Path of the Hive Queen Chapter 270: Distrust

Alianais looked much the sa as she did the last ti Regina had seen her. Her skin was tanned but had the sa unmistakable shimry quality. Her long white hair flowed down her back, hiding her ears and contrasting with her shining gold eyes. Castaway had said sothing about seeing her bearing the mark of power, and while Regina hadn’t thought much of that, now she could see what he ant. Alianais looked like power, although that might also just be the feeling in the very air around her, the aura Regina felt with her magical senses.

Maybe it was also because she truly t her in person for the first ti outside the Mirrored Halls, so it stood out more.

Now she raised an eyebrow and Regina realized she had probably stared a bit too long. Refusing to be embarrassed about it, she just gave a small nod and then glanced at the others with her, silently telling them to stay back and let her handle this. She didn’t think Alianais would like being interrupted and she didn’t seem to care much for any of her drones.

“I hope you have not had too much trouble with Deirianon,” Regina started, hoping to begin on a reasonable note, not small talk but still not the questions she really wanted to ask.

Alianais’ eyebrow climbed a bit higher before the goddess shook her head in apparent dissatisfaction. “There has been a bit of trouble,” she replied curtly. “The usual disagreents. I expect you aren’t surprised by it.”

“How so?” Regina asked cautiously.

Alianais gave her a very unimpressed look. “Because you are the cause, girl,” she answered, a bit snappishly. “He is not happy with what you have been doing. Even the other gods are showing concern.”

Regina averted her eyes for a mont before she brought them back to the irritated goddess. She honestly wasn’t too surprised to learn of this; it was pretty obvious. Although the confirmation that the gods were angry (or, at least, unhappy) about her was chilling. And I didn’t do anything that outrageous, did I?

Alianais seed able to read the last thought, or maybe she just knew Regina, because she snorted lightly and shook her head. “I had hoped you would act with a bit more discretion, hatched a thousand years out of your ti into a strange world as you were. More fool , I suppose.”

“I did try,” Regina said. “I held back what I showed. I an, I realize that I’ve recently made so geopolitical moves, but I was drawn into this war, I didn’t choose it.”

“You could have chosen not to engage,” Alianais responded, waving her hand irritably. “And exercised so more discretion.”

“I thought you wanted to bring so progress into this static world,” Regina muttered.

The goddess narrowed her eyes. “I am already cross with you, girl, do not test my patience further,” she warned her. “I took you out of that stasis chamber and allowed your egg to hatch. I did not have to do that. Rember that. Your egg would have died with no one around to care if we did not free you.”

Regina winced and averted her eyes again. In the back of her mind, she noted the use of ‘we’, indicating Alianais didn’t do it alone — Leian, presumably — but she was more focused on the imdiate situation.

“I do appreciate that,” she said sincerely. Although she couldn’t stop there. “But I was still the only one of my kind when I woke.” And I did not have to be, either.

Alianais just stared at her for a mont, and Regina feared she’d gone too far for a second, before the goddess crossed her arms and looked away, at the other people present.

“Speaking in private would be preferable,” she said, “but I suppose you trust all of these here with all your secrets?”

Regina glanced back as well, smiling at her family. There were only Max and a few other drones here, all her children, her drones, who would keep her secrets if she wanted them to. And Janis, who she trusted without reservation, too. “I do,” she confird.

Alianais looked back at her, visibly dismissing them from her attention and instead examining Regina. “I imagine you had questions for , since you wanted to speak to .”

Regina nodded. Where do I even begin? She’d tried to consider this conversation before and what she should say, but she was already a bit thrown off by the start of the conversation. Maybe Alianais had done that on purpose, too. And she’d have to be careful. If there was sothing to her suspicions, this could backfire spectacularly, and either way, she didn’t want to make Alianais angrier with her.

“I know I have so divine magic noticeable on ,” she began carefully, “a mark from you. But we’ve never actually talked about what that ans.”

“Of course. It is understandable that you have questions.”

Regina was a bit relieved that it seed like she would actually answer her questions now. “What does it do?” she asked. “I assu it allows you to track and you probably used it when you protected . But how does it work? Is there so divine magic bug on or sothing?”

