Regina hadn’t quite realized how worried she’d been until she had Tim back. Having a tangible connection to the southern base with the teleportation link also helped, of course. It put her mind at ease about the safety of both what they’d found there and the troops they were stationing there to hold the site.

  Still, feeling Tim’s mind in the psychic link again, along with Ash and everyone else, was really what made her rex a little more, letting go of some tension she’d been feeling. She should be fretting over the implications of having drones away from the hive and the psychic link for a considerable span of time and how well they held up, but she was just gd they were back.

  Luckily, Regina wasn’t the only one to feel this way and so she didn’t bear the brunt of the teasing from the others. They were all gd and she suspected her own reaction was also mirrored slightly by her drones. Regina even joined them in the cuddle pile for the first few nights back in the Forest’s Haunt base, although she retreated to her normal bedroom after that. It was nice and rexing, something she should probably do more often, but having parts of hard shell poking her everywhere meant she got less actual sleep and it made getting ready in the morning a bit awkward. Plus, she’d probably have to rotate through groups of drones if she wanted to avoid btant favoritism, and she drew the line at pying politics with her sleeping schedule.

  Besides, they returned to Cera after only a few days, where she was ensconced in the comforts of the Imperial royal apartments once again. Over the st months, ever since they’d really settled in there, she supposed, Regina had been accumuting quite the collection of luxuries and minor extravagances, most of them diplomatic gifts. She had everything from pelts of exotic animals to expensive crystal gsses to beautifully illuminated books (obviously her favorites), not to mention all the articles of clothing and accessories.

  It was a little weird to think about at first, but she’d learned to accept it and take satisfaction in the proof that the Empire was a very powerful country, and so, many people sought its, and her, favor. She was being courted by quite the collection of nobles and foreign royals looking for assurances, profitable retionships or even military ties.

  Occasionally literally. She rejected every such proposal, obviously, but Regina was getting a little tired of it. Did these people not realize she didn’t need to marry to have children, couldn’t have any heirs they wanted anyway, and had less than zero interest in a political marriage? There wasn’t even anyone that would qualify for that kind of alliance if she’d wanted to.

  For now, Ira had standing orders to burn such letters, a copy-paste tempte for rejections, and Regina tried not to think about how many of these gifts had been meant for ‘courting’ or given with certain kinds of ulterior motives.

  The first time a foreign envoy had tried making an offer for Max, Regina had only stared bnkly and then excused herself quickly, torn between the urges to ugh or to bst their head off. By now, she was unfortunately getting used to them. Mia and Tia even had an informal competition about it.

  Max had started specuting out loud if the offers would decrease if they actually accepted one. Then Regina had loudly contempted how many people she could marry one of her drone princes or princesses to at the same time (the answer, she figured, was probably around ten if it was restricted to nobility and functionally unlimited if not). He’d been quiet since then.

  When they returned, Tim settled in pretty well to these patterns. He joined Max and Janis in overseeing their efforts with the military and spent more time attending diplomatic functions and building political connections than any of them. (Unsurprisingly, the amount of betrothal offers for his hand were soon double those of anyone else except Janis. Mia and Tia refused to let him join their game citing unfair advantages.)

  A few were even from members of the Western Confederation. Regina wasn’t quite sure what to make of that. Especially since retions continued to deteriorate, slowly but steadily.

  At least they were still talking to each other, for the most part. She entertained envoys from the Western Confederation, and sent diplomats to them in return. Her diplomats all reported that they were tightly monitored and their movements restricted, and they had to fight to even get the time of day with any of the real leaders of the Confederation. That was certainly not a good sign, although it was better than ambassadors being sent away. And Regina also had to admit she wasn’t very eager to talk to Confederation diplomats, either.

  Luckily for their diplomatic efforts, she now had the official help of Janis, Tim, and to a slightly lesser degree, Max, Mia and Tia, who all cimed they weren’t diplomats and wouldn’t do well. At least they could attend the more unimportant functions where what was said didn’t really matter but it was still good to show the presence of the Imperial crown. That was half the benefit of having more princes and princesses.

