Arascus got the phone-call from Helenna, he quickly answered and put his ear to the phone, speaking before she could. “I heard what happened Helenna.” And he asked something he was sure no one else would ask. After all, why would anyone worry about a Goddess’ health. Divines had to be killed else they would eventually walk off and sleep away even missing limbs. What was a few gunshots to the chest? But the question had to be asked anyway. No one else would do it, so Arascus had to. “Are you fine?”

And for a few long moments, Helenna finally replied. Something creaked behind and then slammed, Arascus recognised the sound as the massive cargo doors of the plane she had taken closing. The God of Pride leaned back in his seat as he looked over a map of Norje. “I am.” Helenna said with confident resolution, although she immediately made her tone softer. “But I’m better now, thanks for asking.”

Arascus smiled to himself, that was precisely why he had asked. He leaned forwards and studied the map. To invade Norje, one would have to land troops. At least Alanktyda was nothing to worry and no one would bat an eye at an invasion as retaliation. And if they decided against a real, hot war, then an economic, cold war was all but certain. The country would be embargoed and blockaded and made to bow. To be quite honest, there was a part of Arascus that saw the gift that assassin had just given to their cause. “It’s out of your control now Helenna, I’m transferring occupation of Norje over to Kassandora.” The Goddess of War was already formalizing plans, the moment she had heard Helenna was going off to that continent, she had started making schemes for invasion.

“NO!” Helenna shouted immediately and Arascus smiled to himself. It was always good when subordinates had a bit of backbone in them. Not all of course, some people should just do as they are told, but some, he liked the fact they could stand up for themselves.

Arascus only repeated the word, but as a question. “No?”

“You can start preparation and you can start moving divisions, but don’t do any bombings or anything. Tell them to send a delegation to us to discuss forgiveness of what they allowed to happen.” Helenna quickly said and the pieces fell together in Arascus’ head. He saw the woman’s plan the moment she dropped it. Frankly, it could work. Why shouldn’t it? Norje would be scrambling, the country obviously could not withstand even a week of invasion. Even if they were given ten years to prepare a military, what damage could they hope to inflict upon more than half of Epa and a third of Arika?

“I see it.” Arascus said. He immediately started to write down a plan for Kassandora. Show movements would be needed, great demonstrations of force and a massing of planes in northern Doschia.

“We’ll get them coming to us.” Helenna said as Arascus signed off a short explanation to Kassandora and started writing one to Malam. The Goddess of Hatred would need to sew the idea that the upper ranks in the Empire were composed of two sides, and that the side for invasion was slowly winning.

And it was over. Norje would join out of sheer fear this week. Either the cowards in politicians would go down as traitors against the nation, or the population would tear them apart out of their own worries.

Paida stood tall as she smiled at the sight of Aris. She walked through the city in a victorious red cape and a black uniform, a small band of silver to mark her status as the Divine leader of this country was on her head, her shield was on her back, underneath the cape. Her sword swung on her hip. The thick heel of her black boots knocked on the cobblestone tiles of this beautiful Arisian street. Paida smiled as she continued her walk.

All throughout the city, work was being done on repairs. Materials were coming in from Lubska, from Doschia, Allia and Rilia and even Arika and yet it was the men and women of this proud city who took it upon themselves to put in the manpowers and the repairs. Everyone, from the elderly to the children, would pause their work and salute as Paida walked by. And everyone would shine with nothing but sheer pride at what had been accomplished.

Aris had been reclaimed. Rancais had been reclaimed. The whole country had been freed from Anarchy’s terrible grasp. Of course the victory had not been total. The remnants of Anarchia’s forces, her followers blessed with strength stolen from worthier Divines, still roamed the country. Arascus had said that it was not Paida’s problem to solve, that if she found, they should be executed on the spot, but that she should not worry. Rancais was a subject of the Empire now and the Empire looked after its own. So Paida pushed the worried thoughts of what she should do about these hidden threats in her nation out of her mind. If Arascus said he would take care of it, then he would take care of it. Frankly, he would probably do a more thorough job of it than Paida would.

The Goddess of Rancais turned from one noisy street to another. Here, a series of men were working with thundering jackhammers, heavy sledges and even a pickaxe to break up rubble. One of the middle had been destroyed during the Battle of Aris, now the pieces were being cleaned up so that something could be put up in its place. A truck slowly rumbled as its engine idled, about twenty men were working in the hot sun. Their chests bared and covered with sweat, their hands calloused and cut all over. They passed the pieces of rubble to each other and then threw it onto the truck.

Paida smiled as the whole demolition came to a salute. “Viva La Rancais.” One of the men shouted. Paida repeated the saying and returned the salute. And she continued down her path. The next street had a heavy steamroller flattening black tarmac that had been freshly poured. A line of men were assembled, all sharing cigarettes as they watched the machine slowly trundle forwards. None of them noticed Paida in the distance though, and the Goddess of Rancais turned a corner before she interrupted their work session.

