Lament of the Fallen

As Dee prepared to answer Aurelie’s questions, she knew it was better if she framed the discussion beforehand. That would allow her to direct the discussion and the questions down a path she preferred. “So to save time, I’ll give a rough outline. You can then ask questions, though naturally I can’t and won’t answer everything.”

“Agreed.” Aurelie knew that this was not a relationship of full trust, so it was only natural that Dee would keep secrets. It was also natural for Dee to be untruthful in some things, but even the lies could reveal many things. You only lied to a psion if you had a reason, so those would be the areas where attention should be paid in the future.

“To start things off, we can both see that my companions are…not like us.” Dee emphasized the word ‘see’ and both of them knew Dee was talking about the ability to see the flow of power inside people, something fairly unique to the elites of the Assembly. “Using the terminology you used earlier, my ‘watcher’ managed to bring me away as a baby. I do not know the exact details, but that watcher ran afoul of the purge the angels were conducting. According to what I was told later, my watcher died but managed to hide me. I was then found by a Lord of the Assembly.”

“One of the reds?” Aurelie asked with curiosity. Most of the Lords stayed out of the way as the purge of the demons happened. Those in the pro-demon black faction interfered the most, but not to a major extent. The demons within the Assembly controlled territories got a certain amount of protection, but the angels tended to ignore even that protection when it suited them, drunk on the victory as they were.

“No. She was a scientist. She didn’t wear the sash so I can’t be certain, but I assume by her nature that she was part of the blue faction. Anyway, I ended up on Pantheon, which is where I spent the majority of my life. I was trained in assassination and infiltration, though the exact purpose of the people training me was unclear. Later on, my training also expanded to include psionics and holy power. I’ve spent a lot of my training time with Moirai, while Araqiel is someone I met a lot later. I’m not sure what her training includes but I know she has performed many missions and excels in observation and getting things done without drawing attention.” Dee weaved around a lot of half-truths with vaguely worded sentences to build her story.

Aurelie didn’t miss that fact, but she also couldn’t sense a word of it being a lie. Being vague was only to be expected in the circumstances. Dee was not likely to reveal all her training and what she had done. There wasn’t anyone who would simply reveal all their deepest and darkest secrets either, and everyone had those. “And did you? Perform missions I mean.” She wanted to check something. There was a large difference between being trained in fields that Dee had mentioned, and actually doing those things. Someone that wanted to go far among the red faction would actually have to perform those kinds of things, and Aurelie wanted to know if Dee had the capacity. She also wanted to get a feel on whether Dee felt bad about it.

Dee’s voice didn’t waver in the slightest as she answered without hiding her previous actions. “Yes. I worked as an assassin for many years. The targets were all on Pantheon and for the most part residents of that world.” Saying mostly wasn’t a lie, and it implied that there could have been other targets as well.

Aurelie remembered another bit of vague wording that she wanted to check as well. “And what about Moirai? You said you spent a lot of your training time with her, but was she trained in the same things.” She also wanted to probe the way Dee spoke to get a bit of a handle on how to interpret things. If Dee had a habit of twisting her words in certain ways, then it was useful to know for future reference. Aurelie was much more experienced in these sorts of discussions than those that blindly relied on truth spells.

“Well, I know she was taught many of the things I was taught, but I also know her training was in many ways very different.” Dee replied. Of course Moirai was trained in the same things that she taught to Dee. Well, much of it could have been self-taught, but there was no way for Dee to tell the difference. “If I’m not mistaken, the emphasis of her training was different because we were not meant to fill the same role.”

“And what role was that?” Aurelie asked. So far she had heard things that she had roughly expected, but this was the important part.

“Hard to say. I was not given too many details concerning the role I was supposed to play in the future.” That was certainly true. Both the assassins and the gods had plans for her, but neither party had been very forthcoming on details. She had learned many things since then, but she was still a little vague on details. Mostly because the details were left to her. Umbra and Lumen didn’t really care how she did what they needed done. They just cared about the end result. Only the templar and Moirai had been clear on their expectations, which was ironic since they didn’t have many beyond just being helpful. “I can make some educated guesses though.”