  Luckily, politics aside, the Empire was still thriving. The harvest had been good, with the weather that year thankfully cooperating or at least not burdening them with too many storms and floods. Many of the projects the hive had started had come to be evaluated, and Mia was chomping at the bit to get started with the next cycle. The yields had been higher than projected for some crops and lower for others, but overall they easily had enough to get through winter, keep the stores full and even take into account an expanding popution, which soothed some fears.

  Regina was keeping up with the projections pretty closely, aware of how important this was. The ability to feed her people was one of the most crucial responsibilities she had, especially in a world with a medieval technology level and mindset like this. Fortunately, the hive’s experiments in the chemical industry had also progressed, not just the mechanical and more fshy projects like rail lines. They had access to nitrate fertilizers now, even if the process of synthesizing them was still pretty dangerous and they were too dependent on magic in a few pces compared to what she’d like. Still, this spring was the first time they were really using them on a rge scale, not just in the territory the hive controlled and administered directly.

  It had been a bit of a headache to figure out how to distribute their products, and Regina had eventually chosen to leave them free of charge but controlled with tax breaks and hikes based on the harvest once it was taken in. That meant farmers had free access to them and would remunerate the Empire once they’d achieved a bigger harvest than usual while still profiting from it. This system would only work for now, while all of it was still getting rolled out. Eventually, such things would simply be sold on the market. But subsidies and tax incentives would probably stay. Unfortunately, they also still had to go through the local lords since it simply wasn’t feasible for the Imperial bureaucracy to keep track of every single person properly. At least for now.

  At least it meant she could pass off a lot of the headache of organizing this to the lower nobles, and they could hardly compin, since they were given help from the Empire. Which would increase their incomes as well, since they were unfortunately still based on the old system.

  The winter had passed quickly, both because they were all busy and because the weather simply turned into an early spring. Regina didn’t get to spend much time outside, only occasionally for training or when she could carve out some time to go for a flight, so the changing seasons barely affected her. She was a little more concerned with the effects it had on her popuce, which she mostly found in her stacks of reports and by talking to drones in the psychic link.

  She’d originally hoped to move her ‘court’ to the new capital this spring, but had to postpone it by at least several months. The project was rather … ambitious. They were building an entire new city. Of course, parts of it were already built and she could technically move right in, but Regina wanted to move most of the Imperial government, which meant a lot of space for the offices of various departments, and they also required a lot of other things in terms of support infrastructure. She’d decided it was better not to cut parts of it off and relocate them on their own. Moving everything at once wouldn’t be possible, either, but at least she could make sure the preparations were fully in pce.

  Things had settled into a bit of a stalemate for now and Regina was enjoying the retive peace. Spring moved into early summer, her projects proceeded apace, the war in the south kept well clear of the old Hivekind base and would hopefully be over soon, and her studies were progressing well. June was coming along as a psychic, to the point she could take over most of the instructions of the other students, especially new ones. It wasn’t her focus anymore, but Regina still occasionally found someone worth teaching, or at least worth trying to see if they had potential. Others stopped or were sent home when they showed they couldn’t get past a surface understanding or had no real skill in the ‘psychic arts’ except for magic, so the size of the group fluctuated a little.

  Things were busy enough that she almost missed her friends and a few of her drones preparing a ‘surprise party’ for her birthday, which honestly, was just embarrassing. She had the psychic link. How could she not pick up something like this?

  So, she didn’t let on that she knew, at least not by saying anything, but she also didn’t act surprised when they finally ‘revealed’ it. She had to admit they’d gone to some effort; the garden was decorated, everyone who didn’t belong had been barred from the premises for the evening, and they’d incorporated some of the adjoining rooms and set up buffet tables and party games.

  Regina admittedly had complicated feelings about her birthday. Besides the fact that it was the day of her hatching — and even then more of a best guess than anything — and not her actual birthday when she’d first been born, which she still didn’t know. It reminded her just how young she still was, at least in chronological terms. Everything had happened so quickly, so much had changed in such a short time. Three years ago, she couldn’t have imagined standing where she was right now.

  But at least she didn’t have to worry about another monster wave, quite yet.

