Planning is a waste of time and resources. Too much planning, and a man will think himself into the most cursed form of stagnation imaginable. Worst of all, his overthinking will make him want to reside in it. The constant questioning caresses the ego, and makes one feel accomplished mentally even though no material action has been done. On the other hand, a lack of planning is stupidity and laziness. To not consider events that could potentially happen is to destroy whatever chance one has at success. In the same way our eyes can see ahead of us, our minds should be able to predict what is going to happen in the immediate future. I have no other comment about those who entirely reject the notion of planning.

In this regard, the most important skill is perseverance. Perseverance through hardship is one thing, but this has to be perseverance through nihilism. The most important skill of the men I select to lead to my armies is the ability to spend countless hours on an idea, and be prepared to throw it away at a moment’s notice. It is this that ultimately separates a person who controls plans, to one who is controlled by plans.

- Excerpt from “The Philosophy of War”, written by Goddess Kassandora, of War.

Kassandora watched the city of Nanbasa disappear under a layer of clouds through the window of Arascus’ private jet. A comfortable thing, almost too comfortable for her, but Arascus had always been one for taking the extra step in luxury. It was constructed to be large enough for Fer and the God of Pride, which meant that everyone else had more than enough head-room. With soft couches that gave plenty of room for bags underneath and the pretty red Kirinyaan wood for furniture and a bar with a drink for every Divine allied to him. That meant every alcohol under the Sun was represented here.

Kassandora stirred her whiskey as she turned back to the Divines she had brought with her. Fer sat opposite, taking up a whole couch, one leg lying on it, the other on the ground. She was tapping away on her phone. Iniri was next to Kassandora, quietly looking down. Kassandora didn’t even need to ask why the woman was nervous, she was on a plane with herself, with Fer, and with Anassa, who was tasting every wine Arascus had put on the plane. Kavaa was sat next to Iniri, turned around and also looking out the window.

“I assume you want to know what we’re doing.” Kassandora said. Anassa was the one who would have to be made happy, everyone else here knew how to follow orders.

“Not really.” Fer replied, not even looking away from her phone. Kassandora gave her no response, she saw Anassa smile in satisfaction at Fer’s comment. Sometimes, of Beasthood really was the best out of them at managing the group. “But what?” Fer said. She put the phone down on the small table between the couches, she had been looking at pictures of Kirinyaan wildlife.

“Long story short, the geological scanners Helenna had ordered from Rilia have been installed.” Kassandora pulled her bag out from underneath her seat. In one quick movement, she brought out a map from that black bag. Of Kirinyaa, with plenty of red lines in the west. “This is where my teams have started scouting the region.”

Fer sat up as Anassa came over with a glass full of wine in one hand, and a bottle in the other. Kavaa turned from the window, moved her glass of gin and tonic away as Iniri looked down. Kassandora gave the Goddess of Nature a second to figure out what she was looking at, if anyone should be able to, it would be her.

Kavaa beat her to it. “That’s roots.”

“It does look like that.” Fer agreed.

“I think so too.” Iniri said quietly. Kassandora took a deep breath as she pointed to the end of the roots, deeper into Kirinyaa than even the furthest point the Jungle had reached, before the Reclamation War had even started.

“This is not the end.” Kassandora said. “This is just where we’ve scanned up to, the ground radars only scan about thirty miles from them.”

“That does make sense.” Iniri said.

Kassandora raised an eyebrow. It made sense now? Why wasn’t she told of this before then? “How?” The Goddess of War asked.

“These types of jungle trees tend to have shallow roots that spread far.” Iniri said. “Of course, it’s about scale, the Jungle itself is massive, and if it’s a deity then it should be to…” Iniri looked around at Fer, at Kassandora and at Anassa staring at her and trailed off. “I mean… sorry, I didn’t want to overload you with information.”

“Continue.” Fer said. “You have a nice voice.” If Kassandora and Fer were alone, Kassandora would have given the woman a thumbs up. Some people really did know how to keep others happy.

“Anything could be important, no matter how small you think it is.” Kassandora said.

“Well…” Iniri said. “The roots tend to be weak too. It’s not like Epan trees, which will split rock and cement. It’s more that they find openings, soft dirt and such, and burrow into it.”

“Like rabbits.” Fer said.

“Brilliant.” Anassa added dryly to Fer’s comment. The Goddess of Beasthood looked up smugly at Of Sorcery, as if she had just made a revolutionary statement.

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

“I see.” Kassandora said. That did in fact make sense, the odd patterns in the roots then would be were the roots had found openings.

“Sit up.” Anassa said as she looked at Fer. The Goddess of Beasthood looked up at her and made a pleading face, golden vulpine eyes large like those of a begging puppy’s. The two tall ears, shooting out of her mane of gold settled pleadingly on her head. “I’ll sit on you.” Anassa said flatly. In an instant, all the pleading cuteness disappeared out of Fer and was replaced with annoyance. She made a sigh, and then a grand show of having to sit up. Anassa practically fell down next to her, the wine splashed out of her glass, was caught with sorcery, and then floated back in.

“Sitting like this is bad for my back.” Fer said as she leaned over the table, her eyes bouncing about. She made a confused face.

“I want to get to one of these roots.” Kassandora said. “I assume this is how the Jungle spreads.”

“Why do you think that?” Kavaa asked from the other side of Iniri.

“The trees don’t have any seeds.” Kassandora said. “We saw it when we went in that time. Yet they still grow, so they must be growing out of something.”

“Why do you need me then?” Anassa asked.

