The Greatest Sin

Fortia stretched and cracked her fingers. She brushed her golden hair out of her face and leaned from side to side to relax her stomach. Ever since that meeting, it had been with fluttering butterflies that absolutely refused to quell their excitement.

She looked over the map of Khmet and Kirinyaa and took out a red pen, marking a red X over the closest border city in Khmet, Ashkwan. A hundred kilometres north of the border, in the past, it would have been a reserve camp. Not with modern technology though.

Fortia made another mark on the map and grinned. Frankly, she loved Kassandora. The Goddess of War was the only one who would test her like this. The world had grown stagnant for too long, it had forgotten why the Goddess of Peace was the commander of the White Pantheon armies. It was time to remind everyone of that fact.

Arascus wanted a war? How quaint. Fortia had just the spent the past millennia longing for one.

“They’re not as disunited as we thought.” Kassandora said as she looked over her map of Kirinyaa. Southern Khmet was also there, as were the other central Arikan nations. Aittyopios sat north-east of Kirinyaa, south-west of Khmet. “Fortia was there too, we can assume that the peace-talks rallied them although I think that’s just wishful thinking. Elassa is not stupid, Fortia would be put in command sooner or later.” Kassandora replied.

“Guardians are beginning to conglomerate around Ashkwan.” Iliyal said as he shuffled through his papers. Kassandora made a mark on the map as she looked at the rest of the people in the room. Arascus was there, obviously he would be. The other Divines were there too, Fer and Neneria and Anassa and Olephia. Each in their dark uniforms, each staring with full attention at Kassandora. Kavaa was there too, although Iniri and Helenna were missing. Those were simply not powerful enough to be part of planning, nor did they field armies. Kavaa did not know, but she had only been invited because of her Clerics.

Every Divine had their own individual counters on the map. A wooden hexagon with the initial, Kassandora had enlisted the help of one of the native Kirinyaans. And then Douglas and Erik stood there too, Kassandora had promoted them both to captains of the air force. It wasn’t much, but each man had a squad of seven under their command.

Iliyal stood next to Kassandora. He was an excellent assistant. Sokolowski, Ekkerson and Zalewski had all been promoted to low-ranking generals. Iliyal was second in command of the forces, although that was because he was trusted enough to not make stupid mistakes or call for Divine help every other battle.

The table in the middle of the wooden room was massive, Iniri had made the structure, it was soundproofed and without any windows. Anassa’s magical balls of sorcery hung in the air to light it up though. “The first defence line is going to be south of the border.” Kassandora said. “Minimally defended, they’ll only be a scouting force to see what we are facing. I don’t want to arm them with guns.”

“Are you sure about that?” Arascus asked.

“You’re sacrificing men just like that?” Kavaa added. Anassa and Fer both looked at her like a child.

“Knowing which Divines are where, if its Paladins or Guardians or the mage force coming is important.” Kassandora spoke quickly. “If we locate Elassa, we have our N-cordon.” That was a term she had made up back in the Great War. The area where Neneria was not safe to go, Allasaria and Elassa were both moving N-cordons. As were large amounts of magicians. “If we deploy men with rifles, we can expect the White Pantheon to copy the design. With Theosius on their side, we’ll lose our advantage of superior weaponry.”

“So they are just a suicide force then?” Kavaa asked. Kassandora clicked her tongue. She much prefer when people shut up as she laid out the plans.

“They are.” Kassandora said coldly. “They’ll have off-road vehicles and helicopters, but I don’t expect them to get out. Your Clerics will not be there, it’s just the Kirinyaan volunteers.” She raised her hand to shut Kavaa up from speaking.

“Second and third lines are here.” Kassandora made two more dashed red marks on the mark, and then an arrow in blue going through them from the north. “They will also be lost. The mountains are undefended, we pull them into the jungles south of the central mountain range.” Those were natural jungles, not the creeping jungle in the western half of Kirinyaa. “Then we turn our Jungle Clearing forces from the north. They circle around the north of the mountain and cut them off.”

“Anassa and Fer will come in then.” Kassandora said. “Sorcerers and beastmen will raid the mountain supply lines. I want at least fifty thousand White Pantheon troops trapped south of them. We’ll get into more details as the situation changes.” There was no reason to overload the rest with information. Kassandora already had backup contingency after backup contingency prepared, those could be deployed as necessary.

