Waeh lifted into the skies as a team of mages started to carry him. He was there to hold Kassandora, Fortia and Maisara would e in with their armies to capture her, imprison her, and hold a public execution of every one in charge.

  And then it would be Fer and Anassa. Theher treacherous White Pantheon members. Neneria and Olephia were po be st. He smiled to himself, Pantheon Peace would be enforced once again, no matter how powerful the foe.

  After all, power was nothing if its wielder was made to serve.

  “This is my report on the Lemurs, as they are now.” Sokolowski handed Kassandora a small colles of papers, all hand-written and stapled together. Kassandora flipped through them as her eyes sed the text. They were in the man’s a, of the tral-northern army. It had a rge table to sit a dozehen Sokolowski’s own private desk for his works. A few ets of cheap wood, a few hastily assembled crates. A rifle ropped up against a crate. And it was , far too to be natural, the man most likely ed up for her arrival.

  “You’ve put no suggestions for improvements.” Kassandora said. She towered over Sokolowski, although she never en to lead that would be intimidated by such a minor fact. He wore a simir uniform to her HAUPT suit, but in pale-yellow rather than bck. For desert fighting.

  “I’d rather avoid another Binturong situation.” Sokolowski replied immediately. Kassandora focused her eyes on him and moved the dot in a circle, he obviously wao say more. Men had to be taught to speak freely to Divines. “We’re in a war, I’d rather not ge what isn’t broken. The Lemurs work so I work with that.” Kassandora nodded, she had the exact same thoughts on it, she just wao hear the man’s reasoning.

  “Indeed.” Kassandora replied, she dropped the papers oable, turned around and walked out the tent into the camp. With modern vehicles, she had drawn up a new design for hos should be id out, and this iion was as much to see how the theory worked as it was to i Sokolowski’s situation. Sokolowski caught up to her immediately and she slowed her pace for him in the same way Fer would slow her pace for Kassandora.

  Sprawling and rge, with roads making up tral arteries in the base for easy truck access. Men not in battle were doing what they always did, sitting around campfires and grilling food. Some had goo sleep, others were ing their rifles. “How many times have you engaged?”

  “We’ve had skirmishes here and there.” Sokolowski replied. “Ne-scale battles yet.”

  “How much ammunition have you gohrough?”

  “A third.” Sokolowski said grimly and Kassandora nodded, a third would be somewhere around sixty to seventy thousand, Sokolowski and Zalewski had been given the rgest haul, Ekkerson had Olephia, so he didn’t he extra firepower. A third still wasn’t good, but that was what she had been expeg too. These modern rifles were hungry little creatures.

  “That’s good.” Kassandora said, morale would have to be kept up. Soldiers would get speeches, leadership would get updates on how well logistics were going, there was er way than that. “We’re w on an automated factory for bullets. All maes i, it just stamps them out, it’ll be ready by the end of the month.” Arascus was w on it, but Sokolowski didn’t have to know that. The man did sigh though, and his posture rexed. Kassandora khat would work.

  Soldiers looked up at Kassandora and immediately stood to salute. She returned her own every dozeo grant them rest. “How are the sorcerers doing?” She asked.

  “No casualties although a few were wounded. When it’s just mages and not Divihen they’re…” Sokolowski thought of a word. “Untouchable? Especially with how we use them.” Kassandora nodded. Eventually they would be split up into teams of four. Four could overwhelm a standard team of a dozen mages easily, teams of nine and ten were simply overkill, and Zalewski’s front hem. Anassa would have never been assigo the front lines if they had enough sorcerers, she would have stayed behind in cities and found more souls that showed promise to asd into the arts. But they didn’t, and Zalewski needed something to ter mages, and Anassa could cover aire frontline by herself, so Anassa had to go and waste her time in the jungles.

  That was how things went in war. Every single one of Kassandora’s pns revolved around that small number of sorcerers they had and Anassa never leaving the frontlihey revolved around fielding artillery with the reliability of the Binturong. Around Kirinyaa suddenly turning on them. On the White Pantheing iens of thousands of minor Divihey had on the mountain. On a naval invasion from the east. Anything she could think of, however far-fetched, needed a pn.

