The Lion’s ears twitched as he listened to the… the… He had never seen anything like what just stood on his nose. She smelled like human and like animal at the same time, and she talked so softly to the little box in her hands. “Don’t worry Helenna. You should retreat, that city is not worth your life.” Then she would listen to a reply. Those replies were frantic and filled with tears at the start. Now, they were mere sniffles, as if it was a cub on the other side that had been crying for its mother. “Really Helenna, don’t cry. It’ll be fine.” It was good when she talked, concentrating on the sound of her words allowed the Lion to ignore the Jungle’s screaming threatening to split his head.
The woman rolled her eyes at whatever the little device replied. “Helenna.” She growled harder this time. “You’re a Goddess. We are busy here. We will get to you as soon as possible. But until then, you’re on your own.” And then she made her tone softer. “Kassie always says this, the wait’s the worst part.” She laughed.
“Alright, see you later,” she said finally, lowering the device and turning her full attention to the Lion. His golden eyes were enormous, large enough to swallow her whole if he wished—but there wasn’t a trace of fear in her scent. Instead, she radiated a calm sunshine that split storms, or a balm against the Jungle’s maddened screams threatening to split his skull.
Somehow though, through whatever crazed magics the woman was using, she did understand. “You want to talk?” The Lion purred again. He did not, he only wanted to listen. Her voice was sweet. “Oh.” The woman sat down and started rubbing the Lion’s nose. “Well then I’ll you about myself. How about that?” She didn’t wait for the Lion to purr a reply as she stood up, planted her fists on her hips, and proclaimed her name. “I am Fer! And I am the Goddess of Beasthood!”
The Lion blinked slowly, his tail flicking lazily behind him. What a lovely little Goddess indeed.
“We…” Kassandora raised an eyebrow at the two men who had drawn rifles on her. Their voices lost all strength and their arms were shaking. “We cannot allow you to pass.” The taller man said, his voice quaking. Kassandora smiled, crossed her arms and turned back to show off her men to Elassa.
“See that?” Kassandora said, her voice thick with smug pride. “You know you have an eye for men when they stand up to Divines.” Elassa did not reply verbally, but her eyes jealously running in disbelief over the two humans dressed in black uniforms said everything. Kassandora knew before, but in positions like this, when she was dealing with Divines so much more powerful than herself, it was satisfying to rub things in. And she knew Elassa could take it too. There was no one who despised magicians more than Elassa.
Kassandora turned and looked down the wooden hallways of Central Requisitions. Iniri had grown them, so each hallway was Divine sized. Whereas Kassandora was too big in most places, here, it was the two humans that were too small. “I am Goddess Kassandora, Of War. Here is the proof.” Kassandora tapped into War’s Orchestra, she felt the men’s strength flow into her, she saw herself through her eyes, she let them see themselves through hers. Elassa stood silently in the corridor, the only one of the four to not hear the slow drums that were Kassandora’s power.
The Orchestra lasted for a mere few notes, a second, if not two. Immediately after it ceased, the two men stood up straight, saluted and slung their rifles over their backs once again. The taller one promptly started explaining. “We apologize profusely Goddess Kassandora. We…” He took a breath. “The orders were no one is to pass with the prisoner, even if they are Divine. Shapeshifters were also mentioned so we…”
Kassandora smiled and waved her hand to stop the man’s stammering. “Do not worry, I am impressed you stood up to me.” Men always liked praise, especially if it was rare. But more than praise, men liked rewards. Rewards had to be real things, not sweets. Children got sweets for good behaviour and if there was one thing men hated, it was being treated like children. “You can expect promotions by the end of the week.” Both men tried to contain their smiles, both men failed as Kassandora walked past with Elassa trailing to her side.
One in a dirty HAUPT uniformed, torn in places from the expedition underground when Kassandora had donned her armour, then tinged red with the red Kirinyaan soil. The other in a pristine blue dress that only a prisoner of luxury could achieve. “Are you actually going to promote them?” Elassa asked.
