The Greatest Sin

Neneria checked Atis’ soul jar, the God was indeed contained in here, although she would need a safe place to subdue him. She sensed around for the souls still hanging around in this place.

The Seekers, she had already captured, along with some Guguoans who did not want to move on, but the beastmen were what she wanted. Elves and humans would hang around the world for a while, beastmen accepted death and moved on quickly. She scouted for darkfurs: Beastmen infused with Anassa’s sorcery.

They were different. They had a sense of individual pride about them. They refused to move on if killed. There were three still here.

They could lead her to Packmaster.

Allasaria pushed Ilwin into Kassandora’s cell, shut the door, crossed her arms and leaned against it. She would give anything to know what they were talking about inside, but more than likely, she had managed to outwit Kassandora and give her a meagre elf for excellent advice. She chased the thoughts away, now was the time to think about how to deal with those two rebellious Goddesses.

Ilwin nimbly caught his step as he looked at the Divine sitting in a grey garb. The room was much like his, an oversized table, an oversized bed, a pair of oversized chairs. The only difference was the pole in the middle of the room, topped off with some black stone that looked like opaque obsidian.

The Divine though… She was something else entirely. He had seen Maisara and Helenna and had talked to them. He had even talked to Allasaria. To Leona. All of them to him seemed like Divines that didn’t feel confident in their position. This woman though, with that deep red hair and those deep red eyes… She sat there as if she was a free woman, as if she was looking down on her kingdom from a throne rather than being locked in the Lower Prison of Olympiada.

She had the same imposing aura about her that Arascus wielded so easily. “Will you not introduce yourself?” The Divine asked.

“I am Ilwin.” Ilwin replied immediately. He didn’t know why, her words simply demanded an answer.

“Ilwin Tremali.” The woman said. “Good, I am Kassandora, Of War.” Ilwin blinked, his eyes narrowed. Kassandora was supposedly dead. His grandfather did not believe it, but the Goddess of War had been captured before the Great War even ended. He had not seen any God with shapeshifting abilities, but it would not surprise him to see the White Pantheon possess one, likewise it would be stupid for them not to try and trick him with one.

“I see.” Ilwin replied carefully.

“You’re obviously careful.” Kassandora said immediately. “I knew your ancestor.”

“You mean Iliyal.” Ilwin said and then bit himself for giving out that tiny sliver of information. He tried to cover his tracks. “Helenna told me about him.”

“Very careful. Just like him.” Kassandora said, she crossed her arms. “Very well Ilwin. Tell me, would a White Pantheon tell you this: Leona is going to die soon. She apparently foresaw her own death, there is no stopping it now.” Ilwin blinked. No White Pantheon would ever give that out, but then it could be lie. “Or this. The God of the Hunt, Atis, went missing, he is presumably dead.” Ilwin could not contain his surprise, he felt his jaw drop and his eyes widen.

Kassandora, or the person pretending to be her, smiled as if she had won. “And what about this? I have orchestrated a plot within the White Pantheon to drive them into chaos. Maisara and Fortia are after Allasaria’s throat, Kavaa, Iniri and Helenna are out of the picture and Allasaria is about to drive them further away?”

“I…” Ilwin stood there… This was either the luckiest day of his life, or he was about to be executed and it was the White Pantheon’s one last gamble to try and extract information out of him.

“The Divine Mountain will turn into a bloodbath within this year. The day, I cannot predict, but I have saved your life twenty minutes ago.”

“Excuse me?” Ilwin said.

“Your freedom. But before that, I want one piece of information from you. Merely one. I won’t ask for more.” Kassandora said as Ilwin stood there in shock.

“What?”

“Is Iliyal still alive?”

“He is, he’s my grandfather.” Kassandora smiled again, she even closed her eyes, leaned back and let out a heavy breath.

“That is excellent. I won’t ask for his location or anything like that, but whatever you give me will be useful.”

“You’re…” Ilwin said slowly. “I didn’t expect something like that.”

“You’ve never worked with me but tell your grandfather I’m here. The moment you leave this cell, Allasaria will take you away to wherever you wish. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that you should be dropped in a city with a major international airport, then you should take the train to one nearby and fly from there.” Ilwin blinked. He had not even thought of that.