  So Regina tried to enjoy herself. The food was nice. It even included some of the more ‘unique’ traditional Cernlian food Kiara and Janis had introduced her to. They’d tried for regur ‘girls’ nights’ tely, but were often too busy to find the time, so it often fell by the wayside. But at least they did get together occasionally, often as a group with just the Lyns sisters, Janis and Regina, but sometimes with a few of the drones as well, or even Gatea on one occasion.

  The mana-form was currently also here, absolutely destroying everyone else at poker. Regina had wisely decided not to py. It would have been difficult to resist the urge to cheat by using her psychic powers to read their emotional reactions, anyway. Gatea had only arrived a few days ago and would probably leave soon, too, but at least she was here. Interestingly, Madris was also pying. She was pretty new to it and still learning the rules, though, which probably expined why she was losing despite also having the psychic advantage.

  Once she lost the st of her coins — at least they weren’t betting with rge sums, only pocket change — and bowed out of the game, her psychic mentor came to join Regina. They watched for a minute in silence, while Regina waited for Madris to broach the topic she clearly wanted to discuss.

  “I know you’ve kept out of it, but there have been a few developments regarding our interests in the Eternal Dark,” she finally said. “Icnes is considering going back.”

  Regina gnced at her, surprised. “You don’t want her to leave,” she observed.

  Madris shrugged slightly. “I wouldn’t even if I wasn’t concerned for her safety. I’m not sure it’s a good time for her to return. But perhaps we should send someone.”

  “As I recall, you originally suggested perhaps sending Tim,” Regina said, keeping her tone carefully neutral.

  The dark elf inclined her head slightly. “I don’t suppose that would be an option, would it? He is a prince now, rather high-profile. And he has only returned from an extended absence a few months ago.”

  Regina hesitated for a moment. She really didn’t like the idea of sending Tim away again, especially like this. She could ask him, of course, but a part of her was afraid he’d just say yes trying to please her, even if he really didn’t want to go.

  “I understand,” Madris said before she could respond. “I’ve been considering sending Armin. He’s very willing to go. I may have told him too many stories about my home.”

  Regina smiled faintly. “You’re fine with that?”

  “I wouldn’t say I’m not worried, but he should be reasonably safe. He’s a member of my house, they can’t really deny him entry. Icnes’ people will help him, too.”

  Regina nodded slowly. “He’s like your adopted son, right? Even if he’s human? What does that mean for his status?”

  “Somewhat, but not really.” Madris pulled a face. “I adopted him into the house, but that doesn’t mean he’s necessarily my son. It’s complicated — family retionships among dark elves can be.” She hesitated for a slight moment. “For example, it wouldn’t be forbidden for me to take him as a lover, despite inducting him into my house. It’s also too small to really have an internal ranking structure, but if it did, it wouldn’t necessarily put him at the top, although he is quite strong, so he’d be respected.”

  “Did you?” Gatea asked.

  Neither of them reacted, they’d both sensed her coming up beside them. Regina only spared her a look and resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

  “I beg your pardon?” Madris asked.

  “Have you slept with him?” Gatea crified.

  For a moment, Regina thought Madris would sh out at her. But the moment passed, and the dark elf only sighed, rolling her eyes. “I have, in the past, when I needed comfort. But our affair is decisively over,” she finally said after a pause. “And don’t give me that look, Gatea; we all know humans age differently and he was obviously a mature adult.”

  Regina cleared her throat. “As interesting as that is, let’s get back on topic. We would have sent Tim as an envoy of the Empire. That’s not as easy with Armin, since he’s not from the Empire. Should we still send an Imperial representative as well?”

  Madris smiled at her. “I would suggest so, eventually, if nothing else. But perhaps we should have him go and scout out the situation first. Still, if you want to consider who you might want to send as an envoy …”

  “I’ll talk to a few people,” Regina nodded. “Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help, regardless. Supplies, an escort, or whatever.”

  “Thank you. We may have to take you up on that.”

  Regina smiled again and gnced back at the party that was still ongoing around them. They stayed silent for a time, while she was enjoying the atmosphere.