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”So, who’s my father then?” Karna asked bluntly as she sat next to Khaine in the large feasting hall. A smaller throne had risen from the ground for her to sit on, though that had invited some looks from the warriors that were still throwing glances her way. “Figuring out your identity was relatively simple, seeing as everyone in the Divine Planes was aware of it, but few are aware of who my father is supposed to be. Or at least my previous sources didn’t know.”
Khaine was chewing on a bite she’d just taken out of a golden apple. “Your previous sources being Marius and Narmada, which aren't too shabby as far as sources go. Not exactly the most connected either. Still, you're not wrong. Only a handful of people are aware and that's on purpose. Out of morbid curiosity, I know your sources are limited, but what's your guess?"
Karna considered the possibilities for a while. She had managed to gather some information about the gods from various sources, but her understanding of the politics and the key players was limited. One being stood out though. "The Grand Marshal seems like the one that makes the most sense. Has both the political and personal power one would expect from someone you'd pick. More importantly, he's a Titan, which is one of the bloodlines I started with."
Khaine smiled mysteriously. “Good. Very good.” She giggled a bit. “Also completely wrong. Though it’s gratifying that you also came to that conclusion. Despite your outdated information, your ability to reason such things out means that my ploy worked.”
“He’s the bait.” Karna realized. “While the vast majority are left wondering, those like me would guess him instead of the true answer. He makes sense on too many levels, while also being deliciously forbidden. The idea of an affair between the princess and the leader of the armed forces to seize power. Practically writes itself.”
"Exactly. It's a classic for a reason. And if my goal was just to gain power, then he would make sense. He’s a bit too serious to really go for it without a lot of work, but I might have managed if I went for it. There’s a reason I have a shared claim for the seat as the Goddess of Beauty. Which means so will you once you become a god now that I think about it. Anyway, you’re missing something that should be obvious to you, even if others are not aware.” The Goddess seemed rather proud of herself.
It took several seconds for Karna to puzzle out what she was talking about. “Your main goal isn’t to replace the Heavenly Emperor unlike many would have assumed before the decree. You’re aiming for the mysterious force ruling over everything. And you need me for that. So, your choice of a father had to have been geared specifically towards producing the best vessel for my soul.” She put the pieces together.
The Goddess made a rather pedestrian finger-gun motion towards Karna. “Bingo. While political connections and personal power were a factor in my choice, among a hundred others, all of that pales in comparison to one simple requirement: who would provide for the best possible vessel for you?”
“That means a bloodline as pure as possible.” Karna tapped her chin in thought. “A True God obviously. As powerful as the Grand Marshall might be personally, he’s not among the most important Divines because he has no concept he rules over. So, a True God lording over a powerful concept. One that is worshipped by many.” She suddenly looked up sharply. “Someone who would be willing to give a decent portion of their essence just to make the vessel even more powerful?”
"And now you understand why it's so important to keep it a secret. Let's say hypothetically that your last guess is correct. Such a sacrifice would weaken this God for a rather long time. They would want to hide said weakness or their enemies would take advantage. That's why I'm not going to tell you who they are exactly. You already have enough information to piece things out yourself once you get time to immerse yourself in the divine politics. It's also not my secret to tell." Khaine turned away and dispelled the little privacy bubble she had put up as soon as the topic came up, clearly signaling that the conversation was over.
‘Or they’d need to be reclusive enough that their weakness wouldn’t be noticed.’ Karna thought to herself. She didn’t put it past Khaine to leave that unsaid in order to bluff her. After all, if you’re going to set up one decoy, why not set up a second?
One of the things she had already managed to figure out was that while House Titannica had a lot of power and influence, they didn't have as many True Gods as one would expect. Most of their power came from the personal power of the Titans themselves and the hold they had over the Host. The House had gods of course, as they were a major House with many powerful individuals that could reach those positions. They even had a few of the more powerful ones, but not as many as one would assume from their prominent position. That was one of the reasons Khaine was so desperate to make allies. While the military power of the House was strong even without all those gods, this was a struggle that would be fought on more than just military power. And having the voices of the major gods would weigh a lot. It also meant that the list of potentials that fit the criteria Khaine had revealed wasn’t a long one. If you limited yourself just to House Titannica that is. Her blood was that of a Titan, but that didn’t necessarily mean one from the House. Not all Titans were part of the House, as Titans came in several varieties as well, and not all of them wanted to be pigeonholed into one faction.
