Regina was discovering how nerve-wracking it was to just watch and not be able to affect anything. She’d even tried to send a few Winged Drones very high up in the sky, trying to maybe move above the effect and look down from above, but there didn’t seem to be a limit, at least not that she could reach.

So, she was reduced to scrying to see what was happening. At least it let her know that Janis and Madris hadn’t killed each other yet. In fact, they were talking pretty animatedly and it seemed to be serious.

Regina frowned. Even without the most recent message passed by flying drones, it wouldn’t have been hard to surmise that Madris had offered their help. Regina couldn’t help but be suspicious, after how their last conversation went. Then again, the dark elf Delver seemed more like an arrogant, overbearing ‘old monster’ who didn’t have much patience for others and didn’t much care what they thought about it. That didn’t seem like someone who would be given to intrigue, who’d sabotage them and then show up for some elaborate plot to betray them for … inscrutable reasons, presumably. Which didn’t even consider the fact that she was probably also risking herself by going into a psychic suppression area of effect, although Regina wouldn’t count on that.

“Regina?” Max interrupted her contemplations. “The escort is ready. We can go now.”

Regina shook her head and stood up. “Alright,” she agreed. Then she waited, rolling her eyes, as Max moved to leave the room first.

They would have probably decided to relocate her if for no other reason than that something was screwing with the psychic link, and it could potentially have revealed her location. The link was centered on her, after all. But Regina had also decided to move closer to the area in question. It wasn’t near the edge of her range currently, but she’d already discovered that if something was messing with or weakening the psychic link, distance became a factor. She’d hopefully be more easily able to pierce whatever effect this was and sense more from her drones there if she was closer. Not that Max would let her too close, of course. There was still an enemy army in the area, and everyone had considered it a terrible idea for her to be caught in this suppression field, or whatever they decided to call it.

She had to wait for a bit for all of her bodyguard detachment to assemble, trying not to let her annoyance leak too much through the psychic link. Then Regina got on a Winged Drone Mount - not Thor this time, since he was elsewhere - and tried to enjoy the ride as it ascended into the air. A small cloud of Winged Drones flew around them for additional protection, which felt like too many when they were so clearly needed on other fronts of the war. Regina had barely even started that argument with Max before she knew it would be a waste of time, though.

The flight wouldn’t take long, but Regina didn’t pay much attention to it as she watched things and talked to people through the psychic link. Fortunately, essentially having a chunk of it cut out didn’t seem to affect the rest. If the psychic link and the way it worked even depended on linear space at all, it was clearly flexible enough to account for it, since she could access the area behind the affected one just as easily as the rest.

If nothing else, this episode was giving her some interesting insight on the psychic link, and its limitations.

Ben had stepped up their attacks on the Nerlian army which had turtled up further north. They were still getting worn down, and as she watched another bombardment combined with pushes from the Hive’s ground troops increased the pressure. They’d originally intended to wear them down and force a surrender with most people still alive. Hopefully, that could still work. Regina didn’t really want to abandon the idea, even with the new developments. After all, it seemed like any battle between Janis’ group and the other enemy army would be over before any of the ground forces with Tim could potentially arrive.

The Esemen also weren’t letting time pass them by. As Regina watched through drones flying high overhead, she could see their forces advancing through the northern reaches of Cernlia. They actually hadn’t limited themselves to Whitor’s demesne, although it was clearly the focus of their efforts. There was no obvious change she could see, no indication whether they had worked with the Nerlians or not. It was possible, but … there was still the invasion, and the historical enmity the countries apparently shared. She simply didn’t know.

Regina just didn’t want this to turn into another Thirty Years’ War, although at this point, things almost seemed to be going that way, if you squinted a little. Let’s hope religion, or rather the gods, aren’t involved … oh, who am I kidding, they definitely have their fingers in this pie.

And to make things worse, the Nerlians and their Cernlian allies were not letting grass grow under their feet. The vanguard she’d seen before kept getting beefed up, and they were making good progress towards Janis’ group. Which was still moving slower than them. The Nerlians obviously weren’t using a ritual this time, but they just as clearly had selected the soldiers in their strike force carefully.

Regina tried to zoom in a little and examine them more closely. She was wary of getting too close with a scrying anchor, since in her experience their enemies had some countermeasures, and she didn’t know what they might still have up their sleeves. Considering what had just happened to the psychic link, she’d rather be careful. Still, even from above she could see the soldiers marching. They looked a little ragged, evidence of the long campaign that lay behind them. They seemed to have left behind almost all supply transport, but the soldiers were obviously carrying their equipment. It showed a wide variety of weapons, another indication they were relatively high-leveled. Lower-level conscripts with less suitable Classes were more likely to get assigned weapons en masse, in her experience. Usually spears or axes, if they didn’t have or convert some weapons of their own.

After watching them for a while, Regina realized there was no point in this. She couldn’t replace the psychic link’s scouting capability with her scrying, and it would be pointless to focus too much on it. So she sent off her impressions, compressed into a manageable packet, into the psychic link and alerted the Keepers to handle the information, before she turned her attention away.

She’d already sent someone off to contact Galatea, and now checked again. It was still annoying that her friend wasn’t part of the psychic link, but at least her location hadn’t been cut off, so they could get around that.

Right now, Galatea was pacing in a room in one of the workshops they had raised not far from Forest’s Haunt, as she clearly considered what she’d just been told. Mia had arrived here as well, feeling anxious.

“You still can’t get any information from within the affected area through the psychic link at all?” Galatea was asking.

