Irinika was the first daughter Goddess of Arascus. We thought it a marriage, similar to Sceo’s and Zerus’, a mere union of two deities who relied on each other for comfort and protection. It sent waves on the beach of Divine politics, but what beach sits on a waveless coast?

At the end of the day, it made sense. Arascus would not settle for any partner but the major of Abstracts, and Irinika was just as prideful as him. She had many suitors over the years, Gods who would try to wed her, who wouldn’t after all? Irinika, back then at least, was as much as a prize as I still am. She had denied all of them. Frankly, I do not blame her, petty domains such as thievery could not lay claim to the might that was All Darkness.

So whilst it was shocking, to see two Divines everyone thought would be forever alone finally abandon their solitude in each other’s arms, it was not revolutionary.

Then, the others started joining.

Excerpt from ‘The Leadup of the Great War’, written by Goddess Allasaria, of Light, kept within the White Pantheon’s Closed Library

Wissel watched the five leaders behind Epan Separation enter. They were meeting in Arringhall Castle this time, an Allian heritage site. With chandeliers hanging off the tall ceilings, sunlight beaming in from the tall windows, and overlooking the rolling mounds of the Allian countryside from a tall hill. Allia was an island nation, whereas all castles were comfortable, they always had a tradition of building homes for comfort rather than defence,, the entire country had an ocean for a moat after all.

Jozef and Artois, both in prim suits took their seats. Aimone was dressed similarly, the only mark of his position of royalty was a small shawl that became a cape. Richard VI was much the same. Everyone had brought a suitcase for their pressing issues. They all sat silently, these meetings felt… almost small without their National Mascots behind them. They were still leaders of these nations, and Saksma wasn’t needed after all, but it still felt wrong with the Goddess of the nation he led behind him.

“Letters, as always.” Wissel said as he brought his letter out. “I have two this time.” These meetings were held weekly at this point. Every Tuesday, when people would be at work and paying attention to their annoyance for the weak rather than the local news. Of course, it had spread, the pattern of the five leaders had been revealed two weeks ago. Wissel had calmed Doschia’s speculations on it by simply saying it was needed meetings to deal with Epa’s economic problems.

Ultimately, he wasn’t wrong. What Arascus had done in Kirinyaa was nothing short but a financial miracle. It was a country that relied on foreign aid and the good will of charity organisations to keep itself afloat, the only uniting factor in the population was the threat against the Jungle. Yet in a mere year, Kirinyaa had gone from importing food to exporting raw iron and coal to Guguo and Epa. All the trade deals had promises of refineries attached to them. Sending trained engineers and schematics was a small price to pay when Kirinyaa was selling resources so cheaply.

Ultimately, he didn’t like it. Doschian steel was priced at a premium. Whereas the name itself still carried prestige, prestige meant little to businessmen who relied on spreadsheets to find their suppliers. Doschian industry had to be subsidized to keep people in employment, and to stop them from taking to the streets. But those subsidies were not cheap. Wissel passed his two letters from Iliyal to Jozef on his right. “I have two as well.” Aimone said. “Generally it sounds like good news.”

“I was impressed by Olonia’s progress.” Jozef replied. Wissel had called these meetings, they were too important to be handed off to bureaucrats. He was almost certain that they would not be read, he was almost certain that the White Pantheon did not have spies in his court, he was almost certain that they would be delivered on time. Frankly, if this was a bet for money, he would take it every time, there was almost no chance he would not make profit.

But almost certain was not certain, and he was betting his life here, not merely money. The other leaders felt the same, so no one complained about hand delivering the letters. “Likewise, I think the elf likes Paida.” Artois said, a good amount of parent’s pride in his voice.

“He does.” Richard said. “Just from reading it though, I don’t think he dislikes any of them.”

“Let’s just hope he doesn’t expect payment for bringing Fer to training.” Wissel said. Maybe charity to the poor was benevolent, but he had served as King of Doschia for too long to know that charity was something that would never be handed to him. Even something like this, where Arascus had obvious gain from Epa separating from the Pantheon, would have its terrible strings attached. Frankly, the thing he most worried about was Saksma. It was not wrong for her to make friends, but Fer should be kept at an arm’s length.

“I’m have my own suspicions of Fer.” Artois said Wissel’s thoughts out loud. “I saw the EIE interview with her.”

“Don’t remind of that.” Richard said sarcastically. “I have nothing to say about that.”

“Apparently she was unprepared.” Artois said. “That’s what I heard.”

“How?”

Artois explained as he took another letter from the centre of the table and read through it. “She and Helenna were apparently arguing in the EIE rooms, Helenna was complaining how Fer wasn’t taking it seriously.”

“She took it so seriously that in a day EIE went from being in the black to being in the red.” Richard said. Artois nodded as he continued in that strong Rancais accent, all the letters curling and stretching.

“That’s the point, I don’t think she’s stupid. We’ve not…” Artois said as he put the letter back into the middle of the wooden table. “Well, Fer survived a thousand years in the tundra above Guguo. How many hunts has it been? Seventy? And we see her now, I don’t think she’s like what the books say about her.”

“I think we’ve all realised that.” Wissel stepped into the conversation. “She’s obviously smarter than she lets on.” Artois nodded.

“And I don’t like the fact she’s part of training. Is she effective? I have no doubt, but we don’t know what she’s talking about.”

