The Army of the Elbe had been advancing for days now, but their progress was slowed. It seemed that after the surprise attack by the Champions, their enemy had stopped holding back and hiding, or at least put more effort into the skirmishes and attempts to slow them down.

Maybe the earlier quiet had been intended to lull them into a false sense of security and make the attack more devastating.

Either way, the Champions didn't withdraw after that attack, although they didn't repeat the same sort of concerted strike. Instead, they mostly accompanied regular soldiers of the Western Confederation's nations. Well, both what had to be professional soldiers as well as adventurers hired by the Confederation, and of course members of the religious orders who had been trained in combat.

And to make things worse, the Esemen also finally moved.

Regina had known it was coming. They'd made the call not to try and invade Esemen just now — not together with the Western Confederation — but that only opened up the possibility of the Esemen doing the reverse and attacking the Empire.

Personally, she'd actually breathed a brief sigh of relief at the news. Or rather, at the confirmation that the Esemen had focused on the east. That made sense in several ways. While it meant they had less chance of support from the Western Confederation, all of their information had confirmed that the coordination between the two nations was already not that great. Certainly nothing like what the Empire could do with the psychic link. Instead, they were forcing the Empire to fight on two fronts — two fronts that were removed from each other, dispersed — while the two nations could still just focus on one area of operations at a time. There were probably political considerations as well, and she could guess roughly what they were.

That didn't mean the rest of the border with Esemen couldn't be active, of course, or that they didn't need to be prepared for more.

Regardless, the Empire was prepared for lightning-fast assaults into enemy territory, but there were also advantages to being on the defensive with prepared terrain. The hive had always worked well with that.

"Tell me honestly, Ben," Regina asked, looking at him. "How well did this line up with your predictions, and how do you rate our chances?"

Ben took a moment to answer. The two of them were alone right now, in a new office that still had the smell of fresh paint. He would be leaving soon, again. Part of the reason Regina had called him here was to arrange a small ambush of her own, so some of his siblings could drag him into the well-appointed nests here and get him to rest, and to eat properly. After this meeting. Ben had basically lived in the command center since the start of the war, but especially since the Champions' attack.

"I didn't predict their surprise attack," he began, stating the obvious. "It disrupted the army and slowed their progress. But overall, we're still roughly within my expectations. I also didn't get the timing of the Esemen's response right, I have to admit, but our overall strategy still stands. We're prepared to go on the offensive, and I'm confident we're flexible enough to adjust and adapt. My Queen, the overall situation and our chances still haven't appreciably changed since the start of the war."

Regina sighed slightly. She knew this was still the very beginning of this conflict, it was just making her a bit antsy. She tried to draw confidence from Ben's words. "I see. Thanks."

"I have our analysts working hard on incorporating the new data we have on enemy Champions," Ben added. "It has led to us adjusting a few points of doctrine. I have a report on it, if you wish. But overall, it would be quite helpful if we had more solid intel. Not just on their individual capabilities, but what it means to be Chosen by a god and what benefits it confers for what price."

"I know, that would be nice to have," Regina muttered. Then she paused. She raised her gaze to meet Ben's, who was meeting it steadily.

"Are you suggesting we try to get Champions of our own?" she half-asked, half-stated in realization.

Ben titled his head slightly and shrugged lightly. "It would give us an advantage, and honestly, is the idea really that outlandish? I mean, you are on good terms with Leian and Alianais …"

"I suppose," Regina agreed, but she still couldn't help feeling a bit skeptical, which she was sure he picked up on through the psychic link. "It isn't really the sort of relationship we have with either of them, though, is it? I mean, of course it could be an asset. It's not a bad idea. Just, I don't know, would they even go for it?"

"They are on our side, right?" Ben asked. "At this point, they've pretty decisively thrown their lot in with us, even if they haven't actually done much recently. But they also want to see some progress, and it's pretty clear they've singled you out to accomplish it, Mother. Personally, I think it would be perfectly fair to put it on them, that they should actually help. We're fighting their enemies, they're supposedly on our side — it doesn't mean we'll actually have to venerate them, what's to stop it from being more of a practical arrangement?"

