The woman was really beautiful.

She stood regally, dismissing all the commotion around her. Soldiers walked, ran and yelled at the vicinity of her whereabouts, but she disregarded them. The curls of her long brown hair swung in the wind, dancing around her, almost as if they had a mind of their own.

Keaf observed her. He was one of the rare Latrians not swayed by her beauty. The reason behind the fact that goddess of war had the beauty as one of her weapons eluded him completely, though he didn't think much of it. When the goddess of war had approached him with an offer, he had been suspicious, yet he grabbed it with both hands.

A war of succession wasn't something he wanted to participate in, but his siblings brought the fight right up his damn door and he couldn't overlook that.

The situation in Latrias had gone from bad to worse ever since his mother had mysteriously kicked the bucket and left a jumbo-sized chaos behind. Most of his siblings had already had their skirmishes (some persisting already for a decade or so), but the empty throne-seat made that even worse, shaping it into a full-blown war.

Keafael of Latrias was the oldest son, and even though in many cultures the oldest child inherits it all, that was not the case with Latrians. Here, the strongest prevails, and by chance, Keaf wasn't the strongest, nor did he ever want to have anything to do with the barbaric politics of his home.

However, when his people started dying in the war his brothers and sisters brought on, he was left with little choice – kill or be killed – that was how things worked in his kingdom.

He gathered his men, won over many officials, persuaded a few lower royals, and led them to the war. Now, he had a big army, the biggest one out of all his siblings' yet the weakest one.

One day, a mysterious woman appeared and told him she would help him. She identified herself as the Goddess of War, one he had heard of but never in nine depths of hell thought she would offer assistance to the one who doesn't like fighting. It was suspicious.

"Lord, we are ready."

Keaf glanced at his second in command, Cael, a mighty warrior unlike himself, and pondered whether he should really give an order to attack his brother's troops.

The choice was taken from him right at that moment when a bright light formed an elliptic circle – a sign of a magical portal opening a few feet from them.

A woman came out, glaring at people around her until her eyes stopped at the one she was looking for.

Most of his men readied themselves for battle, drawing weapons and taking battle stances. The woman ignored them, sneering at the goddess offering an amused smile.

There was one interesting fact; the newcomer had such eery similarity in appearance with the goddess, Keaf frowned when he noticed.

The goddess spoke then, "How nice of you to join us."

The woman frowned. "Mother, what are you doing?"

Ah, so that's how it is, Keaf thought and signaled his men to lower their weapons.

"My, what do you mean by that?" The goddess had a silver tongue, he had to give her a credit for that, but the woman – obviously her daughter, so probably another goddess – didn't react.

"Allying yourself with them. You know you are forbidden to do it." The newcomer sounded annoyed.

"Ah," the goddess paused dramatically before continuing serenely. "I left my pantheon seat, I can do that now. Though, my aim is not what you think it is."

The newcomer let out an exasperated sound, anger written all over her face. "You crazy woman! You can't just go around and give your blessings to anyone and everyone just because you abdicated from the 'War' seat. We have protocols!"

The goddess ignored her daughter, turned towards Keaf, and smiled.

"Warrior, did you or did you not accept my assistance?" It certainly sounded like a threat to Keaf, but he answered truthfully.

"Yes, I did. My men don't stand a chance without your help, oh, Great One."

"Geez, mother, how did you make them address you that way? Wherever I go, people don't address me with anything except a few swear words I don't even want to repeat." The newcomer rolled her eyes.

To say Keaf was bewildered would be an understatement. Wasn't the other woman a goddess too?

She finally acknowledged him. "Look, man, I don't know what she'd promised you, but there's a high chance she won't be able to deliver," she said, looking around and making a grimace.

When he finally found his tongue, he managed to croak out, "Don't worry, Your Greatness, we are honored such a splendid creature as your mother would even bless our attempts to defend ourselves."

The newcomer's expression changed into a mix of annoyance, horror, and disgust, and Keaf bowed with all he got, lowering his eyes when he realized he had somehow offended the goddess.

"Oh stop that, I'm not here to play a tyrant." He glanced at her quizzically which prompted another explanation from her.

"Just don't call me 'your greatness' and everything will be ok –"

"Then, 'your excellence' would suffice?"

Her eye twitched. She took a deep breath and spoke, "No, just call me War like everyone does. I don't like pompousness."

Keaf, now fully surprised, shut his mouth for he did not know what to say.

The older goddess took the chance and opened another portal, though before disappearing she called out over her shoulder, "Daughter, I leave these fine warriors to you. Take good care of them." And then she was gone.

"For fuck's sake, that woman is mad. She is mad, I tell you."

Keaf just glanced at War, as she wanted them to call her, their blessing was gone. What are they going to do?

She sighed once more, massaging her temple as if it hurt. "Oh, well, nothing I can do about it. What is your name, warrior?"

He almost bit his tongue in haste to answer her. "Keafael of Latrias."

As she kept staring at him he realized she was waiting for him to offer her some more familiar name just as she had done before.

"Most of my men call me Keaf," he offered though it left him with a bad taste in his mouth. One shouldn't be as familiar with divine beings, you never know what might tick them off.

Then her body seemed to shimmer and a type of body armor exploding from her skin.

Raising her hand to a sword strapped to her side, she glanced at him with a slight smirk.

"Keaf, let's win you a war."