Hector had prepared for the conflict. The Vermin hadn’t been told when it would happen but they’d known it would be soon. Those who could fight had been gathered into small armies and more specialized squadrons, while those who couldn’t had been moved to fortified locations.
There were uncountable benefits to being a seer, but today’s most useful one was being able to give directions well before the crisis hit. The Civil War would be resolved by claiming territory, and he already knew where the conflict points would be. He’d sent the commands into the Vermin’s system, and everyone was already moving.
This was very good, because he was going to need to watch Matches and probably also Snow.
Matches wasn’t going to get into too much trouble. She wasn’t going to work with him for long, but she still trusted him more than he probably deserved. Even unmonitored, she’d do her best; the issue was that her instincts were wrong. She led the Luminaries well, but she’d never learned how to handle the rest of Paradise. William hadn’t cared to teach her, and she’d never wanted to learn.
Matches was giving a very solid speech right now, and the odds of her screwing up were low. Soon, if things worked as planned, their people would be reunited. Hector wasn’t stupid enough to think that would go terribly well. Reintegration would be hard to begin with, and both sides would probably feel harmed by the other. But he couldn’t let them stay separate, because neither faction was an acceptable sacrifice to save the others. He didn’t like killing William’s loyalists, either, but it was them or the Vermin.
In any case, Matches would need his insights and warnings, or people would die. Unlike the Vermin, her situation was so unpredictable that he couldn’t prepare advice in advance.
Snow was mostly a luxury, a concession to the part of Hector that was still willing to admit he was a person. She was at risk for getting herself killed. People who were in crisis were unpredictable, and Snow was dealing with several dangerous revelations before the war began. Fortunately, for now she was just sitting sullenly in his office, flipping through the records aimlessly.
Technically, most of what she read was highly classified, but it wasn’t anything that would cause Hector any trouble. On the other hand, he probably should distract her. There were definitely some things in there that would make her breakdown worse.
“I need transportation, so you’re coming with me for the battle.” He said.
“And as a hostage against my Aunt.” Snow said.
“No.” Hector said, “If you want to stay with her you can, but you’ll do more good with me.”
“Why?” Snow asked.
“You’ve got one of the best movement abilities in our troops.” Hector said, “In addition, you’re more used to working with me than most of the alternatives. The Vermin never really got powerful abilities. We didn’t have the resources for proper training once William started culling, and I was too busty embezzling necessities to acquire training supplies and weaponry. Additionally, William was more likely to notice the absence of the weaponry. Of the Luminaries, you’re the only one who might be comfortable working with Thresher and Helen.”
“I don’t like her.” Snow huffed.
“You don’t like Thresher?” Hector asked, “That’s funny, I thought you liked her a lot.”
“You know who I meant.” Snow said, “How did the Vermin kill Luminaries if they didn’t have training?”
“There’s three questions there, and three answers.” Hector said, “Do you want to hear all of them?”
“Would I ask if I didn’t?” Snow said.
“The first answer is simple: When we had to, it was through ambushes or trickery.” Hector said, “Sufficient intel is more than enough to compensate for most abilities, if you have both numbers and surprise on your side. But that’s not why you think we won that much. Do you want to hear the other questions, or can you guess them?”
Snow frowned, staring into space, “Is one of the questions ‘how many Luminaries turned traitor’?”
“Yep.” Hector said, and grinned, “Or close enough. Do you want to hear the other one, or do you think you can guess it?”
Snow laughed bitterly, “How many Luminaries did William choose to sacrifice behind our backs?”
“Yes.” Hector said, “I haven’t calculated it for certain, but something like one Luminary ‘death’ in ten was actually managed by the Vermin.”
“How many did you manage to save?” Snow asked.
“Not enough.” Hector said, “More than I feared.”
“How did you stand it?” Snow demanded.
“I had to. What else could I do? Where else could I be? I couldn’t make a difference anywhere else.” Hector said, “Eris is a corpse goddess who would welcome her kingdom’s end as a kindness. K wasn’t nothing, but she couldn’t save us. The Reapers hadn’t noticed yet, and they wouldn’t save us in time. Their machines sealed themselves almost three weeks ago, and they won’t manage to fix them anytime soon. Until Thresher appeared, our best hope was that Matches would take down William after he exhausted himself fighting Eris. I needed to be here to ensure that, and contain the damage. I had to put up with it.”
If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
Snow sighed, “I’ll probably forgive you someday.”
“You don’t have to.” Hector said, “When you leave, please stay safe.”
“‘When’ I leave?” Snow asked, “Not ‘if I leave’?”
“Matches isn’t going to stay.” Hector said, “She’s spent long enough being controlled, and if she stays I will always be manipulating her. I can’t help it. Besides, K isn’t here.”
“So she’ll throw away everything she has to run into the arms of the love of her life.” Snow spat, “Wonderful.”
“No.” Hector said, “She’ll throw everything away because, except for you, she didn’t want any of it. You might be able to make her stay, but she’ll never be happy here.”
