Chapter 784 – Verbal Dissection

Allasaria is a fool. This latest revelation about her signing a pact with these so called “Watchers” was a surprise, it was an unwelcome one, and it has brought about a thorough reassessment of the woman as a whole. I struggle to even conceive of what she did, or how the meeting went about. Was she honestly brought to that wooden room, told to sign something, given the what is equivalent to a passport for the planet, and then… just left? And thought nothing of it? And they did not even bind her with a sword?

There is an old saying that a fool’s mistakes serve for the best teacher that there is. And I suppose we can all understand now why it is about mistakes, because one has to truly dig deep to extract anything of value out of a fool’s success. Nevertheless, here we are. Allasaria has foolishly done something none one is capable of, and now we have to draw our own conclusions from it.

Firstly, whereas we called them Elders, Allasaria called them Watchers. Supposedly, she learned the word from the Angels and if I will not take Allasaria’s words, then I shall take the word of the Paradeisians. It is mere terminology at the end of the day, but terminology and linguistics serve a purpose. Fundamentally, a prison warden, a teacher and a parent can be semantically made into the same thing: a person of authority that prepares those they have authority over for the next stage of their life. Yet no one on this world will claim that they are the same thing.

A Watcher implies something worth watching, Elassa’s own curse has effectively confirmed it to me that what these people watch is either Arda, although that comes from my self-importance, or they are creatures of no planet whatsoever and instead space itself is their domain. Elassa’s cursing, for that matter, strongly suggests the latter. The blades serve as markers over our souls, I assume. The fact that they would know if Elassa left the realm rather than stating openly if she would die is the biggest step we have discovered. Elassa’s own conversation with them, recorded and transcribed, has fuelled more theories.

Whereas the Allasaria lead has dismissed most of them to replace them with questions. Once again.

- Excerpt from Arascus’ Private Writings.

The goal of management was not to be the best, but to convince people smarter than you that you could in fact be capable of giving them orders. Arascus knew that Kassandora was a far better commander than him, Fortia was probably too, he would put himself somewhere around Maisara’s level. Maybe Iliyal’s. And that was why Kassandora headed the Imperial Army and not him. Fer could sniff out the truth from people to a degree of certainty no amount of reading expressions and emotions could. Elassa could cast magic, Olephia was more destructive, every Divine that could fly flew faster than Arascus.

But there were some things that he did pride himself in, and it was never good whenever he had to go for someone to help him on these topics. He didn’t even really know why, but asking a daughter for assistance was not going to happen. They could come to him, if he went to them… Well, the world would have to be ending. He gave out orders, he did not ask for help unless it was a military meeting.

It was almost freeing to have Divines that weren’t daughters but that could still pull their own weight in the Empire. Fortia was a prime example, Allasaria not so much. The woman was actually stupid. She could make quick decisions but she lacked the ability to take a step back and reconsider what had just been thought. But there were some smart types in the Empire, and the one behind this door had written whole epics on conversational dissections.

“Helenna.” Arascus said as he stepped into the IBI head office without knocking. “There is work and it is urgent.” Helenna was basking in her chair, filling a cup of wine for herself in a playful manner. One cheek resting on her hand, her eyes idling about as they gazed into the liquid.

“Impolite to knock, don’t you think?” Arascus closed the door behind himself and pulled one of the large armchairs in the room so that it sat close to her desk. She had known he was coming, otherwise, she wouldn’t be roleplaying at this melancholic, idling pondering. Behind her, the massive statue of Helenna that sat in the middle of the IBI’s Donut gazed directly into the room.

Arascus met the stone’s gaze for a while, then broke it. Incredible artistry that, that it even made him feel small when the statue gazed down at him. “Did you read the documents I sent you?” Arascus asked.

“You have a talent for making swords on horsehairs seem like nothing but dry bureaucracy.” Helenna said, crossing her arms. “I honestly have no clue how to help you on that.” Arascus had expected as much, it was good that Helenna was owning up to her lack of knowledge frankly.

“We’ll get into that. There’s business first, what is the progress on the Imperial Palace?” Helenna twisted a lip up.

He knew that she knew, and he knew that she knew that he knew that this was a game they were playing. “I’m surprised you’re asking because I’ve had some doggies already sniffing around on the construction site.” Helenna said. “I didn’t think you’d be so blunt about it.”

“Everything I do is blunt.” Arascus said as Helenna sipped her wine. “Big rush to complete these plans.” Arascus brought out the plans of the Palace that had been hastily made in a week from his suitcase. “I’d prefer wider towers though.” Helenna’s lips curled up into a smile.

