The Greatest Sin

Fer looked around as she walked through the convoy that had been destroyed. It got away from her beastmen, but she had come with them. Broken bodies and bloody corpses lay around her, flipped cars, destroyed trucks, several of the vehicles had been ignited in the fighting. A group of pyromancers had also been here, now their bodies lay scattered around on the ground.

If she hadn’t come, these people would have gotten away. That was odd. Kassie wouldn’t have her given beastmen a task that was simply a waste of time.

Something was up. She could just smell it.

Kassandora stared at the doctors on the other side of her table. Hospital directors, some philanthropists, everyone and anyone. They had come, officially, to discuss the supply of medicine and first aid treatment shipments to her army. That had already been discussed, although it only served as a cover. There were eyes she didn’t want about, she could simply feel them. As obvious as if they were Jungle, but even in her room.

Kassandora pushed the feeling away, it always came about when she was talking with people. Of course they would be looking at her. She was a Goddess, she was organizer of the Reclamation War, and now she was the de-facto leader of Kirinyaa. She sighed to them and nodded. “Very well, I am glad to receive your support.” Of course, this all had been mere formality, if she wanted supplies, she would have just sent a letter directly or asked Arascus to negotiate it for her. There was a real point behind the meeting. “I’d like to ask about the Virgin’s Blood.”

The Order of Virgin’s Blood, one of Kavaa’s. Whereas the Twin Hearts had been about combating landslides and feral beasts, the Virgin’s Blood were the exact opposite. They never left hospitals, and they recruited from doctors who grew tired of bureaucracy. From what Kassandora had discovered, every hospital in Kirinyaa had a branch of theirs. One of the directors smiled and nodded quickly. A dark man, white coat over him. That was the general style among these people, either dark suits or white coats as if they had just walked out of their medical office. The man spoke: “They’re an excellent Order.”

“How many is there?” Kassandora asked. The men all shared looks. One man in a suit finally spoke up.

“Numerically, I cannot say. But there’s enough for every hospital in Kirinyaa to have a branch.” Kassandora sighed. That was what she had been afraid of, but she knew it was coming. Another man raised his hand. Kassandora let him speak as she thought of a way to phrase her next question.

“Are you planning on pulling them to the front?” He sounded nervous but resigned. As if he expected she would. Kassandora found the line of attack, the breach in their lines to tell them what she was wanting to hear without asking directly.

“What do they do?” She asked.

One man, bald, dark and in a white doctor’s coat, spoke for the whole group. “Diseases, cancer treatments, poisonings, births.” Another man added his own comment as the doctor finished.

“Easier to say what they don’t do really.” A third spoke up.

“They don’t handle broken bones.” A fourth decided now was the time to speak. Kassandora had already got her answer anyway. They did in fact do births.

“Mine do.” What a thing to add. Really important information there.

“It’s things that are a threat to life, they don’t handle minor issues.”

“They would if there was more of them!” One rather young man, he couldn’t be in his thirties yet, added excitedly.

“I understand.” Kassandora said. All that was important was that they handled birthing. She didn’t need to know more. Kavaa’s Clerics would hold frequent charity-healings in the poorer regions. There wasn’t a town in the country that didn’t have at least an annual visit before Kavaa fled the Pantheon. The villages were much the same. And now the rumour that every hospital had a team of Clerics serving came out as true. Was there a single person not blessed by a Divine in this entire country? “If the situation calls for it, I will recall the Virgin’s Blood to the frontlines. As of right now, you have nothing to worry about. There is no immediate to move them, however I would advise preparing contingencies for their absence.” She clapped her hands. “That is all, I wanted you to be aware of this issue, and it’s bad news, so I wanted to tell you personally.” That even made her look downright benevolent!

Kassandora stood up and left her meeting tent. She didn’t take questions, there simply wasn’t enough time. Sokolowski was stalling Fortia in the north. Ekkerson’s front had descended into two unmoving lines. Olephia had stalled every attack so far from the reports she got. Anassa and Fer were still skirmishing with Maisara’s force as Zalewski was formalizing his own front line.

Neneria wasn’t useful, so she was held in reserve. Kavaa had been sent to Central Requisitions to help manage the situation there. Apart from Baalka still sleeping in her tent, Kassandora was the only Divine in this area. Things changed little. She had never been too much of a social butterfly. It wasn’t that she couldn’t, but there was only a limited amount of time in a day. An hour wasted on dance and song was an hour lost on managing the war.

Kassandora kicked a stone into the distance with her black boot. And now Waeh. His powers were simply immense. When he had stopped her, he didn’t bring her body to stillness through force, it was as if she had decided to stop for herself. She didn’t, yet she did. What terrible strength.

Frankly, that could be used to contain Olephia. If the man was close enough, then…

Kassandora shook her head. And yet he still let it slip. She didn’t even know if that was a slip or not. He could be lying, maybe there were blessings untouchable by him. But it couldn’t be many, and the more she thought about him, the more it made sense. Arascus had a pride to rule over humanity. Waeh was created as some twisted abomination God to counter Arascus, there wasn’t a point looking into his philosophy or his teachings, but rather at his foundation. The complete opposite of Arascus, one who believes in divinity’s right to rule. The opposite would be divinity forced to serve.

