Captain Dougs swerved Raptor Oo the side as Erik once again came into radie. They were both flying over the Jungle and perf scouting runs for the Recmation War. Taking pictures of the terrain with high-resolution cameras and dropping beas that would map out the terrain. It wasn’t glorious work, there was little heroi it and no a, but it was needed work. Better to waste some time on finding them rather than to waste lives or vehicles which would be swallowed up. “How are you doing?” Erik asked over the speaker.

  “Same old, same old.” Dougs replied. “Returning, out of pods. You?”

  “Same.” Erik turned Raptor Two and flew close o Raptor Ohe two bck jets soared over the vast green o below them. “I want a shower.” Dougs agreed with Erik’s se. He had flown in the newer KAF pnes a few times nely to just show the new recruits how to hahem. The ttors simply did not pare to KAF jets. They were faster true, and more manoeuvrable, but they had been desigo ter the Goddess of Luck apparently.

  That meant that the oroni the phe radios and the lights. The radars had been installed after the fact, and it showed. The s were crammed full, every inetal that could have had something installed, did, and it was obvious that the design had ated for none of it. The did have a heater, that too had been installed post-Operation Misfortune, and it had only two settings: Sub-Zero or Oven. “Shower would be good.” Dougs said. He drank some of the stale water as a yellow button by his right thigh lit up. Message ining from ine. Dougs flicked the switch to accept the call. “This is Captain Dougs speaking, round trol was usually a pain in the ass when it came to maintaining proper radio discipline.

  “Ground trol Speaking, both Raptor units hear me, over?”

  “Raptor One, you are loud and clear, over.”

  “Raptor two, same here, over.” Erik added.

  “You have a new mission. Radar picked up movement some two hundred kilometres to your south west. Coordinates should already be transmitted to you. Scout it out, over.” Dougs sighed, frankly this was the st thing he wao be doing right now.

  “Excuse me? Ground trht now? You want us to scout it out?” Erik said over the s.

  “We do.” The radio replied. “Scout it out.”

  “Now?”

  There was a sigh from the other side of the radio. “It’s urgent Raptor Touldn’t be telling you to go on a scouting run with no ammo if it wasn’t.” Dougs sighed as he moved the trol-stick to the right, his bck jet started to turn with him.

  Kavaa looked down the hole as Anassa blinked away from it. One moment, the Goddess of Sorcery was standing there, silhouetted against her red arts as they simply removed dirt from existehe , Anassa was besides them in that horrid dress of red velvet and silk, grabbi another e from Iniri’s tree. “This.” Anassa decred loudly. “Is not work for me.” Fer made a he-he-he of a chuckle as she looked down the cliff.

  Anassa’s sorceries had not dug, nor carved out a se of the soil. They removed a part of the world. They left a smooth surfad a perfect circle on the ground, rge enough to drop aire house in. Every now and then, a gust of wind would blow some dust into the hole but its edge was a sharp and sudden as the edge of a piece of paper. Fer was sitting on it, kig her legs and looking inside. “You’re the best at this, so it’s your job.” Kassandora said as she stood there, in her suit, brilliant red hair casg down her back. “In fact, you’re so good that it would be offensive if we tried to do it, it’s like letting a child cook whilst a master chef is standing by.”

  Kavaa didn’t know if Kassandora meant it or not. The woman said the words without a hint of hesitation or shame, as if she was doing nothing but simply aowledging Anassa’s power. True, the woman was strong, true, there was no one who could make this tunnel as quickly or as effitly as Anassa could, but wasn’t that simply too much? Kavaa herself would holy take it as an insult if Kassandora suddenly started talking about her like that. “Well…” Anassa said smugly. Kavaa sighed, Anassa apparently took it entirely in the opposite way that Kavaa would have taken it. Her cheeks went red with satisfa and she looked at the e from Iniri’s tree. “I guess I have to do it now.”

  “If you don’t save us Ana, then who will?” Kassandora said ftly as she turned looked into the hole. “How far have you gone?” Kavaa peered over the edge herself. As did Iniri, that Goddess made a tiny little branch cmber out of the ground to hold onto as she looked. There was red soil, and then the red soil simply gave way to an o of darkness.

  “Deep I guess.” Anassa replied.

  “You ’t tell?” Kassandora asked.

  “It’s a distance.”

  Kassandora shook her head at the stupidity of the answer. “Yes but is it a long or a short distance?”

  “Depends on who is measuring.” Anassa replied sharply this time and Kassandora sighed in exasperation.

