The Greatest Sin [Progression Fantasy][Kingdom Building]

“Why has this landed at my desk?” General Ekkerson asked as re-read the short report:

‘Central Requisitions Airbase has been filled to capacity. Nanbasa North has been filled to capacity. Station Sokolowski has been filled to capacity. Within the Central Mountains, Stations A through D have been filled. E & F will be filled by two weeks’ time. Every airbase in the Southern Mountains has been filled. Along the coast, 60% of bases are nearing capacity. 1 in 5 are full.

Either we start expanding roofing, we cut production or we lift the open-air ban. There is no other way around it. I am not writing to inform you that we can’t sustain the output. Kirinyaa’s private economy has not recovered to the point where we can safely start downsizing the aviation industry. I am instead writing to inform you that we will have to stop production because we have nowhere to put the products.’

Ekkerson’s assistant, a Kirinyaan named Yusuf, shrugged. “Well they’re not going to ask Arascus about building warehouses, are they?”

Ekkerson chuckled in response. “No, they’re not.”

Iliyal readjusted the collar of his black coat as he marched from one tent to the other. The elf marched as he always did, in his black coat with the cap bearing Kassandora’s skull pierced by a sword, with a white shirt tucked into his black trousers and all finished off with sleek black boots. As good as the uniform looked, it hadn’t been washed in a week now. Iliyal decided he needed to get a spare, but first, he needed a walk.

It wasn’t for any specific reason, but he had spent the past fourteen hours by a table looking at various of Rancais and Doschia. At cities and at rivers and at elevation maps and it had made his eyes go dull. A road of advance had been chosen which pushed as far as possible whilst avoiding any urban areas. He would still have to push through villages. That wasn’t good, but there was simply no other way around it. Rancais was a modern Epan state and a modern Epan state meant that one could drive for twenty minutes in any direction and cross three villages, if not a town. Any urban area would mean people, and people could mean Anarchia’s “heroes”.

Already they had been caught crossing into Doschia. The method of detection had been to arrest anyone with a Rancais accent who didn’t have documents dating to pre-Epan War times. The method worked only because the Rancais accent was borderline impossible to get rid of. But when they were in Rancais? Then sending an army in without a better method way to discriminate the super-powered from the mundane was practically begging to be ground down and lose to attrition. Some minds believed that Anarchia’s blessings would disappear, or start to fade, the moment that the Goddess died.

Iliyal had discussed it with Malam and with Arascus. It would make sense, blessings usually faded once the Divine that cast them died, but exceptions did exist. Figures that were disfigured by Divine power would not return. Anarchia stole power and shared it out. Could it even fade if it wasn’t her power in the first place?

So Iliyal walked as he carried out today’s meeting on the move. In a black coat and with his merry band of men, soldiers would turn and salute to Iliyal long before there actually any need to. Iliyal ignored them all, it was the duty of one of his assistants to salute on his behalf right now. Generals Menith and Beryon marched close behind him, Iliyal had pretended they were here for help with organisation even though that was a flat out lie. They were here to learn from him how to manage an army. The rest were simply assistants and scribes and a radio operator with a huge backpack; the usual gears which turned in a command squad.

To west was the frontline, it was silent right now. Although it was usually silent at this point, Iliyal’s trenches had only needed a week to teach Anarchia’s men that a line of machine guns did not care whether you had stolen strength or speed, you were still human at the end of the day. To the east was Imperial Army Group ‘Epa’. A huge collection of circles around campfires, with massive dirt roads for vehicles in-between them. A collection of helicopters with rockets in lines behind a series of jets. Those were sequestered away behind chain-link fences and a constant guard of heavily armed men.

“Give me the reports.” Iliyal said and his assistant, Arlecchi, caught up. A Rilian soldier who was transferred here recently. His greatest skill and the reason a nobody got the position of assistant to the High Marshal was that he couldn’t speak Dosch, Rancais or Lubskan and Allian he could only read. Iliyal could speak the jubilant Rilian though.

“The Karainan branch reports that they’ve found a suitable candidate for the initiation of the Karaina plan.” Arlecchi reported. Menith and Beryon both could understand him, they got closer, but none of the other men could.

“Is it signed by Ilwin or Daganhoff?” To this day, Iliyal still refused to honour Sara’s title of Duchess. To hell that Arascus gave it to her.

“By both of them sir.” Arlecchi said.