“I’ll send strong recommendations.” That was an assured promotion. Kassandora could send nothing but a name and that would be enough to achieve a better rank.
“Why?”
“How many people do you know who will stand up to me like that?” Kassandora asked as they turned a corner and went down yet another winding set of stairs. All wooden, grown into position by Iniri’s power rather than built. On the inside of the spiral was another, this one made of steps only a third the size. For the mortals who worked here so that they didn’t have to clamber up the staircase for Divines.
“Mmh.” Elassa said. “I don’t handle things that loosely.” Kassandora took the lead as they headed downwards. More people walked past them, more guards and servants running around with papers. CR now was serving as a supply base. Whereas ammunition was no longer being delivered here, so much had been built up during the White Pantheon’s first invasion that the storage was still being emptied. Three more times they were stopped, but by the time they had made it outside, they were simply sauntering through CR.
“That’s our ride.” Kassandora said as she pointed to Raptor One and Two. Massive black jets with huge blocky engines built into the chassis and wings rather than fixed to them, their tips painted yellow and with red eyes as if they really were the birds of prey that their names professed them to be. Captains Douglas and Erik were sat on two crates, drinking coffee and having a smoke as they watched the engineers fill up their planes.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Some eighty or so sorcerers were lied separated into their own teams. Anassa had awakened a few more after the White Pantheon invasion concluded, but it hadn’t been a lot. The four children who were the best at sorcery were still a long way off from being able to awaken others themselves. Kassandora stopped, Elassa stopped with her. “That’s them?” Elassa asked.
“That’s our eighty sorcerers. There were a hundred before the invasion started.”
“And is there an organisation?” Elassa asked. Should Kassandora explain? Elassa would probably work it out anyway, even from here, it was obvious that there was a hierarchy.
“Eliza’s team.” Kassandora pointed to the shortest girl with brown hair. Her team of twenty was sitting on the ground, whispering between themselves as Eliza sat on a crate and watched Elassa and Kassandora. “Lyca’s.” Twenty men in torn clothes, each man lean and muscled. They were separated into groups and talked loudly. Lyca was talking and laughing with a few of his own men too. “Edmonton’s.” Twenty who stood at soldierly attention. “Fleur’s.” Twenty who stood at terrified attention, not moving so much as a muscle.
“That’s it?”
“The four I mentioned by name are the only ones I would rank as a sorcerer Elassa.” Kassandora explained. “Everyone in the teams would be a trainee by Great War standards.” Elassa stretched her hands.
“They don’t need knowledge, they just need to know how to commune. I’ll handle the rest.” The Goddess of Magic said. Kassandora made a stupid smile. She didn’t feel particularly bad about it, she simply knew that a stupid smile like that would lessen the blow of just how thoroughly lacking they were in magicians and sorcerers. Elassa saw the smile. She made an unimpressed face, her eyebrows falling just like her hands. “They don’t know how to commune.”
“You know how Anassa teaches sorcerers.”
“She doesn’t.” Elassa snapped back quickly.
“Well.” Kassandora had no issue with playing the fool. If Elassa got mad, then it would only add fuel to her drive to succeed. “To each their own.”
“Would you say there’s anyone who knows War better than you?” Elassa asked.
What a stupid question. Someone who was more revolutionary in warfare than Kassandora? That simply didn’t exist. “Should I even bother to answer that Elassa?”
“You’re the Goddess of War, I’m the Goddess of Magic. If I say Anassa doesn’t teach, she doesn’t teach.” Elassa declared and sighed as she looked over the sorcerers again. Fleur’s had turned to face the two Goddesses as if they were a platoon of soldiers standing at attention. “It’s just them?”
“It’s just them.” Kassandora replied.
“Not a lot.” Elassa said dryly.
“Is that a problem for you?”
“Do you know how many people can Worldbreak themselves?”
“Throughout my life or right now?” Kassandora asked then answered her own question. “Throughout my life, about two dozen. Right now, it’s just you and Anassa.”
“Anassa can’t do it.” Elassa quickly added.
The Goddess of War made her tone annoying and doubtful on purpose. “Can she not?”
