Regina ran a hand over her face, taking the moment to cover her eyes and expression. Then she let it drop again, her gaze still fixed on the motionless form of the drone in front of her.

Ash was covered with a large sheet of cloth, although she had turned over a corner of it to look at his face. It looked peaceful, far more so than it should, given what had happened.

They would be building pyres once the immediate issues were settled. He, however, would not burn among them. When she listened very closely, she could still make out the faint rasp of his breath. Not that she needed to. His presence in her psychic link was awfully quiet, but it was still there. It hadn’t gone out completely.

They had lost quite a few War Drones, again, and she’d run herself ragged and exhausted all of her mana healing the others and her people. Regina was thankful to whatever higher powers there might be that she hadn’t lost any more of her sapient drones. Of her … children.

She’d even considered offering a prayer to Alianais, briefly. Then she’d discarded the idea.

Now, Regina took a step back, checking over Ash again. She had healed his serious wounds, at least as well as she could. His torso had been a bit of a mess of blood and other things, but someone had cleaned him up since, and there was little sign of it remaining. She wasn’t sure about his internal injuries, however. I still only have Basic Heal. Basic. It’s an unpleasant reminder that I can and will need to upgrade it further.

The elves had laid him into some kind of bush-and-flowers-based healing constellation, which had put him into this deep sleep and slowed down any further deterioration. She hoped he’d keep healing and wake up soon.

For now, though, she couldn’t afford to spare the time. Regina sighed and turned around, stepping away from him and towards the center of the newly taken village.

In the light of dawn, it looked more alive than before, but also, well, not so great. Any fires that might have started in the fight had quickly been put out, luckily, but some houses did sustain damage due to the effects of other Skills and magic. Not that they had had many mages here, those were probably at the castle.

“He’s going to be alright, my Queen,” Max murmured. “Are we going to sort out things here now?”

Regina gave him a sideways glance and nodded. He wasn’t that close with the younger Scout, but she knew Max cared about the other drones, and they’d trained together some. “I need to meet with Anuis and the others, but it might be best to include the baron and maybe the rest of the local leadership somewhat.” Carefully, of course.

Max nodded and kept walking beside her as Regina continued on. She took the time to examine her surroundings critically. Some of the villagers had apparently grown brave enough to venture out of their homes now. She saw several of them talking with elves or hive drones, who were clearly making an effort to be nice and approachable. Good, that was how things should be. No point in upsetting the inhabitants any more than they had to, especially since good relations would probably still be valuable to have.

Regina also took the time to focus on the System screens she had put aside previously, now that she finally had a spare minute to deal with them and consider them in detail instead of just taking a quick glance.

Congratulations, you have unlocked a new Template: Drone Attendant

Nice. It had been a while since she saw any of those messages, although that was probably just because it took quite a few levels to get a new Template. Seven or so? She could sit down and figure it out later. She wasn’t entirely sure what the new type would do. It would probably be a worker type, judging by the previous unlocks, but that might not mean much.

Then there was the next message, one that brought a pleased grin to her face.

You may select a Spell. You can use a Spellbook, learn a Spell from a teacher or other source of information, or pick one from the list below: Spark, Magic Missile, Firebolt, Basic Conjuration, Basic Heal,

Magic Armor, Heat Vision, Expand Senses, Physical Augmentation, Water Manipulation, Earth Manipulation, Haste, Fire Manipulation

Regina frowned thoughtfully. She’d been hoping to get another Spell for a while now, but she wasn’t sure what to pick. It might be time to finally go for a physical or buffing type spell, but on the other hand, upgrading her existing ones had proved to be a great choice last time. She mentally focused on the ones she already possessed and poked them slightly.

Basic Heal was kind of vibrating in that odd sense, but she couldn’t get it to do more than that. She could tell that she wouldn’t be able to upgrade it yet, but hopefully soon. Maybe next time. Magic Missile was also ready to be upgraded, but what caught her attention was Firebolt. When she focused on it, it shifted and the characters became Fireball. Regina couldn’t help but smile as she looked at the words. Such a classic. She’d wanted to throw fireballs since she learned she could actually use magic now.

It would likely be good for area effect damage, something she didn’t really have much of yet. But something she could probably use, the way things were going. But if things went true to form, it might also use a lot of mana, and might be overkill in some situations.

