Path of the Hive Queen

Maik had only been working here for two weeks before the house was raided.

He’d taken the job because he thought it would be good money, and not too objectionable. He’d been struggling to find good work recently. He supposed he could have tried a position at a factory, but that felt a little beneath his skill level. In the ten-odd years since he’d left his village to make his life in the city, he’d picked up a variety of skills. Most importantly, he could stitch a wound closed and then accelerate its healing into a scar with magic, enchant objects to gain effects like a little more sturdiness, and even send a message with a bird construct, as long as its target wasn’t too far.

He was still only a Hedge Mage, but it was better than nothing. The old mage who’d first taken him in had obviously wanted a laborer and dogsbody, not a real ‘apprentice’, but he’d still learned enough to get the Class. He hadn’t been sad to see the back of the man, but his dismissal had come at an unfortunate time; finding other patrons was increasingly difficult. Well, Maik could have joined the army, but he preferred to keep his organs inside his body, thank you very much.

It looked like the latest job from Lord Sarne wasn’t as conducive to that goal as he’d thought.

When he opened the door of the estate to a harsh knock at an ungodly hour of the night, he hadn’t expected armed men to barge in. He’d even almost brandished his belt knife. Fortunately, the leader had only shoved him back, and Maik stumbled, bracing himself against the wall.

“What in the gods’ names is going on?” he asked, hoping he was still sleeping. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“This is a razzia,” one of the other men — men in uniform, he noticed only now — responded, waving a sheaf of paper with a seal. “You are under arrest.”

Maik raised his arm, reflexively preparing to cast something, then lowered it, looking at the group. At least a dozen men. Half of them were already advancing into the house. The leader glanced at him, then followed them.

One of the remaining men brusquely grabbed his hands and snapped handcuffs shut around them. Maik winced, resisting the urge to fight. There was no chance he would win. He didn’t even have a proper combat spell, and these looked like veterans.

“I haven’t done anything!” he protested instead.

“We’ll be the judge of that,” the man said. The police officer. Gods, what was going on? “Or at least the courts will.”

Maik swallowed. “I’m a loyal subject of the Empire,” he said. Suddenly thinking of the small clay figurines of the gods in his chest upstairs. Surely these men couldn’t be here because of that, right? Everyone had things like them. No, it had to be something else. Something the lord had done, most likely. Maik should have known he seemed too good to be true.

“We might not have an arrest warrant for you then,” the soldier — policeman — said. “Name?”

“Maik Autumn.”

The man frowned, clearly thinking for a moment, then nodded. “Seems you’re lucky. Not working a proper position here?”

“I’ve only been here a week or so,” Maik muttered. He only realized he was dodging the question after. “What are — they accused of?”

The soldier visibly considered him for a moment. “Sarne, high treason. The rest are charged as accessories. If you give us information, it would be helpful.”

High treason? Sarne hadn’t seemed that bad … then again, he was clearly not a fan of the Empire. He hadn’t bothered to hide that fact. Maik hadn’t cared. And now hat he thought about it, a few of the tasks the lord had talked about might look a bit suspicious, in light of that information. He’d been very interested in the range of Maik’s projection. And he employed a few guards, but did he really need a dozen swords sharpened and spelled for sturdiness? Maybe I should have cared.

The soldier grabbed him by the shoulder and shoved him out the door, getting them outside. Maik winced; he was only wearing socks. He elected not to complain. From here, it was easier to see the lights in the upper storeys. And now there were shouts, and crashes like overturned furniture, and even the ringing of steel.

“I think you might be too late,” he said, a little faintly. “Lord Sarne’s not here.”

The soldier paused. “When did he leave?” he asked sharply. “Where did he go?”

“I don’t know!” Maik quickly said, resisting the urge to step back. “He didn’t say. It was luck I saw him leaving, really. He only left this evening — a bit abruptly, actually.” He looked nervously at the other soldier who’d remained outside, clearly acting as a sentry.

