Vacant Throne

“Brakkt!” Alyssa gave a cheerful wave to what might be, at this exact moment in time, her more favored of the two royal siblings. After all, he wasn’t upset with her at the moment.

And really, there was nothing to be upset about. During her cleaning, she had apparently skimmed off just a little too much of Irulon’s floor. Which Irulon had promptly tripped over while levitating a fresh body in to her examination chamber. The metal table that Alyssa had created to replace her old wooden one was just a bit too tall. Or else she had, again, taken too much of the cave’s natural floor while cleaning. Whatever the case, Irulon had a fair amount to complain about.

They weren’t real complaints. At least, Alyssa was pretty sure they weren’t. If anything, Alyssa suspected that Irulon was just getting nervous about actually carrying through with this ritual. Which was a theory that fit well with what Irulon had said back when they dealt with the Justice. The bit about her being relieved that Alyssa’s eyes had stopped glowing because it meant that she could procrastinate longer.

“Alyssa,” Brakkt returned, seemingly genuinely surprised by her presence. Practically confirming that, he said, “Thought you were working with Irulon out in the middle of nowhere.”

“I am. I was just about to head back. But then I saw you walking around and thought I would say hello.” And maybe do a bit of procrastination on my own. She had promised herself that she would go right back. And she was. But…

“Food run?”

“No… I mean, I am taking some food back, but I really came here to drop off Volta.”

Alyssa paused to glance around. She found Brakkt just outside Martin’s manor… which likely meant that he had business with the nominal leader of Illuna. The geese and ducks and whatever other animals were kept in the yard were fairly noisy, as usual. They were a fair distance from anyone else as well. No guards or anything. Alyssa didn’t know exactly what Volta’s story was going to be, so she didn’t want to go blabbing to everyone.

Brakkt, however, should be safe to talk to. He was discrete and a definite friend to the monsters. More than that, he was a good personal friend.

“Volta got caught by some brigands on her way back from the Oasis. In her guise as the court arcanist,” Alyssa added. “There were a good hundred of them. More, even. Well organized too with a camp twice the size as what the monsters are living out of. Either they were hired to grab her or thought they had a buyer already lined up. Not sure which. I decided to save Volta instead of pursuing that particular lead.”

“Probably the best choice,” Brakkt said with a nod.

“So, not sure if that is something to be worried about or not. But I don’t really have time to worry about it.”

“When is Irulon planning her ritual?”

“We’re going to decide on a final form for… her companion,” Alyssa shot yet another quick glance around. A few guards just walked around the corner of the manor’s walls, patrolling. “After that, she has to adapt the ritual to its final form. Once that is finished, she says that she wants to do the ritual immediately, but… I don’t know if she really wants that. We’ll see. But she estimates that it will only take a day, two at most, to adapt her ritual.”

“So within the next few days.”

“That seems to be the case.”

“I’ll keep my schedule clear. Send me a Message before you two do anything. I’ll head out on Ensou right away.”

Alyssa nodded easily. She had been planning on it anyway. It was good to know that he would be there as well. If something went wrong… well, she didn’t know how much help he would be. But at least she wouldn’t have to explain it to him after the fact.

Not that anything was going to go wrong. Irulon was being beyond meticulous. This time, they wouldn’t even have the Astral Authority to worry about. Hopefully. Brakkt had mentioned seeing one of them not too long ago and then there was the one Alyssa had shot down a week or so ago. Even if one or two popped up, Alyssa should be able to easily handle them. Especially now that she had a much better grip on Tenebrael’s power.

She had even made better sunglasses for herself. They were much more like her old ones, though still not absolutely perfect. The lenses might or might not have proper ultraviolet protecting. She honestly wasn’t sure and didn’t know how to test. After Irulon was sorted out, that might end up being her next project.

That or proper food creation.

Probably food. It seemed slightly more important, if more complicated.

“Hmm,” Brakkt said, rubbing at his chin. “A hundred brigands do represent a problem. None of the information I’ve seen suggest that the highwaymen who regularly attack travelers are that numerous. We’ll have to issue a travel advisory…”

Alyssa blinked, shifting uncomfortably. “I don’t know how much of a problem they’ll be.”

“Oh?”

“I sort of… killed about ninety percent of them.”

“Really?”

“Well, me and Fela. And Red. They had a few arcanists… who they don’t have anymore. Lots of regular people with swords, spears, and the like. Most are dead. We let everyone go who ran away. Mostly because Red got injured. I’m pretty sure she would have torn through the entire camp without hesitation otherwise.”

“Mhm… That sounds about right for a cursed sword.”

