Kassandora sat down as she typed up a report for Arascus. A letter of request rather. The battle had forced Fortia’s army into retreat, it had been a perfect opportunity for a swift follow-up atta the western army that fielded Zerus and Sceo.

  But that opportunity had ended. Artillery owerful, but it was slow. It ime to set up and time to aim. It devastated ground instead of seg it. She needed new vehicles for this.

  Iliyal leaned ba his office as he sighed. It was a small room, but he had sat in smaller. The furniture in, but he had worked with worse, the TV wasn’t the biggest, but he remembered a time when television was so far-fetched it wasn’t even fantasy. The lights were bright, but he had fought in the shadow of Alsaria’s burning powers. The chair was fortable though, that, he couldn’t pin about.

  Iliyal flicked the TV on as he fioday’s pieces: ‘With this leadership, we even win?’ was the star of the show, a scathing aional critique of Fortia’s ret disaster of a battle although ‘Divine right to die!’ and ‘Sixty thousand for what?’ were also dots he roud of. All catchy slogans, grahose it was his team came up with instead of him. One was being transted into Lubskan, another into Rancais, and thehird into Dosch. Scheduled release was tomorrow evening, it was the end of the work week and people would be settling down to catch up on the hat this week brought. Epa would not be happy, that much he was sure of.

  Iliyal leaned bad made himself another coffee, spruced up with whiskey. Oo keep himself awake, the other to get the words flowing. The simple fact of the matter was that no piece mattered much, the goal was to inundate all of Epa with anti-war rhetoric. The poputions were against the war, but poputions needed an example to follow. In Lubska and in Rancais domestic partisans had already started following Iliyal’s anti White-Pantheon script.

  Iliyal sipped the drink from his gss and listeo the television. “third day of President Artois’ illness, his party has firmed that Artois is rec and will be ab-“ Iliyal switched the el. Illnesses, he cared little about unless someone was going to die or unless it was himself. He switched over to KTV, the three hosts were celebrating, shamelessly waving small Green-Red-Blue trics of Kirinyaa as they recalled the battle that had takewo days ago.

  Kassandora herself had leaked it, although it would have e out eventually. Fortia’s casualties were simply too great to cover up. Already sdal being brewed in Doschia by the retives of the lost. Fortia knew how to fight a military war, that both Kassandora and Iliyal would readily admit. The lot had been insidious, the kitsune spies were unpreted, it was only pure luck that Peace’s n had failed. But a war was not just a series of skirmishes. That was what Kassandora had taught Iliyal, and now Rilia was loosening the Ausa embargo. The death of sixty thousand was a mere drop in the flood of pret King Aimone had just set as he all but gave the middle fio the White Pantheon and their policies.

  One of the Iliyal’s men appeared in the open doorframe to his office. Kassandora had given him thirty at the start, now the number had more than tripled to almost a hundred. Clerics, most of them, although there were a few Kirinyaans who could be entrusted with w at WPW as Kassandora had called them: The ropaganda Wing. Unofficially, they were Nanbasa’s axi pany: The Grands.

  “General.” The man saluted. No one here experienced direbat but Iliyal maintained a level of disciplihat he knew wouldn’t even be seen on the frontlines. Men who sat in fortable seats too long got soft and someoo e with a stid wake them up. Iliyal looked away from the television and sipped his whiskey again. This was Thomas Rauld, from an ex-Allian Clerical Order. Iliyal khe names and profiles of everyone who worked underh him, it art of the reason why expansion had been so slow.

  “At ease.” Iliyal stood up to return the salute. He was a head taller than the man, although he was a head taller than everyone here. If there was anything he’d ge about this assig, it would have been the cover. He enforced a dress code, white shirts and bck trousers, but anything more professional than that would raise questions about what sort of taxi pany they were if everyone was dressed up in suits.

  “I’m ready on the piece to be sent off to Allia. Transted and everything.” Iliyal nodded as he sat back down.

  “You report to Mal, who reports to me.” Iliyal said as his fiapped his wooden desk. Kirinyaan redwood, expensive in Epa but cheap here, fragrant and eye-catg, if not particurly durable. But it didn’t have to be too durable. A pistol was in one of the ets and Iliyal’s sword was always o his seat.

  “Yes General!” Thomas responded. “I do normally, but I got a… a man wishes to see you.” Iliyal raised an eyebrow, his green eyes analysing Thomas as the young man trembled under his gaze. They were all young, the oldest amongst the men under his and was fifty. So not even a tweh of Iliyal’s age.

  “And?” Iliyal asked. Soldiers always uood better when you let them reason their own way into a solution, even if that solution was the most obvious thing on Arda. Of course men wao see Iliyal, he was the Iliyal Tremali. But s of aed for a reason. “ Mal not ha?”

  “Mal is currently at KTV and the man said he ot wait.” Thomas responded quickly, he somehow mao stand even straighter. It was dht amateurish, no soldier should tense so much as to make their own veins pop.

