The Greatest Sin

“DIE AND DIE!” Olephia shouted in anger at the hundred or so men who had not fled yet. They were devoured by a fiery explosion. This was maddening! How did Sceo know she was coming? Did Leona really die?

 

Anassa roared with rage as she stared at yet another empty campsite in the arid plains of north-eastern Kirinyaa. Flat, dull, grey and disgustingly well-organised tents in blocks, Maisara’s style very much, even Kassandora would give her troops some bit of leeway to personalize their abodes. The only sign of life was some prowling coyotes that were eating from the refuse pile. Anassa shouted again, and sent off a blast of sorcery at the tents and campfires, tore them up and out of the ground. And then that Anassa disappeared.

Anassa slammed her copy of Old Guguoan Poems closed and rose out of the bed in her tent. Irritated and angry and furious and fuming. How did they know again? Kassandora’s information was always correct, there was always a campsite there. It wasn’t that her sister was sending off into the ass-end of nowhere. There was obviously an army on the march. And yet when she got there, there was nothing! Evacuated tents! That was all she had to claim! How?!

Anassa took a calming breath. This was an issue that needed Divine intervention, frankly, Kassie would be disappointed in her if she couldn’t sort it out herself. Two copies of Anassa appeared in the room. Both in the same red dress she wore, with the same neatly styled black hair, in the same black boots with the tall heels, both smelling of her own perfume. Both of them were her, she saw through their eyes, she smelled what they smelled, she heard what they heard and they all shared the same thoughts. It was a simple trick, the same that standing in a room mirrors would do. You see yourself, and yourself sees you.

One Anassa took a step and disappeared. The other Anassa walked in a different direction, and disappeared. Anassa collapsed onto her bed and angrily flicked her poems open. And to top it all off, she had lost her page!  

Anassa appeared above Fer’s part of Zalewski’s eastern army. It wasn’t official policy that the beastmen stay separated from the humans, but things always worked out that way. The beastmen were loud, they played games and they didn’t keep rank, and the humans did none of that. Anassa much preferred them to humans, although it was hard not to when she had created them some eighteen centuries ago.

Another Anassa appeared in a glade of orange trees she had found previously. There was no purpose in this, she was simply angry and liked oranges. Fresh-picked oranges were hard to find.

Wolfman and minotaur, darkfur and satyr looked up from their campfires and at Anassa as she stared them at down, hands on hips. It was a mess of a camp, with beastmen sleeping or eating or drinking or doing whatever they wanted. Fer expected her troops to train themselves and would only prod them every now and then. Some pack of wolfmen were digging a hole. Whether for their own personal enjoyment or because they were copying Kassandora’s method of training, Anassa did not care. She took a step.

Anassa appeared before Fer. Her sister was sitting among the beastmen on a hide of panther skin, clad only in her hides and using her own golden hair as a pillow against the tree she was leaning on. Some darkfurs were sitting around her, a wolfman, two huge bullmen. They were all staring at the animal being roasted on the campfire. Some small thing, obviously not enough to satisfy two of them, it wouldn’t put a dent in Fer’s monstrous appetite even if she had the whole thing to herself. “Ana!” Fer shouted. Why was she always so loud? “Do you want to join us?”

“What is that?” Anassa asked incredulously as she pointed at the fire.

The other Anassa, by the orange trees, looked up. Some stupid jungle animal had been eating her oranges. She scowled. What a day!

“Coyote.” Fer answered primly. She leaned and gave it a sniff. “Smells good.” So dog on a stick. Lovely. Anassa clicked her tongue and held out her as if to catch something.

The Anassa by the orange trees finally found an orange. She snapped her fingers, a flash of red light separated the fruit from the branch, and it fell into her hand.

This was another simple trick, possibly the most simple of them all, although no one but Anassa could do it. The Anassa by the orange trees was her. The Anassa in Fer’s camp was her. So if one of her held the orange, she held the orange. If she held it, then the Anassa in Fer’s camp held it.

Fer’s yellow eyes widened at the orange. Anassa’s red eyes looked down at it and looked back to Fer. The Anassa by the trees looked up, there were plenty more here too. “Do you want one?” Anassa asked. Fer nodded happily. Anassa chucked her the orange and another one quickly appeared in her hand. She looked at the beastmen and held it out, eyebrow raised in question.

None of them wanted an orange. Too bad. Anassa tore the skin and threw a piece into her mouth. Sweet fruit always calmed her down. Not sweets, those were for children and plebians. But fruit were a delicacy.

