Early that morning, Kallen showered and walked into his office with his hair still slightly damp. He opened the window, letting in a cool morning breeze that felt refreshingly pleasant.
Sitting down behind his desk, Kallen began looking through the day's documents.
Three days had passed since Daina finished drawing lots, and the surge suppressed within the Order God Church was gradually falling into place.
War required preparation time. The larger the war, the longer the preparations took, and the harder they were to conceal;
but preparations for this one had already begun while the desert war was still underway.
Back when he had been an army commander, he could never have discerned this situation. Only now, with his well-developed intelligence network, could he make out its general direction.
Different positions and different heights offered entirely different views.
Even now, many clerics, not just in foreign churches but within their own church, believed the High Priest was a radical hawk who had launched and provoked several wars and clashes since taking office. But with enough information in hand, a close examination afterward would reveal that none of those conflicts had been spur-of-the-moment decisions. Each had landed precisely at a critical juncture.
Kallen still could not entirely shake his habit of riding existing momentum, while the High Priest had long since become adept at creating his own winds.
This was no longer simply a difference in status. It truly was a gap in their abilities.
He was still too young.
He learned quickly. Whatever the skill or method, he could pick it up very fast, but after reaching a certain level, he would often encounter a similar threshold. Once talent had carried him swiftly down one stretch of the road, the remaining stages required time, energy, and understanding to settle, soak