  “At ease.” Iliyal said slowly. If Mal was missing, and Thomas himself wasn’t at the bottom of the dder, then he wasn’t breaking procedure. “Who is it?”

  “He refuses to identify himself.” Thomas answered quickly. “But he did present this.” Thomas pulled out a small badge Iliyal reised instantly. Thomas should have too, but it was just a matter of the man’s inexperience he did not: a medallion of gold, bearing a fl lily. The badge all Rancais gover officials when they entered office. “But he has bodyguards.”

  Iliyal only smiled. How many assassins had held he felled? During the peak of the Great War, it was sidered a slow year if there were only four attempts on his life. “Are they mages?” Iliyal asked, if they were ing with Rancais gover officials, he doubted it.

  “I apologise, but I do not know.” Thomas replied and Iliyal nodded. He sighed and turhe TV off, there wouldn’t be any news on KTV he didn’t know of already. The entire try was celebrating Kassandora’s victory, and they would celebrate for another week until the one came. Fortia and Maisara had been defanged with the losses sustaihe Great War began in the same manner, armies of Divine Orders smashed into each other until both sides had bled themselves dry, then both sides started scripting their peasao bolster their ranks.

  “Do not apologise, if you don’t know then you don’t know.” Iliyal said as he thought about the situation. How was he even found? This o be reported. “Who did they ask for?”

  “The man asked for you, by name.” Iliyal nodded. So he had been found out. So there was a snake or a breach of procedure somewhere. Snakes were on enough, Fer had reported them already. Iliyal sighed again and waved his hand.

  “Send him in, bodyguards too. I don’t mind.” Frankly, if they weren’t mages then they’d be in for a surprise. “Close the door on your way out and make sure everyone looks professional, hide the dots first, make him wait if you o.”

  Thomas saluted, Iliyal returhe salute from his chair and the man turned and marched out of the small office, he pulled the door close as he left. Iliyal immediately tucked the pistol into his belt and narrowed his eyes. He finished his whiskey-coffee and put the bottle oable with anss. His dots were ed up, and Iliyal put a photo of himself and Kassandora onto the table, her arm around him and both of them smiling. It was taken just before he had bee off here. If they knew who he was, they would know of Kassandora’s favouritism of him, but it was better to have a reminder in case anyone did not.

  up sted half an hour. If a guest was unannounced, it was always good to make them wait. That set an immediate hierarchy. They were w around Iliyal’s time. Eventually though, there was a kno the door. It was Thomas again. “General Tremali, you have guests.”

  “Send them in.” Iliyal shouted back as he leaned bato his seat and spread his arms out over the table. The door opened and three meered. Iliyal’s eyes sed the guards immediately, it was a force of habit, but it had saved him more times than he liked to admit. Lean men, obviously fighters. With short hair and hard faces and cold eyes. Mouths tight, that was always a good sign, it meant nervousness. A nervous man was an amateur killer at the most.

  Then he sed the man in the middle, his face was hidden uhe head of traditional desert wear, but the slit for eyes revealed pale Epan skin. The clothes were obviously nothing excellent, a shirt and trousers as any an wore, but en had creases and signs of dirt. Their shoes had dirt, their shirts would be only loosely tucked in, their belts were rarely of real leather. If they had watches, they wouldn’t be a simple silver design that simply reeked of wealth.

  Iliyal stood up, he said nothing, only took long steps towards the bodyguards. A head taller thaher of them, he looked them up and down. Muscled, one man on his shoulder that his shirt failed to hide. The skin was still pink, so it wasn’t any older than a month. Iliyal said nothing, he merely returned back to his seat and sat down with a word, then put his sheathed oable. “Just so we know we’re we are standing, many men have tried to kill me.”

  All eyes went to that bde. One of the guards tightened his fists, then took a deep to calm himself. Iliyal smiled at them as he idly brushed the picture of himself o Kassandora. “You know who I am, I do not talk with people who don’t reveal themselves.”

  The man in the headscarf nodded and took off the garb c his face. A handsome face, but ohat took on an onsught of stress and time that came too quickly. Blue eyes, hair ly styled and skin pale that had been lightly tanned. Iliyal made a terrible smile at the man. “It is my pleasure, President Artois.” Iliyal had seen the man on the news more than a few times, he looked better in real life than he did on there, more real.

  “Likewise, General Tremali.” Artois readjusted his posture and poio the chair in front of Iliyal’s desk. “May I?” Iliyal extended his arm towards the chair.

  “Please do.” The elf poured them both a rge gss of whiskey. “How did you find me?” Artois did not have a calm demeanour in the first pce, but whatever levity the man had, it faded aon hearing Iliyal’s cold tone. “Well?”

  “I asked Helenna.” He replied coyly. Iliyal leaned bad put his hand on the sheath of his sword.

  “You asked Helenna?”

