Regina groaned as she woke up. She felt like she’d just been run over by a bus. Her head was pounding like someone tried it out for a drum, and her limbs burned and prickled slightly. She also felt like her face itched, but beneath the skin. Luckily, the sensation was already fading as she regained wakefulness.

“She’s waking up! Dim the light, and tell Max,” someone said.

Regina blinked and sat up. It took her a second to recognize Via, who was hovering beside her and fiddling with a clay cup of water. The light was apparently a Spark Spell cast by Janis, who was standing guard further away, although there was also a bit of what seemed like natural light coming from one direction.

“How long was I out?” she asked.

“A few hours, my Queen,” Via reported, handing her the water. She kept speaking as Regina drank. “Galatea called us in after - well, what happened. Most of us and the Delvers had backed away to get some distance from the shaking and stuff, though Janis stayed. She was talking about different types of mana and mana vortexes. She sounded pretty excited, actually.”

“Wait, she wasn’t harmed by it, was she?” Regina interrupted.

“No, Janis has the blood of elementals, monsters made up largely of mana, which offers some protection.”

Regina blinked and turned her head to look at the new figure who had just spoken. She recognized her at once as Galatea, though she also seemed a bit different than the avatar the AI had shown her before. It was hard to put the finger on why, though. Maybe it was because of how she appeared to her mana senses.

“Galatea! Are you alright?” she asked. “What happened?”

“I’m perfectly fine, thank you.” Galatea smiled, then hesitated for a moment. Regina realized that she was speaking directly - or what seemed like that, anyway - not using any kind of hardware or interface. “I really do need to thank you. Without your help, I probably would have died down here. Now, I’m better than ever, and finally free to leave. Not without a price to pay, of course, but that’s life.”

“Your hardware -“ Regina realized. “Did you lose all the information there? How does this even work?”

“No. You timed it perfectly, and I integrated into the System at just the right time. It caught the information stored there as well, since that does make up part of my mind. Now the System seems to be storing it in local mana, or something similar. A core functionality of the System is obviously an information gathering and storage system. Quite fascinating to investigate.” Galatea smiled again. “I’ll have to thank Leian the next time I see her.”

Regina blinked. She was having a bit of trouble catching up with everything. But whatever had happened exactly, at least it seemed that Galatea was fine. “What about your mana form? Is it still ‘twisted’, or …?”

“Partly.” Galatea sounded serious, and Regina realized that the cheerfulness might be a bit of a front, anyway. “Don’t worry, it doesn’t seem to react negatively with the ambient mana. I’ll have to watch how it develops, but I’m ninety percent sure the System will either take care of it or help me do that.”

“Good.” Regina muttered, before she stood up and looked around. It wasn’t hard to figure out their location. They were currently in one of the tunnels leading straight out, a short distance from their base. Presumably, the others hadn’t wanted to bring her there because of the Delvers’ presence, a decision she approved of. The Delvers had already seen far too much so far.

Janis was lingering in the vicinity, and she sensed Max and most of the other drones a bit farther away, together with the four Delvers. She suspected he was deliberately keeping them away from her.

“Also, what the hell were you thinking in the first place?” Galatea tapped her on the head.

“Ow.” Regina rubbed her forehead. Clearly, Galatea’s new body had enough physical form to pack a punch, at least when she wanted it to. “What?”

“You really need to learn to prioritize your own safety,” Galatea lectured her. “I realize that staying behind when there’s an unknown danger around, especially with Leian herself urging you to act - yes, they told me everything - might not have been a good choice. But you didn’t need to come talk to the Delvers personally in the first place. And deciding to go fight your way through the tunnels with only Delvers as backup was just plain reckless. You’re lucky you weren’t hurt. Remember, you’re the center and focus of the hive, it would fall apart without you. Maybe you need to think a little more like a Hive Queen. Or what do you think would happen to all the people you care about if you died?”

Regina stared at her for a moment, a bit taken aback. Then she sighed. “I guess you have a point,” she allowed. “I’ll think about what you’ve said.”

“See that you do. Now, can you walk, or should we give you more time to rest?”

Regina shook her head and stepped forward. She stumbled a bit, and if Via hadn’t reached out to grab her arm, she might have had to sit down again. But after a moment, she felt steadier. “Did I grow taller again or something?” she muttered, looking down at her arms and flexing her hands.

“You might want to look into a mirror.” Galatea sounded amused.

Regina frowned. “Janis, look at me for a sec.”

Janis, who was standing a few meters away definitely not listening in, turned to look at her, and Regina hopped into her mind to see through her eyes.

It seemed like she had indeed grown by a few centimeters again. Regina estimated that she looked at least half a year or so older. In human terms, she was now about sixteen or seventeen, probably closer to the latter. And it was a lot easier to estimate because of the other physical changes crossing that threshold had brought. Her wings had grown slightly and looked sleeker, with the transition where they emerged from her torso more streamlined. Her mandibles hadn’t grown, and instead seemed to have almost sunk into her head, so her face looked smoother. Her other facial features appeared more refined and less ‘monstrous’, as well. Regina ran a hand over her face, marveling at the way she had changed.

“I look more like a human,” she muttered.

“You look much more like you used to,” Galatea corrected. “I imagine your soul still remembers your old shape, and is driving your form towards that pattern. It’s quite fascinating.”

Regina nodded. Without the more explicit Hivekind attributes, she looked more like a human with strangely colored skin, but more importantly, it was easy to tell what she would look like as one. She was still clearly a Hivekind, not a human, but her old face had surfaced, at least to some degree. I guess I should be happy about that, most of all, since I’m not likely to ever see a picture or anything. Regina smiled, a bit uncertainly. The change was a bit disconcerting, but she had to admit she liked it.