“And he gave no indication where he was going? Did he take anything with him?”

“Uh, not that I know of, Sir. Actually, he did take a suitcase, but I don’t know what’s inside it. And he also took three of the guards with him. The most senior ones. I suppose they would be the most trusted ones? If he’s up to something treasonous, they’re more likely to know.”

The soldier (it was hard to think of him as anything else) nodded. “Alright. Thank you, you’ve been helpful, Hedge Mage Autumn. You’ll remain out here for a while, before someone comes to take you to the watch house for a more thorough interrogation.”

“I understand.”

“In the meantime, let me confirm if there are other persons of note inside. Any guests? And what about his family?”

“No guests,” Maik answered quickly. “There haven’t been any since I came here. And there’s only the lady of the house and their two young children.” He glanced back, seeing another brief flash of light. It didn’t seem like it was from a combat Skill, maybe something for investigations? “I think your comrades have probably arrested her by now,” he added.

The man didn’t seem surprised. He had taken a folded sheet of paper and a pen out and was scribbling on it. “Seems so. Alright. I think those were all questions for now.”

“Good,” Maik said. “Though I’m happy to answer any more questions, of course.”

The soldier looked up again, stopping his writing, and smiled slightly. “Don’t worry too much. They will interrogate you, but they won’t hurt you. If you’re innocent, you’ll be fine. If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.“

“I know, I’m a loyal subject of the Empire,” Maik assured him. “Long live the Empress!”

That earned him a new look, the slight softness vanishing into something closer to disdain.

“I can see why you’re not at the front,” the soldier muttered.

Maik tried not to feel offended at the implication.

Idiru-se didn’t like it. When the mountains changed, it rarely portended anything good. But she recognized that she was being paranoid. They should be glad to get a bit of a break.

The last few months hadn’t exactly been business as usual, anyway. Too many of their fighters had left for the north, not to mention how the Empire had also reduced its own presence considerably. They'd left barely enough forces to secure the settlements and sites their alliance had already taken, certainly not enough to try for new ones. After months and months of steady expansion, clearing territory of monsters and building it up for more of their people returning home, the sudden stop was disorienting.

Diru was afraid that they might have overextended.

Still, it could have been much worse. At least she knew that if the monster population rose too steeply, or if someone else tried something, the Imperials could send more troops. Or even send some of their own fighters back. Not that she wanted that to happen. They’d made commitments and supporting the Empire in their war was important.

“Are you brooding again, Diru?” Tisal asked.

Diru turned, frowning at her. “I wasn’t brooding.” Though, admittedly, she had been sitting on her little rock looking out over the valley below them and the peaks beyond that, thinking about their situation. So excuse her, it was a fantastic view.

Itisala-fe scoffed lightly, crossing her arms. “Then you won’t mind stopping your ‘definitely not brooding’ to help me with the fire, would you?”

Diru jumped up, after a last look at the scenery. “Of course.”

They left the fire burning only long enough to warm some stones, boil some water and cook some food, then put it out quickly, carefully putting dirt over everything. While the monsters might be quiet right now, there was no reason to be careless. And some types were attracted by nothing so much as fire. The smarter ones could also tell that a burnt-out fire meant intruders were in their territory. Their current camp was on the edges of the territories claimed by bigger monsters, as far as they could tell — as was standard practice. It would mitigate risk, but not eliminate it.

By the time they were finished, the sun had set, and they quickly turned in for the night. Diru double-checked the wards they’d set. If they were more than two people, they would have posted a watch continuously through the night; but as it was, the benefit of that wouldn’t be worth how much slower and more likely to make mistakes they’d be from tiredness. It was a rookie mistake not to allow for enough sleep, even if they were on a fast multi-day trip. Being too slow moving through the mountains would also be a mistake, of course.