The goddess smiled faintly. “I marked you when I brought your egg out of the stasis chamber and let it hatch,” she explained. “You might think of it as a piece of mana carrying my magical signature sticking to you, indeed. That’s a gross oversimplification, but it’ll do for now. It would also allow you to use divine mana, at least if you had a Class that was suited for channeling it. Beyond that, it can be detected by certain people, as you have already noticed. It does allow to look in on you easier if I wished to, but it would not be necessary for that, and it does not give the ability to go past other restrictions or in places it wouldn’t be possible anyway.”

Like when Leian got to talk to that one ti, Regina noted. “Alright. That’s great and all, and thanks for the explanation. However, I’d still like to clear sothing up. Am I your Champion?”

“People have said you are, have they?”

“Yes, and I’d like an answer.”

“It is a little more complex than that. The answer is yes and no. A Champion is not sothing decided by a status check in the System … whatever so people might think,” Alianais almost muttered the last part with an annoyed expression. “It is soone marked by the divine power of their patron who presumably also champions their cause. I wouldn’t mind if you wanted to call yourself my Champion, and in a sense, your doing that is what would make it true.”

Regina tugged on her mandible. She’d been hoping for a clear and simple answer, but apparently that wasn’t to be. Still, it could be worse. “Can you remove it? The mark?” she asked after a second of thought.

For the first ti, Alianais looked surprised. But the look faded quickly and she still answered readily enough, “It wouldn’t be comfortable, but I could. Would you want to?”

Regina shook her head. “I need to think about this.”

“Understandable,” Alianais comnted in a neutral tone. If she had an opinion on the matter, she was taking care not to show it.

“I assu I can’t learn to use your divine magic, anyway.”

“You could.” She sounded doubtful. “It might not be wise, however. As I said, your Class isn’t the best suited, and you are not a priest of mine or anything of the like.”

“That’s fine.” Regina shrugged dismissively. “I don’t need it.” She thought back to Leian’s comnt on the matter, questioning if she really wanted to channel Alianais’ power. Thinking about it, Regina really didn’t think so, especially without understanding the full implications. It sounded like it might change sothing and she’d rather not be any more irrevocably bound to Alianais than she had to right now.

“You distrust ,” Alianais stated.

Regina flinched slightly before she could help it, jerking her eyes upward to et the goddess’ gaze. Is she reading my mind? She tried to focus on her ntal defense exercises, on what Madris had taught her, but there was no way to know if the goddess had bypassed them. Maybe I’m just being paranoid, she could just draw that conclusion from my reaction.

“Have I given you cause to fear ?” Alianais asked.

That was a direct challenge, just the thing Regina had wanted to avoid. She hesitated for a mont, her thoughts spinning as she tried to figure out what to say.

“I’m not sure,” she finally answered honestly. “I don’t know what all you have done.”

Alianais cocked her head. She seed faintly irritated, but not particularly angry at her. “I assu you’re referring to sothing specific, or are you simply childishly upset that I have not confided all of my plans and intentions to you?”

Regina scowled at her for a mont before she rembered the situation and instead forced her expression to be neutral. Maybe she’d been a ruler for too long, she really wasn’t used to being spoken to less than respectfully anymore. But unless Alianais was bluffing, which was certainly possible, the question was probably a good sign.

“People have been trying to kill , if you haven’t noticed,” she began.

“Of course I know about the event you are referring to,” the goddess said irritably. “Are you suggesting I had sothing to do with it, Regina?”

Regina hesitated. “Well — I’m not accusing you of anything,” she hastened to clarify. “But there are a few … connections I find worrying. Alianais, during the war in Nerlia people used an old thod against by suppressing the hive’s psychic link, what do you have to say about that?”

Alianais stilled, and her eyebrows drew together into a frown. “Ah. That.”

Regina exchanged a quick glance with Janis. That did not sound promising. “That?” she prompted.

“I realize how it might look,” Alianais comnted, gesturing more animatedly with her hand, “but I can assure you, my dear girl, I was not trying to sabotage or harm you.”

Regina waited for a mont. “That’s good to hear and I’m thankful for the reassurance, but I’d still like a more specific answer.”

