Chapter 26: Chapter 26: Ready to Go

The sun slowly moved across the sky, and although Regina didn’t have a clock, she could tell the passage of time by the activity of the people in the village. There was a guard shift change at some point, and it seemed like more Delvers trickled into the central part of the settlement. And then, of course, there were the elves. Luckily, they had no intention of leaving soon.

Regina had to stop herself from pacing and checking on their progress all the time. While she kept half of her attention with the drones, she tried to be unobtrusive and let them work, rather than taking control of one.

The only ones really working were the Drone Workers. Mia and Tia had been at it for what felt like hours already and were clearly feeling the strain, but they grimly persevered.

The key to Regina’s idea was their ability to dig. Their Class Skill, Ground Evacuation, was perfectly suited for the task. So, the both of them were making a tunnel, trying to dig as quietly as possible. It only had to be wide enough for one of them to crawl, but that meant it did still have to fit a person. They were also careful about the floor of the room they were in and trying to stabilize the tunnel so it didn’t collapse. You had to reach a certain depth for that. Not to mention avoiding the foundations of the house.

So far, they’d managed to keep their efforts secret from the guards. It helped that those didn’t seem to be professional soldiers, or at least not used to keeping prisoners. Regina had the impression they were distracted by the visit of the elves and their comrades’ fight against the monsters.

She’d heard the occasional sounds of combat, but only rarely, and only for a short time. Given that that noise was probably only what reached her across some distance, the sounds had to be deafening close up. She wouldn’t bet against monsters with sound-based attacks, though. In any case, this told her that the fighting was still ongoing. They were still only a few days into the monster horde, and it would probably continue for a while longer. Under the circumstances, she was almost glad of it.

If they tried to escape and were stopped, it would only make things worse. But she’d heard the way Trito spoke of so-called monsterbloods. She didn’t trust in his professionalism, and objectivity would be a pipe dream anyway. No one seemed particularly interested in finding facts or proof of anything. Why would he let a little thing like lack of evidence stand in his way?

She heard a loud noise from the others and froze, focusing more of her attention on them. Currently, she was watching through Tim’s eyes. That left Max, as the unspoken leader of the group, free to talk and act, while still giving her a close viewpoint and not bothering the girls at work. At least Tim didn’t seem to mind at all. None of them did, now that she thought about it.

There was another crash outside, and then loud voices. Someone else came, a higher-pitched voice. The conversation faded as they moved farther away. Then Regina realized with a start that the loud argument was coming towards her. She could now hear it more clearly with her own ears. Frowning, she shakily stood up and crossed the room to the door, trying to see whatever she could and listen closely. At least she was getting better at handling input from different consciousnesses at the same time.

Then the shutters on the small window in her room moved. Regina’s eyes widened, and she rushed over to quietly open it a little. They hadn’t been closed completely, presumably to let in some air, so it was easy. She took a deep breath and listened hard.

The guard was obviously distracted, and the loud argument of people moving down the street right by the house covered for any suspicious sounds. An elf stood in front of the window. She could smell them. It seemed like the same woman who’d visited the others. Presumably the rogue or spy of the group. Regina smiled in her general direction and nodded slightly.

Then a roundish brown object appeared. She blinked in surprise as it moved through the window, then quickly grabbed it. Regina mouthed “thank you” at the elf, but the woman started moving away immediately.

Frowning, Regina looked down at the object. It was about the size of a small apple. She closed the window carefully, then held it up and looked closer. After a moment, she bit into it.

It was pretty ingenious, really. A way to store and consume potions that didn’t leave any traces behind. The outer layer reminded her a bit of a cracker in taste and consistency. After she carefully started eating away at it, she saw the blue liquid inside. Regina sipped on it, but it only tasted like water, then resumed eating the covering. This wasn’t very sanitary, but she had bigger problems. Maybe this wouldn’t work for everyone, but so far, her people seemed to be able eat pretty much anything.

Regina finished it off, then called up her status and watched as her mana started climbing upwards. After a while, it was almost full again, at 150 out of 160. She grinned to herself. She felt a lot better already.

Then she turned around and checked out the room once more. She quickly ruled out the door into the building as an escape route. It was barricaded too tightly. Even if she could open it up, it would attract too much attention. That left the window and the back door to the outside.

The door was locked, but she had ways of getting around that. Regina focused on her mana and quickly cast a Lesser Basic Conjuration. The spell gave her a small, thin rod of iron, about as long as her hand. She grinned and started poking around inside the lock of the door.

They clearly hadn’t used any kind of magic to secure it, and technologically advanced this place was not. That affected things like locking mechanisms as well. Regina knew that a modern lock from the world of her memories would have been impossible for her to pick like this, but this one should be doable.

She still had to poke around in it for a bit before realizing she wasn’t getting anywhere. Then she withdrew her bit of iron and focused for a moment to conjure a second, smaller one. This one she formed so it was vaguely T-shaped, with smaller bits on the end, which made it look more like a key. She had a good enough idea of the dimensions of the lock to make it fit. Then she inserted it and carefully tested to see if she could open the door.

Once she was sure she could get out, she paused and listened. The guard might not be a professional, but he’d notice when she opened the door. So she took a mental step back and focused on her hive.

The guard in the other room of their house still hadn’t moved, and from his regular breathing, he was probably taking a nap. She would call it unprofessional, but given that this was one of the actual soldiers, probably one of the baron’s men, and not a Delver, that would be ironic. She appreciated it anyway.

