To wage war against Kassandora would require a mind beyond what even most Divines are capable off. Her tactics are baffling, it is not that she ake advanced movements, it is that she refuses to engage in that sort of behaviour. They are always devilishly simple. Always reliant on thousands of variables that had been decided before a battle, if a fight goes on for too long, she will not hesitate to give up nd and issue a retreat.

  The woman has no honour, no sense of pride about her, no bloodlust nor ce nor fear. All her choices are perfectly logical, as if she had ion within her body. Her captured forces seemingly know nothing of her pns, nor have we ever been able to find anything important of hers written down. She sends letters that are mere orders, with no reasoning added, and her men follow along without question.

  To see Kassandora otlefield is a clear sign that the battle has been lost before it has been started. The only battles that she has actually “lost” are because her forces were simply outgunned and outmanned and overwhelmed. They should have been decisive victories in our favour, ihey were all pyrrhic victories.

  - Excerpt from the secrets texts in the White Pantheon’s closed library. Written by Goddess Fortia, of Peace: ‘How to Wage War on War.’

  Kassandora sat on a hill with Neneria, Fer, Kavaa, Iniri and Helenna. It was sequestered far away from the camp, the lights of cars and campfires burned like tiny little glow bugs in the distahey pranced about in the darkness of night, although night here had never been dark. There were too many stars in the sky, and the moon today shone exceptionally brightly.

  Fer had carried Iniri and Kavaa here, but it was a needed private location away fr ears. A single word overheard would put all the goodwill she had built up iwo and a half weeks sihe Recmation War began to be wiped away in an instant. The meeting had already began, the Goddesses sat on logs or the ground or simply stood as Kassandora drew out what she remembered the Caretaker looking like on the ground. “My initial theory is that it will be attracted to us, since we’re Divines.” Kassandora finished.

  “You have little to base that off.” Neneria crossed her arms and looked down at the drawing.

  “It does not target the coastal cities that hold scheduled burnings.” Kassandora said. “If it was simply proteg the Ju would have smashed their firewalls turies ago.” Neneria shrugged and rolled her eyes, she obviously did not like the reasoning, but there was little else Kassandora could say. It was simply a shot in the dark, there was little else that could be said about it.

  “It wasn’t fast.” Fer said.

  “No, if we stay close to the main camp, move no more than ten miles north or south, we’d be able to intervene if it es here.” Kassandora said. That would cover all the bases then. “Neneria, I want you to scout out locations with yiohe terrain a it to me.”

  “I’ll hand in a report tomorrow m.” Neneria said ftly.

  “Do you think the Binturongs will be able to stop it?” Kavaa asked. Kassandora answered as holy as she could, there was no reason to hold baformation with this lot.

  “We’ll have to see, it nt-like, it should burn. Why? Do you have any other ideas?”

  Kavaa looked around awkwardly, then finally said, or rather asked, what was on her mind. “Baalka’s blood could kill it, couldn’t it?” Fer and Neneria both looked at her as if she had just broached a topic she shouldn’t have, they leaned in, Neneria’s face going colder than it usually did as Fer’s eyes sharpened. Kassandora answered before those two could start an argument. Sisterhood was always a sore topic for them, they could say the worst things about each other, but as soon as someone else suggested something about even toug one of theirs, tight ranks formed.

  “The Jungle assimites, Baalka’s blood could kill it, or it could birth a mohat’s not a risk I’m willing to take.” That shut down any further versation of using Baalka. Kassandora narrowed her eyes though, that was an idea she had not thought of. Baalka’s blood was limited, even with Kavaa’s healing to accelerate the blood produ, it could only fill up maybe a dozen shells.

  She kept her face cool. This wasn’t the first time she had gone behind her sister’s backs, it wouldn’t be the st. A dozen shells of Baalka’s blood would do. Kavaa and her would simply do it privately.

  “And if you ’t stop it?” Kavaa asked.

  “I do have a pn B.” Kassandora hoped she didn’t have to use it.

  “And that it?” Kavaa asked.

  Kassandora crossed her arms. She did not even want to talk about the other option, it was an ace among aces, she simply didn’t want to deal with the fallout. “It will work. Now for the pn.”

  Helenna readjusted her bck HAUPT suit. It was the same as Kassandora’s, but with the skull and sword emblem. Instead, hers had e with a fl rose. She stepped in front of the camera. The KTV reporter moved out of her way as Helenna took up the entire s. “ushed back the Jungle in this area ten miles from where it o. The Recmation War is going steady, however, like with all wars, setbacks are expected. Now, the advent of ash is a major block tistics. The Binturongs themselves haraversing the deep ash, but supply trucks get struck, we will develop ways of quickly clearing the nd.” She took a breath.