“Are you saying we should start to keep the mascots at an arm’s length?” Aimone said. “I…” He shrugged. “Well, how? Agrita is more popular than the Royal Family, I’m sure it’s the same for all of you.” The rest of them nodded. Wissel had nothing to add, he was here to run the country, Saksma was there to inspire it. He doubted there was a single family in Doschia which would not welcome her for dinner. He knew there were families that would spit on his because of the country’s economic fall, as if he could press a magic switch and suddenly fix the entire nation’s problems.

“Frontline duty.” Wissel said. “I see no other way to keep out of politics.”

“They won’t go into politics, they’re mascots.” Richard said quietly.

“Olonia herself volunteered for help with the attack on Drayim. I didn’t tell her to go, I didn’t forbid her.”

“As in she just went or what?” Wissel asked. That was serious, the mascots were mascots because they led the parade that was the nation. They may be first in that parade, but they did not set the route it would take.

“She told me she’s going.” Jozef said. “And then asked me for permission to go, but she said she wanted to go, that she couldn’t sit still, that it was her nation.” Wissel sighed.

“Was it after the meeting in Arika?” He asked and Jozef nodded. “Saksma has changed since then too, she’s been getting more bitter.”

“Paida talks about Anassa and Neneria.” Artois said. “Those two made an impression on her.”

“Neneria made an impression on everyone.” Wissel said. “But if they start…” He didn’t know how to phrase the wording. It wasn’t that he was scared of betrayal by Saksma, he was sure she would not suddenly run to the Pantheon, but… what exactly was tying her to Doschia? Apart from the name and idea itself, it was simply the woman’s job. Jobs could change all the time. The woman would still be the incarnation of the nation, but that was it. Who led the country did not matter to her, she had been on a first name basis with every single of Wissel’s ancestors.

Jozef sighed. “There is a way, I think.”

“What is it?”

“It is to move Epan Separation ahead of schedule.” He said. “The coup in Kirinyaa has given us a potential ally, I am sure the rest of Arika will fall. Ausa definitely will bend the knee to Arascus.”

“Even if it doesn’t, Kirinyaa is the Arikan country to deal with now.” Artois said. “If they wanted to, they could invade the others, if they don’t, then they still are the future leaders of Arika simply due to virtue of the Reclamation War.”

“Aye, Kassandora is speeding it up now.” Wissel said. Richard brought out a report from his suitcase and added his own thoughts.

“AMNI reports that they’re expanding the army to a million and performing a total reorganization. Ten armies, one hundred thousand each.” He sounded grim. “What we know is that she has seven hundred thousand men with real combat experience now. The Jungle will serve as training for them too.”

“That is another worry.” Wissel said. “The friends of today could be the enemies of tomorrow. Why is she expanding?”

“The public justification is to speed up the Reclamation War.” Richard said and showed the paper to them. “But it does not make sense, already she has issues with weaponry. A month or two from now, estimates will say she’ll have enough artillery to minimally equip all ten armies. But even then, we’re looking at six months for them to be armed to the same level as the Eastern Front was during Kirinyaa’s Invasion.”

“So she’s building up manpower.” Aimone said. “I don’t see an issue.”

“Why go through the trouble of getting men when you can’t equip them yet?” Richard asked. “It doesn’t make sense. The Jungle can’t be harmed without artillery. KAF is expanding too, AMNI says they’ve put orders to quintuple Kirinyaa’s air-fleet.”

Wissel saw it immediately. “Not with artillery, but small arms?” Richard nodded.

“That’s the issue, Kirinyaa has enough domestic production of guns to be able to field them.”

“And how many men armed with rifles would it take to secure Arika?” Richard asked. “The estimates are in the tens of thousands, one army will be enough.” All the men sighed. It was obvious what was happening, but Jozef looked especially sorry with himself.

“We didn’t manage to secure any after the Clerics came in to clean up Drayim.” He maintained an apologetic tone.

Richard only gave the man a sorry look. “I don’t blame you for it, but we should start looking at developing our own at this point.”

“The genie is out the bottle now.” Wissel commented. “We’re not putting it back in. I expect the Pantheon to come in with armies like Kassandora’s when we separate.”

“Then we move faster than either of them, if we can stand against the Pantheon, we can stand against Arascus whether he has Arika or not.” Aimone said, then looked around when he realised what he said. “Because I don’t trust that Arascus will resign himself to just Arika.”

“I don’t think anyone does.” Wissel agreed.

“In this case, the Goddesses knowing Fer may be good for us.” Artois said.

“Why?”

“In the history books, it says she valued loyalty to a fault. If she’s friendly with them, it could give us an opening on her.”

“Two months from now.” Aimone said. “Two months from now. It will be just after your Epan Community Archery Competition Wissel.”

“That’s a good date.” Wissel agreed. He wanted it to happen soon, because he didn’t want it to happen. He knew himself well enough to know he’d get cold feet if things were dragged out. “Everyone should start drafting plans on how to counter the Divines, both Pantheon and Arascus-aligned. They can’t be invincible.”

The men all nodded as Wissel wrote it down on a piece of paper. Epan Separation Pact. Signed by Wissel Ellenheim, King of Doschia. He stamped the black eagle onto it and passed it to Jozef. It went to Richard. To Artois. To Aimone.

And it was done.

The Divines better be ready, because humanity was not going to give up without a fight.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep