Chapter 78: Chapter 75: Settled Satisfactorily

“Are you sure that these little ‘particles’ are actually the basis of everything, everywhere?” Janis drew her brows together, looking a bit dubious.

“Yes, I’m very sure atoms exist,” Regina replied, trying not to sound too amused.

Her whole society, in her memories, couldn’t be wrong about that, could they? And there are, like, lots of experiments that prove it. Plus, pretty much all my knowledge of chemistry. And biology, too, since it’s based on chemistry in a sense. Like, if iron atoms don’t exist, what does hemoglobin transport in the blood and what are red blood cells for? You’d get no oxygen and die without it. Regina shook her head at herself and stopped the rather silly train of thought. This question was almost making her doubt things it shouldn’t.

Besides, if my knowledge was wrong, presumably my magic wouldn’t work. I got a Conjuration Spell and even Basic Heal, and I’m using it accordingly. So, magic or the System itself is basically supporting that it is true.

When she put it into those terms, Janis nodded. “Sorry if it sounded like I doubted you, Regina. I understand what you mean. It’s just … strange.”

“Lots of things about the natural world are weird,” Regina replied.

A few of the drones gathered around them nodded in agreement. Regina had decided to make these lessons open to the public, so to speak. Or at least, open to her hive. The drones all seemed to have some basic knowledge, along with their seemingly innate language proficiency, but she wasn’t entirely sure how far that went. Still, the focus was on her, the Attendants, and Janis talking and learning about magic as well as the knowledge she carried. Regina was hoping that if she taught them enough, they’d be able to learn Conjuration as well, either from her or as a potential Spell on offer from the System.

It didn’t seem like it was going to happen with just a few hours of lessons, though. Regina considered whether she should just switch to medical stuff and try to get them Basic Heal directly, but she didn’t think that was the best idea. If nothing else, knowing basic science would be very helpful in learning more specialized material. And while healing Spells would be great to have, they weren’t as potentially game-changing as conjuring stuff out of thin air (or rather mana, as she’d established air wasn’t necessary for it).

“Let’s get back to the periodic table. Or what I remember of it, anyway.” Regina sat up straighter on the cut off tree stump serving her as a stool and resumed drawing in the dirt with a sharpened stick. “Remember, it’s all about how many unbound electrons a certain element, or rather an atom in a potential molecule, has. So, carbon has four and can thus form molecules with four bonds, while oxygen just has two. That’s why it takes two hydrogen atoms to form water, although water is also a bit of a special case, since there’s a high electronegativity differential …”

Janis’ expression, which had just cleared and looked like she understood, darkened again, and Regina reminded herself to stick to the topic and keep things simple.

“Never mind that, we’ll talk about electronegativity and hydrogen bonds in a minute,” she said. “For now, is the basic idea of the table and the elements clear?”

Via and Ira nodded confidently, and the rest also seemed like they’d at least followed along. Janis didn’t answer, but Regina had the impression that was because she was deep in thought, focused on considering what she was learning and presumably its implications.

She paused as she noticed Max coming closer. He’d decided not to attend this lesson, maybe because she’d already talked to him about most of the content a few weeks ago, when they’d been out in the forest together. Many other drones were also not here, but presumably busy with other work, though she didn’t doubt they’d hear about it from their fellows. She still hadn’t quite decided how much of it she wanted the humans from the village to hear.

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“There’s another human approaching, my Queen,” Max reported as he came to a stop outside the circle of drones, who’d put up improvised seating arrangements.

Regina glanced around, then stood up and joined him. “I don’t imagine they’re coming from the forest?”

He shook his head. “From deeper into the march, possibly Cernlia as a whole. It’s a rider, and he seems to be alone. I’d assume he’s a messenger.”

“Alright.” She turned back to face the others. “This is the end of the lesson, I’m afraid. Please get back to what you’re doing. Janis, come with me, please.”

Ira joined them as well, while most of the other drones scattered to go back to various tasks. Tia seemed to hesitate for a moment, then headed back to the workshop, joining Mia.

Janis was quiet as they walked to the edge of the village again. Regina assumed that she was trying to get used to being part of the hive, their source of knowledge and probably point of contact for humans. After she’d been living as a human for so long, it was probably a bit of an adjustment. She didn’t say anything about it, though.

The rider didn’t seem to be in any hurry, or more likely, he’d been pacing himself for the long trip. Regina couldn’t tell from here if the figure was actually a man or woman, but she’d trust her drones’ information. Ada or another of the scouts must have spotted him. Besides, given what she’d heard of the culture from the villagers and Janis, using a male as a messenger was probably more likely, anyway.

Janis gasped quietly as the rider came closer. Regina glanced at her, surprised for a moment, before she realized that the girl must have spent time at the marquis’ court, so she’d be familiar with at least some people from there. “You recognize him?”

“That’s my great-uncle Richard,” Janis answered.

Regina raised an eyebrow. After a moment of consideration, she decided that was probably a good thing. Unless her relative had heard of Janis joining the hive and set out to bring her back himself or something silly like that, which didn’t seem likely.

As the visitor came closer, she focused on him and managed to get a description from the System.

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