Regina wasn’t sure how long she stood in that dark auditorium. The others were all pretty quiet, and she herself barely looked away from what she’d found here.

She wasn’t sure if she had actually attended this graduation ceremony. From what they’d found in the old Hivekind base, maybe not. She might have already been in that egg. It had to have been very close to the Cataclysm. It was definitely some time after the report she’d found had been written. On the other hand, it didn’t really matter.

Finally, she sighed, shook her head and turned around. “Well. Thank you for showing me this, Madris. I appreciate it.”

The Delver smiled. “Of course.”

They both knew she hadn’t shown her that just to show her, but Regina wasn’t going to come right out and ask her what she wanted. That would be a bit too belligerent after a gesture like this. Instead, she just turned and walked away. The others followed suit, and as they stepped out of the hall, the conversation picked up.

“It’s a bit of a pretentious name, isn’t it?” Max asked lightly.

Regina snorted. “A bit pretentious, sure.”

“There are worse ones to have,” Galatea assured them. “I tried to look but haven’t found any references in the data I had access to, at least not what I kept, so far.”

That’s good to know, I suppose. “Do those include criminal records? Digital phone books?”

“Yes. In part.” Galatea shrugged. “I’m going to keep looking, but don’t get your hopes up.”

Regina nodded. This was already more than she’d ever really expected to find, even though she’d had a bit of hope.

Once they left the building, Regina slowed down and looked around. A few other Delvers were converging on their group, slowly. She recognized Gwen, although that didn’t surprise her. Owin wasn’t here, at least not yet, but she wouldn’t be surprised if he showed up later, either.

“So,” she said quietly, stepping up beside Madris. “Can I now ask why you showed this to me? Not that I don’t appreciate it, of course. Because I really do.”

Madris smiled briefly. “Some wanted to keep this from you, attempt to hold it over your head,” she said. “I disagreed, somewhat emphatically. After all … this does have implications for our goals.”

I just bet. This was information concerning their precious Progenitors, after all. And the proof that she was indeed one of them — by how they were acting, Regina assumed it did count as proof — would obviously have some bearing on how they viewed her. Regina was glad she’d already laid some groundwork with the Delvers. This could easily have gone the way of them trying to pretend she didn’t exist or even killing her to make sure she couldn’t make any kind of claims over them. Even if they’d only ignored the evidence and denied it, that would have severely strained their existing relations.

She didn’t say anything else until the other Delvers got there. She recognized a few from when she’d met Owin and others before, along with Gwen, of course. They’d been part of his party back then, and she assumed they were here as backup for Gwen or simply because they were his political supporters. There were a few other people she didn’t recognize, as well, although they definitely looked like Delvers, clad in a wide variety of adventurer’s equipment with armor and weapons. At least Trito, the guy who’d tried to arrest them at the beginning, wasn’t here.

“My lady,” one of them spoke up with a smile that didn’t look particularly forced. According to the System, he was at a higher level than her, a Shielder called Willon. “It’s an honor to meet you at last.”

Regina returned the smile. She noted that he hadn’t addressed her as a queen but also hadn’t called her by name either. They probably didn’t know quite what track to take. “Likewise, it’s a pleasure to meet you all,” she returned the greeting, letting her gaze sweep over the group of Delvers.

“I’m sure we all feel the same way,” another guy piped up. He was dressed as a classical Wizard, although the System just called him a Warrior of Scale, whatever that meant. “How do you find our little expedition?”

“You have a remarkable discovery,” Regina said.

“Certainly,” Willon spoke again. “And forgive me the bluntness, but I’m sure we are all thinking the same thing — we need to know, that person in the picture? I assume Madris showed you. Was that you?”

Regina paused for a moment, looking at them. But it was clear what she had to answer. “To the best of my knowledge, yes,” she replied, making an effort to keep her voice calm. “For several reasons, I cannot be certain, but it all fits. I was a medical student attending this university, the timeline lines up, and the name should speak for itself. As does my face, obviously.”

Although her answer should be pretty obvious, a small stir still went through the group at the confirmation. Regina waited as they exchanged a few hushed whispers.

