Regina paced up and down the room, feeling like the proverbial caged animal. Or caged monster, maybe. It was small and cramped, but no more so than the house they’d been quartered in before. Still, she had to take tight turns to continue pacing.

Rather than a dedicated cell, she was in a ground-floor room of the biggest and fanciest house in town, built of stone. It was where the baron and his family lived. Presumably, they just didn’t have a proper prison in this village. A door opened from the room onto a sort of veranda outside, and she’d seen the Delver stationed there. She still smelled him and heard whenever he moved. The doorway to the rest of the house had been bricked up at some point, leaving the room inaccessible from there.

These men were reasonably competent, she had to admit. She’d looked over every part of the walls and door, but not found any weaknesses. Not competent enough to put a guard in the room with her or split her hive up completely, though. She could still sense the others, and knew they were together in the house they’d been assigned before. She suspected that with this group of fighters coming, the village didn’t have much room. Maybe they thought they didn’t need anything fancy because their prisoners were so low level.

“Why are you doing this?” Regina called to test their reaction. “I haven’t hurt anyone, you can’t just keep us imprisoned without cause!”

“You will be dealt with fairly,” she heard the voice of their leader, Trito.

Regina paused. She’d almost missed the sound of his footsteps approaching. He seemed to stop in the corridor outside the room.

“It certainly doesn’t look like that from where I’m standing,” she replied.

“Look at it from our point of view for a moment, if you’re capable of that,” he answered, soundly faintly amused and still condescending. “A group of strange and heretofore unknown demihumans - if that’s even what you are - come out of the forest before a monster horde. And right after that, the beast horde is stronger and more vicious than normal, almost suspiciously focused, and overruns an entire castle. Somehow, the demihumans survive unscathed and show up at the settlement that’s the next target of the monsters. Suspicious, wouldn’t you say?”

Regina bit down on a curse. “I don’t see anything suspicious about us being driven out by a vicious monster horde,” she answered, trying for a calm tone of voice. “You can’t prove anything, and how would we even have done anything like that? Is it even possible?”

“There have been recorded instances of a horde being guided by an intelligent monster,” another voice chimed in. Baron Neralt. He was coming closer as well. “However, I do have to agree that this is all very speculative. Sir Egon, Lady Regina has fought at our side without any indications of betrayal or mischief.”

Regina took a deep breath. She had no idea what was going on with the horde, although she would really like to know, but she was glad that Neralt didn’t seem to be fully on the Delver’s side. Still, it was worrying that Trito seemed to have enough power to work around a noble on his own land. Even if he was just a baron. From the little she’d heard about Delvers in the village, they sounded more like an adventurer’s guild, if one only open to humans and with some obvious prejudice.

“I didn’t suspect her of being an idiot, Neralt.” Trito sounded annoyed. “But she is just a monsterblood. Be careful of your words.”

There was a faint sigh, then she heard the baron retreating.

“I need to see to the defense of the village,” Trito said more loudly, clearly to her. “You will be held here until the monster horde is dealt with. I suggest you wait calmly, it will certainly be taken into consideration if you are quiet and cooperative.” A moment later, she heard his steps receding as well.

Regina sat down on the straw-stuffed mattress of the narrow bed, tugging on her mandibles. She did not want to just sit and wait quietly until they decided whatever it was they wanted to do with her. So she closed her eyes and reached out to her drones.

They were all together, in the main room of the one-story wooden house. Regina mentally grabbed for Max’s mind and dove into his consciousness, sinking into place behind his eyes. It took her a moment to parse his senses, but she quickly gathered herself. Taking a moment to adjust, she turned his head, looking around him.

The other drones must have noticed something, since they had all stopped talking and were looking at him, or rather her. Regina pulled his lips into a smile. “Hello, guys, it’s just me,” she said, or tried to. The words came out a little garbled.

“Mother?” Tim jumped up and leaned forward. “Are you alright?”

Regina nodded with Max’s head. After a moment of consideration, she withdrew a little, giving him back sole control of his body, even as she still got the information from his senses.

Max sighed and stood up as well from where he’d been sitting. “I don’t get the feeling that she’s hurt,” he said. He looked around again, focusing in on each of his companions for a few seconds.

“My Queen, we are all unharmed, except for Tia’s injury, as you can see,” he said, talking quietly to himself. “There is one guard in the house, and at least five outside. Some of them appear to be normal soldiers instead of Delvers. They’re probably busy fighting the monsters.” He glanced at the others again. “Anything else?”

“We’ve still got the, you know,” Mia said, glancing around. She clearly didn’t trust that the humans couldn’t listen in. “Where we put them before. If we manage to escape, we can bring them along. They went through our stuff, but I don’t think they recognized what they saw.”

“I got the impression they thought it was food,” Tia muttered.

Regina smiled to herself where she sat in her own cell. It was good to know that the drones were alright, at least. She made Max nod and smile again, then withdrew to hang back in his mind, just enough so she was aware of what happened around him. There was no point in controlling him all the time, after all.

Just as she was considering whether talking to the guard outside her room (or at least talking at him) was worth it, she noticed another change in their surroundings. Max shifted and moved to look out the window of their room. It was too small for even one of the drones to climb through, but they’d opened the wooden shutters to let fresh air in.

