Chapter 648 – Fresh Start
Some Orders, such as the Guardians of Fortia and the Seekers of Allasaria, have names relating to their job. Even the Shadows of Irinika follow this trend. Guardians guard the peace, Seekers seek the light, Shadows stay in the shadow. Kavaa’s Cleric buck the trend slightly, although not greatly. A Cleric is still a healer, the distinction was made so that they would not become mere Healers. They were created during the Reconstruction Authority, as auxiliary peacekeepers and protectors of refuges from the imminent banditry that followed the end of that Era. To have called them healers would have been reductive to their purpose, so another name was chosen.
The Paladins of Maisara are the only where the trend is bucked. There is no immediate job description of a Paladin because there is no immediate, self-evident, job that they actually do. Compare to Seekers, who have archives of historical texts because they ‘seek’ the wisdom in everything, compare to Guardians, who are called in to keep peace and break up wars through overwhelming force, to Shadows, who are bands of assassins and thieves for higher, and to Clerics, who have been already described. What do Paladins do?
Paladins do whatever Maisara wishes they do. There is nothing less and nothing more in store for them. As long as we remove the ability to vote for one’s own followers, Paladins consistently score as the most organised and the most militarized order. It is a shame that my father has given up on Maisara, they would be a boon to the Empire. Paladins exist solely to enforce Maisara’s will. Nothing more, nothing less.
Ultimately, Divinity does like their Holy Orders. The only reason I do not possess one is because I see them as a gross inefficiency, where the binds of tradition will slow down progress, and because the management of a civilian administration to support them is something I have precisely zero interest in. We do support ourselves, when one raises a critique of Holy Orders, Kavaa’s Clerics get trotted out and everyone else hides behind the banner of the Goddess of Health.
Maisara’s Paladins are the least defensible, they are the ones who always have to scurry first behind the cloaks of the followers of Kavaa. Yet also, we will never give them up. Arda relies on precedent, once something has been done, something can be done, and once something can be done, it’s only a matter of time before it is repeated. The only way a Divine Order is allowed to end is the removal of its leading Divine or its total extermination.
Paladins will never be allowed to disappear, because the true purpose they serve, and the precedent they set out, is that they are Maisara’s private army. And through that justification, Fortia, Allasaria, Kavaa, Fer, Elassa, Anassa, Irinika, are all allowed their private armies.
- Excerpt from “Reconstruction Era Thoughts.” Written by Goddess Kassandora, of War, published a few decades before the Great War, after Irinika and Olephia joined Arascus, but before Kassandora did.
Maisara took a deep breath as caught the heavy thuds behind her. Even with Ordeaux’s construction happening around her, she could still hear them. She came to stop. The steps behind her stopped. She took a step. Something big behind her took a step. She took another series of steps, something took another series of steps. She knew what, or who, it was already, there wasn’t even a point to check, there were only a few Divines who were so large they would make such a sound when they walked on the pavement. And there was only one she knew that would find humour in such a childish little game. “What do you want Fer?” Maisara asked.
“So you finally noticed?” Fer asked. Maisara sighed, her shoulders dropping, she looked at the great cranes in the blue-grey sky. Every dozen miles she had travelled north, it became noticeably clearer. This side of Rancais was far from the Ashen Skies that were trying to choke out their precious world.
“I noticed you when you turned the first corner.” Maisara replied, that crane was slowly lifting up a huge statue to set onto a roof. Of course it was, statues were how one could breed unity. It was simple, but it worked. And still, she did not turn to Fer. Her eyes went to those rising skyscrapers. Flashes of welding torches were working where men carried on forging the upwards spikes of concrete and steel. “What are you here for?”
“I don’t speak to people who don’t look at me.” Fer chippered back. Maisara rolled her eyes and finally turned to the Goddess of Beasthood. Fer stood there, in dark shorts and a white shirt. Her tail whisked from side to side, her ears wiggled and bounced at the sparse traffic of Ordeaux. Her smile was wide though and she had a suitcase in her hands. “I’ve been assigned to deal with you.” Fer said.
“I heard it was Kassandora.” Maisara replied. She wasn’t particularly offended or annoyed. Fer was infamously easy to deal with, and she hadn’t expected Kassandora here after the whole Legion escapade either.
