Clearly, Regina should have known better than to tempt fate like that. The very next day, another letter arrived, this time from Marquis Lyns himself.

Well, at least nothing seems to have actually blown up anywhere, Regina mused as she folded the sheet of paper after reading it for the second time. It had arrived at one of Neralt’s smaller villages, conveyed via a magical bird construct, and she’d had one of her Winged Drones pick it up and bring it to her from there.

Regina quickly contacted a few other people and pulled them into a psychic conference call. She’d gotten a lot better at that lately. She sent them her mental impression of the letter, being careful to make the memory clear and sharp, so they got the text clearly.

I just received that from the marquis, she said. To sum up, he’s asking for a personal meeting. At least, that’s the main thing I got from it.

True, he’s not really saying much else, Janis agreed. Regina faintly sensed her frowning as the demihuman mage analyzed the missive. He clearly has something he wants to speak about.

Or to ask me about, Regina added. I think you were right, Janis. He probably wants something.

Are you going to agree? Max asked. To meet him, I mean.

We probably should. If nothing else, she needed to know what he wanted, and getting more information about the state of the Cernlian civil war was probably good, too.

And what about the practicalities of it? Mia put in. Location and the rest?

Well, I’m not going to invite him into the base, Regina quickly said and frowned slightly. Which probably means we need to hold it somewhere further away.

I’m not sure that’s a good idea, Max commented.

What, you want to invite him into our home? I wouldn’t have thought, Regina answered.

She felt him huff and shake his head. I wouldn’t be thrilled about that, true, but sending you out of our territory is even worse, my Queen.

Regina shrugged. Nothing says I have to come alone. Besides, I doubt the gnomes could get someone clear to the other side of our territory. Either way, we haven’t even decided anything yet. I’ll write back to Lyns.

The impromptu conference ended on that note, and Regina quickly penned another letter, in which she agreed to his proposal in principle and asked about the details. It might take a bit more back-and-forth until they had sorted everything out. She doubted they’d actually be able to meet in less than a week or so.

Of course, a lot could change even in a short time if you were at war.

While the hive’s forces had let up on them, the gnomish army heading towards her had started moving through the hive’s territory. They weren’t heading straight for their central base, of course — presumably, that would leave their back or flanks too exposed. Instead, they fanned out somewhat, though they still kept their forces largely concentrated, and attacked outposts of the hive.

Regina mostly left these matters to Ben, and he’d decided not to try and hold any of them. For one thing, he didn’t want a decisive confrontation until the other main part of the hive’s forces, which had fought the gnomes in the mountains, was ready to support them. In that regard, it was probably even a good idea to suck the gnomish army further north, away from their own home.

That meant the hive abandoned some outposts outright, and concentrated defenses on a few bases. These were meant mostly to slow the gnomes down, although if their enemies believed they fought seriously to hold them, Regina would definitely not complain. They used some explosives as well as the terrain, both natural and artificial trenches and fortifications, to make taking them more costly. At the same time, Ben arranged things so they wouldn’t leave any sapient drone actually inside and in danger when the gnomes inevitably overran the hive’s outposts. It’s probably just a new level in his strategy of attrition, Regina reflected.

If she looked at it another way, this war was giving her commanders and warriors a lot of experience. That might be an even better thing than the System Experience her drones earned, in the long term. Regina wouldn’t say it was worth the cost, but she supposed if the gnomes were going to attack them anyway, she could at least look on the bright side. And there were a few advantages to this situation, despite the danger.

She was almost more concerned about the situation in the mountains. The gnomish army was basically shattered, but pieces still remained. It was hard to get an exact count, even with the hive’s Winged Drones. Gnomes could use hiding spaces and tunnels just like drones, after all. Most of the surviving soldiers seemed to have fled back into the Confederation’s territory, from what they could tell, but there were probably units remaining in the mountains. And while Regina obviously had no reason to doubt her own forces’ discipline, she had a much more tenuous hold over the elementals.

Janis had already returned and met with Volance again. Together, they were managing to keep the elementals who’d joined the war mostly pointed in the same direction and under control. If Regina didn’t give them some action eventually, though, she doubted it would stay that way.

“Can’t we simply go into the tunnels?” Volance asked just now. She sounded surprisingly whiny for a presumably centuries-old monster.

Janis sighed, then sent a tentative question out across the psychic link to Regina, who quickly pulled Ben in, as well.

“You know what, yes, sure,” Janis answered with a faint smile. “We’re going to send a few probes through the gnomes’ tunnels. The plan is to take care of any outposts they’ve left vulnerable, too, anyway. I can get you and your companions sent through the main target we’ve identified,“ - her voice turned sterner - “if you promise to behave yourselves and come back on time.”

“Yes, mother, of course, mother,” Volance responded sarcastically.

Regina snickered to herself and left Janis to the task of wrangling the elementals. Ben and Tim got involved, filling out their strategy and preparing other strike teams to head into the other gnomish tunnels they’d found which presumably lead back into their Confederation.

They would mostly put Swarm Drones into those, and no sapient drones that would have to fight close up and could fall prey to traps. With the psychic link, they didn’t really need to have a commander on the spot, after all, even if it did make things easier and generally worked better, and Regina still didn’t want to risk her sapient hive members too much.

This also meant that she didn’t get a very good look at what the elementals did, unfortunately. They had assigned a few Swarm Drones to them, but the group of three elementals left those in the dust pretty quickly.

