Mit-Amen made a small frustrated sound as she reached the inbound gate of Orion. The sound was echoed with other sounds of annoyance as the people already present at the gate noticed her approach. Obviously, the other Lords were equally displeased to see the white-sashed councilor as she was seeing them. There was a group of greys, a pair of reds, half a dozen greens and a single gold-sashed Lord present. Mit-Amen had assumed, or rather hoped, that the turnout would be smaller. Or that she would at least be the senior Lord present. That would’ve have worked too. No such luck with the faction leader of the reds making a personal appearance.

“I’d like to say it’s a surprise to see you here Mit-Amen, but it’s not.” Fawwaz al-Bashir stated with a wry grimace. The faction leader of the reds knew she had been given an official permission to poach the target they were here for, so he was naturally less than pleased to see her arrive. “The only surprise is that it took this long for you to arrive.” The blue-skinned man subconsciously fingered the pommel of his sword.

‘It might actually not be subconscious. I wouldn’t put it past him to make an implicit threat like this and he has too much control to do it accidentally.’ Mit-Amen thought to herself. “Fawwaz.” She gave the man a polite nod in greeting. There was no need to antagonize one of the most powerful and certainly the most dangerous men in the entire Assembly. Besides, while they couldn’t be called old friends, old acquaintances and friendly rivals was a fair description. Well, mostly friendly rivals. “Seeing your group here is not unexpected, but what bad wind brought the others here?”

Fawwaz made an exasperated sigh and gestured towards the young demon woman standing next to him, clearly signaling for her to explain. “The greys were the ones to originally start the rumors. Apparently they were present when the target became rank thirteen. Unfortunately for them and us, the greys are terrible gossips. They hoped to meet our target here before others got the opportunity, inspired by your call for an officially sanctioned poaching no doubt. The presence of the greens is not surprising, as any rank thirteen being will inspire the competitive spirit of the greens, and they will naturally want to either compete or recruit strong people for the war effort. I suppose the goody-two-shoes is here because their faction leader got injured in that battle against the Red Dragon Aspect that destroyed one of our farming worlds. They’re hoping for a quickie replacement at least until their faction leader recovers, as their portion of the front is now having serious issues.”

The faction wearing the gold sashes roused many feelings in the other factions. The golds were often holy power users, though not exclusively, and tended towards the ideals of a stereotypical paladin. They protected the weak and some vague concept of justice, which somewhat overlapped with the purpose of the yellow faction. Most people thought the similarity in colors was not an accident, and they would be correct, although only the oldest and the most knowledgeable Lords still remembered why that was the case.

While the yellows tended more towards healing, protecting and economic aid, the golds were much more militaristic and willing to smite whatever they considered evil. The yellows sought out the weak in need of protection, as opposed to the golds who actively sought for the strong people that might unjustly suppress others. The yellows were less of a combat-focused faction, while the golds lived for combat, almost as much as the greens. The differences between the yellow and gold factions were not enormous, but they were important enough to fracture the once singular faction into two. To everyone else’s relief.

“Huh. Even with that being the case, I wouldn’t have pegged the golds as the poaching type.” Mit-Amen stated with genuine surprise. The golds were known for avoiding such ‘dirty’ tactics after all.

“They aren’t.” Fawwaz grumbled. “The poor honorable sod is here just to ask for help and not recruit. That makes her pretty much the only one. Aurelie, how long are we supposed to wait here anyway? The longer I’m here the bigger chance the cursed Black Dragon Aspect has the opportunity to do real damage.”

“They should be here any moment now. I already got the signal from Seleus. Besides, isn’t Mneventh the friendliest out of all the dragon Aspects? At least to us, I mean. He doesn’t seem likely to go for an all-out attack just because you’re gone.” The young demon woman stated, to the incredulous stares of the two senior Lords. “What?” She asked a little confused.

“You’ve obviously never met Mneventh in person.” Mit-Amen stated emphatically.

“No, I haven’t had the pleasure, but according to all the reports and statements I’ve read, he’s been a friend and an ally to us for a long time. He helped with the destruction of the hells after all, and I’ve heard he has spent a fair bit of time with us for various other projects. Besides, hasn’t he been capturing some of our faction members alive just for that reason?” The young woman named Aurelie argued. Mostly from ignorance.