"True, though I don't know if Leian even does champions. I've never heard anything even hinting at her having one, ever. Maybe she doesn't have enough power? Apparently she's the weakest of them in terms of divine magic or something. Or, she's admin of the System, maybe too much of her power is in the System?"

While something in her disliked the idea, she couldn't deny that Ben had a point. And it wasn't like it had to be Regina herself who was 'Chosen' for this. It might be wiser not to risk being compromised herself. And … well, if she was totally honest with herself, she'd already basically rejected Alianais' offer to make her a real champion (or more of one) before, and her pride didn't like the idea of going crawling back to her. Of course, pride was a stupid reason to risk getting more of her people killed … but still, there were reasons not to get too close to any of these gods; and she wasn't even fighting personally, so at least, it would be better to empower someone else. Someone she trusted, obviously.

Though the goddesses would probably make their own choices — she doubted they would let something like this be dictated by a mortal. So maybe the point was moot.

"Maybe. She might not want to for other reasons," Ben acknowledged.

"Yes, she seems a bit … not quite happy with being a goddess?" Regina frowned. "Huh." It seemed a bit odd for someone who'd been one for a thousand years, though she had been a mortal originally. But it wasn't like Regina understood how gods worked, and she didn't think she'd really be happy in Leian's place either, given everything, so who was she to judge?

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"Talk to me about the situation in the east," Regina said, changing the subject.

Ben smiled slightly. "Tim is doing well. He's slowing them down considerably. Of course, the Esemen have not moved very fast, and seem to be proceeding cautiously."

Regina nodded. Her talks with the local ruler of the small adjacent kingdom seemed to have paid off. At least her people were getting no trouble operating there. So far, the Esemen seemed to be focused on getting to Prekan. Whether for political reasons, or because they figured the Empire hadn't had as much time to fortify it and it would be easier to pry from them to get a stronghold for their own operations, she didn't know. Regardless, unfortunately for the poor people of Prekan, the outcome was clear. Unlike in the west, it seemed like there was a major battle looming on the horizon.

Of course, the Esemen had learned something and didn't just send one massive army that they could hardly have afforded to move or supply. Instead, there were several outfits. Some troops had clearly been held back, but stayed in a position to cover their border fortifications or to strike into the Empire.

It was the kind of thing she'd expected. Although, of course, that didn't mean they couldn't still pull something unexpected out of their hat or try the same thing as their allies in the west.

Regina focused on the city and the castle, getting a sense of the minds of the people within. There was a lot of tension, unsurprisingly. Many of the townspeople who could afford it had left, trying to melt into the countryside. The Empire had also let them through its own borders, after they passed some checks. The soldiers that remained were aware a fight was coming and she could sense their anticipation.

Further out, there were the tunnels. She focused on the people inside, consulting the map they'd made of the tunnel network, as well. The tunnels had mostly been closed — with barricades or careful collapses, depending — and only a select few remained open. The Esemen had, unsurprisingly, sent soldiers into them, but so far, there had been nothing but a few skirmishes. Their measures held.

"I don't anticipate a major assault through the tunnels," Ben added. "They must be aware we have a lot of experience with underground fighting. Tia was downright grateful she got to make some plans regarding flooding tunnels again. And any local numerical superiority they have would be wiped out. We have too many defensive strongholds underground now."

"Looks like taking control of them was really the right decision," Regina noted.

Ben smiled. "It was. At this point, I think they're only contesting the tunnels to stop us from using them as express corridors to move troops behind the front and attack them from several positions."

"Then that's worth the angry letters I got from the dark elves," Regina muttered.

Ben paused. "I didn't know it was that bad."

"It's not," she assured him. "It's fine."

There were several such letters, but none of them came from the central government — which hadn't said much one way or the other yet. Instead, they were from single houses with some kind of interest in the situation. All of them politically opposed to Madris and her stepfamily, or so Regina gathered. That wasn't exactly surprising.

"If you say so," Ben nodded. "We've been losing some Swarm Drones, but the fighting in the tunnels has actually led to a lower attrition rate than we would have above ground. Nothing that won't quickly be made good again, if we consider the current rate of growth. And in the meantime, we are letting other drones level up."