Including Volance, they had an air elemental, an earth elemental and a fire elemental. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Volance and the earth elemental, Eterrame, were the most effective. With the limited air supply in a tunnel, not to mention the surrounding earth, they killed the gnomish guards positioned in a reinforced checkpoint at the other end before they even realized what was happening, as far as Regina could tell. The drones coming up behind them didn’t hear any cries of alarm, anyway.

She tried to focus a bit more on what she could make out on her own. Elementals’ minds were a bit weird to her psychic senses, compared to humans’ or gnomes. She could still get a general idea of their mood if she concentrated, though, or the direction of their attention if they focused on something enough. They did have ‘strong’ minds, for lack of a better description, which made it harder for them to hide.

It looked like the tunnel the elementals had entered was actually the start of a small complex. There were two other tunnels leading from a cave that might have originally been natural. Regina quietly told her Swarm Drones to fan out while the elementals took care of any gnomes left in the cave. They’d built scaffolds, walls and parapets here, clearly turning this place into a defensive chokepoint.

It didn’t help them much against the elementals. Volance appeared to be experimenting with some of the new knowledge she’d gained, choking gnomes out in various ways. Eterrame liked forming spikes under their feet or dropping them on their heads. And Scaldrise, the fire elemental, liked playing with very small, finely-controlled fireballs or what looked more like lines of fire. Regina was glad they were on her side.

Once the War Drones moved past them and started scouting the other tunnels, she turned her attention away from the elementals and to what her drones were seeing. The gnomes had clearly spent quite some time building up infrastructure around the edge of the mountains and their territory, and at least a bit of time fortifying it. After a while, and with the help of the Keepers updating the mental map of the area, she felt like she got a good overview of it. This tunnel with a defensive base wasn’t the only one. At the same time, she could tell that only a few of them actually led deeper into the Confederation, towards the two or so cities at the border, in this region. One of these cities would be the one Bea and the others visited, and the tunnel Janis and her group had taken was especially well fortified. The gnomes had also blocked the path they had originally taken to arrive there, aboveground, with boulders rolled into place to block narrow spots.

I don’t think we should try and push those strong points now, Ben said when she asked him his opinion. We planned on this being probing attacks, to push the gnomes back, keep them off-balance, and get more information.

Alright, Regina agreed. I guess we would need a little more preparation before we attempt another major offensive, she added with a mental smile.

Ben responded with a mix of a chuckle and an eye-roll, before his focus shifted to watching some of the drones currently clearing out an isolated gnomish outpost. Well, isolated now; the hive’s attacks and the loss or retreat of other gnomish forces in the area had left it exposed. It wasn’t the only outpost like that, either, which was why they’d pushed the attack now.

Regina turned her attention back to the elementals. Now that they’d cleared out the cave outpost, Janis entered it, though Tim insisted on assigning her a bodyguard squad of high-level War Drones. Regina watched as she stepped closer to a group of fallen gnomes and looked at the bodies.

After a moment, she looked up and stepped away from them. The Swarm Drones parted around her as Janis walked to the end of the cave.

“Grandmother?” she called.

Regina, like Janis, could gather the location of the elementals through the eyes of nearby Swarm Drones, though that weren’t many. Obviously, they couldn’t talk over the psychic link, though.

Regina wasn’t sure if Volance didn’t hear Janis, or simply chose not to answer. She didn’t give any reaction, either way, and instead kept talking to her fellows as they continued down another tunnel. They’d already cleared out one more outpost, little more than a waypoint where two tunnels met, but now they were approaching what she recognized as a main road to the gnomes’ city. If it was open, it had to be strongly defended.

Regina hesitated. For a moment, she thought about ordering Janis to go run after the elementals. But that would be an unacceptable risk, considering the gnomes likely had high-level people in the area, for uncertain gain.

Instead, she chose one of the War Drones nearby, an Elite variant almost at level forty, which was closest to the elementals. She made it hurry after them quickly. And once it was in range, Regina tried to speak through it. “Wait, slow down. Get back, we don’t want to attack strong points like this yet.”

Unfortunately, that didn’t have the intended effect. Or rather, it didn’t work as she intended. Regina hadn’t actually tried to make one say anything in a while, and Swarm Drones were still not very well suited to speech, so it came out rather garbled. At least Volance and the others paused, the air elemental looking at the Swarm Drone in surprise. During that pause, while they’d stopped talking, Janis called after them again.

Volance looked at the drone, glanced back up in Janis’ direction, then down the tunnel. Regina held her breath, waiting for a long moment. She almost thought the elementals would just ignore them.

Then Volance smiled and turned around. “Let’s go back, can’t have us scaring my granddaughter.”

“Are you serious, Volance?” Eterrame asked.

She turned and fixed him with a look. “We’re here fighting for our dear allies, the Hive, remember. If they want us back instead of killing the gnomes up ahead, why not indulge them? I’m sure you’ll get plenty of opportunity to fight gnomes later.”

The earth elemental sighed and grumbled, but both of the others turned around and they accompanied Volance back down the tunnel toward the fortified cave.

Regina let out a deep breath and shook her head. She moved her attention away, trusting Janis to handle the situation. Hopefully, they’d be able to keep the elementals entertained going forward. Especially considering Janis should probably come with her to any meeting with the Cernlian rebels. A bit of time getting to know the other hive members here probably wouldn’t go amiss. She made a mental note to nudge Tim to talk with them. He was surprisingly good at making friends for someone usually so taciturn, and he was still the overall commander of the area.

With a final quick look at the senior drones in the region, Regina turned her attention to matters closer to home. A large clutch of drones was about to hatch, and she should make sure their space was taken up again. Then she had a meeting with Mia and Zoe about the food situation for the hive, and she should get some training in, too.