Vacant Throne

“It’s really my own selfish desire,” Irulon said. She sat at her desk in her quarters, looking over her notebook without writing in it. It was the first time Alyssa had seen her not write since she had taken up the pen immediately following their return from dealing with the Astral Authority. Every single morning, Alyssa checked in on her, asked if there was anything Irulon needed from her, and then went about with her own tasks for the day when she was inevitably rejected.

Which was why she had been surprised to find Irulon simply reading one of her notebooks this morning. Not only had Irulon not been furiously scribbling, but she had invited Alyssa inside as well.

She had expected to simply knock on the door and get rejected, as she had been every other morning. As such, Iona and Fela were waiting down stairs. It really was her own fault for assuming that today would be like every other day. But… they could wait. They would be fine down there for a while. Fela would protect Iona and everyone at the guild would protect Fela… or else.

“The dragon could obviously live alone. It is I who has become the codependent one. But, perhaps as thanks for saving my companion’s soul once upon a time, the dragon has agreed to this experiment.”

“I’m not sure I understand,” Alyssa said. “You’re still going to try to share a body? I thought we were trying to avoid that.”

“Not a body. A mind. There will be two bodies. One for my companion and one for me.”

“Ah… huh.” The first picture that came to mind was some kind of two-headed monster. But that didn’t seem quite right. More like one headed monster with two bodies. Trying to imagine how that would work just made her more confused. Looking at Irulon now, she was trying to decide if it made more sense for a second neck to pop out just in front of her chin, leading to a whole separate body, or maybe off to the side. But the two bodies would be so clumsy together that it really sounded like a bad idea no matter how she figured it. “Do you have a sketch or a diagram or something?”

“Hm. That would probably be a good idea. We’ll draw up how we would like the body to look today.”

Alyssa let the silence hang for a long moment before she leaned in a little closer. She didn’t know who she was dropping the volume of her voice for. It wasn’t like she could talk with only Irulon or only the dragon. Anyone listening in would probably be even more confused than Alyssa unless they knew that Irulon had a dragon soul shoved inside her. Still, she had to ask, “Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“We came up with a total of three solutions. The last of which is complete separation regardless of our desires. But this is the one we would like to try first. While the last option is likely to succeed, the second option is our least favorite of the three. In fact, we might scrap it completely should this test fail.”

“And neither of you see any lasting consequences from trying this one that might hinder other attempts?”

“Nothing irreversible. Presuming you are capable of doing what you said you could do. Will you be able to create bodies capable of sustaining life in the near future? We are on something of a time limit. Even with that limit, I would prefer if you could get some practice in before we start putting our souls into your creations.” Irulon took a deep breath as she looked toward the closed window. “I can’t help but wonder if we are doing the proper thing. I’ve already stolen away one soul from Tenebrael. At the time, I reasoned that I would die eventually and Tenebrael could collect us then. But we seem to be going far out of our way to ensure we remain out of Tenebrael’s embrace.”

Tenebrael’s gullet, more like, Alyssa thought to herself. “Tenebrael resurfaced yesterday, actually. She seemed awfully excited about your idea, so I wouldn’t worry about her at all.”

“Really?” Irulon said, looking back. She adjusted her posture to sit a little straighter. “She mentioned me?”

Alyssa fought to keep the grimace off her face. She really didn’t like the awe in Irulon’s tone. “I mentioned you and we discussed the subject for a few minutes. She said that she would return later last night… but never did. I swear, if something has happened that put her into hiding again, I’ll… Well, I don’t know what I’ll do, but be angry at the very least.”

“I’m sure Tenebrael has her reasons.”

“Oh I bet she has reasons. But, with her back and the Astral Authority effectively barred from the world, I should be able to reconnect with her. The very first thing I’ll do is test out making a body or two… I hope I can make the bodies disappear too, or I might have a lot of explaining to do if I have to go dump a bunch of corpses into whatever mass grave might be out there.”

“Hm.” Irulon nodded seriously. “I imagine I could arrange for interested parties to look the other way. However, there are already a number of rumors about me and corpses within Lyria. All unsubstantiated, I assure you.”

“Uh huh.”

“Starting rumors here would be mildly annoying. It may be best to find a location where you can practice in solitude. We can dispose of remains by mincing them up and selling them as animal feed. Had I more time to experiment, I might have liked to test some of my Toymaker spells on the bodies. But I suppose we could try that later.”

Alyssa didn’t have the wherewithal to do more than grunt in mild disapproval. Her mind was stuck on selling human corpses as animal feed. Sure, nobody would have actually lived in these bodies, but that didn’t make it any less… disturbing. Was selling people as pig food a common way of handling the dead in this world?

Despite all her interactions with death, she had never actually stuck around to discover what happened to the bodies she had left behind.

Some poor someone probably had to clean them up. Much like the body reclamation team here in Illuna, there were surely people whose jobs it was to just collect dead bodies, like that bring out your dead scene from The Holy Grail.

“Did Tenebrael say anything else?” Irulon said, interrupting Alyssa’s morbidly humorous thoughts.

