"And you didn't see fit to look or tell me about this before? You failed me, and our students."

Madris raised an eyebrow, looking distinctly unimpressed. "I think you failed yourself, Regina."

Regina snarled soundlessly. Her partially-retracted claws dug into her palms. They were mostly alone, so she didn't hide her anger. And for all that she was angry at Madris, she was at least as angry at herself.

She'd just come to tell Madris about what happened and get her perspective, but somehow it had devolved into an argument. Probably because both of them were tired and grumpy. She probably could have done better than to have Madris dragged out of her home and bustled to the palace, Regina had to admit. Especially since her teacher had only just returned.

"I don't have the experience you do," she gritted out. "When there is another psychic doing their thing anywhere close by, I want you to tell me." She took a deep breath. "Who was it?"

Madris hesitated, then inclined her head. "I started looking as soon as I heard what happened," she said. "I'm almost sure it must have been Honor Sazatore. I sensed her before, close by, but not on your side of the border, when I was in the north. And your description of their mental shielding sounds like something she can do. It's one of her specialties."

Regina nodded, searching her memory for information about that particular psychic. Madris had given her info on all of the important ones a while ago, but she hadn't thought too much about it since. "So, someone from the Western Confederation, that makes sense."

"She's actually from a minor principality that wasn't included there, at least originally, but she spent some time in several of the Confederation's countries," Madris informed her.

"Right. She doesn't have a mind control affinity, right? Just communication and shielding."

"Those are her talents, as far as I can tell, yes."

Regina nodded and paced a few meters up and down the room. "What else? Are there any other psychics who might be working with her?"

"There could easily be," Madris shrugged. "I know of a few who it wouldn't surprise me to hear joined her, and there might be more." She frowned. "I imagine they must have … shared concerns about your own use of psychic power."

Regina bit down on a curse. I suppose Madris did warn me, she thought.

"So, did she influence Helen or not?" June asked. She was sitting in a chair close by, her arms crossed.

Madris glanced at her and tilted her head to the side, subtly sending a note of regret and sympathy psychically. "Undoubtedly she did manipulate her. But with psychic powers? No, I doubt it. As I noted, control or influence is not her strength, at least not getting past proper mental defenses."

"That figures," Janis muttered. She leaned against the door, looking thoughtful.

"Helen has more talent in psychic influence," June said. "And also less scruples than most of us."

"You should have been more careful with her," Madris said to Regina, clicking her tongue.

Regina sighed. "I knew who she was, or at least I thought I did. She is ambitious, but I offered her power and status. Was it really stupid to assume she would stay loyal?"

"No, but you should have still checked," Janis muttered.

"And while I appreciate the need to test your remaining students, perhaps you should also keep in mind that their loyalty will be strengthened by generosity and mercy, not collective punishment," June said, not quite meeting her gaze.

Regina sucked in a breath. She had confined the rest of the psychics, true, but … "I never intended to punish them for her betrayal," she said. "I just wanted to be sure. She was one of the most senior and most capable, we need to be sure she hasn't unduly influenced the others, especially with her abilities. Or recruited them the normal way."

If one of them could betray her, why not the others? She certainly couldn't afford to keep blindly trusting them.

"We can ask them to let us assure ourselves of their trustworthiness again," June suggested. "I'm sure they wouldn't object, under the circumstances."

Regina nodded, glancing at her and Madris. "I will need your help. The three of us will do it. Each student will be screened at least twice, by one of us and then another."

"That seems a bit paranoid," Madris noted. "It will take time. And you will not allow the other students to take part?"

"No," Regina snapped. She rubbed her temples. "Helen managed to hide her real thoughts and affiliation for a while, clearly. Who knows what else that psychic may have taught her, or taught someone else. I won't take that chance. We'll take care of it, and they can stay under light house arrest in the meantime. They'll understand."

Madris sighed and straightened. "Then, of course, I'll fulfill your request."

"It was not a request," Regina grumbled. But she didn't want to drag this out arguing with Madris.

"I won't let you down again, Master," June interjected. "If any of them know anything that can help us, we'll find out. I don't think one of the others was involved, but it is prudent to be cautious, and we'll follow your orders."

Regina paused, and smiled at June, radiating some soothing feelings towards her. "You didn't fail, June; if anything, I did. Madris is right about that. I have every confidence that we will all do this properly and find any problems there may be."

