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

  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.

  Alsaria 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 mao 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 Diviting 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 bck stohat looked like opaque obsidian.

  The Divihough… She was something else entirely. He had seen Maisara and Helenna and had talked to them. He had even talked to Alsaria. To Leona. All of them to him seemed like Divihat didn’t feel fident 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 throher 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 aor.”

  “You mean Iliyal.” Ilwin said and then bit himself fiving out that tiny sliver of informatioried 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 Paell you this: Leona is going to die soon. She apparently foresaw her owh, 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 tain his surprise, he felt his jaw drop and his eyes widen.

  Kassandora, or the persoending to be her, smiled as if she had won. “And what about this? I have orchestrated a plot within the White Pao drive them into aisara and Fortia are after Alsaria’s throat, Kavaa, Iniri and Helenna are out of the picture and Alsaria 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 o gamble to try araformation out of him.

  “The Divine Mountain will turn into a bloodbath within this year. The day, I ot 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 bad 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 expeething like that.”

  “You’ve never worked with me but tell yrandfather I’m here. The moment you leave this cell, Alsaria will take you away to wherever you wish. I’m sure I don’t o tell you that you should be dropped in a city with a major iional 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 rge, were you not? To end up here?”

  “I got caught by Leona whilst trying to steal a pne.” Kassandave ion.

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

  “I was w indepely.”

  “You should train to be a be liar. That pause there, you ’t give reas like that. Your eyes wideoo.” 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 oremali breathed on this world, the war was not yet lost. But to say that to this person… “I will ahat 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 ko Arascus himself would he believe cim about her identity, the enter with Leona at Pepayel had ged 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 inal thought, as much as it paio admit that.”

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

  “You don’t know that, nor you be sure until you see me and him in the same room together, you?” Ilwin o 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 iation. 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 ent slip. If you make an accusation like that again, you will be dead before Alsaria evehe door.”

  When Alsaria 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, repced with the cool voice for business iations that she had been using before.

  “It .” 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 ot say. Tell him Anassa is in the Divine Library.” Ilwin hey khat back at base already. “To free her, Essa will have to be removed from the picture. This be done during my escape, she will have to e 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.”

  “Rey 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 poputed area.” Kassandora tinued. “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 oke, he was more and more assured the Goddess was who she said she was.

  “How well you remember figures?”

  “Figures?”

  “Numbers and statistics?”

  “Quite well.” Ilwin replied.

  “Good. Maisara’s Padins 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 find them. Fortia’s guardians measure twenty-five thousand. Kavaa’s Clerics are popur, there’s over a huhousand of them. Kavaa has several agencies set up where her men go to bat diseases in the poorer nations of Arda but they’re warriors too. The Seekers number around forty to fifty thousand, those are just estimates, Alsaria is too smart to share the real numbers.”

  “Uood.” 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 yrandfather 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 Ilorried he would cry. She stood up, t 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 be freed, then free him. He was locked in a Godstone cube, the location is somewhere iundra of Eastern Karaina. The pce was once a fortress before the nd around it oisoned. It will still be deadly to the touch but the disease won’t touch her family. If you , free him, if you ’t, then wait for me.” Ilwi a lump in his throat, but he gave no tell and no movement that Arascus was already freed, that the success of sying Atis and saving Fer y almost entirely at his hands.

  “Yes Divine.”

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

  “Yes Divine.”

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

  “Excuse me?” Alsaria gave one look to Iliyal and the 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 proo wild theories, is she?”

  Alsaria scowled, shot one m 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 ’t lose a battle here and there. We agreed and besides, I ’t un-advise, I?” The Goddess of Light gave a heavy sigh.

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

  “Now yoing ba your word.” Kassandora said, her toirely 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 Ilut on a show of unapologetic disappoi.

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

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

  She was everything his grandfather had told him about her.