“Forward it to Arascus from me then.” Iliyal did not even need to read it. It wasn’t for him and as curious as he was on what his grandson was doing, the man was an adult and he didn’t need to be monitored at every turn.

“Anything else?”

“General Ekkerson has rung-“ Iliyal could this line of inquiry off, he knew exactly what Ekkerson was struggling with.

“Is it the aircraft situation?”

“Yes sir, he is asking if he can use Epan airfields.”

“Menith.” Iliyal said to one of the golden-haired elves behind him. “Find every military airfield in Imperial Epa with hangars and forward them to me. Draft a letter to Aliana that she needs to expand her own airfields, then leave it on my desk.” It would be twice as much work if Menith was to write the letter, but the elf had to learn how to communicate with Divines eventually.

“Yes Marshal.” Menith replied, Iliyal did not even give a nod of affirmation.

“Continue Arlecchi, what else?”

“General Sokolowski has sent a message. I have it printed off here.” Arlecchi brought a folded piece of paper from his coat and passed it to the elf. Iliyal unfurled the note and smiled to himself. One of Damian Sokolowski’s greatest strengths was that the man didn’t feel the need to write an entire storybook for every scrap of communication, to say he was efficient was an understatement:

To whoever it concerns, Field Marshal Tremali preferably.

The situation regarding banditry is manageable in the Ashlands. In regards to the Ausan referendums, the locals are still working on setting dates. However an unexpected issue has appeared, whether it’s the destruction of the Jungle or Elassa’s Sea channelling wind currents, we are starting to have rains moving from the south to the north of the Ashlands.

The situation with the rains is untenable for everyone, the ash becomes a moving slurry that washes away everything and anything caught within it. The troops have orders to stay away from clouds and we are constantly on the move. Currently, it is manageable and we can keep at this pace for a month, maybe two. However the Ausan and Kirinyaan settlers moving into the reclaimed terrain cannot. The ash, once wet, destroys everything, this includes their buildings.

I have sent warning to the Ausan coastal cities to start reinforcing their firewalls to withstand flooding however my suspicion is that the walls simply will not hold. Preferably, Divine support in the form of Iniri or Elassa would be requested to shore up the city’s and disrupt the rain clouds, or if impossible then I would like to request assistance from Arcadia.

Signed, General Sokolowski, Damian.

Iliyal handed the letter off to Arlecchi, the man couldn’t understand Sokolowski’s Lubskan anyway. There was one thing Goddess Kassandora had taught Iliyal, and it had been one of the hardest lessons the elf had ever had to ingrain into himself: when stuck, it was completely reasonable to ask for help. Sokolowski should be sent a medal for the fact he realised he was out of his depth and asked for help. It took two steps to weigh everything together. Cloud seeding was the obvious solution, it would give a job to the aircraft. Forcing cloud break and rains would alleviate the immediate threat Sokolowski was facing but the man’s suspicion was so blatantly correct in its conclusion that there was no way to ignore it. The Ausan coastal cities being flooded by running ash would be a disaster that would ruin all the inroads the Empire had made into Arika.

So it had to be the Goddess of Magic then. Iliyal sighed as he pulled out his phone and scrolled to Elassa’s name in his contacts. Some Divines, the Daughter-Goddesses of Arascus, were no issue to talk to. Some Divines could be negotiated with because they were simply flat conclusion orientated personalities. And some Divines, like Elassa, were simply oversized and super-powered humans who had power they did not deserve to have. Iliyal rang.

He was honestly surprised that Elassa picked up. Iliyal put the phone to his ear. “Iliyal speaking.”

“Yeah, your name didn’t appear when you rang.” Elassa said sarcastically and Iliyal wandered precisely he had done in his past life to deserve interacting with Elassa.

“Are you in Arcadia?” Iliyal got to the point, no point in pleasantries. The woman wouldn’t appreciate them and he wasn’t in the mood.

“I am.” Elassa replied. “What do you want?”

“Rain and flood control in Ausa.” Iliyal said. Sokolowski had been efficient in describing the situation, but it was efficient for mortals. Divines did not need explanations. Through the phone, Iliyal heard Elassa audibly sigh and click something.

“How large of an area?” Elassa asked.

“The thirteen cities at a minimum.” Iliyal said. “That’s the hard cut-off, Sokolowski and Zalewski could both do with three to five weather teams each though.” And again Elassa clicked something, Iliyal thought he heard a pen scribbling on paper but he wasn’t sure. A plane flew overhead, from Doschia and into Rancais. Spy plane to record images and keep tracking Anarchia’s location.

