Chapter 4

That Lustra remained ignorant of his treachery was of great amusement to Sakassen. How quick she was to blame her sister. Blinded by anger, Lustra called Sakassen and Xaophet to the war room. Isaris had revealed their secret, she told them, breaking the most sacred oath of the gods, and for that, they could hold nothing back now. They strategized a counterattack.

Everything was going exactly according to plan; gods were easily manipulated creatures. For a goddess who supposedly could not see beyond the power of the law, the squabble with her sister kept Lustra from seeing the truth about the situation. Sakassen had leveraged tensions between Lustra and Isaris against each other. He broke his oath with Isaris, knowing she would be provoked into retaliating in a way that would force Lustra to side with him against her. Lustra could say what she would about the law. In the end, all forces of the universe tended toward disorder. Chaos would always win.

“My sister continues to be fooled by that packrat,” said Isaris. “But he has done me a great service. My victory is all but assured, thanks to him.”

“So it seems,” said Marlak. His great club leaned weighty against his chair. The god of strategy had arrived a few days prior to pledge his allegiance to Isaris. He saw the many permutations of this war, and Lustra failed in nearly all of them. Her strongest ally was a natural traitor; she was the only one yet to see it plainly. Isaris would win, and victory was Marlak’s greatest pleasure. “Sakassen has revealed the nature of our power to the mortals, yet he was opaque with the truth,” he said. It was true. With each passing day, Isaris’s power surged. Even while her worshippers dwindled, she fed on the cold souls who had left the underworld overcrowded with the dead. Lustra may have been a match for Isaris before, but if they were to face each other in combat now, Isaris knew she would surely win.

“We must call for a total end to the agreement,” said Isaris. Marlak did not reply. “You are afraid of chaos, I understand,” said Isaris. “Strategy relies on order, and an end to the agreement would collapse all order. But you must understand, Marlak, that Lustra’s oppressive agreement stifles our true power. I tried to stop Sakassen myself, and Lustra arrested me for it.”

“I have pledged my arms to you, Isaris. If this is what you call for, then I shall fight by your side.”

With the agreement now broken, the preeminent strategy between the warring gods was to stage on-the-ground battles between mortals to weaken the power of opposing gods by killing their worshippers. The fighting led to countless deaths on both sides as worshippers of all kinds perished on behalf of their gods.