As the year neared its end, the Starlit Hive gathered for their first real holiday celebration, independent of the human village or anyone else. Christmas of 3085 was picturesque, the fields and trees covered in a blanket of snow, the sky sending down a light snowfall that slowly faded away to let the sun gaze down, and even the monsters seemed to be hunkering down during the cold season.

Regina had decided to gather most of the drones at one of the new outposts further north from their main base, closer to Forest’s Haunt and their old base in the forest. That allowed more drones to join in, even though calling the outpost still undeveloped would have been too generous. But with so many drones around, they got it into reasonable shape for a celebration pretty quickly.

She didn’t throw caution to the wind, of course. On December 24, she spent most of the day scouting her territory and its surroundings with increased patrols of Winged Drones to make sure that they would not be caught by surprise by anything, before the hive threw a party on Christmas Eve.

Looking out over the gathering in the evening, with almost all of the sapient drones and even most of the Swarm Drones present around the main camp, Regina took a moment to marvel at how her hive had developed. Sure, she was still a long way off from the Hive limits the System gave her, but her hive was still very young. She’d hatched all of these drones in only a few months.

Of course, over a thousand Swarm Drones presented a bit of a logistical challenge, even if Regina hadn’t decided to give them Christmas gifts in the form of food. That was the tradition for pets, anyway, right? She mostly did the same for the sapient drones. There was no way she could get over a hundred individual gifts, so extra food and time off along with celebrations, party games and such had to be enough.

Regina sighed and glanced at her status sheet once more.

Her mana pool was definitely growing towards some kind of bound, she figured. The amount it increased for each new drone was slowing down, at least. But considering it was still enormous by the standards of any normal mage, she wasn’t going to complain. More importantly, her rate of growth for the Swarm had sped up a little as she managed larger batches of eggs. Not a very large difference, but she could now hatch sixty or even seventy Swarm Drones in two days.

She had only gained a level or two in the last few weeks, though, so Regina was pretty sure that wasn’t the reason. Instead, she suspected it was just the passage of time itself, or more accurately, her own growth and development. She wasn’t growing as quickly as her drones, but she was still at least a few centimeters taller now than when she’d reached level 20.

Regina was only a few months old in her current body. It was sometimes hard to forget, but she figured she shouldn’t expect to be fully physically developed. More than that, it was a good reminder that, for all that the System might be doing, it still seemed to operate on top of her Hivekind biology - which accounted for a lot of, well, everything about her situation.

Right now, she enjoyed the party. All of her senior drones, who she was close to, had given her something. Mostly just little trinkets. Mia and Tia had made a coat out of a pelt of a large, high-level feline monster that Tim and others had killed a few weeks ago. It looked pretty cool, complete with a hood and decorative fur lines, and contrary to local fashion, it was cut more like a trench coat. Max and Tim each gave her little statues they’d carved out of wood. Maybe not as practical, but Regina was still entirely genuine when she said she’d treasure them. She didn’t have many nice things. For her part, Regina gave them things she had created with her Conjuration, since she wasn’t that good or experienced at handicrafts, and it wasn’t like she could just buy them books. Well, she did give Janis a booklet that she had compiled from Galatea’s stories. For the others, she’d pushed herself to create utility knives - simple but sturdy and light - as well as a few rings and other decorations. Anything they really needed for their work was something she’d make for them anyway, especially for the hive as a whole, so gifting items like that would feel like cheating.

They also tried out alcohol, mostly beer they’d traded from the villagers, with mixed success. Janis actually got a little drunk and Regina had to gently nudge her to go to sleep on one of the furs they’d spread out around a campfire. The drones and herself didn’t drink much and didn’t feel any real effect. It just tasted bad to her. But it seemed like the Hivekind’s natural resistance to poison extended to alcohol, as well. She supposed she should probably be glad for that. Alcoholism - or any kind of addiction - was not a problem she would know how to handle or wanted to find in her hive.