“Bah! Mneventh doesn’t have a friendly bone in his enormous death-machine of a body. He’s a cranky bastard that at best tolerates others. Besides, he’s not a friend of the Assembly in general. He’s a friend of one Lord in particular, mostly because she annoyed him less than most others. A marvelous accomplishment just by itself.” Fawwaz stated with the kind of certainty that comes from personal experience. His impressions were naturally also colored by those experiences.

“I think he also found her amusing.” Mit-Amen interjected. “Selvaria can be a bit…special on occasion. Besides, once the Assembly decided not to go to war with the angels over Selvaria’s imprisonment, the old dragon hasn’t really had much in the way of positive thoughts about the rest of us. I told you that decision might come back to haunt us, and it set a bad precedent. It’s one thing for us to imprison our own or fight each other, but having the angels detain one of our brightest without any repercussions is another thing entirely.”

“That’s a bit rich coming from the white faction. I seem to remember most of your Lords voting against sanctions in the Assembly. I didn’t see you guys standing with the blues.” Fawwaz argued with facts on his side, which annoyed Mit-Amen immensely. The man could be vexing even when he didn’t have good arguments.

Mit-Amen wasn’t proud of the rest of her faction when it came to that particular decision. She had tried to argue her point but the Lords were free to vote according to their own will in the Assembly. Most of the whites had unsurprisingly sided against sanctioning the angels. “Unfortunately some of my compatriots think being part of the so-called ‘pro-angel’ faction means unconditional support for any decision they make. I happen to disagree.”

“You’ve always been a weird one. Should’ve been a grey honestly.” Fawwaz rehashed an old point of contention between them. This wasn’t the first time he made the point, and would likely not be the last.

“You know my opinion. Just because I think the angels are a necessary force of good in the universe, that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like to see them do better. Anyway, this isn’t just about the angels, but you already know that. That’s why you voted as I did.” Mit-Amen argued back. Despite their differences, the two of them did often see eye to eye, even if they did so for totally different reasons.

Fawwaz only grunted, whether in agreement or otherwise was not clear. At the same time the gate started activating, which brought all of them to focus. “Showtime.” The red faction leader stated, as if preparing for battle.

Battle was of course not what they were here for. In fact, doing battle here against the people they were expecting would be a really bad idea. Orion was an important transportation and trade nexus, which is why they knew their targets would pass through here. Having two rank thirteen beings fight on such a world would be a disaster, not to even mention all the other powerful beings present. This was the first time Mit-Amen got a look of the young woman she was hoping to recruit and she was impressed. Dee really had a presence about her that demanded respect.

As soon as the first members of their group were through and Dee’s senses detected the gathering of powerful people, she seemed to instantly go on alert. That was the downside of traveling through the gates. You couldn’t say for sure what waited for you on the other side. Mit-Amen noted that the girl had pulled out a weird spear-like object out of thin air faster than she could follow, and the eyes of Fawwaz and the other dedicated fighters focused on the object as it almost screamed danger. The gravity was twisting in weird ways and it almost felt like space itself was bending for a fraction of a second. The feeling vanished immediately though as the owner of the weapon recognized the ‘danger’ as members of the Assembly and seemed to relax somewhat.

‘Not entirely relaxed though. So she is still slightly worried this might turn into a fight. Interesting. And smart. Just because the other side is nominally an ally, that doesn’t mean there’s no danger in a gathering like this. Unfortunately.’ Mit-Amen thought to herself. Traitors were always a thing and even without traitors, a situation might turn dangerous. She also noted the presence of two Archangels. The report had been right, as incredible as that sounded.

Dee, on the other hand, was feeling a little miffed. She had been expecting a welcome for a while now, as the Lords they had encountered while traveling had almost certainly sent reports. It was a little difficult to hide the presence of a gaggle of pigeons and the angels didn’t like hiding their wings. Not that it did much good. Even without the wings and halos they looked and acted like angels. Didn’t help that the whole group was made up of high priests. She’d been forced into having three more services decrying the tragedy of the star-crossed lover goddesses just to de-stress herself. It was quite fun observing the apoplexy she was causing to the angels.

No, what made Dee miffed about meeting the gathered Lords here was the timing. She’d just been reliving the last time she had visited the gods that had blessed her. Lumen had screamed at her for hours and had tried to order her to stop the rumors. Which of course only made her spread more. Umbra on the other hand had gone between laughing uncontrollably and making exaggerated passes at her supposed lover, which in turn annoyed Lumen even more and made her scream longer and louder. Definitely worth it. Even Eternity had broken into a small smile at the whole thing. After that, he had proceeded to chew out Death for the whole Well of Souls business. Too bad Dee had been sent away before that sermon truly got going. And now these gathered Lords had interrupted her ‘happy fun times’ moment of reliving the whole episode.

