When we won against the Empire, we discovered that the taste of victory was not only bitter, it was tough to chew and even harder to swallow. The Great War resulted in the handing over of Arda into our hands on a silver plate, yet the White Pantheon had been built specifically to counter Arascus’ Empire. Now that we are able to review Arascus’ own recovered writings, we can see that the conflict was viewed as a stress test to the new world he was building. To us, the conflict was the purpose. The Great War ended and the White Pantheon found itself standing leading a broken world.

  Of course, looking back on things, we can always say we should have disbanded there and then. That we should have granted independence and autonomy to the nations that had been conquered. Or maybe that we should have split the world up between us. I would take over a country, Fortia her own, Iniri would be able to build her nature reserve, Maisara her country-wide foundry, Allasaria could make her sects into their own stables lands. This did not happen of course, and it was a blessing to all of us that it did not. The fact we had holdovers from the Great War, such as Fer escaping east, or Irinika and Malam underground, or Kassandora being imprisoned on Olympiada and Anassa in Arcadia were the final strings that pulled us together.

  How long would it have taken for the White Pantheon to start devouring itself had we divided the cake that was Arda? How long until Maisara and Fortia decided their slice of the pie wasn’t enough and began to gaze at Allasaria’s? Likewise, no-one much enjoyed the fact that I struggle to stay out of other’s business. No one much appreciated the fact that Elassa refused to guide magicians and would much prefer if the schools were organized by a system of anarchy and competition. Kavaa was utterly against more useless conflict, especially internally. And ultimately, everyone knew how everyone acted because we all acted in uniform. Kassandora, Goddess of War, that we bound on the mountain became the chain that bound us. It is obvious she would work for whoever freed her. It is obvious that everyone had conceived of plans to kidnap her in such a situation.

  One thing that always baffled me with Arascus and his family is that Olephia listens to such an extent to the God that she even gives him the honorific of father. Olephia would be useful on the White Pantheon as a Goddess to simply enforce Order. If we were not under the paranoia that everyone had to be tracked and monitored so that they do not free Kassandora, then greater liberties could be taken.

  Maisara is the pinnacle of our honest, open and clear mutual disdain for each other. When asked to swear that she would never free Kassandora, the Goddess who never lies would always add a condition that was open-ended in meaning. A flat promise was impossible to get out of her. That refusal was the first crack in our house.

  - Excerpt from the autobiography “Roses, Blade & Blood”, written by Goddess Helenna, of Love.

  A week had passed since Fortia, Maisara and Alice had been stopped in that first shelter. The first day had been spent looking over their shoulder but now they had settled in. It was obvious that they were being tracked by someone or something, both Fortia and Maisara would discuss it whenever Alice slept, although none of them had any confirmation of any disturbance. The simple fact of the matter was that there was no one out there, Divine or mortal, who would ever allow the Goddesses of Peace and Order unsupervised entry through their lands. That did not happen.

  Still, simple deduction could be used simply through the open nature of the Imperial news and what information was not available. Arascus was constantly appearing throughout different places in the Empire, a speech would be given in one place, an inspection would be given to a factory in Aris, then to another in Doschia, then he would reassure Lubska that their Goddess was still alive. He would make these great circles throughout the Empire as if he wanted to be seen everywhere and anywhere at once, even down to taking ships to get to Allia to give praise to the dockworkers that were repairing the ships of the Imperial Fleet. So he was out, simply too busy.

  It could not be Malam or Helenna either, as both of them were in Klavdiv, ensuring the celebrations in the city would be ones to remember. Almost every moment they had on screen was another memory made, from Malam drinking openly to the cameras in celebration, or Helenna giving out gifts to dwarven children. Yesterday, the Goddess of Hatred had hosted mock duels. Today, there was a golem showcase planned apparently. Apparently, the celebrations would end with a trip by the news crew down to the World-Core, simply to see what they could catch of it. It felt like a humiliation, but both Maisara and Fortia had agreed to watch it then. But it could not be those then.

  Nor could it be Olephia or Anassa. For one, they would know if Olephia was after them. For two, that pair were stuck in the south and working on ways to push back the Ashfront. From the news reports, neither were too successful. Ultimately, they were still Divines being sent to fight the weather system. Neneria was missing, but Neneria was not after them. That she would have been spotted already. Baalka had no powers of traversal and was too slow. Elassa would have been spotted in the sky already. It was not drones either. The sky was as it had been back a hundred years ago, when only birds and clouds ventured into it. The atmospheric contamination by Tartarian Ashen Skies had fully stopped all air travel within the Empire.