Fer’s eyes narrowed as she looked at that map. “There’s a problem.”

“What?” Kassandora asked.

“What if they don’t push south?”

Kassandora nodded, the whole plan relied on the White Pantheon actually overextending south. If they didn’t, then she was giving up land for nothing. “This is the optimal.” Kassandora said. “They outnumber us and have overwhelming magical advantage. If they don’t.” She stretched her hand out and drew a red arrow north-east. “We push into Aittyopios. Then we circle around.”

“That would remove our image of a defensive war.” Arascus said grimly.

“This is where I want to use Helenna.” Kassandora turned to Kavaa. “She was your propagandist back then, wasn’t she?” Kavaa nodded grimly.

“She preferred the term ‘morale-builder’.”

“Well she can call herself whatever she wants.” Kassandora said. “I want to force them to push south by opening a new war.” Kassandora pulled a paper out of her folder and threw it onto the table. “Not a bloody conflict, informational warfare.” She let everyone read through the names. It was simply a list of the major news stations in Epa. “I already have a team ready taken from my men, they’re writing reports and articles we can feed into Epa directly. All about how they’re winning and how they should press the advantage.”

Kassandora watched the reactions. Arascus smiled proudly. Anassa grinned wickedly, Fer and Neneria both looked at it in awe. The humans merely nodded, Kavaa looked shocked. “This is unprecedented.” Kavaa said.

“It is.” Kassandora replied. “Fortia is apt in command, I wouldn’t even consider she’d make such a mistake if she wasn’t pushed to it. But…” Kassandora pulled out the examples her men had made. She had touched them up already and she let five pieces sit on the table: The time to push is now! And Kirinyaa cannot keep this war up! And They are two weeks from surrender! And Why are we delaying? The last one, Kassandora wrote herself. Our Goddess of Peace is terrified of the Goddess of War! That one would make Fortia exceptionally seethe. “What do you think?”

It was a genius plan frankly, Kassandora was proud of herself for it. If Fortia let her emotions got better of her, she would lose her army, if she stayed cautious as she did back then, she would lose the support back home. It was a win-win situation. Either the army would be defeated, or Epa would grow disenchanted with the Pantheon. Frankly, there was something in Kassandora that hoped Fortia would not push, Arika was merely the appetizer, Epa was the main course. “Excellent.” Arascus said. “Good job Kass.” Kassandora withheld her blush, it was a war. It was simply obvious, there were no limits to her demesne, war would be held in the frontlines and it would be held on the dinner table between familial discussions. It was simply that they did not think as dirty as she did. The only rule to war was to be the last one standing.

“Classy.” Anassa said.

“Iliyal will be in charge of this.” Kassandra said and the elf stood up straighter upon hearing the words. “He is most suited to this job.” It wasn’t something a Divine could handle, maybe Fer had potential, but it was a waste to have her sit behind a desk. “In addition, Iliyal will be assigned to the coasts.”

Iliyal saluted. “Of course Goddess!” He almost shouted it.

“Isn’t that a waste?” Anassa asked as she extended her arm to Iliyal. “He isn’t the worst of men I’ve met.” If any other God said that, Kassandora would have brushed them off. But it was fine praise if Anassa said it, she didn’t consider most Divines to be even worthy of being talked to.

“It’s an easy job, and the information war is his priority in the conflict. Helenna will be placed under him. I don’t want any of you to request her assistance unless it’s very urgent.” The table all gave various affirmations of agreement. “Zalewski, Sokolowski and Ekkerson will be placed in charge of the three northern armies.” She turned to the three men, they all saluted her. “If you need help, then you call on me or on Iliyal if I’m not available. You’re here so that you get a basic idea of the plan, don’t expect to be invited to these meetings more often.”

They all gave the same reply. “Yes Goddess!”

“In regards to that, I want to discuss our code-one-colour protocol.” Kassandora made sure to catch Kavaa’s silver eyes with hers. This was just as important for her to know as for the mortals. “Arascus is gold. I am orange. Neneria is black. Anassa is red.” Anassa smiled smugly at that, both Kassandora and Anassa wanted red, but Kassandora was a damn adult. She didn’t care what sort of colour was assigned to her, whereas Anassa found it very important. “Fer is yellow. Olephia is purple. Kavaa, you have the choice of blue or white.”

“Blue.” Kavaa answered. It was a simple thing, frankly, it was nothing. But it would make Kavaa think as if she was being respected here.

