The Greatest Sin

Allasaria waited until the whale threw her up in one of the great underwater caves. There was a mermaid there.

Helenna left the business meeting. She fastened her coat, leaned into her bag and threw a piece of chewing gum in her mouth. The strongest mint she could find. Since she arrived here, some sixty days ago, her schedule had not seen more than a thirty minute break. She walked out of the Kirinyaa National Petroleum Company and sighed, then pulled out her notebook. Today, Kassandora had been generous. She had twenty-three minutes to the meeting with representatives of the Miner’s Union. She walked down clean roads of this part of town.

Nanbasa was divided into quarters. This was one of the upper-class areas, with all the management buildings. The government quarter was right next to it. Helenna sighed, she knew where the Miner’s Union already was, she had met with them four times already. They were simply to there to secure funding. They had pledged fifty-million Luvia already, it seemed like a lot, but it wasn’t. The currency engage to any Epan currency was worse than a hundred to one. Today’s meeting was simply to set a schedule on payments. Kassandora wanted them on a monthly basis, the Union wanted them on a territorial basis, as land was reclaimed, they would pay out.

Some cars honked to wave for Helenna as she walked down the street. People moved out of her way. The days were long and tiring, but they passed by quickly. Helenna could not wait for her dinner tomorrow with Kassandora tomorrow. They had one every three days were Kassandora would give Helenna more instructions and updates on who to talk with, in some nice restaurant. One of the perks of being a Divine was that mortals refused payment. Even the hotel, The Pearl of Nanbasa, they were staying in, one of the few which had rooms large enough to house Divines, said that their presence was enough. Helenna supposed it was, she had seen adverts from The Pearl which said how the hotel was good enough that it was now housing not just one, but two! Two! Divines! And not just any Divines! Of War and Of Love themselves! Big names! The place had filled up quickly with the wealthy after that.

Helenna sighed as she looked down at herself. She wore a nice skirt, a white shirt, a coat over it. Again, these clothes were made free of charge, the advertisement the tailors received was more than enough. Helenna supposed they did a good job, she looked thoroughly professional and business-like, even if business was something her domain didn’t particularly cover.

Two months in Nanbasa. In those two months, she had secured funding from twenty-one workers Unions, mainly blue collar extraction jobs that wanted the ancient resource sites back and now sensed it could be possible that Divines were involved. She had secured four contracts for the production of napalm, and for putting the napalm into shells. The first shipments had been sent off to Kavaa two weeks ago. They were quite pleasant in efforts to reclaim western Kirinyaa from the Jungle, she didn’t even pretend to understand the science behind it, but mortals were always more than happy to assist her. She had been on TV a grand total seventy times, each time to talk about the urgency of stopping the Jungle. She had met with government officials countless times. Those meetings covered next to everything: from funding of their project, to publicization of it, to the Kirinyaan embargo, to the laying new roads and routes. The radio, another countless times, she didn’t even bother to count at this point, today, there were three more meetings scheduled. Then with business-men and rich philanthropists, those took up the most time. Not all of them were Kirinyaan, not even all Arikan. She had met Union-men, Guguoans and Epans here who had too much money to spare and hearts filled with vainglory that cried out at the plight of Kirinyaa and Arika because of the Jungle issue.

Helenna sighed as she checked her phone, eighteen minutes left, she had already made to the Miner’s Union Building. This had been a gift by a man who had fallen in love with her. She had a collection of phones now that would last a decade, and then a warehouse’s worth of jewellery and dresses. The only gifts she appreciated at this point were alcohol and chewing gum. Something to get her through the day, and something to hide the smell that she had been drinking.

Kassandora worked her like a horse, but Helenna did not mind. This wasn’t working with Allasaria’s unreasonable requests or with Maisara’s utopian ideals of how hard people should work. Helenna had seen Kassandora’s schedule. Helenna’s was full to the brim, Kassandora’s was practically overflowing. She honestly felt bad for Kassandora, how she managed to keep that up, Helenna did not know. She pulled out her own phone and scrolled into her contacts. Everyone important was marked with an exclamation mark so they’d appear at the top. Everyone important consisted of five people: Fer, Iniri, Kavaa, Kassandora and Neneria. The rest filled up her contact book until it reached four-digits. If she stayed here another two months, she’d hit five digits.

She called Kavaa. Kavaa answered instantly. “Hi!” Kavaa said. “How’s our star doing?” Helenna sighed as she angrily chewed on the minty-gum. Kavaa and Iniri had started her calling that when they saw appear on the news.

“Terrible.” Helenna said. “I’m waiting now, meeting’s in seventeen minutes.”

“Who today?”

“Miner’s Union, then ND.” Nanbasa Dockyards Company, simply called ND for short. “Then Rose Radio.” Helenna didn’t like those people, they always played sad music. “AJCF” Arikan Jungle Crisis Fund. “Then Kassie’s given me a twenty-five minute break.”

“Seems like you’re having a busy time.”

“It’s worse than the War.” Helenna said and Kavaa burst out in laughter from the other side. “How’s it going on your end?”

“Here we’re just training the men, same-old, same-old. They’ve started laying roads here, did you know?”

“Yeah, you can thank me for that.” Helenna said as she pulled out another chewing gum. She had met with the Kirinyaan Infrastructure and Transport Authority twelve times already, each time they complained.

“Thank you!” Kavaa cooed from the other side. Helenna would have not taken it from anyone else, but Kavaa had been into the Jungle. “And thank you for the airstrip!”

“That one wasn’t me.” Helenna said.

“Then thank Kassie for me.”

“Oh I will.” Helenna answered sarcastically.

“Has Kassie lost her phone?”