  So that left two targets. One would be the locals themselves. That was probably happening. Even if the farmers weren’t reporting Maisara or Fortia directly, then a street camera would catch them or something else. But there was one more that would be tracking then, who had been suspiciously absent from the news lately. Fortia turned her head around and looked at the steep mountains covered in green fields. Cattle grazed upon, four different villages were in sight, connected by long and winding tarmac roads that had obviously been repoured recently. A few outcroppings of trees were about as well, a stream. Plenty of fences, although those wooden structures would not be able to hide a human, much less a Divine. Somewhere, looking right at them, was Fer. Of that, both Maisara and Fortia were certain.

  “You won’t see her.” Maisara said once again.

  “I know.” Fortia replied. Alice was walking ahead to the next town, it was an old collection of buildings that dated almost a thousand years back. This entire area had been decimated by brawls between Anassa and Elassa in the final years of the Great War. Leona had assisted in the rebuilding efforts after. The city still had a statue called Luck’s Blessing, which was a figure of builders standing steady before an avalanche. Fortia had found it humorous, she assumed that these sorts of things would be torn down when new regimes where instituted. “We should get a car or something.” The vast majority of time was just spent walking. If it was Maisara and Leona alone, they could have visited all four the places in the span of a week.

  And they would have found precisely zero entrances. One secret home had its entrance hidden in a river, another was next to a lake, but hidden in a field. One had been in a tunnel that was an old mineshaft. Another was in a ruined cottage, the bricks had to be pushed out of the way by Maisara’s axe. Everything of interest had been taken from the first two, and then Fortia realised they were going to be running out of space in their bags.

  That would be why Fer was following them, because they led and she followed and picked up the scraps. Leona’s diaries and books were meandering and homely, but they did have information. Her regrets on the Great War, her musings about Divinity, her dreams for the future. There was plenty of the last one but there was more on the first. Of Empire was being mentioned indirectly in almost every location at least once. Leona had been worried what she and Allasaria had done. She was worried what would happen if Of Empire ever got free.

  And then, in the last building, the one in the cottage that had been accessed underneath the pile of rocks, they had hit a bombshell: I swore never to visit it again, I have not visited it again. That was a lead. It was a lead with a collar that could circle the entire world, but it was a lead nonetheless. A direction, a spinning arrow, a map with a single line on it.

  The presence of one line suggested the presence of others.

  That had cemented that they were on the right track. The excess notes had been dumped for Fer to trawl through or report or whatever she did with them, and only those things which referenced Of Empire were taken.

  So they marched. “We should get a car.” Maisara eventually agreed. They let Alice set the pace. Another half-hour later, the girl led them onto a road. Every few minutes, a car would pass by. “Do you notice that?”

  “Notice what?”

  “They’ll all new.” Maisara replied. “Shiny.” Fortia only noticed it after. The cars were in fact new and shiny. Even the ones that obviously were older had been cleaned. “I don’t like it.”

  “Why?”

  “It feels like a show.” Maisara said. “I refuse to believe to believe they’re like this all the time.”

  “Just a culture of cleanliness.” Fortia replied idly. “Or do you think we’re so important that they cleaned up every car in the area specifically for us?” They paused on the side of the road and watched a blue-black bus pass by. On the side was a drawn picture of a smiling Saksma in a wide-brimmed sunhat and sunglasses, her hair almost gold, the figure cut off at the shoulders but it was obvious the Goddess of Doschia was only in a swimsuit: Besuchen Sie die rilianische Küste! Was written on the side in Dosch, Come visit the Rilian seaside! And the bus was so clean it seemed to glow against the bright blue sky. Fortia found the humour in it. “Would you do that?”

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  “I would rather be skinned alive.”

  And Fortia chuckled again. So they walked, even this odd country road had a noticeable amount of traffic. Cars would slow down, a few people took pictures, neither Fortia nor Maisara cared. Arascus knew they were here, that was good enough for them. The beast of bureaucracy would know already, maybe, most likely, they’d be in the local news. A flock of birds from above squeaked down. Fortia couldn’t help but admire how clean that sky was.

  They made a turn. More cars went by. They walked through a small village were children ran from their football game to the edge of the field so that they could point and make impressed faces at the fact two Goddesses had come to visit. Alice went into a shop to buy herself some drink. She got extra bottles for Maisara and Fortia too, even when they didn’t need it. The former grumbled about the wasteful spending, Fortia just sipped the locally produced grape juice. “You know what’s the worst part?” Fortia asked.

  “That you like it?” Maisara replied flatly, she had not even opened her bottle.

  “That I like it.” Fortia agreed. She passed the bottle to Maisara. The woman rolled her eyes and drank straight from the bottle.

