Ken had been enjoying the gnomes’ ‘hospitality’ for some time now, and while they might not have realized that, it had given Regina a bit of insight into them. Not about their capabilities, really, since they were careful not to let him see anything important, but regarding their mindset. They didn’t come right out and explain anything about that, of course, but Regina - and her drones - could gather some things from what they did say and how.

His injuries had healed a little while ago, although the gnomes hadn’t exactly fallen over themselves to give Ken proper medical care. Regina suspected he’d have trouble until she could properly heal him, since his left shoulder and upper blade-arm had been broken in several places and hadn’t healed perfectly, so his range of motion was limited. Not that it would have done him much good under the circumstances.

Regina hadn’t talked to Ken often. In fact, she’d deliberately limited how often she checked on him. In her position, feeding her anger against the gnomes could have been dangerous, and she hadn’t wanted to undermine her resolve to do what had to be done and prioritize the rest of her hive over him if she needed to. That didn’t mean she hadn’t kept on top of what was happening, though.

Regina was hesitant to give the gnomes any kind of credit, but they’d seemed averse to using physical torture on him. So far, at least. Instead, they’d leaned into more psychological methods. Which could be bad enough, she knew. Ken was chronically sleep-deprived, since they kept waking him with buckets of cold water (or occasionally very hot water, for a change) and bright lights. That wasn’t exactly helping to keep him focused and thinking clearly. He would have had no idea how much time had even passed without his connection to the hive. And that was only one aspect. They kept him confined in darkness in a small space, denied any contact with anyone else — as far as they knew — except for their interrogators. And they interrogated him constantly, relentlessly, often for hours at a time.

It was clearly taking its toll, and she didn’t know if he’d even be able to muster the necessary focus and clarity of mind to use his magic. Still, Regina was proud of how well he’d stood up to everything. They’d tried to humiliate and degrade him, but that hadn’t worked out very well for them — unfortunately for the gnomes, a hive drone’s understanding of dignity or shame were too different from what they might be used to. It wasn’t like going naked or eating bugs would faze any of them. In fact, she knew he took great satisfaction in their frustration to get anything out of him. At first, Ken had answered a few questions, but after they kept repeating and trying to goad him into either admitting his ‘crimes’ or giving up information on the hive, he’d refused to say anything.

But Regina was aware that things couldn’t stay like this. The gnomes were already escalating, and if they kept failing, it would only get worse. So, it didn’t really come as a surprise when Ida turned to her to express some concern.

She did wish the gnomes hadn’t done this in the middle of the battle at the fortress, though.

Well, to be fair, it probably wasn’t the middle. The defenders had run out of ammunition a while ago, and they barely even had any random rocks to use instead anymore. Ben had arranged a few supply deliveries using Winged Drones, but he’d asked her permission to stop those now, since the risk was becoming too great. The drones inside were preparing to enact their contingency plan. At least they’d already killed lots of gnomes.

A phantom sensation of stinging pain yanked Regina’s attention from the battle. It was strong enough to catch her attention even despite her focus and the number of drones in her hive. Unfortunately, she knew immediately what was happening.

Regina tried to send a soothing sensation to Ken, while she also contacted Ida. What’s happening? She asked. The Drone Keeper had been monitoring him and would know more about the situation.

Ida sent a report consisting mostly of a compressed stream of feelings and a few pictures. She was better at that sort of thing than any drones of other Templates, not surprisingly. They’ve started using physical interrogation methods since he hasn’t broken from what they’ve tried so far, she concluded.

Regina grimaced and sent her the equivalent of a soothing hug, as well. You’ve done good work, Ida. Feel free to … distance yourself a bit. This will be hard enough as it is.

In the meantime, the gnomish torturer removed his red-hot iron from Ken’s bound body and reapplied it on his left cheek. Ken couldn’t resist jerking back, a scream wrenched out of him. Regina winced.

Then she exhaled and pulled up a System message she’d been considering for a little while.

You may now select your sixth Class Skill. Please choose one of the following: Queen’s Summons: Your drones follow your call. Once per day, you may directly summon one Hive member or up to three Swarm Drones, depending on type, into your presence. This effect ignores physical or magical restraints, although it may be countered by magic considerably more powerful than your own. At higher levels of mastery, the frequency of use and number of concurrent targets will increase, and you will be able to summon them to positions an increasing distance from your current location. Queen’s Wings: Your mind and soul need a strong body. Your body will be strengthened. Flight will be easier and drain less mana. The functioning of all of your organs will be improved to various degrees. This will also improve your processing speed. At higher levels of mastery, your wings will be further improved and allow you to fly without draining mana. Psychic Reach: Your mind’s reach is the limit of your power, and its instrument. Once per day, you may push past your normal limits, expanding the range of your psychic link by half. Your psychic ability will be sharpened and you may focus your psychic connection to your hive into one of your drones, which will considerably boost all of their stats. This effect will last for level/2 minutes. At higher levels of mastery, the range and strength of the boosting effect will be strengthened further.

Regina frowned thoughtfully. She’d been hesitating over this choice for a while. It hadn’t seemed like it had any immediate impact, and she’d wanted to be sure of her choice. Or, if I’m honest, maybe I hesitated because I was thinking about this, she acknowledged to herself.

She wasn’t surprised to see Queen’s Wings again, although would have preferred Inner Hive Strength, and her evaluation hadn’t changed. It would be nice, but her power was based on her hive and to a lesser degree on her magic, not physical strength or her personal skill at flying.

The other two choices were active Abilities, and they both sounded good. The first one had drawn her eye, for obvious reasons. It was just what she’d need to get her drones out of a tight spot in something like this war. Besides, it was teleportation! Very conditional teleportation, but still. It would also let her summon fighters to her defense if she was ever ambushed. If she for some reason got separated from Max, this would be vital.

The other choice would also be nice to have, although she hadn’t really had any trouble with the range of her psychic abilities. Not recently, at least. Then again, the war with the gnomes might change that, and the ability to send scouts deeper into the Confederation’s territory could be very useful. Buffing one of her drones in the process, by what sounded like a lot, wouldn’t hurt, either. If she used that on Tim, he could probably stand up to the highest-leveled fighter the gnomes could throw at him in direct combat. Then again, it might be a bit more limited than the first option.

Regina wondered at the timing of her getting that choice. Had it been intentionally offered to her now? Well, maybe she was seeing a pattern where there was none, and she couldn’t be sure. It also didn’t really impinge on her choice.

In the end, little though she liked to admit it, she was a mother, and the hive were her children. The need to protect them would always be a priority.

Regina took another mental look at Ken and chose Queen’s Summons without hesitation.

Then she barely waited for it to settle before she activated it, focused on Ken. The gnomes weren’t stopping their torture. She wished she could teleport in a grenade as a replacement, but freeing Ken would have to do.

The interrogator — she couldn’t see his Class name, but that much was obvious — was just reheating the iron poker and had taken out a knife. He started with a shallow cut along Ken’s arm, breaking the softer and more flexible shell on the inside and around the joints, then raised his knife and started to bring it back down. The last thing Ken saw before vanishing was the glint of the blade in the torchlight.

Then Regina pulled him to her side. Ken stumbled, but she caught him before he fell. She cradled him in her arms and tried to project the same soothing warmth to his mind, which was understandably shaken at the moment.

“Mother?” he murmured, blinking and looking up at her.

“You’re safe now, Ken,” she told him. “Via, Ira, help me get him to the infirmary.”

The two Assistants hurried to carry out her order, taking Ken and carrying him from her room as gently as possible. They put him down on one of the cots in the hive’s medical center. Then Regina laid a hand over the cut, activating Greater Heal and sealing it.

“My Queen …” Ken glanced around. “How did you do this?” He paused. “A new Skill?” He seemed to realize the answer from the impressions he got out of the psychic link.

Regina smiled at him and paused her healing. “Yes. I reached level 45 because of the battle.” Then she paused and mentally told Via and Ira to fetch some water and disinfectant. “I’m proud of you, Ken,” she continued. “I really am. You showed a lot of strength.”

He seemed to relax at those words. “Thanks,” he muttered. “I couldn’t have betrayed you, or the Hive …”

Regina nodded and continued her work. She cleaned his burns, healed them with Greater Heal, then tried to do something about his general state of neglect and abuse, to clear all the toxins that must have accumulated.

