In the end, it wasn’t as bad as Regina had been afraid of. Her hive was important for the Empire, but there were still only a few thousand sapient drones, a veritable drop in the bucket compared to the country’s population, and the government largely didn’t rely on them. And there were other ways of communicating.

  Besides, they had been at peace. While there had been some concern at losing access to quick communication with more outlying regions, nothing had really been urgent enough to impact the stability of the Empire as a whole. Fortunately.

  The bigger problem really might have been everyone’s panic at Regina’s seeming disappearance. She was lucky she’d returned without too long a wait and that the drones had been able to let everyone know right away.

  Ultimately, Regina wrote it all off as a stress test for their new system and tasked a few people with going through the reports to find and evaluate ways of mitigating such things in the future, before she returned to her regularly scheduled work.

  One good thing had come of it from a personal perspective: Janis had returned to the Empire proper and was going to stay for a while. She’d already been underway when she realized that Regina was back. Then she’d offered to return to the Gnomish Confederation straight away, but Regina had told her to keep going. They didn’t strictly need Janis there anymore, and she could probably use some time at home with her family and her girlfriend. A good ruler makes sure to keep her vassals happy, after all. Kiara should thank me.

  Not that she had put it in those terms, of course.

  Two days later, Regina and Janis were sitting together in the inner garden again, going over another bit of Imperial business that Regina had decided she should be involved in. There was no psychic training right now, and June was busy with other things, while a few of the students lingered on the other side of the garden and Regina could sense Madris keeping a discreet eye on their efforts. She only checked in briefly, though, before returning her attention to the matter at hand. And her heir, who couldn’t seem to decide whether she looked happy to be here or annoyed at the paperwork.

  “The alliance won’t be official until we’ve sent this back, then?” she asked, gesticulating with a stack of pages. It was one of two copies of the treaty, though not the official version. Ira had written this down for them from the information in the psychic link.

  “Yes, I’ll wait for the paper copies to arrive, sign them and send two back and then we’re official,” Regina nodded. “The dwarves wanted something more concrete as assurance, not just a verbal agreement. And they probably wanted to be extra sure the agreement the diplomats worked out was going to be valid, I guess.”

  Janis pulled a face and read through it again. “You gave them a lot of leeway, then.”

  Regina shrugged. “It was the only way. I wanted this to be done quickly and we couldn’t wait to arrange a summit or anything. Besides, this is all fine. And as soon as the paperwork is properly in order, we’ll have their help expanding the road project.”

  “I can see why they and the gnomes don’t like each other, they’re far too similar,” Janis muttered.

  Regina snorted. But she wasn’t wrong. She wouldn’t have expected dwarves, of all races, to be sticklers for proper bureaucracy, but apparently that was the case. She supposed it made some sense for a people dealing with a precarious position like theirs in the southern lands; not having their paperwork properly in order could be a vulnerability to be exploited.

  "You didn’t give them the same kind of deal as the gnomes,” Janis noted after a moment. “There is no requirement to join the Empire at any point.”

  “No,” Regina said. “They also didn’t attack us or openly try to wipe out my people at any point. I’m hopeful for a closer relationship, and if they want to join later, I’d definitely welcome it, but I’m fine if they don’t become citizens of the Empire. I’m not going to force them into it.”

  Janis nodded, smiling slightly. She read through the paper for a minute longer, then put it aside. “We will need to send a larger detachment of troops to secure all of the sites they want to reclaim and build settlements on,” she said. “Finalizing that list is probably the first thing you should do, too. And I would suggest involving the gnomes, maybe some of their soldiers can participate? They still tend to know the mountains better.”

  “And getting them to work more closely with the dwarves might be a good idea,” Regina mused. “We can certainly ask.”

  They spent a few more minutes discussing the details of the agreement her envoys had reached with the dwarves. All in all, it was pretty comprehensive, considering the negotiations hadn’t taken that long and they’d apparently had to get approval from several dwarven settlements, some of which were pretty far away from each other.

