an eyebrow. “I assume you mean other members of my race. The Free State has had little interaction with other elvish nations in the past centuries. But yes, I’ve talked to a few of them.”

Tim nodded. “Sorry, I meant no offense. But yes. What did you find out? Is our information on their locations accurate?”

“Yes. Most of their settlements seem to be city-states not too different from Ariedel, though smaller. They are also more accustomed to traveling outside their borders, and there is some trade and occasional migration between the cities and other nations.”

“And they have not had a war in a while, right?” he asked, to ensure the information they had was up to date.

“A bit over a century, yes.” Anuis paused as she dodged around a street vendor who’d gotten a bit too aggressive, then carried on the conversation. “As it happens, I’ve been invited to a ceremony three days from now. This one is exclusive to elves, I’m afraid.”

Tim nodded. He was aware that Anuis was the only one, at least of this current group, not from the Empire. He couldn’t really give orders to her. Her country was an ally, sure, and it was probably a lot weaker relatively speaking so they would be polite, but it still wasn’t the same. The elves were probably looking for allies here as well. In principle, his Queen didn’t mind that.

The Delvers also had representatives in the city, and he’d sent — or more like allowed — several of their party to go to them to make contact already. He wasn’t entirely sure where they stood politically. Tim figured that if they were skeptical, he and his companions could probably convince them that Regina was the real deal. Assuming they gave them a chance at all, he supposed.

Considering the diversity of the city’s population, he didn’t think they’d be hardcore human supremacists in this city, anyway. Well, he supposed it could have gone in the other direction if they felt threatened and dug their heels in ideologically, but the information they did have indicated such hardliners were in the minority here. Of course, that didn’t mean the local Delvers were necessarily all for equality, either. It seemed like they’d be perfectly fine with demihumans and nonhumans being second-class citizens, at best. The Delvers in the Central European Empire had moved away from such a stance, but he had to remind himself that the rest of the world wasn’t the same.

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It explained some of the looks they got as they moved about the streets now. He knew most of those were probably just due to curiosity, but there was definitely a bit of a hostile edge to them from some people. It seemed directed more at him and Ash than Anuis, though. Maybe just because they looked less humanoid. It reminded Tim vaguely of when they’d fled the monster horde and sought shelter in Forest’s Haunt, not memories he liked to revisit. At least no one actually accosted them.

“Sir Eduard? Sir Tirias?” someone called out to them.

Tim turned around, watching a man he immediately pegged as a Delver, given the armor, and of course the fact that he knew his party members.

“And you must be Lord Tim Starlit, right? Very pleased to meet you.”

Tim smiled back, discreetly checking the guy’s System notification. A level 45 Paladin, and the name sounded familiar from what they had mentioned. “Sir Welds, a pleasure to meet you as well,” he returned the greeting, deciding to let the name he’d called him pass.

The others made their greetings as well and he clasped hands with the two Delvers and nodded to Anuis and Ash.

“How are you finding the city?”

“It’s a bit bigger than I thought,” Tim said honestly, “but quite interesting. I enjoy the atmosphere. And the climate, to be honest.”

Welds laughed politely. He commented on the nice day and the weather patterns of the area. They made small talk for a few minutes, moving around so they didn’t block the street. It was a busy one, though, so this still wasn’t the best spot for a chat.

“Well, I won’t keep you for long,” the Delver finally said. “I hope to continue our conversation this evening, though.”

“I’d be glad to see you there, I’m looking forward to it,” Tim agreed.

Welds finally looked serious for a moment. “I am not certain if it was on your initiative, but I hope you know Lord Lier invited the gnomish ambassador as well?”

Tim’s smile stiffened and his eyes tightened a bit despite himself. He hadn’t known that. “Thank you for telling me, Sir Welds,” he replied. “It will be handled.”

Welds nodded and made his goodbyes. Tim waited until he had gone out of sight before he sighed and turned to the others. “It looks like we have something to prepare for.”

“I didn’t know the Gnomish Confederation even had an ambassador here,” Ash muttered.

“From what I heard, it’s not a permanent post,” Tirias said. “But they must have been looking for allies since the war turned against them.” He looked at Tim. “We will find out what we can.”

Tim nodded. “Let’s continue, we can speak about this later.”

They kept walking through the city, but a lot of the enjoyment had drained out of it at the reminder of the political situation and the stakes. It also didn’t help that they quickly left the more well-to-do parts of the city behind and ventured to the borders of the poorer areas. The distinction was noticeable, the houses were clearly of inferior construction, the people’s clothes dirtier and there were too many homeless or disabled begging for alms. Of course, any number of them would have been too many.