“Kassie and Kavaa are celebrating. I’ve been sent instead.”
“They’re celebrating?” Someone, that was a challenge to believe.
“Dad is too.” Arascus taking a break was even harder. The man could go and spend time with someone, but not for himself.
“Why?” Maisara asked.
“Legion is dead.” Fer said and Maisara sighed. She had heard and seen it on the news. Everyone had witnessed the atomic bombing of Arseille. It had been at the end of a long-piece, after Legion was shown was walking through artillery bombardment and outgrowing experimental noxious gas. They had played clips of everyone freeing Arseille, the Empire was praised as the sole state that was capable of emptying a city like that in a matter of days, and then they had played the video of the bombing. Of the moment when the city simply ceased to exist.
“So I’ve heard.” Maisara said. “And? Kassandora is celebrating because of that?” Fer’s lips twisted into a smile. Her chuckle was that of a fat bumblebee, low and bouncing.
“No, everyone is busy planning the nuking of the third landbridge.” She said. “But that’s neither here or there, I’ve been sent to you.” That sounded more like it. The Empire would not celebrate the death of a demon Prince. Even if it was Legion, even if it was Leonifer himself, as long as they were in a state of war, Arascus would not pause and Kassandora would not allow herself to slow down. “To deal with the Paladin problem.”
It had to be a turn of phrase, what exactly was the Paladin problem? “What is that?”
“Your conscripts are ready.” Fer said. “Three hundred thousand have been chosen.” She trailed off and looked around, then her eyes went to her nose. “I need glasses for this.”
“Divines have perfect vision.” Maisara didn’t even try to entertain this line of questioning.
“It’s for the feel of being a secretary.” Fer giggled to herself, then looked down at herself. “And a suit, I should have got one.”
“Are you ever going to get to the point?” Maisara asked.
“Imagine me, in a cute skirt and with a suit. White shirt, tie? What colour would it be? Gold, to match the hair, right?” Maisara absolutely refused to take the bait. Anassa was easier to deal with than this. Anassa at least received a no and didn’t keep going. Of Order just fell silent. She had nothing pleasant to say, nothing would be said. Not when she was at the bottom of the totem pole in the Empire. “Do you want to get one?”
“Shopping with you is precisely one of the last things I would like to do.” Maisara replied dryly and Fer’s grin became downright ravenous.
“So you do have buttons to press?”
“You are torturing me as I stand here and wait for you to get to the point.”
“Do you want to talk this over in a café?” Fer said. “That’s how they do it in Rancais.” Maisara pursed her lips. The fingers on her arm fell open, then tightened as if holding onto the axe she could materialize at any moment. Was Fer actually needing a fight? Is this how the Empire operated? They just needed to release physical stress every now and then? Is this why Fer had come?
“Are you allergic to getting to the point?”
Fer sneezed on command. It was the fakest sneeze Maisara had ever seen. Helenna couldn’t pull a better one off. “Well I’m not going to talk to you on the street, am I? It’s thoroughly unprofessional.” The childish tone was purposefully aggravating, the fact she moved to show her suitcase off was even worse. She waved it in front of Maisara’s face as if she was waving candy for a baby. “And besides, this has papers, we can’t do it in the street.”
Maisara sighed, look around, and sighed again. Fer had planned this, there was no doubt she had. “Do you know a place then?”
Of Beasthood’s smile got even wider. “I do not.”
There it was. She was being picked on. Maisara knew she was being teased. Fer was enjoying this far too much. “Then why the fuck did you come to me in the first place?!” She hissed. “What is this Fer? You stand, you talk to me about suits!? There’s a war going on, isn’t there? And you’re here? Why aren’t you at the front line in the first place? What? So you can deliver me a message? Last I heard, the Empire wasn’t short of fucking administrators, were they?” She finished off, staring Fer directly in the eyes. Of Beasthood was just slightly taller, the ears on top of her head didn’t count.
“I was wondering how long you’d keep it up.” Fer cooed. “There we go, that’s the Maisara I know and love.” Maisara’s felt her organs try to slide out of her body, she wished the world would just end, that a meteor suddenly appear above her head and just her and only her on this spot. That the same atomic bombs which had incinerated Arseille suddenly incinerate Ordeaux.
