Wissel took the microphone as he looked into the cameras. Iliyal had told him that Operation Speartip would be initiated soon, and that he should prime the population of Doschia for it. Jozef had already given a speech in Lubska about it. That one hadn’t even been too radical, and the White Pantheon remained silent, all that happened was they got an official statement that the war was in fact going well, and that KTV should not be believed to be a reliable source.

Wissel sighed, he had a script prepared already, but as the words started to flow, he made a show of crumpling the paper and throwing it behind him. It was as if a dam had burst within him, finally a decision was being made without Divine consultation. “…And so, the people of Doschia wish for an end to the war. Doschia takes a hard stand against the invasion of Kirinyaa. All tithe shall be stopped whilst the war goes on and the Kingdom of Doschia announces an end to the embargo over Arika.”

He took a deep breath and smiled. He had been the ruler of this for more than half his life, and yet this felt like the first time he made a real decision. “We pray that the Divine Mountain will listen to us, because there will be consequences to this relentless massacre.” The screen behind him changed to a picture of Melukal ablaze.

Wissel left the stage and let the cameras focus on that tragic image.

“I still can’t believe you’re healing her.” Iniri sat down into a comfortable chair that had just grown out of the wall. A bulbous round thing, hanging on by a thick branch, as Iniri touched it, it started to lift, so that she could kick her into the air. “Not in my thousands, would I ever believe you would.”

“Neither did I.” Kavaa said as she wiped sweat off her forehead. The amount of times Iniri saw Kavaa exert herself like that, she could count on one hand. And half of those times had been since they met Kassandora, Lady Health’s well of ever-life seemingly did have a bottom. Kavaa leaned back down, dull grey hair falling past her as she placed her hand on Baalka’s chest once again.

The little Goddess of Disease had been asleep ever since they got out of the Jungle, she had not moved, not even stirred once. She lay there on her back, half hidden by the covers. Her hair was a terrible colouring, a green so dark it was almost black, the colour could only be seen when the light flashed against it. And Kavaa, Goddess of Health, was over her in the usual black uniform. Iniri sat in her own, it was almost…

Well actually, it was nothing like the White Pantheon. The hierarchy here was stricter in aspects, but looser in others. There wasn’t a single Allasaria who commanded everything, but no one would talk back to Kassandora’s Order, no one questioned Anassa on what she was doing to her sorcerers. Fer’s beastmen were untouchable by anyone but their Goddess, Olephia was the most powerful of them all, and she was merely being used as a brick wall to stall out Zerus and Sceo.

And then Kassandora had told Iniri to build them a fortress. She had phrased it rather nicely, but it was still an order, Allasaria could also phrase orders nicely. But then when Iniri had finished and Kassandora had gone to inspect there, there was no complaining. No argument about how a certain wall was too high, or how the stairs were the wrong way, or anything trite. Kassandora had returned with a list of platforms she wanted for heavy artillery, and then told Iniri she did a good job.

And that was it.

Iniri smiled to herself as her mind replayed that memory. When was the last time she had been told she did a good job by another Divine? There had been that time when they won the Great War, but that had been a general pat on the back for everyone, no for her specifically. “Did Kass ask you to?” Iniri said to Kavaa, who was still breathing heavily. Her eyes and hands were glowing as they poured more magic into Baalka.

“No.” Kavaa replied. “Oh I guess she did.” She pulled away, her legs collapsed and she tumbled forwards onto Baalka’s legs. The Goddess of Health rolled onto her back and sighed as she looked up at the ceiling of the room. It was a small thing, in the grand oak Iniri had grown specifically to house Divines. All the furniture was part of the room, the only thing not fixed was the sole chair in the corner. That had been grown on a branch, then snapped off. “She said I can try, but if she was me, she wouldn’t bother.”

“So you’re bothering?” Iniri asked.

“I want to.” Kavaa said and Iniri nodded as she kicked her legs again through the air.

“Why?” Iniri asked.

“I don’t know, I…” Kavaa looked over at Baalka by her side and tried sitting up. “At one point, I was coping and telling myself it’s for training but…” She trailed off.

“But you don’t need training.” Iniri laughed and Kavaa laughed.

“I suppose not.” She said. “But I think it’s because I want to do it for Kass?” Her voice sounded as if she was questioning herself. “Or maybe for myself? I’ve never had a disease I couldn’t heal. This is the first one.”

“It could just be because it is her.” Iniri said. She didn’t know if she liked Baalka or not. There was that sense of respect she had from the Great War, and she had met Baalka a few times before it started, they even had one minor war against each other. That one ended when other Divines came in and told Baalka to stay down and not poison the world. But… well, Baalka simply did not sit right with her. Iniri was the Goddess of Nature, there was no reason for her to find the Goddess of Disease friendly.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“I don’t think it’s her.” Kavaa said as she stretched her arms above her head. “There’s just something odd I can’t touch.”

“You can’t touch?” Iniri asked.

“Not at all.” Kavaa answered. “It’s as if her soul is cut off from the rest of the world. As if…” Kavaa stopped. “I can reach in, then there’s just nothing, then she is there behind that, but I can’t get through the nothing.”

“Ah.” Iniri said. She knew Kavaa well enough to understand more or less how the woman’s powers worked. The touch needed to be there.

“So you need to get across the nothing?” Iniri said.

“Mmh.” Kavaa answered. “But I can’t.”

“But it’s nothing.”