She still enjoyed herself and slept in for once the next day. Then they started breaking down camp and dispersing again. Regina took the opportunity to shuffle some drones around, though. With her hive growing, they could afford to send larger concentrations of drones to various locations, but she still needed to ensure there were at least a few sapient drones around for any bigger group of Swarm Drones.

It helped that, by now, they had a dozen or so Winged Drone Carriers and Elites and even more Mounts. Her policy of having normal Winged Drones focus on carrying cargo or people, even if it was a little more awkward, was starting to show real results. She now had enough for a real mounted squadron, especially if she sent Drone Attendants along. In theory, at least; they were needed too much for her to just play around with that.

Regina took the opportunity to head back to Forest’s Haunt to meet with Neralt and a few others. And it seemed like she’d chosen well, as she found out a few days later. Around this time, the villagers were preparing to celebrate the new year, and things were rather busy for the middle of winter.

Regina spent a lot of time at the waterwheel. She wanted to get their paper production started, one of the reasons she’d gone here. She only had a vague idea of the process, and definitely not anything close to the industrial capacity it required, which meant she needed to experiment a lot. She’d quickly realized that she didn’t need wood or any specific plants, although certain types were easier to use, and that actually making pulp from plant material was the hard part. That was where the wheel came in. So far, she Conjured lye and bleach for it, although finding a better source would be good for long-term development. It also needed a lot of manual labor, for which she could hire people from the village. That had the incidental benefit of stimulating its economy.

Right now, Regina was starting to seriously think about printing. Printing presses did exist in this age, apparently, although no one from the village had seen one at work. She suspected that they were a lot worse than what had been used in her own time. Still, it was probably better to start with what people already knew, maybe hire a local expert, rather than try to invent everything from scratch. For now, Regina was trying to develop a reliable process to make ink, which was already a problem. She could make something usable for writing by hand just using charcoal dust and soot of the right quality, but she doubted that would be good enough for printing texts. She probably needed to get proper recipes, too.

Who knew it was this complicated just to get proper writing materials and texts? If I couldn’t just Conjure a few chemicals I needed, I would be screwed. Regina sighed and took a step back from her current experiment, blinking her eyes against the burning sensation assaulting them. She was pretty sure vinegar was a possible ingredient, but she should probably be careful with acids and high temperatures. And now she probably needed to let it sit for a while.

It was a shame she couldn’t just jump to using computers and digital information storage. But she wouldn’t even know where to start with that, especially using pre-modern methods.

She was distracted from her musings by something that felt like a prickling across her neck. By now, though, Regina had enough practice to realize that that was just psychosomatic and she was really picking up on something from her psychic link. She turned and stepped away from her work area, glancing around and noting the positions of her Swarm Drones in the vicinity. Max looked up from where he had been talking to an Aquatic Drone and hurried over to her.

Regina had been too absorbed in what she was doing to check in with her scouts and the drones on the perimeter, but now she quickly realized that a small group of people was approaching the village from the north. Apparently, no one had considered it worth raising the alarm, which was the right choice. Through the eyes of a Winged Drone circling nearby, Regina could see that one of the men looked like a knight, but the two others weren’t, instead more concerned with the wagon they were driving. They all moved quite quickly, probably using a Skill.

She smiled and hurried through the village to greet them. She’d let Whitor go without waiting for his ransom to be paid in advance, since she suspected they might drag it out for a while. She didn’t expect it to take two weeks to arrive, but that was probably acceptable, considering he would presumably have had to gather some things from elsewhere, even if he was able to start preparing it right after coming back.

Once the visitors came closer, Regina got a better look at the knight, who was wearing armor but not his helmet. He looked vaguely familiar, although she couldn’t place him.

That was the name of Earl Whitor’s capital and only real city, which confirmed he was from the northern county. The knight raised a hand to wave as the cart slowed down, then half-bowed from his saddle towards her.

“Lady Regina, well met,” he greeted her. “I come on behalf of Earl Alain Whitor, to bring what is owed to you.”

Regina smiled. “Well met, Sir Edmund?” The end came out as more of a question, since she was only assuming he’d been knighted. The System didn’t show things like that.