“Know and love?” What a turn of phrase.
“Well, I needed to see what the famous lashings feel like, right?” Fer said, chuckling, bending down to look up at Maisara with her hands behind her back. “You’ve been too nice to me, Malam and I were worried you had a crush for tall girls.”
“Fer…” Maisara said and took deep breath. She wouldn’t lie. “You are the most annoying creature I have ever come across and in this moment, you’re the most despicable being I can picture.”
“In this moment?”
“This moment, yes.” Maisara said and Fer chuckled.
“Well too bad Maisara, I hate to turn you down but I don’t think we’re a good fit.” She burst out in laughter at her own stupidity, then finally stood back up. “Come on, come on! I know a place.”
Of course she fucking did. “Where?”
“Train station meeting hall.” Fer said. “Unless you know of a café large enough to house us of all people?” Maisara sighed, looked down at her black boots and shook her head.
“Not in Ordeaux.”
“Mmmh.” Fer said. Her closed fist around the suitcase opened, it began to fall to the ground, before it even got to the height of the woman’s knee, her tail had already grabbed it. “So…” Fer began, using her tail as a makeshift table. Why did they even need to go somewhere? Especially if she was just going to open this in public? Weren’t they secret documents? Ordeaux wasn’t busy, especially with all the new constructions, but it wasn’t as if this city was empty either. “First things first.” Fer said. “The conscripts, here.” She brought a piece of paper, scanned it almost immediately and gave it to Maisara to read. “Three hundred thousand, you can bless one-ninety, since you have sixty of your own Order, the soft limit is quarter of a million, the hard limit.” She turned to Maisara and winked. “I wasn’t supposed to tell you, it’s two-seven five.”
“What?”
“Well you’ll need to go over by a bit if you’re taking casualties.”
“No!” Maisara said. “What? No! I mean, why?” She looked at the piece of paper. “Why tell me this?”
“I don’t know?” Fer said, then laughed. “Maisara, if anything else asked me a question on why you someone on the ears so they scratch you on the back, I would roll my eyes and think they’re making me for a fool. Do you know that?” Maisara didn’t reply. What exactly was she getting at? “But you? I honestly think you’re too stupid to know what I mean even if I explained it to you.”
Maisara stared at the piece of paper, then at the golden cascade of dirty locks marching in front of her, still rifling through that suitcase on her tail, and then went to look down at the paper in her hands. Whatever, it wasn’t worth arguing on. “Why so many from Arseille?” Maisara asked.
“Gee, you tell me genius.” Fer said. “Why so many from the city we just destroyed? That is a conundrum, isn’t it.”
“Are you always like this?” Maisara asked.
“Only when I feel like it.” Fer said. “Don’t worry, this is how I express affection, you’re on my good side.” Maisara was getting played. She knew she was getting played. She just didn’t know how she was getting played. The worst part was, she could actually believe that Fer actually operated like this. Maybe that was the worst part of it? But surely she wasn’t so annoying all the time?
“What?”
Fer chuckled. “I knew you wouldn’t get it.” She said. “Those recruitment papers are just for you. The main blessing will take place around Aris.”
“What?” Maisara asked. “Not here?”
“Aris has better transport links and we’re not done on your equipment yet.” Fer pulled out another sheet. “That’s also why I’ve been sent to talk to you. Do you like guns?”
“I am neutral on them.”
Fer chuckled again. “Better question, do you know about guns?”
“I think I do?”
“Do you know what a shotgun is?” She finally passed Maisara a piece of paper. “Here, what gun should your men use?”
Oh. Finally it all clicked together. That’s why Fer had come, she had beastmen, they also thought with melee weaponry but with modern rifles too. “Are you here to advise me on a loadout for my men?” Maisara asked, looking up from the piece of paper. It was largely just a list of Imperial rifles and guns she knew nothing about. Fer turned, her eyes focusing on Maisara in that theatrical manner once again. There was sharpness there though, Maisara had thought with Fer too many times to fall for this idiot act.
“That I may be Maisara.” She said it so slowly that it should have been aggravating, if not for the fact it was on purpose. “You’ve just impressed, you know that?”
“Have I?”
“Maybe you’re not as stupid as I thought you were.”