  “I tried discussing the matter first with her. She told me it’s not her department. I asked for Arascus. She said that won’t happen but suggested you instead.” Iliyal’s green eyes merely focused on the man’s blue. That was a story he could believe in. Of course Helenna would know of him, and Helenna wasn’t difficult to find whatsoever, everyone knew where she was staying.

  “Uood.” Iliyal said as he pulled out his phone and searched for Helenna in his tacts. He pressed ring and put it on loudspeaker. The phone buzzed twice before Helenna answered.

  “Hey Iliyal!” Helenna’s voice chirped through the phone as the elf set it down oable. “What are you calling for?”

  “I have a guest.” Iliyal didn’t take his eyes off the bodyguards. One of them shifted under his gaze, the other took a step to the side as if in an effort to dodge it. Amateurs, not soldiers. Police maybe, faced with arresting drunks and not a man chosen by Kassandora.

  “Is it a man?” Helenna asked.

  “It is.”

  “Rancais?”

  “Yes.” Iliyal leaned back. So the man’s story was true.

  “It’s Artois, isn’t it?”

  “It is, did you send him to me?”

  “I did, that’s all I’ll say over the phone.” Helenna said. “And Kass has told me to tell you there’s a ge of pns, you’re to be in two days.”

  “Uood, that’s all.” Iliyal switched the phone off. So Artois had not been lying, Iliyal hadn’t supposed he did, but the after fighting Leona for a tury, he didn’t like to leave anything up to ce. What was not certain was left up to luck, and luck rarely favoured him. “I double check everything, you must uand.” Iliyal said ftly as he sipped his whiskey. Artois had already tasted his.

  Ann of amateurs. Iliyal would never drink from a bottle he didn’t trust unless he saw someone else’s lips touch it first. Artois nodded as if impressed. “I uand perfectly.” The man took a sigh and waved his hand. One of the bodyguards pulled out a folder stuffed with papers from the inside of his shirt and ha to the President of Rancais. “I… well…”

  Iliyal drank some more of his whiskey. The man obviously needed fidence, he sometimes fot what sort of aura he had himself. It was like this in the past when he would enter cities and see people kneel in submission. “I’m not going to kill you. This meeting, I don’t thiher of us have to say is off the record.” Iliyal crossed his arms. “But now that you’ve e, Kassandora and Arascus will both know by the end of the day. I’ll ring both of them the moment you step out of this room in fact. Kassandora is on the frontlines, Arascus is busy managing the war ey. her have time for you, if you wish to rey something, yoing through me.” Iliyal spread his arms out to either side. “So here I am.”

  Iliyal smiled as he leaned bad stared down at the man. The differences i, in age, in experiehe simple fae was an elf and the other a human, that one wasn’t simply blessed but chosen by a major Divine. Some people liked to reason and fiddle words out of others through a slow build of fidence. Iliyal preferred a swift bad that got men into a.

  “Right.” Artois said. “Right, of course.” Iliyal sighed. A politi this was, not a soldier, not a general, not a man of a. A politi through and through, no doubt the man could endlessly scheme sophistry but now that he ced in an enviro unfamiliar, look how he crumbled.

  “So?”

  “This is not my pn.” Artois said. “But I vouch for it. It is signed on by Wissel of Doschia, Jozef of Lubska, Aimone of Rilia, Edward of Allia and myself, representing Rancais.” Iliyal raised an eyebrow.

  “And?”

  “We need ons.” Artois said then caught himself. “We don’t need ons, we need your rifles. Now to manufacture but to use.” Iliyal raised an eyebrow. Was the man joking? Why should he ever give up the rifle design to an Epan nation? Even Kirinyaan engineers had to sign an NDA before they started work on the manufacturing lines. And this man just wahem?

  “Are you joking?” Iliyal said. “Do I eveo expin why you’re not going to receive anything?”

  “This is the pn, you see, our stamps as heads of state. Only we have access to it, unfeable, it’s your copy to keep.” Artois said as he handed Iliyal a piece of paper. The white eagle of Lubska was there, the bck eagle of Doschia, the Allian Lion, Rancais’ fl lily and Rilia’s of towers. They did in fact look real.

  “And this pn?” Iliyal did not even read, he merely tapped the piece of paper, eyes still on Artois. “Sell me on it.” Iliyal doubted Artois would have another word of value to say, but Artois hardened his toook a deep breath and spoke quickly, as if he wao say everything because the voice of cowardi his mind silenced him.

  “We’ve found the location of Arascus’ Divine Armoury. We’re certain it holds the on Ination Divines. We want to free them and use them to have leverage if the White Pareats us as they treat Kirinyaa.” And the man shut up. He took a deep breath and colpsed into the back of his chair, then fihe gss of whiskey. He poured himself another one, drank half of that too.

  Iliyal leaned back, speechless. There would be no phone calls tonight, this sort of information required a face-to-face meeting immediately.

  - - - End of Arc 5: Fires in the Desert - - -