It took some time. Most of the damage he had taken was subtle, and even Greater Heal struggled with things of that sort. He really needed at least several days of rest, good food and calm. Well, and a proper bath, of course. But Regina had to check him out before she sent him to bed. If there was a serious issue, she needed to find it as soon as possible. Luckily, it didn’t seem like he’d suffered anything that couldn’t be healed, and she knew he’d be getting lots of emotional support from the other drones in the hive, especially through the psychic link. Hopefully, that would help him cope with the psychological trauma.

Eventually, Regina guided Ken to one of the bedrooms. Ria had already prepared a nice sleeping space and Ida entered the room as well, silently joining them and cuddling into Ken’s side. Regina gave them another smile and wave of gentle assurance, then closed the door behind her and returned to her own room.

She quickly realized that she’d been occupied for at least an hour, probably longer, although she’d been too focused to notice the passing of time. The others hadn’t interrupted her, and she was relieved to realize that nothing had happened that meant they would have needed to.

Looking through one of the Winged Drones above the - former - battlefield would have been enough to tell her what happened. The fortress was in ruins. Well, maybe not quite, although it looked that way. She knew it would be easier to repair it than to build a completely new one, at least for the people who’d originally built it and with Neralt’s help. It was going to prove ‘uncooperative’ for the gnomes if they tried, though, he’d assured her.

She was a bit annoyed that she’d missed the demolition, but a quick glance through the information Jem sent her showed that everything had gone more or less according to plan, and they’d actually managed to crush a few gnomes at the same time. The hive had dug very carefully under carefully chosen positions, and used powerful explosives.

All of her sapient drones who’d still been there had made it out, too. Regina grinned at the thought. I bet the gnomes didn’t think we could dig tunnels like that, she reflected.

Well, maybe she was being unfair. They did use tunnels themselves and everything. But they probably hadn’t believed the hive could do as much as they had in the short time they’d had. Luckily, Hivekind were good burrowers and the Workers’ Ground Excavation Skill didn’t really care if it removed soft dirt or mountain rocks. So did a few other Skills. They’d had to limit their use of explosives, to preserve secrecy, or she would have had them build quite a few more tunnels, too.

It looks like everything is fine, she said to Ben. Anything I need to know?

Not really, my Queen, he responded. It’s good that you got Ken out, though.

Regina sent a mental nod of agreement. It is. I’m sure the Ability will be useful in the future, too. Her mood darkened. Maybe we wouldn’t have lost anyone if I’d had it earlier.

She didn’t need Ben or Tim to tell her about their losses. She could sense them missing from the psychic link. Somehow, losing sapient drones still hit a lot harder than the hundreds if not thousands of Swarm Drones she’d already lost.

Regina took a moment of silence to reflect on those she’d lost, her good mood evaporating. She hadn’t known any of them very well, personally, but she still felt the loss, and she didn’t want to lose that feeling.

In the great scheme of things, she supposed two young Shooters and a Warrior weren’t a very heavy price to pay, especially considering the casualties the gnomes must have taken. They had still been Regina’s, though. She’d known something like that was going to happen, and she knew it would probably happen again. Eventually, even just stray shots and attacks would hit, no matter how hard she tried to protect her people, in a war.

Ironically, knowing more about the gnomes, like what she learned from watching how they treated Ken, helped, in a way. It made it clear that even if Regina had completely ignored the death of Bea and the others, or even if she’d never sent them in the first place, the war would have happened, anyway. Her drones weren’t just fighting for Regina or even for revenge, they really were fighting to protect their hive.

We managed to recover their bodies and I’m already making preparations for a funeral, Ben said, his own tone somber. I wish I could recall some of their comrades who fought with them, but under the circumstances …

Regina nodded. Yeah, they should stay where they are. I hope the gnomes aren’t about to catch them?

No, we managed to break contact. For the most part, anyway. Ben smiled slightly. I’m sure the gnomes still have enough of a trail to follow.

Regina expressed her approval. Ben seemed to have things well in hand. And if the gnomes seemed inclined to be too cautious, she was sure a few Winged Drones in the right spots could convince them otherwise.

Ultimately, the hive’s advantages in coordination and aerial mobility would be a lot more decisive in the mountains than in open terrain. Even without the elementals’ help, Regina was sure the hive could make their lives hell up there. With it, she was hoping to whittle this part of their army down until it collapsed. The gnomes still had other formations moving out of the mountains, but the hive would get to those in time, too. Regina was kind of looking forward to everything.