“She hasn’t.” Helenna answered flatly.

“She doesn’t ever answer calls.”

“You should see her schedule.”

“Is it bad?”

“It’s worse than mine.”

“REALLY?” Kavaa half-shouted.

“She’s a machine Kavaa. She’s a damn machine.” Helenna said and checked the time. Fourteen minutes. Then her phone buzzed. !Kassandora appeared at the top. “Kassie’s calling me.”

“Oh so she calls you?” Kavaa teasingly cooed.

“She’s stopped calling now.” Helenna said. Her phone started buzzing again. “And there she goes again.”

“Well I’ll get back to training then.” Kavaa said. “Have fun!” By the time she finished, Helenna missed the call again. That was no issue, Kassandora rang immediately.

“Hey.” Helenna said. “Sorry, I was just talking with Kavaa.” She heard crashing waves and a ship horn blare through the phone.

“Don’t worry about it.” Kassandora was always like that, always so lenient and understanding that it almost made Helenna seethe. How could a person be like that? Helenna was the damn Goddess of Love and even shot got more annoyed than Kassandora did! “I’ve cancelled your meetings for today.”

“Excuse me?” Helenna blurt out and almost choked on her gum.

“Are you at the Miner’s Union?”

“I am.”

“A taxi will pick you up.” Kassandora said. “It should be there already but you know how these people are.” Helenna looked around. The building was nothing impressive, simply a large office building. The Miner’s Union didn’t even own it all, they simply rented out the second and third floors. The car park was full, people were walking past her on the way to work, some took pictures of her. Helenna didn’t mind particularly, she was the Goddess of Love, she deserved to have pictures taken of her.

“It’s not here.” Helenna said. “So what is it for? Big meeting or what?”

“It’s done.” Kassandora said and Helenna had to take the gum out of her mouth.

“Excuse me?”

Kassandora was obviously very happy from her tone. “We’re done here. Shipment has arrived from Ausa.”

“What?”

“I’m at the docks, taxi will take you. You have to see these.” And then Kassandora hung up the phone. Helenna looked at it, then silently seethed, almost cracking the glass in her grip. If there was one thing Kassandora had that was absolutely terrible, it was this manner of simply dropping the phone whenever she felt like it. There was no point in calling again, Kassandora wouldn’t answer anyway. That was another annoying trait of her character, she worked like a machine, but she would never talk for the sake of talking.

The taxi arrived a few minutes later. Helenna did not even have to call. Working with Kassandora was simply always like that, the woman would organize absolutely everything, if she could, Helenna assumed Kassie would calculate the optimal amount of breathes Helenna should be taking. It was a large minivan, paid for already, with the driver more than happy to transport the Goddess of Love. It was the same company they always travelled with, although usually Kassandora would schedule the meetings in such a way that all of them were still in walking distance. The top of Helenna’s head brushed against the ceiling as she road. Nanbasa was a large city, with a giant zoo and a nature reserve built in the middle of the city. Species driven to near-extinction by the spread of the Jungle maintained their last stand from total annihilation there. Helenna had wanted to visit it, predictably, she still did not have the time.

The man stopped outside the docks and gave Helenna directions as he could not drive any further. Supposedly, you needed papers to go inside but Helenna was a Divine. Regulations for mortals rarely applied to Divines, especially major ones. Helenna had visited the docks several times alright when she had to meet with ND. It was massive, serried ranks of containers soared above the scattered longshoremen and shipping clerks, the height homologous with the subordination of commerce over the meagre comings and goings of the peons below. The elaborate structure of the shipyard, gargantuan behemoths of cranes and of great steel leviathans, was a massive steel shrine to the Industrial Revolution.

Helenna found Kassandora immediately, she was impossible to miss. There was a whole crowd with her, government officials in suits and cloaks and coats as they watched a massive steel leviathan approach them. A ship with the tricolour of Ausa, blue on the bottom, green on the top, with a white dot in the middle to represent the coastal cities of that country. Helenna pushed through the crowd, she recognised almost everyone here, she had been in meetings with all of them. Kassandora was dressed in a business suit, a red cloak behind her, with several camera crews at the ready. From the looks of the journalists talking into the cameras, they were already broadcasting a live feed. “What is this for?” Helenna asked.

“They’ve arrived.” Kassandora replied, she stared at the ship with a fiery glare that was eager and impatient, a smile carved onto her face.

“What has?”

“Two months ago, I rung Arascus. He told me Ausa agreed to build sixteen for field testing.”

“Sixteen of what?” Kassandora smiled.

“Binturongs.”

“Excuse me?” Helenna asked.

“While you were buying napalm, I was buying these babies.” Kassandora looked around and leaned in to Helenna’s ear. “Do you remember the Great War cannons?”

“I do.” Helenna answered. Those steel tubes had been so feared that they were almost entirely responsible for Pantheon Peace being enforced.

“The difference between then and now is the difference between a kitten and a tiger.” Kassandora leaned back and waited for the steel ship to dock. It arrived into port, the anchor dropped and the bow folded down. And Helenna saw them.

They drove off on heavy treads, great beasts of steel, the ranks of cranes that bowed to receive them looked as though they were kowtowing in submission. Like their namesake of the Binturong, their "tail", a massive cannon, was longer than their body, their exterior painted a dull dark grey. Helenna felt her hair go white as the Kirinyaan natives cheered. She had seen the damage cannons could do, and this was no medieval cannon. They looked ready to rain salvos of Hell on the battlefield and consume the surrounding environment in fire and brimstone. The purposefully theatrical display of sheer power in the port left only one question in Helenna’s mind. Once the Jungle had been cleared, what would these weapons be used for?