They fell silent as the wizard, Lars, bowed. “It is an honor to meet you.”

“Thank you,” Regina replied quietly.

"How did you come to be a Hivekind Queen?” Willon asked curiously.

Regina shrugged, uncertain how much she should tell them. “I’m not completely sure of all the details, but I wouldn’t be the first.”

There was a moment of silence and they exchanged glances. Maybe they were wondering about the Hive Queens who’d died in the aftermath of the Cataclysm to the war against the other people. She knew they had all been young, recruited on this world, instead of those coming through the portals. There couldn’t have been many of them, either. But it was a different time; she figured survivors of the Cataclysm wouldn’t have been that rare. Although I never did get a timeline, she considered. That would be nice to have.

“What are you going to do about it?” Max asked. His tone wasn’t challenging, but he managed to sound curious and matter-of-fact.

“No final decision has been reached yet,” Madris said.

“You’re probably holding lots of discussions about this, right?” Janis asked.

“Are we ever,” Lars agreed with a smile. Willon groaned slightly.

“I imagine you aren’t here because you hate everything Hivekind,” Regina said lightly.

They exchanged another look and shrugged. “You’re not wrong,” Gwen said. “It is good to see you again, Your Majesty. I’d love it if our people could have a closer relationship.”

Regina nodded. “Your invitation is still open, I take it?”

Madris and Willon smiled. “It very much is, and we would be delighted to have you there. I am sure it would be very helpful to the discussion.”

And make it more likely for the Delvers to ally with me, I suppose, Regina concluded. At least if I play it reasonably well. I’d have to make a good impression. But it shouldn’t be that hard to prove my origins … right? And if I play my cards right …

“I’m sure something can be arranged,” Regina said, not making any promises. It would be a risk, and she’d want to coordinate with the friendlier Delver factions and make sure she wasn’t walking into too much danger. Although the prize for success was very tempting.

“We’re looking forward to it,” Gwen said. “Now, was there anything else you wanted to see?”

“I’d like to look around a little more,” Regina said.

At that moment, she got a mental call from the psychic link. It wasn’t too strident, something she could ignore if she wanted to. But instead, she focused on it, reaching out to Ada.

My Queen, she greeted her immediately. We just got word from Marquis Lyns, a letter sent by a magical bird construct, and someone was sent to talk to Via, as well. They’ve intercepted the Cernlian king. There was a fight with major casualties, apparently, but they were successful.

Regina smiled. That’s good.

I thought you’d want to know while you were still talking to the Delvers, my Queen, Ada said, not quite apologetically.

And you were right. Thank you.

Regina glanced back up at the Delvers. Madris at least had clearly noticed the small interruption and was waiting expectantly.

“I’ve been informed that the Cernlian king has been taken into custody by Marquis Lyns,” she said.

Madris was the only one who didn’t look surprised. Regina wondered if she’d been able to sense it. How far did her psychic range extend, anyway? She didn’t have the infrastructure of the hive’s psychic link, but it didn’t give her much to go on. Maybe Madris just had a good poker face.

“That is rather interesting news,” Gwen said, giving her a nod. “Thank you for sharing it. I assume this means you will not be visiting right away? It seems like you have matters to sort out.”

“Indeed,” Regina agreed. She hadn’t actually decided on that yet, but she didn’t want to head off with the Delvers right away, if at all.

“Then we will not bother you any longer,” Willon said. “Unless you’d like a guide to show you around this site?”

“That would be appreciated.”

“We’ve made several interesting discoveries,” Gwen said, stepping up. She smiled brightly. “Allow me. This way, if you please.”

Regina followed her. As they walked through what she kept thinking of as an archeological dig site, she checked in on the rest of her hive through the psychic link.

In a way, it was annoying that the radius of the psychic link and her own senses moved with her. That made it a bit hard to send drones out to the edges of it as scouts while she was moving around. This trip had also put her a bit further away from the Esemen forces, so any attempts to look into them more closely would have to wait. Not that she really expected to find Ria at this point.