Regina tensed as she realized what he saw. The house was built close by the water and they had a good view of part of the river. Now, there was a boat gliding down it, moving remarkably quickly. It looked bigger than the one she’d seen before and appeared to have been built of a single piece of wood, with elegant curves. It didn’t surprise her much to recognize sharp-eared figures in it. About half a dozen elves in total.

After Max stared at the scene for a moment, their descriptions popped up. It felt strange for Regina to see System notifications through another’s eyes. All of the elves were higher level than him and, judging by the class names, probably reasonably strong. She even recognized one, the Forest Ranger called Anuis, who they’d met in the forest.

Max followed them with his eyes as long as he could, but they moved out of his field of view quickly. Regina could tell the other drones were all staying extra quiet and listening hard. Luckily, the walls of the house didn’t isolate sound very well and it was built right next to the center of the village, so what was happening wasn’t far away.

They could hear the sounds of the boat coming to a stop and people climbing out. Then there came the muffled sound of conversation. Regina got enough to guess that the elves were exchanging greetings with the locals and were being welcomed into the settlement. The voices’ position changed slightly as they walked further away from the river, and incidentally passed closer to the house her drones were kept in.

With a start, Regina realized that Anuis was asking about them. She was talking to Neralt and Trito.

“Yes, Regina and her companions came here,” Neralt said. “They are still here, although Sir Egon is concerned about a possible betrayal and is keeping them confined.”

There was a moment of silence, before she replied, her voice tight, “I see.”

“I do not see what concern it is of the elves,” Trito replied. “They are not of your people, I should think, and I will not compromise on ensuring these people’s safety.”

Regina frowned to herself at the Delver’s tone. She hadn’t really considered it in depth, but she wouldn’t have expected him to treat elves the way he did demihumans, or ‘monsterbloods’. Since they were, well, humanoid. Maybe she was missing something.

Their voices grew weaker as they moved on, and Regina leaned back on her narrow cot with a sigh. She wasn’t quite sure what to think of the elves. They had undoubtedly been helpful. On the other hand, there were too many unexplained things in this whole situation.

Well, she already knew the elves had extensive defenses around their home, so it didn’t come as a surprise that they weathered the monster horde well. She’d also expect them to keep an eye on it and the human holdings, and the fall of the castle would have been hard to miss. That they came this early suggested that they really weren’t very concerned about their safety when it came to the monsters, though.

After maybe an hour, when Regina was considering taking a nap to keep her strength up and escape the boredom and unhelpful musings, something moved near the drones. She sat up again and focused on her connection to Max, which she’d left half-open in the back of her mind. His obvious agitation now bled into her sense.

Regina blinked in her own body. There was suddenly a person standing outside the house, right by the the window, probably looking at the drones. She, or rather Max, couldn’t see anyone, but they smelled them, the soft scent of leaves and an almost electric tingle she’d come to associate with the elves, and heard them clearing their throat.

“Please don’t be alarmed,” the elf said softly. The voice sounded female, but wasn’t familiar. She spoke quietly enough that the human guards probably couldn’t hear. “We simply wanted to make sure you were alright.”

Regina took control again and tried to answer, but her words came out slurred. Frustrated, she retreated a little again, letting Max back in. When we’re out of here, I’m going to practice speaking through all of my drones, she resolved. I should have done that before.

“We are fine so far, thank you,” Max answered instead. “However, our queen has been separated from us.”

“Do you know where she is?”

Max hesitated. Regina nodded his head and pointed his finger in the exact direction where she was kept. Then she jumped into Tim, enduring the disorientation for a moment, and moved his arms to draw a rough map on the ground.

Luckily, Max caught on quickly. “She’s in the manor house, in a room on the ground floor to the northeast,” he said.

Regina couldn’t see the elf’s expression, but from the short pause, it was clear the woman was surprised at what they did. “Well,” she finally said. “Is there anything we can do for you?”

Regina switched again and scribbled on the ground with Mia’s work-limb, thankful that it was just packed dirt and not stone or anything. She knew she was showing the elves one of the cards she’d kept up her sleeve, but under the circumstances, that seemed worth the risk.

“Can you please help us escape?” Max asked. He looked at her and widened his eyes, putting on an expression that abruptly reminded Regina how much like a kid he looked.

The elven woman again remained quiet for a few seconds before answering. “I cannot promise you much, children. However, we have little love for the Delvers and this would not be the first time we are helping someone unfortunately caught in their clutches. If you are able to act alone well enough to have a chance, we might be able to assist you.”

Regina smiled. She didn’t have a finished plan, but she did have a few ideas, and a few assets she could leverage.

It was frustrating trying to communicate them via short scribbles, and took longer than she wanted, but finally she thought she was getting the key ideas across.

“I see,” the elf replied, and Regina pictured her nodding decisively. “We should certainly manage to distract them for you, if nothing else.” She paused for a moment. “I will have to check with the others, you understand, but I am confident that if you are able to get out, we can also take you to safety from there. There is more to talk about, but Anuis will speak to you if this endeavor succeeds.”

“Thank you very much, ma’am,” Max replied politely.

Regina stood up, taking a moment to find her balance with most of her attention still tethered to Mia’s consciousness.

That promised to be interesting.