But Diru and Tisal were both used to it. It wasn’t like this was their first scouting camp. Once they woke up, they removed the wardstones, secured their packs, and made their way across a ridge and down another slope of the mountain. They’d hug another cliff-face, skirt the outer edge of a valley, and climb up another slope. From there, the glacier should get them up high enough that they could decide to head to another vantage point or head down and turn to the last way-point and cache.

Unfortunately, it didn’t go quite that smoothly, of course. They were almost ambushed by a Snow Bear on the glacier, and Tisal barely got a mana shield up in time to protect them. Diru charged the monster with her blade and got a good hit in, but she also caught a swipe from its paw that rang her helmet. She was stunned for a second, and Tisal had to expend a lot of mana for several Fireballs to distract the bear.

At least then, Diru was up again. She charged it, triggering a Class Skill she’d saved up for a dangerous moment — and the bear found itself suddenly pressed to the ground as if its gravity had increased tenfold. He managed to struggle enough to be dangerous, but she danced across its fur — its body being several mens’ lengths high — and stabbed it in the eye. Things were easy after that.

“I think we might be a bit rusty, Tisal,” she said, panting. Then she got out her knife to take at least some of the monster’s fur. It would be useful.

“We beat it, and this wasn’t that hard of a fight,” her companion pointed out.

Diru shook her head. “It was only a single Snow Bear, we shouldn’t have had this much trouble with it. Can you imagine if a large pack of Ice Wolves ambushed us like this?”

Tisal frowned, pulling her scarf tighter around her head and adjusting it so the gauzy upper part covered her eyes. “Alright, good point. Let’s just keep going.”

They kept going. Diru kept a careful eye out, but they managed to avoid most monsters on their way. It took several grueling hours of trekking up the glacier and then climbing through rocks before they finally reached another good vantage point where they took a break.

“What do you think?” Tisal asked. “Turning down again, or should we take a closer look at the lower hangs to the south?”

“I don’t know.” Diru wolfed down the last of her biscuit, then stood, walked a few steps and climbed to a better vantage point across the rock, leaving her pack with Tiral for now. She squinted, panning her gaze across the mountains in front of her, looking for monsters. She’d had a feeling, arriving here …

She stopped, squinting a bit more, and then used one of her other Abilities. The far side of the valley spreading out to the southwest came into focus for her. Carefully, Diru traced her eyes across it, finding what had caught her attention.

“Tisal?” she called.

“Did you see something?” Tisal replied, already stepping up beside her.

“There’s another party. Humans from the south, and a big group this time. At least twenty. No, wait — twenty-two, unless they’re missing or hiding members.”

Tisal frowned, pressing up against her. “Again? That’s, what, the third one in two weeks? What can you see of their equipment?”

“Yes, it is.” Diru looked closer. “Nothing that suggests they’re trying for a permanent settlement, I think. But they do have large packs. Most of them carry several weapons, probably including backups. I’d say they’ve prepared for a long expedition.”

Tisal swore softly. “Well, that’s just what we needed. More people encroaching on our mountains.”

Diru sighed and let the Ability fade, stepping back a little. She understood how Tisal felt. They were still in a delicate equilibrium, and increased attention from the southern city-states didn’t portend anything good. Especially not right now, when the Empire had, by necessity, withdrawn its attention.

“There’s something else,” she said. “At least four or five of them probably had devotional Classes. Paladins or something. They were carrying icons.”

Tisal frowned. “Do you think that’s a coincidence, or …?”

“I don’t know. It could be, but it’s a lot.” Diru shook her head, then turned back to get her pack. “There are too many adventurers heading into the mountains lately, Tisal. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re planning something. It suggests there’s coordination behind it. And given everything else that’s currently going on … we’d better be careful.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Let’s go, we need to tell the others. Straight back or should we keep scouting, what do you think?”

Diru hefted her pack. “Let’s go with the left loop and head straight back from there. Just enough to see if there are any other parties. But we need to get back quickly.”

Tisal nodded, and they quickly erased any signs of their presence before they set off. It would be another strenuous day or two, but Diru still set a brisk pace. She wanted to be back as soon as possible.