Chapter 460: Chances and Abilities

“Are you listening, Leian?” Regina asked. “I’m getting concerned.”

Galatea halted outside the shrine. She clearly didn’t want to intrude, but was aware that Regina could sense her. Iseis was walking up toward the main shrine area. Regina ignored both of them for now, focused on the mostly empty wall in front of her, and Leian’s symbol.

“I didn’t ask too many questions after Janis’ dream-vision thing, not after you just saved her life,” she continued. “But I think it’s time to talk about that again. I’d like to understand more about how this works. Especially since it’s the only other time I’ve heard of someone conversing with other people while they’re unconscious or asleep, and with the Mesen being involved …” She sighed. “Both me and one of my students received what’s clearly some kind of psychic contact attempt. I doubt it’s a coincidence.”

There was no answer. At least not right now.

Galatea finally entered the shrine and floated forward to join her. “That does sound concerning,” she said quietly. “You’re seeking answers from Leian?”

“Who else? Volance?”

Regina paused. Actually, that’s not a bad idea. The air elemental might know something, and Regina had been wanting to talk to her anyway.

“Leian is busy, are you sure she’s even listening?”

Regina shrugged. “It was worth trying.” She glanced at the back door. “Besides, with Iseis here I can get her help anyway.”

Maybe going down here and ranting at Leian wasn’t the most productive way she could have handled it, but she genuinely was the best person to ask and she had been relatively forthcoming recently. Regina still wasn’t completely sure she could trust Leian, but the Aishan goddess hadn’t betrayed her yet — and they were working together against her old enemies. Paranoia about the gods was all well and good, but she shouldn’t let it keep her from going to an ally for answers. Besides, after their private conversation where Leian had told her her story, Regina had the feeling like she somewhat understood her, and where she stood.

Leian was plainly no saint, but for someone who must have been raised in an … ethically questionable imperialist system as part of the elite, she really was pretty good about things.

“If you want to speak to Leian, why didn’t you simply ask me to pass on a message?” Iseis asked as she joined them. She was breathing a little harder, Regina noticed. Apparently even being a Champion didn’t fortify her body that much.

“Why do you think I’m here?” Regina asked. “That is what I intended, but I thought trying it directly first couldn’t hurt. Are you saying that she didn’t hear me?”

Iseis glanced at the altar and paused for a moment. “She did hear you,” she finally answered. “She’ll be available for a direct conversation tomorrow, or you can talk to me and I’ll relay what’s said.”

Somehow, this feels much more like arranging meetings with a business contact than speaking to the divine, like prayer, Regina mused. Not that she would complain about that. She was really not into the whole prayer thing. This was much better.

“Did you catch what I said?” she asked instead.

Iseis nodded. “Keep in mind I’m not a psychic, and to be honest, I’m not sure how much of one Leian is,” she warned her. “I have heard of instances of psychics communicating in dreams before, but those were different. I’m not sure how much help it will be for you.”

“You have? What instances?” Regina asked.

“Mostly a psychic manipulating someone’s dreams while they were asleep, though the psychic wasn’t. Actually, it was essentially just one person,” Iseis reflected. “I’m not sure if it was a general skill or a personal talent of that particular psychic. Probably the latter.”

Regina frowned. That was at least some information, she supposed. “So it is possible, at least in principle.”

“I suppose it is.”

“Just not common,” Galatea muttered.

“What does Leian know about it?” Regina asked to get back on track. She hesitated for a moment. “Is it, well, something the Mesen can do? I mean, if they have rituals or machines for that purpose?”

Iseis was silent for a moment. She opened her mouth, about to say something, then closed it again, frowning. She seemed to listen in silence for a few seconds, then refocused on Regina, still with her brows slightly furrowed.

“They might, but these might or might not work,” she said. “Apparently, psychic power isn’t universal? Or the way it is expressed is different? She says that there are differences between worlds. I mean, the same techniques wouldn’t necessarily work everywhere, apparently. It’s less predictable than soul magic?” She shook her head slightly. “Magic is different between worlds, and apparently psychic magic falls under that rule, too. So the Aishan had tools and techniques, and the Mesen clearly do, as well, but it’s hard to say which, if any, of them would work on Earth. Especially with other psychics or a Hive Queen. Many of those techniques were situational, anyway, and there would be little reason to expect a member of a survey expedition to have them. But others, those they might have been given.”

Regina frowned. That was very interesting, and she was definitely going to ask more questions about that later. Right now, she tried to focus on the topic at hand.

