Chapter 723 – The Victory Room
The question of being born bad can easily be answered: there are indeed some souls rotten enough who are born and are utterly intolerable to the common good at large. Those who are born with a fixation on oneself, their worlds turned inwards to the degree only nature and not nurture can provide, are left utterly alone. Eventually, either they will break themselves and adapt to civilization, or civilization at scale will break them and they will end up executed or imprisoned for some grievance against society.
There exist some fools out here, and they are truly foolish, who think they will be able to turn the world around, and that they will be the ones to break society apart. They are fools, not because the dream is impossible but because they do not realise what such a job entails. And it is why I can speak with such confidence on the existence of this devious, tragic and downright incorrigible. I am them and they are me. But I am their superior, whether my nature of being a Divine, or by nurture of thousands of years of experience at this game.
Hatred was there when civilization began and Hatred will be there when civilization finally ends. No amount of Peace, of Light, of Darkness, even of Love or any other sort of Divine, can separate me from my realms. It is because of the fact that civilization has its pair of patrons, in Helenna and in Malam, that other Divines need cults and orders in the first place. Every cult is a declaration of independence from our influence, because our kingdoms are total.
Every creature on this world, every Divine, wishes for a cult. I can tell that it is in our nature. Every Divine would have a cult, where I or Helenna different. Yet we are not, we are exactly the same as them, the only difference is that we are far better at the field of civilizational coherence than they are. All Arda operates this way, and all Arda pretends it does not. Likewise, all Arda pretends that it wishes to tear itself apart at the slightest provocation, yet there was no time more morose on this world than when the White Pantheon had to ask Paraideisius and Tartarus for assistance.
The nature of the wolf is that he will hunt and kill, the nature of the eagle is that he will soar and fly, the nature of the scorpion is that he will sting. Yet when a forest fire catches all three, it is their nature to run.
- Excerpt from “Civilizational Directions”, written by Goddess Malam, of Hatred, in the modern era.
Arascus knew that Ciria would not be happy. And he knew that there was no chance to actually hide what was happening from the woman, no matter how much he wanted to. It would be so much easier if she just did not ever switch on the news again, but Helenna and Malam were already running their videos of reclaimed Esberia. Those were fine, those, no one had an issue with.
What was not fine would be the diggers excavating massive graves through the land, the bulldozers piling endless piles of bodies deep into them. The gasoline shipments which had been brought in to burn massive pyres of bodies, the final great testaments to Tartarus’ endless Legions would have a fitting end, they would be turned to ash just as they tried to turn Arda’s blue sky to ash. “I already have petitions from soldiers about Esberians asking to return.” Kassandora said pulled out her papers.
“That’s Internal Affairs business.” Arascus said. “Just tell your soldiers to reply with the fact that they don’t have the jurisdiction to make such a decision.”
“I will.” Kassandora said. She looked down at her sheet. “Do we have a timeline?”
“At least a full month before major relocations. Minor relocations will be within the week. Those from the north and where the fighting had never hit.” Arascus looked over Kassandora’s map as the two Divines sat next to each and poured over, inspecting a detailed map of the country. The battlelines where gone although the map was even more complicated than it had been. Now, circles marked where Anassa had closed portals, five smaller holes had been found. Tartarus had been trying to open a major rift, although it proved a more difficult job than in the past when they didn’t have Ardan magicians to perfectly configure ground for portal locations.
“Alright.” Kassandora said, looking over the map. “The big issues are here.” She drew a big circle in the centre of the country. “This is where the fighting was heaviest, there were what? More than ten million shells fired in this region? We don’t have an estimate on duds. That’s nothing to say about the minefields but those are ours, we have them on maps.”
“It’ll need to be a full sweep to clear the terrain.” Arascus said. “It will be anyway, to clear the ground of the diamonds.”
“I was actually going to question you about that.”
“What?”
“Can I take some?” Kassandora asked. “And by some, I mean tons of it.”
“Take however many you need.” Arascus said. The salvation of Esberia had destroyed every diamond market in the world. One jewellers league in northern Doschia even had the audacity to make a public fuss about how they weren’t real diamonds and how they would never use something that had been made of Tartarian ash. Their protests fell on deaf ears, Arascus didn’t even do them the dignity of responding to them. Maybe in the past, when kings and queens had major sectors of the national economy operate on luxury metals, they would have sway. Not today. Not when diamonds could be cut into tips for drills and saws, or used in industrial lenses and containers. The precious rock had become worthless and everyone in the Empire would have diamonds on the belt if they wanted to. “What for?” Arascus asked.
“Medal production.” Kassandora said. “A Medal of Victory, of Honour, of Hero of the Empire, so on. Ten or so different things for bravery and courage and success and saving a comrade.” She shrugged. “We had medals in the past too I know but…” She trailed off under Arascus’ furrowed gaze.
“I wasn’t questioning you in the first place.” Arascus said. “It’s a good idea, yeah.”
“It was Fortia’s actually.” Kassandora said dryly. “She came up with it, to use the diamonds and inlay them into metal.”
Arascus nodded. “Go and take as many as you want.” Even with it only having been a few days after the Battle of Esberia, already they were flooding every market and stall. It was the Empire diamond rush. And Arascus would not stick so much as a finger into that mess. The population could sort it out amongst themselves. If Arda thought that the precious gemstone was plentiful and worthless now, then it only needed to wait until after Arika.
On the table were photos from soldiers in Esberia. Printed off, they were pictures of the ICDT towers glowing brightly. Of ruined cities which had collapsed under the Ashfront and on buildings which had miraculously survived. Although almost every photo was of a land covered and glistening in a dazzling snow of glass. The light reflected and refracted in every direction, blankets of gemstones which raced up and down hills would sparkle with a thousand different threads of colours. The sight was beautiful. “What on the Eparika?” Kassandora said. “Do we open it?”
