Path of the Hive Queen

Unfortunately, Iseis’ new semi-permanent portal hadn’t brought the northern front into Regina’s psychic range again. It would have been a little too much to hope for that the connection offered by the portal let her psychic link pass through as if the intervening distance didn’t exist, so she hadn’t really hoped for it. Although sensing things on the other end of the portal was indeed easier. Still, it did make it much simpler to get messages the conventional way.

Regina appreciated that there was much less time lost on communication with Ada’s army now, especially since securing the city of Pesiten and defeating the enemy forces massing near it required as much. Ben had taken charge of that effort, more or less. Given their limitations in communication, he obviously couldn’t command the army himself, and Ada was still in charge of that; but he made sure to have reinforcements prepared, consulted with her over letter and adjusted their troop distributions on this side of the portal to free up more Winged Drones or whatever else she needed.

Still, when Regina got the message that they’d won another significant victory and the area should be secure for now, she breathed a hidden sigh of relief.

It hadn’t really been a single large, decisive battle like the one they’d fought with the elves in the Great Forest. Instead, the enemy forces were more dispersed, and so were the Imperials. There were several clashes, and mostly a lot of taking, holding or trying to hold territory. But the unexpected reinforcements had given the Empire the advantage, and they’d moved quickly to cut off enemy forces, destroy what they could and cut off enemy supply lines or communications where possible. The remnants of the Westerner soldiers had to withdraw, settling into a fortified line they’d built to the northwest. At least those were the latest reports.

After what had happened with Janis, Regina had honestly half-expected that they would eventually have to give up the city, to withdraw and consolidate. At least, she knew several people thought Ada (following Janis’ plans) had overextended in taking the city. She was glad the portal gave them the staying power that this was no longer in the cards.

Although actually keeping the city required more than just defeating enemy soldiers in the region. Regina had also sent several bureaucrats north to Pesiten. They would hopefully help to run the city and make sure it didn’t erupt into violent insurrection against the Imperial occupiers. She’d told them to handle any temples present with care. Beside that, making sure they had plenty of food supplies was probably the most important thing, for now. In the longer term, she would like to make a few reforms to the city.

In a few smaller towns in the occupied Western Confederation territories, such efforts were already bearing fruit. Admittedly, most things were done out of necessity. The Empire didn’t have enough people to really govern them at every level, so many of these settlements’ structures were simply unchanged; reeves, eldermen or city councilors retaining their positions and continuing with their work. In some ways, the more feudal, decentralized nature of the territory made it much easier.

Regina had read through the reports, and silently cursed the fact that she didn’t really have the capacity to give this whole matter more of her attention. The war itself, unfortunately, came first. There were few drones she could spare to watch over the occupied territories. Human subordinates were a little easier, being more plentiful, but the number of them who’d have half an idea of what they were doing was also strictly limited. Regina thought longingly of the Empire in a few years’ time when the schools and institutions of learning they’d established would have produced a few crops of people. Graduated students with an actual education, in math, the humanities, economics … and an ideologically compatible view shaped by Imperial norms, too, she supposed. There was a reason they still taught the scientific method just after a broad overview of what had happened in the world’s history.

For now, few people had anything like a complete education from those institutions, though, so she’d have to take what she could get. Like always.

Education was on Regina’s mind lately, since she’d also increased her circle of students. With June gone and fighting the war, along with other senior students like Edmund and Fred, a lot of the burden fell to her. She didn’t even have Madris to help anymore. By necessity, the senior psychic students who’d been with her longer were stepping up to mentor the newcomers and handle some of the teaching. Apart from that, she’d also got unexpected help from Janis — she might not be a psychic herself, but her experience with the psychic link made her much closer to it than most, and able to help out.

It really was good to have Janis back. Regina had missed her. It was also good to see that Janis seemed recovered, even if she still struggled with her magic. As if to defy that issue, she’d been throwing herself into her studies and many magical or academic endeavors, like helping Regina with the psychics, or asking Galatea and Iseis for insight about soul magic. Galatea was currently sticking around, at least, even if Iseis wasn’t always available because she was still occupied by the war.