“I suppose if I could, I would include a psychic in an interdimensional discovery and survey team, too,” she said. “So, does she think this might have been an actual communication attempt?”

“Possibly,” Iseis nodded. “You’re one of the strongest psychics on the planet, so there’s that. And Leian doesn’t seem worried about you getting taken over in your sleep, but you might want to make your students aware and possibly implement some further monitoring for them. It’s unlikely to be more than just communication, but we shouldn’t take any risks.”

Regina paused for a moment. One of the strongest psychics on the planet? It shouldn’t be too surprising, she knew that she was strong and had a lot of mana, and Madris had even said something vaguely like this before. But thinking about it still blew her mind a little. At least that’s good news, I guess.

“I definitely will,” Regina answered. “That’s going to be fun. Considering I saw how this guy appeared, and we have Annie’s description of his appearance as well, does this give us any information?”

“Essentially nothing,” Iseis replied, shaking her head. “Mesen are diverse in appearance, and it’s hard to say anything about their origin just based on that. And it doesn’t sound like you saw anything particularly useful as an identifying marker, did you?”

“No, I suppose not,” Regina conceded.

“This may be an opportunity for us,” Galatea spoke up. She caught Regina’s look and shrugged. “Obviously, I’m not saying it’s not dangerous. But if you do get the chance to actually talk to this guy and he does turn out to be a Mesen, we could learn a lot. If nothing else, we’d get confirmation that Mesen are on Earth, and that one of them’s capable of doing this. And if you manage to get more information from him …”

Regina paused for a moment. She’s right. And it’s not just about getting information, actually. As much as she disliked contemplating it, in any sort of conflict, speaking to each other was crucial. It was already an issue that their enemies seemed to treat diplomatic protections as suggestions and the status of diplomatic envoys like targets. Thus making it harder to negotiate with the Western Confederation or their allies if it came to that. The inability to just talk to the Mesen was one of the major problems in this situation, one of the reasons they were such a threat, arguably. Establishing some kind of line of communication would be really important, even if it was just to expand their options.

Of course, trying that would probably be risky. But it was probably worth it, wasn’t it?

"While I have you here, is there any other news?” Regina asked. “How’s the search going? Did your biomagical system pick up any other signs of the Mesen?”

“Jae would have told you if they did,” Iseis responded. “You didn’t create that liaison office for the sake of the so-called ‘org chart’, did you?”

She had to smile slightly at that. “No, I didn’t. Just checking.”

Regina was actually planning to set up something else, something a bit more comprehensive — a sort of scientific council — but she was still in the preparation stage for that. In the meantime, she already had a liasion office for coordinating on this project. It mostly meant they had some physical offices and labs outside the capital, in a more remote location where teleportations and such would hopefully not be as noticeable, as well as some office space in the capital. Her hope was that it would allow them to contribute at least by doing some basic tasks or quality checking for Leian and Berren’s biomagic system setup; and to learn from them in the meantime.

Of course, apparently that project wasn’t up to the task of finding the Mesen, possibly because they weren’t even on Earth to find, so she should probably prioritize other things at the moment.

“Well, I should go talk to some people,” Regina sighed. “Thank you for your time, and sorry for the disturbance.” She had kind of barged in.

Regina turned around, but she only got two steps before Iseis called out to her again, “Wait.”

She turned around. “Is there something else?”

Iseis didn’t respond right away. She frowned faintly, looking into the distance, before her gaze refocused on Regina.

“One more question,” she said, a bit hesitantly. “If you could improve one aspect of your Class and your abilities, close a gap or strengthen something, before fighting the Mesen, what would it be?”

Regina frowned thoughtfully, giving the question the consideration it deserved. “My limited range,” she finally answered. It was pretty obvious. “I’m rather powerful personally, but a lot of my real effectiveness is in the psychic link. Which is great, but sending drones outside my range is always an issue. Expanding it or getting, like, psychic repeaters or something would be great. But what’s this about?”

“Leian wanted to know your opinion,” Iseis shrugged slightly.

Regina was confused for a moment, before the Imperial mark dropped. “Is this about my Ability choices?” She was getting close to her next one, presumably, and she was pretty sure that Leian was involved in those choices.

Iseis paused for a moment and nodded slowly. “Apparently, you’re very close to your next level-up and next Ability. She’s going to adjust them.”

“Can she just give me whatever I request?” Regina asked, probably sounding a bit too eager.