She took a heavy breath, the Anassa in bed flipped a page, and the Anassa by the orange trees disappeared. “I have a problem.” She said.

Fer ate a chunk of orange. “Do you?”

“It’s your problem too.” Anassa said as Fer reclined back down. How the woman could wear nothing but beast hide, Anassa would never understand.

“Is it the fact we’re getting nowhere?” Fer asked. Anassa nodded.

“I just went out to a camp, fifteen minutes ago, they knew I was coming. There was a camp, there was no one there.” Anassa said angrily as she gave up on tearing the rest of the orange skin with her fingers and a flash of sorcery cut the fruit into neat pieces, the skin fell off.

“I had the same happen to me.” Fer said.

“So we’re getting spied on.” Anassa said. She smelled her fingers. There wasn’t a perfume out there that beat the smell of citrus fruit. “And it’s from someone high up.”

“It’s not Zalewski.” Fer said.

“I never said it was.” Anassa replied as she ate a piece of the fruit. “But a captain, a major? Who do we get orders from?” Fer narrowed her eyes and tilted her head.

“Do you not know?” Anassa hated that tone. It wasn’t patronizing, it didn’t question her intelligence. It was pure honesty, Fer had assumed she did.

“Do I look like I know?” Anassa barked back angrily. She ate another slice of orange. Fer finished hers. She even licked the juice off her fingers, the ears on her head jumped up and down with each lick.

“You don’t.” Fer said and giggled as she leaned back. “I thought you did.”

“Well I don’t!” Anassa shouted and Fer tutted.

“How disappointing.” Fer practically bathed in her own smugness. “You really don’t know?” Anassa admitted defeat. With Kassandora, there may be a debate to have, but with Fer, the woman took great pleasure from lecturing others.

“I don’t.” Anassa said. “Can you tell me?” Fer raised an eyebrow and Anassa’s posture collapsed. “Big sister.” Anassa added sourly. She had may as well said they had won the war with the amount of happiness Fer beamed out in her smile.

“We get them from Kassie.” Fer said. “Ours, mine and yours, are directly from her. The operations, Zalewski is informed about so he knows we won’t be here, but not where we are going. He simply gets a time, like Fer noon to evening gone.” Anassa blinked. How?

“How do you know that?” Fer was obviously enjoying this. She chuckled so smugly, rolled her eyes and shrugged her shoulders.

“I ask around.” Anassa sighed. No answer at all then.

“Well it’s not Kass.” Anassa said.

“Well obviously.” Fer added. “But it can’t be Zalewski because he doesn’t even know. The men under him don’t even know we’re out. So who?”

“CR?” Anassa asked. If the letters went through Central Requisitions, then the mole could be there. Although that would be bad, CR was far away.

“We skip CR, it’s direct line from Kassie.” Fer said. “They go straight to you.”

“Well it’s not me!” Anassa shouted.

“Well I don’t take letters, even mine go to you Ana!” Fer shouted back. “And you’re too lazy to even bring them to me, and last time it was your stupid maid that handed it off to one of my bea…”

Fer’s voice trailed off as she calmed down. Anassa calmed down too. They both looked at each other. Yellow cat eyes blinked. Red ones cooked in fury. Anassa would have never suspected civilians. Why didn’t she? But now that it was said, how could she not? The only people who got access to her quarters were her maids. Even Zalewski would politely wait outside the few times he needed Anassa. She had told them that the urgency of the situation would need to be so great as the Sun not rising in the morning before they disturbed her privacy. There was no group of people who had permission to enter.

No group save for her maids.

“It’s them.” Anassa said definitely. “It has to be.” Fer answered grimly, all the previous joy wiped away and replaced by a cold calculated hunter’s growl.

“They’re native Kirinyaan girls, I don’t see how you’d turn one of them to rat.”

“There’s plenty of ways to do that Fer.” Anassa said and put her hands on hips. The Anassa back in her bed sighed as she put her book down and took a step. From her opulent tent to the outside of her maid’s tent. A plain structure of pale red cloth to make it distinct. In the middle of Zalewski’s army, in the thick natural jungles of Kirinyaa. The woods here had been cleared and men were working on the new Lemur vehicles. Wheeled artillery, Anassa would have to see them in action to believe they were any better than the ancient cannons of the past.

“Are you there?” Fer asked.