  “Then if you’re measuring Ana, how far is the distance?”

  And Anassa smiled as she threw i slice e into her mouth. “All distances are short to me.” She said, mouth full and swallowed. “That was tasty.” She decred and then cpped her hands. “Right! Breaktime over! Time to get to work, someone has to do it after all!” And Anassa disappeared. She had been stht there one instahen in the , she was gone. Kavaa looked down into the hole, she saw another red sphere of sorcery suddenly appear. There was no charge up, there was no wind, no great intation or scream to let the world know it was about to behold the power of the Goddess of Sorcery. No, it just appeared and started moving downwards, erasing itself and the ground as it went. The only way traovement from it was Anassa’s silhouette from above, idling about as she called on more spheres.

  Fer kicked her legs, swung from side to side and she air. Owice. Thrice, then she leaned bad tilted her head back so that she looked at the rest of team upside down. “She’s dug three-hundred fifty metres about.”

  “Not deep then.” Kassandora said.

  “It’s faster than if I did it though.” Iniri said quietly.

  “How you tell?” Kavaa asked and Fer smiled. The ears on top of her head straightened and her fangs revealed themselves.

  “She’s hit a different kind of stone.” Fer said as she pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from her pocket and threw it at Kavaa. The Goddess of Health caught it and carefully straighte out. It was just an image that had been printed off, an illustration of different ground yers. Kassandave it a gnd stepped away, Iniri stood oip toes and then looked at Fer with awe, brown eyes wide and mouth open.

  “You smell stone?” She asked.

  “It has a smell.” Fer said happily. “Everyone smell soil, it’s the same. The trick is telling them apart.” The sense of smell did not impress Kavaa in the least, she had gotteo it when she had ehe highway with Fer and Iliyal. No, what was impressive was the woman’s fht to predid prepare for this sario. She really did hide a beastly intelligenderh that pretty smile.

  “I have ohing to ask.” Kavaa said, Fer’s vulpine eyes turo her, but it was Kassandora who spoke.

  “Better to get the questions out now than ter. What is it?”

  “We’re going into the Jungle’s roots, right?” Kavaa said.

  “We are.” Kassandora firmed coolly.

  “And what stops Iniri from falling to them again?” Kavaa asked. She turo see Kassandora pointing at Fer. “What is Fer supposed to do exactly?” Kavaa said and Fer made that horrendous he-he-he of a ugh again.

  “You saw me fight the Nationals.” Fer said. “Do you think Iniri will get taken when I’m here?”

  “I don’t like it.” Kavaa said.

  “It’s alright.” Iniri said. “I don’t…” She took a sigh. “Well, I don’t think I stand against it, but I know what it’s like now. I give a warning or something.”

  “Anassa’s here anyway.” Kassandora said. “If Fer ’t do it, which I doubt, but if Fer ’t do it, then Anassa . We’re not going on arip into the Jungle again.”

  “And if we are.” Fer said. “The it as a team-building exercise.” Kavaa supposed there was nothing to say to these women. They were ultimately better at this than she was herself. With Fortia and Maisara and Alsaria, Kavaa had always felt as if her opinions were simply swept away and ignored. her Kassandora nor Fer swept her points away, but with them here, it was hard to think of anything she could add.

  “And Anassa?” Kavaa said. “What if she gets taken.”

  Kassandora looked to Fer and the Goddess of Beasthood shook her head. “She won’t.”

  “She won’t?” Was all Kavaa had to say. She didn’t even make her tone farcical or disbelieving or questioning. It was just… She believed Fer, but she had no reason to believe Fer. That was the issue.

  “I know she won’t.” Fer said, somewhat more disbelieving. “Just like I knew you or Little Kassie wouldn’t, or that Nene would.”

  “Don’t call me that.” Kassandora said quickly.

  “I would never Kassie.” Fer said. Kavaa saw Iniri smile to herself as they watched the two stare at each other. Fer’s eyes casting a horribly smug challenge, Kassandora’s resigned in their annoyance. Fer suddenly burst out in ughter, Kassandora smiled along. And now it was Kavaa who was annoyed. Ahat these two got on so well and she had just spent the past millennium seething in the White Pantheon.

  “How long are we going in for?” Iniri asked.

  “As long as we o.” Kassandora replied. “Nanbasa should be able to hold and there isn’t anything pressing. I’m going to cut it off if we spend a month in there and ’t find anything.”

  “And if we find…” Kavaa trailed off. “Tartarus?”

  “Then we kill areat and Iniri fills up the hole.”

