CHAPTER ASHBORN 443: OPERATION LIFELINE (ONE) (MAIYA)

When Maiya pitched her plan to Vir, she knew she had a monumental climb ahead of her. Forget saving Riyan—merely getting the Pagan Order to aid her with nothing more than a note? While Maiya was certainly not averse to tackling a challenge, convincing the Tribunal to aid their sworn enemies would be a taller task than most.

Luckily, she wasn’t alone. Maiya was joined by her two anchors, Bheem and Yamal, who were conversing in a corner, and while she’d asked the Children to search for Hema, her aide and friend, they’d yet to turn up any results. The same went for Neeti, the head handmaiden. Though all indications pointed to the worst, Maiya refused to give up hope. Those two were not so easy to kill, after all.

She glanced at the princess, who leaned against the airship’s railing beside her. For all that Maiya wished to avoid troubling Vir, time was of the essence, and since Ashani could only establish Gates to locations she’d visited prior, they were forced to take a more conventional route to the Pagan Order. Since Ashani had only been to Sonam and the nearby Jatan Forest, and as such, this was where their journey began.

Even so, Vir’s airships could hardly be considered a conventional means of transport. While similar in form to human skyships, they relied on inscriptions instead of orbs. Functionally similar, but different in execution. Maiya had struggled to charge them as she’d done with her orbs. The rate and quirks of the prana flow were far removed from all that she’d grown used to. Still, be it skyships or airships, any form of mechanized aerial transportation was rare. A luxury afforded only to the wealthiest and most powerful Sawai and royalty.

Once Ashani had established a Gate in Jatan Forest and after Vir stabilized it to allow her through, a squad of Vir’s Asuras rapidly reassembled the airship in the Human Realm before going on to crew it. Engineers, crew, elite soldiers. They did it all, and at Vir’s insistence, they served as her honor guard. They were to treat orders from her as orders from their Akh Nara himself.

Maiya doubted she’d have the same experience as her last encounter with Andros, assuming they ran into him. She prayed they didn’t. With Ashani and the dozen-odd Asuras, they would likely win, but considering the number of Artifacts the Imperator bore, it would not be without casualties.

Rather, they were better served flexing their soft power. By showing the Pagan Order just what boons might come their way should they help Ira, and by extension, Vir. No promises, of course—Maiya was too experienced to commit to anything. As she’d learned long ago, dangling a fruit of temptation sometimes worked even better.

And with Ira at her side bringing promises of a new world order—one in which humans and demons coexisted in full—the Tribunal would find quite the tantalizing fruit in their proposal.

Even so, Maiya didn’t doubt for a second it would be that simple.

“Marvelous, isn’t it?” Ira muttered wistfully, gazing at the land below.

“It certainly is!” Ashani replied much more enthusiastically before walking off to inspect some feature that had intrigued her. As ever, Maiya felt the goddess had more of an inner child than anyone else, regardless of age.

They’d just passed through the Eternal Plains to the southwest of Sonam and were rapidly approaching the North Legion Mountains—the final hurdle before Balindam, capital of the Pagan Order.

At least, it was a hurdle for most travelers. Airships, skyships, and Acira paid little mind to obstructions like mere mountains. It was a good thing, too, as the sun was just beginning to set in the Human Realm. Maiya still hadn’t quite gotten used to jumping realms. Her internal clock had suffered immensely as of late, and the bags under the princess’ eyes proved her friend suffered the same. As though the litany of other things keeping poor Ira awake at night wasn’t enough.

“I’ve been so bogged down in planning and scheming, I’m afraid I never took the time to appreciate all that we have. This beautiful world we’ve been given,” Ira said.

Maiya smiled softly. “You really should get some rest, Ira. We’ll be up through the night with negotiations, and after that, who knows? You’ll really want to be in your best form.”

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Ash she said the words, however, she knew they rang hollow.

“Oh?” Ira asked. “And what about you, O Handmaiden-turned-queen? Will you be resting this evening?”

Maiya said nothing, only smiled wryly.

“As I suspected,” Ira replied. “Besides, you know I sleep little these days.”

“We’ll prevail,” Maiya said softly, resting a hand on her friend’s shoulder. “Trust in yourself. Trust in me… And trust in the handful of living gods we have on our side. Look at it this way—if we can’t win even with all of that, nobody can.” ℞ἁŊＯβĚs

Ira chuckled. “This is supposed to cheer me up, is it?”

“Well,” Maiya said with a cheeky grin. “It did, didn’t it?”