Tia and Mia were just putting the finishing touches on the tunnel. Regina smiled and slipped deeper into Tim’s consciousness again.

“I’m ready to go,” she said. This time, it was even vaguely understandable.

The drones looked excited. “Alright, let’s do this!” Max was clearly trying to psych himself up, or maybe the others.

He insisted on going first, and Regina didn’t stop him. He crawled through the tunnel, then carefully poked his head out. Seeing that the coast was clear, he scrambled out, with Mia following him right away.

They’d picked a spot where a side alley dead-ended along the walls of some houses. Given the current situation, no one should be paying any attention to it. Regina still waited with bated breath as her hive climbed out of the tunnel. The hardest thing was taking the eggs out. They were still growing and almost bursting the seams of the bags they’d put them in, and trying to push them through a narrow tunnel wasn’t easy. But they managed it in time.

Once the drones were safely out of their prison, Regina took a deep breath, then turned back to her door. She waited, frowning to herself. If the elves abandoned them now …

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But a tense minute later, the real distraction started. She heard raised voices, wordless shouts and exclamations. The roar of a monster, which sounded deeper than a wyvern, followed. And a few seconds later, the raised voices from closer to her own position escalated into a shouting match.

Regina opened the door, trying to be quiet, but mostly going for speed. She only took a moment to grasp the scene outside before she rushed through it.

The guard outside her door had looked away to watch the brewing fight between two of the elven guests and some of the Delvers. He was just turning back towards her, but Regina didn’t give him any time to react. She barreled into him, pressing the shaft of his polearm between them so he couldn’t use it. Then she got her arm around his throat and started squeezing.

The Delver was wearing his helmet, but no gorget. He bucked and tried to get her off, but although he was clearly much stronger than her, he couldn’t use his strength to his full advantage like this. Regina kept choking him out, dragging his body backwards once his struggles started slowing down. Killing him might have been easier, but she didn’t need to make the humans any angrier than she had to. Once she was sure that the man wasn’t just feigning, she released him and propped him up against the side of the building, taking his weapon. It looked a bit like a waraxe combined with a normal spear.

Regina slipped into the alley beside the building, breathing a sigh of relief. That could have gone worse. Then she froze. There, further in the alley, stood another person.

“I knew I heard something,” Janis said. The villager slowly moved closer, frowning at Regina. It was the same expression she’d worn when considering a magic-related question.

“Stop right there,” Regina said. “If you don’t want this situation to get worse, you’ll just let me pass. No one needs to know you ever saw me.”

Janis stopped. “Why would it get worse?”

“Because I can kill you before any of the Delvers get here, if you yell for them.”

Janis made a face. “I wouldn’t have done that anyway.” She took a step to the side, pressing herself against the wall of the alley. “You should probably hurry, m’lady.”

Regina hesitated for a moment, before she got moving again. She paused as she passed Janis. The girl’s demeanor had changed a little. Now, Regina inhaled a deep breath. There was something about her scent that felt weird, or at least not like the other humans in the village.

“Why, Janis?” she asked.

Janis shrugged. “Of course I’m on your side. These Delvers are prigs, and you don’t deserve the way they’ve treated you.” She frowned. “Not that others do.”

“Alright. If you really want to help, then go down the street to the other Delvers, make sure they’re distracted.” Regina hesitated for a moment. “Once I’m established somewhere, maybe we can continue that talk about magic.”

Janis smiled at her, then bowed her head and turned away. Regina heard her leave and the sound of her steps speed up as she started jogging, while she did the same.

She tried to stay out of anywhere people might be watching, but it only took Regina a minute to reach the spot on the outside of the village where her hive was waiting for her. She untensed slightly as she joined them. A quick look confirmed that everything was as it should be.

“Catch up later,” she said. “We need to hurry. Let’s go.”

The drones fell into step behind her seamlessly, with Tim and the girls carrying one of the bags each.

They reached the river at the edge of the village quickly. Two cloaked figures already waited for them there. Once Regina approached, they lowered their hoods and Regina recognized two of the elves.

“Good, you’re here,” the man greeted them. A Forest Scout called Bianorn, according to the System. “Get in. The others will catch up quickly.”

A shimmering in the air suddenly appeared and faded after a second, and Regina got the faint sense of magic being present. Then a small wooden boat became visible in the river, pulled up on the shore right between the elves. The first one jumped in without waiting for a reply.

Regina followed him in, then helped Mia climb in as well. The boat was packed full with all of them, but the elves didn’t seem to care. The second man pushed it off the shore and it quickly started moving. A faint wind began to rise, and Regina sensed an intricate layering of mana as the boat got moving upriver.

Then a shout came from behind them. She turned around and froze as she saw the people standing on the riverbank. A few Delvers, and Trito’s scarred face in the lead. He started running, and even as the distance to the village visibly increased, he kept pace with the boat.

Just as he left the outskirts of the village, a dark form dove from the sky. Regina winced slightly as she watched the wyvern crash down on the man. The Delver lit up with light just before they collided.

Regina scooted closer to the edge, trying to make out more details, although the boat was turning as it followed a bend in the river.

Just before they got too far away to see clearly, she watched the wyvern shudder and fall to the side, where it lay unmoving. The Sword of Light, still glowing faintly, still stood. He didn’t continue chasing them, and she quickly lost sight of him and the other Delvers.

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