The Greatest Sin [Progression Fantasy][Kingdom Building]
Chapter 271 – The Best There Is

Ciria stared at the book on her table. A string had been pulled here, a favour called in, a call to prestige had been made. And so, she had found of the few copies in existence. It wasn’t to learn, it was simply to understand what sort of opponent she was ging up against.

Ciria took a deep breath and ran her finger down the cover of the book. Old, and made of real leather. She opened the first page and began to read the preface:

‘This preface will be short in the style of the entire book. It is not an apology for the lack of clarity in the book, it isn’t something as silly as a warning either. Instead, it is a dismissal for you, the reader. Some people will understand this intuitively, some people will need years of explanations. I am the Goddess of War, I work with what I have, I am not here to teach in the same fashion other Divines do. I have never been a teacher, I am a forge that takes men and remakes into something greater. This book is not some great work of self-discovery, it is not meant to raise questions, it is written to be taken as literally as a dictionary.’

‘I do not write in metaphor. I only use allegory for ease of explanation. I mean every word written on this page, as it is written. This book is a manual to war.’

Ciria closed the book. Already she felt sick and it was a thick tome too. She stared at the title, Kassandora’s magnum opus: The Philosophy of War.

Kassandora and Malam once against burst out in laughter as they exchanged yet another set of comments full of nothing but utter spite and bile. This time, Malam was talking about Kassandora’s followers and Kassandora was boasting about how people wanted to follow her, whereas all that Malam could do was flash a leg and hope the men were particularly thirsty.

And Elassa trailed behind them. Half in disbelief with the way that Of War and Of Hatred were treating each other, half in disbelief about the fact she was actually walking through a dwarf hold and half in disbelief about the fact that she didn’t feel as if she was walking into a trap. The dwarves themselves were practically invisible as they parted for Malam. The heavy plate armour, layer upon layer of sheet metal that must have been at least a finger-width thick, obscured them. Spears that reached up to Malam’s height, and tower shields that were almost perfect squares, to cover the stunty little half-man entirely.

And they said nothing.

Elassa could not even hear them breathe.

It was one thing to not barge in between Kassandora and Malam when they were having their little… argument? Bonding session? That sounded more like it, when they were having their little bonding session. But when Elassa started through the visor of a dwarven helmet and saw absolutely nothing, she felt a chin run down her spine. “Are they alive?” Elassa asked the two in front of her.

And now Kassandora stopped, she dropped down into a squat and inspected one of the dwarves. “I just thought they were disciplined.” She poked the armour. The dwarf did not react. “Not a very good soldier, is it?”

“They’re dead men walking.” Malam said. “I explained to Kavaa already.”

“Well I’m not sorry for not being Kavaa princess.” Kassandora said as Malam chuckled and stopped. She turned on her spot, her white hair moving in a wave as she sighed. Elassa had always been jealous of hair as pristine as that, and then she realised she was doing to Malam exactly what she had done to Kassandora.

“They’re animated skeletons.” Malam said as she bent down and grabbed one of the helms. Her other hand went back around the neck, something clicked, and Malam picked the helmet up. Elassa noticed the Goddess was not fully extending her arm to demonstrate. It must have been heavy then. “My idea Kassie, you know that?”

“Not Iri’s?” Kassandora asked as she looked at the dwarf with the helmet removed. It was a suit of armour with a skeleton inside, although the skeleton was pulsing with carefully inscribed runes. Elassa recognized some of them, Arcadia was the Archive of Arda after all. There wasn’t a type of magic that wasn’t mentioned there. Dwarven Runology had a small building dedicated to it, although almost all the knowledge within it was either composed during the Great War, or immediately in the years after it.

The runes pulsed, from green to blue to yellow to orange to red to green again. They emitted a pale glow in the underground of these tunnels, although the torches fixed to the hold gate, and the light pouring in through the arrow slits did good to push the darkness away. “Not Iri’s.” Malam confirmed, her voice tinged with pride.

“I’m surprised you could think of something so useful for fighting.” Kassandora said.

“I’ll take that as a compliment.” Malam replied.

“It was.” Kassandora replied earnestly, still inspecting the dwarf. “Can he take the armour off? How is it made?” Elassa shook her head. Of course the woman could get excited, but she didn’t she would have ever seen her become so childish.

Malam sighed heavily, as if the simple idea of needing to think about how to explain was a huge pain for her. “We needed manpower.” She said simply. “Automatons need the Worldcore to be recharged. Something had to be done.”

“And?” Kassandora grabbed the dwarf’s skull and tilted it back. She looked inside the suit of armour.

