Ardan Divinity is Ardan Divinity. It is the conscious embodints of the human mind. I despise Divinity that look down upon humanity, for it would be to look down upon one’s creator. Hatred can be there of course, there can be pain, there can be envy. I would go so far as saying that those of us who hate humanity for treating us like tools are justified in their rage, even if it is not righteous.
But it is a point of policy that we should never look down upon mankind. They can be vain and unserious, childish even, but we are spawn of their minds. To look down upon humanity is to look down upon ourselves, to say they are evil is to paint our foundation as evil. To say they have no worth speaks more about us than it does of them. There are no irredeemable Divines because Humanity itself does not need to be redeed.
We may have great failures of personality, but those are our failures. Too many of my kind stick their heads into the sand and bla mankind for our faults. I reject the premise entirely. No, mankind is sensible to create Divines, and it is even more sensible to use them. The deities that have never learned to lead, to protect and to fight are being picked off by those of us who know do. And those of us who do, do so because those are the jobs that humanity has given us at creation.
Every Divine bar those who go mad celebrates their Divinity, thus, every Divine bar those who go mad should celebrate their creators.
That, I now realise, is what we have been lacking.
- Excerpt from the Private Writings of Arascus, dated to before the Age of Heroes.
Agrita didn’t know if she was just a nervous little girl, or whether it was the company she kept to. After all, she was a Divine herself and there were Divines she didn’t feel nervous around. Olonia, Saksma, Paida & Aliana of course, but those were her friends. Those, she sotis even forgot were Divines. Now, as she stared out the window Arascus’ hotel in Apoli, towards the field of tal, she felt a nervousness she had not felt in all her life.
It had to be the company she was around nowadays. It simply had to be. There was Malam & Helenna, who seed to be able to read like an open book. Those creatures talked as if they had calculated everything she could say in advance. There was Fer, Fortia & Maisara, and that lot, having returned from their drinking to take part in the official celebrations that were being planned, were giants. She had seen how effortlessly each of them had torn through Pax’s army. They could tear through her just as effortlessly, there was no doubt about it. There was Olephia, who Agrita had simply witnessed the few tis she had been sent to assist troops underneath Ashen Skies. That was a Goddess through and through. Her would create glorious annihilating suns in her voice, she would hover to the tune of her hum, red-lightning crashing around as reality began to give way to her uncreation. There was Kavaa even, who acted like a Divine who had enough of life, who could heal effortlessly and who looked at everything and everyone with those sa, grey calculating eyes which seed to do nothing save track how much effort would need to be expended in saving a life.
But then there was Kassandora and Arascus. The forr was unquestionable. A Divine for Divines, Kassandora’s words were like gospel in the Empire. Even in the age of Pantheon Peace, so of her ancient texts made it into the history books because there was simply no way one could write about Ardan history without ntioning Kassandora. And the latter was the God-Emperor of the Empire. The Divine who had taken it upon himself to na himself patriarch, and whose word was law in this land.
And Agrita, the humble little Goddess of Rilia, simply did not know how she could compare to such giants. So now she stood, she waited, she stared out the window at the soldiers and civilians singing and dancing in the streets as flags fluttered around them. She saw that ocean of steel left behind from Kassandora’s plan. Every single one of those weapons had been conjured up by Arascus and it had taken the God how long? A few hours. And she was here, only able to summon an eagle that couldn’t even be used in battle because it was too precious to hurt.
So she stood in silence, arms clasped behind her back, and she waited. There was nothing to say. They were bigger, they were strong, and they were so undoubtedly smarter that she could only be witness. Kassandora’s plan had been insane, the fact Arascus had gone along with it was just as insane, and it had worked. The problem wasn’t in the fact that they had thought of it, it was that they had the guts to actually carry out sothing which relied on a chance upon a chance.
“Do you want a drink?” Arascus asked from his kitchen. The God of Pride had called her to discuss strategy apparently, and what they were going to do with her country now. Papers had been prepared and apparently this tradition of drinking was normal for all of them.
It was normal for Agrita too frankly, but it was normal when she t her friends. Not when she t her boss. “If I may.” She said carefully.
“You may indeed.” Arascus replied. A pop, then the sound of pouring. “Apoli holds. Victory again.” Agrita nodded. What was she supposed to say to that? They had him and they had Kassandora on their side. Of course Apoli held. “Here.” Arascus said, he walked over and passed the glass to Agrita, then drank his quickly.
Another case of protocol. He was her boss. Of course he should down his glass quickly. Fer would too. Maisara and Fortia as well. But Agrita herself? She sipped the glass. “Thank you.” If only her voice wasn’t so timid.
“I called you here to discuss Rilia.”
