Tia liked all of her Skills, some of them a bit more than others. But of all of them, the one that had seen the most use recently was, surprisingly, not any of the active ones that helped her make things, or even one of her old Worker skills. Instead, it was the one she used for seeing and analyzing stuff.

The Skill was called Inspection. There were probably other versions of it out there, Abilities of other people with the same name that did different things. Her own was focused on construction and engineering. Her Class seemed to be geared more towards large-scale projects, at least compared to others like Mia, but it was far from exclusively useful for combat. Probably because there was a lot of overlap between infrastructure projects with military value and other kinds, or even fortifications.

At the moment, it told her lots of useful things about the town she was watching. Tia had taken a closer look at some of the houses, but it was also good to get a view of the bigger picture, like she did right now standing on a small hill just outside the town. What Inspection told her could be a bit hard to parse, at least at first. It was a mix of instinctive and more abstract knowledge, as well as highlights in her vision - a bit like what Regina had mentioned about Augmented Reality, but probably less clear. Still, looking at one of the town’s houses now, she could clearly see the fault lines in its construction. The walls were a little more complicated than they appeared at first glance; a mixture of frames made of wooden logs and woven sticks and a mix of mud and straw, at their core. It was a pretty good construction technique when you didn’t have access to many resources.

If they were going to build houses for the hive, it was definitely something to keep in mind. Along with the design of the town in general. It looked like it had sprung up without too much planning, though Tia could see where someone with a more combat-minded approach had adjusted its layout. Yeah, we should definitely draw up proper plans first, before we start building any more settlements. Proper grids, planning for water and eventually power lines, all of that. She nodded to herself.

“Tia?” Tim called up to her.

Tia started and glanced down. She’d almost missed his approach. “Coming!” she called back down.

Tim raised an eyebrow when she got closer, and Tia shrugged. She was still smiling, though. I can’t help it, being out and about and seeing all of this is exciting!

“Glad you’re happy,” Tim said drily. Tia blinked. He might have picked up a bit more from the psychic connection than she’d have expected. “We do need to deal with a serious issue, though.”

“I know,” Tia assured him, feeling the smile slip away and her expression turn more serious as she focused, thinking about what he meant. “Has Mother made a decision yet?”

“It seems so,” he answered. “We had another letter, and one came from Lyns, too. Come on, let’s discuss it on the way. We need to talk to Janis, too.”

Tia nodded and they set off. They switched their conversation to the psychic link, though, walking in silence back into the town. She found it a bit difficult to concentrate on walking and navigating at the same time as trying to hold a mental conversation with Tim and Janis simultaneously. But at least it was good practice! The people she passed mostly tried to get out of their way, too. There were a few human soldiers from Cern and Kiara’s troops around, though, who didn’t always do that, and sometimes looked at the two drones weirdly.

Tia tried not to worry about it. Interspecies relations was Tim’s job, or maybe Janis’. She just built stuff and occasionally got into a fight. That was the way she preferred it, really. Well, not that she didn’t give her opinion to Regina when asked, or bits of advice. She always felt like her words were really being considered and useful, it was nice.

To be fair, she suspected all drones liked feeling useful for the Hive. That was probably a good thing. It helped to give them cohesion. More than the humans she had seen, at least!

Soon, they reached the humans they had come to join, taking Tia from her thoughts. The meeting started without much fanfare, while a few of their knights still trickled in. Janis was already there, as well, leaning against one of the walls circling the backyard. She joined Tim and Tia, probably after he said something to her privately. Tia was more focused on watching the human leaders’ reactions after they told them what they had to say.

“You cannot be serious!” John Cern sputtered. But even Tia could tell that some of his reaction was faked. Or at least, she certainly thought so.

“Why wouldn’t we be?” Tim responded coolly. “Does this situation strike you as the sort of thing to joke around about?”

“Let me see if I have got this straight,” Sir Richard interjected. “You want Cernlia, after Lord Lyns’ victory, I assume, to renounce all territorial claim on the Great Forest and everything within it. Furthermore, you want him to do the same thing to the Neralt barony and your land. And what’s more, you want him to - at a time of your choosing - officially acknowledge the Hive as a sovereign entity and its people as a nation. With several extra provisions. And all of this is in addition to the uninhabited land your Hive would get as per Lady Kiara’s proposal.”

“Yes, that seems about right,” Tim said calmly.

There was a moment of silence as the different parties just looked at each other. Kiara seemed conflicted, Tia noted. Of course, it can’t be easy for her. Her father had to go and basically disrespect their new allies, just as she was doing diplomacy stuff with them. And she can’t exactly say that she disagrees, can she?

“We are already giving you a sizeable tract of land,” Cern finally said, visibly calming himself down.

“True,” Tim said. “But your leader also unilaterally assigned all the rest of this land to you.”

“It’s really not that bad,” Tia spoke up, smiling. “I mean, what are we really asking of you, or him? Just to give up an official claim to a territory that you already don’t control. Plus diplomatic recognition. Of someone he already has a treaty with, even if it’s not a very official one.”

“I am a little more concerned about those other provisions you mentioned,” Kiara said. “Such as the requirement to let anyone who so chooses come to live in the Hive’s land.”

Tia shrugged. “If you’re good to them and the people don’t have any reason to want to move, then they won’t. And if they really want to come, they’ll do so anyway.”

Kiara frowned. She didn’t look happy with it, but more than that, she seemed like she was trying to figure out any hidden agenda behind this.