Paida wondered what it was in her that had stopped her from taking control of Rancais for so long. She remembered the chaotic times of the Republic, when the country would adopt a ten year plan that would be restarted every five years. If it was the Republic trying to rebuild Aris, then the governors would still be arguing on which districts should get priority on being turned on. Paida had thought of it for a few moments. She supposed she could ask Arascus but then a better conclusion came to her mind. Why try and struggle and pretend this was difficult? The power grid had been fixed, the outdoor lamps would be connected. Electricity was re-routed from Doschia as engineers worked to reconnect Rancais’ own power plants to its grid, and then the city would be turned on north to south. There would be no discussion, no debate and frankly, there was no argument. Everyone knew where they had to have a warm place to sleep. There was nothing to discuss, Paida had left her people with only a choice between what action they should take.

The Goddess of Rancais walked past a ruined house, although it was in no state worse for wear than the rest of Rancais. The glass windows had been blown out and the walls were cracked, but that was all the damage which had been inflicted. A few steps later, she came out onto the riverside of Aris. And here the situation was terrible. Half the bridges in the city had been knocked down, even during the initial uprising or during Anarchia’s stateless regime or during the battle itself. When the garbage trucks had eventually stopped driving, people had taken to using the river as a public bath and a toilet. The water had darkened, it stunk, it was full of rubble and trash. Boats were making their way along the water. One with a digger on its back that was scooping heavy stones out of the water. The rest with nets.

Paida took a few steps when her phone buzzed. It was an unknown number. Paida didn’t really know what to make of that. If it was a call, she would ignore it. It was a text though, and the first few words were enough to grab her attention: ‘This is Olephia.’ Immediately, Paida became transfixed on the device in her hands. Her fingers worked quickly. She tapped the message open: ‘This is Olephia, are you busy?’

‘No.’ Paida replied immediately. Then quickly realised she shouldn’t talk like this to Olephia of all people. ‘Do you need help with anything?’

‘I want to host an art exhibition.’ Olephia said. Paida started to quickly type an answer on her phone.

‘Aris is unable to host an exhibition suitable for yourself.’ Paida replied. That was true, although it was a very diplomatic style of rejection. The actual reason was that it would look back to her own people if their Goddess was holding art exhibitions whilst they were still rebuilding the entire country.

‘Oh.’ Olephia said. ‘I don’t want to be rude.’ Paida smiled at that second text and prepared for something very rude. There was no need to preface with an apology if what was being said was actually not rude. ‘But.’ At this point, Paida was almost excited. ‘Olonia actually found me a venue.’

‘That’s great news!’ Paida typed back. It honestly was. She wasn’t sure she could deny the Goddess of Chaos in a straight request, but the fact that Olonia had already solved the issue simply removed the problem. Paida supposed she should be diplomatic for a few moments at least. ‘Do you need help with anything?’ She asked.

‘I know you’re busy.’ Olephia said. ‘I will ask Kassie.’

‘Don’t worry about it.’ Paida replied. She had nothing against Kassandora, in fact, she greatly respected the Goddess of War. But it was the exact same sort of respect Paida had for medicine. She greatly respected, but it was best when there was never a need to interact with medicine. ‘I can help you.’

‘Really it’s no problem.’

‘I insist.’ Paida replied.

‘Really.’ Olephia replied quickly and Paida rolled her eyes as she stared into that phone. Was the woman actually serious? Was this was what it came down to? Did Olephia expect her to beg?

‘Well just tell me what you need first.’ Paida said. There, that did not seem desperate and there was no way Olephia could dodge that question.

‘I need to move some of my old paintings from the National Gallery of Rancais to a display in Lubska.’ Olephia replied. ‘I like Olonia, she’s building a house for me! So I want to give her something.’ Paida didn’t know whether she should roll her eyes or if this combination of words simply sounded weird in her head or what. They made sense, Paida understand the point being conveyed exactly but…

But it was Olephia. It was the Goddess of Chaos. It was a Divine that knew of several eras, most of which Paida had only learned about in history books. Why was Olephia so excited about getting a house built for herself? ‘I can help with that.’ Paida said. The National Art Gallery had not been hit or damaged in the fighting whatsoever. The only repairs that had been needed was a new coat of paint, a repair to some of the decorational pillars and a total replacement of the windows.

‘Really?’ Olephia asked.

‘Really.’

‘Thanks!’ Olephia said. ‘I’ll send you an address later today. Okay? Wow. Thanks! That saves me a lot trouble!’ Paida had to re-read the message too. She decided that it was because of the fact this was text and Olephia naturally communicated through text that it sounded weird.

‘No problem.’ Paida replied. It would be easy enough to do. Paida didn’t expect a favour for this, but it was always good to try and worm your way into the graces of Divines that were your superior. Especially if it was Divine like Olephia, which everyone assumed was so strong that she was untouchable.

Another text came through. ‘I owe you one.’ Paida read the text once. She took a deep breath. She slowly re-read the text again. And then Paida put her phone down and smiled into the blue sky. Planes were flying above, bringing more materials for the rebuilding of Aris, in the distance, a train could be heard coming to a stop. A cloud of dust was rising over the black roofs of homes from another building which had been razed. Men were organising a pair of boats that pulled a huge net together to try and get garbage out of the river. And now, Olephia herself said she owed Paida a favour.

Of course, it was not about Olephia’s power. It was about the fact she was Arascus’ daughter. This was Paida’s opening.

Things were truly looking up for Rancais.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep