The Hunters have not replied… again.

Do you think it was them that downed out drones?

Who else?

Great. Anarchia in the West and now Guguo wants to start acting up. Send more drones, atmospheric ones this time. If they want to hide themselves, we’ll just go so high they can’t reach us.

- Interception of transmission between Karainan authorities.

Maisara sat in front of Kassandora as the two Goddesses stared at each other in silence. Kassandora leaned back, crossed her arms and flicked her crimson hair back. Maisara pretended not to be bothered, the two inches the Goddess of War had over her shouldn’t be this bothersome, but those eyes stared down at her in the same way Allasaria’s did. “I would have not come were it not for Fortia.”

“You’re smart enough to know why I wanted to talk to you.” Kassandora said coldly. Maisara didn’t reply, she just readjusted her posture. From her stomach down, she was covered in bandages. Fortia was almost healed by now, but Fortia didn’t take the brunt of Allasaria’s blow. Maisara avoided the other Goddess’ eyes and looked around the prison.

Nothing, just a bed, this table, two chairs, all simple wood. Grey stone walls, all reinforced with steel. A single lamp and the containment crystal in the middle. Freeing Kassandora would be as easy as simply knocking that stone over.

“I do.” Maisara said. “But you know exactly why I don’t want you to be freed.”

“War is a tool, I think you’ll find I’m not so hard to work with.” Kassandora replied.

“Spare me the cooing Kass.”

“Everyone likes being buttered up.”

“I’m not particularly in the mood.” Maisara replied and sighed. “Why? Why do you want to join us?”

“I don’t know Mai, why would I want to be free?” Kassandora replied flatly. Maisara merely shook her head.

“Tell me what you know and I’ll think about it.” She said and Kassandora crossed her arms. Maisara tried to hide her discontent, it was one thing to be less lovely than the Goddess of Love, it was another entirely for the Goddess of War to have a larger armoury than the Goddess of Order.

“No.” Kassandora said. “Promise me no word of this discussion will leave this room.”

“You know what promises do to me.” Maisara replied.

“I know you’re the Goddess of Order, yes.” Kassandora said. “Why would I ether discuss business with fickle Peace over stable and honest Order?” Maisara’s sigh voiced her displeasure again.

“You’re no less fickle than Peace is.” Kassandora leaned forwards and spread her arms out.

“But it’s better for me to be on your side than Allasaria’s.”

“Allasaria won’t take you.” Maisara said and Kassandora laughed.

“You’ll be surprised how popular I am.” Maisara shook her head. That wasn’t a lie either, of the White Pantheon, only Kavaa and Iniri were directly opposed to Kassandora. The forces weren’t ideological in their relationships, but all the abstracts were far fonder of War than they’d want to admit. Maisara herself wasn’t even opposed to Kassandora, the women was merely a fact of life. Like a disease. There was no reason to hate disease, simply deal with it. She closed her eyes: what was a vaccination? Merely a disease made to fight another disease. “If you don’t free me, then when we finally see your precious Pantheon, Helenna will free me to protect herself.”

“Helenna can’t do anything.” Maisara replied and Kassandora laughed.

“Love is easy to blind.” Maisara shook her head.

“You do have a way with words.” Kassandora bowed her head.

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“I try.”

“I’ll need a backup plan.”

“Battles are won before they’re started. Of course you do.” Kassandora flicked that crimson hair again.

“For you I mean, I need a way to make sure you don’t betray us.” Kassandora shrugged.

“You free me, I’ll be tied to you, we’ll be on the same team, is that not insurance enough?”

“Civil wars do happen.”

“I’m too old for them.” Maisara shook her head. The woman had a damn reply for everything and anything.

“I don’t believe you.”

“I’m older than you by at least an Age. The term simply did not exist back then.” Kassandora said and Maisara felt her eyebrow twitch. The Goddess of War kept up her assault. “Part of your foundation is a lack of war.”

“Thanks for the reminder.”

“I don’t consider you a naïve girl Maisara. We both know that once we form, we’re eternal. If the world ends tomorrow, as long as there’s people around, they’ll be clambering for Order and they’ll use War to achieve that.” Kassandora said.

“You should have been a scholar.” Maisara said flatly, it wasn’t a compliment. Kassandora merely waited. “I need proper insurance, something you’ll give me to show respect.”

“Do you want a salute or a rank?” Kassandora asked. “I give nothing because there’s nothing to give.” Maisara leaned back and sighed. That much was true. Kassandora had too much will to be collared, even heretical slave-brands would reject her.

“I will not promise to free you.” Maisara said slowly, choosing her words carefully. Another cursed promise, she hated promises. Promises to mortals at least eventually expired, old age would eventually claim them if nothing else did. “But… I can promise, regarding this issue, I will not say anything to anyone in the White Pantheon, for ten years.” Kassandora crossed her arms and smiled again. Of course she’d be popular with a chest like that!

“No.”

“No?” Maisara said.

“Not good enough. Regarding this issue is the problem, that stipulation is too easy to sidestep.”

“I’m not binding myself to you for eternity!” Maisara slammed the table.

“You will not repeat the words we say here to anyone, nor communicate them in any way to anyone who isn’t me or yourself.”

“That’s a binding!” Maisara shouted. The Goddess of War followed up without even a pause for breath.

“It ends when the words become common knowledge among the majority of the mortal population, or when Allasaria dies.” Kassandora added.

“When the ideas we spout become common knowledge, not the words.” Maisara said. Kassandora thought for a moment and shrugged.

“If that’s the way you want to phrase it, then phrase it that way.”

“Words could be literal and…” Kassandora waved her hand.

“Don’t explain yourself to me. I trust you.” Maisara did not know if that was a lie or not. She certainly did not trust Kassandora. She took a breath and made the promise. Word for word, exactly as they had agreed upon. “Just so you know, I also promise not to say a single lie throughout this conversation.” Kassandora said.

“So what did you want to tell me?”

“One, you cannot kill Allasaria with just you and Fortia.” Maisara rolled her eyes.

“I made a binding just for that?”

“My help tips the balance slightly in our favour, but any assistance to Allasaria tips it back.” Maisara stared flatly at the woman. She was really just tricked for only this? This is what trust brought. “Those words, I do not consider part of the promise, they are already common knowledge.”

“Thank you.” Maisara said, slightly taken aback.

“I assume you want to use something based off the Fading Light plan, yes?”

“How do you know that?”

“I was on the same team as two of the participants a thousand years ago. Knowing you, you wouldn’t have thrown it away.” Kassandora clicked her tongue. “And it seems like I was right.”

“We do.”

“It won’t work, Irinika is crucial component to that. Don’t throw your lives away for nothing.”

“Get to the fucking point Kass. I’ve already given you what I can.”

“Contact Arascus, he will help you.” Maisara blinked as her hands twitched.

“Arascus is dead.” Maisara felt the blood start to drain from her face. Impossible. She saw Kassandora’s red eyes glow as if they were burning. For a timeless moment, the Goddess before her looked like the terrible General she was a thousand years ago. Kassandora stood up and did a cursed salute. One that no one should even know about, one that had been written out of the history books.

“Arascus adopted me as a daughter.” She laughed like a maniac. “Do you think that the Goddess of War would have not disappeared in the most peaceful age of existence? There comes a point when words become delusion. I am not delusional Maisara? Is a conversation war? Is an argument war? Let’s not play pretend philosophy as if we know what we’re talking about. War has not been fuelling me these past thousand years, it was Pride.”

“Arascus is locked in Godstone Kassandora. He’s grown weaker with Waeh about! He cannot break out! He must be dead!”

“Not from the inside and not him.” Kassandora looked at her with all the delusional prideful confidence Arascus held back in the day when they finally captured him. “Arascus, God of Pride, is free. Or I am not Kassandora, Goddess of War.”

“Are you certain?”

“The bonds of family are stronger than you’ll ever know. There’s a reason it became a taboo after he started us on.” Kassandora’s smile was so lovely it would have put Helenna’s to shame. “But I’m not against taking on a new sister.” Maisara shook her head as she collapsed into her arms on the table. The pain from the wounds seemed to fade away as she did her best to dig herself out of the pit of shock.

“How do you know?” Kassandora was just delusional. That was the answer. That made sense.

“Family knows family.” Kassandora said. “Each of us knows the general state of the rest. Every single one of us knows that he is free.”

“I’ll ask Anassa!” Maisara shouted. Kassandora merely looked down upon her like a child.

“Go ahead. Do you think the Goddess whose sorcery is all tied to bloodlines would break a familial vow?”