  The details didn’t diverge very far from the outline Dan had brought to them. In addition to assurances of political support in the south, which were by necessity somewhat vague but which Regina fully intended to honor, the dwarves would have the Empire’s help in reclaiming and perhaps building anew several settlements. They would be secured by both sides, and some of them would effectively be joint settlements. The dwarves would help the Empire chart, build and secure a proper route through the mountains, as well as guide them in interactions with the southern lands. There was also a mutual protection agreement, which probably mostly meant that others would be discouraged from attacking the dwarves since that would mean facing the Empire, but it also meant the dwarves would send them a few troops if the Empire found itself at war.

  Regina was uncertain how much help that would be, but she wasn’t going to turn away any potential support.

  There was a major power differential and everyone knew the Empire was the stronger and more dominant party, the contract even acknowledged it implicitly, but she was at least technically acknowledging them as a sovereign people and nation. That probably counted for something on its own. Regina wondered if others would start opening proper diplomatic relationships with the dwarves, too — the new settlements would at least make that easier, presumably.

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  “I think it’s going to take a few years to really see the effects of this deal,” Janis finally concluded, frowning down at the contract in thought. “But it’s still a good thing. I hope all or our future diplomatic efforts go this smoothly.”

  “We can only hope,” Regina agreed drily. Her time dealing with the gnomes seemed to have given Janis a little more confidence, made her more self-assured about her political position. She was happy to see it.

  They sat in silence for a while, simply enjoying each other’s presence. They both could have gotten back to work, but Regina wasn’t in any hurry. Feeling Janis’ mind beside hers was nice, something she’d missed. She was clearly thinking, but there was no edge of urgency or negative emotions to it.

  After a bit, Janis stirred and looked up again. “Where’s Galatea, by the way? I was looking forward to meeting her again.”

  “She’s probably back in the south,” Regina shrugged. “She came back pretty quickly after that whole trip we took.” She didn’t need to explain that part; even if Janis hadn’t had access to the psychic link, they’d talked about it before. “After she checked on me, she headed off again pretty soon, though. She mentioned she was going to take a detour, and she might be hanging around to talk to that priestess acquaintance of hers, I guess.”

  Janis nodded. “She’ll always come and go when she pleases, I suppose.”

  “I think she’s getting a little tired of being the only messenger between me and the southern expedition,” Regina admitted. “I wish we could set up some other line of communication.”

  “Can’t you?” Janis frowned. “You don’t have some kind of technological solution for that in mind?”

  “I wish. I could try and set up a telephone line, I guess, but the terrain isn’t exactly conducive to that,” Regina sighed. “It’s something we can definitely think about for the Empire itself. But laying wires across the mountains? I don’t know if that’s even worth trying, given all the monsters. At the very least, we’d have to finish securing and probably building the road first.”

  “Underground lines might work,” Janis mused. “But I can see why that would still be an issue. There are underground monsters, too. And it would take a lot of effort in the first place.”

  “Exactly. The other options I’m aware of would use towers or satellites. The latter isn’t exactly a realistic option. The former, maybe. I admit I don’t know much about how cell towers actually work. We’d still need to build the road first at minimum.”

  They fell silent again, although Regina could tell Janis wasn’t thinking about radio towers. Not that she was, either.

  “It’s so weird to think that we’re only a small piece of a much bigger multiverse with many other worlds out there,” Janis finally said. “You told me about it before, but I guess I didn’t really internalize it. And there are things out there that can even kill gods.”

  “Yes,” Regina agreed. “It makes you wonder. If some bastards can just come around and kill the people of entire worlds. Although Leian said it would take decades if not centuries before they could show up here, so there’s that, I guess.”

  “She didn’t seem worried about it?”

  “No. I suppose she thinks their empire is going to fall sooner or later.” Like the Aishan’s did, Regina didn’t add. Maybe she even wants to fight them again. Who wouldn’t?