“I would go first to meet with Tasaidien for his opinion.” The God of Alanktyda and of the Ocean and his mermen would probably not take it well if a sea that had been transformed into black sludge where to be reconnected with the mainland of his demesne.
“And the landbridge?”
“Olephia and Irinika have it locked down.” Arascus said and Kassandora nodded.
“Alright, I’ll just have them there, if anything happens, I’ll move them off.” She looked at the southernmost point on the back. “Also, Fortia told me to tell you about this.”
“What?”
“The Cloudbreaker tower and the four that landed, she said not to clean them up. To leave them as a monument instead.” Kassandora pursed her lips. “It’s a good idea.” She said quietly.
“She beat both of us to it then.” Arascus said. “It’s an excellent idea.” Kassandora nodded and drew small circles around the set towers in the very south. It was precisely the sort of thing that a monument required.
“Also.” Kassandora said. “There’s the Ciria issue.”
“I know.” Arascus said. “I’ve called her here actually.”
“Really?” Kassandora almost moaned. “I’m warning you, I don’t have a temper when its’ with moralists like that.”
“I know.” Arascus said. “I’m not telling you to say anything to her, although you can say whatever you think she needs to hear.” Kassandora made a flat face, one of her sleek eyebrows raised and she actually had to move some of the crimson hair out of her face.
“Well don’t blame me if she decides to leave the Empire.”
“She had an argument with Maisara and for a few days after that, she was actually going at four towers a day.” Arascus said. “So I just think she lacks the…” What was the word? “Fire about her and she can’t start it herself.”
“So you want me to? Kassandora asked.
“If you can tell her something, then it will come out but this isn’t some pet project. If she can be recruited, then good, but the way she is now, I don’t want to recruit her.”
“Why not?”
“I simply do not like the girl.” Arascus said. Kassandora stared at him for a few moments, her lips cracked into a smile, she closed her eyes, sighed and laughed.
“What better reason can one have than that?” She chuckled to herself again. “Alright, I understand, I won’t hold back if she comes in to moralize.” Arascus nodded and took a sip of the whiskey. Kassandora caught up to him a moment later. “I was going to ask about military applications of diamonds.”
“Knock yourself out.” Arascus said. “There’s a blanket green light on every program that uses diamonds as a primary resource. If your men think of something, send it through me.”
“Alright dad.” Kassandora said.
They stood and planned for a while more, supply lanes which had to be set up, and how the actual cleansing of the country would look like. Ships could be used for the north and the western edge, everywhere that wasn’t blocked off at the end of the day. The most machinery would be from Rancais. “Now that we look at it, let’s not do the diamond removal.” Arascus said. “Only to storehouses and the like but a valley should just be designated as the crystal pit and we dump everything.”
“I was thinking on that.” Kassandora said. “The amount of storage facilities we’d need to clean all of Esberia up would be…” She shrugged. “Well, we’d need to the double the Empire’s total amount of warehouses. And diamond is far harder to move.”
“It’s a multi-year project.” Arascus said. “We’ve permanently changed Arda. He opened his mouth, eyes going to the door, and then saw it open. Ciria and Halkus walked into the small room that was Kassandora’s temporary office. Now that the war had descended into two sides staring at each other from their battlelines, she had finally stopped moving where she stayed around. Arascus decided that the military deserved a headquarters at this point, although he didn’t have a palace either. “So you’ve finally joined us Ciria, Halkus.” Arascus said. Of Civilization was in that dress of white and gold and slight hints of blue. Halkus in a dark uniform that would have been black if that wasn’t an Imperial colour. Instead, it was this ugly and unoffensive shade of pale grey.
“I was too stunned by watching the massacre on the news to keep track of the time.” Arascus looked dryly at Kassandora. Hopefully, she would understand that the woman wasn’t even being annoying yet, that was just Ciria normally.
“Which one?” Kassandora asked back lightly. Ciria stopped, her eyes narrowed. Halkus looked at Arascus and sighed. The God of Pride only returned a shrug. Ciria was Halkus’ to wrangle, if he couldn’t do it, then he should not expect anyone else to do it for him.
“What do you mean which one?”
“Well it’s a simple question, which one did you see?” Kassandora swung her hand over the map. “I have the biggest ones labelled here.”
“That’s disgusting.” There it was, one of Ciria’s classics. Arascus never even bothered to respond to it, because the argument was not worth his time. Nothing would come out of it anyway.
“Disgusting, is it?” Kassandora asked. “What a flowery way to describe it.” Her lips curled upwards. “Don’t patronize me with that weak-willed language. Disgusting Ciria? The only thing that is disgusting in this room is your inability to be honest and call it what you actually think it is: Barbaric, brutal, evil… uncivilized.” Kassandora finished and held Of Civilization’s glare. “Your judgement calls are not worth so much as the dirt I have on the soles of my boots. Save them for people who actually care.”
Ciria smiled. “If my judgements are so meaningless, why give me a speech about them?” She asked.
Kassandora smiled, looked at Arascus, then back at Ciria. “Are you going to pretend you’re above a good shouting match Ciria?” She chuckled, her tone dry and low. “Come now, I know you’re not. You’ve argued with Maisara, did you not?” Arascus sighed. So it began.
He could barely stand it when it was Ciria herself. Ciria and Maisara were a welcome break, but that was only because he could get away then. He hadn’t been locked in a room with Maisara as he was no with Kassie.
By the time Kassandora started getting to a full deconstruction of how worthless Ciria actually was, Arascus was contemplating walking out. When Ciria hit back with how at least she had a power, then Arascus knew nothing of quality would be said in this chat.