“If you have Anassa on the list, then Olephia and Allasaria are on it too. Hell, add Alkom to it. Sceo as well.” Kassandora gave no reaction. Elassa had always been like this. She needed someone terrible like Allasaria to smack her down or she would simply be the most unbearable smart-ass of a Goddess who had everything to prove.
“Just you then.” Kassandora said flatly. Once Anassa came back, then Elassa could once be handed off to the Goddess of Sorcery. These two were truly made for each other. “Sorcerers! Form ranks!” She shouted. Immediately, the sorcerers formed ranks. Even those who were sitting and chatting in Eliza’s team got into position so quickly as to make Kassandora’s soldiers blush. Fleur, Lyca, Edmonton and Eliza stood a step in front of their squads, and Kassandora waved them over.
“I recognise these four.” Elassa said quietly.
“They were students in Arcadia.” Kassandora said. “They probably know you.” The four ex-magicians, now sorcerers came forwards. Each one dressed slightly differently, but each one fit to Anassa’s standards. Edmonton in a suit, it was torn in places from combat. Lyca in a white shirt and brown shorts, as if he had been trekking through the jungle, but the clothes reeked of wealth and his belt buckle was adorned with gold. Eliza was dressed in a similar fashion, the only difference was that she wore a skirt instead of shorts. Fleur came in like a proper sorcerer, downright inspired by Anassa, in a dress that ended around her calves. Terrible, if she was Kassandora’s to command, then she would be forced to wear a potato sack for a day in order to learn how to dress properly.
“Well well well.” Elassa said before Kassandora could introduce them. “So you’re the four. Fleur Ambelee. Edmonton Weaver.” She said, looking at those two. “Lyca Myklos” She said. Eliza raised an eyebrow. “And your name?”
“Eliza Grinhoff.” Eliza sounded embarrassed that Elassa did not know her.
“You all already know who I am.” Elassa said.
“Anassa is stuck in the Jungle.” Kassandora said louder. This was her mission. It was one thing to let Elassa talk to them, it was another to let her take command of the situation. Elassa backed off, for all her need to prove her own intelligence, she did respond well to hierarchy. Although mages usually did. “We are going to rescue her. You have been selected to rescue the Goddess who awakened sorcery within you. I’m not here to ask you whether you want to do it or not. I am the Goddess of War, Elassa is the Goddess of Magic. You are simply going to do it. Understood?” Naming the titles was on purpose, it screamed an implication about what would happen if they refused.
“Yes! Of course!” Edmonton said first. He pulled a clean salute, Anassa’s variety, with two fingers by the forehead, rather than Kassandora’s. Fleur, Lyca and Eliza were all only a moment behind him. They did know how to pull one, she had to give them that.
“I will now explain Operation Ashlands.” That sounded like a good name, although Kassandora had made it up moments before. “I will use my blessing you and the sorcerer-novices under your command. Then on Elassa. The reins will then be handed off to Elassa. Raptor One and Raptor Two will drop us at the Jungle’s Stomach, I know where it is.” Kassandora had been there once, and that was enough. “I will also be dropped off and need protection from your magic as the planes won’t fly the moment there’s any ash in the air. From that point, Elassa will use all of you to channel enough magic to destroy the Jungle in one blow.” Kassandora smiled at them as she finished. “Any questions?”
“None.” Lyca said. The rest of the sorcerers looked excited too. That was good news. Sorcerers usually fared better when they felt good about themselves.
“I have one.” Elassa spoke up.
“Oh?” Kassandora asked. “What?”
Elassa turned to look mirthlessly at Kassandora. “So let me sum this up.” She said flatly. “You want me, who has never used your ability, to use it to guide these sorcerers through you into a perfect communion, when most of them don’t even know what a communion is, in order to force enough power through them to crack this continent open? And while doing that, we’ll also need to keep you alive?” The four young sorcerer’s smiles dropped when Elassa rephrased it like that.
“Can it not be done?”
Elassa’s tone was a satisfied, deep rumble. “Of course it can be done.”