The Greatest Sin

“I don’t want Kavaa there.” Arascus told Kassandora. “Any of them actually.” She nodded.

“Neither do I.” The risk that Elassa would try and drag them back into the folds of the White Pantheon wasn’t high, but it wasn’t impossible. The easiest way to stop that was simply for them to never interact.

Iniri sat with Kavaa in the middle of one of the camps. All the camps had expanded, wooden structures had gone up, the bases were looking more like small towns that military locations now. Only Kassandora’s troops still slept in tents. There, the Goddess of War had not even made a shelter for herself. Some people were watching Anassa train her men from the distance, but no one dared to step close. Anassa had made a name for herself on the first week when people were inquisitive about what she was doing. Journalists were not allowed near the sorcerer’s quarter. Not out of any secrecy, but for their own safety.

Iniri and Kavaa watched Anassa throw her sorcerers around. It wasn’t even a fight, it was an adult beating up small children. And that adult came in with a big stick. The four most experienced sat close to Kavaa as they watched: Edmonton, Fleur, Lyca and Eliza. They wore uniforms Anassa had enlisted Helenna’s help to make, red undershirts with black coats. On the other side of the field was a team of a dozen Clerics Anassa had wanted for training, they sat in a semi-circle and talked to each other, in dark green shirts and shorts, as if they didn’t even care about what was happening before them.

Iniri knew of them, Kavaa had healed all of them several times over the past two months since Anassa had returned. They kept to themselves and to Anassa’s sphere in the camp. Kassandora sometimes enlisted them for help with stuck vehicles when Fer was away on a hunt. If both groups were away, then Kassandora would come to Iniri with the request. Other than their names and the fact they were young and sometimes helped about, Iniri knew nothing of them.

Anassa stood facing the fourty-nine sorcerers, all tired and weary, with dirty and torn clothes even though only an hour ago they had dressed themselves in fresh garb, and snapped her fingers. Fourty nine scarlet disks appeared behind her, as if drawn onto reality, and then shot into the line of men. Everyone managed to block successfully. Anassa clapped her hands. “Warm up over!”

Iniri leaned over to the four young children. “This is how she trains you?” She whispered. The tallest of them, Edmonton, merely shrugged.

“She goes harder on us.” He said, there was some hint of pride in that. Why, Iniri had no clue.

“Defensive training!” Anassa shouted as she rose into the air. “You have thirty seconds to get out of my grip!” The red chains wrapped around the fourty-nine being trained and lifted them to the height of Anassa as they started to struggle. Suddenly a red beam burst from Anassa and into the group of four. A crimson shield appeared before them and stopped the beam an inch from their faces.

Iniri recoiled in fright a second after it disappeared. “Awareness is key.” Anassa said. “Pay attention at all times, even when you’re talking to Divines.” The four nodded as the fourty-nine still struggled in the air. One man managed to free himself and fell to the ground. Another. Two dozen. Lyca gave Eliza, Fleur and Edmonton a high-five. Iniri saw Anassa watch them, her smile crept onto her face and a blade of red came from the air to slice at the high-fiving hands.

And another shield blocked them. Then a spike came from the ground behind. And another blocked them. Anassa gave a slow sarcastic clap. “Splitting attention is required. Not just on the battlefield, it helps with every facet of your life. Remember that. Even when you sleep you should be on guard.” Iniri and Kavaa shared a shake of their heads.

Only five sorcerers were in the air now. The rest had ripped the chains apart and fallen, two had obviously injured themselves in the drop. “Time’s up!” Anassa shouted with too much glee, she moved her hands and the five slammed into the red soil. They went up, each with a cloud of dust.

Kavaa tutted. “This is worse than Maisara.”

“It is Anassa.” Iniri said. It was what she expected, but to see it in reality was still shocking.

“It’s strength training.” Eliza said from next to them. “It’s the fastest way.”

“Is it?” Kavaa asked.

“You only really push yourself when your life is on the line.” Eliza said. “So…” She shrugged. Kavaa and Iniri once again shared concerned looks. Of the sixty sorcerers who had awakened, Anassa had reduced the number to fourty nine. Eleven sorcerers, as Anassa so mildly put it, were ‘simply not adequate’.