Aurelie could sense that Dee knew a bit more than she was telling, but allowed that to pass. While this was perhaps the most important part of their discussion, it was also the one Dee was most likely to keep to herself. “Do tell.” She prompted Dee to continue.

“Well, two of the races used to create me were dragons and angels. That allows me to pass myself as one of them, for a time at least. I know that some of what I was supposed to do included working against the angels, which our kind is suited for as you know. And like I said, my training emphasized infiltration and assassination. You do the math. As it happens, Araqiel can also easily infiltrate among the angels, what with being one and all, and Moirai can easily form rather high ranking connections within Pantheon.” The last part was especially true considering Moirai had already done that. “The two of them were part of the same community as me, but I’m not sure if their purpose was the same as mine. We stuck together as we left Pantheon since we seemed to get along.”

Dee’s words had been rather emphatic, making reading their truthfulness easier, so Aurelie could be certain of their truthfulness. Dee’s words were also painting a picture familiar to her. Assembly prepared many operations like the one Dee seemed to be implying and some of them even came to fruition. Many others were abandoned for various reasons. Dee falling victim to a scrapped project like that was unlucky, but also very plausible. It also explained many things. And if Aurelie’s suspicions about Assembly having played a part in the project that created them were true, then Dee would have been the unfortunate subject of two Assembly projects. She could sympathize with that.

“So what happened? You were trained for a purpose; all three of you judging by your words. Yet here you are, seemingly without any direction. And a fair bit more powerful than such a project would require before being put into action.” Aurelie posed the obvious question.

Dee had to be careful here. She had many ways of handling the situation, but she didn’t want to give too much away. “How much do you know of the recent power struggles within Pantheon?”

Aurelie frowned. Pantheon had always been something of a special place and she’d had very little in the way of dealings with the inhabitants. The Assembly, of course, had their own ways of gathering information, but their interests lay mostly elsewhere, and the leaders of Pantheon were not exactly wild about sharing what went on in their world. “Not very much. I know the basic outline. A community in the first circle of the Day city was destroyed, and there was a struggle for their spot. The Night city also took the chance to make a mess.”

“Roughly true, but not very accurate. There were two rather large events that you might be thinking as just one. There was the one you mentioned, which caused a lot of chaos. Not too long ago the number two community of Day city also lost their leader, which also caused a mess. Anyway, our community got mixed up in both, which was both a blessing and a curse. It left us without direction as many of the leaders of the community we were part of those that perished, and we lost some friends. On the other hand, it was also a good opportunity to grow stronger.” Dee explained.

“So that explains the no purpose part, but what about you being here?” Aurelie asked.

“Well, two things. The angel embassy on Pantheon was destroyed not too long ago. The Solarians needed something to tide things over with the angels, and a prominent and powerful demon made for a good token scapegoat. Long story short, we are here now.” Dee made it obvious she didn’t want to go into detail and deliberately left it vague whether she was really behind the attack on the embassy.

Aurelie thought for a while before noticing something. “So if I didn’t misunderstand, you were never actually brought to the capital world to go through the rituals?”

“The what now?” Dee had no way of talking around this one as she had no idea what Aurelie meant, so she just admitted her ignorance. Sometimes you had to know when to back down.

“Ah. Well, strictly speaking, none of you three count as Lords of the Assembly until you go through certain rituals. Personally, I’m not a fan of those, but they exist for a reason. Unlike the other participants in the War in Heaven, the Assembly is made up of varied races with varied interests. Without something to bind us together, we would have fallen to internal struggle a long time ago.” Aurelie explained.

Dee suddenly got very wary. This didn’t sound good. “What kind of rituals exactly?”