  As did Waeh. “I have an issue.” Kassandora said and Sokolowski nodded.

  “I don’t know what I do.” He said.

  “You hear me out.” Kassandora replied. “The Waeh situation.”

  “He’s been spotted on the frontlines every now and then, but he doesn’t engage in battle.” Sokolowski replied and Kassandora almost missed a step. Why was she not informed? This sort of mistake, even amateurs wouldn’t make.

  “He’s been spotted?” Kassandora asked and Sokolowski stopped. They came te square with soldiers unloading tinned s of food from trucks. All men in a pale beige, in shorts and shirts. Standard dress, military fatigues were for battle. The human general looked up at her, eyes fused.

  “I’ve seers about it.” Sokolowski said and Kassandora looked down at him. If someone else said that, if the man had gone angry or if he had some emotion on his face that wasn’t pure befuddlement. If this was just a child and not one of her generals, she had personally drilled into him how important it was to keep track of the locations of major Divines.

  “You’ve seers?” Kassandora slowly asked.

  “I have!” The man saluted quickly as if to prove his point.

  And the gears started to turn in Kassandora’s head. A sword hit a shield, a castle was stormed. She had no doubt that Sokolowski would seers, he was far too smart to miss out such a crucial detail, especially when his letters were nothing but bullet-point lists of information that o be unicated. Especially when he made sure to include a specific se for Fortia and her sightings in every letter.

  How could the man remember Fortia and fet Waeh?

  “So someone’s been tampering with them then.” Kassandora said, Sokolowski made a sour face.

  “I don’t have maids, I send them off myself.” He said.

  “Does aer your tent?” Kassandora asked. The man shrugged.

  “Meetings are held there, but…” He scratched his . “It could happen when I’m not there. I just don’t…” His face suddenly grew pale. “Actually, I do see the purpose of it.”

  Kassandrimly made some sound of acquiesce. “Mmh.” Fortia had not been removed from the letters, but all mentions of Waeh had been. And Waeh otted on the frontlines. If they were getting intercepted, that would expin immediately why frontlines weren’t moving whatsoever. Why Fer had angrily pined about ing across empty camps.

  Kassandora nodded. Very obvious now that he said it. Waeh was a hidde, not a sword to draw for battle but a dagger to pluo a heart. Kassandora looked up at the blue sky stretg out over the desert as she realised her own position. And now the heart had been exposed. Absolutely dastardly. Fortia had made a good pn. Kassandora would cp if that dagger wasn’t aimed at her. She took charge immediately, her tone growing cold and anding, her eyes dang across the horizon. “Sokolowski, call the neighb divisions. Call them, don’t seers, bring them here immediately.” It was a break of procedure, phone calls could be intercepted, but speed mattered now, not secrecy.

  “Yes Goddess!” He said with a salute and brought out his phone. Kassandora brought her own out, there were Divio call and she doubted Sokolowski had their numbers. She bli her own notifications.

  Twelve missed calls from Anassa, five from Fer, six from Neneria. Kassandora she shouldn’t have muted the notifications, but she was flying anywhere, there was no signal up there. And nothing annoyed her as much as her phing because someone had some stupid question to ask. But that many calls, obviously they were panig.

  Anassa had rang first, so Anassa came first. Kassand her. Anassa picked up immediately. She was breathing heavily through the speaker, as if she had been pushing herself although she was barely audible over the wind rushing past her. Was she attacked? Could Waeh travel quickly? But then why did she answer? “What happened?” Kassandora asked immediately.

  Anassa immediately recovered herself. “Kassie? Are you alive?” Kassandora looked around Sokolowski’s camp, then north. A few tents blocked the view, but a few steps in one dire brought her to a wide road with a view of the ndscape.

  “I’m alive Ana.” Kassandora said slowly. A dot appeared over the horizon in the distance. Pure golden sand, blue skies, and a small bck dot heading towards them. A small bck dot heading through the air, more along with it. A dozen. Kassandora felt a lump appear ihroat.

  “Where are yht now?” Anassa asked. Sokolowski came bad saluted.

