Regina had just been starting to think the war was settling into somewhat predictable patterns. There hadn't been any major incidents or catastrophes, and her workload had actually started to decrease again.

Frankly, she needed it. She'd been running a bit ragged, but she knew this was going to be, as the old adage went, a marathon and not a sprint. Becoming burnt-out wouldn't do her any good. So she gratefully took the opportunity to relax a little when it came. She even managed to go out and see more of the new city, finally.

It was starting to be populated. A lot of people were finally starting to move into the cities as improvements in agricultural productivity took hold, and the new capital was an attractive destination. They'd had to institute lotteries in a few sectors to auction land rental or business permits, since Regina flatly refused to let prices climb so high that they could only be bought up by nobles and rich speculators trying to get even richer. At least the fact people would have to do a lot of work to develop their new businesses helped, and the Empire also gave some financial help regarding housing; with most of the center of the city finished, the drones had moved on to large apartment complexes. A number of them were earmarked for subsidized 'social housing' programs.

While New Anberg began to flourish, the rest of the Empire was starting to feel the effects of the war. After all, they no longer traded with countries to the north, northeast or west, and the east was cut off now, too — though that had hardly been long enough to show an effect yet. The army's demands kept the economic motor rumbling on for now, and the Empire was still largely living off its own production (mostly its crops. Agriculture was still the main sector of employment).

Tim was still fighting the Esemen on the Empire's eastern border. As he'd predicted, things seemed to have settled into an unstable equilibrium for now. The Empire had lost a few defensive lines, some only temporarily, but they kept building new fortifications, and the Esemen didn't really have the capability to break through them and capitalize on it. On a tactical level, there was still a lot of back-and-forth — the Esemen were occasionally storming the Empire's trenches and pushing on, but then they would run out of steam; their ammunition running low, their soldiers exhausted and running out of mana. And the Empire would counterattack and reclaim the land they'd lost, usually pushing the Esemen back further. Their enemies also had the problem of inferior communication and coordination compared to the Empire. They could send messages with magic or a few tamed birds or other flying beasts, but it wasn't the same as the psychic link. On a strategic level, there didn't seem to be much movement.

In the meantime, the two armies were grinding each other down. Even if the Esemen finally broke through, they wouldn't be able to follow through on it and push deeper into the Empire, at least not in any sustainable way. But they kept the Empire on the defensive for now. Most of the new Swarm Drones being hatched went to this front at the moment.

Regina had thought everything was going fine … until they received the first message from Janis' army.

The message was a bit garbled, since it consisted of a letter tied to a Swarm Drone and sent south with it. That made sense, as it was probably one of the speediest ways to send news, without risking a sapient drone in uncertain territory where they might be shot down, or just taking people away form where they would be otherwise needed. Unfortunately, whoever had done this must have been in a rush and hadn't quite secured the message properly, and the exposure to wind and rain had caused the ink to run a little bit, which made it harder to see.

Regina had to wait until they got a specialist with a Class Skill that allowed for some kind of psychometry, showing the prior states of objects, to be sure she knew what the letter said, exactly.

Not that this improved things. She had known about Janis' plan to meet a delegation from the Western Confederation for negotiations, and hadn't minded it, even if Regina wouldn't necessarily have done the same. If Janis thought the chance of getting the city's surrender was worth it, she wasn't going to complain.

Now Janis had paid a price for being willing to talk. Regina was almost proud of her, ironically, even if that was probably unhealthy. Mostly, though, she was furious.

Max sought her out right away, as did a few of the other senior drones. Regina was pacing up and down the palace roof, atop one of the side wings, but being removed from the direct sightline of people didn't mean much to the hive. At least they weren't cowering in terror, even if she felt her emotions echoed through the psychic link. There were times being a psychic control node kind of sucked.

"She was cursed," Regina said. It was unnecessary, since they already knew this through the psychic link. She still felt better saying it out loud, and putting all the venom she felt internally into the words.

"We must help Janis," Max replied earnestly. He was staying calm, almost pointedly so. She suspected he was trying to push that calmness through the psychic link, too.

"Who could help with removing a curse?" Mia asked.

"Priests, probably," Max responded promptly. "They might also know more about what this curse could possibly be, I guess. The temple of Alianais in Cera is still open, it might be our best bet. Or maybe in Nerlia-City. Should we send someone to speak to them or do you want to do it yourself, Mother?"

