The Greatest Sin [Progression Fantasy][Kingdom Building]
Chapter 316 – The (Not Imperial) War College of Arcadia

Malam finished off another piece. In Doschian this time, this marked number seventeen. She checked the time, three hours on the dot. Malam scowled, she had just missed out on averaging one piece every ten minutes. This should be enough nevertheless.

She had seen what Iliyal had done with his propaganda corps. That had been good, but it was amateurish. Simple argumentation on that level and making a fool of others worked, but the man had no imagination. Propaganda did not need to make sense, propaganda simply needed to get an emotional response. The ‘how’, the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ did not matter. Rage, sadness, depression, fatigue, revanchism, lust, it could all be directed by a skilled hand.

Malam stared at the papers she had written: ‘The independence problem’, ‘Let’s talk about Wissel’, ‘How I fell out of love with the Coalition’, ‘Why Pro-Pantheon support still exists’, ‘An economy collapsing’, ‘The Shock-Therapy we need’, ‘Economic Miracle’, ‘The Lubskan Disaster’, ‘The Mastermind of the Eight Legion has won in Lubska’, ‘What to do with the rabid isolationists of Epa?’, ‘Let’s just say it how it is’, ‘Traitors within our ranks’, ‘What sort of Military tolerates Traitors?’, ‘The Coalition Needs a Crackdown’.

Each one somehow contradicted another piece, but it didn’t matter. Helenna had the needed contacts; Malam would be able to get names off that Goddess and sneak at least half of these into major Epan news. She quickly opened a bottle of vodka and took a sip. Her first sip of the day, after three hours of work. That was a recent record frankly, but she always drank less when Arascus gave her an exciting job to do.

And what was more exciting than teaching an entire continent to Hate?

Arascus left the plane in Arcadia’s airstrip. Airstrip was the correct word here, as the place was far too small to be considered an airport. It had a small office to take guests and several hangars to park the planes, all made out of stone that looked as if it had been pulled out of the ground rather than bricks arranged in place. There wasn’t a single crack anywhere on the walls, and they flowed and twisted rather than having harsh corners, as if the structures were all one giant piece of rock. Statues of various mages and of Elassa were atop each hangar and the red and purple Worldbreaking banner of Elassa hung on every building.

Several mages rushed out to meet Arascus as the pilot turned the jets of the plane off. Elassa had been informed he was coming, but he didn’t say anything about needing special accommodation. Frankly, he preferred if the woman simply kept on working on rebuilding Arcadia. Some things did not need grand processions to herald their arrival, there were no trumpets or songs to signal the coming of the Sun either. And what outshone the Sun? “Greetings.” One of the magicians said. A man in his middle age, with specks of grey in his chin and his beard, dressed in a deep blue, although the edges of his clothes were lined with purple. Arascus noticed all the magicians had that purple-lined style of uniform, even if the style of dress differed. “I am Mage Aubin, Director of the Hydromancy College of Arcadia.” The man kneeled, as did the seven others behind him.

“Stand and take me to Elassa.” Arascus said. Aubin immediately, nodded, turned around and started to lead off. Arascus supposed that since he was here, he could at least gleam some information about the state of Arcadia. Helenna had already sent a report which gave a basic rundown on the situation here, as did Elassa, but there was no source as reliable as the mortals who actually lived here. “Have things changed since the split?”

“We’re waiting on news regarding it.” Aubin replied. The man had to speak loudly as the top of his head barely made it past Arascus’ legs. He must have spent a while dealing with Elassa though, if he was this comfortable in dealing with Divinity. Although as Director of a College, he probably did. “We’re actually getting some returnees.” Aubin said. “Although it’s less than we’d like admittedly.”

“Build something for them worth returning to and they’ll come.” Arascus said. Realistically, most would go to Allasaria’s new Colleges of Magic. Helenna had somehow managed to figure out the new regimen for those schools, and it was more in line with the Arcadian pacifism of last year. Those schools would have to be dismantled to be replaced by a proper structure, although Arascus had his own plans.

As he walked through the great Arcadian fields and gardens, he reminisced about the last time he had seen this place. When was that even? Before the Great War, when Elassa had been holding a banquet for the marriage of two prodigies. Arcadia had been smaller than, far more exclusive than it was in the age of Pantheon Peace.