  “The staging area will be moved twenty miles to the south, where we will proceed on clearing more of the Jungle immediately. Ash clearing operations will begin soon, after which we will return to drive a pincer into the Jungle and clear it from the inside.”

  That had been only part of Kassandora’s reasoning for ging the firing locations, but she could not reveal the whole story to the public yet, it could cause panic.

  Kassandora stood on that small hill between the camps and Jungle, a pair of binocurs hanging from her neck. She wahe Caretaker to arrive, but until it did, she would prepare. She turned around and looked past her camps. Eight rge trucks were arriving, eae a massive moving watchtower, a dder on them reached up for the driver to ehe . Eae pulled a-wheeled trailer. Their loads were secured on the back, the massive ons strapped down, the treads with blocks underh them to stop the cargo sliding off.

  Eight more Binturongs had arrived.

  They had twenty funs now, hopefully more would arrive. She hoped for it, but she pnned around only having the bare minimum. That was how wars always were pnned, you hoped for everything, you worked with what you had.

  Arusei, along with Kimani a, followed Kassandora to the gover camp. It had been closed off to the publily a select few had access to it without prior notice. Kassandora was one of them. She stepped forwards by a rge bus and tapped loudly on the door.

  It slid open with a metallic hiss of pistons and a cheerful voice called from inside. “Goddess Kassandora, e in, you’re always wele here!”

  Kassandora stepped in and indicated for Arusei, Kimani a to follow. It was cool inside, pleasant, well furnished, with carpeted floors Arusei tried not to get too dirty with Arika’s red dust. Kassandora had no such qualms. She stood in front of the five people sitting around a table and stepped to side, her arm extending to the three who had followed her in. “This Arusei, Kimani a.” Kassandora began coldly.

  “Greetings.” The men and women in the cold suits replied.

  “These people live their entire lives fighting the Juheir opinions oopic are worth more than any of your schors or academics. I vouch for them as being my personal advisors in this matter.” Kassandora crossed her arms and o the one-eared man. “Arusei, tell them what you know of the Caretaker.”

  Kassandora walked to the pnes. She had made her own design for a on of war. It was based off something long in the past. The engineers should be able to design it even in the desert. After all, once you had the pnes, how hard was it to make them simply drop things?

  Fer caught up to Kavaa by sense of smell. The Goddess of Health always smelled good, never was it an overp sweetness, instead a cool refreshment, something like mints and lemons. “Fer?” Of Health was in her silver armour today, she had been for the past two, since Kassandora had givehe pn to fight the Caretaker on the hilltop.

  “I have something for you.” Fer said.

  “What is it?”

  “For assistan the Jungle, when we rescued Iniri and Baalka.” Fer fiddled and revealed the cloak she had been carrying behind herself. It was a heavy b of panther-hide. Light, strong and warm to protect from the Arikan nights. Fer had made it herself, from the hunt to the tanning, gifts always required some effort or else they weren’t gifts. “Thank you.” She bent her head and indicated twice for Kavaa to take the present.

  “Oh.” Kavaa said, her eyes covered in surprise. “I didn’t…” She stopped, then looked up and smiled at Fer. Those silver eyes of hers shone like two pearls. “Thank you Fer. It’s a wonderful gift.”

  Kassandora stood on top of one of the tall Arikans mountains. It wasn’t really a mountain, but she had no other way to describe it, it was simply a giant rock, rising several hundred feet into the air with cliffs on all sides. The natives could scale these, but heavy equipment could not, that did not really matter though once helicopters came into the fray. They had carried tents and radios, camoufge ing, rangefinders and small radars to this rocky outcrop, and two others, oo the north, oo the south.

  The Goddess of War looked around and ied the view arouwo thousand of Kavaa’s Clerics had been anised into small teams of two, then formed a massive cordon around the area. No civilians, not even the Kirinyaan gover had been allowed here. The gover didn’t even want to, not after they heard what Arusei, Kimani a had to say about the issue of the Caretaker.

  With twenty four Binturongs w around the clock, they had burned down a regle, five by ten miles of Jungle here. The Binturongs worked like never before, they broke down like never before too, but that was why they had been divided into three batteries of eight. Kassandora could see them all from here, battery one and two were firing from the ash, battery three was off to the North, clearing more of the Jungle’s edge. Four men per gun, another four to assist with loading, thirty dedicated engio each squad, with a host of vehicles to supply ammunition needs.