“Never is a very strong word.” Snow said.
“Does she look happy today?” Hector said, “Did she look happy last week, or last month? And that’s with you with her. Before that she was so much worse that even William could tell she was breaking! Matches isn’t fixating on K because she loves K. Matches probably does, but she’d be just as bad if K had only been a friend!”
“Talking about me, I see.” Matches said.
Somewhere during Hector’s rant, Matches had entered the room. Hector winced apologetically.
“Hector, I was going to tell you that I’d be leaving in three days.” Matches said, “But I see you didn’t need to be notified. Do you have a successor lined up yet?”
Hector grinned at her, “Not yet. I figured you’d want to take Snow, and finding someone both sides can agree on will be a nightmare.”
“Why can’t it be you?” Snow asked.
“The reason William is so powerful is his Flame.” Hector said, “Once we take it, he’ll be an entirely manageable threat, though we’ll have to deal with all the escaping angels afterwards. But the Flame will enhance our leader’s natural gifts, and Paradise will need power. William’s wrong about what threats we’re facing, but we are headed for trouble regardless. All I’d get from it is even better prophetic abilities, and that’s not going to be enough to protect us.”
“Do you know that?” Snow asked.
“At the minimum, that’s what my current powers say.” Hector said, “Worst case, I can temporarily take control, but I will need a replacement as soon as possible. Eris isn’t hostile, and the other Abysses can’t reach us yet, but we’re in for a lot of trouble. I can’t even tell what kind from this far out.”
They fell back into silence for a bit, before Matches looked at the map set up on the wall. Hector had already covered it with colored thumbtacks.
“Explain the diagram, please?” Matches asked.
“Certainly.” Hector said, “I’ve marked where we’re going to have to fight, where I’ve probably got under control, where the vermin forces are, and where we’re going to have potentially rampaging angels after we win. I can talk you through where your soldiers need to go, or you can figure it out yourself. Let me know what you’re planning, and I’ll tell you if there are any issues.”
“You’ll know anyways, won’t you?” Matches said, “Let’s talk it through together.”
---
By the time the planning and organization was done, it was nearly time to go. Hector was going to take Snow, Ashlyn, and Helen to run interventions. Helen wasn’t actually participating much in the battle. She might’ve regained consciousness and awareness, but she still seemed to be losing track of time. If Ashlyn hadn’t insisted on bringing her along, Hector would’ve left her behind.
Snow couldn’t contribute much other than keeping them moving, but that would be crucial. None of the reasons Hector had told her she needed to be up here were lies, but in truth, he wanted to keep her safe.
Early on, most of their contribution to the fight would be acting to intervene where the loyalist forces were managing to hold their ground in the open. Ashlyn would use her blood mist to heal their side and hurt the enemy, and her blood heart to drag enemies under and kill them. At the same time, Hector would throw spears down at key targets, and Helen would fire wildly at the enemy.
Fortunately, there would only be a few such battlefields. Unfortunately, that was because most of the battles would be indoors, where they couldn’t provide effective support until something major went wrong. More worryingly, Ashlyn apparently would enter some form of trance a few minutes in, losing herself in the flow of the battle and shock from the deaths.
After much too long, the first Angels would be unleashed. Hector had done everything he could to ensure the majority of the Angels were dealt with, but the experimental laboratories had their own stockpiles, and that wasn’t something he’d been able to cut off. To make matters worse, many of them had made their own prototypes of alternatives for the Metatron.
Before the project was truly viable, a half-dozen other synthetic “greater angel” projects had been in progress.
That was why Ashlyn would be needed here, and he would have Snow send them smashing into one after another. Even in her battle-trance, Ashlyn would be very efficient at breaking them free. The “Seraph”, the “Cherub”, even the “Nephil”, and the sixty or so bound angels he’d failed to remove from the equation, all of them would fall to her power.
Of course, once she shattered the bindings and ripped out the structures holding them together that still would leave free angels. Many of them would rampage, but evacuation should proceed smoothly for the Vermin and Luminaries, with minimal fatalities. Hector knew the odds were incredibly good that the rampaging angels would get distracted before they started causing serious problems, but he still worried a little.
On the bright side, more than a few of the fake angels would also be released. Well, fake wasn’t entirely accurate. A pure Angel could be sealed in a scroll and they’d have no issue with it, they lacked initiative in that way. But the fakes hadn’t been bound by William, and, for the most part, weren’t of Condemnation. Many of them wouldn’t do anything other than run off, but a few would turn on the Inquisition members who had released them.
The battle, the one he’d spent over two weeks or more planning, would take less than four hours, and he could loosely predict everything down to the fatality numbers. Well, that wouldn’t be entirely accurate.
By then, the Flame would have been transferred to Matches, but there would still be rampaging angels to deal with. It would be time to send Ashlyn back, though. The true cleanup would take a while, but it wasn’t a job for armies or outsiders.