Regina shook her head and elected to shelve the decision. She had other things to worry about, and it wouldn’t hurt to try out a new Spell later. Although she should definitely find some time to slip away as soon as possible. She’d not had any eggs developing during the fight, except for a few Winged Drones, which should be ready soon. She probably should have waited with them, considering the full two-day incubation period meant she hadn’t been able to use them in the fight and had needed her mana regeneration. She still didn’t want to tax it too much, but at least trying the new Template was important, especially since it would still take a few days for the first drone to hatch.

“Is everything alright, my Queen?” Max asked.

Regina blinked. She’d been too caught up in thought. The fact that she’d barely gotten any sleep and was still exhausted probably didn’t help. The last of the screens could wait. “Sure, I just got a few new System notifications.” She quickly explained what she’d read so far.

Max was grinning broadly by the time she was finished. He was always excited when she got new goodies and the hive grew.

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Regina didn’t leave him any time to celebrate, though, but quickly continued on her way to where she was going in the first place. Luckily, she saw the baron not too far away, apparently talking to Bianorn. Several other humans were also there.

“Lady Regina,” the elf spoke up first as she joined them. “Commander Anuis has sent word that she’s coming here soon. If it’s convenient for you, we should hold a meeting then.”

Regina nodded. She probably should have checked in more, but she didn’t currently have any sapient drones close to Anuis, anyway.

She still took a dive through the psychic hive link, looking through a few War Drones’ eyes as well. It didn’t take her long to spot Anuis, who seemed to be jogging towards the village with a few other people in tow. They had apparently crossed the river without using the bridge at some point. She looked good, the few bloody cuts she’d had when Regina last saw her through Tim’s eyes apparently healed. Speaking of, Regina decided to check on Tim, as well. He was still in the castle, somewhat injured, but he’d taken charge of the drones there and was currently picking through the rubble that had been part of the castle’s walls.

Come here as well, Regina told him. Then I can heal you and you can join in this discussion.

She sensed the echo of conflicting emotions from Tim, relief and reluctance. As you wish, my Queen, he answered.

It didn’t take long for Anuis and her group to arrive. They were moving much more quickly than normal humans would have been able to, which probably meant they had enough stat points in Str and maybe Dex. It also wasn’t a very large distance, anyway.

“Good morning!” Anuis greeted them when she arrived, smiling at Regina. At first, the elf seemed almost uncharacteristically cheerful to her. Then Regina realized it was probably something to do with surviving the battle, coming down off the excitement and adrenaline.

She returned the greeting, as did a few others. “Century Captain Anuis,” the baron greeted her. “So, you are the one in charge?”

“It’s Three Century Commander now,” the elf replied. “And yes, I am leading the elvish forces here, Baron Neralt. Allow me to apologize, on a personal level, for the disruption and damage. Unfortunately, the war has little consideration for such things.”

The human noble nodded. Regina couldn’t help but notice he was treating the elf quite respectfully. She didn’t know if that was because of Anuis’ rank or her Class and level. From what she could gather, she suspected the baron’s own Class probably wasn’t focused on combat, despite the name, at least not primarily. “You are not wrong about that, unfortunately,” he responded.

Regina returned her focus to Anuis, who was looking at her right now. Their gazes met, and she saw Anuis nod slightly, her expression tighter around the eyes than you would think if you only focused on her smile. Regina felt like they passed some unspoken understanding in that moment.

While the baron might be friendly enough, and they really didn’t want to cause him problems just because, he was still on the side of their enemies. A nation that was at war with Anuis’ people and at least allied to one which had sent soldiers to attack Regina’s. It would be a mistake to trust him, or any other human here, too far.

“Have we seen any response from outside yet?” she asked.

“Possibly, but it is hard to say,” Bianorn answered. He glanced at Neralt before turning back to speak to Anuis and Regina. “No one has yet tried to get close to this village or the fort. However, we can assume that the local governmental base has at least some information.”

Regina nodded. “They probably know about the attack, or at least that something happened. You did send a message out, didn’t you, baron?”

Neralt didn’t look happy to be asked the question. “You will understand if I will not give you information on such things, I hope.”