“Of course, that can be arranged.” Helenna said.

“Why the pool?”

“I want one.” Helenna said.

“Alright.” Arascus said, that was sorted then. “Have you seen the Karaina situation?” Arascus asked.

“I have.” Helenna said. “The country is crashing to a halt. They’re talking about potential dissolution.” She shrugged. “What about it?”

“It’s Ilwin, Iliyal’s grandson.” Arascus brought out a sheet of papers. “Here, he has a plan for a non-final dissolution of Karaina and integration into the Empire.”

“Don’t these things go through you usually?” Helenna asked as she took the piece of paper and began to read. Arascus had gone through it himself, Ilwin’s plan relied on taking various insurrectionist groups that wanted independence off the Karainan government, supplying them with Imperial aid, and openly stating that the intention was to give them full Imperial support with integration further down the line. Helenna purred as she read it. “I see why you’re giving this to me.” She said.

“That’s not all, that’s just a job, Ilwin has it sorted, generally.” Arascus said. “But I’ll pass him your number as a specialist contact, he won’t know he’s talking to you.”

“How devilish.” Helenna said. It was better that way though, mortals were always more forthcoming when they thought they were talking to kin rather than to a Divine.

“That’s not all.” Arascus said. “Why I actually came here is this.” Arascus said and brought out yet another sheet of paper. “Because we’re not going to sit here and take it at face value.” First came out the transcript that Elassa had written, then one Arascus had done of his own recording. Helenna’s hair immediately turned into a satisfied dark blonde as she took the pieces of paper and Arascus looked around. “Where’s the wine?”

“There’s a cabinet behind you.” Helenna said as she reached down by her side without taking her eyes off the piece of paper. “But I’m not going to boss you around like that, here.” She brought out a bottle of fine Rancais purple and then another glass. “Help yourself.”

“Thanks.” Arascus poured himself more than enough for the start. They would probably empty this bottle today. And a few more. Helenna’s eyes were as fast as a cheetah as the Goddess of Love, sitting in the panopticon of the Imperial Bureau of Information, proceeded to read. She sniffed with humour, then took Arascus’ conversation.

“You talk a lot.” Helenna said as she got to the section where he had started pressing Allasaria.

“It was correct in the moment.” Arascus said.

“How much I’d pay to be a fly on the wall in that room.” Helenna said chuckling. “You should have gone harder.”

“That is exactly why I don’t let you two get close.” Arascus said, drinking the wine. Helenna put the paper down and pointed a finger at him.

“That though, I hate.”

“What?”

“You savour wine, you don’t guzzle it like fucking beer.” Helenna said, swirling and sipping her own. Arascus held her gaze, slowly closed his eyes, opened them, and moved the topic on.

“Which one reveals more?” Arascus said. Helenna put both pieces of paper down on the table before her, leaned down on the table, and spun in her chair as she thought.

“Both are fairly large.” Helenna said, stilling spinning. Arascus watched her hair, every time it swished past him, he got a blast of the perfume she had so obviously put on maybe minutes before he arrived. “I like this phrasing of Watcher from Allasaria.” Helenna said. “It’s much better than your naming scheme of elder.”

“The question is what are they watching?” Arascus said.

“That is the implication, isn’t it?” Helenna said. “A watcher needs to watch so what are they watching exactly? And for what reason? Space or us?”

“That is what I can’t reason out.” Helenna stopped and tapped Elassa’s article. “Did you see this part?” Arascus leaned down to read where her finger was pointing: Joshua: You revealed yourself to us when you left Arda.

“I read that as them being watchers of space.”

“Mmh.” Helenna said. “But Allasaria does not have a blade, and likewise, we’ve seen Paradeisius and Tartarus target us with portal magic and nothing came of that. I assume that whatever they signed, they were allowed to leave their world. And leave it in mass, in both cases.” She raised an eyebrow. “Allasaria doesn’t have a blade, you apparently do.” Helenna looked up at the ceiling. “Is it there right now?”

Arascus looked up, his eyes travelled up the massive statue of Helenna, to the cream ceiling and he shook his head. “The one time it appeared was when I was about to board the Lighthouse-One.” Arascus said. “So I don’t know. I assume it’s always with me, Neneria has mentioned being able to touch it.” Helenna already knew that, it was in the documentation he had sent forward. “So we work under the assumption it’s connected to the soul. It’s always with me.”

“Do you think it has ears?” Helenna asked.

“I have no clue.” Arascus said.