“You should probably talk to the Delvers, though,” Galatea continued. “If you don’t mind, I’m going to look through the remains of the base and see what I can salvage.”

“Alright. Do you want me to come along?”

“No, I think I’d rather be alone for now, to be honest. Don’t worry, I’ll come find you again soon. We have a lot of things to talk about.” Galatea hesitated, looking like she wanted to say something else, then just turned and quickly moved away, without her feet actually touching the ground.

Regina looked after her for a moment, then got her System description just in time before she lost sight of her.

She’s above level forty? Well, I suppose that’s not surprising. Regina shook her head, then took a deep breath and focused on the situation. She needed to talk to the others, even if she wanted to just lie down in her bed and sleep.

“Lady Regina, you’re awake,” Owin greeted her when she joined the others. They were standing at an entrance to the tunnels. It struck her how tired he looked.

“Finally,” she replied with a small smile. “I’m glad to see you’re all well, Sir Owin. Thank you for the support you provided.”

He nodded. Then they just looked at each other in somewhat tense silence for a few seconds. Gwen and the other Delvers didn’t look much more awake, but they were wearing their weapons and clearly still capable of using them.

“Please don’t scare us like that again, my Queen,” Max broke the silence. He looked at her earnestly.

“Of course not.” She smiled at him. “I don’t know about you, but I’d prefer to get out of these tunnels.”

The others all seemed to feel the same, and they trudged outside. Luckily, they were still a short distance from the hive’s new base, though it was easily visible from here.

“You’re not going to show us your village?” Gwen asked.

“Not much to see,” Regina dismissed. “I’m sure you’re eager to get back home, or to the rest of your team, anyway.”

“There’s another entrance to the underground tunnels a few hundred meters in that direction,” Ada pointed out. “It should offer a good path back to where we split up.”

Regina decided not to mention that she knew nothing had happened back there. She checked in with the drones she’d left near the first door they’d barricaded, but it seemed like everything was quiet. They’d explored the surroundings and managed not to get into a fight with the Delvers.

Owin cleared his throat. “We still need to talk,” he stated. “We have questions about what happened. And about you. You’re clearly more than you seem, Lady Regina.”

Regina hesitated. She really wasn’t sure what to say. She didn’t want to give away anything she didn’t need to, but at the same time, just stonewalling all his questions and kicking them out after they helped her wouldn’t be very productive. Not to mention they might come to conclusions she would rather they not.

“I’m sure you do,” she finally said. “There are some things I really can’t answer, though.”

Owin paused for a moment. “Rich, Geoff, would you mind going to check out that other entrance?” he asked.

The other two Delvers exchanged a glance and nodded. Then they left, carefully picking their way across the ground. It was still before dawn, though the sky was lightening and the almost full moon offered a lot of light.

We must have been traveling and fighting through most of the night. Regina glanced at the others and wordlessly told them to give them some space, as well. Only Max, Tim and Janis remained, though Via and Ira didn’t look happy about leaving her alone. Well, except for the Winged Drones overhead. Owin and Gwen glanced at Janis, looking a bit curious, before they refocused on Regina.

“Who and what are you, Lady Regina?” Gwen asked bluntly. “It already beggars belief that the Hivekind could still be alive after all these years, but you clearly know a lot more than even your race should account for.”

“You’re not wrong. I do have a lot more knowledge about the people you call ‘the Progenitors’ than anyone else. Although speaking of them as one people is a bit silly, anyway; they were at least as varied as the people of today, probably more so.” Regina paused, trying to decide how much she should say. “I can assure you that I did not come by this knowledge by dishonest means. On the contrary. If anyone has gained such knowledge by unethical means - such as, say, essentially grave robbing - it would be you and others. I have no need for that.”

They stared at her in silence for a few moments. “You almost sound as if you were a Progenitor yourself, but that’s impossible,” Gwen said.

Regina laughed. “Whatever made you think of that? Perhaps you should remember that it has been over a thousand years.”

By now, Gwen just looked a bit bewildered, and Owin not much better.

“It almost sounds like you are deliberately jesting at our expense, Lady Regina,” he said. “I would appreciate some straight answers, rather than cryptic comments.”

“I know, I’m not trying to make fun of you,” she assured him. “And the situation is strange for me, too. But I cannot just give you all of my secrets, I’m sure you understand why.”

“Well,” he finally said. “I can see that we will not be getting more out of you. I appreciate your efforts in containing what could have been a major disaster. We will need to go back and confer with our comrades. I give you my word, though, that we will not be sharing strategically sensitive information about your hive. That is the least we can do.”

Regina nodded slowly. “Good. I will have a few drones escort you, to make sure you reach the limits of my territory safely.”

Luckily, they were close enough to their base that she could assemble a squad to go with the Delvers in no time, including quite a few high-level War Drones. They set off quickly. Regina looked after them, frowning contemplatively. It would not be easy, but she had a feeling the Delvers could be very useful for her purposes.

She shook her head and turned to head back to the base, now that they were alone again. On the way, she finally pulled up the System messages that were waiting for her, smiling slightly in anticipation.

She hadn’t really expected it, although Regina was still a bit disappointed that she wouldn’t be able to actually Evolve, or to get a Class Progression. Still, she was curious what else she had received.

Regina whistled silently through her teeth. There were considerably more boosts than she’d received the last time, probably because she had more Abilities, as well. Some of them sounded really great. She could already faintly feel a difference in the psychic link, but she’d have to make some time to investigate that more thoroughly. She was also curious how large the improvement to Swarm Drone egg hatching really was, since that was something she could really use if she wanted to build up her forces.

Regina grinned. Now we’re talking.