The Epa of Pantheon Peace was a prison of strangers and belligerent neighbours. We existed in that sorry state for how long? How many centuries were wasted. We saw the UNN and Guguo overcome us. Karaina rightfully left our orbit. We were reduced to an irrelevant series of states that wanted to do nothing more than war with each other in a peace that was enforced by the Divine Mountain.

The Epan Community was the first attempt. All that needs to be said on the Epan Community is that no real Community needs to declare itself as one. The Divines of Olympiada are a community and yet we do not call them that. The Mages of Arcadia? The Sorcerers of Anassa? What of towns? What of Hallin and Aris and Zawitz? What of the Imperial Family itself? Are those not communities.

Of course they are. Yet just as no king who truly is needs to declare themselves a king, the only reason a community needs to call itself such is to try and remind itself of its own existence. The Epan Community, ambitious is may have been, was not some great attempt at unity but rather a farce of a failed campaign at relevance within the order of Pantheon Peace. The short-lived Epan Coalition was nothing but the death throes of the Epan Community.

And now we stand at Imperial Epa. We stand at an Epa that looks up towards the sky and reaches to tear the limits of what can be done. We stand at the heart of the Empire united in mutual ambition. With our industry and our people, with the Land of Gods constructed by Olonia, with a culture high and enviable, we have ensured that there is no Empire without Epa and there will be no Epa without an Epa.

An Empire in Epa is an Empire of Epa. An Empire of Epa and Arika is still an Empire of Epa. An Empire of Arda will be an Empire with Epa as its capital.

- The Norn Declaration by Epan National Divines and Governments regarding the Empire, published shortly after the awakening of Baalka. Given publicly in the city of Norn.

Arascus didn't bother interfering with his daughters as they waited for their various planes. Plans had been made, meeting had been held, strategies had been devised and a new focus had been taken. IBSA had failed in its first launch, Kassandora had predicted that one. Nothing ever went right on the first time unless they had luck on their side and if there was one thing that Arascus never relied on, it was luck. It was largely the aforementioned Goddess who had caused the delay, she had spent two days running through all the orders and logistical requests by the Second Expedition and tightening up the schedules. Some things could be pushed forwards, others could be stitched together to save on overall manhours.

And now, Kassie and Kavaa stood on the other side of the runway of Central Requisitions as all the Divines waited about. As much as Arascus would like to share a few more words with his daughter, he had shared more than enough over the course of this past week. And as much as he wanted to share more, he knew that Kassandora needed her alone time with Kavaa. The two girls looked thoroughly depressed as they talked. Both in black uniforms, the main differences between them was the fact Kassandora stood taller and her hair was the crimson of spilled blood, the shorter Goddess of Health had let her grey fall down.

Away from them stood Anassa, Elassa and Baalka. Those three, whatever they were talking about, seemed to be having fun at least. Anassa had thrown her head back in laughter, Baalka was giggling and Elassa threw her hands into the air in exasperation. The difference of style was immediate, the former group was dressed in professional black uniforms that hung down to their knees whereas Anassa's group was all dresses. Crimson, of course, for Anassa. Blue, of course, for Elassa. Green, of course, for Baalka.

A few of the flight crew cleaned the runway. A team of men with huge air-blowers attached to their backpacks were nearing the end of the runway, they had almost finished sweeping it of the ever-present red dust that came in with every gust of wind. The civilians from the celebrations had long since dispersed. The cleaning teams had too. Central Requisitions had retreated back to its standard day-to-day operations. Iniri's massive oak, along with its sprawling roots, each that curled up and widened to hide a massive warehouse which had supplied Imperial armies during the Kirinyaan Invasion, was behind Arascus. In the evening, in cast a shadow over this runway. Now though, it was morning, so cloudless blue sky was an ocean above them. It was almost blinding. Towards the north, the shattered red mountains that Elassa had destroyed left a jagged horizon.

Arascus stood there with his hands behind his back and Arascus let his daughters be. And suddenly, Arascus felt his phone ring. He brought the huge device out, it was a special model made especially for the hands of a man more than twice the size of a normal human. Malam was ringing. He looked at the pretty picture he had chosen for her icon for a moment: a full faced smile with closed eyes, the pristine white hair of the Goddess of Hatred framing her face. And then he answered. "Hello." He said.

"Hi dad!" Malam said. "Guess what."

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"What?" Arascus asked. She certainly seemed happy about something. That jovial tone was almost odd to hear on Malam.

"We're publishing tomorrow. The title's chosen. It's Ocean Above." She sounded absolutely smitten with herself. Finally. If the movie succeeded and they managed to instil the idea of Divinity within the Raptors, then they would be a step closer to the mass manufacture of Divinity. "The Kirinyaan translation will be ready in three days unless someone dies. The Ausan one is about four off." Arascus couldn't help the smile crawling onto his face. Only Malam would be the sort to clarify that someone could die. "But that's not what I wanted to talk about."