“Well, this is certainly a gathering.” Dee stated loudly enough for everyone to hear. She paid special attention to the red-sashed man with extra fringes on his robe to denote a higher station. ‘So a faction leader or a councilor. And another one with a white sash. The red-sashed guy is almost certainly rank thirteen as well.’ Those of the fabled rank thirteen had a different feel to them when compared to others. Just like Dee herself, they felt a bit more like gatherings of power surrounded by a body instead of just living beings with a lot of power. That said, she had seen only three beings of the rank aside from herself. Not enough to make any concrete conclusions.

“Dee!” Aurelie stepped forward in a friendly greeting. She wanted to make sure Dee didn’t’ feel threatened. Things might end badly otherwise.

“I have some guesses, but suppose it’s safer to ask. What brings the esteemed Lords here? Taking a stroll?” Dee asked, adopting a stance of light humor that might make matters proceed a bit more smoothly. Her words brought a scoff out of the powerful red-sashed man and a relieved smile from the white-sashed woman. Was the man a genie of some sort? The blue skin seemed to indicate as much, but Dee had never seen someone of his kind. The power inside him seemed to hint at something like a naga, but that didn’t seem right either. ‘And the woman is…wow. Now, this is interesting. And she seems to be hiding it from the others somehow?’

Mit-Amen suddenly realized something was wrong as the spells she had laid on herself seemed to become non-existent in front of the young woman’s gaze. All the elites of the Assembly were trained to see the power inside people and recognize the different races based on what they saw. Naturally, some in the Assembly had also developed certain ways to counter that special sight, mostly because even if they didn’t, others would. Only two other people had been able to see through her defensive measures before, and one of them was now imprisoned on a pocket plane by the angels. The other one was a cranky dragon immune to all magic. Yet she now saw the recognition in the young woman’s eyes. She placed her finger on her lips in a shushing gesture to signal for the young woman to keep the knowledge to herself, at least for now. ‘Let’s just hope she can be discreet. And judging by everything I was able to find out about her time on Pantheon, she can indeed.’

Unaware of the small byplay between Mit-Amen and Dee, Aurelie proceeded with some introduction. Of course she completely ignored the greys and the single member of the gold faction and only introduced two people. “This is Fawwaz al-Bashir, our faction leader. And this is Mit-Amen the senior councilor and the faction leader of the white faction.”

“Lords.” Dee greeted with a nod and in turn gestured behind her towards the angels. “There you can see the Archangels of Mercy and Hope Rahmiel and Theliel, as well as the most important high priests of Lumen in Paradisia. They are here to seek asylum. I’m sure I don’t have to explain why.” The two Archangels approached to also greet the two clearly most important people present.

“No, that won’t be necessary. We can all see the implications their presence will have towards avoiding a civil war amongst the angels.” Mit-Amen stated. Actually many of the greens and the lone gold had no idea but they were not about to reveal their ignorance. “If we do provide you with an asylum, should we expect a large number of refugees to follow in your footsteps?”

“I would assume there to be a number of refugees yes.” Rahmiel replied. “But the number might be smaller than you might think. The faith of Lumen has unfortunately been sidelined within Paradisia for a long time, and the majority of those that still worship her also worship Nasir-Sin and can thus stay within Paradisia without running into too much trouble. Still, we are talking about perhaps tens of millions of angels and members of related races if they are granted free passage.”

“And the possibility of angering the order side of the angels.” Fawwaz pointed out the obvious problem. Not without a good reason though. “We are already at war with the Dragonflight and we can’t afford a war on two fronts.” The downfall of demons had broken a delicate balance that had kept each party in check. Now with only three sides left, two of them could ally to deal with the third.

“As to that, I have a reason to believe that Paradisia will have other things to worry about in the near future.” Dee explained. “Besides, they might actually consider this a positive development. They know that a civil war, no matter how one-sided in the beginning, is not in their best interest. And that’s even without all the complications that are bound to rise as revenge and other interests step into the picture. Having the fervent believers of Lumen leave peacefully would be much easier.”

It was an unfortunate fact that there were no simple civil wars. Even if in the beginning it looked like an overwhelming victory for one side, the conflict would always extend further than anticipated. Even if some angels were not believers in Lumen, if their relatives were and happened to suffer as a consequence, those angels would feel inclined to join the fight to defend their friends and loved ones. With financial interests and outside influences stirring the pot further, a simple civil war could turn into a quagmire of endless struggle, constantly just on the edge of victory for one side without ever completely resolving. And all the casualties would be from your own people.

