Wissel looked down at his letter: Invitation to the Arikan International Congress. This was Arascus’ meeting. Impressive, Wissel thought there would have been some sort of diplomatic incident if the God decided to come to Epa.

Anassa looked down at the measly bowl of fruit in the mess hall. It was a travesty of a sight, with small tangerines and bananas and peaches. Nothing like the bright oranges that grew in the Jungle. She sighed and picked one up, then disappeared.

Another Anassa, walking in between various storehouses that constituted workshops, hefted her palm up and caught a tangerine that appeared in her grasp. Kassandora had sent her here, Kassandora and Arascus, to inspect what was happening and to help with some mechanical project. And also that under Kassandora’s new strategy, battles were rarer. Sokolowski’s front had started to slowly trundle north against no resistance. The battle with Waeh had put a massive dent in Fortia’s forces but the advantage was not to be pressed too much.

Zalewski’s front, which Anassa had spent two weeks in before she had been sent off to wherever here was, was more fluid. Fer pestered Maisara’s Paladins every day, the removal of those kitsune also meant the removal of the White Pantheon’s early warning system. The casualties were starting to slowly pile up, a dozen men here, another dozen there. With one side outfitted with modern rifles, the fights changed into hunts. Fer’s beastmen and Zalewski’s skirmishers would stalk and guide squads of Paladins into ambushes, from which no one returned.

At first it was going well enough. Anassa only had to show up when a full team of mages was present. She would appear in the air, red dress and black hair and all, and shatter whatever magical defences they were trying to put up. Then Ekkerson managed to score a small victory without relying on Olephia. He had put snipers up, and the mages fell before they were even in seeing distance. Kassandora had received that report, then Zalewski got the instructions.

And so, Iliyal’s elves finally got a job to do. Assigned to Zalewski’s front, and made to snipe mages from afar. They didn’t have to kill entire teams, they simple had to pick one off as the magicians sat around a campfire. Another one when they were on a trek. A third when they were flying. And Maisara’s tactics changed. Now her magicians always had a shield about them, they would rotate individuals to keep it up, but it effectively destroyed the largest advantage magic had; movement and speed. Now, Zalewski’s rarely even saw mages, and if they did, it was simply a sign to leave the area for a day.

And so the progress went from ‘well enough’ to ‘good’. And, presumably, Zalewski sent a report, Kassandora saw Anassa was doing nothing again, and the Goddess of War found something for her sister to do. Anassa scowled as she tore the tangerine skin off and threw it onto the dusty sandy ground of the industrial complex. It was near the coast, some two hours drive north-west of Nanbasa. An old bankrupt engine-parts factory, one that had relied on the mines that were now being opened back up after being reclaimed from the Jungle, now retooled into a garage for producing vehicles of war.

And Anassa was supposed to inspect it.

The Goddess of Sorcery scowled again and ate her tangerine. She took a deep breath as the engineer’s voice returned to an audible volume, she had honestly blanked out as the man was talking about the specifications of some stupid artillery vehicle called the Lemur Mark Two. “Goddess Kassandora has informed me to show you this.”

Anassa spat a seed of the fruit out and stopped as they came to a stop before a huge warehouse. This compound had obviously been freshly built, only two of the buildings here looked as if they stood any longer than a few months. Two large red-brick structures with tall smokestacks and the sounds of steel being cut and forge-fires roaring from within them. The Kirinyaans working here all had dirty clothes plastered with soot and oil, but Anassa had not seen that face that revealed silent complaints yet.

Instead, every man working here carried himself with a purpose. Flags of Kirinyaa hung on every building, and there were more than a few of Kassandora’s banners too. A white blade on a red background, outlined with black. Most of the men wore green armbands too, something something Reclamation War. Anassa did not really care what they meant. Another Anassa appeared next to her and disappeared to fetch another tangerine. They weren’t anything stellar, but they weren’t terrible either. “Well then?” Anassa waved her hand.

The other Anassa once again made men freeze up as she appeared in the middle of the mess hall, lowered down to the ground, and grabbed another tangerine from the bowl. She disappeared again.

“It can output more than three thousand horsepower into-“ Anassa’s ears tuned the man’s voice out. She should have listened to him when he had introduced himself by name. But she didn’t think it important then and now she was too stubborn to admit a failing.

Anassa started to pick the fruit’s bright orange skin open as the engineer started to explain in his language of technical gibberish. “Be quiet.” Anassa said as she threw a piece of the fruit into her mouth. “Just show me, I’m not here to give opinions on how powerful your horses are.” The man merely blinked in confusion, surprise and annoyance.

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“Of course Goddess. My apologies. I’ll open the hangar doors right now.” He made his tone polite, but it was obvious he was insulted. Anassa merely smiled, spat another small seed out onto the red dirt and waited as the man disappeared through a human-scale door. She turned around and sighed.