“Are you at an airport?” Elassa asked and Iliyal rolled his eyes.

“I’m on the Rancais front.”

“Huh.” Elassa said. “And you’re calling me about sending mages to Arika?”

Iliyal answered immediately, so as not to let Elassa come across she may take issue with. “Not many people have your number.”

“Good.” Elassa declared. “You shouldn’t have it either.” And this is what the elf expected, because Elassa simply thought it beneath herself that a mortal have access to her. There wasn’t any way to convince the woman, about how much of a stubborn child she was being, all that could be done was to politely state that the situation wouldn’t change.

“I’m the commander of the Imperial Military as appointed by Goddess Kassandora.”

Elassa waited a few moments to reply. “I can send you twenty teams of five each. How does that sound?” A hundred mages split across an entire continent. How generous Elassa was… Iliyal rolled his eyes again.

“This isn’t a training exercise.” Iliyal said.

“Of course it’s not.” Elassa said with just slightly too much satisfaction.

Iliyal found a way that would allow him to sneak in the most powerful weapon in his arsenal. “I’d rather not bother Arascus with flooding in Ausa.”

Elassa made a low through the phone that went on for far too long. Iliyal kept his cool, Anassa was worse to deal with. Eventually, the Goddess of Magic finally calmed down. “Is that a threat?” Her tone was as cold as ice.

“It’s a fact.” Iliyal said and Elassa laughed out loud.

“They don’t make men like you anymore, I’ll tell you that Iliyal.” The elf once again rolled his eyes. There were some Divines that would be able to butter him up, he knew that, but Elassa was not one of them. “Two hundred magicians trained, then three hundred apprentices. With rotations coming in and out to cycle my men.”

“Logistics we can sort out later.” Iliyal replied, he purposefully made sure not to tell Elassa of Damian Sokolowski’s name, frankly, he was doing that man a favour by making sure Elassa didn’t know who he was. “I want the magicians there quickly.”

“It will be done Iliyal.” Elassa replied. “Anything else?”

“No.” Iliyal replied and Elassa switched the call off before the elf could even finish the word. Iliyal sighed as he put his phone back into his pocket. There was no joy to be found when dealing with Elassa, nor was there any satisfaction he made it through that tightrope of Elassa’s mood. The Divines acted differently with each other than they did to mortals, but Iliyal wandered how true that was. Even Goddess Kassandora had once called Elassa ambitionless and lazy.

Whatever, the elf was merely glad that was over with. “Anything else Arlecchi?” Iliyal asked in Rilian.

“Goddess Paida asks when we are moving into Rancais.” These questions had started to be daily now. They were never pleasant and Iliyal simply pleaded that he would be able to string her along until the next time she asked.

Unfortunately, he was running out of options and it was time to throw Arascus under the bus. “Tell her it’s Arascus’ decision and not mine.” Eventually, Arascus would ask why Iliyal had not dealt with her himself, but that was a problem for another time. Iliyal’s intuition simply said that Paida was starting to get too frustrated at this point. “What else?”

“Team Crimson report an uneventful drop.” Arlecchi sounded confused as he turned his paper to check for more writing. “That’s all.” Iliyal knew what it meant, it was the four sorcerers sent into southern Rancais. They had landed then.

“Anything else?”

“There was an assassination attempt on Goddess Fer.” Arlecchi himself most likely didn’t know the significance of Fer whereas for Iliyal, this was merely standard in war. The Great War had seen assassination attempts from both sides at least once a month, Iliyal had to fell many an assassin back then.

“The fact I’m hearing of it now means it was stopped.” Iliyal said as Arlecchi quickly scanned the piece of paper.

“The report says that Goddess Anassa was there to stop the assassin, it was one of Anarchia’s men.” It was because Anassa was chosen as Fer’s guardian that they had stayed in Epa, because the former could be in two locations at once and if she ever needed to participate in sealing up a breach in the frontlines, she could be called upon as long as she was in Epa. And as long as Anarchia’s location stayed tracked, Divines weren’t a threat to her life-leeching.

“Anything else, or just that?”

“Goddess Helenna and Malam are going to interrogate the prisoner.” Iliyal smiled. Good luck to anyone who had to go up against Malam then. And then, Arlecchi said the worst thing Iliyal had heard all day. “And that’s everything sir.”

Iliyal took a deep breath and turned around.

It was time to return to the maps.