"I think I know what you wanted to talk about." Arascus said. The failed launch of the Korona I had quickly been swept away in the news cycle by the reawakening of Baalka, but Baalka's screentime had needed to be split with yesterday's big news.

"Have you seen the Norn Declaration?" Malam asked seriously.

"I knew it would be that." Arascus said. He had been hearing about it on the news all over the place. Everything in Epa and Doschia Today were celebrating of course, EIE had even gone so far as to make auditions for an informal Epan continental anthem.

"What do you think?" Malam asked.

"Not particularly happy about it." Arascus said. It was not even that he disagreed with the Epans too much. Doschia was one country and Doschian industry dwarfed all of Imperial Arika. The Ausans were a mere thirteen cities after all whereas Kirinyaa was a small section of industrialized land near the coast where they had fled to from the Jungle. The country's return to the west was grand, but it would take decades before they had enough people to rival Doschia no matter how rich the country was in resources. And the Ashlands still had less than fifty thousand inhabitants across an area several times the size of Kirinyaa. Even with the fact that the Ashlands Commission was giving away land to anyone who wanted a plot in the middle of nowhere, the simple issue was that they were plots in the middle of nowhere. Small towns were being erected on the shores of Elassa's Sea, but inside? Save for the railways and the local patrols, what was there but ash? Even the Greening Campaign had come to a grinding halt as the Empire ran out of seeds to airdrop.

Imperial Arika controlled a solid third of the continent, the rest of Arika would fall in line eventually, and then they would maybe rival Doschia. And Doschia was just one Epan nation.

"What are you going to do about it?" Malam asked.

"Nothing for now." Arascus replied. "Do you have any ideas?" He remembered one of Maisara's ancient texts that talked about how Epa was a continent born in flames. He had even recently studied Anarchian literature to simply see what propositions they had to society. Whereas no answers were given, one critique had stuck with him: A bandage only needs a single to be set alight and the foundation of Epa was nothing but bandages.

"We can try sweeping it. Do you want me to tell them off?" Malam spoke as if she was a teacher about to scold some misbehaving students. "Helenna's seen it too." That was some good news finally. The Goddess of Love had countered most of Malam's insurgents during the Great War, if anyone should be able to wrangle the Epans, then it should be Helenna.

"Does she have a plan?" Arascus asked.

"She's working on something but we're both going to be busy advertising Ocean Above." That wasn't good news either. "I could do it."

"Mmh." Arascus said. "What do you propose?"

Malam chuckled through the phone. "I can have a chat with the naughty children." Arascus didn't like the sound of that but he just as well did not like the idea of Epa tearing the Empire apart through its own delusional grandeur. That had been one of the internal issues in the Great War too. The Empire was held up by all its pillars true, but one had to be a fool to pretend that all the pillars were the same. Still though, Helenna had a gentler touch.

"Assist Helenna with Ocean Above and let it blow over, she'll handle it." Arascus said. "If not, then I will. You don't do anything."

"Really dad?" Malam whined through the other side.

"Really." Arascus replied. "There'll be work for you soon enough."

"Ohohoho." Malam made a haughty laugh. Arascus heard the distinctive sound of liquid spilling out of a bottle. Malam was drinking. Again. Some things never changed. "Where? Can I know? Or is it a secret?" Glass slammed onto a table. Arascus did not even bother asking, it would be vodka.

"UNN. I'll get more details for you later but the fleet has done its job. There's a camp in Anver now that is sympathetic to us." Arascus stopped for a moment. Actually, that was wrong. "Rather, they think cooperation would be useful. That's what Kavaa reports."

"Do you think she could have worked that out?" Malam asked in a sly tone. "How trusting of you."

"I know." Arascus said, his tone light and sarcastic. "I'm as trusting as they come." Arascus turned and looked to the north. Two black marks had appeared over the horizon and cast long white trails of cloud behind them as they flew. The Raptors were busy, the flight to the UNN would take twice the time on the large bombers.

"You know you could probably just shut them down with a speech?" Malam said and Arascus took a deep breath. Could he? Definitely he could. But it would be a day of preparation, then it would be a day for the speeches. Then another for the private conversations behind closed doors. Maybe even two depending on how much travel time there was.

If Arascus went to Epa now, then it would be a half-week before he got to the UNN. Kavaa would not handle herself alone and besides, he had promised her he would go. "Helenna will handle it."

"Really?" Malam moaned again.

Arascus looked over at Kavaa and Kassandora. Both of them whispered something to each other and then hugged. He shouldn't have sent the Goddess of Health off alone and she had to return to make more Clerics. The timing was just too tight, they needed several thousand men in the UNN and the easiest way to achieve that would be when they were invited. With Kavaa's near four-hundred in Anver already, it would not be long for them to heal the entire city. If Arascus wasn't there by then, the door would snap shut. "Helenna will calm them down, I'll ring her later today and talk her through it, you just get her everything she needs, that's it."

And that truly was it. Malam had nothing more to say.

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