“Or me?” Fer added dryly, although she obviously did not think too deeply on the question.

“Because I don’t know whether the roots will fight back.” Kassandora answered honestly. There was no reason to hide it from these two. Kavaa was here for the same reason, because Iniri may get hurt.

Of Nature turned from the map and looked up at Kassandora. Those two large brown eyes made terrible circles. “Fight back?”

“Fight back.” Kassandora said. “I want to collect the Jungle’s seeds.” The whole cabin looked at her in shock, the whole cabin but Fer, who was still looking at the map, chewing her lip.

Kavaa, from the other side of Iniri, only flatly stared at Kassandora. “You want to collect the Jungle’s seeds.” She repeated the words in a terribly flat tone, not as a question, but as a statement. “Why?”

“It doesn’t have to be the seeds.” Kassandora said. “But I want a part of the Jungle that grows.”

“That’s why you need me?” Iniri said. “I can’t talk to it.”

“You can’t talk to the wood that is in the Jungle.” Kassandora said. “But we don’t know if you can talk to the wood that outside of the Jungle.”

“Like a phonecall, only one person allowed at a time.” Fer said idly, her eyes were still looking at the map. “Kassie, do you have a pen?”

“Here.” Kassandora passed her a blue one out of her map. Fer bit the cap off and started tracing lines on the map. “But as Fer said, we don’t know if it’s the trees themselves that are resistant to you, or if it’s that the trees are already beholden to a deity.”

“That does make sense actually.” Kavaa said from the other of Iniri. “How some blessings are incompatible with each other.” Anassa merely watched them, got bored, leaned back, and re-filled her glass with wine. “But still, why?”

“Ihon Knotweed satchels.” Kassandora said. “We used them in the Great War.”

“That we did.” Anassa said.

“That you did.” Kavaa said. “They were annoying but not devastating.”

“Really not so bad.” Iniri said. Of course the woman would say that, she could talk to plants.

“Knotweed doesn’t beckon you forth though, does it?” Kassandora said.

“We don’t know if it’s the trees, or if it’s the Jungle as a whole doing that.” Kavaa said. She wasn’t happy with the idea, her arms were crossed in front of her chest, and she was speaking in that quick tone Kassandora had heard her use when people came to her with only mild ailments, the sorts a good night’s sleep would fix.

“We don’t know until we try.” Kassandora said.

“It could be a waste of time.” Kavaa argued back. Kassandora saw Anassa narrow her eyes at the Goddess of Health. She sat up straighter, to look down on Kavaa.

“Nothing with Kassie is ever a waste of time.” She said.

Kassandora shook her head. “Kavaa is partly right.”

“Partly?” Kavaa asked, aghast.

“It could be a waste of time if we have to excavate with mortals. We don’t have the luxury of pet projects like that right now.”

“Oh.” Kavaa said.

“It’s you two.” Fer said, the pen flicking up from the paper to point at Anassa and Iniri, the latter only sighed at the prospect of having to work near the Jungle again.

“It’s you two.” Kassandora confirmed.

The Goddess of Sorcery turned to Fer, then to Kassandora. “Have I been roped into something? Did you two plan this out?”

“No.” Fer said. “It’s just not hard to work out and I like showing off how smart I am.” Her smile revealed those pointed teeth again. Kavaa burst out in laughter and even Iniri chuckled at Anassa’s bewildered expression. The woman down at Fer, still bent over the map as she went back to drawing even more lines on the map.

“And you want to do what with it?” Iniri asked.

“I want you to grow it, see if we can evolve it to be aquatic, and then we drop it onto Alanktyda, Uriamel and Olympiada.” Kassandora said with a smile. Kavaa looked up at her in horror. Anassa smiled back and Iniri blinked.

“You mean…” Iniri asked.

“I mean you would be a champion of this war Iniri. You would singlehandedly end it.”

“I…” Iniri started to smile. “I could do that.” Fer interrupted their shared excitement though.

“Before you girls all get too excited at each other. I have one thing to say.” Fer said.

“Do you now?” Anassa asked. Kavaa looked down at the map as Fer finally picked her up and sat straight on her seat. Kassandora looked at those lines and she felt her hands tighten. Now that it was drawn over like this, even a child would be able to see it.

“How did you miss this?” Fer asked. There was not a hint of judgement or annoyance in her tone, it was merely surprise.

“I don’t know…” Kassandora said.

“What are we looking at?” Iniri asked as Kavaa leaned over.

Of Health needed a few seconds to inspect the map before casting her own comment. “All you did was highlight the thicker lines.”

“No.” Anassa said. “She did not.” Kassandora shook her head as she looked down. What Fer had highlighted was simply too perfect to be a coincidence. It was akin to seeing a silhouette of a man in this distance, it could be a human, an elf, a Divine or a dwarf even, but it could never be a dog. Likewise here and there was only one thing that patterns like this signified.

Flat in some places, with sharp corners, only ever at ninety or forty degrees. With circles in some sections, that seemed to trail off at almost random points. Kassandora pulled out another map, this was of the Reclamation’s War progress and the regions where the Jungle regrew for seemingly no reason. It lined up perfectly with the circles Fer had highlighted in blue. Fer commented on that map too. “We have the answer as to why it keeps popping back up here.” She said.

“It’s not digging out of the ground.” Kassandora said. “It’s climbing out of the highway.”

“What highway?” Kavaa asked.

“The same sort of highway we saw demons in two weeks ago Kavaa.” Fer said flatly. “That sort of highway.”