The others seemed to share his sentiments, and they didn’t extend their trip. Tim led the way back to their host’s villa and then started preparing for the gala that evening. Not that he needed a lot of preparation to make himself presentable, it wasn’t like he had to take hours to do his hair or makeup. They’d managed to piece together something that served as a dress uniform, made in the styles the Empire would be using for their new military. It had a very ‘nineteenth century’ look, at least according to those of his siblings who were more interesting in things like that. He was just glad they’d prepared for it. The cut of the jacket, shirt and trousers was certainly more modern. The color scheme was kept dark, with silver stripes down the sides of the pants and gold braid and epaulettes on the jacket. He also wore his sword.

Tim met up with the rest of his people before they made their entrance. He thought they all looked pretty good, but this wasn’t exactly his area of expertise. More importantly, it gave them a chance to touch base again before they joined the party.

The gala was housed in the ballroom of the estate, which had been prettied up for the occasion. Tim didn’t spare it much attention, though, focusing instead on the people present. There were a lot of guests, mostly humans but some other races as well. As Tim slowly made his way into the room, he scanned the crowd and finally caught sight of a small group of gnomes in fancy clothes talking to several local nobles.

Tim noted their position and then ignored them, instead turning to introduce himself and make small talk with the gathered people. Most of them he’d seen before at one of the other gatherings he’d attended, but some were new. Unsurprisingly, their interest seemed about evenly split between his exotic Hivekind status and the rumors about the Hive and the Hive Queen, and trade opportunities with the Empire.

Trade would still be difficult even with a route scouted out through the mountains, but he didn’t let that discourage him. Trade could also mean books or information rather than high-volume goods. Besides, their Conjuration ability allowed them to provide quite a few things the people here might want. He hinted at that fact throughout several conversations and found tentative interest.

Finally, Tim found himself facing an important guest he hadn’t met yet, the Prince of the city. The man didn’t look like much, a slight middle-aged guy in expensive clothes, but he had managed to keep power here for years, so there must be more to him. Tim bowed shallowly and offered his greetings.

“A pleasure to meet you as well, Sir Tim! Or is it Lord?” the Prince asked jovially.

Tim smiled as pleasantly as he could manage. “My people don’t really use either title, but I’ve been called both, Milord.”

“Naturally you would, as Champion of the Empire! Your people’s emergence and the founding of your new nation have been watched with great interest, Lord Tim, great interest. I understand you had a part to play as well?”

“I may have led a few battles,” Tim replied. “But the credit belongs to all of us and our allies.”

“Don’t you mean subjects?” another voice joined in. Tim turned to see that the gnomish ambassador had chosen to show his face.

He’d known it would be a male, since their cultural expectations were for men to be masters of the social field, which would include diplomacy. Tim was still a bit surprised to see the gnome wearing a military uniform, though.

“No, I did mean allies, Colonel,” he replied calmly, nodding at the man. “Technically we are all subjects of the Empress, of course, but that was hardly the case before the country’s founding, and she is determined to maintain their liberty and cultural identity even when the people chose to join the Central European Empire.”

“Of course,” the gnome said sarcastically, “Cernlia and Nerlia were known for individual freedom, were they? Or am I confusing something?”

Tim kept his smile. “At least Mother’s new laws are giving them personal liberty now. And it’s funny you should say that, Colonel. Considering the tyranny of the Gnomish Confederation’s regime. At least we are moving towards securing civil rights, not away from them.”

“That’s right,” the Prince interrupted, “the Hive Queen is your mother, isn’t she? Your family must be rather large. How many siblings do you have again, Sir Tim?”

“I’m sure some were born after I left, so I really couldn’t give you an exact number, my Prince.” Tim’s facial muscles were starting to complain from keeping his smile fixed on his face.

“A single parent with this many offspring, could you ever raise children in such an environment?” the gnome shook his head.

“That’s assuming everyone must be raised by one person, what a narrow-minded view. We actually have a system in place to guide and mentor newly born drones …” Tim explained briefly about their mentorship.

“How interesting! And did you have such an older sibling to raise you, Sir Tim?”

“Actually not, my Prince. I am the Empress’ second-born son, you see, so it came after my time and I was taught directly by her.” Tim grinned a bit wider and hoped he managed to underscore the difference in rank regarding who each country sent.

“Marvelous! I’ve also heard Hivekind have a unique palate. Come, let us try the appetizers and you can give me your opinion on our local cuisine.”

The Prince of Veragles somehow managed to touch Tim’s arm and turn him away from the conversation to lead him toward the snack table without seeming to exclude the gnome, although he definitely did. Tim grinned and bore it. He was fine with local food so far. And he knew this probably wouldn’t be his last time trading barbs with the gnomish ambassador, but at least it felt like he’d scored a point. And now he had the ear of the Prince for at least a few minutes.

What he didn’t do for the sake of the Hive, he mused.