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“No. Piss off.” Hope passed the spirit of a male warrior clad in furs, pushing him aside with her shoulder. The spirit had not expected the level of impact as he was sent sprawling.
“I see you’re getting less polite in your refusals as well.” Valor said as he approached her from the side. “I just saw Envy dissipate one of the souls, sending it to the River of Souls instead of staying in this temporary afterlife. The other souls trying to approach her scattered like frightened birds afterwards.”
"Soon I might have to do the same," Hope grumbled. "They're getting more annoying, and as long as I don't take a stand like that, I'll have to suffer their advances. Khaine was right. These people are not used to taking no for an answer.”
“I got a few women approaching me as well, though they were more receptive to being turned down. Wonder why it took them a few days to start making advances?” Valor asked thoughtfully.
"It's probably because the excitement from Khaine's return is starting to wear off. The first day they were also acutely aware that we arrived with the goddess they serve. Now we're being judged by our own strength, which is both a good thing and a bad one." Hope was more aware of what was going on. The two of them headed towards the room Khaine had arranged for them.
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The group had spent the last few days mostly gathering information on the current situation in the Divine Planes. Some of the souls had been here long enough that their information was outdated, despite the slow pace of the Divine Planes and immortals, but they could still offer a perspective. The trick was trying to find either immortals or people of lower rank that had lived in the Divine Planes and died recently. And even then that person might not have had the best information, and whatever information they had could be wrong or at least biased. It was a bit like trying to sift through a mountain of old information for the few precious nuggets of useful data. They could gain a bit from Khaine, but the Goddess was rather busy managing a realm that had been left neglected for decades.
“Wonder if any of them have been brave enough to approach Wrath?” Valor mused.
“Oh, this one I can answer. One of them tried, but she did some trick with her basilisk eyes to turn the man into a living torch burning with some weird purple flames. As far as I know, that guy is still running around screaming.” Hope grinned at the memory.
"A little extreme perhaps." Valor looked a bit judging. He wasn't a fan of such licentious behavior but being burnt alive was an overreaction to being propositioned. Just being sent to be reincarnated seemed much less punishing in comparison.
“Ah, the guy tried to cop a feel. Might have even succeeded now that I think about it. He moved really fast, even by her standards, which is why Wrath used her ocular abilities. Besides, he was an immortal of some power, so he can survive being burnt a bit while in this realm. Which I suppose isn’t working to his advantage in this case. Anyway, the fire will be put out at some point and it takes some effort to disperse a soul here. However, it seems many of the others don’t approve of this kind of behavior either, as they stopped anyone from helping the guy for now. I think that might be because she’s Khaine’s daughter though, as those same people haven’t done anything to stop the other from approaching me or Envy. Or you, I suppose.” Hope shrugged a bit.
“Still a bit of an overkill, but I won’t bother judging too harshly. Not my place really.” The two of them entered the room just as Karna was teleported there by the rings of her tower. The tower was here as well of course, and they were staying in this room only out of politeness. “Done with whatever you were doing?” He asked with the same smile that almost never seemed to leave his face.
Karna scoffed. “Envy, Hope, what have I always said should be the first thing you do after reaching immortality.”
“Create some countermeasure against time magic.” The two chorused together.
Time magic really started to flourish when mages became immortal, as any lower-ranked mages didn't have the power to properly utilize it in battle. Achieving a basic effect like stopping time took a lot of power, and actually worked a lot differently than most assumed. Even a rank 14 being wouldn't be able to actually stop the time of an entire universe, not to mention the multiverse, so the best they could do was to create a localized bubble of time that was stopped for others besides them. The more common method was to instead speed time for yourself to such an extent that everything else seemed to be standing still.
“Exactly. If you don’t, a single ‘Time Stop’ spell will be your doom.” She tossed a small charm to all three of them. "That's only a single-use temporary measure. You're going to have to figure out a more permanent solution on your own, which I assume you’re all capable of doing. Now, what’s the second thing you should always do?”
“Figure out a way to counter conceptual attacks/Figure out a way to counter ‘Contingency’-triggered spells.” This time the two didn’t agree and looked at each other in slight surprise.
Conceptual attacks were skills and spells that didn't necessarily attack you in a direct physical sense but were more akin to special abilities that some immortals had mastered. The Kensei Karna had fought back in the Higher Planes had a Domain that allowed her to make a conceptual attack that would always hit. Avoiding such conceptual attacks was rather difficult, though luckily few people were capable of executing them. Contingency was a meta magic ability that allowed the caster to trigger any spell or spells they had pre-cast and had in a ready state with some pre-determined trigger. Both could be extremely deadly and unpredictable, as any mage was theoretically capable of unleashing hundreds of spells on a moment's notice if they were sufficiently prepared.