She had assud so, although that was the sort of answer she would give to her friends, not to Arascus. “What did you wish to discuss?” Another small sip of whiskey: wine was far better.
“We will be mounting a counter-attack soon, to retake the south. Without Pax to stop us, there shouldn’t be an issue.” With Pax to stop them, there had been a delay. Agrita didn’t even know what an issue could be.
“I understand.”
“You will be placed in charge of the counter-attack force, working with Iliyal. I know you’ve had trouble with him in the past.” Agrita thought of the mont when the elf had effectively threatened her life after she had argued back about Fortia’s involvent in Rilia. Ultimately though, whether it was Iliyal reporting her issue or whether it was just a lucky roll of providence, Fortia had not been involved here save for this Pax incident.
“I…” Agrita said. She couldn’t even look at Arascus black uniform, much less the God himself. Her eyes went down to the glass wall of a window and down at the streets. The tanks were driving through now, on parade. That was her rapid response force down there. “I don’t have much issue with him. It was just a disagreent.” Understatent of the year, he had reminded her of her place in this world. She may be at the top, but the distance from the top to the peak was vast. It felt vaster even than from where she stood to the very bottom.
“He is like that.” Arascus said. “I’m making sure you won’t have issues. If you do, then voice them now. I’m not going to punish you for questions. Not even for questioning .” A lifeline she could not take, it was that simple. Every boss always through out these little comnts about how it was fine, but… Agrita just stared out the window and took another sip of whiskey.
“I…” She began and trailed off, needing to restart again. “I have nothing to ask, he is a better strategist than and it’s not…”
“I took Fortia and Maisara in for the sa reason that you didn’t want them here.” Arascus said. “The reasoning is almost entirely personal. Their use in battle is great, of course, but it’s not Olephia, or Anassa, or Irinika. If he told you that, he was playing you.”
Agrita just stared, unable to take a breathe, much less formulate a word. Did he actually just say that? And was it supposed to make her feel better? Well… it did, in so way. She knew it was personal between the whole lot of Divines from before the Great War. They had a relationship and respect towards each other that they obviously did not have to the younger generations. They talked like… like Arascus had just talked to her. “Oh.” Agrita said.
“There are not many of us left from that ti. Olonia is getting restless, she wants to return, Saksma too. I will send them here to this front. Olephia will remain, but she is the only old-breed around here. The rest will go to Esberia.”
“I see.” Agrita said.
“Olonia has had it bad in Arika.” Arascus said. “She will most likely scare you when you see her. That was our mistake, from Iliyal and Kass and myself, that we allowed her to stay so long under Ashen Skies. It will not happen again.” Agrita nodded.
“Saksma told .”
“Then you know.” Arascus said. “It will not be dangerous, it shouldn’t be dangerous rather. Olephia will be in the area and she keeps most of the riff-raff away.”
“Riff-raff?” Agrita asked.
“Princes.” Arascus said. Oh. So that’s what the Tartarian deities were to him. Riff-raff. Agrita stared out the window. She supposed she was in that category too. “But it will tedious work. The first tower test will be coming down here to see how it works.”
“Tower test?” Did Agrita even want to know? Hopefully it wasn’t a test for her. She didn’t want to climb up any towers.
“You, Olonia and Saksma will install a tower underneath Ashen Skies. It will be brought over by Callaghan’s fleet, and then it will be put up, and hopefully, it should cleanse southern Rilia.” This ti, Agrita did turn. It was a proposal… It was sothing she had hoped for, she knew would happen but… But for it to actually be happening was sothing else. Ashen Skies, she had always imagined would be a slow push backwards. A reclamation of Arda in the sa style of the Reclamation War.
And how did the Jungle die? It had been a slow crawl only until the Empire had gotten their answer in the form of Elassa. And after that? A continent had been cracked open. Arascus brought out a folder from one of the cabinets. “These are the plans.” They were of a tower, of rocket engines, of poison gas and of n in armour that looked modern and ancient at the sa ti. “The copies are yours to read through. Ignore the booster rocket sections, those are irrelevant for you so far.”
Neither the singing and cheering outside, nor the parade, seed to register as Agrita stared at the Empire’s answer to the plague trying to swallow her lands. “What does it do?”
“It transmutes the ash to diamonds.” Arascus said.
“Diamonds?”
“Won’t be good for the diamond market.” He chuckled to himself at the poor joke. Agrita laughed with him, not because it was funny but because she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “If the Rilia test succeeds, we clean Esberia within the month. Mass production is beginning on the towers.”
“Esberia?”
“In one go.” Arascus said.
“And after?” Agrita asked.
“The after is all Arika.”
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