Unfortunately, they still hadn’t made a lot of progress on that front. Maybe it was because Regina forbid them from trying any of the more risky or morally questionable ideas. Not that she had to argue very hard; Galatea and Iseis were smart and cautious enough to know they they shouldn’t mess around with a strange and powerful type of magic they had insufficient information on. Plus, souls. At least they had confirmed that animals did seem to possess them as well, even if their ‘soul stuff’ was more diffuse and less organized and they were smaller, if Regina understood correctly. Iseis had also said something about infant development and a progression in humans, but they couldn’t exactly go around and do magic ultrasound soul-searches on pregnant women, so it was a bit of a dead end in that regard (scientifically interesting but not very useful, anyway).

The revelation that her Swarm Drones also had basically animal-type souls had pushed Regina into a small crisis, though. They had souls. Was she really justified in using them as proverbial attack dogs, or cannon fodder in the war? Exploiting their labor, putting their lives at risk?

Eventually, though, she’d concluded that she could and should use them as long as she was careful; it wasn’t like anything had changed, she’d already known they had minds and were capable of feeling sensations and, effectively, emotions. Not to mention that every Evolved Swarm Drone she’d ever talked to had been perfectly content with the situation.

Regina brought it up to Kit once, and she just kind of looked baffled and slightly alarmed as the conversation went on. “We serve the Hive, it’s what we do,” Kit said. “Please don’t try to take our sense of duty from us. If you asked them, Mother, they would all agree to work and fight for their Hive Queen and for the Hive. I mean, we kind of do, anyway; it’s not like you’re literally forcing them, is it?”

Regina had to admit she was right. She’d connected to enough Swarm Drone minds to know they weren’t unhappy like this. They’d never hesitated to attack the hive’s enemies. The rare occasions when she directly controlled a drone aside — and she could also tell, being connected to their minds, that it wasn’t some kind of traumatic or unwelcome event to them — they did basically follow the orders of the sapient hive members because … it was what they did, she supposed.

They weren’t human. Or elves, dwarves, or something else. They were Hivekind. Their species might have been designed and constructed, but now, it existed, it lived and developed. You could argue about the morality of creating them in the first place, Regina acknowledged, but that was not on her. She just had to do the best she could to lead her hive and to honor the trust and obedience they were giving her.

Still, she sought out Galatea to speak about it, just to make sure she wasn’t behaving in some deeply unethical way while trying to justify it to herself. Or acting in a way that would be perceived as such. Regina didn’t exactly trust her instincts or emotional reasoning to be unbiased; she was a Hive Queen and she’d never seen anything wrong with creating new drones.

“I don’t think I can give you an answer to these questions, Regina,” Galatea answered after thinking for a few seconds. They were currently in their lab, after the conclusion of another experiment. Regina had hopped up on the recently-cleaned counter — it wasn’t like anyone would see her here — and Galatea was hovering at the table beside it.

“I wasn’t expecting the answer, just asking your opinion,” Regina pointed out.

“Well, thanks for trusting me with this.” Galatea sighed, shaking her head. “You know much more about the Hivekind than I do. It’s not like I can sense your drones’ minds in the same way. I think, as long as you actually talk to the drones and they’re not telling you to act differently, it’s fine. I don’t want to come in as an outsider and tell your people how their society should work, you know? Even if parts of it seem odd to others. Your sapient drones all have some of your knowledge, and while they might be young, they’re grown enough to understand their situation and to advocate for themselves. And Swarm Drones clearly are less developed and, according to what you’ve told me, aren’t really self-willed to the extent of a normal person.”

Regina nodded. It seemed like a broad answer, but she appreciated the reassurance her friend was giving her. “Thanks. I guess that lines up with my own thoughts.”

“Is that really all that was bothering you, Regina?” Galatea asked.

Regina sighed, kicking her feet a little. It was freeing to be able to act how she wanted to. “I guess, mostly? It just brought up some old questions. I hate feeling like I don’t know enough about my own species. Like, to what extent was soul magic used in creating us? Did the old Hivekind come up with the idea to put people’s souls into their Hive Queen eggs on their own, and if so, what prompted them to do it?”

“Hm.” Galatea turned back to the table, levitating a few documents around and clipping another piece of paper into a notebook. The bugs they had experimented with today were already in the waste disposal bin, to be incinerated later.

“You could ask Leian more questions the next time you meet her,” she continued after a moment. “But I don’t think she knows much more than what she’s already told you.”

“Yeah, probably.”

“You can maybe also ask Iseis,” Galatea continued. “It seems like a less likely avenue, though. Search for information among the longer-lived species, like the elves? Hm. Or you could ask that Delver Seer of yours if he can find some information.”