  “Well, I suppose we should focus on making sure ours doesn’t any time soon,” Janis said, sitting up straighter and rolling her shoulders. She set her jaw and Regina felt a renewed surge of determination from her.

  Of course. It took her a moment to realize why, when it should be obvious. “I suppose it might be more your problem than mine,” Regina said. She was trying for lightness, but the words fell flat.

  “Perhaps,” Janis said, her voice slightly harder with suppressed emotion. “What did Leian say about your lifespan, again?”

  “I can expect to live about a hundred years post hatching,” Regina answered. That had confirmed what she’d already guessed. She sighed. “I suppose that is still considerably shorter than your lifespan, isn’t it?”

  “That’s why I’m your heir, I thought,” Janis returned, but she managed to relax a bit and her words were more playful. Her tone turned serious again for her next words, though. “Yes. I actually heard about a few other descendants of elementals when I was at the Confederation. The data is still pretty spotty, but I’m pretty sure my projected lifespan should be several centuries.”

  Regina nodded slowly. It was clearly something Janis had to consider, something she clearly felt compelled to dwell on to some extent. Anyone probably would in her situation.

  “Have you talked to Kiara about it?” she asked tentatively.

  Janis hesitated, and Regina could sense her mind drawing inward a bit in an instinctive defensive reaction. “I told her, but we didn’t talk much about it,” she said. “She prefers to avoid the topic, I think.”

  Regina nodded. “It must be weird to think of it for her. A reminder that you’re not entirely the same. There’s still prejudice against ‘monsterbloods’.”

  Janis sighed. “I don’t think that’s really the core of the issue.”

  “Ah. Then, is she insecure?”

  “Maybe. You’d know better than I,” Janis scoffed.

  “I don’t look into people’s minds like they’re open storybooks,” Regina said, drawing back a bit herself.

  “You’re sensing how I’m feeling right now,” Janis pointed out. She let herself fall back, lying down in the grass. “Still, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have spoken to you like that, Regina.”

  “It’s fine.”

  They were quiet for a moment, before Janis spoke. “It’s just weird to think that I’m going to look this young for centuries, while everyone else gets old and wrinkly.”

  Regina snorted. “You’ll just have to bear with it. Besides, I’m certain I will never get old and wrinkly.”

  Janis flashed a grin, but it faded quickly. “And — just to be clear, in case you wanted to make any plans or anything. If I’m ever going to have any children, it won’t be any time soon. They’ll have less elemental blood than me — unless I get a really unexpected partner, I guess, but come on — so they’ll have shorter lifespans. So … no, not until I’m old.”

  Regina nodded. She understood that. This conversation was reminding her that her own projected lifespan as a Hive Queen was longer than that of her drones, even if the System would extend it for those with high levels. She really didn’t like the prospect of seeing any of her children die. “I don’t require you to have heirs any time soon,” she said lightly.

  She also wondered if this was part of the issue between Kiara and Janis. There was probably some way for magic to help two women have children, right? If not, it was definitely possible with technology, but it would take much more advanced tech than they currently had access to. Or maybe she was overthinking this. The two of them weren’t even officially together to the world at large. Maybe Janis actually intends to wait until after Kiara eventually dies, but she won’t say that, she reflected. Which also made sense.

  “We should get together at some point,” Regina said, shaking off those musings. “Do a girls’ night or something. June can come, too.”

  Janis smiled, her mind brightening noticeably. “That would be fun. I haven’t seen her in too long, either.”

  Regina smiled back. “Maybe you all can introduce me to some of your favorite stories or fun details from Cernlia, for a change.”

  Janis stared at her for a moment, before she nodded. “Sure, that would be fun.”

  Regina ignored her look with, if she did say so, great dignity. “No weird food, though,” she clarified. “I know I can eat anything, but that doesn’t mean I want to.”

  Janis laughed, and Regina smiled more widely. On second thought, she probably would be willing to suffer through every awful bit of traditional food they could come up with in the name of fun, but she didn’t tell her that now.