  Iniri shook her head at that. “That’s so simple.” She said.

  “Must it be plicated?” Kassandora asked bad Iniri shook her head even harder.

  “No, I’m not pining.” She spoke gently. “I’m just… It’s just refreshing I think.”

  “You think too much.” Fer said from o them, still looking at them with her head tilted back. Iniri turo her, but she didn’t seem angry or even fused. More as if she had given up.

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’re not the Iniri I knew.” Fer said and she air. “You smell the same, but this isn’t the Mother Nature I fought against back then.”

  “A lot ge in a thousand years.” Iniri said.

  Now Fer shook her decisively, her golden locks brushing against the dark red Kirinyaan soil as she did. “Not us Iniri.”

  “The world has moved on Fer.” Iniri argued back, some fire in her. Kavaa was impressed, no one had ma any sort e out of Iniri for a while now. “It’s only natural that I’ve bee behind.”

  The Goddess of Beasthood only stared the Goddess of Nature down, Kavaa didn’t know if Fer was angry or not, but she obviously was not happy with Iniri’s answer. “If the world’s moved on, then why am I here?” Fer asked. “No Iniri, once, my tigers had sabres for teeth. Now I run with wolves. Yreat forests are gone, but you are still just as present, maybe even more. In the vines and the mosses and the roots that tear up roads. You’re still here.”

  Iniri chuckled dryly. “Fer, I appreciate the support.” Kavaa blinked and took a step back. This was Iniri, but this wasn’t the tone she always used. Not the meek whisper that faded into the background, but the loud speech that Iniri always gave back then. “But I do not . We’re not childre’s not pretend that going from sabretooths to wolves or oaks to vines is anything but a degeion.”

  Fer smiled slyly as she looked at Kavaa. Her eyes glinting with a victorious pride that she had drawn something out of Iniri. “If we’re talking about degeion, we have the gra degee right here.” Fer said, her tail moved to support her bad she poio Kassandora.

  “Expin in what way I have gotten worse, please sister.” Kassandora said, not impressed at all.

  “Let’s not pretend that war is grander now than it was in the Age of Heroes. Where’s the chivalry and galnt knights? The princesses to rescue? The kings to award titles?” Kassandora she air.

  “I’ve distilled my subject down to the bare essentials. War is not chivalry or knights or kings. pare the Age of Heroes to the Great War. Do you think the a fools would have sted even a day? pare them to today, with mass mobilization. What is grahan that?”

  Fer nodded. “I have the same view. The sabretooth killed a man once a month, if that. The mosquito sentences an vilge in a night. The great serpents still live because they accepted they would be huo extin if they kept the os to themselves. The wolf became the dog and ensured permanence for itself.” And Fer looked to Kavaa. “You have it easy.”

  “Do I now?” Kavaa said.

  “Was your demes grander back then?” Fer asked.

  “With vilge healers and travelling doctors and healing magic?” Kavaa asked sarcastically. “Romantic, yes, but grander?” Kavaa shook her head. “The greatest thing the hospital has done is freed me from the annual pilgrimages to ter the winter flu.”

  Fer turo Iniri. “And there’s your answer. We’ve all grown less romantic, more jaded, but that’s how the world is. Back then, you had yrand forests, now, you have mold in the walls. Less romantic? Definitely, but don’t tell me it’s less effit in bat.”

  Iniri merely shrugged. “The entire world isn’t about fighting Fer. Am I deadlier? Most likely.” Iniri showed off her fingers and a root exploded out of the ground. “But do I want to be?”

  “Just because your deadly doesn’t mean you’re a killer.” Fer said. “And if you weren’t deadly, you’d be harmless. Who will respect a harmless Goddess?” Kavaa nodded along, maybe she was simply as jaded as Fer was. Maybe they had simply lived too long. Whatever it was, she found herself agreeing.

  She was about to speak, but Anassa suddenly appeared, she was still as perfect as ever, so she may as well have just stepped out of shower, her hair still gleaming. She looked around for Iniri’s e tree. Saw it. Snapped her fingers. An e shot out of the tree and nded in Anassa’s grasp. The Goddess of Sorcery looked down on them all from above. “Breaktime?” Fer asked.

  Anassa tore the e apart and dropped the skin into that abyssal pit she had just carved out. “Whilst all of you were busy rationalizing your existential dreads up here, I’ve been w.”

  “And?” Kassandora asked.

  “And we’re through.” Anassa said as she threiece of fruit into her mouth. “I’ve just hit carved stone. Fer was correct, it’s dwarves.”