What was this inspection even about? She had seen the Lemur Mark Twos. They looked much like the original models, the only difference was a slight change in the main turret, and the addition of a machine gun for the driver’s assistant. Then she had seen something Arascus had named and ordered himself: a tank prototype. That was only the official name though and some other engineer, Anassa had not listened to that man’s introduction either, explained that it was just to fool anyone into thinking they weren’t producing heavy armour.

So an update for the Lemur and a tank that wasn’t a water tank. Anassa had thought she was needed here at first, couldn’t Kassie have just come herself? Couldn’t these engineers have written a report? Maybe they didn’t know how to write? But didn’t a man have to be literate to be an engineer? Or, better yet, couldn’t literally anything have changed for Anassa not to be here? She scowled at a group of men who were looking at her and they quickly disappeared to tinker beneath a truck.

A pair of helicopters set off in the distance, towards the south. Anassa sighed. Couldn’t have she been sent to help Arascus instead? At least he was fun to spend time with, and he could be teased. All the engineers were simply afraid of her, no one so much as wanted to say one word wrong when she was around. How did Fer do it? Frankly, Anassa didn’t believe her that these men knew how to talk and tell jokes.

The huge hangar doors started to slide open with a terrible racket. The sound was so great and annoying it practically forced Anassa to stuff the rest of the tangerine into her mouth and eat it. And it opened slowly too! Anassa waited, maybe Fer would have ducked to look underneath it. Kavaa was short enough to where she could squeeze through even if it was a mouse’s hiding hole, but Anassa waited. She stood and waited. And waited. This would go into her report. What sort of machinery was Kassandora working with if it took an entire minute for the doors to open? What sort of…

Anassa’s thoughts trailed off as she saw what had been built. Little Kassie was lovely, little Kassie was intelligent and brilliant, but little Kassie was a damn liar! If Anassa had known of the purpose of this trip, she wouldn’t have turned up!

In the middle of the room was a vehicle. Something that looked very much like the Binturong chassis, but without a cannon on its rear. Simply two treads with a small cabin that barely popped up out of the front. A gun was mounted on it, with space for whoever operated it to hide behind steel barriers. But that would been merely curious, or maybe disappointing, or just annoying. Frankly, Anassa would have not cared whatever the purpose of his vehicle was if it didn’t have one prominent feature that dominated the spot where a turret should have been mounted.

No, instead of a turret was a huge glass ball, perfectly clear but with the inside being filled with a labyrinthian mess of wires. A crystal was mounted inside, empty and quiet now, but Anassa knew exactly what it was. They had been used in the past, to generate huge barriers that covered thousands of men from artillery and magical fire. Two would be enough to cover one of Kassandora’s divisions.

And this type of shield was something created by Anassa herself. There was a magical equivalent, somewhat weaker in return for being easier to mass produce, but Arascus’ armies only access to mages were Elassa’s untrustworthy turn cloaks. Sorcerers though, they had easy access to through Anassa.

But that was the past. Now, Arascus army had less than fifty sorcerers. And under Kassandora’s guidance, it pained Anassa to admit the fact that fifty men were more effective than one of her. Even with creating copies of herself, she couldn’t be in fifty battles at the same time.

And Anassa stared up at that crystal. “Goddess Kassandora said to give you this letter.” The engineer brought out a letter, the envelope smeared with a fingerprint of dirty oil from the man’s hand. Anassa sighed, she waved her hand, the paper launched out of the man’s hand. The envelope was shredded in the air by thin knives Anassa conjured up, and then hovered before her eyes:

Anassa! Dear sister! Anassa already hated that tone. She could practically hear Kassandora through the handwriting, blocky and efficient, her sister sounded exceptionally smug. Most likely cackling at how she had managed to trick Anassa. We’re developing bubbles again. I know you hate doing that. :) Why was there a stupid smile drawn on there? Why Kass? We both know I wouldn’t send you off to do manual labour. Anassa’s face darkened and the engineers who were working around the vehicle all seemed to shrink and hide. And I wouldn’t send a princess such as you to dirty your fingers of course :^) And this smiley face had a stupid fucking nose drawn on. Why? Kassandora was definitely cackling in laughter right now, no doubt. But since you’re there, charge it up. Classic Kass, such a smug tone followed up by a direct order. Where was the please? Where was the thank you?

If it was Arascus who told her, Anassa would do it. If Kassandora had come herself, Anassa would do it. But neither told her, instead it was a letter she didn’t even have the decency to send herself! What great crimes did Anassa even do to deserve a sister like this? She looked at the letter again and turned it to shreds. The engineer saw Anassa’s face and stepped away. If she knew she was going to be expending energy, she would have put something thicker on. Silken dresses like the red one she wearing now stained with sweat easily.

Anassa sighed and turned to the vehicle. “This is to be charged up.” She said loudly to all the engineers in the building, but not to any of them in particular. No one answered so Anassa spoke again. “Understood?”

This time she got a choir of replies. “Understood Goddess!” That engineer who led Anassa here came up to her.

“What do you want?” Anassa snapped. Now that there was work to be done, she wasn’t in any mood for another session of the man’s technical sophistries.

“There’s nine more in the back.”