“While we bring this to the attention of the council, I’d like to formally extend you an invitation to join our faction.” Mit-Amen took this opportunity to strike, addressing Dee directly.

This brought about a stunned silence from Dee’s side, which surprised Mit-Amen a bit. “So let me see if I figured this one right. You want me to join the so-called pro-angel faction?” Dee asked slightly incredulously.

Suddenly everyone in Dee’s group exploded in laughter. Even Rahmiel and Theliel were showing their amusement openly. Dee’s antipathy towards the angels was no secret even to the high priests she was helping. Moirai on the other hand was wheezing with laughter. “Oh wow, I really needed that.” The teary-eyed Nyx stated from her seated position on the ground. She had fallen down as Moirai collapsed in her fit of laughter as she had been supported by the latter.

“I’m afraid you might be barking at the wrong tree.” Rahmiel stated, the calmest of the whole group, aside from Dee whose eyebrows were doing a good job trying to climb up to her hairline. “Despite her helping us, I’m afraid that Dee here has some rather understandable racial animosity toward my kind.”

At her words, Dee and Mit-Amen shared a small glance sharing a small private joke of their own. “I have been advised of Miss Haydee’s racial background. Or at least enough of it to understand the resentment. I’m afraid you’re working under a slight misconception though, just like many of my fellow faction members unfortunately. Just because we are pro-angel, doesn’t mean we support you unconditionally and…” Mit-Amen was about to launch into her explanation before she was interrupted by the red faction leader.

“She’s a member of our faction, so would you kindly stop trying to poach her, Mit-Amen. She doesn’t seem interested, and I consider that to be a sign of good judgment on her part. Of course, she’s already a member of the correct faction so why would she want to change?” Fawwaz stated with a rather gloating tone. He had a reasonable amount of trust that the other factions were not able to recruit Dee away, but Mit-Amen was dangerous in that sense. And with Dee seeming reticent, that danger was now lessened.

“Councilor Mit-Amen, I will take your proposal under advisement, but this is neither the time nor the place. We were on the way towards the White City. We can discuss all these matters further once we arrive.” Dee replied a fair bit more politely than everyone else expected.

“Once we get there, you and your group can stay in my tower.” Aurelie got closer to murmur in Dee’s ear.

‘Your tower?’ Dee wondered quietly but simply nodded in reply. Before they could move on, the greens and the gold-sashed woman lost their patience and moved forward to make their own case.

As that was going on Fawwaz signaled Aurelie to step aside for a moment for a private word. “Now that it seems Mit-Amen is unlikely to succeed, I can leave this matter to you to deal with. You told me earlier that you had some reasons to believe you can sway her decision, and I’ll trust you on that. I’m needed back at the front. Before I go though, there’s a matter I’d like you to deal with.”

“I will do my best.” Aurelie assured the leader of her faction. They both knew she would have to deal with Dee and her group, so she didn’t have time to personally go on missions, but all the contacts and informants of the red faction were easier to reach from the White City.

“Good. I need you to send as many agents as possible to Pantheon to locate someone. He is an old asset of ours that we lost contact with. I’d like you to make contact and if possible bring him back to the fold. He was always good at gathering just the right kind of information and utilizing it in subtle ways, and we need that now. We have also ignored Pantheon for too long.” He was a little leery about the matter as the asset was dangerous, but this might be necessary. Besides, something tickled at the edge of his mind. Something about the way Dee carried herself roused suspicions that he wasn’t sure he liked.

“I’m going to need more details. Pantheon is a really big world with countless people.” Aurelie pointed out. If the man had been an asset, then she would be able to get some information from the old records of her faction, but there were problems relying on old information.

“The asset we are talking about is very skilled and intelligent, albeit he lacked some power back then. We lost contact with him almost a century ago when he lost certain people close to him, and he became focused on revenge. I’d like to provide you with a lot of clues, but unfortunately, that is not possible so this one might take a while. I simply can’t give information that I don’t have. He has used many names in the past but I heard he has used his latest name for a while now.” Fawwaz reluctantly mentioned the last point because throwing the name around might have bad consequences.

“And what would that name be?” Aurelie asked quietly noticing his hesitation.

Fawwaz grimaced a bit before answering. “Hassan-i-Sabbah. The last I heard his name was Hassan-i-Sabbah.”