Chapter 730 – A Bad Plan Made Worse
It is not uncommon to hide one’s powers. Others have written extensively of the strategic benefits of such secrecy. I am not here to justify the logic or argue with the rationale, the simple reality of Arda is that whereas Divinity obviously cannot make their powers completely unknown and secret, we do not know the limits of most Divines. For some, there is good altruistic reason. In the case of Elassa, Olephia, Allasaria and Baalka, we are uncertain about the sheer scale of destruction they would unleash if they did not check themselves. For everyone else though, it is as much a way to hide one’s aces as it is not to reveal one’s limits.
But what if a Divine was able to disappear? To make oneself unknown entirely? We are aware of this phenomenon in nature already in the case of the unicorn: The magical beast reveals itself only to the pure of heart. I have never seen one, however the unicorn is independently sighted too many times for it to be a myth. Now is ‘the’ unicorn ‘the’ unicorn, or is it ‘a’ unicorn? Ultimately, it does not matter whether the case is the former or the latter. The unicorn proves that some creatures possess the power of selective perceptivity. Some people have never and will never witness the unicorn.
Of course, this can be taken to a farcical degree. If everything we conceptualize suddenly needs to be disproven, then we wonder down into the realm of permanent uncertainty. Ultimately, if there are things that do not reveal themselves yet have no effect on material existence, then they are discounted variables of existence and can be ignored.
However, I have long since ventured past the line of needing to prove my speculations. They are speculations and they explain our history far better than our recorded histories. Those who dispute the existence or the totality of the Age of Monsters are fools. Monsters are real, we have more than enough archaeological evidence for them. Likewise, the mass graves left behind in Malam’s genocide of them prove that they numbered in the millions at the very. The bones are so common that museums do not even bother to display their collections.
Yet Malam and Helenna are week, and the amount of other Divines that became tyrants numbers no more than ten. Even with the Divinity, humanity is still outdone. We know we cannot lower the amount of monsters, we know we cannot raise the amount of humans, and we know by name each Divine that survived the Age of Monsters to become a tyrant. Age of Gaia and Age of Monsters Divinity number fifty-three altogether. The calculation of humanity versus monsters does not make sense because we treat it as complete.
There is a missing variable.
I would say that missing variable is either a single entity, or a group of them, spiritual in nature, that possess the ability to be selective about their perceptivity.
And I shall find them.
- Excerpt from the finished work “The Incomplete Calculation”, written by God Saranael, of Knowledge.
“I highly disagree.” Malam said. “I disagree exactly the same amount by which you agree, we’re at stalemate.” Of Hatred’s balled fists landed on her hips as walked around Helenna’s office again. Her white hair made a cloak down her back, her black heels made a small trot. Helenna bit the inside of her lip to stop herself from commenting on how… But why should she actually?
“Sit down before you scratch the wood.” Helenna said. She was sat behind her desk, a whole sea of papers and plans and reports awash over the wood besides her. Another desk had been brought in too. Helenna had coped by saying it was for more plans, even though it was actually for the Goddess of Hatred who stopped and looked down at her black heeled boots.
“You’re just jealous.”
“Of what?”
“That you can’t wear these.”
Helenna blinked as she tried to reason with the stupidity in her mind. Eventually, she found something that was every bit as snarky as what Malam said was stupid. “You’re correct, I have never once in my entire fucking life worn a high heel and seen what it does to a wooden floor. Never.” Her voice dripped with dry sarcasm. “Now take them off or stop trotting about like a fucking donkey you donkey.”
“Fine.” Malam said, she kicked her heels off. Both of them landed perfectly on the table, on the edge of the table. Maybe a human would be impressed, Helenna could do that too. “I’ll get the dogs out.” Malam wiggled her toes.
“I fucking hate you.” Helenna said. “And what the fuck do you mean you disagree with me?”
“That’s not a good plan.” Malam said. Behind Helenna, her statue suddenly lit up with lights as the sun was setting. Love never slept, nor did the Empire, and certainly neither did the Imperial Bureau of Intelligence. Helenna just stared at Malam, unsure of what she just heard.
“That’s not a good plan?” Helenna asked. Since when was Malam good at planning? The woman’s plans simply lacked morality! Anyone could design an assassination method once you decided that such things as civilian casualties or the losses of one’s own troops weren’t a factor! Why not just have a massacre every time you needed to steal some information too. “What about my plan is wrong?” Helenna slid the piece of paper that detailed her plan towards Anassa.
Malam, barefoot, didn’t even glance at the piece of paper. She just walked to the other death and sat on it, swinging her legs through the air. Her black dress swished as she kicked aimlessly. “First.” Malam began in an aggravating tone. “You are grouping them up too much and not making use of it. What exactly is the purpose of making a single killzone if you’re not going to exploit it?”
“I am exploiting it.” Helenna said quickly. That was why she was planning to bait all the succubi into a single location in the first place.
“Then why are you not ringing ‘im.”
Helenna narrowed her eyes. Him? “Who exactly? I’m not going to call Arascus for permission if that’s what you’re asking.”
“’Im. Ai-Em.” Helenna stared blankly at Malam. She saw a loose strand of her own hair go from the annoyed dark red to a genuinely confused sickly green. “You don’t get it still?” Malam asked.
“Is it possible for you to speak normally for once or not?”
“Ai-Em.” Malam said innocently again. “Imperial Military.” Helenna saw her hair go to a flat, unimpressed grey.
“Was that actually so difficult to say?”
“I like the sound of my own voice.” Malam replied and Helenna rolled her eyes.
“Would Kassandora be up for it?”
Malam shrugged. “I don’t know. Probably, the front is stable right now. If it’s in a good area, we could even bomb them.”