“Well, there are three that we all go through and the shared experience helps bind us together. Separate factions can have their own rituals before a person is accepted to become one of their members, but those are a bit more flexible. The three include a test about what you are, a test to determine your strength and thirdly the oaths. The first test is just to weed out clear enemies. Angels, dragons, and demons are not forbidden from becoming part of the Assembly, but they warrant some special scrutiny. The second test is to check that you have sufficient amount of power and skill to become a Lord. Our words are pretty much the law in the worlds we control, and it would be bad if a Lord didn’t have the power to back his words.” Aurelie herself had gone through the rituals, so she knew Dee would have no problem with them. Especially the second one.

“About these oaths. I don’t really like the sound of that. I’m not going to swear fealty to anyone anymore. I’ve been used enough.” Dee reacted rather negatively at the thought of swearing oaths.

“Ah, I did get a very individualistic feeling from you. Don’t worry though. With all the races making up the Assembly, it’s very hard to settle on something as binding as oaths and no one wants to become subordinate to a possibly hostile race. As a result, the oaths are magically binding but just about as limited as is possible. There are no oaths of fealty or even an oath to serve the interests of the Assembly. There are only three oaths in fact. First is to speak no lies on the capital world. That oath was meant to help move the politics along, but you know lies don’t have to be direct. Don’t think I didn’t notice you dancing around some issues with when you talked about your past.” Aurelie pointed out with a small smile.

She continued. “The second oath is to not lead an army against the Assembly. The Lords demand the right to stand against the Assembly if their interests and loved ones are at risk, but at least they have to stand as individuals and not leaders of an armed rebellion. The third one is probably the most important. You promise not to kill other Lords of the Assembly outside a battle or a clear predetermined duel. So no political assassinations. Nearly every time a Lord kills another, the other Lords can find out about it. You probably already noticed that the term battle is a little vague, so this oath isn’t foolproof. Many have tried having it revised, just like the first oath, but a large enough part of the Assembly likes that rule as it is that those attempts have failed. It does do the job to an extent at least.”

“And what about the red faction?” Dee didn’t forget the part about factions having their own rituals.

Aurelie grinned. “Well, in theory it’s supposed to be a secret, but most trainees find out about it beforehand anyway, so I might as well tell you. It used to be that you had to deliver the head of a being belonging to the forces of Paradisia, a dragonid of sufficient rank and a demon. With demons being so scarce nowadays, now all you have to do is kill a dragonid and a being belonging to the forces of the angels. You can either bring their heads or clearly state that you have killed one of each, by yourself, under a truth spell. I’m pretty sure you’ve got that one covered, right?” As it happened, the higher ranking the beings killed, the higher the person could go in the seniority order. It was one of those unspoken rules that governed the social structure within the red faction.

“No heads, but I can do the truth spell thing.” Dee replied. Moirai had probably not killed an angel before, so that might be an issue. Dee had a feeling Araqiel had. Whether they wanted to do the rituals was another thing, but at least the possibility was open.

“Excellent! So you can get the rituals done once we have enough time to return to The White City.” Aurelie clapped her hands with a bit of joy. She liked the thought of getting a new sister, especially one from the same generation. The others of their kind had spread among the other factions of the Assembly, just so that they’d have as wide a reach as possible. They also had slightly differing ideals that matched the other factions, so the whole thing worked out. Their kind wasn’t exactly loyal to the Assembly, but they weren’t seeking its downfall either.

“We need to prepare. I’ll need to have a word with my friends as well.” Dee claimed, requiring some time to think. This was certainly an opportunity. With a few rituals they wouldn’t need to pretend to be part of the Assembly, and the oaths were not all that binding. There might be some questions, but most of the questions would be suppressed by the fact that the Assembly would most likely want people with Dee’s and Moirai’s strength as part of their group.

‘Besides, I think I might even have a way around those oaths. I’ll need to have a word with Umbra.’ Dee smiled as a plan started forming.

--------

“So the question is, do we want to become part of the Assembly?” Dee asked Moirai and Araqiel as they were standing in front of the gate that would take them to one of the fortress worlds that was pressed the hardest. They had left Io a few hours ago and they had to take several gates to reach their destination as Io was not connected.