“Whether it does or does not is not important. I have no plan to leave Arda.” Helenna tapped the piece of paper from Elassa again. “You’ve spent time around Elassa, she’s known about this, and yet they let it slip that she revealed herself when she left Arda. If it is some sort of sensor, it can’t access thoughts or ears to the level that it knows who you are talking to, because they would know.”

“Oh?” Arascus said.

“The first part of the conversation was them trying to get Elassa’s name.” Helenna said. She chuckled. “And she gave them a name and a list of titles.” Arascus leaned back and took another drink from his wine. He knew he should have come to Helenna, that was a connection that would have taken a week, maybe a month for someone else to figure out and she had made it on the spot. “In fact, I’m certain because we all know each other by footstep by this point and they still did not know her.”

“Unless they were lying, or she had to reveal her own name.” Arascus said.

“If they knew Elassa, they would know how to deal with her and not lead it to an argument.” Helenna said. “It’s a shame no one actually argumentative has been sent up yet. Imagine Kassandora in that room. Or me? Fortia too? If you had been prepared the first time and not in a hurry, you could have done a number on them.”

“You don’t think they’re smart.” Arascus summed up what she was saying.

“I would never insult the guardians of my own prison like that.” Helenna said. “But they’re not omniscient and they’re not lying to Elassa here.” She tapped Elassa’s document again. “Of that, I’m certain. I’d put money on it.” Arascus leaned back and thought about the Great War, when they had to fight against Leona and her omniscient luck that could predict everything.

“If they were omniscient, we would still fight against them. The only way forward is through at that point.” Arascus said. “But no, that is good concluding.”

“And yet, it is still incomplete.” Helenna said. “Because there is a dangerous knowledge virus, proven by Irinika, Neneria and Iniri, who I assume have never left Arda.” She stopped spinning stared at Arascus, then started spinning in her seat again.

“You’re going to throw up.”

“Is it annoying you?” Helenna asked.

“It is.”

“Well it annoys me how you drink that wine so we’re even.” She kept on spinning, and kept on filling the room with her perfume. Arascus sighed, stared into his glass, and then took another drink of it. Irinika, Neneria and Iniri, he had no clue how to slot in. Not whatsoever. They were barred from talking about what they knew, and that sword revealed itself when they were about to speak. And no one was going to test the thread. “They are Ardan, or Ardan situated, is the conclusion I can make.” Helenna said. “Otherwise, it makes no sense.”

“It doesn’t make sense either way.”

“But what if they were on Arda, and then left?” Helenna asked.

“That would require them to be chased out and what by? We’d have records.”

“Nothing is recorded from the Age of Gaia and by the time we came to the Age of Monsters, they weren’t around, I can confirm that myself.” Helenna said. “So there is a time-gap we don’t know about and it’s there, after Elassa’s Year X and the formation of...” Helenna’s stopped shuffling. “Do you know actually how old any of them are?”

“No.” Arascus said. “None of them track their age.” Even their own guesses changed every time they were asked. Arascus thought for a moment. “How old is Zerus?”

“Older than me but I don’t know that either, I don’t think he does.” The major Forces were supposedly responsible for the burning down of the wood that swallowed civilization during the Age of Gaia. “He’s younger than Iniri, I can confirm that. There’s nothing actually?”

“Once, Irinika told me that she wouldn’t talk about it, but that she lived with people who survived Year X.” Arascus said. “The start of history as we know it.”  Helenna stopped spinning and looked at Arascus.

“She’s old.”

“Old old.” Arascus confirmed. “First generation Divine.” He blinked as Helenna’s lips curled up in a smile.

“Then there’s what? Assume the worst case scenario, she met someone who was a child in Year X and then were decrepit of time when Irinika talked to them. That’s… Eighty years at the most? Zerus’ incarnation was after Iniri’s first garden, and that’s more than several centuries after that.” Helenna tapped the pieces of paper. “Watchers, Allasaria called them. Known to Paradeisius and Tartarus but obviously unable to restrict them. I think we can confirm they are watching us.”

“How did you get that?”

“Because Tartarus invaded us?” Helenna said. “Because the Angels keep stable portals on our planet? The rules are not enforced evenly. And it is not even that, they don’t even try to pretend that the rules are enforced evenly. Everyone but Allasaria gets a blade.”

“That reasoning was what led me to think they’re Angels.”

“With no wings?” Helenna asked immediately and Arascus shrugged.

“It can’t be ruled out.”

“But it can.” Helenna said. “Because they can’t see onto the realm that is Arda. Physically, you’re in space. You can’t see onto a planet, what do you do? Assume the planet bars you from entering, or that its dangerous, or something like that. Think of a reason yourself.”

