There is such a thing as suffering from success. It is younger Divinity that struggle with this idea the most. There is simply too much power concentrated within an individual, although so of the older Divines still have not learned the lesson. On my account, it was the failure of the Age of Heroes: Parathus and I shared the power of Divinity out to humanity, within a single generation, the world of Arda had entered a Golden Age. Within two, it was a failure. Power corrupted the minds of n, more heroes had to be created to hunt the old ones, Divine amplified the problem exponentially, especially once the largest killers of n where put into the ground. A project that would have propelled Arda into the stars suddenly brought it cascading downwards. Parathus’ death followed by Worldbreaking was necessary to so extent, the slate had to be wiped clean for the downwards spiral had engraved itself into the soul of this world.
Irinika, I have no idea where she learned. Whatever happened before my incarnation, in the Age of Gaia, ensured the Goddess of Darkness takes each day as a gift. Allasaria, on the other hand, has never learned the lesson. She still thinks that her own raw power will be able to fix every problem on Arda. Kassandora is another type, although that extends only to her desne. The Goddess of War has never lost a war, she does not know what it is like to lose.
Restraint is an admission of reality, not a failure of character. The hasty need to advance at all costs is what should be avoided. There are enough powerful Divines on Arda that we are constantly one whim away from the atmosphere being lit, or the planet’s surface being cracked open. And so, the restraint becos a shackle or a chain. The grandest of us chain our entire selves, down to the ambitions and dreams and futures. The weakest of us need to be thoroughly broken to understand the aning of it.
The goal is difficult to phrase, for it is andering in nature. To carry a selective weight, one can may be as light as a feather or as heavy as a mountain and to know when to put it and when to let it paralyze. Even most humans lack the capacity for proper restraint.
As Divines, we must embody the pinnacle.
Restraint for is everything for Arda, whether that is raising the orphans of Worldbreaking or whether it is burning down the stars above.
- Excerpt from the private writings of Arascus, dated to early Reconstruction.
Kassandora was staying behind. Fortia, Maisara, Fer and Kavaa were already overkill. Four major Divines for one frontline was far too much, a fifth did not have to be needed. Especially with the fact that Elassa could get from Arcadia to Ainai in a matter of hours, that effectively put her on the front if she was needed too. She looked into a mirror and smiled to herself, trotting around the room. One thought on her mind, her phone on the table as she walked to the window of her Atny hotel room. Supposedly, on a clear day, Olympiada could be seen from here. Zerus, Alkom, Sceo and Theosius were still there. Maybe she worry about them, there was a certain part of her that didn’t like the uncertainty of what would happen if they decided now was the chance to behead the dragon.
But that would never happen. Arascus would turn the entire mountain to dust, the lot of them would be written out of the history books if that happened. Kassandora would go down as a martyr. And the Empire would… The Empire would continue as it did. It still would have Arascus, it had Iliyal, it had Fortia now too. They could all run the military. But that wouldn’t happen, and it did not even have to be thought of, because the fact that grass was green was just as true as the fact that whoever remained on Olympiada was a relic and a coward.
Kassandora looked down at her phone. The Kandai air-test should be starting soon. Her eyes flicked to the clock. Delays were to be expected though in these sorts of tests, the grounds tower had been transported, installed and powered on. Supposedly there been a day of shimring diamond fog. The Eparika around the island had started to brighten too, although Kassandora did not care too much for that fact. Diamonds sank in water, if the towers worked on the ocean, then they worked, Elassa had her enchantnt would struggle with water though.
Kassandora’s phone finally rang. The Goddess of War quickly answered it, took off her coat, unbuttoned her top button and went to retrieve one of the whiskey bottles that had been delivered to her room. “This is Goddess Kassandora, report.”
Supposedly, mortals should not have her phone. Kassandora looked in the mirror at herself again and chuckled. Everyone had Fer’s number though, and everyone of importance had Helenna’s number. If they could break the rules, why couldn’t she? She poured herself a glass, still smiling, and listened to the report of Captain Nikolai, commander of the Eighty Second Fighter squadron. “Goddess, this is Captain Nikolai reporting from Kandai central base. Apologies for the delay, all weather balloons have reported now.” He paused for a mont, Kassandora heard papers shuffling. She just stared at her own red hair in the mirror. Kavaa was a bad influence, wasn’t she? Here she was receiving a report from Captain Nikolai and she was thinking about how to style it. “To sum up Goddess, the air is at pre-war levels. Better even, there’s not even a negligible trace of soot in the atmosphere.”
“How high Captain?” That was the question of importance though, too low and they would be facing counterasures.
“Up to eleven thousand feet.” Nikolai replied as Kassandora pulled on a strand of red hair that tried to hug her cheeks. No matter then. Of there wasn’t, her plans never failed. Kassandora smiled and twisted to look at her face from the side.
“Start the field test.” She said. Kavaa was definitely a poor influence. She loved the Goddess, that much was certain now. Even thinking of Health’s na made Kassandora’s heart skip a beat as if she was so starstruck girl.