  Where each battery theoretically needed only thirty two-men, with the auxiliary and support squads, they quickly jumped to over two hundred. Kassandora had finally implemehe first traces of hierarchy in her army. Sokolowski was in charge of the first, Zalewski the sed, a driver by the name of Ekkerson who Kassandora saw talent in had been put in charge of the third. Each captain had a radio, a pass and a rge pick-up truck to serve as a and vehicle. Some famous millionaire who had grow for Helenna had been more than happy to dohem from his private colle after she batted an eyesh and said a few pretty words.

  The trucks themselves were mounted with a radar, rangefinder and broadcaster, and had been painted a light green, with stripes of red to be identified from the distance, and Kassandora had ordered them to always be parked in the tre of the battery. Zalewski had been the first to work out why, although that was expected from a man who once flew pheir exact coordinates were transferred every ten seds to the men besides Kassandora.

  She had taken a team of twelve with her, although that had been because she always liked easily divisible numbers. Three would have been enough, four would have given them leeway. of the men stood around and looked through binocurs at the Juh little to do. Two operated the radios, two more wrote down coordinates and moved boxes and lines on the map behind Kassandora.

  This was done much like in the past, a map of the terrain id out on a table rge enough for Fer to lie ft on. Several passes y on it for easy reach, one close by to each red regle that represented a battery of eight Binturongs. Kassandora clicked the earpie her ear, ade for Divines. Only Fer cked one, and that was because they would fall out of the tall ears oop of her head. She simply had a pair of men trailing her, with their own radios. “Radio check. Binturongs. Over.”

  “Team One, loud and clear copy, over.”

  “Team Two, loud and clear copy, over.”

  “Team Three, loud and clear copy, over.” Kassandora smiled at how perfect their anisation was. True, it was ued in real battle yet, but they had the foundations down.

  She clicked her earpiece again. “Neneria, radio check.” A click came a sed ter to indicate Neneria was broadcasting.

  “Loud and clear Kass. Nothing here.” Neneria had been tasked with nothing in particur, she was the stro Divihey had, she simply had to be here in case her presence could drag the Caretaker away. And her Dead Legion could be called on to support. Kassandora didn’t know how much it could do, her pocket-army killed mortals. How many mortals would it take to fell a titan? tless amounts. Without mage support, it had usually been impossible.

  Kassandora did not reply. She checked up on Fer’s men. “Kassandora. Radio check, everything fine? Over.”

  “Everything fine and clear, over.” One of the men replied. Kassandora k was, she could see Fer from her location. The woman was taking a zy walk. Fer was here for the iable time when a Binturong would get stu the ash or the dirt. If it broke down, she was to simply get the crew out and leave the mae. She had been outfitted with a loose cloak, and then grew herself a thick coat of fur to protect from the Sun’s heat. She had actually wao go naked, but Kassandora forbid that, it was bad for the attention of her men, and she least a belt for the teens of blood. Same as when they ehe Jungle, but far less. She had four teens of Kassandora’s for strength, and two of Kavaa’s for injuries.

  Iniri was to help her with her and over nature. That Goddess was meandering about iween Batteries One and Two, it was easy to make her out when she wore her colourful green wardress against the cold ash she stood on. inally, Iniri wao fight, Kassandora expected she would fight anyway so no order on non-bat was issued, but Kassandora did not expect much from Iniri. The woman herself said the Jungle was not her demesne.

  The Binturongs themselves wouldn’t be a loss, they were far too unreliable to be used in a real war. Kassandora liked them, but now that she had stayed with them from more than two weeks, she had grown to know their faults. The crews would be the real losses, not out of same vain moral cause to safeguard life but because Kassandora had spent almost a month training them. How they worked now was a league to how they worked then. The gunners and loaders especially. It was like this in the past too, produ could be scaled almost infinitely but training was simply a hard slog that required time. It always did, it always will.

  Kavaa was walking about dowoo, leading a team of three dozen healers trailing behind her in a tight formation. She was in charge of healing and strengthening men with her blessing for whetle started. Like the oddesses, extremely easy to spot, although this one was from the pristine silver armour she wore that glinted brightly in the Sun. Helenna was close by, although Kassandora could not spot her. She had e just as Neneria had, for support and for havi another Divio lure the Caretaker.

  “Goddess!” One of the men och said. “I see something!” He pointed west, out onto that great sea of green that made up the Jungle. Kassandora squihen gave up and looked through her own binocurs.

  A dark mountain was rising out of the horizon. Kassandora felt her lips twist into a smile and her eyes start to burn. Her heart beat faster, her cheeks turned red, she grew excited.

  It had arrived.

  Arascus and Olephia made their way to the Raptors.