Chapter 71: Chapter 68: Intentions and Communications

Regina ran a hand over her face, taking the moment to cover her eyes and expression. Then she let it drop again, her gaze still fixed on the motionless form of the drone in front of her.

Ash was covered with a large sheet of cloth, although she had turned over a corner of it to look at his face. It looked peaceful, far more so than it should, given what had happened.

They would be building pyres once the immediate issues were settled. He, however, would not burn among them. When she listened very closely, she could still make out the faint rasp of his breath. Not that she needed to. His presence in her psychic link was awfully quiet, but it was still there. It hadn’t gone out completely.

They had lost quite a few War Drones, again, and she’d run herself ragged and exhausted all of her mana healing the others and her people. Regina was thankful to whatever higher powers there might be that she hadn’t lost any more of her sapient drones. Of her … children.

She’d even considered offering a prayer to Alianais, briefly. Then she’d discarded the idea.

Now, Regina took a step back, checking over Ash again. She had healed his serious wounds, at least as well as she could. His torso had been a bit of a mess of blood and other things, but someone had cleaned him up since, and there was little sign of it remaining. She wasn’t sure about his internal injuries, however. I still only have Basic Heal. Basic. It’s an unpleasant reminder that I can and will need to upgrade it further.

The elves had laid him into some kind of bush-and-flowers-based healing constellation, which had put him into this deep sleep and slowed down any further deterioration. She hoped he’d keep healing and wake up soon.

For now, though, she couldn’t afford to spare the time. Regina sighed and turned around, stepping away from him and towards the center of the newly taken village.

In the light of dawn, it looked more alive than before, but also, well, not so great. Any fires that might have started in the fight had quickly been put out, luckily, but some houses did sustain damage due to the effects of other Skills and magic. Not that they had had many mages here, those were probably at the castle.

“He’s going to be alright, my Queen,” Max murmured. “Are we going to sort out things here now?”

Regina gave him a sideways glance and nodded. He wasn’t that close with the younger Scout, but she knew Max cared about the other drones, and they’d trained together some. “I need to meet with Anuis and the others, but it might be best to include the baron and maybe the rest of the local leadership somewhat.” Carefully, of course.

Max nodded and kept walking beside her as Regina continued on. She took the time to examine her surroundings critically. Some of the villagers had apparently grown brave enough to venture out of their homes now. She saw several of them talking with elves or hive drones, who were clearly making an effort to be nice and approachable. Good, that was how things should be. No point in upsetting the inhabitants any more than they had to, especially since good relations would probably still be valuable to have.

Regina also took the time to focus on the System screens she had put aside previously, now that she finally had a spare minute to deal with them and consider them in detail instead of just taking a quick glance.

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