It took a little while to arrange things for a eting, during which ti everyone had to contain their impatience. At least it didn’t seem like whatever news Anuis brought was of critical urgency. Most of the delay was due to the need to include Seer Castaway, and thus by necessity involve a few others of the Delver leadership, too.
The Seer was old and blind, according to him, and wasn’t going to be moved anywhere roughly. Unlike many others of the Delvers’ leadership cadre, he had mostly stayed at their town. It took a bit of back-and-forth conveyed through a drone until they had finally made proper arrangents and everyone was gathered.
Max was still in the south and Tim in the east, so Regina brought Tia and, of course, Janis. Kiara wouldn’t make it; neither would Daine, who Regina wasn’t completely sure she wanted to be one of the first people to hear sothing like this. Galatea arrived without delay. The most surprising one was Iseis, who stepped out of the portal back in the Empire before Regina could even have a ssage sent to her.
Anuis was also there, of course. She exchanged a nod with Iseis when they first saw each other, then kept looking at Alix Castaway.
Regina glanced around the room. They were gathered in a military base the Hive had built east of Forest’s Haunt, roughly a third of the way to Cera. She didn’t think she’d been here before. But there were very few humans around, only drones — and not even many of them, except for the guards they had brought — so it was quite secure. The eting room felt a little cramped with all the people in it, but there was a large table and enough chairs for everyone, and other drones had brought in an array of refreshnt along with so docunts. Regina settled into her surprisingly comfortable chair and waited until everyone looked ready before she opened the eting.
“Thank you all for coming,” she started. “Since this is important, let’s get right down to it. Anuis, you called this eting in order to pass on critical news. Could you elaborate?”
Anuis kept standing instead of sitting down. She was no longer visibly fidgeting, but clearly still tense. “Thank you, Empress Regina,” she said. “I do indeed have news of critical importance. To be specific, I am speaking in my capacity as a Champion of Alianais, rather than for Ariedel. I have a ssage to pass on from the goddess. She contacted during my prayer and shared so things with . As such, with her encouragent, I would pass them on to you now.”
“What things?” Tia cut in. Regina could sense her mounting impatience.
Anuis looked apologetic. “I am sorry for not being more direct, Princess, but there is a reason. Many things about this matter are still uncertain. However, my lady did suggest that Seer Castaway might have so additional insight. But we know visions tend to be unreliable and their interpretation difficult. I didn’t want to bias his recounting before we heard it. I hop you don’t mind, Sir Alix.”
“No, that’s sensible,” the old Delver sighed. “Perhaps your goddess has a different idea of what is up. I suppose I’ll go first, then.”
“Just to clarify, are we speaking about visions of the future again?” Regina asked.
He grunted. “Yes and no. As I told you, seeing the future is not truly my specialty, and while I can get such visions, they’re difficult. As for now, it might just be visions of the present. But probably the future. At least, it will impact the future.”
Regina narrowed her eyes. She knew he had great ntal discipline and good defenses. But she could also tell Alix was leaning on those to hide his emotions and appear unruffled. What he’d seen had affected him, too. Though his mind felt a bit more uncertain than Anuis’ behind the forced calm.
“We understand the limitations. What did you see, Alix?” Galatea asked gently.
“Various things, so mundane and so not. However, there is one thing I have been shown, running through several of the visions, an indisputable feeling. One thing I am as sure of as I can be.” He paused as if to build dramatic tension before he continued.
“Those who would eat the mana of far places are coming. They are here.”
It took a brief, blessed mont before the penny dropped. Then Regina stopped breathing, feeling as if ice had been dumped over her. The horror made it hard to assess the reactions of the others for a second before she regained control.
Her drones had clearly reacted to her own reaction. Galatea was still, her mind forcibly stilled on the surface and churning rapidly beneath it. Iseis felt clawing terror she was trying to drown in doubt and forced calm, and Regina was pretty sure she was trying to lean on her connection to Leian; the vehence of the feeling was a bit surprising. Anuis didn’t look surprised, not that she was exactly pleased, either.
“The sen?” Janis asked, eyes darting around between everyone.
“It can’t be,” Iseis said sharply, shaking her head. “The sen are decades away at worst.”
“So we thought,” Galatea mused. “If they are not … but this is quite a claim.”
“Is there so other group that could be ant by this description?” Regina asked, trying to project a bit of calm, without intruding into their minds.
Alix shook his head when she looked at him. “Not that I know of, but my order hardly deals in matters of distant worlds.”
“Well, I really hope there aren’t two groups that drain mana from actual worlds out there,” Tia muttered.
“It is the sen,” Anuis stated in a tone of finality. “The goddess’ information agrees.”