“I’m there.” Anassa replied. The Anassa by the tent took a step inside. The air reeked of perfume and her three maids were sitting quietly, one was writing something. Another was reading some old book, a third was arranging Anassa’s clothes after being cleaned. They had to look twice to see who had just come in and immediately put everything down and stood at attention.

“Ready to serve Goddess!” One girl said. Anassa had not even bothered to learn their names. This girl was tall, with curly hair that went to her shoulders. Anassa looked at her maids. They were all tall. Not suspicious in itself, but now that they were in her sights, it didn’t sit right with her.

Anassa took a step into the tent and looked around without answering. Three beds, three cabinets for their belongings. A shelf for books. Then a box filled with cleaning supplies. As average as she expected. She snapped her fingers. The cabinets opened and Anassa peered inside. Underwear, spare clothes, one of the girls had a bottle of wine. Another had chocolates. As average a find as she expected. “I apologize profusely for drinking!” Presumably the wine-girl replied.

Anassa didn’t even look at her. Kassandora had once told her that the only war she had no hope of winning was the war with humanity’s alcoholism. If Kassie wasn’t going to try, then Anassa would not even bother.

“And?” Fer asked. The Anassa by her shrugged.

“It looks normal.”

“No letters or anything out of place?”

“Chocolates and wine.” Fer giggled at that. “They’re all tall.” Anassa said.

“We’re tall too.” Fer replied.

“That we are.” Anassa said slowly.

Back in the maid’s tent. Anassa looked around at the women. They stood there primly, each one smiling and giving space to Anassa to inspect the tent. The Goddess of Sorcery sighed and shook her head.

She took the book the maid had been writing and opened it to the latest page. “Today, Goddess Anassa’s clothes were cleaned by…” Anassa closed the book. It was a simple diary. She shook her head and sniffed the air. “Very well.” Anassa said. “This was a routine check-up, I’ve been wondering how you were doing.” That was a complete lie of course, she had not even bother to learn their names. She was sure they knew that too, but she didn’t want to be seen as delusional and paranoid, enough people already said that about her. Anassa looked at the three girls.

One of them smiled gently at Anassa and bowed. Anassa supposed she was letting her paranoia get the best of her. These maids were native Kirinyaans, they had seen what happened at Melukal, that was why they had volunteered to fight. And they were young and pretty. That would mean they’d be naïve and optimistic and completely unaware of what a war entailed. Anassa shook her head. She wasn’t going to apologize for disturbing them, and they were still on the list of suspects, no matter what Fer said. Things had to be confirmed, if she sent them away and suddenly Maisara’s army stopped getting warnings about her movements…

“You have today, tomorrow and the day after off.” Anassa said. The three girl’s eyes widened in surprise as they looked at each other.

“Oh that won’t…” One girl said and another elbowed her to shut her up.

“Thank you Goddess.” The girl who had hit the other said. Smart one, this one, when Divines gave gifts, you accepted them even if you didn’t want to. “So can we stay here or…?” Anassa looked at the girl. She actually hadn’t thought of that. What did maids do when they had their days off? Anassa just stayed in bed and read a book or annoyed one of her sisters.

Anassa clicked her tongue as she made up some mundane reason for them to be gone. “I’m going to be holding a ritual. You won’t be safe here.” That was the sort of thing mortals generally believed in. The three girl’s faces went pale and they nodded immediately. There we go! Anassa was so happy with herself at solving this situation she went and patted the girl who had been eager for a break on the head…

Fer’s eyes sharpened immediately as she took a sniff of the air. She stood up and crossed between her and Anassa in two steps. Of Beasthood towered over Of Sorcery like only Arascus did. “What is it?” Fer didn’t reply, her face was cold now. Her eyes sharp, it was the gaze of a hunter who had just smelled prey. She took Anassa’s hand and smelled her fingers.

Then she yanked Anassa forwards. The Goddess of Sorcery yelped and fell over her feet as Fer held her hand out to a gnarled wolfman, his chest covered in scars and battle-wounds, his maw filled with sharp teeth. “Logar, is this what I think it is?”

Anassa’s cheeks went red as the wolfman leaned in, wrinkled his nose, and sniffed Anassa’s fingers. He blinked in confusion for a moment, then smelled again. “It can’t be...” He said slowly and smelled yet again. “But I do smell it.”

“What animal?” Fer barked the words like a command. The wolfman gave a reply instantly.

“Fox.”