Ira’s smile widened. “I suppose it did. Thank you, Maiya. For everything. Without you and those you know, I’d be dead, and long before then, I’d have been adrift at sea.”

“That cuts both ways, you know? When you first outed me as a Hiranyan spy, I thought my life was over. The days after that were hellish yet fulfilling. Gods, not in a million years would I have guessed this is how things would turn out. A princess as a friend, flying on an airship designed by my fiancé—a king—moving to get a country of demonic human haters to rescue the man who separated me and Vir in the first place.”

“Life sure if chock-full of irony, isn’t it?” Ira asked.

“Sure is,” Maiya said with a sigh. “Sure is. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m going to go belowdecks to get some shuteye. I suspect I’ll need every bit of negotiation prowess I can muster in the coming hours.”

Ira looked at Maiya pensively for a moment. “Perhaps I shall, too…”

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“Rajni,” a demon said from just outside Maiya’s cabin. “We are now approaching a city matching the description you mentioned. We expect to land in the next few minutes.”

Maiya rose from her berth and massaged her head. “Thank you. I’ll be right out.”

Ira had been right—sleep was not forthcoming. How could it be, considering the gravitas of what she was about to attempt?

By the time she donned her Handmaiden armor and stepped outside, the airship was already descending. If the Asuras found the sight of dusk surprising, they certainly didn’t show it. She had to admit, Vir and Cirayus had done a fantastic job training them. She’d be proud to command an army full of warriors like these.

“There,” Maiya said, squinting against the failing light. “Set the airship down in that large space within the castle. It’s where they keep their Acira.”

“Understood, Rajni,” an Asura called before barking orders to the rest of the group.

Not only was this spot one of the few spaces large enough to house the airship, but it was both close to the center of the castle and would undoubtedly get the Tribunal’s attention.

Her guess was proven correct when, even before the airship set down, Order demons flooded out of nearby doors—disguised as humans, of course—with all manner of weapons pointed up at them.

“Shall we engage?” an Asura asked.

“No,” Maiya replied. “Pay them no heed. They will not hurt us. Continue to set the airship down.”

The Asuras complied, deploying the landing legs and executing a perfect touch down.

“Stay aboard the airship. We should expect to linger here for a day and no more,” Maiya ordered before jumping off, along with a disguised Ashani.

She was quickly encircled by a whole squad of demons.

“Quite the welcome,” Maiya said with a smile. “Where’s Lord Reth? We have much to discuss.”

“You’ll proceed no further, foreigner!” one among them—their leader, Maiya presumed—said. “As of this moment, consider your skyship impounded and your crew prisoners. Stay silent and cooperate, and perhaps your deaths will be painle—Ow!”

The leader’s monologue was abruptly cut off when a tall man sporting a large, well-groomed mustache slapped him over the head. The man had the air of arrogance and aristocracy and was not shy to flaunt it. His flamboyant gold and red robes only served to complete the image.

An image, Maiya knew, was an utter sham.

“Fool! This is Maiya! Friend to our people. And are you so blind that you cannot see her crew is full of demons?”

“I, er… My apologies, Lord Reth,” the demon disguised as a human said, bowing and backing away as he glanced nervously at Maiya.

She did her best not to smirk.

“It’s been some time, Lord Reth,” Maiya said.

“Indeed, it has,” Reth replied. “Now, I’d ordinarily wine and dine you before getting to business, but I must say, my curiosity is piqued. My first thought is that these demons are prisoners that you are transferring to our nation… and yet, my intuition says otherwise. These demons are all well armed and armored, and their movements speak to prodigious skill.”

“Oh, them?” Maiya said with a shrug. “They’re called Asuras. They’re elites from the Demon Realm. Trained in the deepest depths of the Ash. I don’t know exactly, but I’d say each of them is a match for a hundred average soldiers, at the very least. Possibly much more. They’re the forces of my fiancé, the Akh Nara. Soon to be crowned Raja of Clan Garga. You know him as the Primordial. Much has changed, Lord Reth. There is much we must discuss. Would you mind if we relocated to somewhere more suitable?”

Lord Reth went still for a long while, simply blinking as his face shifted through a multitude of expressions. He opened his mouth several times during this period, yet not a single word came out of his mouth.

In the end, with a thoroughly confused frown, he turned and gestured for Maiya to follow.

This time, Maiya didn’t even bother suppressing her smirk.

That which was once the realm of deities and myth was now normal. Everything had changed, and The Human Realm would soon come to understand just how all-encompassing the maelstrom that was about to envelop it truly was.