Arascus looked at the grand dorms. They looked like city blocks, each one sculpted out of wood and brick and clay and stone that joined onto each other as if the wood was part of the stone. As if the brick had somehow sprouted from the wood. The windows of the glass with small roofs overhanging or leafy canopies were grand and beautiful. There were twisting towers in the background and bridges leading to nowhere and statues that looked like a spell which had been frozen in time. It was a magical place, nothing here could have been built without magic, that much was for certain.

Arascus looked at it all, and Arascus smiled to himself.

Elassa must hate it.

Where were the topless towers that looked down upon the clouds? The grand leyline conduits that had served as inter-country artillery? The white marbles and slates, only white and black to symbolize the absolute power of magic? What were these colours? And trees? Did Iniri design Arcadia in the post-war? Most importantly though, where was the pride of Arcadia? The buildings as they stood needed magic to be built, but they were warm and abstract and inviting. They were things to gaze upon in awe. This wasn’t Arcadia, this was some imitation of it. He remembered that time he been here. That time, men would cover their eyes to make sure that their sorry gazes did not besmirch the sheer impossibility that Arcadia exuded.

 A few buildings still held resemblance to their past. The gardens still held evidence that it was Elassa living here, they were clean fields with benches and arranged trees and gentle bridges in an old style that the Goddess of Magic had always liked. Arascus recognised what once was the First College of Arcadia, for the most talented that resided here.

“What’s that?” He asked and pointed to the huge building. It obviously stood out in architectural style. The windows were tall, the walls were taller. The roof was steep, the corners were sharp. The decorations were gargoyles and statues. Arascus wondered if those were still active guards or if Elassa had to replace them due to Pantheon Peace.

“That’s the Staff Building.” Aubin replied. “The Goddess is residing there.”

Some things did not change then.

Arascus let himself be guided through the First College of Arcadia, even though he remembered the way to Elassa’s office back in the day. Inside, there were glimmers of the old college. Paintings of Worldbreaking hung on the wall, wizards in colourful robes casting their hands into the air and calling down great balls of fire. Silhouettes watching cities aflame, oceans being parted to make ways for great groups of people. Even a few of the first combat magicians after Worldbreaking, when Fer’s warherds had started their long marches of ruination. Up the stairs, to the left. Past several statues, those had unchained. Even the carpets had been remade in the old noble style.

And finally, Aubin paused before a grand wooden door. He turned and bowed. “Goddess Elassa is inside.” Arascus supposed he should knock. Some people, he would knock for, but Elassa? Well, she should be kept happy he supposed, but she was one of those types who demanded knocking which in turn made him not to want to do it.

“Come in!” Elassa shouted from inside.

Arascus opened the door and felt as if he had stepped back into the past. The floorboards of an old, dark wood, the fireplace that was empty, but had fresh ash within it. The purple and red warbanners hanging off the walls. Even the view from this window was one of an Arcadia old, with just flowers and trees and fields were a meagre few students walked about. Elassa had a grand desk grown by magic and adorned as if by a quiet noble. Gemstones were spaced out around the edge although never too close together as to be garish, and the wood around them swirled with patterns that had been filled in by tiny trails of silver. Elassa herself sat in a seat grand enough for Arascus to comfortably fit into. She was in a black uniform and white undershirt and she sat there, obviously frustrated about something. “I see you’re happy about something.” Arascus said and the woman rolled her bright blue eyes.

Arascus went and got a large chair. The tiny details of Elassa were here too. A wine bottle by the fireplace, another next to her desk. A glass half-full with it. Elassa said nothing, she just slid a piece of paper over to Arascus. Allia graciously asks for Arcadia’s generosity. There was more text underneath, but it could be summed up simply. “They want magicians to grow crops.” Arascus said and Elassa made a wordless nod.

Arascus continued immediately even though inside, he was already getting annoyed at the woman’s performance. Did she lose the ability to speak? Was it that much to simply say she didn’t want to deal with something like this? “You don’t want to give them any mages.” Elassa once again closed her eyes and made a swift nod. And once again, those eyes focused on Arascus.

And once again, the God of Pride felt some quiver of annoyance in his stomach. He knew that the moment he offered Elassa help, she would deny it. It was that sort of terrible personality. Fer was similar, apart from the fact Fer simply felt bad whenever someone had to help her and not the other way around. Arascus reframed the offer in a way that he could side-step into the dealings. “I see they skipped our foreign affairs department.”

