The Greatest Sin

Elassa talked with Zerus in the White Pantheon’s grand council room. “Elassa, we will not sanction charities.”

“Why not?”

“Are you being serious right now?”

“We’re the White Pantheon. The world trembled at our might in the past.”

“And now we’ve lost Helenna, Iniri & Kavaa’s Orders. We’ve lost Leona. We’ve Atis. We don’t even know where Allasaria is. What Pantheon Elassa?”

“You were always too careful.”

“Kirinyaa and Ausa will fold under the embargos eventually, there’s no reason to be hasty.”

“And the Rancais workaround?”

“We can sanction them.”

“Very well. Zerus, very well”

Arascus looked around his hotel room, a grand place, even if all the furniture was too small. The bed was just large enough to fit Olephia, but he was easily too large for it. Abakwa had set him up well, although he supposed he had paid for it with stopping Olephia from destroying the city and with assistance in the clean up operations. The minor tasks were handled by the Crisis Forces, the fires and the like. He was only here for the things that would take a month or two to fix.

Pulling that ship out of the water was one. It had been a grand display of strength too, he couldn’t do it at first, but when he felt the awe of Igos’ population behind him, that gave him strength. When the ship started to move, he felt them start to believe he could do it. Then their belief manifested into his reality.

Olephia was in a long dress fit for a Goddess, all purple with dashes of black. She herself had made the design and forwarded it to Abakwa, who had it ready the same day. She was painting and listening to music. Another work of art, this one was a grand landscape piece of Igos itself. Arascus had carried her through the air to show her what the city looked like from the ocean, and now she was busy forging that sight onto paper. She had already given two paintings to the city, both were now in museums, both apparently well received by the population. There weren’t many countries that could boast of having art created by the Divines. Even during Arascus’ last meeting with the Premier-General, the man was talking about how he hoped it would cause a tourism boom in Igos, and how he hopes that Olephia will stay long enough to fill up a section dedicated entirely to her pieces.

But other than that, it was a boring stay. There wasn’t much to do, gone were the days of planning back in the Headquarters, of countless operations being made, their plans then scrapped and redrawn from the ground up. Arascus trusted Iliyal would not make any hasty moves as he turned on the news. Ausa news was covering him still, with a panel of men and women talking about how the cost of the damage done by Olephia’s storm was only relatively minor because of Arascus’ involvement. One man was playing Devil’s Advocate and trying to argue against Arascus being granted further permission to stay, but all the arguments were rather weak.

And so, half a day went by. It wasn’t until the phone rang. An unknown number. Olephia stopped painting and turned to Arascus. She pointed to the phone. “I know, I know.” Arascus said as he moved away from the window and answered. “Arascus speaking.” There was a moment of silence on the other side uncharacteristic of Igos officials. When they wanted something, they’d ask immediately. Then a voice came through, a voice Arascus instantly recognised. Deep and direct and curt and commanding.

“Kassandora.” Arascus’ face burst out in a smile, Olephia saw him and put her paints down.

“I’m putting you on loudspeaker, Olephia’s here too.” He put the phone on the table as Olephia came from the other side, put her elbows on the table and leaned in.

“Can she hear me?” Olephia looked up at Arascus, her eyes wide and her mouth open. There was a notebook with a pen tucked in on every table for Olephia to communicate with. She immediately went to grab it.

“She can.” Arascus said, still smiling as Olephia wrote something down. Her hand moved like a blur and she had the paper in front of Arascus. Tell her: Hello and that I missed her! “Olephia says hello and that she missed you, with an exclamation mark.” Olephia smiled, closed her eyes, and nodded.

“Hello Olephia.” Kassandora said from the other side. “I missed you too. We’ll meet each other soon enough. I actually called because I have a problem, and I was hoping you could help me, dad.” Olephia’s eyes widened again. And she once again got to writing. We’ll help her of course! What is it?

“What is it?” Arascus asked. Kassandora audibly sighed from the other side of the phone.

“This line, I assume it’s not secure, is it?” Kassandora asked.

“It’s most likely tapped.” Arascus said.

“Our mutual associate, the eighth man.” That meant Iliyal. General of the Eighth army, the eighth man. “He’s sent me a design for what I need.” Olephia’s mood soured and she started writing again as Kassandora talked on. “For the material to burn the Jungle, I’m sending Helenna and going with her to Nanbasa tomorrow to try and lobby the Kirinyaans, but I know Ausa has a firewall. I’m sure they have production capabilities.”

Olephia slid the paper to Arascus: This is so like her. She’ll only call or send letters when she needs something done. Arascus took the pen from her fingers and wrote back. It’s classic Kass.

“So you need me to ask them if they can produce it here?” Arascus asked.

“I do.” Kassandora replied. “And then send it to Kirinyaa.”

“How much?” Arascus asked and Kassandora let out a humoured chuckle over the phone.

“Enough to coat the entire Jungle.” So there wasn’t any limit then.