  “Well I like it too.” Maisara said. She passed the bottle back.

  “They do beer in this area.” Fortia left it at that. Maisara knew her well enough to know that was an offer on drinking.

  “Where in Epa do they not do beer?” Maisara asked and Fortia had to laugh. So they travelled through the village. People went to their windows to gaze at them. That was normal, every Divine had faced those sorts of nervous and curious and awed looks. Children pretended not to stalk them as they did exactly that. That too was normal. Cars slowed down and had to overtake them on the road. That too was normal, one of the Goddesses took up the whole pavement. They weren’t going to be dodging bins and benches and sign-posts, so they walked on the street. That took was normal. The only thing that wasn’t was Alice’s seemingly nonchalant attitude to the whole thing. The girl led them forwards, towards Pretzen, they would reach it by the evening at this pace. It was only two villages away and villages were dense here. And at least her behaviour could be explained through the fact that Leona had raised her.

  What could not be placed was the utterly baffling fact of a white car coming from the next the turn. White, with a blue stripe on it that bore the Imperial crest and the word: Polizei. At first, Fortia thought it was a routine patrol. Then it turned towards them. “Don’t tell me that’s for us.” Maisara grumbled from Fortia’s side.

  Fortia had to laugh. “Do you think we’ll get a ticket for obstructing traffic?”

  Maisara took another step and shook her head. “You know if we were in Elassa’s territory, I’d believe she’d be that petty.”

  “Well thank whoever watches over Divines that we’re not.” Fortia said. “Probably just watching us.” The Goddesses kept walking ahead as the two policemen inside were obviously arguing with each other. The driver was an older fellow, his passenger in the side was a younger man. Probably a recruit.

  “They’re here for us.” Maisara said. “Alice wait up!” She called out. “Come close.” Alice stopped, turned and closed the distance.

  “What’s happening?”

  “The police is here.” Maisara said.

  “Oh.” Alice said, she looked at the large white car. “Isn’t that normal?” She held onto that bottle with both hands and came to stand in between the two Goddesses. “Are we getting arrested then?”

  “We’re not.” Maisara declared.

  “Do you think we’ll even fit in that car?” Fortia asked.

  “Am I getting arrested then?” Alice asked.

  “You’re not.” Maisara declared. Eventually, the argument in the car was solved with a game of rock-paper-scissors. The younger recruit lost. He threw his hands up in the air, took something from the glovebox, put it into the pocket of his black coat and came out. He took one tentative step forwards, turned back to the car and the man inside shooed him along.

  It took maybe a minute for him to cross the distance of fifty feet, each step stagnant and slow. One look was given to Maisara, in her green travelling clothes and the huge bag on her that was mostly food and drink for Alice. Another to Fortia, dressed in the same manner. One last glance was given to Alice, and then his eyes settled on the crowd. He stopped before the Divines and cleared his throat once. Twice. Thrice. “I… Polizei, Police…”

  “We both know Dosch.” Fortia quickly correct him in his native tongue. There was no reason to make a fool out of this young lad here. He couldn’t have been much older than twenty five. “What is the issue?” He looked up at them for a moment, blue eyes glazed over with pure relief.

  “Thank you Goddesses.” That was much easier to listen to than the broken Allian. “I have been asked, informed I mean to say, that…” He went red in the face with embarrassment and brought out a piece of paper from his coat. Fortia looked him over. There was a pistol on his belt but she doubted he would ever pull the trigger on them, no in this state. Maisara just turned to Fortia, her grey eyes tired, her mouth slightly open with disbelief. And the officer unfolded a piece of paper. “I mean to say, we have transport available for you. There is no need to walk.” He was obviously reading at this point.

  Maisara had enough. She leaned down and took the paper from his hands to read it herself. Fortia leaned over. The police officer gawked up at them for a few moments and then sighed with relief. Fortia’s eyes went wide. She had assumed there would be a script to follow. Instead, she found herself looking at a printed piece of paper that said: Merkblatt: Umgang mit Fremdgottheiten. Or, in Allian, Instruction Sheet: Handling of Foreign Deities. Below the title was a series of bullet points to follow that detailed transportation procedure, a link to a website which apparently had a list of locations large and roomy enough for Divines to stay at, a list of numbers that Divines should be aware of. The whole works. “We’ll keep this.” Fortia said.

  “Of course, of course, of course.” The officer was relieved. He stopped, smiling, and looking up at them like a statue. Fortia raised an eyebrow.

  “Is there anything else?” Obviously there was. She could smell it on him.

