Kiara was surprised by how much she missed having Janis around. She felt like she hadn’t even realized how much the young mage did for her until she was gone.

And if she was honest, if only with herself, it irked her how easily Janis had left without looking back, jumping to join this strange Hive. Not that Kiara couldn’t understand it. She had realized how much curiosity drove the girl.

Kiara sighed to herself and shook her head, shoving those thoughts aside. Why am I even thinking about it right now? Well, I would like to have her here with me, I suppose.

She was still coming to grips with her sudden change in circumstances. From the simply tolerated daughter of a march far from the capital and farther from the king’s graces, she had risen to the daughter and only viable heir of the leader of a rebellion against said king. One that, while still in its beginning stages, held unquestionable power. Several noble lords, especially counts and other marquises, had come to offer their support and seek his leadership. Even Duke Bluegrass had joined their side, accepting Marquis Lyns’ authority in the process. Not that he was any more powerful than the Lyns in reality, despite his higher rank.

Kiara rolled her shoulders and looked up at the darkening evening sky. When she glanced around, she met the gazes of a few other young people her age and forced another smile onto her face. She nodded at them courteously before she kept walking.

She had wanted to attend a gathering of the noble sons and heirs, while her father would have preferred to keep her with the young ladies. In a sort of compromise, he had simply combined the two and arranged for the youths of both genders to be entertained together.

It had been a stressful and demanding afternoon, although Kiara privately thought that she had acquitted herself rather well. And she couldn’t deny that she had taken some satisfaction in how the others treated her according to her apparent new status. Unfortunately, she was also coming to suspect that several families were angling for a match with their sons, a prospect Kiara found rather less enthralling.

At the moment, she enjoyed the cool evening air as she made her way past several tents. The rebellion - it still didn’t have a better name - had gathered a relatively large force at one of her father’s old redoubts, Castle Graysen. That was where her father himself would be traveling soon. Kiara, on the other hand, would be going west, bringing reinforcements to another staging area further from the capital.

They had received word that Marquis Relains was stirring himself and seemed to be coming to threaten the western march. Or possibly other locations in the vicinity. So, her father and his supporters were sending some knights and soldiers, drawn from several of the lords’ assembled forces, to make sure they could defeat him. Hopefully, we’ll be able to crush him quickly and then move on to support the rest.

Kiara glanced up at the sky, which was still free of clouds. The weather seemed to be holding, at least. She wouldn’t mind leaving the small castle and minor lord’s hall where the major lords of their faction were currently gathered. It had been chosen more for its convenient location than any military or strategic importance, much less comfort.

Outside the residence which had been allocated to her family, Kiara met her father. He looked at her, glanced at the pair of knights escorting her (assassins were apparently a concern) and then gave her a small smile. “Ah, Kiara! I trust things went well?”

She bowed her head politely and returned his smile. “They did, Father. I was able to sound out most of my peers, and I’m confident that most of them are on board with this endeavor. Some of them seem to find it quite, well, romantic, for lack of a better word.”

He shook his head. “Hah! The brashness of youth. I’m glad you were able to handle it well.”

“With all due humility, I do think I made a good impression,” she said mildly. Then she hesitated for a moment. “I look forward to accompanying the soldiers to Castle Westgate.”

For a moment, his gaze seemed to sharpen as he looked at her. Then he nodded. “Lord John Cern will be leading that army. We can hardly deny him this honor under the circumstances. I will be sending Sir Richard as well.” He sighed. “In all honesty, I am still not quite comfortable with the thought of sending you into such danger.

“Father -“

“I know. We have talked about it.” He gave her a smile that seemed a bit forced. “I would not begrudge a son a chance to prove himself, so I will not deny it to you. But be very careful, Kiara. I cannot afford to lose you.”

She bit down on the first reply that wanted to leave her lips, and instead nodded. “I will, I promise.”

They parted, and Kiara quickly went to bed. But that night, she laid awake, staring at the unfamiliar ceiling, for what felt like hours. Snippets of the conversations she’d had that evening kept replaying in her head, and she kept thinking about what the future might hold, and what she could do.