Iseis gave her a dry look. “Obviously not.” She sighed. “Leian can’t just decide to make the System give you arbitrary powers. Well, at least not so easily, and she doesn’t want to interfere too much or simply overwrite the normal System. It should still be running within normal parameters, by and large. Your choices will still be decided by your Class and development. Not to mention the System couldn’t simply do anything, it is constrained by what can be accomplished. But she is … adjusting things.”

Is this nepotism? Regina wondered distantly. Or cronyism, whatever. I’m getting unfair advantages out of the System by its admin … then again, no one ever said the system was fair. And under the circumstances, it would be much worse if she didn’t try to get every bit of power she could. That said, this made sense. Of course the System still had to run on something — mana, presumably — to at least bend the laws of physics if not break them, instead of being able to do anything at all. She wondered how this would work in practice.

“Makes sense,” Regina finally said. “And the other gods won’t notice her messing with things, or try to stop it?”

“That’s one reason Leian would prefer to not make blatant changes,” Iseis explained. “But anyway, Leian is simply better at the System than they are. So far, the gods have mostly left the System out of their conflict directly, even if both factions are still using it to try and empower their sides. Like with the Champions. No one wants the System to get damaged, or worse, if they start outright fighting about it.”

Regina contemplated what that might look like for a moment and shuddered slightly. “Yeah, I get that. Let’s try to avoid that. So anyway … I think I’ll stick with my answer. A way to extend my effective range would be great. Especially if it empowers my hive or psychic link. Although I suppose some protection against attacks by the Mesen would also be great, especially if they’re shared. Maybe something against soul magic?”

Iseis nodded. “That seems sound to me. Well, you have something to look forward to, then.”

She couldn’t help but smile. “I suppose I do. Thanks. I guess I’ll let you get back to it, then?”

“Of course. Feel free to visit whenever you like.” Iseis nodded and turned, presumably to go back to other duties.

Regina left the shrine, considering what she might do with a new power-up. She was, admittedly, a bit excited about it.

Leian was as good as her word. It was only a few hours later, while Regina was doing some paperwork, that she got the System notification. Presumably, there had been another skirmish or battle outside her psychic range; she was waiting for news from another part of the northern front, where her forces would be clashing with the northern allies.

Finally. Level 75. Regina set down her paperwork, leaned back and grinned, reading through the System screen.

Regina sucked a breath in through her teeth, letting it out in a slight hiss. Outside her window, a few birds took flight, scattering into different directions, but she paid them no mind, too focused on her choices. Overall, she supposed it was exactly what she should have expected given Leian’s message through Iseis.

She’d expected to see Queen’s Magic again. If she had no other, superior options, she’d planned on choosing it. It would be useful for the war. Despite its limitations, she was confident there were ways to make it work. Especially given that, while the actual transfer of mana would clearly only be possible within the psychic link, her drones would keep that mana even if they left her range. So she could, for example, power up a drone a lot and then have them pass through a portal to a more distant location, using that mana there. She had prodigious mana reserves, it was one of her advantages, and this ability would allow her to take proper advantage of it.

Still, while Regina would consider it, this one probably wasn’t the best choice this time. The other two would be quite useful, especially in her current situation.

The middle option would be a way to do just what she’d said she wanted. There would probably be a lot of limitations, too, but it would still be hugely useful. At its basic level, it meant she could communicate with a few (probably not many) hive drones regardless of distance. And then they could build what sounded like a constrained, local offshoot of the psychic link, tying people together outside of her actual range. She didn’t know if she could redesignate a proxy — probably, but with limits, she’d guess — and they might have to be within her range for it to take. But those were details. It would be quite useful in the war, and for her other efforts.

The last option also sounded great — a way to harden her hive against psychic or soul-magic based attacks, like those her enemies had apparently started to use. Though … Regina frowned, reading through it again. It doesn’t explicitly say that it hardens the psychic link or my drones’ minds or souls against such attacks, she noted. Maybe such a general effect would have been too much for Leian to incorporate. It still sounded like it would be a big help, even if it might rely on her to personally fight off attacks. And it would probably be contained to the range of the psychic link. Still, with those caveats, it would presumably be good for defense against these attacks. And hopefully against whatever her enemies might come up with after that technique.

Regina sighed, pushing away from her desk. I’ll sleep on it, she decided. This wasn’t a decision to rush. Though she was kind of inclined to favor the more ‘aggressive’ option. Still, they all had their advantages.

Either way, this new Ability should help her deal with the current threats. And it would be needed.