"That's nice and all," Janis spoke up, crossing her arms as she kept leaning against the door. "But it still doesn't answer what we should do otherwise."

Regina settled back down in a chair, tugging on her mandibles. "We should test the psychics first before we move on to other people that may have been influenced," she reasoned. "Clearly, at least the senior ones will be able to help with that. We will also intensify our normal checks and make an updated schedule for regular screening of government officials and military commanders."

The others nodded. She sensed their agreement, coupled with various other emotional shades.

"If it hasn't already, news will begin making its way around the Empire shortly," Janis said quietly. "We need to put out some kind of statement, to react somehow, but we don't want to play their game and start a war."

"Should we make it public that Helen was a traitor?" June asked.

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Regina frowned. "We could do that without directly implicating the Western Confederation or Esemen, or anyone else," she said. "Everyone will know they were likely behind it, but we can say we don't yet have any proof and it will be true. I'm not sure how public I want this to be. We can put out a warrant for her arrest, even without going into too much detail."

"If we say it was just food poisoning, or something, it will make our response seem like an overreaction," Janis pointed out.

Regina stood up, starting to pace up and down the room again. She had a major headache, and was starting to feel a tightness in her core that she recognized. It seemed like Hive Queens had a biological instinct to respond to stress with making new drones, presumably to defend them. She tried to push the urge down and promised herself to take a relaxing bath later, but right now she had to focus on the situation.

"We might be looking at this the wrong way," she said. "This is also an opportunity. A princess and prince were attacked. A cute, innocent young boy, and a popular heir. People should be upset about this. There has already been a rise in nationalism, and while I would usually be ambivalent about it, this kind of thing is just what can lead to people coming together as a nation."

"They basically handed us a recruitment tool on a platter," Janis muttered.

"Exactly, we just need to use it carefully."

Janis nodded decisively. "I will give some speeches and make sure our commanders take this the right way. I was going to keep doing tours of our military bases and factories anyway. That way I can show strength, show how we beat this cowardly attack, while still using it to motivate our people."

"You didn't want to start the war too early," Madris pointed out.

"And they won't. It's not like our men are going to go ahead and invade the enemy on their own," June responded. "They need a lot of support and logistics and such, right?"

"Of course," Janis said. "One of our biggest advantages is discipline. I think we can be reasonably free to choose our actions without worry that the troops will mutiny."

Regina half-smiled, half-grimaced. That was of course a good thing, but she still didn't like what it all meant.

"Maybe we should do some maneuvers. I'll speak to Ben about our schedule for operations in the mountains, so we can give more troops combat experience," she said. "We'll also be taking another look at the supply situation and I'll tell Tia to focus on the food and ammunition depots. And we'll speak to our allies, of course."

"Speaking of," June chimed in hesitantly, glancing at Janis. "Will the elementals help us?"

Janis paused, frowning. "They're hardly a unified entity," she said. "But … I can go south. I think Volance at least might come around to fighting for us in the coming war."

Volance would not be happy about this, Regina understood. She nodded.

"We should also pay more attention to the other countries to the east and west," June suggested. "There are still opportunities, for example southeast of Esemen, on the Empire's eastern border in general, and maybe further to the west along the mountains. Especially if you want to forge an alliance with the dark elves, shouldn't we pay attention to the lands in between us?"

"Good point," Regina agreed. Some of them had already sent envoys and gifts. They were clearly aware which way the wind was blowing, at least in their corner of the continent.

"I feel I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that there might be an opportunity for getting more soldiers there," Janis said, frowning. "If we quickly subjugate them and then extract tribute or draft fighters. We should have the strength for it, and even the strength to do it quickly. However, I don't think it's a good idea. Besides the obvious moral objections, it'd be hard to integrate such conscripts, and it might cost us more than it's worth."

Regina resisted the urge to start pacing again. "Yes," she agreed quietly. "I had the same idea. But you're right. We need to be careful how we act. But that doesn't mean we can't get anything from them. Instead, I will send delegations … perhaps Tim, or you, Janis. We can offer some of our knowledge and technology. And in return we'll build connections and influence. At the very least, we can get official permission to recruit auxiliaries if and when the actual war starts."

"Any people we recruit will need time to be trained and integrated with our army," Janis noted.