“I build a telescope.” Arascus said. “And I send others down in my stead.”

“But they don’t.” Helenna said, she stopped spinning and raised her hand. “And that is where I cut this thread of thought because any word after this can only be an assumption without evidence, just something that fits the evidence and both of us are smart enough to construct an infinite amount of scenarios which satisfy that even if only one of us knows how to drink wine properly.”

“I’ll sip it if you stop blowing perfume in my face.” Helenna’s hair turned a delighted orange and she clapped her hand.

“And here I thought you lost your sense of smell! It’s good, isn’t it?”

“It’s good but you applied too much.” Arascus said and Helenna sat there, smugly.

“Men always need a lot applied to notice.” She said. “A dash here and there and you wouldn’t smell it.” Arascus sipped his wine and rolled his eyes. It was not worth the discussion. Helenna went back to the pieces of paper. “There is more here I’ve seen.”

“What?” Arascus asked.

“Elassa mentioned confirming that the monolith is in a soul-realm because she could not use magic. Whereas the wooden room had a clean atmosphere, but she could use magic.”

“We have a sample size of two.” Arascus said.

“We have a pattern.” Helenna said. “It’s pure conjecture, they could physically be in this universe.”

“I’ve thought of that and I’m still able to go either way.” Arascus said. “Elassa not being able to cast in two of them, and being able to cast in another is something I can’t judge. We don’t know enough about soul-realms in the first place to judge it.” Helenna sat there and took a deep breath, her head tilting to the left, then to the right, her neck cracking. “That’s not healthy.” Arascus only said to be annoying. She actually squinted a dry glare at him in response.

“Have you considered them being rogue Divines?” Helenna asked.

“I have.” Arascus said. “It was the first thing I thought of, before this. Just when they called me Godling.” Helenna nodded.

“Indeed, Elassa effectively confirmed what it means through her stating it was an incomplete God and their reaction. What do you think of pre-Year X Divinity? The time gap would line up, they are around long enough on Arda to meet Irinika, Iniri and Neneria, but not long enough to meet Zerus?”

“I’m not a fan of the theory that they are from here in the first place.” Arascus admitted. It fit, frankly, and the phrasing of Godling would be even more apt then. On Arda, a freshly incarnated Divine that wasn’t going to be strong, an Of Spoons or Of Wires, could be referred to that frankly and it would fit. “But no, I don’t have explanation for Irinika, Neneria and Iniri otherwise. They cannot see onto Arda supposedly, but they somehow know what those three learned and then cursed them? That is what does not add up.”

“It would actually be simpler where it not for those three.” Helenna said. “There’s another thing I can suggest actually.”

“What is that?” Arascus asked.

“That they’re not the same people who cursed the three to not be able to speak, they’ve not told you who they saw, did they? Whereas you know of this Joshua and Samson and Mary.” Arascus rubbed the arms of the seat. That was a catch too. There could be multiple groups of them.

“Then there could be a group on Arda and one in Space.”

“And we’re running away again.” Helenna tapped the piece of paper. “Again, the problem is that we’ve not sent anyone to them.” Helenna said. “All the discussions that have been held so far were purely accidental. There’s nothing that’s… You know, where the goal is to talk to them. They’ve just had luck so far that whoever came wasn’t prepared.”

“I know.” Arascus said.

“There’s something else, based off Anassa’s documentation that you attached, which was that the first one hundred and fifty sorcerers survived the trip. And it was only after that that they started filtering.” Helenna raised an eyebrow. “What do you make of that?”

“That they raised standards.”

Helenna cracked a smile. “That is very much what you would say.” She spoke slowly, almost savouring what she was saying. “Have you considered them having standards in the first place?”

“Of course they have standards.” Arascus said. “How could they not?”

“What makes you say that?” Helenna leaned back and sipped her wine. “Come on, give me a good reason or I’ll spin again.” Arascus opened his mouth, closed it, and came out with the first reasoning he could.

“Because that’s what I would do?” Helenna gave him a spin and another blast of perfume for that.

“Indeed, that is what you would do, I praise the universe that you are not a Watcher Arascus. It is also why I don’t think sending a Divine to them, for the purpose of meeting them, is a good idea. Because they can obviously adapt to us. Everyone should know, but when they asked Elassa on why she left her realm, she had an answer. How would they respond if they suddenly realised that they were the target, and not the Second Arc?”

“I do not know.”

“Indeed.” Helenna said. “Can I keep this?” She looked at the pieces of paper.

“Go ahead, I made those copies for you.”

“I’ll send you more when I find more.”