He nodded slightly and hopped down from the saddle. One of the other men, probably a teamster, got down from the bench at the front of the cart and started opening a covering.

“Here we go. Twenty long bolts of fabric, a hundred pounds of various household tools and tools of various crafts, ten books from the specified list, and of course the coin.”

Tim and most of the other drones with Regina stepped forward to examine the shipment, while the knight held out a large pouch to her. She opened it and peered inside, quickly confirming that it contained what looked like silver coins. Counting them all out now seemed like it would be rude, though.

“Thank you, I am satisfied with this payment,” she replied, smiling again. “Would you and your men like to come inside the village to rest before you start on the return trip? I’m sure we can rustle up something to drink, too.”

The young knight smiled and nodded. “I would not mind seeing Baron Neralt as well, Lady Regina. Your offer is appreciated.”

Ivy and a few other drones took charge of the cart and started unloading it, getting Swarm Drones to carry the contents. Max, Tim and Mia joined Regina as she accompanied Edmund through the village’s outskirts.

The knight was clearly trying to be on his best behavior. He started some small talk, commenting and complimenting them on the recent rebuilding and infrastructure improvements to the village (mostly the roads). Regina responded by redirecting him with a few questions about where he was from, and he seemed happy enough to tell her about his home city.

“There was another matter of more importance, Lady Regina,” he said, turning more serious, when they neared Neralt’s mansion. “I’ve been asked to pass on a message to you.”

“Another message from the Earl? I’m all ears.”

She was suddenly more aware of Tim moving beside her, a nudge through the psychic link that meant he wanted her attention. Once he had it, he commented, I’m pretty sure he’s a son of Earl Whitor, my Queen.

Oh. I guess that makes sense. At least that would explain his lack of a more typical last name for a noble. So, it seemed like at least one of Whitor’s sons had stayed home with their father instead of continuing on with the king.

Now, Sir Edmund was shaking his head. “No, not from my lord, although he also sends his greetings. I was approached to convey a message from a former comrade, Sir Owin, an … adventurer.”

Regina nodded. “And what is it about?”

“You might have heard that the Great Forest is open for adventurers of all races again, as long as they respect the elves’ laws and sovereignty, as a result of the peace treaty? Granted, not many are taking advantage of it, compared to before. The ongoing war seems like a more lucrative opportunity for many.” He cleared his throat. “Still, Sir Owin feels that it would make a good neutral meeting spot for some from his faction and your hive to meet and sort out some past differences.”

Regina frowned. She’d already known that the line between adventurers and mercenaries was pretty thin. “I don’t understand why -“ Then she narrowed her eyes as her penny dropped. “He’s not an adventurer, but a Delver, right? The Delvers want to talk to me for some reason?”

The knight nodded. “Yes. I am not entirely sure if it is the entire organization or just some faction of it. But they have apparently heard some interesting information about what you have been doing.”

Regina resisted the urge to groan. Why now, of all things? Wait, I guess that’s obvious. Whitor did talk about the Delvers. I might have expected that he would speak to them. She sighed. “Can you give me any more details about this, Sir Edmund?”

“They want you to know that you are free to bring as many fighters as you would like, Milady,” he recounted. “They will only bring ten people at most. As a meeting spot, Sir Owin proposed a small, abandoned outpost not far from the village your people built inside the forest.”

Regina frowned again. This might be a trap. Then again, they’d sent this request ‘officially’, through Earl Whitor, who probably at least tacitly approved, since his son was relaying it. More importantly, she could scout the surroundings thoroughly using her Swarm Drones, and maybe ask the elves to make sure they weren’t sneaking any invisible powerhouses through or anything. Considering the relationship between them and the Delvers, she doubted the elves would take kindly to something like that.

Regina exchanged a glance with Max and Tim. They’d need to discuss this privately, though she was inclined to send Edmund back with an affirmative answer. The chance to work things out with the Delvers was not something she wanted to pass up, and she couldn’t deny she felt curious about what they wanted.

Tejoka

Why is it so hard to come up with chapter titles, anyway? *grumble*

Anyway. As always, thanks for reading, and I always appreciate feedback!