“I will.” Ilwin said. Kassandora didn’t even nod or respond.

“You were involved in something large, were you not? To end up here?”

“I got caught by Leona whilst trying to steal a plane.” Kassandora gave no reaction.

“You did a good job not to die.” Kassandora said. “Was this plan independent or were you working under someone else’s orders?” Ilwin opened his mouth and stopped it. That was a good trick. He almost spilled important information.

“I was working independently.”

“You should train to be a be liar. That pause there, you can’t give reactions like that. Your eyes widened too.” Kassandora said. “I assume it was on someone else’s order. Now I have to ask, is the Great War still ongoing?” Her smile showed perfect white teeth. Ilwin did not know how to reply. His grandfather always said that as long as one Tremali breathed on this world, the war was not yet lost. But to say that to this person… “I will answer that for you.” Kassandora followed up when she saw Ilwin’s hesitation. “It is. Until every one of us, or every one of them is dead. They merely put the war on pause, gave us a big break when our heads were on the executioner’s block.”

“Grandfather always says that too.” As did Arascus, although there was no way he would say that. Not until he saw this Goddess kneel to Arascus himself would he believe claim about her identity, the encounter with Leona at Pepayel had changed his opinion on Gods entirely. It also painted his grandfather in a new light, to think that man had killed a God!

“We got the line from Arascus.” Kassandora said. “It’s not an original thought, as much as it pains me to admit that.”

“Are you really Kassandora?” Ilwin asked. “The same one who fought alongside him?”

“You don’t know that, nor can you be sure until you see me and him in the same room together, can you?” Ilwin nodded to that. Did she read his thoughts? What was she? “I merely say things as I see them, it would be beyond foolish of you to talk here, so don’t.” Ilwin agreed with that, only that only made the woman more enigmatic. He would not bet that the woman was actually the Goddess of War, although he would not bet against it either.

“And you said you saved me?”

“I did a little negotiation. Wise old sages don’t work for free.”

“You’re helping the Pantheon?”

“I’m telling them what they want to hear.” Kassandora snapped back, her tone suddenly a freezing flood of fire. “This is the first time we’ve met so I’ll let the comment slip. If you make an accusation like that again, you will be dead before Allasaria even opens the door.”

When Allasaria threatened him, Ilwin thought it was a bluff to get him to talk. Now that Kassandora said that, Ilwin did not dare call it. “Now you’re an elf, so I assume your memory is good enough to hold some words in that mind of yours without needing a piece of paper to remember.” That cold tone was gone, replaced with the cool voice for business negotiations that she had been using before.

“It can.” Ilwin said.

“Good because I don’t have paper to supply you with anyway. Tell him that I am here and I will free myself. It will take upwards of six months at the most, Leona will die eventually although how, I cannot say. Tell him Anassa is in the Divine Library.” Ilwin nodded, they knew that back at base already. “To free her, Elassa will have to be removed from the picture. This can be done during my escape, she will have to come here as I’m a far greater threat than my sister is.” She took a pause, her eyes focused on Ilwin. “Have you got all that?”

“I do.”

“Relay also this, Kavaa’s Order is not to be touched. She may flip, Helenna and Iniri may flip too if they’re unharmed.” Ilwin’s eyes widened again. Goddesses of the Pantheon flipping sides? “Also I don’t know where Olephia is, but Leona has to recharge her prison every now and then. That’s your opening. My assumption is that she takes a private jet. Monitor air traffic heading into the middle of nowhere.”

“Are you sure of that?”

“Olephia is too dangerous to lock away near a populated area.” Kassandora continued. “That is the opening, like I said. Leona said she will die but Divines don’t die of natural causes, she will be killed.”

“So it’s assured?”

“Nothing is assured, I don’t believe in luck. But this is the single greatest opportunity we have to end her.”

“I see.” Ilwin said, with every words the woman spoke, he was more and more assured the Goddess was who she said she was.

“How well can you remember figures?”

“Figures?”

“Numbers and statistics?”