“I’ll see what I can do.” Arascus said. “How are you doing? Olephia wants to know too.” Olephia nodded at that.

“Dandy.” Kassandora said. “I entered the Jungle with Kavaa and Fer. We took Iniri out of there.” There was a pause for a moment. “Then we made it out. Also the Jungle should stop producing diseases now.”

“Should it?”

“We did a fair bit of damage.” Kassandora said as if it was nothing. “Thanks for the help dad. The formula is on the eighth man’s email. You know the details right? He said you did.”

“I do.”

Arascus looked up at Olephia’s flat gaze as the woman started to angrily scrawl. “That’s all. We’ll talk when we meet each other.” The phone beeped to marked the other person had disconnected.

Olephia angrily slammed a piece of paper down on the table. That is so Kass! She calls just for work! She did this back then too! Never hi! Never a hello! Never a how are you doing?! She’s always been like that! Each exclamation mark was bigger than the last. Olephia angrily crossed her arms, shook her head, then added some more text. She’s just ruined my mood!

“She’s like that.” Arascus said as he leaned back and sighed. Kassandora had always been like that, he assumed she would always be like that. She cared, he knew she did, but when her mind got set to a task, she would single-in on completing that task and ignore the rest of the world. “At least she told you she missed you.” Olephia threw her black hair back and shook her head again as she stood up and went to the freezer. They were well-stocked with alcohols and other things, but Olephia liked ice cream the most. She got one on a wooden stick, it was comically small in her hands, and she devoured it in a few bites. “You’ll get brain freeze.”

Olephia threw the stick at him and grabbed another one. This one went even faster.

She closed her eyes, her chest rose as she took a deep breath, and she went to her painting. “I’m going to Abakwa then, see what I can do.” Arascus said, he logged into the email him and Iliyal had set up to quickly send each other information. It was from a server his own men had set up in Eastern Karaina, he used magic to push the keys down on the keyboard, his own fingers were too big to press the individual keys. There was a note. Goddess Kassandora wants both of these. One was the chemical formula for napalm Alash’s team had designed. Alash himself had not done any work on it, chemical warfare was not his speciality. The other was simply entitled Binturong Schematics. Iliyal had edited the design to simply be the schematics and nothing else, there was no reference to how it was an evolution to the cannons used near the end of the Great War.

Arascus printed himself off one spare copy of each, one for Abakwa, and then deleted the files. The mouse moved by magic too, it was unbearably small to use. “Do you want anything?” Arascus asked and turned Olephia. She looked at him and pointed to the freezer. More ice cream. “Any flavour?” She quickly drew a cherry on her a spare piece of paper. “Got it.”

Arascus went to the balcony and felt the cool wind blow in from the ocean. It was always windy here. He took a step over the railing and floated in the air towards the Igos Parliament. From below, crowds stopped and pointed up at him. In the nearby skyscrapers, people went to their windows and waved and pointed and those who had balconies went out to shout their greetings. Arascus gave them a single wave as he landed at the Igos Parliament. It was a grander building than the Central Crisis Centre right next to it, the buildings were joined with bridges that could retract into the walls to break the connection, with columns for decoration and statues of men holding axes, but it was still an Ausa building. The windows were narrow, there were crenelations on the roof, the walls thick.

“God Arascus!” They always had some butler or maid or attendant on duty for him now, although it was mainly because Arascus came and went as he pleased. This time, it was young man in his mid-twenties with fashionable hair and in a nice suit. “It is a pleasure as always.” Arascus could actually believe it, the effort he had planted during the cleanup now had a bountiful harvest of good will. It was helped somewhat by the fact the Pantheon had decided to sanction Ausa for harbouring him.

“Is Abakwa free?”

“He is in a meeting with General Domkat and Minister Abubakar right now. I can ring.”

“Please do.” Arascus said. It was annoying he still had to come here, but it was what it was. He wasn’t in charge so he couldn’t expect that people would go to him. And they had all the leverage in the relationship, he was staying in their nation, not the other way around. Arascus waited for the man to ring and heard Abakwa’s voice reply to send him in. The man turned and extended his arm.

“Follow me, the Premier-General is free right.” Arascus followed along. This building was one of the few that was built with consideration to Divines. They ceilings were tall, the doorframes spanned wide although even then, it was obvious they were for Allasaria’s measurements. He was a good few inches taller than her, and the top of his hair brushed against the frames. People turned and work stopped whenever he came around, although it was only for a moment. A few men saluted, a maid who led him previously waved, Arascus merely raised his hand to acknowledge them and followed the young man up a wide staircase.