Tia didn’t think there was much of one, really. Just that her Queen wanted to have a larger population, or at least wanted to have the opportunity for one. And the option of providing sanctuary to anyone who might be mistreated under the Cernlian system. The Hive wasn’t going to not make use of or invest in someone just because of their species or gender, after all. Janis was the perfect example of what some people could accomplish even if the local culture and politics tried to push them down, as soon as they had an opportunity. Well, I assume that’s what Regina wants, anyway, but it does fit with some of the things she said.

“We will certainly communicate your Hive Queen’s demands to Marquis Lyns,” John Cern said, shooting Kiara a hard look.

Tia almost blinked at the reversal of the usual roles. Then she realized that it was probably just more of some kind of power play.

“Great,” Tim answered with a smile. “I look forward to your response. In the meantime, do you object if we take a closer look at this uninhabited land in question? We did walk through it, but there’s surely a lot more to see.”

Cern exchanged a quick look with a few of his followers. “No, you may feel free to do as you wish. But do you intend for all of you to travel there?”

Tim glanced at Tia and Janis. “I think we will send some flying drones, but some of us may go there as well.”

Tia suppressed a smile. She was looking forward to seeing their new land. Since Mia and most of the other Workers (or those with Classes evolved from Drone Worker) weren’t here, that meant it was up to her to maybe find a location where they would build a settlement! And start planning, of course. And take stock of what resources and opportunities or challenges the location might hold. It was a bit daunting, but Tia was excited to tackle it.

Tim gave her an amused look when they finally left the humans. He could probably tell what she was thinking, especially since she hadn’t paid as much attention to the end of the meeting as she should have. Not that anything had happened, they hadn’t talked much after the important things were said. She understood, the humans probably needed to hear from their leader before they knew how to act.

On the way back, they stayed quiet until they returned to an area where most of the Hive drones were, and no humans around to listen in.

Then Tim said, “I’ve already told a few Swarm Drones to head north. We can at least check out the edge of the area with them. I don’t think I can get anything from one more than a few kilometers away, though, can any of you?”

Tia shook her head, as did a few of the others who’d shown up to listen in. She wasn’t even sure if she would be able to get anything really useful from the mind of a drone a few kilometers away. “No, I do think one of us, at least, should go ourselves. We need to supervise the drones, anyway, if we send some further away.”

“Agreed. I think you should go, Tia. Take the new Mount, and check out the scenery. You probably know what to pay attention to better than anyone else.”

“Are you sure?” Tia asked.

Tim nodded, smiling slightly at her. “Sure. I’ll handle the humans for a while. Actually, knowing more about the terrain would probably be helpful for that, anyway. And take enough Swarm Drones with you to protect you. Actually, maybe we can ask Regina to get Dark down here in our next letter.”

“That’s a good idea,” Janis said. “I wish I could come, but I think I’m more useful here, right now.”

Tia nodded, resisted the urge to hug both of them goodbye, and ran off to call the drone. They had one new Winged Drone Mount who had Evolved recently, though she’d never ridden it before. She had tried it with one of the others, though, so she’d be fine.

She checked in on the other drones and quickly assembled a small group of Winged Drones, all of them at least at level 10, to accompany her. Tim had apparently also sent out a unit of War Drones, so she’d have to supervise them, as well. With the mobility of a flying mount, that was fine.

Tia smiled and let out an excited whoop as she rose into the air. After a minute, she stopped holding on tightly and spread her hands. The town shrank beneath her as the winged drone rose into the air. It dipped slightly as it turned, and Tia reluctantly grabbed on with one hand again. Then she focused on her mission.

The other Winged Drones kept pace with her easily. They could probably outfly her mount without difficulty, since it was weighed down by having a rider. But that didn’t matter much, since they didn’t have far to go.

Tia ordered her mount to fly lower, taking a closer look at the terrain. It didn’t take her long to find the War Drones, who were marching further into the uninhabited land at a quick pace. They were still sticking together for now, but they would spread out later. On the way here with the army, they had come through mostly from the north-northeast, so Tia headed more to the northwest now.

The terrain was pretty open here, with barely any trees. The trees further south, around the first village they’d seen, were already pretty small and scraggly, but they did more to break up the landscape. It was also a bit hilly, not enough to make navigating the area particularly difficult, but it would probably be an issue for building roads or something like that.

There didn’t even seem to be that many monsters around, either. Tia found a few that appeared to be pretty strong and avoided them, but that was probably to be expected. No one had mentioned any especially strong monsters that lived here. For a moment, she considered whether the humans might have kept something like that from them, but Janis would have definitely said something, at least. This was close enough to her home that she should know.

After a while, Tia made the drone descend and jumped off, to get an ‘on the ground’ view of the terrain. She stood in a nice area around forty kilometers or so into the stretch of land, by a small brook that bubbled its way through it. It was the only source of water she’d seen close by, and it was pretty thin. Further off, it vanished underground and only emerged after two dozen kilometers or so.

Tia walked around, absentmindedly rustling the leaves of some bushes. It was pretty arid land, especially considering the big forest just to the west. That might be why no one lived here. There could also be more to it, of course, but she wasn’t too worried, from what she’d seen.

The Hive didn’t need to cultivate grain or anything else that demanded a lot of water, and they could always dig for the groundwater. They were definitely going to dig, anyway. Tia smiled a little as she looked at the ground with a new focus.

Yeah, this was fine enough terrain for digging tunnels. They could build underground warrens, maybe even connecting various above-ground settlement sites as their Queen chose.

It would be a fun project to work on.