Path of the Hive Queen

Chapter 160: Coping

From what Regina could gather after listening to Via talking to Margaret and later to Kiara, and listening in to a few other people around the castle, almost a third of the nobles supporting Marquis Lyns had switched sides. She supposed she should be glad the number wasn’t even higher than that. And to be fair, it seemed to be concentrated among the lower-rank nobles.Regina suspected that the rest was too afraid of being punished by the king for their previous betrayal. He was not exactly known as a paragon of virtue and magnanimity.

Ironically, her own alliance with Lyns’ rebels was probably also a factor. It offered at least a ray of hope for them, amidst the losses they had kept suffering. She knew perfectly well that many of them still didn’t think highly of her hive, but any allies were better than none, presumably.

Either way, it was hard for her to assess the extent and full effect of this move. It had clearly been coordinated to some degree; less so than it would have been with modern means, but more than without the System and magic.

Some of the nobles who’d tried to rejoin the king had been apprehended by Lyns’ loyalists (or did that make them counter-loyalists?), while some had managed to escape. In most cases, they’d taken at least the majority of their soldiers with them. There had been fighting even in the main army camp, although it had been quickly quelled. A substantially smaller percentage of people from domains whose lords had rejoined the king had participated in the fighting here. Regina reflected.

While Via talked to various people in charge to help her figure all of that out, the rest of the drones started their work. They consulted with the human healers and quickly began healing patients. The local doctors seemed particularly happy about the herbs and supplies the drones had brought along. It was mainly what they’d gathered from the forest, and they’d mostly known about them from other humans in the first place, so there was nothing ground-breaking, but the army seemed to be running low.

None of the drones was as good at it as Regina, although a few had managed to level up their Basic Heal Spell. A few even had other healing magic. They generally didn’t show as much variety as the human healers, from what she could tell, but she didn’t get the impression that her drones were any weaker. Whether they were less or more useful was something she’d have to wait to find out.

She was also interested in what they were called on to treat.

The local healers were at least aware of the concept of infection and tried to keep their tools clean and sterile where possible. They mostly had to deal with injuries from combat, including some that were obviously caused by magic or Skills. There wasn’t really another reason for electrical burns to be a problem, for example. Or wounds that seemed self-inflicted. Regina took special notice of those, although they seemed to be quite rare, luckily. , she thought, feeling a chill go down her spine.

Well, maybe she was jumping to conclusions. Either way, Regina watched how her drones dealt with those injuries and felt like she was learning something. She was almost disappointed that she wasn’t there herself, not just for political reasons or to help. She wasn’t sure exactly how well she would have dealt with a few more exotic cases.

Maybe it was also some lingering frustration over her inability to heal June Lyns. It wasn’t like Regina didn’t have some guesses and a few possibilities of what disease she might suffer from, she just couldn’t be sure. She would need more time, to watch how her condition developed after Regina did some magic healing.

It was odd. She felt like a failure in a more personal way than she was used to. Regina thought.

Regina sat bolt upright and felt her hands grow clammy as her heartbeat started to race. She was sitting in her bedroom, but her immersion in the psychic link had stopped.

She’d gotten used to the holes in her head, the missing pieces, the way her memory differed from what was normal. Almost, at least. But now, it felt like she had something. She was so close she could almost taste it, and yet, she knew she’d never get there. Unlike other Hive Queens in her situation, presumably, there wasn’t even any other way for her to learn about it, to ask others about who she had been. It was just as gone as the rest of her world. In her calmer moments, Regina realized that was probably a good thing.

There was no point dwelling on the past. Only what it could help her do in the present.

Regina exhaled forcefully and laid a hand against her chest, listening to her frantic heartbeat calming down. She could tell herself that she should just consider herself lucky to be alive all she wanted, but that didn’t make it easy. But she did have a life here. A home, a family … children.

Regina winced and quickly stood up, starting to pace around her room. she acknowledged to herself. have This little episode took her by surprise. At least it wasn’t an actual panic attack or anything. Her lips twitched into a wry smile.

She had been pushing things away, trying not to think about it. To be fair, the enormity of her entire world being ravaged, reshaped and reset to the dark ages would be enough to crush anyone if you dwelled on it. She hadn’t even allowed herself to focus on the anger she felt for the … multidimensional refugees calling themselves gods who had led to it.

They were definitely responsible to some degree, although you could argue about fault. Considering what else they had done since then - or not done - Regina considered her anger to be pretty well justified, though.

She leaned against the wall, pushing her forehead against the cool clay, and sighed.o get some of my instruments.”

Luckily, they actually had a few sets of common medical instruments, mostly captured and traded for. Regina wasn’t exactly experienced at this, so not having to use any old dagger was good.

“Of course, my Queen,” Ace acknowledged. He frowned a bit even as he lifted the first body. “I take it you want to do an autopsy?”

“Yeah. Several, probably.” Regina shrugged. “The best way to learn about differences between them and humans, I think.”

He nodded. “Do you want us to get one of the live ones, too?”

Regina hesitated. “Let’s hold off on that for now,” she said. “I might still need all of them intact and healthy.”

She grabbed another body and followed Ace to a mostly empty chamber with a clean table. Then she gratefully took a cloth Ace handed her and wrapped it around the lower part of her face. Sometimes, better than human senses had their downsides, and this would stink.