Regina took a deep breath, clenching and unclenching her fists once. "Someone who's already there should do it," she said. "I'd want to speak to them in person, but I can't afford to travel right now; it would be too slow, regardless."

Max nodded. "I'll have one of my Star Guard officers do it, maybe that will help get a bit of cooperation."

"Is there anything else we can do?" Ira asked.

"Catch Honor Sazatore and bury her in a deep dark hole," Regina snarled. She shook her head. "Sorry. It's just —"

"I get it. They betrayed a diplomatic truce. They hurt Janis." Max shrugged. "If I didn't have faith she'll be fine, I'd be snapping at everyone, too."

Regina somehow doubted that. It was hard to imagine. "It's not that I don't have faith in her," she said. "But our enemies are dangerous. And, you know, we don't exactly stand for blind faith here."

Mia snorted, lightly punching Max in the shoulder. "It sounds dangerous. We should focus on what we can do right now, without being too reckless. Have you already summoned Iseis back?"

Regina shook her head. "I tried, but she's beyond the reach of the psychic link for now. I've sent the drones messages and they will try to get them to her quickly."

It was bad timing. Iseis had recently traveled (meaning, teleported) to the army Owin and June were currently leading into Esemen while their other army was stuck on the Empire's eastern front. They weren't very far beyond her range, yet, though.

Regina sighed, throwing off her jacket and roughly pulling her wings through the slits in her shirt. She was lucky she'd chosen one like this today; in her current mood, she would have ripped one or continued even without it.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"Are you leaving, Mother?" Mia asked.

"I'm going for a quick flight and then doing some training," she replied. "Otherwise I'll start giving orders I'll regret. Let me know when Iseis gets here."

Once again, it had been too long since she'd stretched her wings. Regina ascended into the sky, ignoring the gathering clouds. She pushed herself, trying to gain altitude and fly quickly. She even managed to focus on the wind on her face and the clouds above her for a whole minute or so.

Not having Janis present was already weird; knowing she'd been injured while Regina couldn't even check up on her made it much worse. It only added to the bit of anxiety she felt with Tim and so many others currently outside her reach. I've gotten too used to having everyone close by.

But it was also this war, of course. The gods were dangerous. Their Champions, too. Regina still didn't really know what kind of plan they might have, or even really what their goals were. She hated the uncertainty. It always felt like the other shoe was just about to drop. And getting anxious and paranoid would just be doing their job for them. (She really hoped Janis was okay.)

To distract herself, Regina focused on her magic. High up, alone in the air, beyond the city, which she'd drifted to the west of anyway, there was no one to be bothered. So she could really let loose for once.

Large-scale area effects weren't really her specialty, but she had a lot of mana to burn. She'd also learned a bit about elemental magic from Janis and picked up a few tricks. Regina shouted into the sky, as the wind picked up around her. It started to swirl in a miniature hurricane, herself placed in the eye of the storm, the worst of the winds around her leaving her be. She turned in tight circles, flying up and down, and manipulated the wind closest to her to catch her wings and lift. Then she started focusing on the static electricity and sending a few bolts of lightning around, letting them arch down to strike the scattered trees below.

Regina forced her mana into the air more precisely, deepening her focus. Air started to condense and warp into unsubstantial lenses, breaking the light through them and throwing beams of bright light around. With a thought, some of them shifted into other colors. They swept through the storm, making it look otherworldly.

Alarmed shouts were starting to come from below, carried to her on the psychic link. She didn't hear them so much as pick up impressions of them. With a sigh, Regina slowed down. She was getting too close to actually devastating the countryside in a tantrum. The area around the new capital might not have been that populated, but it wasn't empty and the population was growing.

Mia reached out to her, wordlessly asking her to come back. Regina replied in the affirmative, but she still paused before descending further. A twist of her wrist and she held a flame in her hand, flickering in her small bubble within the storm. It wasn't burning from nothing, just some powder she'd Conjured and held in the air. Shifting between different metals and compounds caused the color to change; yellow for sodium, then copper for green, then phosphorous, then blue arsenic. Finally, she Conjured a little water and then set it on fire with chlorine trifluoride and watched the explosion, quickly cycling through a few other materials, before she shifted back to more common and less dangerous substances.

Flicking her hands away and watching the flame gutter out, Regina turned to leave. She'd barely flapped her wings a few times before she got a System notification that made her pause in her tracks.