  “Ah!” The young officer jumped. He reached into his pocket again and brought out three small booklets. They were black, the edges coloured in a gold that obviously wasn’t real gold. Two crests sat on the front, the Imperial Eagle at the top, then the Doschian below. He opened one, passed it to Alice. The girl took with a thank you, then opened the next. That went to Fortia, the last one to Maisara.

  Fortia stared at the booklet bound in a faux-leather. All the gears in her mind seemed to overload for a moment. She knew what it was instinctively of course, and she knew why she was it given it. It was just that for a moment, she could not believe she was actually given it: An Imperial passport. Maisara stared at her own with just as much awe and befuddlement. “Wow.” Alice said. “Thank you!” She tapped her the drawing of her face on the inside. “And that’s a pretty drawing of me.”

  That got Fortia moving. The first page was just the Imperial foreword all passports had, a promise to uphold the law and a plea to treat the owner with respect and assistance. The second page had her details. Fortia blinked at the drawing of her own face. The fact it was almost picture-perfect made her blush. She looked over to Maisara, who had her eyes wide. The Goddess of Order had received the same thing. Fortia looked to the picture, then to Maisara’s face, then to the picture. Save for the fact one was drawn, it was a perfect match. Maisara inspected Fortia’s. And the colour drained from her face. “That’s…”

  “I know…” Fortia replied. She turned back to her own details. There was something funny about it. Name: Of Peace, Fortia. Age: Ancient. Home: Arda. Place of Birth: Arda. Date of Birth: Unknown. A glance at Maisara’s was much the same. They turned to the young officer.

  “Who gave you this?” Maisara asked.

  “My sergeant Goddess.” The man replied immediately. His partner just stared out from the car at them and said something over the radio.

  “And to your sergeant?” Maisara asked and the man shook his head apologetically.

  “I don’t know Goddess.” He said. “Honestly, it’s part of policy. I don’t…”

  “Understood.” Fortia said. She gave a cold look to Maisara to lay off the fellow. The sergeant most likely wouldn’t know either. He would have just gotten the letter from his captain. The captain would then get it from the invisible beast that was imperial bureaucracy and that was that. These methods were known. “Is there anything you have been told to tell?”

  “No.” The man said. “I just got told to hand these to you and then to give you these to sign.” From the inside of his pocket, he pulled out three sheets with the pens clipped onto them already. “I…” He trailed off. “It’s just policy. To make sure that…”

  Maisara and Fortia both stared at the papers. Of Order sniffed in humour as Fortia read hers: Confirmation of Receiving of Temporary Passport. That was the title, there wasn’t much text below it: I confirm that I have received a temporary passport to navigate within the Empire and all territories within. I understand that it is my responsibility to keep it safe and to report it lost should it go missing through loss or theft. I also understand that it is my responsibility to seek a replacement, should I continue to need one, in a timely manner. I confirm that the likeness of the artist’s representation is close enough to match my own as to be identifiable, and I confirm that should I wish it replaced with a real-life photograph, it is my duty to apply at the nearest passport centre and supply them with one.

  Name (Block Capitals): …. ….

  Signature: …. …. Date: ….

  And in the top-right corner: Bureau of Internal Affairs. There was an emblem of a fortress in a circle next to the Bureau’s address and the Imperial eagle above it. “Is this how you normally handle these things?” Maisara asked as she flipped the sheet and inspected the back. It was empty.

  “Here you go!” Alice replied as she handed the paper back, already signed, to the officer. He inspected the signature, then carefully folded it and put it back into his pocket.

  “Thank you.” He took it as the girl started flipping through the black and gold passport. Fortia shook her head. What a nation Arascus had built, to think even Divines had to abide by imperial bureaucracy.

  “Does Anassa have this? Or Fer?” Maisara asked. Fortia rolled her eyes and just signed the piece of paper. Whatever, it was just a signature. There was no point causing a fuss to this fellow just for the sake of individual pride.

  “I don’t know Goddess.” The man replied apologetically before turning to Fortia. “Thank you Goddess.” He bowed to Fortia and then turned to Maisara again. “I don’t see why they would not though. I know they have Imperial Seals, those might be…” He trailed off. “I don’t really know.” He looked to the script in Maisara’s hand. “That’s all I’ve been given.”

  “Just sign it and we’ll be on our way.” Fortia said. Maisara sighed and signed. Fortia had to chuckle as to how much this woman by her side acted as if she sheer pain of it. The policeman got his paper eventually. He bowed. He said his thanks. He left.

  “I have never had that happen to me before.” Maisara said.

  “Same, but as they say.” Fortia chuckled to herself. To think that the Empire was in a war and they were still administering passports, the White Pantheon would never. “There’s a first time for everything.”