“We talked some about the demons and the Astral Authority.” Alyssa quickly filled Irulon in on their short conversation, mentioning that the pit had been closed and that the Astral Authority might still be around but in far more manageable numbers. Beyond that, there hadn’t been much of importance that had come up in her conversation with Tenebrael. And Alyssa said so to Irulon. “She did say that I should be able to call her. I was going to do it last night just before I finally got to bed, but I was exhausted and wasn’t really feeling up to a conversation if Tenebrael did decide to pop in. I was going to call her this morning after taking Iona to the monster camp. Or to his job. Wherever it is he wants to go.”

“Iona?”

“A little gremlin boy—”

“Aren’t they all little?”

“—who has taken up a job at a local pie shop,” Alyssa continued, ignoring the quip. “I was a little worried that he had been blackmailed into slavery upon first hearing about it, but they all seem pretty amicable about it and Iona shows up to work of his own volition, so…” Trailing off, Alyssa shrugged.

“So,” Irulon said after a short moment of silence, “a monster is working in a human bakery?”

Alyssa chuckled softly. Standing up, she walked over to the side of the room where the window was. Like a good number of windows, there wasn’t any glass. Just the wooden shutters. Shutters that Alyssa threw open.

Irulon immediately winced as the morning sun flooded inside. She raised an arm to shield her eyes like some kind of vampire.

It wasn’t the first time that Alyssa had seen that look. Her brother, back when he still lived at home, would often disappear for entire weekends only to emerge from his room ready to go to school. The second they would open the garage door so that he could drive the two of them to high school, he would always do the exact same thing. A grimace, a wince, and maybe some rubbing of the eyes. Her mother always called him a vampire whenever she saw him do that. Said he needed to get out more.

“You’ve been holed up in here for a long time,” Alyssa said as she looked out the window. Even with only three stories, the guild building was one of the larger ones in the city. It offered a decent view of the rolling rooftops of the city buildings and occasional guard towers along the walls. The only larger building was Martin’s manor and the associated guest house. Neither of them were so large that they really stuck out all that much.

“There are quite a few monsters working around the city at the moment. A few of the larger and tougher monsters are working as guards, but less… physically demanding jobs have gotten a few monsters trying to help out the city as a way of paying back the kindness the city showed to their group for the food and shelter. There’s a harpy acting as a courier, an elf assisting with a local smithy, the gremlins are running all around the markets taking on culinary and tailoring jobs with reckless abandon. Reckless abandon in that they recklessly abandon their jobs whenever they get bored and move on to try something else. Iona’s the only one who has actually stuck with a single shop since he started as far as I know.”

As Alyssa gave Irulon the rundown, the princess slowly approached the window. She was still squinting, but she at least managed to look outside. “Sounds like quite the scene to see. The people living here are all fine with it?”

“I’ve heard that there are a few complaints. Haven’t heard any major complaints personally. That’s just what I was told by Martin and Volta. No rioting or mass protests like there were in Lyria. I don’t know if that is because there is simply a much smaller population here—so less people to gather up and protest—or if it is some other factor like their general attitude toward monsters. The general attitude on the streets seems pretty optimistic though.”

Looking away from the cityscape, Alyssa turned to Irulon. “Maybe you could spare an hour or two to walk around. I mean, aside from helping Izsha and the incident with the Astral Authority the other day, I haven’t even seen you downstairs.”

“You sound like Tess,” Irulon said with a mild groan.

“Tess is a smart girl.”

“Regardless of the accuracy of that statement, I don’t think I can walk around with you. If I do, something will happen and I won’t be able to get back to work for a week.”

Alyssa nodded in understanding. “I can’t discount that possibility.” Not with how yesterday went. “But all I’m hoping for today is a short chat with Tenebrael and a lot of relaxation. I suppose I should also check in with the intelligencer and ensure that she hasn’t been murdered in her sleep.”

Although she spoke entirely nonchalantly, she was hoping that dropping Tenebrael’s name might get Irulon out of the house for something that wasn’t an emergency. Alyssa really didn’t have a good reason for wanting Irulon to walk around. After all, she would have been perfectly content with being turned away at the door. It was concern, she supposed. Now that she had talked with Irulon for a few minutes, she was a little worried about the other woman.

Well, she had been worried anyway. But an existential crisis was hard to put into words. Isolation was a much simpler term to understand and worry about. With Kasita spying on the Yora guys, waiting for them to make a move, Irulon didn’t even have the mimic to keep her company. Since it seemed as if Irulon had finished with the work she had thrown herself into over the past while, breaking that isolation streak sounded like a good idea.

Or maybe it was all a bad idea. A distraction might be good, but it might be bad at the same time. It could, as Irulon had said, introduce new problems that she might feel the need to solve, distracting her further from the current crisis. Maybe even to the point where it was too late to do anything about it.

Shaking her head, Alyssa turned away from the window. “Just a thought,” she said. After Irulon and the dragon were separated, they could walk around then. Unless it was hard to walk with a conjoined head.

“No. You might be right. I have been isolated in here for quite some time…” Irulon took a deep breath, looking out the window again. “Besides. My notebook has filled up and I am low on ink. I was going to send for more, but then I would be simply sitting around doing nothing while waiting for the supplies to arrive.”