“I was trying to warn you,” the goddess of Progress said stiffly. “Discreetly. It did not, quite, go to plan. That ritual was going to be used sooner or later, Regina. You needed to be prepared to deal with it.”

“So, what, you just gave it to my enemies and it’s fine as long as they used it in a less important area or phase of the war?” Regina felt her eye twitch. “I thought they were just testing it, perhaps, ahead of more serious performance, but —”

“No.” Alianais’ glare made her mouth snap shut, and the goddess clicked her tongue. “If you had just let finish, I’d tell you. What happened is not quite what I had planned.” She frowned and the tension of her presence dimd for the first ti, probably a sign of her feeling dejected, Regina guessed. “I unearthed the information, particularly where details of its previous use and a description could be found, and then passed it to a selected agent. But — I assu you know that a priest gave it to the Cernlian Thaumaturge? As it happens, the man who did that was not a devotee of mine — at least not at that ti.”

Regina blinked, trying to put it together. “So, what, he betrayed you? Defected? I didn’t even know priests could do that. He still had the Class, so I’m assuming he just switched patrons, do you know to who?”

“Unfortunately not,” Alianais said stiffly. “It is not sothing that happens often, as you can imagine. And now … he disappeared shortly after, so I can hardly ask him now, or punish him for his disloyalty.”

Regina ran a hand through her hair. “Well, I have so guesses.”

“As do I. Unfortunately, a certain colleague of mine denies all involvent. Naturally.”

So, Deirianon was not above lying, big surprise. Unless he actually didn’t do it this ti … but that seems unlikely.

“You should not trust any of the other gods.” Alianais fixed her with a look. “Please promise that.”

Regina hesitated for a mont. “All of them?”

“Yes. Why? Is there soone I should be concerned with?”

Regina tried giving her a disarming smile and shrugging casually. “Well, there’s Leian. I do trust her as much as you, and perhaps at the mont, I’m inclined to trust her more,” she added honestly, feeling like she had to, and tried widening her smile.

“Of course,” Alianais sighed. “Leian.” She sounded, if not offended, then a little miffed on a personal level now.

“You don’t approve?”

“Just be careful, Regina. You might feel a connection to Leian, you might feel like she is sohow superior to us, but she’s … she was as much a tyrant as any of us might be, once.”

“Okay.” Regina couldn’t help but be skeptical of Alianais here. She wasn’t going to believe that without further evidence. Of course, there are probably good reasons not to trust any of them.

Alianais shook her head, clearly done with the topic. “If that is all, I hope I was able to help you find so clarity.”

“You did,” Regina assured her. “Thank you, Alianais.”

The goddess nodded. “Then you should leave. Go with my blessings.”

She disappeared without waiting for a response, presumably back to the Celestial Ho. Regina stared at her statue for a mont, before she shook her head and turned to leave.

She didn’t have to talk to the others to understand their reactions. Max and the other drones were subdued, she could tell he was concerned but he kept it simring at a low level, more focused on her. Janis, on the other hand, was curious as well as concerned, a bit suspicious, and she also felt so of the wonder that was noticeably absent from the rest of them.

Regina decided to talk to them later, and simply headed for the doors. Once they left what she assud to be the sanctum, the priest who’d led them in earlier was waiting for them.

“I hope everything was as you expected, Your Majesty?” he asked.

“Yes, I suppose. We do need to be leaving now, though. Oh, one more thing.” Regina paused, then focused on her magic, calling on her Conjuration Spell. “A donation for the temple. Please see to any potential repairs or extensions, and if there is nothing else needed, I’m sure you have a library that could use so attention.” Maybe she should even build up a temple library. A thought worth considering later.

The priest looked down at the pieces of pure gold she’d handed him, smooth coins without any designs — they hadn’t even started minting any yet so it wouldn’t matter, and she wasn’t going to counterfeit other coins — and his eyes widened. He bowed deeply. “We are very grateful, Your Imperial Majesty.”

“Think nothing of it.”

Then, before they could make a bigger deal out of it or start asking for other things, Regina started walking again, heading out. She shivered slightly as she focused on the feel of the local mana and felt it recede as she went.

“Do you believe her?” Janis asked her quietly as they left the temple.

“I don’t know,” Regina admitted.

They didn’t say anything else until they were in the air and well on their way.