“Oh so it’s fine when you ask questions?” Malam said. “Yet when I asked about names you got fed up?”

“Mmh.” Kassandora said. “So you don’t know how it works.”

Malam quirked a smile. “I do.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Then don’t.” The Goddess of War finally stood up from inspecting that dwarf and Malam but the skeleton’s back onto his armour.

“You don’t.”

“I’m not going to prove it to you.” Malam answered.

“Because you can’t.” Kassandora taunted. And to think that just minutes ago, they were having this same conversation but reversed.

“Do you expect me to shout at you Kassie?” Malam said as she turned back around. “Me? At my lovely sister?” Malam walked off, her snow-white hair trailing off behind her all the way past her waist. “Never.”

“She doesn’t know.” Kassandora said to Elassa as they started walking inside the Hold. An active hold, a proper habituated hold. Elassa’s eyes tried to devour all the scenery at the same time, bridges upon bridges, as if they were overlapping sticks that had been tumbled onto each other. There were grand forges with real dwarves working there. But they too had the animated skeletons helping.

For every smith working over a forge, the furnace not flame but magma, there were two dozen skeletons all slowly shuffling as they ferried iron back and forth. The smiths all looked up, some even dropped their hammers, one fell to his knees. Some of them ran off. “Officially, Divines aren’t under their jurisdiction.” Malam said.

“Officially.” Kassandora said. Elassa caught it too, the word ‘officially’ only existed to state the opposite.

“Unofficially, I’m the grand court.” Malam said and Kassandora chuckled.

“Quite a position you’ve worked out for yourself.”

“It’s been a thousand years, it’d be disappointing if I couldn’t.”

“And Iri?” Kassandora asked. Elassa was still in disbelief that they could so casually be talking about the Irinika. The Irinika which the White Pantheon had spent centuries chasing after, who one day seemingly vanished, never to be seen again. It had almost driven Allasaria mad.

“Iri’s job is being Iri.” Malam replied.

“Classic.”

Elassa had to intervene. “What does that mean?” It wasn’t… She was here too! She was the Goddess of Magic! Both of these were mere ants in terms of power when compared to Elassa, and they were acting as if Elassa had disappeared!

“Lead Champion.” Kassandora said flatly as Irinika turned down a corner. This area had a corridor that lacked on wall. Instead, it had a railing, which revealed a pit that was filled with huge stockpiles of raw iron ore. Animated skeletons were bring it here, tugging minecarts across the ground and then emptying them, as more were ferrying materials away, most likely to the forges. “This a mining hold?”

“For iron mainly.” Malam said. “It’s a small one though, there’s only eight hundred and thirty-one living dwarves here, then about ten thousand dead. It’s this way.” Malam turned down the door to a small corridor.

“Where are we going?” Elassa asked.

“To fetch Kavaa and Iniri sweetheart.” Malam cooed and Elassa felt a shudder go down her spine. No one talked to her like that. Absolutely no one, not even Anassa. It was… disturbing.

“We’ll need to go back as soon as possible.” Kassandora said. “I’d prefer if not dwarves come out with us either, if they get spotted on the surface, it wouldn’t be good.”

“Apparently the surface doesn’t know that Tartarus is on Arda.” Malam said. “Is that true?”

“No one does. It was Kavaa, Fer & Iliyal who found them.” Malam chuckled for a moment.

“What a team.”

“Iliyal says Kavaa is quite good actually.” There was something annoying in that too. Elassa didn’t know why she was jealous that one of Kassandora’s generals was complimenting someone else, but she was. She knew she shouldn’t be, but it was one thing to realise an emotion, it was another entirely to control it like that.

“Well she is a mini-you.” Malam said.

“That doesn’t even fucking mean anything.” Kassandora replied heavily.

“It means she’s like you but not as extreme.” Malam said. “Very honest too, that was surprising.” And again Elassa looked at Malam without being able to pin the woman down. From scathing comments to shameless rage-bait to compliments like this? They turned down a corridor and started walking up a staircase.

“Kavaa is honest?” Elassa asked.

“I know!” Malam said. “I was shocked too!”

“No.” Elassa said. “I mean, Kavaa has always been honest.”

“That makes one of us.” Malam replied quickly.

“I’m honest!” Elassa didn’t know why she said that. Was she starting to like this woman? Her and Kassandora were funny together. Maybe she was just jealous of their bond? But then who wouldn’t? Bonds like that did not exist in the Pantheon.