“You have experience with them?” He and Oz had been the two people who had told her what all the monsters in the Oasis had been after they left. So she knew that he knew about them. But that sounded a bit more personal.

“Some,” was all he said.

Alyssa waited for him to elaborate, but he never did.

“I have a brief report to give Martin,” he said instead, turning slightly to head toward the manor. He paused after a moment of afterthought. “I suppose I can tell you as well. Infected individuals attacking the body collectors has dropped to almost nothing. I suspect that whatever call went out for assistance has mostly run its course as far as stragglers wandering into Owlcroft are concerned. As for Owlcroft itself… I saw it. The pit is indeed closed. But the land there is strange. Warped. Twisted. You toss a rock in and it might fly clear to the opposite side of the town… or it might turn right around and smack you in the face. Although the pit is gone, I can’t see people moving back in.”

“I doubt people would want to, even ignoring broken space,” Alyssa mumbled.

“Quite.”

“But that’s good. Better to have an uninhabitable land than an actively hostile one… right?”

“We’ve set up people to watch and make sure that the twisted land isn’t expanding. Following this meeting with Martin, I imagine we’ll be contacting the Observatorium and seeing what experts they can send out to take a look. Reversing whatever happened to the area would be good no matter what, but if it is expanding…”

“You’ll want help,” Alyssa finished for him. “Maybe Irulon will take a look. And I can speak with Tenebrael. See if she has any ideas. But don’t hold your breath.”

“I won’t,” Brakkt said, turning fully toward the manor’s entrance. “Well met, Alyssa. We’ll meet again soon.”

As he headed into the manor, Alyssa walked off in the opposite direction. She had a quick stop to make before actually going back to the cave. Down in the markets, Alyssa found Kasita waiting right where she said she would be waiting.

With a bright grin on her face, Kasita pushed off from the base of a small pond—one decorative in nature that might have been a fountain at one point in time, though whatever magic might have powered its water had long since fallen into disuse. “Alyssa,” she called out with a cheerful wave. “Feels like it has been so long since we last talked.”

“Maybe if you were more willing to hang out at the cave… Speaking of which, one of the things I wanted to talk about might help with that.” Alyssa held out a hand, conjured a large crystal ball, then immediately destroyed it. “I figured out how to clean up the… mess. The air is much clearer now.”

“Well that’s a start. Are you and Irulon still nose-deep in books and bodies?”

“Yes?”

“That means that you two are still incredibly boring like that. And you wonder why I wanted to stick around the city and actually talk with people. I don’t know how Fela can stand it,” she said, shaking her brown hair left and right in exaggerated exasperated theatrics. “Her imprinting on you must be much deeper than I thought.”

“Fela goes off with the draken all the time. Hunting or exploring or whatever it is they do. As for entertainment, I’m not using my phone as much as I was before.”

Kasita had tried to stick around and even help out in the early days. At the time, Alyssa had been spending hours and hours on her phone, looking up as much about biology and anatomy as she could to help facilitate Tenebrael’s power. Her help had been quite useful—she had turned herself into different bodies, effectively acting as a model for Irulon and the dragon. Unfortunately, her illusions were only skin-deep. Her bones and muscles didn’t actually need to work. It was all just an image.

Dissecting her didn’t work either. With the illusions being only skin-deep, there was just nothing on the inside to look at. Kasita could make insides. She could fake bleeding after being stabbed well enough if she wanted. She could even make a large gash on her stomach or elsewhere. But while she looked indistinguishable from a human on the outside, the accuracy of her interior illusions fell drastically. Just… Nothing was connected to anything. It was like she had heard that there were things called a stomach and a heart and intestines, and she even knew the rough shapes of them, but she didn’t really understand them.

Not that Alyssa had really understood them before her research. More than Kasita did, for sure. But Kasita’s illusions could probably convince anyone else from this world that she had been dealt a lethal strike if the situation required.

“Watching movies does sound fun,” Kasita allowed after thinking to herself for a long few moments. “And I haven’t really been up to anything important. Just chatting with the monsters, for the most part. Following Iona around. Bugging Claire when everyone else goes to sleep. Oh!” She held up a finger. “Did I tell you that? Martin requested a meeting with her a few days ago. She might be getting something like a trial. And might be switching sides.”

“Is she actually switching sides? Or is this some double agent thing that’s going to get her killed even faster than she feared before?”

“Probably the latter,” Kasita said with an uncaring shrug. “But it is better than being trapped in a cell until an assassin finally manages to kill her. Did you know that there were three separate days where someone tried to slip poison into her food? Lucky for her, lizards have a decent sense of smell.”