Regina shook her head. “I’ve already thought of most of those, but thanks. I’ll consider it, but I’m not very hopeful. I guess we will have to rely more on our own experiments. There is still my old stasis pod … We haven’t gotten very far, but maybe, if we make progress in our studies and we gain more knowledge, we will be able to make more sense of it.”

“Yes, we can only hope so,” Galatea agreed. She finally turned around, dusting off her (perfectly immaterial and unblemished) hands and sat down on another stool she pulled from the doorway. “Still, though … You mentioned soul magic and creating Hivekind. Something on your mind?”

Regina huffed a breath. She should have known Galatea would see through her. Absentmindedly, she pulled on her mandibles. “Just the existential dread of being responsible for the continuation of my species,” she said drily. “I mean, on this world, at least. We were already genocided once. And now there’s only my hive left, and only me in terms of Hive Queens.”

“Ah,” Galatea nodded, looking like she’d realized something. “And even if you do manage to produce a new ‘princess’ egg, you would have to put a person’s soul into it, if you wanted to keep doing what they did, but we can’t exactly do that.”

“Yeah. There’s lots of questions, like — If there’s no external soul transfer, would they be a newborn baby in the body of a mostly-grown kid? Somehow, I doubt it.” Regina shook her head. “But this is putting the cart before the monster horse, we don’t even have any new avenues for getting a new Hive Queen at all, anyway.”

Galatea paused, crossing her arms. She looked curious. “Are you considering going the less than savory route in breeding with a Hivekind drone?”

Regina snorted. “No, I’m still hopeful we can find something.” She frowned. “But if I grow old without any other avenues open to me, I will have to consider it. Other concerns aside, it would probably just kick the problem down the road, though. Given how our reproduction works and how few people actually pass their DNA on to the next generation, Hivekind can clearly deal with a very narrow gene pool, but I’m not sure if it would be fine being this narrow.”

“Hmm, you are the doctor here,” Galatea muttered, nodding absently.

“Yay,” Regina said flatly.

They were silent for a minute, considering the issue. Regina glanced at the table again. Their experiments had brought them at least a bit of data on souls, she just didn’t think it would be very helpful for addressing her actual concerns.

“Maybe we should be less focused on soul magic and more on other types of magic,” Galatea mused. “Especially for this problem. It seems obvious that not everything we have on this world exists on other worlds, so there may be opportunities for you that the older Hivekind simply didn’t know about. Considering the species present … I know it’s generally rare to have actual hybrids between them, but it’s not impossible, and the dwarves have a rather unique biology as well.”

“Hybrids?” Regina raised her head. “Like what, the elementals being able to have kids with humans, or other biological people?”

They stared at each other in silence for a moment. Regina felt her train of thought grind to a halt and sensed the sudden shift in alertness from Galatea as well.

“Do you think it might be possible for an elemental to have children with Hivekind?”

Galatea was still and unmoving, before she shook herself slightly. “Maybe, but don’t get your hopes up,” she warned her. “Your drones clearly don’t have the capability to bear children. They are clearly not intended to. I don’t think the elementals can just replace that. And as for you — even if it’s possible, what are the odds any child would be another Hive Queen instead of just a ‘normal’ drone?”

Regina sighed, slumping back a little. “I guess that’s true. It’s probably not that easy. Still, though, when I get the chance, I’ll ask Volance, or one of the other elementals.”

Galtea smirked slightly. “A Hive Queen or even drone with elemental blood does sound like it would be interesting to see. Though I wonder what Janis would think if her newest sibling was actually her aunt.”

Regina gave her a look. “I’m sure that’s the biggest issue.”

Galatea shrugged and floated to her feet once more, stepping over to the desk on the other side of the room. “Well, for now, we should perhaps focus on soul magic. If you have a minute before your next meeting?”

Regina hopped up and went to join her. “Yeah, can you run me through your latest experiments in general again?”

They’d gone through several examples of native flora, fauna and a few weak monsters. So far, it seemed like plants didn’t generally have souls, and also that the size and complexity of a soul correlated roughly with an animal’s brain size and intelligence level. The bugs from before hadn’t really had anything you could call a soul, just thin wisps of soul-stuff. These had apparently dissolved upon their deaths, but Galatea did say she wanted to look further into it.

Even if Regina couldn’t spare much time to participate, it was fascinating. Probably not immediately useful, though. But foundational research was always like that.