The next morning, she was sluggish and distracted. She went through her morning routine by force of habit, had a quick breakfast and then prepared for her departure. She was only shaken out of the haze when one of her father’s servants came bringing a letter. Apparently, a messenger pigeon - one of a tamed monster species that some people liked to train and use for that purpose - had arrived in the night, and among its cargo was a personal letter. Kiara received it with slight trepidation she wouldn’t admit to, which seemed to dissipate into a cold feeling in her veins as she read.

Her mother was pregnant again.

Kiara folded the letter with movements that were a little rougher than necessary. She sighed, then glanced in the direction of her father’s quarters. Mother only recently had another miscarriage. And now he has - tried for another child again so soon? She took a deep breath. Although she tried not to dwell on it, the possibility that it might be a boy was also something she could not forget.

“Milady?” Sir Richard, who had come to call on her, asked, following her gaze. “Do you wish to go and say your goodbyes to your lord father?”

She hesitated, then shook her head. “No. Let us take our leave, I wish to depart expeditiously. We have some distance to go and the day will not grow any longer.”

The old knight looked a little dubious, but he made no further comment and instead escorted her to where their forces were gathering. Kiara went to the small army’s leader to offer her greetings without looking back.

Lord John was a middle-aged man who didn’t seem quite comfortable in his saddle. He was perfectly courteous, but Kiara didn’t know if he truly liked having her along. The flush on his face and the rings under his eyes seemed to give credence to the rumors that he was a heavy drinker. She just hoped he would still do his job well.

They set off when the sun was only just starting to leave the horizon behind, riding at the head of a column of soldiers marching on foot. Kiara kept close to her father’s knights and vassals, and Lord John seemed happy to not have to entertain her. In fact, he ignored her more than was strictly polite, in her opinion. But he was keeping a boisterous and unruly conversation going with his knights, punctuated with bawdy jokes and even occasional ‘martial’ contests, and she had little desire to insert herself into it. Instead, Kiara watched the landscape and the soldiers, and idly wished Janis was here again so she could have someone intelligent to talk about other things, before she struck up a conversation with a few of the knights.

They camped at night in a small depression between low hills, and Kiara was thankful she at least didn’t have to share her tent. The march became monotonous quickly, so she reviewed some of her studies in her mind and practiced sensing mana.

Eventually, the Great Forest started coming into view, or rather a dark shadow on the horizon that she thought was it. Looking at it, Kiara couldn’t help but think of her old fiancé, who had died years before on an expedition through the forest. Not that she had ever been particularly close to the boy, or even liked him at all. The arrangement had been decided when they were children. Kiara had actually been relieved when she received the news, even though she felt guilty about it. But it showed that the forest was dangerous, and the land before it would not be any less so, given the current situation.

“We’re not going to actually venture into the forest, Milady,” Sir Richard said, presumably noticing her look. “Not unless things go very wrong.”

Kiara smiled slightly and nodded. “I know. But you don’t need to hover around me like a worried nanny, Sir Richard. Perhaps you should go and talk to Lord John and his posse, I mean, entourage.”

He raised an eyebrow, but apparently elected to ignore her choice of words. Instead, he inclined his head to her politely and turned his horse, nudging it into a canter to catch up to the commander’s group.

Kiara looked around again, still feeling a little uneasy. It was a shame that they didn’t have any fliers, or many scouts, really. Apparently, Lord John hadn’t considered those a priority. Considering they did not know exactly where the Marquis Relains’ army currently was, Kiara considered that to be rather short-sighted. At least the terrain is open, she told herself, so we’re not likely to be walking into some sort of ambush. Hopefully.

She had just finished that thought when she became aware of a commotion further ahead. Kiara hesitated for a moment, glancing at the knights around her, before she had her horse fall into a trot to get closer. One of the knights behind her called after her, but Kiara didn’t respond. After all, she was still surrounded by their fighters, so this was hardly much of a risk, but she wanted to know what was happening.