You have leveled up

That was great, but what really caught her attention was the next screen, which she focused on as she descended.

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, Fireball, Conjuration, Greater Heal, Water Manipulation, Psychic Illusion, Fire Manipulation, Earth Manipulation, Air Manipulation, Magic Armor, Heat Vision, Expand Senses, Physical Augmentation, Haste, Freeze, Water Breathing, Purify, Danger Sense, Farseeing, Magic Eye, Command, Enchantment, Fast Travel

She had finally gained all of the elemental Manipulation Spells, although it had taken a while. To be honest, Regina hadn't been sure whether she would ever get to see this Spell selection screen again, or whether she had too many already for the System to offer her any new ones. Apparently, that worry was unfounded. Though the opportunity probably wouldn't return any time soon.

A few of the options sounded interesting, though less than she'd have thought. Regina didn't need any System Spells for her scrying; in fact, it might be better without any. Galatea certainly seemed to prefer that. The same mostly went for her studies on teleportation under Iseis, at least until the war had put an end to that for now. Most of the other things were nice, but not exactly essential to her. They seemed a bit basic for level 72, which was probably the fault of the Spells she'd chosen to focus on.

In truth, she never really gave the new options any consideration; as soon as Regina mentally hovered over Conjuration and saw it start to morph, she knew what she'd choose. It wasn't the only Spell ready for an upgrade, Fireball also offered 'Greater Fireball', even though she'd rarely used it recently. But it wasn't worth comparing them. Though, ultimately, Regina hadn't really relied much on the System for her Conjuration, recently. Getting the more advanced Spell was probably more of a recognition of how far she'd come with it than actually advancing it. At least that was her impression.

Still, every little bit helped, and it was undoubtedly her single most crucial Spell. Regina chose Greater Conjuration with a smile on her face. I started from the Lesser Basic version, she reflected as she watched the screen dissolve. How far we've come.

Unfortunately, neither it nor any of the other options would let her help Janis right now. Regina pushed herself to fly faster, blinking hard as the wind ripped at her eyes. Finally, she alighted back on the rooftop where she'd come from.

As she'd sensed, Max was waiting for her. Unfortunately, he was not accompanied by Iseis.

"It won't take them much longer to find her," he said. "In the meantime, we got an update."

Regina nodded. She'd already been aware of that, given the way news spread through the psychic link. It was another message that gave them a bit more detail. And hopefully, a sapient drone would be close behind to actually answer questions.

The news that Janis had gone into a deep, probably magical sleep while the battle for the Confederation city started was not welcome.

"I've already started sending them reinforcements," Regina said. "We just need to be careful not to leave our other borders open."

"And more Swarm Drones?" he asked.

"It will take a few days to show any effect in their overall numbers, but yes, I've increased their rate as well." Regina shook her head. "Though we're getting close to the limit. I could have hundreds more Drone Breeders, but that doesn't mean we can have unlimited War Drones. Even with the psychic link, they do need some oversight. There just aren't enough sapient drones. Yes, we have humans in command positions, too, but it's not the same."

Max nodded. They'd talked about that a lot. They had literally millions of Swarm Drones right now — about one point two million at the moment — even with the losses, though many of them were still in a hibernation-like sleep. Their sheer number provided enormous logistical challenges.

The number sounded huge, and it was, but they actually needed to get these drones to battles for them to do any good in the war, and the further away from her and the center of the psychic link they moved, the harder it would be and the more people needed to be tasked with overseeing them.

It was frustrating to know there might be additional troops she could send that would help Ada, but that trying too hard might actually do more harm than good.

"That's all we can do for the army right now," Max agreed.

Regina shook her head, sending a few drops of water flying. She twisted her wet hair into a rough braid to get it off her back. She needed a shower and a change of clothing. And a glass or two of juice would be nice.

"Maybe," she said. "I'm going to go scry for Iseis. If we can't reach her over the psychic link, we're just going to have to try another way."

Max blinked. "Good idea. Maybe I can rustle up Galatea to see if she can help, if necessary."

"Don't bother looking, she left again." Regina sighed. "Though with any luck, she'll turn up soon, or maybe she'll be in the north on her own account, anyway."

At least with the war on, Galatea wasn't wandering aimlessly all over the continent anymore. At least as far as Regina knew.

Maybe Regina would scry to find her, too. Two could play that game.

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