Frowning, Alyssa decided that it would be for the best if Claire got out of the prison sooner rather than later. Alyssa still thought she was completely untrustworthy. Irulon had no intentions of hiring her or otherwise interacting with her ever again. But if she remained in the prison and assassination attempts kept getting thwarted, the lizard man that Alyssa had recruited might become the next target.

She made a note to talk to him before leaving the city. If something happened to him, she would feel awful.

“In addition to the smell being gone and my phone being available for use, I think we’re nearing completion of the project. You are going to come for that, at least, aren’t you?”

“Oh I’ll probably head back with you right now. Even before you mentioned the smell being gone and the phone, I was thinking it would be good. In your Message, you said you fought off a hundred brigands? Sounds like I missed some good fun.”

“Fun. Yeah. Real fun.” Alyssa shook her head. “Since you’re coming with me, any reason to stick around here?”

Kasita opened her mouth but did not get a chance to respond before a little gremlin practically crashed into her. Without even a word of apology, Iona turned to Alyssa. “I thought I smelled you!” he said, excited and somewhat out of breath. He doubled over, putting one hand on his knee as he sucked in air, clearly having just run for quite a while.

She decided to ignore the way Iona found her to begin with. It was just the way monsters did things. She didn’t smell bad. Definitely. Probably. When was the last time she had taken a proper bath? They didn’t exactly have one out at the cave. Though it probably wouldn’t be much trouble to build one.

Which she should probably do for Irulon’s sake if nothing else. Let the princess take a bath before the ritual and before her brother came along.

Alyssa couldn’t help but grimace in embarrassment. She had just met with Brakkt while looking like this. Knowing him, he probably wouldn’t care in the slightest. But she still cared.

Nothing to do about it now.

“Is something wrong?” Alyssa couldn’t help but ask, fearing the worst.

But Iona glanced up with a look of surprise as if wondering why she would even ask that. Instead of a direct answer, he held out what had to be a meat pie wrapped in brown paper. After Alyssa stared at it for just a moment, he explained. “I made it myself. All of it. No help from the others. I chopped the meat and vegetables, soaked them just right in the gravy, which I also made, and did the dough too. Baked them myself,” he said with obvious pride. “Humans seem to like them so I thought you might want one too?” His smile slipped slightly as uncertainty grew in his last few words.

Alyssa quickly put his fears to rest by accepting the pie. “Thank you, Iona. I’d love to try it. I was just about to find some food, so you giving this to me is perfectly timed.”

Iona, now looking at her with eager anticipation, didn’t say anything until she had actually taken a bite.

It tasted… almost exactly the same as every other meat pie she had tried. Fairly bland and overly savory. That wasn’t to say that it was bad. There were a whole lot more things in this world that she would rather not eat than a good meat pie. It just wasn’t anything special. Which could be considered a good thing. Although tolerant, humans might find it suspicious if people suddenly started clambering for monster-created goods.

“You did a good job,” Alyssa said after a moment, deciding to give her honest opinion. If his goal was to replicate what the humans cooked, it was practically perfect. “I like it.”

Iona put on a big grin, making Kasita chuckle.

“I worked hard on it.”

“I can tell.” Reaching out and patting someone on the head was kind of a strange thing. Even if he was half her height and had big fluffy ears, he still looked mostly like a human. But, with her inhibitions against patting monsters mostly gone thanks to Fela, Alyssa didn’t have a problem rubbing him back and forth from ear to ear. He seemed to enjoy it. Monsters, it turned out, were a lot more physical even outside intimate moments. At least some monsters were. “Keep at it and maybe you can even open your own shop one day.”

“Maybe,” he said, seeming slightly more subdued about the prospect than Alyssa would have expected. “I’m pretty happy where I am.”

Alyssa couldn’t do much more than shrug at that. She also couldn’t help but wonder if Iona might try to stay behind when the monsters got their own land. If not, she could imagine him being one of the most well traveled monsters. At least between the monster village and Illuna.

“In any case, we’ve got to get moving soon. Was there anything else you needed?”

“Nope! Just wanted to share.” As he turned and started running back the way he had come, he paused and waved. “You’ll come again, right?”

“Probably in a few days.”

“See you then!”

After watching him go for a moment, Alyssa turned to find Kasita standing with a bright grin plastered on her face. She didn’t say anything, forcing Alyssa to ask, “What?”

“I just like this city,” Kasita said, grin coming through in the sound of her voice. “None of the humans around us even gave Iona a second glance. It’s a good place.”

“Can’t argue with that. But we do have to leave it soon. Preferably before anyone rushes up to me and asks for legitimate help.” Which had been her original worry with Iona. “Though I could stand to do a bit more taste testing.”