The terrain had become hillier as they went, and there were soft rises and dips in the ground here. Once she reached the top of one such low hill, Kiara paused in surprise.

There was a fight raging ahead of them. No, not just a fight — a battle. At least several dozen combatants on each side were engaged in a violent, brutal struggle. As she watched, one man’s arm was ripped off. Kiara swallowed hard, the ferocity and carnage somehow much more disconcerting than the relatively clean fighting she had seen in exercises and tourneys.

But she only took a moment to suppress her visceral reaction before she focused on the more important aspects of what she was seeing. Instead of fighting against other humans or even elves, the men - and they were mostly men, some of them wearing the colors of the southern march - were beset by creatures she immediately recognized as Hive Drones. And almost a third of them were actually flying. She saw several craters and broken shrubbery where Kiara realized they must have used their strange new (or Ancient) explosives, and the Winged Drones also dove at lone soldiers in groups. The rest of the drones on the ground fought with the same precise coordination.

“Well, isn’t this something?”

Kiara blinked and turned her head. She had been so caught up in what she was seeing that she had missed Lord John riding up to her, flanked by a few of his companions.

“I didn’t expect we would see fighting so soon,” she said. Then she shook her head. “But that is no excuse to simply sit here and watch. Let us make haste and order our men to attack. If we handle this deftly, we can catch the intruders between our two forces and finish them off.”

Lord John looked dubious, and made no move to do as she recommended or give the men any orders. “I am not sure that rushing into this would be wise, Lady Kiara. These … beings seem rather fierce. Who knows what I would be sending our good men into?”

“My apologies, but I assumed you had been told.” Kiara fixed him with her best unimpressed stare. “The Hive and its demihuman people are our allies. In fact, without their help, we would likely not be here today. Repaying that help by ignoring one of their companies engaged in battle against mutual enemies would be a poor way to repay them, and rather damaging to our diplomatic relationship and reputation, not just with them.”

She’d stopped just short of mentioning words like ‘dishonor’ or implying cowardice, but she could see that he took her meaning.

“Very well, young lady,” John said after a pregnant pause. “Stay back, please, we wouldn’t want you getting harmed.”

Then he spurred on his horse and rode on. The soldiers of their army had spread out somewhat around their leaders on the hill, watching the battle. Soon, a horn sounded and they sorted themselves into proper order and started advancing on the intruders into her march’s territory.

Kiara sighed to herself, shaking her head. Reluctantly, she did as Lord John had said and remained where she was. She felt somewhat guilty about sending the soldiers into danger without risking herself, not to mention the fact that the battle would be a font of Experience that might push her Class to the next level. But she knew it was wiser to stay behind, even if her own entourage would let her charge forward. And besides, the battle is almost over.

Kiara glanced up, then paused as she saw a lone flying Drone wing its way towards her position.

She raised an eyebrow. As the Drone descended further, coming in for a landing beyond the small ring of guards that had formed around her, where soldiers were scrambling to clear away, she saw that it did seem to have a rider.

Kiara smiled. At least that was one she had met before. Although she couldn’t remember hearing him actually speak any words.

Once the drone jumped from the saddle and approached her, she stepped forward to meet him, softly but insistently ordering her guards out of the way. He stopped a respectful distance away and bowed.

“Lady Kiara Lyns, it’s an honor to meet you again. Thank you for the intervention, although we had the situation well in hand.”

She couldn’t help but glance at the battlefield, where all the fighting seemed to have ceased. Then she bowed her head in return. “Of course, your people acquitted yourselves very well, Sir Tim.”

He smiled with a hint of what she thought was amusement. “We have a larger force camped several kilometers back. Perhaps you would like to join us?”

She glanced at Lord John, who seemed to have noticed the visitor and was coming closer. “I would be delighted. It is not my decision, however. This force is under the command of Lord John Cern.”

He nodded, with a knowing look that made her consider if her expression or voice had given too much away. “Of course. Then I am hopeful that we will be able to work together just as well as you and my Hive Queen have in the past.”

“Certainly,” she murmured, shifting in her saddle and taking the excuse to look elsewhere.