The army was doing well, at least. Ben had everything under control, and while she knew a few sapient drones had been curiously watching what was happening here, and more of them would look into it later, he’d been barely paying attention as he was focused on his duties. Regina figured she’d talk about a possible alliance with the Delvers with him later.

Then there was the base back home. Regina focused on Forest’s Haunt and checked in on her guests. She should visit them later, especially with recent developments. Florance and June Lyns seemed to be doing well enough, but she still wanted to check them herself. Florance clearly had a history of difficult pregnancies, and she still hadn’t managed any kind of lasting solution to June’s illness.

After she’d assured herself that everything was well and she had no other options to procrastinate, Regina turned her attention to the Cernlian army — what she suspected would soon be the actual, official Cernlian army, anyway. Marquis Lyns’ forces.

Regina didn’t have as many drones there in a position to watch everything as she would have liked. It was still a human army, after all, and certain courtesies had to be extended to allies. Or at least basic respect. Still, Via and currently a few other healers were there, as well as some Swarm Drones. She’d also kept a few Winged Drones watching from further away. Lyns had been informed of their presence, of course, although the hive preferred to keep them mostly out of sight.

She’d been a bit distracted, but it was obvious a fight had happened. Some of the elites Regina had taken note of before were missing. There was no sign of damage in the camp itself, since the battle hadn’t happened here, but they’d clearly reorganized something in a hurry. There were a lot of guards and she could see the prisoners they were keeping in the center of the camp. The king wasn’t among them, presumably, he got special treatment.

Regina was distracted from those observations by what Gwen was showing her, though. The Delver led her around the site they’d uncovered, explaining what they’d found and pointing out where they’d made interesting discoveries. The whole thing showed a new side to the Delvers that she hadn’t really seen before. They were probably the closest thing to actual archeologists around, not just adventurers. At least they seemed to be treating the site and any objects they found with care. And Regina didn’t need her psychic power to know that Gwen hoped for her input to advance their knowledge further.

“This looks like it was part of the university campus, or at least a place where they had a lot of uni buildings,” she concluded finally. “Probably the medical department, although there might have been others, too.” Regina shrugged as she looked around. “It doesn’t look very familiar, but I imagine it’s changed a lot with the Cataclysm,” she admitted.

“Half the buildings are wrecks,” Janis said, kicking at a small rock on the path. It clattered into a heap of rubble.

“There is that,” Regina said drily. It was more than half, she figured.

They continued walking in silence, and she let her gaze sweep over the small part of the city they had clawed back from the ravages of time.

“I’ll have to go soon, but I’d like to come back,” she said. She had things to take care of, like the marquis and her guests, the Esemen and even the gnomes. She’d still prefer to dig through the rubble and see if they could find more, though.

“Of course,” Gwen said. “I’m sure we can come to an agreement on having your Hive’s help with this project, or similar ones.”

Regina smiled slightly. It would have to wait until they’d come to more solid arrangements, clearly. But she was optimistic. Hivekind could make pretty good archeologists.

“Is there anything else you’d like to ask me?” Gwen asked after a while.

Regina pulled her attention back to her, watching the young woman. This offer was a good opportunity. “Quite a bit,” she answered with a smile. “For starters, how do you judge our chances of making an arrangement with the Delvers?” Of course, what she wanted wasn’t precisely an alliance; the Delvers would be useful for her, and she wanted them to work with - and for - her. But it would be less diplomatic to say that.

“Rather good, if things go to plan, but I don’t have a complete picture of our internal politics,” Gwen answered honestly. At least, Regina didn’t sense any prevarication.

“Does that go for your local chapter, or others?” she asked.

This time, Gwen hesitated a little. “I can speak for others even less than our local leadership,” she warned. “That said, I’m confident if we can come to a satisfactory agreement, there’s no reason to think things would be any different for the rest of the world.”

Regina’s eyes widened before she could stop herself, and she swallowed a smile. So as long as the conditions are right, we could get the help of, or at the very least an in with, basically all groups of Delvers in other countries, she mused. Well, that seems promising.