And Elassa finally spoke up. “Why did this even land on my desk?” The moment she opened her mouth, the dam shattered and her emotions spilled out. “I have enough on my plate as it! There’s a college to rebuild! Arcadia has lost more than ninety-percent of its mages! It’s not even that Allasaria has taken them! They just went home! They went home! Can you imagine that? You’re a magician and you decide that me, that Elassa, Goddess of Magic herself, is not good enough for you! What does this utter vermin trash even think? That they’re too good for me? It’s like rejecting Divinity! That’s what it is! It’s like being handed the offer to become a God and turning your nose up at it!”

She scowled, made some terrible raspy sound with her throat and drank some more of her wine. Poured it into herself would be the better way to describe that action though, that certainly wasn’t drinking. “And then these people send me a letter! Oh please your gracious highness! Oh please, our King did say that you did absolutely nothing to help us out. Yes, he did call you a useless degenerate on the news! Yes please Miss! Please go ahead and help us! Please.” She poured the rest of the glass into herself and re-filled it with red wine as she kept on talking. “Who do these people think they are? Honestly! I know I’m not part of the Pantheon but Richard named me specifically several times in his speech!”

Arascus only made wordless sounds that indicated he was listening, but her vent. “I know I’m not part of the Pantheon anymore! Yes, of course, now this garbage.” She tapped the letter. “Now this garbage comes to me and says oh we didn’t mean that.” Once again the nasally voice came out. “Oh no great apologies Ela, great apologies, we didn’t mean that. Those parts were we specifically called you a useless mascot was actually referring to the White Pantheon as a whole, no, us? Never. We’ve always loved you Ela. We’re your biggest supporters!”

Elassa finished pouring into her glass and then poured some straight from the bottle and into herself. “And they’ve not even had the decency of payment! What? Just a favour? What can an utterly useless failed state of a country give me as a favour? Oh no! But they’ve othered a worthless currency about to enter a hyper-inflation crisis as payment! Great! Wow!” Elassa shook her head and calmed down.

Finally, her tone returned to dry and quiet. “The most offensive thing about the whole thing is that they offered payment in debt that’s not tied to inflation. Do they honestly think I am so backwards that I don’t realise that the millions they offer me won’t be worth the paper it comes on in a year’s time?”

Elassa sighed. She looked into her glass and merely stared into the wine, not taking anymore drinks. Arascus was impressed by that. Most of his daughters lacked the self-control to be able to leave a glass of wine standing. The Goddess of Magic leaned back. “So?” She asked. “What do you want? Everything is terrible. I have no good news to offer. Helenna is spying on me. How? I don’t know, but I know she is so I assume you already know the situation I’m in. It’s terrible. All of it. The more I learn about what has happened, the worse it gets.”

Arascus could sense that Elassa needed to vent. That earlier outburst was merely the tip of the ice-berg. He shrugged and spoke earnestly so that the woman wouldn’t feel her intelligence slighted. It was of course, he just didn’t want her to realise. “Helenna has little to say about Arcadia. She just summed it up to me.”

“How?” Elassa demanded.

“Situation is fucked beyond all hope.” Elassa snorted with laughter and shook her head.

“Helenna didn’t say that.”

“I summarized.” Arascus said and the woman smiled.

“Well it’s not wrong.” Elassa admitted. She sighed and tapped the paper. “Should I deny this?”

“You should deny simply out of the fact they skipped our foreign affairs department.” Arascus said and Elassa smiled again.

“And if they ask where foreign affairs is?”

Arascus shrugged innocently. “Where ever Malam is? Maybe wherever Helenna is? How are you supposed to know that?”

Elassa smiled at Arascus, opened a drawer in her desk, and pulled out another glass of wine. She poured it full and slid it along the table for Arascus without him even asking. “That’s a grand idea.” Elassa said. “And that’s how Divines should act.”

“Oh?” Arascus asked as he took a taste of the wine. “You have good taste.”

Elassa smiled proudly. “I have the best taste.” She said. “Not the pretentious Rancais Purple, this is Arcadia-brewed, domestically produced, from the grapes and plums we use to the fermentation. Everything in house. Helenna can shove her own wine up her ass at how good this is.” Arascus playfully laughed at the woman and let her go on. “But with the Allians, they’re actually here already. I just had them waiting because I didn’t know how to phrase a denial to them and I didn’t want to shout.”

“Well we have it now, don’t we?” Arascus said.

Elassa smiled and took another sip of the wine. “It’s exactly the sort of dismissiveness a Divine should have.” She said. “Who do they think they are even? They actually thought they could barge in like this?”