Regina grimaced faintly. It was still a little disconcerting to speak of Swarm Drones as resources in such utilitarian terms, when at the same time she could sense their deaths echoing through the psychic link so distinctly. She had thought that growing her hive so much would diminish the effect that dead drones had … and it did, but not as much as she might have expected. She could still sense a single Swarm Drone's death if she focused, and she was probably always aware of it, somewhere, in the back of her mind. She'd gotten more used to it and larger numbers in the hive did balance it out better when a lot of drones died, but still.

She was a little afraid the first major battle, when they would lose a lot of drones at once, might actually incapacitate her.

But she shook off the feeling and concluded the discussion with Ben. He was handling the details of their military operations, along with the general staff here in the capital — or still in Cera, in parts — and there was not really much for her to do, yet.

Once he opened the door and left, Regina stood up and paused. She'd sensed her apprentice approaching for a bit, but now took the chance to look her over. June was a bit messy, which wasn't out of the ordinary, her hair coming loose from its braid in places and the top button of her blouse undone. She also walked with determination.

"June," Regina greeted her. "Come in, sit down."

"Thank you, Master." June settled on an armchair, glancing around and quickly focusing on her again.

"How are you doing?"

"I'm perfectly fine, thank you." June paused, clearly deciding that sounded too abrasive. "It was a bit of a shock what happened, but I'm handling it. I've practiced some of my magic and I feel a lot better."

"Well, I'm glad to hear that." That was true, and she did think June felt a bit steadier now.

"The war has started, and you need every psychic you can get. Right?"

Regina hummed tonelessly, resting her chin on her hands. "The thought has occurred to me, believe it or not. A lot of my students are already involved."

"Yes … I heard Edmund is leading them now, and he's moving up to the vanguard."

"He is," Regina agreed mildly.

"Then — I mean," June shifted, clearly switching tracks, "I heard you were too distracted when that raid on the village happened to pay much attention, until after the fight was almost won."

Regina frowned. "That's not exactly true, but yes, I was talking to Edmund and using my Skill. The timing was a bit unfortunate."

"I didn't think it took that long, his level is much lower than yours," June noted. "That must've been an interesting conversation."

Regina settled deeper in her chair, tilting her head. "I talked to him about boundaries, consent and power dynamics. Why, what did you expect?"

June hesitated, her eyes flickering slightly. "Nothing. Sorry, I'm being weird, aren't I? I didn't mean it like that."

"I know. That's fine."

"Are you going to introduce more people into the link now, Master?"

"Yes, probably. Are you having second thoughts on your choice?"

"No." June shook her head, a stand of hair flying into her eyes. She wiped it away impatiently. "I'm sorry, I don't think it would be a good idea. Given my position and all."

"That's fine," Regina confirmed, smiling at her. She also sent her a feeling of assurance psychically. To be honest, she hadn't expected June to change her mind on it, although she would hardly have said no.

"But, I actually wanted to ask where you might send me to fight. I'm ready. I'm the best psychic we have, beside you, Master, so I could be very useful. I could go to the western army, or help Tim against the Esemen. I wouldn't have a problem going back to Prekan, if that's the issue."

Regina tilted her head and tapped her fingers as she considered. She was tempted to say no straight out. But June was an adult now and she did have a point about her abilities. "Kiara also wants to fight, having both of you in the war would be risky."

"She's not going to actually lead men on the battlefield," June countered, "and if ever one of us got seriously hurt, the other would return."

"Hmm. Alright. I think I would take a third option, though. There's another position that would suit you, although it will take a little more time for you to see action, I assume. In the meantime, you can help with preparing our forces which are still holding our defensive positions against Esemen."

June narrowed her eyes, but she seemed to sense that she was sincere and nodded after a moment. "Of course. I'd be glad to."

"Good. And June?" Regina paused for a breath. "Try not to get captured again."

June huffed at the tease, rolling her eyes, but Regina analyzed her reaction and found that her amusement was genuine. Good. She was at ease enough to joke about it.

Now if only Regina could join them. Seeing her drones, Janis, June, everyone, going off to war while she didn't made her feel a bit useless, as illogical as she knew it was.

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