“And you’re sure you can remove the oaths?” Araqiel asked just to confirm. Dee had told the two that they didn’t have to worry about the oaths, even though these particular oaths would not hinder them all that much.

“I received the information from a reliable source. Well, reliable in certain ways.” Umbra had been rather intrigued by Dee’s plans and questions but had assured her that oaths were not a problem. Just the mere fact that Dee was Umbra’s champion meant that no oath could bind her. Added to that was the effect of her totem that negated any strings that tried to bind her, and Dee could combine the two to even remove oaths from others. It didn’t matter if the oath was sworn in the name of a deity or magically enforced, any oath had a natural enemy in Dee.

“Well, it might turn out to become something useful. Certainly it beats just pretending to be Lords while wearing their robes. However, we don’t have to make the choice right now. There’s a war going on, and we still have the meeting with Rahmiel as well.” Moirai pointed out.

“It still feels weird to have you refer to the Archangel by her name.” Araqiel grimaced. Still, it was better than throwing around the term Archangel in case someone overheard them. Not that this particular gate had people hanging around, which is why Araqiel even mentioned it.

“Speaking of which, can she still come here with the war going on?” Dee suddenly asked.

“It should not be a problem. In fact, the war gives her a good excuse to come here. The border with the angels is not closed, though with the war going on the traffic will be monitored. The Assembly won’t allow a large number of angels across the border in case they turn hostile. The better question is whether or not we can get out of the battle when the time comes. It takes a bit of time to reach the world we need to travel to, as it’s not exactly nearby. Someone will notice our disappearance and we don’t want to make it too obvious that the disappearance coincides with Rahmiel’s visit.

“I don’t think that will be a problem. With the dragons rushing in, the Assembly will be busy springing their trap, so they won’t have time to miss us. Even if the plan goes perfectly, there’s bound to be a huge mess and a lot of chaos. A small group of Lords moving around will not draw too much attention. And we all know plans rarely go perfectly, especially plans like this. The only question is whether the dragons will take the bait or not.” Dee assured Araqiel.

The gate activated just as Dee said that and the trio was transported into a war zone. The gate was surrounded by a large layered fortress, and the first few layers had been taken over by the forces of the dragons. In fact, the gate itself was surrounded by different kinds of dragon related species, a small number of actual dragons among them. Yet the three people were not worried. As soon as they saw the surroundings and smelled the scent of battle, they vanished again.

Wars like this were all about managing the gates and teleportation. Having a fortress around the gate was a nice deterrent, but eventually the area surrounding the gate would be taken over by the enemy. If the defenders had no way to deal with the situation, any and all reinforcements and supplies would be surrounded and wiped out by the enemies around the gate. The gateways were a problem both offensively and defensively. As a result, all the participants in the War in Heaven had developed methods to deal with the chokepoints of the gateways in various ways. It could even be said that the wars were decided by two factors; the presence of powerful immortals and the best methods to deal with the gates.

Dee, Moirai, and Araqiel all carried amulets that triggered an emergency teleportation from the gate to the parts of the fortress still held by the Assembly forces. All they had to do was to defend themselves for the second or so that they were open to an attack, which was not a huge task for any of the three. They also brought along supplies for the defenders as they arrived, and Dee proceeded to dump a large number of crates and containers out from Croestia even before anyone managed to greet them.

One of the green sashed Lords approached them with a grin. “I understand the three of you came to lift the siege. I have to ask, can the three of you do it alone? The other Lords present are willing to work together, but you should know there aren’t that many of us. That’s why you were sent here.”

The man had a point. This fort was undermanned on purpose as a smokescreen for the two forts that were supposed to fall. It was one of the forts in the direst situation currently. The situation had become worse than planned as some of the Lords had unexpectedly met their end on the battlefield. There were several powerful dragons present on this world.

“We can deal with it. Just watch.” Moirai replied with a confident expression.