“Ah.” Malam said. “I was born yesterday too, did you know that?” Her voice was full of sarcasm but Elassa didn’t take offense. She almost appreciated the mockery, it was as if Malam was treating her just as she treated Kassandora. “I’ve pestered Ana enough about you Ela.” She turned back and smiled. “You two have similar names, don’t you?” Elassa blinked, she almost missed in the stairs of smooth stone, cut directly into the earth. She had to grab her blue dress to calm down and looked at Anassa, Of Hatred was smiling as she inspected the reaction. “How cute.” She said.

And Elassa blushed. Why she blushed, she did not know, but she didn’t think anyone had ever called cute. Not once in her entire miserable existence. “I just thought it was coincidence.” Kassandora said from the side. “But now that you say it…” She trailed off.

“How do you know?” Elassa asked and Malam burst out in laughter.

“You gave it away!” She said and then turned to Kassandora. “Of course you’d never think on it.”

“It’s just names, not particularly important, is it now?” Kassandora said.

“You’ve never thought about it?”

“Am I the type to Malam?” Kassandora asked. “Do I care? Does it matter whether it’s Anassa or Pam?” Malam chuckled as she shook her head.

“This is why you can’t lead the home front.”

“I destroy home-fronts.”  Kassandora said. “It doesn’t matter how mine is fairing when the enemy doesn’t have one.”

“WAIT!” Elassa said. “How!? With the names?”

“You confirmed it for me.” Malam said as if she was a teacher explaining a particularly simple problem for the dozenth time. “By asking me how I know? I know nothing Elassa, I just guessed because I know Ana.” Malam explained and Elassa felt her cheeks go red in fury. It was one of the few things that simply boiled her blood in rage, she could accept Anassa overpowering her, she could not accept the utter audacity of Of Sorcery to try and claim Of Magic’s name. “Even now.” Malam continued. “I know that this explanation, how utterly simple it is, and how silly you are for confirming it, will get you mad. Me explaining this reasoning will annoy you too.” Malam was right in all regards. It set an inferno alight in Elassa’s stomach. “Grand Goddess of Magic, Archivist of Arda, how many books have you read? Probably more than all of us put together.”

“Just because you’re illiterate doesn’t mean I am.” Kassandora interrupted.

“I’ve read more books than people you’ve killed.” Malam replied, Kassandora opened her mouth, closed it, and gave up. It was the first time Elassa ever saw Kassandora be caught for a lack of words. “But as I was saying Elassa, you are easy to read.”

“Am I?”

“An open book.” Malam said and Kassandora sighed, shaking her head. The Goddess of Magic turned to the woman.

“Am I Kass?”

“You’re not particularly hard.” Malam chuckled as they turned another corner.

“Don’t feel bad though Ela.” She cooed from ahead, now they were starting to head down. “We’re the best there is.”

“There’s Fer.” Kassandora said.

“But Fer can’t read how we do.” Malam said. “Fer can say the words she reads on the page, we can interpret.” Suddenly, the Goddess of Hatred stopped in front a door, a huge, heavy steel one forced into the stone. “Where are we?” She asked.

Elassa did not know why, but she wanted to beat Kassandora now. She looked at the heavy steel door in the wall and said the first thing that came to mind, before she even considered all the possibilities, she answered. “Kavaa’s cell.”

“What a smart girl you are.” Malam cooed. “I’ve moved Iniri over here too.” Elassa had to turn around to hide her blush as Malam opened the door to Kavaa’s cell. It swung open to the sound of two people catching their breath inside.

And when Elassa saw Kavaa and Iniri, both huddled on the bed, sharing a piece of cloth together, when she saw the expressions, the two pairs of shocked eyes run away in fear from Malam, then focus on Kassandora. She saw Kavaa’s eyes light up with pure joy that they were meeting someone other than Malam. Maybe Helenna, Elassa could understand. That Goddess had always been emotional and expressive, Iniri too. Iniri had been broken by years in the Pantheon, but Kavaa? Dulled from her years as a healer, able to stand to almost anything and everything? Kavaa, who had led her Clerics onto Olympiada? Kavaa was terrified?

Elassa’s eyes passed over to Malam. Her black eyes were shining, and that mouth was turned up into a smile.  Even though they had just been chatting with each other, the illusion shattered. There was no physical change, but now that Elassa looked, the white hair was more reminiscent of a sickly pale rather than pure snow, those eyes were no longer beautiful dark gemstones, they were endless abysses. That smile was all knowing in its sadistic glee.

Elassa never got scared, but the fact that this monster was worming her way into Elassa’s heart was terrifying.