Arascus steered her in the correct direction. “They’re probably thinking this is a dilemma for you.”

“Exactly!” Elassa said. “When in reality, it’s just me being stunned at their stupidity.”

“Arcadia isn’t a charity that negotiates with people.” Arascus said and Elassa made a terrible chuckle.

“We don’t have to rub it in now, do we?” She said.

And that was how one got someone to agree to something. Elassa had a temper and if Arascus told her to keep it under control, she would be even more aware of her own annoyance. Now though? Well now the woman was simply being haughty. Arascus knew how diplomacy worked, a Divine shouting at a diplomat signalled the end of relations for a century at least, a Divine being so high and mighty that they didn’t even take notice though? Well, that was par for the course. “Of course we don’t, but if want an audience with you, then they should have gone through the proper channels.”

Elassa smiled at Arascus, hiding her lips in her wine glass. “Now you’re just buttering me up.” She said.

Arascus sensed the challenge in her words immediately. What did she think he would do? Back down? “I think after a millennium under Allasaria, you could use some butter.”

Elassa smiled and drank some more. “I can’t say I don’t enjoy it.” She admitted, but those blue eyes locked coldly on Arascus as they scanned his. “But why did you come here?” Her finger tapped the letter. “Surely you didn’t think I would be so inept I wouldn’t be able to send away some diplomats.”

Elassa was, in fact, far too inept to be trusted with sending away diplomats. She didn’t have Anassa’s self-assuredness and pretention. Anassa would not get angry because the woman thought herself too good to get angry at mortals, Elassa had no such qualms about what Divinity should act like. But Arascus knew that this question would be asked sooner or later, so he had prepared. Elassa may have been diplomatically inept, but stupid was precisely the last thing he would call her. “I had something to discuss that was more important than this.” Arascus tapped the letter from Allia. “And now, I have a lull in work so there’s time to discuss this.”

“This sounds like you’re about to propose to me.” Elassa said flatly.

“I have eight daughters who would skin me alive if they so much as thought about you being called Mother.” Elassa’s eyes widened and she shook her head, realising what she said.

“I was joking!” Elassa quickly said. “No! No no! I’m not that old!”

Arascus laughed it off, but it had been good to see what the woman thought of the idea. “Anassa would be the worst probably.”

“She’d kill me.” Elassa said dryly. “She would quite honestly barge in here, tell me I’ve poisoned your mind, and kill me.”

“It is about Anassa though.” Arascus said. He had thought up of it on the way here, it would have to be about Anassa, because that was the only reason that a conversation like this should be done face-to-face and not on the phone. “I know her side of ascension, what’s your side of it?”

Elassa stared at Arascus for a moment and sighed. “Is it bad if I don’t know?” She replied. Arascus had expected such an answer. Anassa herself didn’t really know what happened, she simply had deluded herself so greatly that she woke up one day and realised she was Divine, unaware of when she had actually become Divine.

Arascus sighed and shook his head. “Has she told you how she did it?”

“She doesn’t know herself.” Elassa said. “From my perspective, she went off one day, still as Aggriyana, then returned eight years later.” The woman blushed a terrible scarlet. “And she called herself the next Elassa, Goddess of Magic and Sorcery.” Arascus chuckled and Elassa went even more red. “It’s not funny in the slightest. Imagine if someone suddenly turned up at your door and started calling themselves Arascus, God of Pride.”

“I’m irreplaceable.” Arascus said confidently. “But I wasn’t laughing at you. That’s just classic Ana. She’s told me the same thing.”

Elassa shook her head. “Then we had a fight. I told you this before. We fought a lot, eventually I beat it out of her and she changed the E-L to an A-N, that was supposed to be a favour to me because at first, she wanted to just be Alassa.”

“It’s the most disappointing story of ascension into Godhood imaginable.” Arascus said and Elassa slammed her fists onto the table.

“I know!” Elassa said. “The fucking woman just woke up one day, looked down at herself and realised she was huge! She’s not a short Divine either! How did she not notice that she was twice the height a person suddenly?”

Arascus chuckled. “She’s not stupid, but I can honestly see her missing something like that.” Elassa rolled her eyes. “She can’t work a phone either.”

“Not surprising.” Elassa said. “But that’s all I know, honestly.”

“I believe you.” Arascus said. He actually did. “I was asking because in the past, we were doing ascension experiments with her.” Elassa’s eyes suddenly focused as she looked at Arascus.

“We came across laboratories after the Great War.”