“Both correct. As long as you’re with me, I can take care of contingencies. However, you won’t always be with me, so I want you to work on that. As for conceptual attacks…well, you’re shit out of luck there. What’s the third thing?” Karna smiled with some amusement at the situation, even if the topic was less than amusing.
The two women looked at each other with narrowed eyes before speaking together again. “Come up with a way to prevent yourself being instantly killed by divine bullshittery/miracles.” The two differed at the end, Hope being the more polite of the two, but they hummed a bit at their agreement, just now realizing how many lives the other must have spent with Karna to have these things drilled into their heads with such clarity.
“Exactly. There are plenty of hostile gods, and unfortunately, there's always a chance one of them decides to just sacrifice a large portion of their power to enact a simple miracle. A miracle that leaves us dead. Luckily such miracles are almost impossible to enact without knowing your target's exact location. That gives us a bit of time. In the meantime…" She tossed a bangle to each of them. The bangles were all carved with a complex magical formation that would redirect such miracles, depending on their exact nature. If the god aimed for them just dropping dead, then the bangle would work, but if they just summoned something like tribulation clouds, then there was little a bangle like this could do about it.
“Thanks. I assume you can take care of making our more ‘permanent measures’ if we provide the materials?” Envy confirmed. She was perfectly capable herself as she’d done so in many lives where Wrath was not present, but she also recognized her frenemy was better at it.
"If we find the time. Now, what have you managed to find out?" Karna didn't mind. She'd always enjoyed creating items. It was peaceful and gave her something to focus on for a time.
“There are currently five major houses involved in the politics of the divines, and about a dozen houses and faction on the brink of being counted as a major player. The royal house is the most prominent one, along with the titans and the dragons. The other two are human-centric groups, or at least the leaders of the two houses appear as humans. Both are led by fairly large coalitions of major True Gods. Perhaps unsurprisingly the two groups consist mainly of light and dark gods and their allies. Most of the factions on the brink of becoming major players are led by groups of gods unsatisfied by the two factions, and who don’t belong to any of the three big magical races.” Hope rattled off. This was largely what they had guessed even before arriving, but it was nice to get a confirmation.
“Then there are the factions that have traditionally kept away from the direct politics, but who are now getting involved for one reason or another.” Valor picked up the explanation. “The most obvious ones you already know, like the Host, Mount Celestis, the Devils, and the Golden Order. There are thousands of others though. It’s going to take a while to make sense of all of them.”
“You’re not going to make sense of all of them, because many of them don’t make sense.” Karna chided him a bit. "You have to remember that many of the factions, politics, and grudges are based on personal interests, potentially the personal interests of insane individuals mind you, and blood feuds that have lasted for so long that even the oldest immortals no longer remember the original cause. These things take a life of their own sometimes, and immortals often do certain things only to see what would happen. You should know we reincarnators especially aren’t the most stable individuals.”
“Fair enough, but we should at least try to get the lay of the land first.” Valor countered.
Envy interjected. “The problem is that the ‘lay of the land’ has been disturbed by both the approaching succession of the emperor, and the decree. Old allegiances might not be valid anymore.” She shrugged. “Honestly, most of the information we got is already hopelessly outdated. I think we need to try something drastic. I’m not happy about putting my fate in the hands of your mother, Wrath. Sorry about that.”
“No need to be sorry. I’ve been thinking the same. I won’t shun a potential ally like her, but if we don’t want to end up being used, we need another plan. And I think I have one. Ysendra mentioned two Nakshatra that were looking for me. I think we should seek them out. Just the two of them won’t swing things our way, even assuming we can gain their allegiance, but having two rank 14 beings in our corner even if all they’re willing to do is to loom over everyone would buy us a lot of room to maneuver. We also need to seek out Arjuna, Tsumi, and Tremere, assuming the last one wants to be found."
“I suggest we split our efforts.” Envy suggested. “You’ll try to use your mother’s connections to find our friends, while I’ll try to figure out a way to find the people Ysendra mentioned. I’ll probably need to borrow Gem and Zuellni though. Those two have the best chance of aiding me.”
“Fine. I’ll take Valor with me, and you two can take my tower. I’ve noted that you don’t exactly enjoy staying here.” Karna smirked a bit, knowing the two women were nearing the end of their patience.