“No,” Mia replied. She straightened up a little. “Regina says that it’s clearly not suppressed completely, it’s just effectively not possible to reliably communicate,” she relayed.

Galatea paused, her gaze focusing on Mia. “And Madris is there?”

Mia cocked her head as she listened for Regina’s answer, who quickly described what she had seen. “Yes, along with at least one other obviously high-level companion,” she replied. “She threw down weapons she had on her and talked to Janis and Earl Whitor, and seems to have offered her help.”

Galatea nodded. “I was afraid I was wrong about her not being behind this type of psychic suppression, but it seems that was groundless. Still, I wouldn’t have expected her to offer help, but maybe I’m doing her a disservice.”

“Can’t you just go and talk to them?” Mia asked, this time not echoing Regina, although she was wondering the same thing.

“Of course, although then I won’t be able to talk to you,” Galatea said. “Scrying works for you, right?”

“So far, although Regina says we are pressed for time,” Mia informed her.

“Alright, then I won’t waste time,” Galatea said. She still hesitated, her brow creasing, as her clothing morphed into what looked like leather armor. Regina could tell she was speaking more to her than to Mia as she continued, “I would prefer not to have knowledge of my presence or the fact that I’m helping your Hive spread. That doesn’t mean I won’t fight if I have to, but …”

I understand, Regina said quickly, and Mia relayed her words.

“I have been keeping an eye on the Delvers,” Galatea said with a slight nod. “Hearing that Madris is here may shed light on their behavior, I’ve got to admit it left me scratching my head a little. Figuratively. Regina, I really think you should talk to them. Maybe when this is over.”

“Are they an immediate concern, considering this situation?” Mia asked, frowning.

“Well, I’m not going to be scrying them now, but I don’t think so,” Galatea said. “If you get Madris killed, they might not be happy, though. It’s a good thing Janis and the others didn’t let a fight break out.”

Regina sighed to herself. Galatea had clearly decided that everything important had been said, and disappeared quickly. She wasn’t there herself, so she couldn’t feel the mana, but the AI must have teleported.

Regina opened her eyes and glanced around, reaching out to the minds of several flying drones to get a sense of her current position. They were coming up on the outpost Max had suggested as a place for her to be closer to the action while still staying safe, and she could sense that several drones had already gathered here. It would also make sense as a staging point for reinforcements into northern Cernlia, so she didn’t mind it, even if they would have been more useful with Janis or Whitor’s men.

While the drones decelerated and descended, Regina closed her eyes again briefly and felt for the few drones they’d left in the area currently threatened by the Esemen forces. Unfortunately, resistance against the new invaders was still pretty scattered, and taking the local leadership and highest concentration of troops for the hive as well as Whitor out of communication had made it worse.

It hadn’t been that long since it all started, so they hadn’t advanced much further, but just seeing their positions, Regina could tell it wasn’t looking good. Whitor’s soldiers had barely managed to organize any kind of defense. But right now, Regina was trying to assess whether the Esemen would be able to interfere with what was going on further southwest. She didn’t think so, to her relief. Although she’d definitely ask several of the drones as well.

Since she was coming closer as well, Regina pushed herself further. She only had very few, scattered drones further out, more to mark the extent and edge of her range and help with triangulating positions and orienting themselves than anything else. Still, there were a few drones she’d left throughout Cernlia, mostly flying drones with levels in the thirties who had an Evolved Class good at stealth, and who could stay in the air for a bit. She’d already nudged several of them closer to the Delvers’ area of operations after Galatea had mentioned them last time, and now she connected to their minds and tried to see if anything had changed.

It was pretty obvious, even with the drones’ attempts to stay hidden, supervised by other members of the hive. The Delvers were clearly assembling some forces; the town they were based in was filled with a clearly above-average number of armed individuals with questionable fashion senses. There was a lot of activity around the Delvers’ compound, especially. The drone Regina was using didn’t get very close and only picked that much up because of an Ability that gave it enhanced eyesight, and Regina nudged it away quickly, wary of getting found out spying on them. At least if the Delvers did have some kind of mystical oracle or scryer they seemed to have more important things to be doing right now.

Regina absentmindedly jumped down from her Mount and looked over the small village attached to the hive’s outpost. It only consisted of a few houses that had been evacuated already, and only housed hive drones currently. Max and his cadre of bodyguards surrounded her, scanning the buildings and the horizon warily. Regina made her way to the sturdiest building they’d put up, if only to get them to relax a bit once there were walls around her. At the same time, she was still focused on what she could see through the psychic link and through scrying.

“The Delvers are clearly gearing up for something, Galatea was right,” she told Max.

He nodded. “When you said everyone and their grandmother were coming to join this mess, you weren’t exactly wrong,” he commented. “But I doubt most of them are really sure of themselves. There has to be a lot of suspicion.”

“Everyone’s trying to be on guard for betrayal and also figure out how to invade another country and get some tasty chunk of land or whatever for themselves,” Regina continued the thought. “Yeah. This is a giant mess.”

“We’re doing the same thing,” Ira pointed out, following behind Regina. “They just have more experience with it.”

Regina pulled a face. “True,” she said quietly. It was a thought she’d had before. For all of their strength, everyone in the hive was still very inexperienced.

“We do have a lot of things they haven’t seen before,” she said. “And it occurs to me this may be a good chance to test some of them. Our enemies are going to focus on how they suppressed our psychic link’s capability. It may be an opportunity for some … other developments.”

Max smiled, showing the tips of sharp teeth. “Absolutely, my Queen.”