“I know.” Kavaa replied, her voice still that cool speech Iniri wished she could have. Kassandora had it too, she and Kavaa never let their emotions get into their voice. “But…”

“So you need help.” Iniri said, she leaned forwards and put her face into her arms. “Someone who can get across that.”

“Someone to get into that in the first place.” Kavaa said. “I can’t drag people into that, I’m not Elassa.” A root turned and twisted in Iniri’s mind. A flower jumped out of the ground, and she stared at Kavaa. Wasn’t the answer simply obvious? Wasn’t there a person they had access to with the power to enter soul realms? In fact, didn’t they have two?

“Kavaa.” Iniri said slowly.

“Hmm?” Kavaa said.

“What about the two here?”

“Two what?”

“Neneria and Anassa.” Kavaa’s arms fell as she sat up in a smooth motion, grey eyes met Iniri’s large brown ones as Kavaa’s mouth dropped open in shock.

“Why didn’t I think of that?” She asked and Iniri shrugged.

“We’re not in the Pantheon anymore, we can ask.” Iniri’s eyes travelled to the window as one of her trees called out in the distance. She jumped off her chair and called upon the tree around on instinct. The floor curled and moved, it caught Iniri and then moved with her to get to the circular window. Those had been simply panes of glass that were buried at the roots and then dragged upwards by the wood itself. There was still enough in the ground for this tree to have another few dozen rooms installed. “Kavaa.” Iniri said.

“What?” Kavaa stood up immediately, she took slow steps and shook the exhaustion off herself.

“Do I see that?” Iniri said.

“I see trees and the clouds.” Kavaa said. “You’re looking over the horizon.” Iniri grabbed onto her power, her hair started to swirl in the air and her hand touched the wall. The bark immediately wrapped around her fingers, they pierced her skin and Iniri felt her blood seep into the fortress. Her senses joined the tree, her nerves sent lightning into the roots, the roots carried it to the roots of the other buildings, the tall towers outside, the four protective walls Iniri had grown from the ground, into the wild roots of the trees, through bushes and grass and ferns and trees, until she came to a river wide enough for nothing to grow under it.

And Iniri looked as far as she could. She saw men rise into the air. She heard the thunderous boom of sound barriers being broken. Steel birds, painted black, with the white and red emblem of the KAL painted over them, shot overheard. Their bombs started to drop, whining with a high pitched scream.

A blue beam erupted from behind trees. It caught one bomb, simply incinerated the explosive without even blowing it up, then the blue light curled into a ball. It hovered for a second, then exploded with spikes in all directions. Every other bomb the planes had dropped disappeared just like that.

More explosions sounded from above. The single thunderous clap of sound as the sound barrier gave way. And more bombs dropped. They screamed, another blue beam caught about half of them, and the rest managed to reach the ground. They exploded with a breath brighter than dragonfire, and made that vicious black smoke that drew a black across the cloudy sky.

The winds started to pick up, tearing leaves off branches and branches off trees. It spun and spun until a tornado formed, then the tornado grew higher and higher, until it started to push the clouds away. Planes immediately turned to retreat back into the safety of their smokescreens, and then a blast of blue light once again erupted from the ground.

It managed to touch the back of one black plane. The engines exploded with a colour of flame the same as the napalm, and it too left a black scar across the now-clear blue sky. But this was aimed down, the plane fell until it disappeared behind a tree, and Iniri heard the boom. Maybe ancient archmages were capable of such power, but they had long died out in the era of Pantheon Peace. Now, there was precisely one being in existence who could make those blue beams of pure mana.

Iniri’s gaze immediately retreated back to CR as she searched for Kassandora. The woman was sitting in her office reading through papers. Iniri had to stop and blink for a moment. She had never considered herself a prying type, but Kassandora was Kassandora, and Kassandora was interesting. And yet there had not been a single time Iniri had managed to catch Kassandora doing something... something which wasn’t work. The most she got to indulgence was when she poured herself a glass of whiskey.

“Kass!” Iniri said. The wood carried her voice, a sunflower sprouted in the middle of Kassandora’s office and spoke for Iniri.

Kassandora looked up, saw the sunflower, and then scanned the rest of the room. “Iniri.” She said. “It’s like Anassa this.” She said and tutted. “What?”

“Elassa is fifty miles north west.” Kassandora gently put the paper back down. Iniri couldn’t contain herself, and looked from the ceiling. It was merely a bunch of statistics from Zalewski’s frontline. Kassandora sighed and nodded.

“I know.” She said eventually.

“You do!?” Iniri asked. Kassandora smiled at the sunflower and made a humoured face.

“Do you know who I am? Of course I know.” She said. “Orders are already out, lemurs are firing in fifteen minutes, we’re raising shields in an hour from now, or if she comes close then immediately.”

“Oh.” Iniri said. She was glad the sunflower did not have a face so Kassandora couldn’t see the stupid expression she knew she was making. They were under attack. The Goddess of Magic was that close! She was coming with a force unheard of, even in the Great War, mages could number up to a thousand per army, not this… How did Kassandora remain so calm? And she wasn’t raising shields immediately? She was planning to shell them first? What?!

“Is everything fine?” Kavaa asked. Oh. Kavaa was here too. Iniri had forgotten.

“Yes.” Iniri replied, her voice dazed and flat. “We’re about to be attacked by thirty thousand mages led by the Goddess of Magic, but yes. Everything is fine, Kass has it under control.”