And that was what his power felt like too. As if Kassandora had been brought into servitude. Kassandora sighed. So she needed a person completely untouched by divinity. And yet there was no one. No one in this country, she had sent out scouts to Ausa for untainted volunteers, and she had a questionnaire for the thousands pouring in from Arika.

And there was no one.

Kavaa was the main culprit of course. Maybe it was just the volunteers, all of them had some sappy story about their great death to some heroic Cleric who had waltzed in one day and healed their father or mother or dog. Waeh was up there too, funnily enough. Kassandora was simply not taking anyone who followed his cult of Esperanism. Iniri and her blessed crops. A few had contact with the others, Ciria for judgements. Halkus to fix some old tractor, or Theosius.

Kassandora’s own troops received her blessing of course, so they would be out as well. Divine war simply required Divine intervention. A man blessed was worth twice as those untouched.

There simply wasn’t anyone. Not a single soul she had come across who in some damn way wasn’t touch by Divines. What was this?! In the past, Kassandora could waltz into any collection of farming hovels and get her men right there! And now? What was this!

Kassandora sighed as she started walking. Arusei was stood on the hill, only in dark shorts, his chest riddled with scars, hair tied back. Kassandora caught up the village chieftain, his legs were covered with ash up to his knees. He turned to look at Kassandora, smiled, and went back to looking as the sea of ash behind that hill.

This entire section had once been Jungle, and the Reclamation War had pushed it back deeply. Now the vehicles had been sent off to the frontlines. Kassandora thought Arusei understood why his war wasn’t so pressing as hers. “I took a walk.” Arusei said. He banged his spear against his dirty feet. “You cannot hear it here anymore.”

“You can’t.” Kassandora agreed. The Jungle had been pushed back behind the horizon.

“The tribe wishes to apologize.”

“Why?”

“We didn’t believe when you said it was possible.” Kassandora shook her head at that.

“I’m a Divine, it’s my job to make people believe.”

“We do now.” Arusei said. “Today I walked through there with my family, my son promised me one day he would return to our first home. Not where I was born, but the first time our ancestors were pushed away.”

“There is nothing to promise, one day you’ll see it too.” Kassandora said. Arusei didn’t say anything, he just looked at the fields of ash. Close to them, the ash was starting to sprout tall Arikan grass and flowers. Iniri had tested them, they were of her demesne, not the Jungle’s.

Arusei finally broke the silence. “I believe you.” Kassandora only nodded. Anyone else would have some nice speech to give, not her. She was believed because she brought results. That was simply how it was.

And now she needed to bring more results. She looked at Arusei. The man was staring off into the horizon, stars in his eyes and lost in thought. The topic hadn’t been broached with him previously because his entire tribe was blessed. Kassandora thought so at least, they frequently came to the Clerics for assistance with wounds. She’d seen women even bring babes when they were ill. They were as contaminated as everyone else, maybe more.

Kassandora turned and left. The issue would be solved eventually. She was searching for a needle in a haystack, but it was a moving needle. Eventually, it would come to her by itself. She simply did not have the time to be searching for an unblessed soul when there was a war to command. The armies had stalled out, Fortia had found out some method to predict her movements. Sokolowski’s army in itself had to be attended to.

The man was a talented general, he learned leadership in the Twin Hearts, and Kassandora had trained him along with Zalewski and Ekkerson herself, but he was no Iliyal Tremali. The original plan was to divide war command between Kassandora and Arascus, with Sokolowski only taking control of the northern army when Kassandora wasn’t there, but the Kirinyaan fury at Melukal had spiralled out of control and given them too much to handle.

Kassandora managed half an hour before she got interrupted. Her phone buzzed. Kassandora pulled it out of her pocket. ‘1 Olephia’ at the top. The numbers were simply to sort her contacts by importance. Generals got 2. Divines got 1. Arascus got 0. Kassandora opened the message. Did you get my letter?

Kassandora replied immediately. No.

A bubble appeared that Olephia was writing something. Then disappeared. Then appeared again. Then disappeared. Eventually Olephia replied with a short comment. I see.

Was she mad? Kassandora sighed. If she was, then she deserved to be. Kassandora never wrote or called, but then, there was too many things to do. She replied quickly: ‘???’

Olephia’s bubble appeared again. When?

At you?

Ye

Sok then Zal then Ekk was plan

Need faster Kassandora didn’t think about a reply this time. If Olephia needed something, it was bad.

Why?

Urgent.

How? Can be tomorrow.

Not that urgent. Kassandora rolled her eyes. Another text barged in from Olephia. Sokolowski? What time? Kassandora stared at the text for a moment. Was Olephia stupid? What else would Sok stand for?

Kassandora replied with her own text. Tomorrow, not sorted yet. Unless something happens here, then day after.

Olephia’s came in soon. Okay, it won’t be trouble then.

Kassandora sent her own. What is it?

The reply took longer this time. Don’t worry about it. I can handle it.

Fortia looked up from her battleplans as several Guardians came in. They all looked pleased with themselves. “What’s happened?” Fortia asked.

“Purple team did it. We have a date for Warbreaker.”