  “Orders are sent, fourth and fifth infantry divisions are ing to support. They’re bringing artillery.” Good.

  “At Sokolowski’s camp. First Division.” Kassandora said slowly, the words being said were mere background noise by now, her mind was f a pn. Waeh had to be defeated.

  “GET OUT OF THERE!” Anassa screamed through the phone. “WAEH IS ING. WE FOUND SPIES! THEY-JUST GET OUT OF THE-“

  “I know.” Kassandora said. The bck dot on the horizon grew. Magical speeds, it would be on the camp by a minute. “Anassa, listen to me, go to Kavaa, find me someone unblessed right now. , as pure as they e, and bring him here.” Anassa fell silent for a sed.

  Then she spoke, her voice cold. “Is he there?”

  “I hope it’s not him.” Kassandora said. “I’ll ring if not, but be fast.”

  Sokolowski seemed to realise the urgency of the situation and spoke quickly, it was half a shout. “I know of one!” Kassandora blihen shouted at the phone.

  “DON’T HANG UP!” She shouted at Anassa, then to Sokolowski. “Where?”

  “Arusei’s third son. His wife died in childbirth, he’s never ehe Jungle.” Kassandora stared at the man bnkly. “Arusei is protective of him, he’s never o be healed by us, I think at least.” Kassandora turned from him to the dot. It eople noroag quick, she wouldn’t have made it back to the pne even if she tried.

  Why did she not ask Arusei? She had assumed that eribe was blessed. How did his son evehrough life without a blessing? Would an unblessed human even work? Kassandora pushed the thoughts of out her mind. Assumptions had to be made sometimes.

  “ANASSA, HEAD TO ARUSEI, BRING HIS THIRD SON HERE, RAPTOR TWO IS IN CR, THAT’S YOUR TRANSPORT, DON’T EVEN TOUCH HIM! CALL KAVAA, GET HER ON IT TOO! ANYTHING UNBLESSED, I DON’T CARE WHO OR WHAT!” Kassandora shouted as she looked at those dots. They were within eyesight now, and she could make them out, a squad of a dozen mages and a God: Waeh, thin and lean and tall, in a simple shawl of dull grey that somehht attention to him, the mages around him were all clothed in their standard battledresses of various colours. “DO NOT E HERE ALONE ANA! DO NOT!” She dropped the call before Anassa could answer back. Whether Waeh’s power could work through the telephone or whether it could not was unimportant. Frankly, now wasn’t a time to find out.

  Kassandora ripped upon her power as arms started to bre throughout the camp, aered the men to retrieve ons and aim and fire. It had taken them less than half a mio traverse the distance from the horizon. Kassandora could issue ands, but she couldn’t make men into Gods. Soldiers secured positions, ran to their tents to pick up their arms, aimed at the skies. Kassandora’s bck armour appeared around her, it cut through the bck coat, shreds of cloth aher fell onto sand pacted by feet. Joyeuse materialized in her hand.

  It wasn’t a pn, but if she was fast enough… She swung the on without even thinking. Mage shields could be peed if she threw it hard enough.

  Waeh’s voied across the camp like the huge bell of a clocktower which told eies the time. “Stop!”

  And everyoopped. As if they had been turo statues. As if their skin had hardened into stone. And Kassandora stopped mid-swing. Her eyes went to Waeh as he hovered in the air. He couldn’t fly at least, that was an exploitable weakness, the mages around him were juring winds for him to stand on. It was obvious from the way his shawl fell around his feet.

  Kassandrit her teeth as Waeh looked over the camp. Sokolowski held his hand over the pistol on his belt, unmoving. Every man Kassandora could see was caught off guard, the few that had guns were frozen like statues, some were drawing them, some were exiting a tent. Some were holding a cigarette. A few had been fast enough to aim, one man, Kassandora could see even had his finger over the trigger.

  But no one moved. Silence desded over the whole camp, the din of life had been silenced entirely, only the gentle breeze over the desert and the crag of campfires could be heard.

  Waeh’s voied again. “Kneel.”

  And Kassandora k.