“Ah. So the reason for leaving is pragmatic. Well, getting some fresh air is getting some fresh air regardless, I suppose.”

“In addition, barring something threatening the city, I will be abandoning anything that crops up to you.”

Nodding with pursed lips, Alyssa said, “That sounds very wise of you.”

“Allow me a short time to ready myself. I fear I haven’t washed my face this morning.”

“Alright. I’ll be downstairs waiting for you.”

Irulon gave a curt nod of her head before dismissing Alyssa with a wave. “I will join you momentarily.”

Back down in the guild’s main tavern area, Alyssa found both Fela and Iona chatting with Oz of all people. Unlike the easygoing Catal, Oz and Lumen didn’t tend to interact with monsters all that much. Lumen detested them more than she disliked Alyssa, though she managed to hide it well enough to sit at the same table if circumstances required. With Oz, however, it was harder to pin down his feelings on the matter. He tended to avoid monsters where possible, but when he did interact with them, it was always cordial.

As such, it was a bit surprising that he had joined them. And he definitely had been the one joining; there had been no one but the two of them when Alyssa had gone up to Irulon’s room.

When Alyssa approached, Oz quickly stood up. “Yo!” he called out.

“Please don’t tell me that something happened.”

“Depends on what you mean by something.”

Alyssa took in a long, slow breath, shooting an exasperated look at Fela. Slowly, she sat down opposite from Oz, clasped her hands together, and stared at him for a long moment. “Alright. I’m ready. What horrible event is going to consume my life today?” And hopefully only today, she thought, fearing that it might be some extended event.

But Oz just raised an eyebrow. “It isn’t that horrible. I just wanted to let you know that we secured an escort job that will take us back home. We’re not leaving for a week and some days, but it is on the table and my crew has accepted the task.”

“You told me about something similar a few weeks ago, but it fell through. Is this one going to fall through?”

“Ask me again in a week and a few days and I’ll tell you,” he said with a slightly strained smile. “Not that this isn’t a lovely city or anything, but I would really like to get back to Lyria. The pay here is much worse,” he added in a hushed tone.

“Is it? With less people here, I thought prices might be higher. No competition to undercut.”

“Lyria is, in general, a wealthier city. Lots of nobles and wealthy merchants always wanting odd jobs done. Here, there’s basically only Martin and one or two notable merchants who even fit in that category. And Martin has his own guards to carry out his tasks, so not many jobs coming from there. Just about everything over on that board,” he said, pausing to point at the large counter with quest postings hanging on the wall, “is from more… common folk. There isn’t anything wrong with common folk. I’m common folk. But we don’t pay well. Lumen was just saying that we should head back job or no job because of that.”

“So even if the job falls through, you’ll be leaving?”

“That seems to be the case.” Running a hand through his red hair, down his face, and to his trimmed beard, he looked around the room. “I don’t mind the lower population, honestly. Nice to not be crowded out. But I do miss the extra money.”

Alyssa felt a little relieved that this wasn’t some world-ending crisis that Irulon was going to have to run from. At the same time, she had one big question. “My mother will be going with you, correct?”

“That’s the plan.”

“I’m probably not going to leave unless Irulon and Brakkt decide to go as well. So she’ll be with you guys. You keep her safe. You hear me? Or I swear, I’ll… Well, I’ve been spending a lot of time with that Yora intelligencer. I’m sure I could get creative.” She hadn’t actually been getting torture tips from Claire, but Oz’s imagination didn’t need to know that.

“No need to resort to threats,” Oz said, holding up his hands. “If something happens to her, it will be because something happened to all of us.”

Alyssa stared for a short moment before sighing. “Sorry. I think I’ve been spending too much time around that intelligencer.”

“You’re worried. I know. But it will be fine. You saw how boring it was on the way here. The most we’ll have to deal with are a few brigands. Me, Lumen, and Catal can handle that. And your mother has guns like the ones you’ve got.”

“I’ll have to remind her to be careful when I next see her,” Alyssa said just as Irulon emerged from the stairway.

“Princess Irulon!” Oz said, eyes widening as she approached. Half the room heard his elevated voice. A few even got to their feet. A few looked like they weren’t sure if they were supposed to. For his part, Oz didn’t, though he did straighten his back. “Come down from your tower? I think this is the first time I’ve seen you since you disappeared up there.”

“We’ve seen each other seven times since.”

Oz’s straight back slightly slouched. “Then this is the first time we’ve spoken… Right?”

“Hm.” Irulon didn’t answer, taking the opportunity to look to the gremlin who had been watching the conversation in silence.

Alyssa took the opportunity to introduce him. “Iona, this is Irulon,” she said, waving a hand from one to the other. “Irulon, Iona.”

Iona, eyes wide, stared back. “Are you really the human princess?” he asked, voice laden with awe.

Irulon pressed her lips together before nodding. “A human princess, yes. I do have sisters, but none are all that relevant to the line of succession.”

“They said the human princess was supposed to be a monster too horrifying to look at, but you look like a normal human. You don’t even have claws!”

Staring for another long moment, Irulon eventually turned her gaze back to Alyssa. “Perhaps I should just go back to my room now.”