Kiara moved fast. Even after her coronation, she took no time to celebrate, instead working hard to sort out the country’s issues. Regina found it admirable, and was glad she wasn’t in her shoes. Getting Cernlia’s economy back on track and prospering, not to mention prepared for technological ‘uplift’, was not an easy task. But there were issues closer to home to deal with, too.

Accordingly, Marquis Lyns’ trial was set shortly after Kiara’s coronation. It probably would have been better to hold it first, Regina supposed. If he was found innocent, it would have been rather hard to justify why Kiara was in his place. Not that anyone was under any illusion about the outcome, but still. Then again, she supposed there was something to be said for making it clear Kiara was queen regardless of what Lyns had done in this specific case - that he’d lost his right, anyway. And being queen gave her the right and duty to pass judgment on him.

Regina came to watch, as did most of the court and several members of the hive’s leadership. Kiara had scheduled Lyns’ case at the end of a court session where she had been hearing petitioners and casting judgment.

When Lyns entered the throne room and saw Kiara sitting on the throne, wearing her crown, he stepped forward slowly and refused to bow. “This is my crown you are wearing, daughter,” he told her, his voice carrying.

Kiara smiled sardonically. “I rather doubt it, Father. Your lack of manners is disappointing but not surprising. We are here to render judgment on you today.”

Lyns glanced at the nobles who were standing around and watching, his gaze lingering for a moment on Duke Bluegrass, who stood close to the throne with his daughter. Then he looked back at Kiara. “What crimes am I being accused of?”

“Attempted murder and regicide.”

Lyns frowned, although he didn’t look particularly surprised. “Regicide? Nicholas was no true king.”

Is he still actually trying to help Kiara? Regina wondered. Defending his claim and hers?

“You rebelled - we rebelled for a valid reason,” Kiara acknowledged, inclining her head. “But he was still the properly anointed king of Cernlia at the time.”

Easy for her to say now that he’s dead and his claim passed on anyway, Regina noted. Maybe she was doing it as an olive branch to any remaining loyalists. They would probably find it easier to support Kiara than Lyns.

Then Regina focused on the proceedings as evidence was presented. This consisted mostly of several people stepping forward to give their accounts of what had happened. How Lyns had changed the roster of guards assigned to the captive king, how he’d ordered for his shackles to be taken away suddenly when there were additional guards hidden close by, and most damningly, the order he had given them to not let the king even attempt to escape and to stop him by any means necessary, including killing him.

Lyns was given the opportunity to speak in his defense, but he didn’t look very confident as he denied everything. “It was not my plan to kill Cousin Nicholas,” he proclaimed. “I never wanted him dead, and I certainly didn’t order his death.”

“He could have been taken into custody again when he ‘escaped’, but was instead killed, do you deny this?”

“It was purely an accident in the heat of the fight, I’m sure.”

Kiara looked very skeptical, as did most of the other people gathered.

They called a few more witnesses, but it didn’t really yield any new information. Just a few more people confirming Lyns’ rather suspicious orders. They didn’t have anyone whom he had outright told that he had wanted him dead, though. Probably because many of the people close enough to Lyns to have been in on it were dead.

“Nicholas Lyns,” Kiara finally spoke, staring down at him from the throne and looking very much like a queen. “You have been stripped of all your titles, lands, positions and claims for your crimes. However, while your responsibility seems obvious, there is still some reasonable doubt and I will not be called a queen who kills her kin. Therefore, you may keep your life. For the crime of regicide and complicity in murder, you will be exiled. Let no home offer you shelter and no hand be raised in your defense. You will be sent across the sea, never to return to our shores. Until arrangements can be made, you will be kept as my prisoner. Take him away.”

Lyns looked like he wanted to protest his innocence again, but seemed to think better of it. “Do as you will, Kiara, but save my son,” he asked her instead.

Kiara smiled. “Have no fear. As I said, I am not you. No harm will come to my brother, if he survives his birth, he will be raised as my family and a prince of Cernlia. You will be exiled, however, and will never see him.”