That, obviously, did nothing to calm everyone down. Regina winced slightly as she felt the spike in fear and unease around the room. Focusing on their reaction was easier than her own. Taking a deep breath, she made herself face it, trying to think past the initial emotions. If this was true, they all needed to be at their best. She needed to be able to deal with this. I refuse to lose my world a second ti. I refuse. She clenched her hands, feeling the tips of her claws poke into her palms.
“You said that they are coming, and that they are here,” she stated, cutting through the atmosphere. “Well, which is it? Are they coming or are they already here? Or both? So here and others coming?”
That prospect clearly made things worse for Galatea, who started quietly cursing in her mind. Ironically, the question actually served to calm Iseis down, though. Janis had ntally withdrawn a bit and Regina could tell she was digging through the psychic link.
“I don’t know,” Alix admitted honestly. “It is not … clear. And I must stress, if it is solely the future we have to worry about, then it might not co to pass. My visions are not absolute.”
“However, there is likely sothing already here, even if not sen themselves,” Anuis said. “Though I doubt we should be so lucky. Seer Alix is not the only one who saw sothing; seers and certain other special Classes around the world all reacted. Lady Alianais said that she herself felt sothing. And Leianaleine has been incommunicado after confirming that certain asures picked up trace amounts of certain … substances, I think … which are associated with them and should not be found here; although she was unable to pinpoint them.”
“She didn’t take it well,” Iseis admitted. “She is trying to assess the situation and has left Earth right now.”
“Left Earth?” Alix asked.
“Physically,” Iseis clarified. “If I understand correctly, she is canvassing the solar system.”
Regina frowned. This probably shouldn’t be surprising, even if she hadn’t considered that as an option.
“I believe this is a good thing,” Galatea spoke up. “If they are this stealthy, then they are probably not here in force. Not to ntion that we would have noticed that.”
Iseis nodded. “It is not an invasion force,” she said, her voice ringing with certainty. “We would almost certainly have noticed a gate to another world opening, especially one large enough for a significant military force to pass through. And the gods, at least, would have noticed an invasion fleet of ships arriving.”
“Ships? As in spaceships?” Regina asked, trying to hide her surprise. Sohow, she hadn’t quite made the connection to spaceships.
“Planar vessels, technically.”
Regina clenched her jaw. She was under no illusion what that ant. If they get in, orbit Earth, if they’re prepared for orbital bombardnt … we’d be screwed. It might be strange magitech instead of sothing she’d recognize, if only from popular fiction, but that hardly mattered given the consequences. This might be her first taste of being on the other end of a tech inequality. She hated it.
"Pardon, but what sort of vessels are we speaking about?” the Seer asked.
Regina shrugged slightly and looked at Galatea. “Ones that ‘sail’ the void between worlds instead of any oceans,” she explained.
“That’s really possible?” Janis asked.
“Apparently.” Galatea sighed. “I’ve only heard passing ntions, but nothing more. Unless you have so information, Iseis?”
The old elf shook her head. “We had nothing like that even on Haven. But I do know the sen had them.”
“Let’s not get bogged down in the details,” Anuis said. “The salient point is that they must have found a way here sohow, haven’t they?”
“Presumably,” Galatea said slowly. “But this does raise the question of how and when. And, if they are subtle instead of sending an invasion force, why? Do they not want to rely on brute military force or are they unable to?”
Everyone was quiet for a mont. Regina considered the implications. She didn’t know much about this group that basically caused the Cataclysm, only really what Leian had told her. It was enough to make her fear them, but they’d never truly felt real to her; or at least, only distant.
“Is it possible this is unrelated to us?” Regina asked. “The … previous civilization of this world sent probes to other objects in the solar system, and even manned spaceships to the moon. But we explored a lot beyond that, even if it wasn’t anywhere near practical to send a manned mission. And I seem to recall they sent probes outside the solar system’s bounds as well. I an, it stands to reason these sen would also want to explore the multiverse, since they can. Maybe this is just an exploratory probe, or a survey mission. Maybe they have no idea this is the world with survivors from Haven, Leian, and the other gods.”
“Yes, that actually seems likely to ,” Galatea agreed. “But we could still be a target for other reasons, as a habitable world with magic, or they could discover enough to make us a target.”
Regina tugged on her mandible, resisting the urge to get up and pace around the room. For good asure, she tried to force so calm and subtly project it through the room again. At least now it felt like her head was in gear and she could actually deal with the situation.
“What are the gods doing?” Janis asked, turning to look at Iseis and Anuis. “Surely, they most of all know what we face. Shouldn’t they unite to do sothing about it? I know they’re in conflict right now — obviously — but no one wants to be easy prey for these enemies, right?”