"Yes, but I don't expect the war to be over in a few weeks, anyway."

Madris hummed quietly. "If I have learned anything in my own experience with war, it is that everything hinges on morale. That is partly why psychics can be so effective. Soldiers need to have bonds with each other that motivate them not to abandon their comrades in battle, but they also need to have faith in their cause, their officers, and their matriarch or king. Your Hive will keep fighting for as long as you want them to, Regina, but this is not the case for most fighters."

Regina nodded. The reading she had done largely agreed with her.

"That is why the idea to use this attack to strengthen morale is a good one, if you can leverage it. But you also need to consider the larger picture, and your enemy and their advantages. Men who are convinced the gods are on their side will fight hard and be harder to break."

"I know," Regina replied, a bit annoyed at the reminder.

"Then consider this; if Deirianon or another god descended to show himself to the soldiers of the enemy, even to fight beside them, would your own men still fight?"

Regina paused. She had not considered that question directly before. If she was honest, it did not look good. "… Perhaps not, but I'm not sure there is anything we can do to change that." Getting them to actually fight the gods? That would be a tall order.

"We can at least try our best," Janis said. "Prepare as best we can."

"Yes," Regina agreed, "we will do that."

Madris looked contemplative. "Delvers have rarely been very fond of the gods. There is a long, institutional tradition of … skepticism, let us say? It will be difficult to transfer to the general population, but — if anyone is in a position to do it, you are."

Regina nodded, feeling a surge of determination she didn't bother to hide, but instead letting it leak to the others. "You are right. We need to not just build our military or disempower the temples, but forge our own cultural 'mythos' and philosophical traditions, our bedrocks of civilization. One that leans heavily on what came before."

"You have already been doing that?" June said, more of a question than a statement.

"Yes, but we will do it better. Be more coherent, more bold." Regina straightened up, clasping her hands behind her back. "I will not be daunted by fear of backlash or upsetting people. The temples can disapprove if they want, I will not let them stop me from living by my own culture. We can bring back more holidays, instead of trying to hide them. We can be bolder in our art, architecture and music. And while we set up more schools and universities, open to all, we can give them more radical texts to read. Perhaps I should write some myself?"

The others exchanged a look, and Janis shrugged. "Sounds good," she said laconically.

Regina sagged a bit, sighing. "Alright. I think that's all. I really need a nap. Perhaps you should do the same."

They quickly dispersed, with June and Janis leaving together. She could tell they were looking for Kiara, while Madris went to the psychic students. Regina would visit them as well, but later. She wasn't joking about needing a nap.

She told Ira to wake her after a few hours regardless. There was a lot to do. She should probably write a speech, and maybe make time to talk to various important officials, and generally smooth things over after the lockdown of the palace. Not to mention take the reports of the Star Guard and spend some time with her younger drones, and with Janis, and with Kiara and her family.

Still, before getting to any of that, Regina sat down and paged through the bundles of papers and books on her desk and bookshelves. I'll need to ask Galatea for more material, she thought absently. Much more. Then she pulled out a new sheet of paper and a fountain pen and wrote down a few names and titles while she thought. Voltaire. John Locke and David Hume. Immanuel Kant.

They would need new translations, perhaps summaries in easy to understand language with the vocabulary and context of the current time.

Perhaps I should write my own treatise or texts, she mused. 'Commentaries on the Enlightenment'?

There would hardly be any 'Ancient' philosopher she would agree with unreservedly. But perhaps that was for the best. And if she could get a new movement going, inspire new thinkers and writers, that would be even better. Or just make reading and debating 'fashionable' at court, and from there have it trickle down further. At least it would be something.

The important thing was to get people thinking, about reason and rationality, empirical study and principles of morality; she didn't even have to attack religious sentiment directly. It should be clear whether or not you should follow the temples or the gods on their own merits. At least in principle.

She would have the ability to spread any of her texts pretty easily in the Empire, especially if she sent them to the new schools, perhaps even to be used to teach people to read and write. She should take advantage of the capacity, while also sponsoring the construction of new printing presses and publishers in the 'private sector'.

In the long term, perhaps Regina would even be making things much harder for herself, as a monarch. But she didn't care at the moment. If she eventually got problems because people wanted sovereignty and democracy, it would be worth it.

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