This route had felt long the first time he traversed it. Now, it was very short. The corridors back in the Karainan headquarters were longer. The man knocked and the door was opened from the inside by General Domkat. The man was wearing his green military uniform today, Abakwa and Abubakar were both in their black suits. “Greetings.” Abakwa said. Arascus sat down in one of the large chairs. Two had made their residence in Abakwa’s office now that Arascus and Olephia were staying in the city. The office was tall, but it wasn’t particularly big. Those small slit-like windows were behind Abakwa, paintings of past premiers hung on the wall, along with a map displaying the twelve cities of Ausa. There should be a table in the middle, but there wasn’t unfortunately. Instead, Abakwa had his desk and the rest of the chairs made a semi-circle around him.

“Greetings.” Arascus raised his hand to wave down Domkat’s and Abubakar’s. Generally, Arascus liked them all, they were all direct and didn’t argue. Even something could be done, or something could not be done. Arascus pulled out the papers from his pocket. “I’ll be straight to the point, as always. I have proposition for pushing back the Jungle.” He got three stunned looks.

“For pushing it back?” Domkat asked, stroking his chin as his eyes now stared with full attention. “We already hold it back.”

“For actually claiming land, not simply holding it at the walls.” Arascus said again.

Domkat spoke up first. “So, how? Is it with Olephia?”

“It’s not.” Arascus said. He stood up and put the papers on Abakwa’s desk. “Olephia should not be used.” He quickly thought up of some trite reason for not using Olephia. First, he had to sell the idea to them, then he had to convince them that everything would have to be tested and that Kirinyaa was the perfect way to test it. “For one, Olephia is one person. It would take her a millennia to clear it back. For two, Olephia leaves radiation, we wouldn’t be able to reclaim and fortify the area before the Jungle retakes the land.” Arascus pointed to the papers as he sat back down. “What I present here can be deployed in every Ausa city, then the equipment can be rented out to the other Arikan countries. It has no Divine intervention, it would not force them to break any Pantheon Directive as we’ve done with me staying in Ausa.”

“Binturong.” Abakwa rolled the word off his tongue in an odd fashion. “Jungle removal device.” That’s what Iliyal had underlined it with. Jungle removal device was a very clever way to disguise it from being self-propelled artillery. “And this? Na-palm.” Another word he struggled with.

“It’s a jelly that burns over a thousand degrees, trees will simply melt beneath it. It solves the issue you have now with the liquid fire that can’t be sprayed over a large distance.” Arascus continued. “The Binturong is a vehicle designed to fire shells filled with napalm.” Domkat and Abubakar were already stood up and inspecting the designs with Abakwa. “Those are your copies. The vehicles have had light testing, in Karaina by my own men. I would like to test them in Kirinyaa first.”

“Why Kirinyaa?”

“Because Kassandora, my daughter, is there.” Arascus said. “I don’t want to use them in the cities yet in case it turns out they’re dangerous or have flaws. If they explode in the Arikan heat for example. Then we’d have more trouble than they’re worth, but in the Kirinyaan Badlands, they could be tested.”

The three men looked at each other. The recipe for napalm and the Binturong. “This.” Abakwa tapped the schematic for the Binturong with his knuckle and looked up at the two men. “This could be built.”

“How many would you need?” Abubakar asked. “Are we talking about hundreds? What’s the cost? One would be…” He looked through at the list of materials. “Well, it is an investiture.”

“Eight.” Arascus said. “To make one team.” Eight, to make one battery. Then Kassandora would train her men on it under the guise of pushing the Jungle back. They would have the only artillery crews in the world. “If it’s successful, Kirinyaa will buy more.”

“Are we sure about that?”

“They may build their own.” Arascus said nonchalantly. To sell a product, you wanted to add urgency, if they felt that their window of opening was slipping, then they’d make a decision sooner. “Kassandora is going to lobby the Kirinyaans to produce these too. Ausa has the factories and refineries ready to produce these, Kirinyaa would have to build its own.” Abakwa leaned back as he opened his desk and pulled out a cigar. He lit it and blew a cloud.

“You’ve helped us greatly over this past month.” He leaned back and spun in his chair. “And it is the dream of every Ausa citizen to repel the Jungle. Even if we cannot reclaim the old country, to connect the twelve cities at least.”

“The coasts would be easier.” Arascus said. “The real tests we’re doing is of the launcher.” He carefully avoided calling it a gun. “If it works, it could be mounted on a ship.” Arascus stopped the smile that wanted to crawl onto his face. And artillery ship, those had not existed in the past.

“We’ll run estimates and aim for sixteen, because of how fruitful our relationship has already been.” Abakwa said.

“What about production of napalm?” Arascus asked.

“If you say it’s better for burning the Jungle than our liquid fuel right now, we’ll want to switch over to it anyway. I’ll send it to Chinua to let him run tests. If he says it’s good, the refineries will all switch over.” Arascus stood up. He had read up on the mixture the Ausans were using already, napalm was undoubtedly better.

“Thank you for your time.” He said. “If you have any more questions or if you lose those schematics, then don’t hesitate to call.” Seeing none of the men had any questions, he left the office, quite satisfied with himself. Now just to pick up ice-cream for Olephia and to ring Kassandora again, hopefully she’d be talkative this time.