“Stand!” Anassa shouted. Most were already stood up, a few got up onto shaky legs, a few could not stand. Anassa moved her finger into the air, seven sorcerers lifted off the ground and were thrown a hundred feet across the field. They landed a good distance from the Clerics who merely watched with grim faces. “Crawl the rest of the distance! You have two minutes! Anyone who does not manage it will be number twelve!” Anassa shouted and turned back to sorcerers-in-training who stood. “You have a break until they heal.”

The moment she finished that, a crimson sword appeared and swept towards some of the men. They managed to raise their own barriers in time to block it as Anassa tutted. “If I had used an inkling more strength, you would be dead by now. Do you think you’ll have time for breaks on the battlefield?” Anassa started going on a speech as Kavaa leaned close to Iniri. Every two or three sentences, a surprise attack would come at the group of sorcerers from the ground, from above, from behind or in front. A disc or a chain or a sword of Anassa’s cursed sorcery would try to cut them down. They managed somehow managed to look as if they were paying attention as they blocked.

“I now understand why we got so outmatched in the magical arms race back then.” Iniri nodded. If this was how sorcerers were trained, it was no wonder they fared so much better in battle than mages.

“Can you imagine Elassa training like this?” And it was no wonder that mages outnumbered sorcerers twenty-to-one.

“I cannot.” Kavaa replied and tilted her head forwards to look past Iniri. “Yes?” She asked. Iniri turned to look at the four students who were looking at them inquisitively.

“You know Elassa?” Eliza asked. A short girl, with brown hair and large brown eyes. Iniri could imagine her as cute if she wasn’t wearing sorcerer dress.

“We do.” Kavaa replied. “Why?”

“This method of training is better than Elassa’s.” Eliza said.

“Is it?” Kavaa asked dismissively.

“We’ve been training with Goddess Anassa for a year now and we’ve made more progress than in ten years of being in Arcadia.” Iniri merely looked at the children, youth was such a precious thing. It was almost sad to see them wasted in such ways. Iniri would have argued with them if she was some thousand years younger. But she wasn’t, and she had seen enough humans die in war and in peace to know to hold back. Every Divine got involved with mortals in the beginning, and every Divine eventually stopped getting involved with mortals. That was the simple nature of it, those who did not eventually went mad.

“It’s not my field to debate.” Kavaa answered briskly. “It’s different than how I train my men.”

“It’s effective.” Fleur spoke up this time. Kavaa merely smiled at them, silver hair falling past her face and she shook her head. “It filters only the best of the best.” The girl added rather proudly.

“As effective as using explosives cut down a tree.” Kavaa said and tutted. Iniri moved her hand to try and stop the girl from answering.

And the girl continued.  “I saw you were looking at it and shaking your head. And Goddess Anassa said that other Divines aren’t willing to push their men as far as possible.” Iniri turned at Kavaa, who merely stared at the girl with all the detached eyes of a surgeon cutting into a wound.

“Girl, you do not know who you are talking to.” Kavaa said. “You are not a Divine. Do not get ahead of yourself.” Fleur blinked in shock at the change in tone from the voice Kavaa had been using before to the cold and commanding words.

“I… I apologize, I didn’t mean it in that way.”

“No, of course you didn’t.” Kavaa said flatly. “You’ve not seen people slowly die, you’ve never held a dying man, you’ve never led anything. Your greatest responsibility is to you yourself.” Kavaa turned lifted her hand to Anassa and the sorcerers being thrown about, a few more had been thrown at the Clerics. “Do you honestly think so mightily of yourself that you think this offends me? That I’ve not seen worse? Who do you think you are?”

“Kavaa.” Iniri tried to calm her down. There was no reason to scare the youth out of children.

And Kavaa continued. “There isn’t a single Divine in this camp who has not beaten their men. No, the flaws are obvious. This is not a scalable system. How many men can Anassa train at once? A thousand? And what then? When every other Divine has millions? Even Elassa has managed to mass-manufacture magicians. And how long does it take? Will Anassa be able to replenish men through war-time? Will she be on the battlefield, or will she be beating you here?” The four children went quiet without an answer.  

Anassa leaned from behind from behind the two groups. Iniri turned. One Anassa still stood beating her men, another perfect copy was here. “The question then becomes how many men is one sorcerer worth?”

“A slit throat will kill us all the same.” Kavaa said flatly.

“True, but I’ve not come to argue with you.” Anassa said and turned to her students. “Do you know what you’ve done wrong?”

“I insulted a Divine.” Fleur admitted immediately, she had no hesitation in her voice. Anassa shook her head.