“Of course, your loyalty is commendable,” Anuis said. She didn’t put much feeling into her words, though. “But we did find several devices in the castle that I am quite sure served some kind of alarm and communication function. Of course, we destroyed the obvious communication device as soon as we could.”

Regina nodded and hid a smile. That part went well, at least. From what she had learned, while magic made communication over larger distances possible, it was nowhere near what you might get with an Internet, or telephones, or maybe even good old radio communication. It was mana-expensive and didn’t exactly have a large bandwidth or allow for long messages. She also wasn’t sure if it was at the speed of light or not, since apparently no one had measured it very accurately. It would be hard to coordinate the time used between locations far enough away, she supposed.

“Baron Neralt,” she turned to him, “I am not sure if you still have any means of communicating with your lord or others outside this village. If you do, feel free to relay everything that has happened and everything we are saying now. I do not want to be your enemy, or your march’s enemy. I would prefer some kind of amicable relationship. However, the situation would not allow me to simply sit still and allow more and more enemies to come to me until one finally managed to destroy my hive, so here we are.”

“Not our enemy, but the kingdom’s?” he asked, tilting his head slightly and raising an eyebrow. The question sounded not quite mocking, but maybe sardonic.

“Perhaps,” Regina replied, taking care to keep her tone calm and even. “The kingdom of Cernlia is allied to the kingdom of Nerlia, which not only wages war against our friends, the elves, but has also attacked me and my hive before. I’m not saying we can’t have peace, but I won’t simply lay down and let them do whatever they like.”

“Quite reasonable,” Anuis commented. Of course, none of what she’d said would be a surprise to her, although Anuis presumably knew that, while Regina hadn’t lied, she’d obviously said these things to send a particular message.

“So, you raided our village to show that you are to be taken seriously?” Neralt asked.

“Not really, no. I wouldn’t call it a raid, first of all.”

The baron glanced around, and Regina saw his eyes widened slightly as he seemed to realize something. “You’re going to stay here?”

Regina smiled. “I don’t intend to make this a hardship for your village, Lord Neralt. I will come and heal any of the villagers who need it. You live close to a forest of monsters and do hard physical labor, I’m sure there will be quite a few cases. Then I and my hive also intend to help out in other ways. We won’t let anyone starve even if the harvest might not turn out well, if it comes to that, and we’ll help your infrastructure and various other areas that need it.”

“And you will also defend yourselves against any attacks that might come,” Anuis commented.

Regina inclined her head. “Of course.” Attacking the village was one thing. Defending a somewhat fortified position on an open field? Completely different matter. Especially since many of her drones had gained more levels recently, and they thus had more options.

Baron Neralt glanced between her and Anuis. He looked like he wasn’t quite sure what to think, but also wished this wasn’t his problem.

“Actually, I had a few questions for you,” Regina told Anuis. She glanced back at the baron. “Perhaps you might want to go and tell your men what you have heard?”

He looked at her for a moment, before he nodded his head and turned around. “Of course, Lady Regina.”

She watched him walk away, knowing she had just seen him bow to her authority, kind of, for the first time.

“What did you want to ask?” Anuis queried. “How we typically deal with captured enemy combatants?”

“Oh, right. No, but we should definitely talk about that later. I wanted to ask you about Spells. Specifically, if I upgrade a Spell I already have, do I lose access to the previous version?”

Anuis raised an eyebrow. “Yes and no,” she answered. “One will only rarely keep the Spell in one’s System list of Spells, but it should be possible to use the more primitive version. Sometimes, this simply means casting it with less mana expenditure and a smaller effect, if the upgraded Spell is a direct improvement of its kind. Other times, you should still be able to use the mana pattern you first learned to cast the original Spell.”

Regina nodded. “Great, thank you. And do you happen to know anything about specific Spells? Say, Fireball?”

Now, Anuis started smiling slightly. “Fireball is a respected tool on the battlefield. It has a much wider area of effect that your Firebolt, and skilled wielders are also able to focus or spread out the fire.”

Regina grinned. “Great.” This obviously told Anuis what Spell she wanted to pick, but it wasn’t like she wouldn’t have seen it in action anyway. With her questions answered, Regina didn’t waste time. She called up the System message again and selected Fireball.

Now I can call myself a proper mage, right? She grinned inwardly.