“One would hope so,” Iseis muttered.
Regina paused, ntally switching tracks. Janis was right. This should call for a paradigm shift, change the entire conflict. Fighting the sen should be, basically, the one thing the gods would definitely need to collaborate on, right? What did that an for the war, though?
“I’m willing to call for a truce and cessation of hostilities while everyone tries to deal with this,” she said.
She felt the surprise from Tia and Galatea at how quickly she jumped to this concession, but they didn’t understand. Regina was perfectly aware of how important this was. She’d allow ten enemy armies to co closer if it would protect them from a greater threat. n with swords and System Abilities she could deal with, an alien invasion not so much.
“A truce while we cooperate to find sen activity wherever it is in the world would be good,” Galatea agreed. She looked at the two elves. “Is that sothing the other gods are likely to agree to?”
Iseis and Anuis exchanged a look. Regina wasn’t enthused by the emotions she picked up from them.
“My patron didn’t ntion anything about it,” Anuis responded. “I didn’t get any information on how Deirianon or the other gods are reacting to it, assuming they are reacting. They must be aware, but that’s all we know.”
“I wouldn’t hope for too much,” Iseis added with a grimace. “They’re suspiciously quiet. Maybe they have their own plans.”
“Plus, we’re assuming the Western Confederation and Esen would just follow their orders to stay put even if the gods want them to,” Janis added. “They have their own reasons to act. And considering their propaganda, I can’t see them admitting the severity of this threat.”
“Good point,” Galatea muttered.
Regina rubbed her temples, trying not to give in to the headache she felt coming on. She used a slight bit of healing magic and looked up. “Well, then what can we do?”
The question hung in the room for a few monts, unanswered. She could tell everyone was thinking hard about it.
“You should consult with the gods,” Iseis finally said. “Alianais and Leian, I an. We need to know what they’re doing, and they should be reminded we can help, too.”
“And we should probably shift to a more defensive strategy regarding the war,” Tia added. “We don’t know what is going to happen, but we might need the Empire’s armies. Or even our enemies’ armies. This isn’t the ti for any offensives.”
She was probably right about that, Regina supposed. The question was how much they could realistically do, without compromising their strategic position and advantages. They weren’t really on the offensive right now except maybe in the east. She supposed Tim and June would have to reassess things.
It also made her consider the southern base again. Funny how quickly things shifted in priority. She would probably have to be more lenient with the attacking cities than she’d planned, now. Unless their attack was sohow connected to this warning about the sen, but that seed rather unlikely. Still, she supposed keeping the Aishan’s material safe was probably even more important now. Maybe it could do sothing against whatever magitech the sen used.
“True,” Regina said. “Well, we still have everything we’ve built up. The Hive can keep growing and expanding. We won’t be caught unprepared.”
“That does raise an interesting question,” Janis comnted. “Do you have any idea what the sen’s relationship with the Hivekind was?”
Regina shook her head, glancing at Galatea, who seed equally stumped. “I’m not sure they had one,” Regina said.
“If they didn’t, they probably have one now,” Galatea said. “It’s been centuries and the Hivekind will still be around. It’s possible they have a diplomatic relationship. Maybe even a cordial one.”
Regina paused. That wasn’t sothing she’d thought of before. “You think so?”
“Maybe. We can only speculate,” Galatea said, then continued privately through the psychic touch Regina had still laid over her, which she was instinctively tightening. They were created by the Aishan, presumably as soldiers, and apparently managed to gain their freedom. The sen were second-class citizens of the Aishan, right? That aligns with what Leian told you? It stands to reason they knew of each other and might even have so shared sentint. Or they could be bitter rivals. We just don’t know.
That was a good point. Even if it was weird to think of the sen like that, given everything else she’d heard. If nothing else, they must be capable of playing the long ga if they’d kept an interstellar empire for centuries. It still seed more likely they’d be enemies with whatever Hivekind were out there. Regina didn’t like the thought that her own and her hive’s presence on this world might make it even more of a target.
“The most important thing is not to fall into despair,” Regina said, trying to rally the others. “Yes, these sen are a formidable enemy, but many things are still unclear. We may not have to fight them at all. Even if we do, we have advantages. We have the help of people who have fought them before and lived to tell the tale. We have our own technology. We have all the advantages of the Hivekind.”
At least a few of the gathered people mustered smiles at her declaration, so it might have helped.
Regina even surprised herself by believing her own words and feeling so optimism again. She’d been prepared to fight against the gods, why should this be any different? She wouldn’t let anyone else stand in the way of her goals. Of working to make the world better, to help it beco what it could be.
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