“No. You are allowed to insult and besmirch Divines all you wish. Your first mistake was insulting this Divine.” Fleur blinked as her hand started to bleed, then she looked down. Iniri had not even seen the flash of sorcery. “Secondly, you didn’t come prepared with arguments. I expect the best from you, whether in battle or in a debate.” Anassa then turned to Kavaa. “How I teach my students works for sorcery. It is a skill of the elite, to mass-manufacture sorcerers, as you so put it, would make them into magicians.”

“I wasn’t complaining about how you teach, it’s an ancient method.”

“Why change what isn’t broken?” Anassa asked. “Could you heal Fleur?”

“Could I?” Kavaa sounded shocked, her eyes went to the girls hands. “Can she take it?” Anassa merely smiled.

“Of course she cannot.” She turned to the human girl. “But this is another lesson, do not start what you are not prepared to finish. And respect Divinity when its in your presence. Some of us are worthy to have our titles. Every Divine in this camp falls into that banner.” Iniri’s heart skipped a beat. Anassa sounded as thought she honestly meant it, but then… “Now stand.” Anassa hissed and Fleur stood up. “Do you expect a Divine to walk to you?”

Fleur moved before Kavaa as Iniri rubbed her elbow with Anassa. “Even me?” She asked quietly. Anassa turned and smiled down to Iniri. Whether it was sarcastic or joyous or hungry, Iniri could not tell.

“Don’t pretend you weren’t nature’s tyrant back then.” Anassa licked her lips. “Every battle had a contingency for what to do if the oaks started growing.”

Iniri shook her head, she couldn’t feel whether her smile was nostalgic or sad. What memories. Memories long cut down and buried, Iniri had changed since then, she wasn’t the great Goddess of Nature that had been a wall to hold back Arascus. That Iniri had withered and died and been left to regrow when the Great War had ended. Fleur held out hand for Kavaa and the Goddess put her finger on the girl. “You have bruises on you too.”

“Basic training.” Fleur said quickly, her voice flat as she looked down at the red soil between hers and Kavaa’s feet.

“You can do them too.” Anassa said and Kavaa shook her head.

“Can she take it?”

“If she can’t then she’s not worthy.”

Another voice interrupted them. “That hurts even for me, even Fer feels it.” Cold, loud and commanding. Kassandora’s voice. Iniri spun, Kassandora had snuck behind them, she stood, arms crossed and thoroughly unimpressed with the situation. Red hair cut straight flowed down past that dark coat she always wore now. “And the reason we put up with this farce of training is because sorcerers are elite shock troops. They’re not present in every battle, they’re our special forces. That’s the actual reason, whatever Ana will tell you is wrong, these troops simply aren’t meant to be cannon-fodder magicians.”

“Ah.” Kavaa said.

Kassandora hardened her voice and turned to Anassa. “Yes, and I’d rather not waste sorcerers on garbage like this.”

“Sorcerers are my demesne sister.” Anassa said. “Kavaa, heal her, if you would.”

“And why are you so polite with her and not me?” Kassandora asked, her annoyance not dropping one bit.

“Because you’re you.” Anassa replied jokingly. The training ahead, from the other Anassa, whether that was the copy or the original at this point, Iniri did not know, got more brutal. The fourty nine men started being flung about like dolls in the air as that Anassa started throwing large waves of red sorcery at them.

“Wonderful.” Kassandora said and shrugged. “I’m in a good mood today though, so we’re not testing each other.”

“You won’t even help with training?” Anassa made a cute face and a silly pleading voice and Kassandora sighed. She looked over at the troops.

“Give them a one minute break then, and I’ll help with training.” Anassa smiled like a little girl, clapped her hands and the display of sorcery stopped.

“You have one minute! Prepare! You have a special teacher today, don’t embarrass me!” That Anassa disappeared, just blinked out of existence as the fourty nine men started to sigh and pick themselves up.

“Three, two, one, go.” Kavaa counted and began to heal Fleur. Iniri had been healed by Kavaa before, and she knew what it felt like. And the girl took it about as well as Iniri had imagined. It lasted a mere second to close the wound, and Fleur screamed out at the first moment she felt the energies. Her knees gave, she dropped to the ground, tears flowing her face. “It’s over Fleur, it will pass in a moment.” Anassa snapped her fingers and a claw lifted Fleur up to her feet. The girl was shaking, hugging herself, and the three young sorcerers looked at her and at Kavaa with newfound fear in their eyes.