“Kavaa is blue. Divines are under my command directly. You can call upon Divines yourself if the situation requires for it, but I will read up on all commands.” Kassandora crossed her arms and sighed. “It depends on context, if there’s an army of ten thousand pressing down on you and there’s no mages, I expect you to call code-one-black for Neneria yourself. Don’t run it by me, just call. If I see you calling for a Divine every other battle, then we’ll have a problem. Understood?”

“Understood.” The three men replied and Kassandora turned to Kavaa.

“This is for you too.”

“For me?”

“Let us not beat around the bush. You are the weakest Divine here. You are weaker than most of the White Pantheon. If you see Zerus or Alkom on the horizon, or Maisara, any of them frankly, I do not want an engagement unless it’s ordered. If it’s unavoidable, then you call a code-one.” Kavaa nodded at that as Kassandora raised her hands defensively, maybe she been too harsh. “I don’t mean it badly Kavaa, but it is how it is. The three northern armies also are not to engage Divines without prior permission.”

“I understand.” Kavaa said in a flat tone.

“I’ll be very happy to help out.” Fer said as she crossed the table and leaned into Kavaa. “You are very sweet.” The Goddess of Health blushed and leaned away.

“Likewise on this, Raptor One and Two are our personal transports. Erik, Douglas, you will be under my command entirely until we expand our air-force.” The two pilots saluted. “Everyone but Anassa has access to the planes, run it by me, but just get on.”

“Why not me?” Anassa asked.

“Because you’re fast enough to not need it.” Kassandora said flatly. “Fer and Anassa will be kept in the north-east of the country. Kavaa and Neneria will be in the central mountains at the start. Olephia takes the western deserts, between the mountains and the Jungle. Olephia.” Kassandora looked to her silent sister. The Goddess of Chaos made a small jump on toes to show she was paying attention. “There are no checks on you. Nothing passes, total annihilation protocol.” Olephia smiled, jumped up onto her toes again and replied with two thumbs-up. That was good, that land was largely abandoned desert with only a few villages. The Reclamation War had given people enough hope to start moving back to the west, but even so, it was the sparsest region of Kirinyaa, one were friendly fire wouldn’t be noticeable.

Kassandora turned back to her the three men as she moved the carved hexagons marking the various Gods to their respective fronts. “This is so you know who is where. I don’t want Olephia crossing the whole country unless it’s urgent.” Kassandora finished and took a breath. “Tomorrow, I will go to the north to view the terrain myself, if there’s any questions, then ask now. If not, then you’ll have to next week. Fer and Neneria, you’re coming with me.” Kassandora let them have their ten seconds. No one raised a hand, the old guard knew her too well to ask, the new blood would simply be overwhelmed by what they had to take in. Fer spoke up, she usually found something to point out, people always thought her stupid, but she really wasn’t.

“The Waeh issue.”

“Me and Arascus are working on it.” Kassandora said. “Until then, avoid at all costs. Retreat if necessary.” Facing him in open battle would reveal his weaknesses, although Kassandora already had an inkling from what the man said back then: There is no Divine nor blessing I cannot touch. Ultimately, it was those small things that separated the Great War Divines from the new ones, no one who lived through that would gloat so much about their strength. No Divine nor blessing Waeh? Kassandora smiled to herself. What about a man unblessed? A pure a human as they came? What then Waeh? “Any more?” Kassandora looked around. No. “Thank you everyone, meeting over.”

Kassandora turned and left. There were more things to plan. The pace of the Jungle burnings had to be increased, weaponry would have to sourced. There were a thousand and one things to do. Kassandora smiled, she would not have it any other way. This is what life was about, a thousand and one problems to solve. Anyone else would simply throw up their hands and cry how it was over. But then they weren’t the Goddess of War. She hummed an old tune happily to herself as her boots picked up speed.

Kavaa caught her wrist. Kassandora adopted a calm gaze and merely looked down into her silver eyes. What did she come for? Was Kassandora too harsh? She quickly thought up of a way to make Kavaa feel better about herself. Something that would be satisfying, but that would ultimately be entirely worthless. Kavaa spoke first though. “I wanted to talk with you… privately.” Kassandora raised an eyebrow. Well, that was certainly unexpected. She turned back around.

“Come, there’s things to do. Let’s walk and talk.”