That concluded the trial and the guards dragged him away. Regina looked after Lyns, contemplating this outcome. It was probably for the best, all things considered. He would have to be sent far enough away that bringing him back would be more trouble than it was worth, but she had a few ideas for that.

What will happen to Florance, though? Regina wondered, pausing as the thought struck her. If he’s in exile but alive, at least as far as anyone knows, she’ll stay married to him. She frowned. She didn’t know if Cernlia had any concept of divorce. I guess Kiara, as queen, could probably annul the marriage, but that would threaten her legitimacy and claim to the throne. Well, maybe they would hear of Lyns’ death if it happened, and if not, it looked like Florance would just not be able to remarry. At least Regina didn’t have the impression she particularly wanted to, anyway. Hopefully, she would be too busy raising her new child to make trouble, or to act on misplaced loyalty to her husband.

Regina left the throne room, not interested in the tail end of Kiara’s audience. Kiara was queen here, so she could deal with all the matters they brought before her. Not that Regina hadn’t been interested in watching her hold court, it was enlightening. She wouldn’t do things this way, personally, but there was something to be said for the open sessions where grievances could be heard and business conducted in view of everyone. Or at least the nobility, realistically. It encouraged some transparency. From what she’d heard, while holding court like this was traditional, the previous king had not done much of it.

At least the war was finally over. Tim and a significant part of their forces had already departed, back to the hive’s territory and ultimately the war against the gnomes. Regina had received regular updates, even if her focus had been here. She knew that their distraction had slowed things down. At least the gnomes hadn’t mustered for a large counteroffensive. But they still needed to be dealt with.

For now, she took a moment to enjoy the fact that Cernlia’s succession was finally settled; in her favor and with the candidate she considered to be the best suited anyway. At least they would no longer need to bleed troops and other resources into the country. Until the next time they were needed so other people would get their heads out of their backsides, at least.

Regina returned to the suite she had been given in the palace and checked on the eggs she’d gathered over the last few days. She had been gone from the hive’s own bases for long enough that she didn’t feel comfortable simply stopping their production, but allowances needed to be made. There were fewer drones hatching here than if she’d been home, obviously, and they didn’t have a large nursery, although a side room close to the bath was good enough for now. Regina added the last batch before she cleaned up, relaxing in the tub for a bit, and then returned to sit on the bed and focus on the psychic link.

Her drones had leveled up quite well in the last war, although they would only have the same opportunity in the war against the gnomes now. She’d lost drones, of course, including a few Swarm Drones she’d been grooming for specific tasks, like the speaker drone. The hive would be able to recover, but she was glad they didn’t have to fight on two fronts right now.

Mia and Tia had stayed behind and done good work for the hive’s expansion, as well as restructuring their organization and infrastructure in preparation for what was to come. The territory they had taken in Nerlia would only truly be settled after the winter, she suspected, but it was a lot better than it had been, the people were all fed and clothed and had jobs and the risk of revolts had dropped to almost nothing. Or so Green and the others assured them, anyway, and she believed it. It probably helped that the negotiations with Nerlia were also progressing.

In the meantime, the hive had started building roads. It was very much an experiment. They had no Class Skills that were entirely suited for this, at least not specialized ones, but several had come up that could be useful. Tia had taken charge of the project and taken her cues from Roman roads, mostly. Although Regina would prefer actual tarred roads rather than cobblestone. They were trying out various types. Those roads would be more important in the new territory rather than the hive’s core land where mostly drones lived, since drones could travel much better in rough terrain. Then again, she supposed roads would still be useful for quick troop movements, if only for the open space they presented.

Regina checked on their ongoing projects, looking through the books they’d recently managed to get written and printed, in particular. Galatea hadn’t seemed very interested in the civil war that was happening here and had instead preferred to spend her time focusing on that area. On the plus side, it meant they had quite a few very useful new volumes, due to her sharing her knowledge. Galatea was still enough of an AI that the stored data she could call on didn’t fade like organic memories would and she remembered everything exactly, so she was a lot more useful when it came to the details than Regina herself was.