“That was merely a small cut on your hand. Every Cleric you see out here has had their bones re-stitched.” Anassa said coldly. “That was another lesson.” The claw holding Fleur up disappeared and the girl dropped to her knees, holding her stomach and wrapping her arms around herself as she tears streamed from her cheeks and mucus dripped from her nose. “Don’t talk about things you don’t know.”

“That’s a good lesson.” Kassandora said. “But it didn’t have to be taught this way.”

“This is the fastest way to teach.” Anassa said. “Now what do we say?”

“I-I-I’m so-sorry.” Fleur said, she somehow managed to turn towards Kavaa. “An-An-And I-I ap-apolo-logize fo-for i-i-insult-ting.” Kavaa merely shook her head.

“Nothing to apologize for Fleur. You got ahead of yourself.” The Goddess of Health spoke gently, then turned to Anassa, those silver eyes piercing Anassa. “We’re not doing this again, I take no satisfaction in causing pain.”

“Just once is enough.” Anassa said. “Now you know what healing is. Don’t put Kavaa in the same league as Elassa.” Fleur nodded, shook, and then passed out. Anassa clicked her tongue. “Well, it was impressive enough she managed to hold herself for that long at least.” Kavaa leaned down and touched the girl’s cheek.

“She’ll wake up soon. I was gentle.” Iniri saw Lyca, Edmonton and Eliza exchange shocked looks.

Kassandora took the initiative as the conversation died down. “I actually came here because I have news.”

“Elassa?” Anassa asked excitedly.

“I wish.” Kassandora said. “No, we’ve finally come to a decision regarding Ciria.”

“Took long enough.” Anassa said bitterly. That much was true, they had spent too long going back and forth with Ciria about who could attend and who could not. Elassa had been adamant on the fact Olephia could not, that was only natural after-all, since bringing Olephia would be coming with swords drawn. Then Arascus had made his own demands, then more demands were made, then they argued about the location, and on and on it went for more than a month.

“And?” Iniri asked. “Will we be there?”

“No.” Kassandora said flatly. “We’ve agreed to an even three and three split. It will be Elassa, Fortia and Zerus from them and then Arascus, Fer and me from us. Neutral territory in Khmet.” The country directly north of Kirinyaa. “But close to our border.”

“So not one of us?” Kavaa asked.

“You are one of us at this point.” Kassandora said. “Arascus obviously has to be there, I have to be there, and Fer can read people like no other. This isn’t a peace talk in any fashion, nothing will come of it.”

“So what is it then?” The Goddess of Health asked.

“It’s a scouting run to see how powerful Ciria and Waeh actually are. I’ll tell you about them when I come back, it’s set a week from now.”

“A week?!” Anassa shouted.

“They’re Divines of this age, we can’t expect to be fast now, can we?” Kassandora chuckled as she looked at the fourty nine sorcerers. “So what do you want to do? Just beat them up.” Anassa smirked.

“Honestly, I want you to kill one. I want to assign these four groups of twelve so I’ve been working them down to fourty eight.” Anassa pointed to the four sorcerer children next to them, they looked at each other in shock.

“Easy enough.” Walked past them.

“You’re not going to use your sword?” Anassa asked.

“They’re not you, are they?”

Kassandora took position as another copy of Anassa in mid-air and explained the situation to her group of trainees. “You are to try and defeat Kassandora. You will not kill her, not because I don’t allow it but because you don’t even have the capacity to. You are to simply stop her.”

“I give them one minute.” Anassa said.

“She’s fighting with her fists?” Lyca asked.

“Watch and learn, watch and learn. This is pure technique.” Anassa said with nothing but respect in her voice. Iniri wished people in the White Pantheon would speak about her like that when she wasn’t there. She hadn’t heard Kassandora say a single thing bad about Anassa when they were in private, nor did Anassa ever besmirch Kassandora, but together she got the impression they hated each other. And inside Iniri, she was ashamed she knew what the emotion was: pure jealousy. She wanted someone like that.

The copy of Anassa shouted one command. “You are ready to start.” And then she disappeared.

And Kassandora got to work immediately. She kicked up a stone and hurled it at the men. It cracked one in the chest, bounced and hit another one in the leg. By the time they got a shield up, she was among them.

Anassa was wrong, it took only half a minute. They didn’t even get a scratch on her.