“Of course Goddess.” Nikolai said. Quietly wisely, he did not mute his phone. “We have the greenlight! Start the test!” Ultimately, Kassandora never really believed reports. They were useful of course, they were mandatory in fact. But a report was much like a plan. Utterly priceless for a while, and then not even worth the paper it was written on after a point.
Kassandora uncorked her whiskey bottle with the twist of a nail and drank straight from it. Kavaa was definitely a bad influence, and she had to be sent away. Dad said the sa thing, there was such a thing as too much of a good thing. She wasn’t allowed to expand the Empire because she would conquer the world in the span of a year, and then that would be a century-long crisis in holding it. And she couldn’t stay too long with Kavaa because she’d have too much of her otherwise. Even Fer took breaks from friends and that woman had the social battery of… of a Goddess, funnily enough. “How are the flight tests captain? Give reports.”
Planes flying back over Arda. If this worked, then it was only a matter of ti before the final victory. Arascus’ FPN-1 Extermination plan would succeed and if it didn’t, then Kassandora would march the Imperial army and set up towers throughout all Arika. Success was a question of ti. She drank again as she listened to Nikolai tease her about the victory. “Planes are on the runway now Goddess, it’s a pair of Eagle interceptors. We’ll send them up in pairs, until all sixteen are in the air.”
Good plan, although Kassandora had written it. Of course it was a good plan. She took another drink of the bottle and settled down, staring down at the phone, her cheeks going rosy. How embarrassing to think that she acted the way she did with Kavaa. That couldn’t repeat itself. Not whatsoever. Fer bringing Fortia and Maisara around was bad enough, but Kassandora had a reputation to maintain. “Eagle One and Eagle Two have turned on their engines.”
Kassandora took a step over back to the massive wooden chair behind her chest and crashed into it. The wood creaked under her mass and she blushed again. The bottle and her forehead slamd onto the table. And Fer had destroyed that table and Iliyal’s ho! It wasn’t just causing a ruckus, it was destruction of property! And the elf had said nothing, of course, when he was in every right to co in and tell Kassandora off! “Eagle One initiating take-off.”
The ti alone had to be had. Kassandora suffered as she down a third of the whiskey bottle and felt it warm her up from the inside. Hopefully this would get her to sleep, she wanted to be done with the day and heavy drinking in front of Kavaa was still too embarrassing to do. Kavaa would judge her for it, she’d probably say sothing along the lines of Kassandora becoming Malam. “Eagle One is in the air. Eagle Two taking off right now. All sensors on the planes green.”
Kassandora thought about muting Nikolai for a mont but that would just look bad if he asked her a question. Kassandora stared at the reflection of herself in the bronze whiskey. Bronze like Fortia, that woman was probably not surprised whatsoever by what had happened. She didn’t look it, Fer definitely prepped them before coming in to teach a lesson. Another third of the bottle went down the hatch. And here Kassandora was, moping about, almost reduced to tears, by the sheer thought of it. That look at the end, from Fortia and Kavaa and Maisara had all been the exact sa: Why was this woman not in the White Pantheon? She’d fit right in. “Eagle Two is in the air. Atmospheric conditions are currently pristine Goddess.” Well, at least Captain Nikolai sounded satisfied.
Kassandora heard a cheer of the other base crew co through the phone as her finger hovered above the end call button. She was in no condition to speak anyway. Where was Arascus right now? Or Fer? Her sister had told her off, embarrassed her… Well, they did have a chat at the end. And Fer had said it: You will stay behind and you will cry but you have to do that. I’ll be disappointed if you don’t. “Eagle Pair has hit flight-height, starting the route around Kandai now Goddess.”
Kassandora shut off the phone. The plan had worked. Nikolai had permission to ring if sothing terrible happened but the ICDT tower was obviously working. The one in Rilia had already run helicopter tests. Everything was on schedule, everything was going as intended, there was no issue for her to solve. There was no work to take her mind off things. Kassandora stared at the last third of the bottle. It went into her.
On shaky legs, she stood up, took a step, looked at the door leading to the bedroom and stumbled towards it. Kavaa was disappointed by her. Fortia and Maisara had their illusions shattered. Fer’s hope that she was learning self-control had obviously been vapourised. Kassandora pushed the door, took a step and collapsed face-first onto the bed.
Fer never cried. Arascus didn’t even. Malam just got drunk. Irinika would laugh and smoke. Olephia would paint. Ana was the only one that may have sothing similar and with her, the answer was always simple: she just needed more power. Kassandora curled into a ball and threw the covers over herself. It was terrible! It was the worst! She was the worst! Why had she even acted like that?! All the for the sake of nuking Ainai? When the airforce was back? What was even the point of it all! The army could win by itself.
Kassandora tried to drink the final drops of her whiskey and then threw it against the wall when they failed to dribble down. It was good that Kavaa had gone. Kassandora would not allow herself to descend to this state if Of Health was here, and Kavaa would be terrified if she saw Kassie like this.
It was supposed to be a celebration of a revived air-force. It was one of the worst days of her life.
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