“Quite well.” Ilwin replied.

“Good. Maisara’s Paladins currently have most of the Order stationed on Olympiada, there is about eight thousand members here, another four are in forts I don’t know where, but I assume you can find them. Fortia’s guardians measure twenty-five thousand. Kavaa’s Clerics are popular, there’s over a hundred thousand of them. Kavaa has several agencies set up where her men go to combat diseases in the poorer nations of Arda but they’re warriors too. The Seekers number around forty to fifty thousand, those are just estimates, Allasaria is too smart to share the real numbers.”

“Understood.” Ilwin replied, he was almost at a loss for breath. All this? All this for free?

“Arcadia’s numbers are apparently publicly accessible.” Kassandora said. “Mages are to be avoided until Anassa is free and you build up enough numbers of sorcerers again. Is Iliyal your leader?”

“He is.” Ilwin said and caught himself. He was so caught up in the information Kassandora was feeding him he lost his focus. The Goddess narrowed her eyes.

“Everyone makes mistakes, that was a mistake, you should not give out information that easily.” Ilwin nodded.

“I apologize.”

“Don’t apologize to me. It took me a decade to make your grandfather into the General of the Eight Imperial Army. Simply don’t make the mistake again. Tell Iliyal that the sorcerer to mage ratio is as it was back then, maybe it’s risen more in our favour. The mages of today are apparently not what they were of a millennia ago, he’ll know what I mean.” Ilwin saluted, the old salute, that Iliyal had taught him.

“Yes General.” Kassandora’s eyes softened finally. She looked at the salute with such pride Ilwin was worried he would cry. She stood up, towering over him and dismissed his salute with her own.

“My titles are Divine or Warmaster. In this situation, I prefer Divine.”

“Yes Divine.” Ilwin replied.

“Finally, say this. Arascus is not dead yet. If he can be freed, then free him. He was locked in a Godstone cube, the location is somewhere in the tundra of Eastern Karaina. The place was once a fortress before the land around it was poisoned. It will still be deadly to the touch but the disease won’t touch her family. If you can, free him, if you can’t, then wait for me.” Ilwin felt a lump in his throat, but he gave no tell and no movement that Arascus was already freed, that the success of slaying Atis and saving Fer lay almost entirely at his hands.

“Yes Divine.”

“One last thing. Tell Iliyal he’s done a good job.” Ilwin’s smile almost split his face. He could only imagine the look on his grandfather’s face. “That is all.”

“Yes Divine.”

“Allasaria will question you, play along.” Kassandora went and knocked on the door. The Goddess of Light opened it immediately, she stood there like a radiant statue, in her white dress and golden hair and with those terrible golden eyes that were everything but warm. “You had the wrong man.” Kassandora said cheerfully, like a girl teasing her friends. “Really now Alla, I’m disappointed.”

“Excuse me?” Allasaria gave one look to Iliyal and then sent him off.

“He’s not a Tremali.”

“But you said Helenna told you he was.”

“As we know, Love is always factual and objective, never prone to wild theories, is she?”

Allasaria scowled, shot one more glance at Kassandora and shook her head. “I’m not giving you the point you wanted.” Kassandora shrugged her shoulders.

“I’m not so prideful that I can’t lose a battle here and there. We agreed and besides, I can’t un-advise, can I?” The Goddess of Light gave a heavy sigh.

“I’ll have someone else send him off then.”

“Now you’re going back on your word.” Kassandora said, her tone entirely different from the one she was using with Ilwin. It was light and jovial, as if she was talking to her best friend.

“I’m not a taxi service Kassandora, it will not be done.” Kassandora turned back to Ilwin and put on a show of unapologetic disappointment.

“Well you can’t say I didn’t try, can you Ilwin?” Ilwin shook his head immediately. Allasaria nodded for Ilwin to leave the room and Kassandora gave him a light shove forwards. He walked past the two Goddesses almost twice his height. When Allasaria left the cell and closed the door behind him, he could only walk forwards in stunned silence.

He had just met Kassandora, Goddess of War, one of Arascus’ chosen the God had personally adopted into his family.

She was everything his grandfather had told him about her.