Once she’d assured herself that everything was well with the hive, Regina checked on matters closer to her. The city was quiet and the Cernlian leadership seemed to be, as well. Now that the coronation and Lyns’ trial were over, Kiara should start telling people about the conference she had called. In two weeks’ time. It was, on the surface, a peace summit to sort out the end of the war, but in reality, there was a lot more to it. Kiara had promised she could lay the necessary groundwork here in Cernlia. Regina didn’t doubt her, she’d more than proved her competence, but she also knew it was better for the hive to still have some force to show here in Cernlia. They’d demonstrated their strength and power during the war, but sometimes people could be slow learners and reminders helped.

She stopped and checked on a few drones around the city, until the arrival of a System notification captured her attention. Regina sat up and stared at it. Then, when she realized it was what she’d been anticipating for a while, she grinned broadly.

Finally. She hadn’t been paying much attention to her level-ups recently, since she’d been too distracted with the war. And at this point, a level made more or less no difference. She still wasn’t close to the limits of her hive and she hadn’t unlocked any new Template in a while. Regina suspected that she would have to wait until the next Threshold, or even until she unlocked her next Ability. Which would be soon, now — only one more level to go and she’d be getting new perks, though not the choice of a new Class Skill until later, at level 60.

It wouldn’t take long, she could tell that already. Not only would the war against the gnomes resume in intensity again now that this war was over, but she was fairly sure that what she was doing with Cernlia and the future of the region would give her Class some Experience.

She was still a little disappointed that she hadn’t unlocked a new Spell. But maybe it was because she was too close to unlocking some on her own. Regina hadn’t had much time for her magic recently, but she had still kept practicing. She probably wouldn’t take a scrying Spell if it was offered now, instead doing it without the help of Spells like Galatea had taught her, but there were a few others she had been working on. In particular, Madris had told her that while it was generally better not to rely on Spells for psychic abilities, she should master at least one of them to further her studies, to learn the differences and because it would be useful.

Madris had been teaching her, and Regina felt very close to unlocking one in the System. Now that she’d leveled up again, she hoped there was enough space in her Spell list for it to be an easy addition.

She closed her eyes again and focused on her psychic senses. Then she chided herself for following her usual routine, and instead tried to focus on her magic. She drew some of it from her mana pool and shaped it into the pattern Madris had shown her, while deliberately trying to keep her distance from the psychic link.

It wasn’t the first time Regina tried this, but she was confident now and it was working well. Not letting herself give in to the distraction of thinking about what she was doing, Regina concentrated on the magic. She bent her mind to it, and then reached out again — not through the psychic link, just magic and her psychic senses.

Finally, it started working. She found herself standing in the middle of a snowy meadow. When she focused too much on the details, they started to fade out, but the environment discouraged focusing on it. Instead, Regina wandered through the meadow, bending down to let some snow drift from her palm. She could tell she still had her eyes closed, but only because she knew this was an illusion. She tilted her head back and blinked up into the sunny sky, watching a cloud drift across it. The smell of snow and grass buried beneath it tickled her nose. It was quiet, but the silence didn’t feel creepy, just peaceful. This might even be good for meditation.

Finally, Regina cut off the flow of mana and blinked her eyes open. Casting a Spell like this on herself was the best way to practice, but she’d need to be sure it worked just as well on other people. It probably needed a bit more work before she could truly use it, in practice. Still, she smiled at the accomplishment. She pulled up her spells window to check.

Regina nodded to herself and dismissed the window. Not many Spells, but some of them were advanced and powerful and most of them were versatile, so she didn’t regret focusing on them rather than learning more, new Spells. Still, it was good to have another tool she could use. Even if it didn’t list her proficiency with scrying or psychic abilities, since those were apparently outside the System.

She wondered if Janis or one of her drones could learn the Spell. It wouldn’t hurt to try.