“I was going to ask if you had any papers.”

“Allasaria destroyed most of them.” Elassa said. “The ones I found, I have locked away in my own library. You didn’t have much success.”

“We did not.” Arascus admitted. There was no reason to hide it if Elassa had read them. “But now we have more testing material.”

Elassa looked at Arascus for a moment, he could almost see the gears turning in her head as she thought. “Neneria?”

“Neneria.” Arascus said. “She has over thirty-three million souls.”

Elassa took a deep breath. “It’s an interesting proposition Arascus. I saw Siranius’ papers on this.” Siranius had once been the greatest sorcerer alive, second only to Anassa herself. “But Anassa is fundamentally unique through the method she ascended in. And I have one more thing to say about this case of mass ascension.”

“What?” Arascus asked.

“We lucked out with Anassa because it’s Anassa.” Elassa said. “But if Anassa was less co-operative, if she had never been reliant on me as a mentor.” Elassa leaned and raised a challenging eyebrow to Arascus. “Which she was, I was her teacher when she was a mortal.”

“I’m not arguing Elassa.” Arascus said.

“And if she never found you and joined the ranks of daughter-Goddess. Well…” Elassa said. “She’d be a problem, wouldn’t she? She’s stronger than most Divines who came about naturally.”

“I don’t know if this is in the papers you found or not.” Arascus said. “But this is one of the issues we struggled with. It’s one thing to create a Divine, and we were confident we could repeat an Anassa, but we don’t want to.”

“You mean Kassandora doesn’t want to?” Elassa asked.

“Me and Kassie.” Arascus said and Elassa laughed. Now, the God made a questioning face.

“It’s just funny to me that all of you call her Kassie when she almost wiped us out.” Elassa said. “That’s all.”

Arascus continued then. “We want to perform magical militarization again, but with Divinity.”

“That is something.” Elassa said.

“We’d need the support of Arcadia.” Arascus said. “And not lightly, a few mages here and there. Preferably, a laboratory would be established here because of the leyline confluence.”

Elassa smiled at that suggestion. “Arcadia has always been at the forefront of magic.”

Arascus nodded. “In regards to this, I was going to tell you sooner or later, we’re not going to repeat this idea of the giga-Arcadia that existed during Pantheon Peace. I’d rather establish regional Imperial Colleges of magic.” He didn’t know if Elassa would like the idea or not, so he pre-emptively threw her the bone. “In that, we’d have combat-mage mills and you would have an Arcadia to do with as you see fit. Not my demesne, it would be like Kassie and War or Ana and Sorcery. I will simply keep my nose out of Arcadia, but I want the Imperial Colleges in return.”

The Pantheon-Peace era Arcadia was inefficient for one, and it centralized far too much power in Elassa’s hands. But it also kept power out of the woman’s hands too, since it was just one institution that, although officially was under Elassa, had been closely watched by the Pantheon. Frankly, it was a terrible system, with two sides that were vying for control and sabotaging the other. But Arascus knew that if he let that giga-Arcadia exist again, all that would change is that he would be keeping an eye on Arcadia instead of Allasaria.

Elassa took a deep breath, her eyes fixed on Arascus’ “Is this the plan?”

“Yes.” Arascus replied definitely. “You can assist in the Imperial Colleges, but they will be bureaucratic institutions, not your school. I want this to be clear from the start.”

Elassa raised a finger. “I actually agree but I have a stipulation.”

“I didn’t expect you to if I’m frank.” Arascus let out a relieve sigh and the woman smiled.

“I hate giga-Arcadia, as you so put it. I liked the old Colleges, where I was on a first name basis with everyone here. Anassa, I only discovered because I taught her class. Now? I’m managing the books instead of teaching.” Elassa smiled wickedly. “And, if I’m going to be honest, Anassa is correct. Magic should be for the best of the best and Arcadia is for the best of that best. It’s not a whorehouse with open doors were everyone with even a modicum of skill can enter just because they’re able to spell their name correctly.”

Arascus took a relieved sigh. “Then what’s the stipulation?”

“I want Arcadia to be able to poach from the Imperial Colleges you create and I’m not adding the ‘Imperial’ suffix to the name. It’s the War College of Arcadia, it always has been, it always will be.”

Arascus rarely got stunned, but as he sat there, he realised he was baffled. He managed to recover without making it seem like he was shocked though. “Done.” He said and extended his hand for Elassa to shake. She did and as she did, Arascus could only thing of one thing.

That was it?

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