“I’ve…” Helenna trailed off. It was the same situation as when Malam told her to just ask Kassandora to design the internal hierarchy of the Imperial Bureau of Information. And Of War had done it, and she had done faster and better than Helenna could ever have. What would have taken a year for the Goddess of Love took less than a week for the Goddess of War.
But then in the White Pantheon, no one had ever asked like this. There was Iniri and there was Kavaa, and they made a faction with Helenna, but asking Kassandora was like asking Fortia. And that had never been an option, not once. Here, it seemed like Kassandora was always an option. “You didn’t think of that.” Malam said smugly.
“No.” Helenna replied. “I did not think of that actually.” She leaned back in her chair and released a deep breath. “And here I thought you couldn’t come up with good ideas.”
“All my ideas are good.” Malam said. “Do you want an even better idea?”
“What?”
“We can go ourselves.” Helenna’s eyes grew wider.
“What?”
“I want to shoot something again.” Malam said. “I shot those succubi at the Plateau D’Albion and now I want to shoot things again.” Helenna stared at Malam for a few moments, then released a deep breath of her own. Sometimes, she struggled to believe the sheer idiocy of this woman.
“Couldn’t you get a better hobby?”
“I can do alcoholism or shooting. Take your pick.” Malam said with far too much self-satisfaction. “Besides, I can’t believe you not praised me yet. I’m disappointed and sad and basically, you’ve ruined me day.” She did not sound like her day was ruined whatsoever.
“You’re not a dog to be praised.”
“Woof!” Malam replied, Helenna was not impressed whatsoever.
“If you weren’t one of Arascus’, I would have shot you for that. You know?”
“Really?” Malam said. “I thought you had already made it deep into my father’s good side.” Malam said, Helenna saw the terrible smile and closed her eyes as her posture collapsed against the huge desk chair. She knew the pattern by now, something terribly Malam-style was coming whenever that annoying smug smile revealed it.
“Go on.” Helenna said. “I know you have something to say.”
“Well I was just thinking if I used the right turn of phrase.” Malam said. “Although…” She cocked her head from one side to the other.
“Why?”
“Because did you make it deep into his good side or did he make it deep into you?” Malam said, the silence held for a moment and then the Goddess of Hatred burst out in a high-pitched laughter as if she had said something truly amazing. Helenna felt her cheeks go slightly crimson, although she was getting used to these fucking comments at this point. Her hair changed from that grey to a pale red for a moment, before calming down to its neutral brown. “Oh? Doesn’t sting anymore.”
“You have precisely one joke Malam.” Helenna said. “One. It’s so fucking funny I forget to laugh.” Malam chuckled to herself and shrugged.
“Well it does make me laugh.” She said. “But yeah, I’d prefer if you ask him for me to have permission to enter the field.”
“Why can’t you ask him yourself?”
Malam smiled wildly at Helenna. “Well I have one joke Helenna, and we all know that Divinity hates repeating itself.” Helenna sighed and shook her head.
“You’re sharp, you know.” It had to be admitted, Helenna didn’t even see the jab coming. But if Malam was going to be so petty, then Helenna would go down to her level. “However just the fact I fucked your dad doesn’t mean he’ll give me special preference in these matters. It’s Arascus after all.”
“No no no.” Malam said. “No no no. That’s a lie.”
“I thought we went over this already.” Helenna said.
“No, he fucked you, not the other way round.” Helenna stared, eyes wide, opened her mouth, then felt her cheeks actually turn red and her hair go pink. Malam burst out in a chatter of victorious laughter. Well, Malam had won. She had gotten the stupid fucking embarrassment out of Helenna that made the Goddess of Love want to pull her hair out. There it was! Fantastic! Amazing!
“Just for that, I’m not going to ask him.” Helenna said.
“Alright.” Malam said.
“Alright?”
“I don’t need permission to enter the battlefield in the first place. You don’t either.” Malam shrugged. “But I would prefer to go in alone.”
“Why?”
“Remember in Arseille? When a me that wasn’t me dyed your hair?” Helenna nodded. She had washed the paint out since then. The idea that would be running their won spying operations and meetings with succubi had not worked out in the end.
“I do.”
“I’d rather not see two of you in a battle.” Malam said. “I wouldn’t be able to make the call.”
“Would you not?”
“Would you?”
“Probably.” Helenna admitted. Malam was Malam, the first time she been tricked relied on the benefit of surprise.
“Well you’re a braver girl than I.” Malam said. “Although that makes since you-“
“Go on.” Helenna interrupted Malam. “Hit me with the joke again. I’ve not heard it enough yet.” Malam chuckled to herself and shook her head.
“Alright alright.” She said. “But yeah, that’s why it’s a bad plan. You’re taking too many casualties in terms of local police as well. You may as well call in the army. Malam smiled smugly and blew a few locks of white hair back over her shoulder. “but, of course, if Kassie makes you nervous, then there is another organisation you can call.”
It was embarrassing that the answer didn’t come to Helenna immediately. She actually had to think on it for a few moments. “You mean the SIS.”
“I do.” Malam said and slid off the desk, her bare feet landed on the floor with a sharp clap. Helenna sighed and shook her head. “Can’t it be someone else?”
“Why must it be someone else?”
“Because I don’t want to put you at risk. Malam blinked, then actually made an earnest smile for once. Helenna didn’t even go red, with Malam, the woman had pushed her around far too much for any sort of these personal relationship secrets to exist.
“Helenna that is the sweetest thing anyone ever said to me.” She actually made a non-mocking, downright respectful inclination of her head. “But I want to go.”
“Why exactly do you want to risk your life that much?”
“Because I am the Goddess of Hatred Helenna, the monster extermination campaign was my brainchild. I, very simply put, enjoy the ending of life.”