Vacant Throne

Irulon and Companion were not the same person. An important note to make. Sometimes, it was hard to tell. More than once, Alyssa had caught the two of them standing around in the exact same pose or shifting their weights at the exact same time despite them not facing each other. Frequently, they would both talk at the same time, saying the same words. It got especially strange when they would speak to each other, yet both would voice both halves of the conversation. Alyssa couldn’t say that it was the weirdest thing that she had ever seen, but it definitely ranked up there.

They could act independently from each other. That had been evident from the ritual. But they just seemed to default to mimicking each other. Especially when one of them wasn’t doing some intensive task like writing. If Companion didn’t have scales and had tattoos, it would be even harder to tell the two of them apart.

But they were different.

Irulon acted much the same as she had before. Serious. Able to rapidly craft spells. Uncaring about her position in the hierarchy of Lyrian royalty. And perhaps just a little too enamored with the idea of getting herself into magical history books. Although she had asked for the staff immediately following the ritual, she was actually putting far more time into trying to replicate Alyssa’s ability to create.

At the moment, she was hunched over a desk, glowering at the sheet of paper. If looks could kill… “This should work. Companion, am I missing something?”

Alyssa turned her head, following the tether that tied them together. The string of soul that only she could see. On the other side of the room, the dragon stood in front of a shattered mirror, a Fractal mirror, that was. Twenty views of the Endless Expanse shimmered through. While the chamber was like this, they didn’t even need light potions or spells. Enough golden light made it through that the inside of the cave looked as bright as day.

And they were still at the cave. Irulon had expressed little to no desire to return to Lyria. Or Illuna, for that matter. Too many distractions, she had said. Privately, Alyssa thought she just didn’t want to explain the presence of Companion to her father. Not because he would be upset, which he might, but rather because it would have been a waste of time. Something Irulon hated before and still hated now.

At least she was sleeping normally. Since her separation from Companion, Irulon went to bed at roughly normal times and woke up with little effort after sleeping for a normal amount of time. Companion, on the other hand, seemed to have retained Irulon’s old habit of sporadic but intensely heavy sleep cycles.

Speaking of the dragon, Companion didn’t so much as turn away from the fractured mirror when Irulon asked her question. And yet, Companion shook her head. “The design you drew is perfectly identical to what we saw on Alyssa’s hand at the moment of creation. The mystic circle Alyssa uses to create objects does move, generally in a spiraling motion. It is likely that we will be unable to replicate the effect unless we can develop a method of motion in spell crafting.”

“So you’re saying that we need to develop a whole new method of casting magic before we can develop a new branch of magic.”

Companion finally turned, smiling. “You wouldn’t want this to be easy.” It wasn’t a question. From the good humor in her voice, she meant it more as a tease. They both knew the other better than probably any other living person. Or dead person, for that matter.

That was another difference between the two. Companion liked to tease people. Nothing mean. Kasita even thought she was funny. But it was just strange, hearing what was effectively Irulon’s voice make little jokes or side comments about the situation or people. Most of her comments were directed at Irulon, however.

While Irulon slid the paper off to the side to pull over a fresh notebook, Companion turned back to the mirror to observe the Endless Expanse. Even more than Irulon, Companion seemed enamored with the place. Which might have had something to do with her stated goal of wishing to completely unravel the mysteries of magic, creation, and all life. A bit more ambitious than Irulon’s history book goal, but that was probably to be expected from a dragon. Greed and ambition were practically synonymous with the fairy-tale creature back on Earth.

Gluttony wasn’t usually associated with them. Alyssa had to wonder if it should be as she watched Companion snack down on some of Alyssa’s first successful attempts at creating food. Sugar cookies. Plain. No frosting. A bit dry. Yet Companion kept coming back for more. Apparently, although she had been able to see and hear, she had not been able to smell, taste, or feel anything while housed within Irulon’s body. Which had led to some strange behavior for the first day or two when Companion went around licking just about everything. Dirt. Trees. People. Alyssa had thought that she would have known from before becoming a part of Irulon that dirt wasn’t exactly the most tasty of things.

And so Alyssa had asked.

“Dragons are massive. If we snap up a bovine wandering an open field, we often get a bit of the land along with it. We swallow it all whole. It doesn’t taste. I don’t think dragons can taste. Not like this, anyway,” Companion had said in response… as she licked the side of Alyssa’s face.

Which had prompted a number of questions about dragon lives and culture that Alyssa thought might have been interesting subjects. Only, it turned out that dragons had no culture. Not in the way any other race thought of it. Dragons were complete isolationists. Aside from once-in-a-millennium mating, dragons never really saw other dragons. They all had their own territories and mostly slumbered the years away. They didn’t have names or genders—having no use for either in a practical sense. They didn’t create art. They didn’t even hoard gold. They just… ate and slept. If attacked, they defended themselves. That was it. That was their entire life.

Which really explained why the dragon had been so content to simply be an observer behind Irulon’s eyes.

Now she didn’t have to be simply an observer. Though she wasn’t interacting with others even half as much as Alyssa would have expected of someone who had a whole new world open to them. Alyssa had spoken with hundreds of people since arriving in Nod. From the peasants of Teneville to the lord of the land. But Companion had, thus far, been perfectly happy to hide out in a cave in the middle of nowhere.

Taking Irulon’s personality into account, that probably shouldn’t be as much of a surprise as it was. Before Alyssa had appeared in the Observatorium, Irulon had not interacted with others much at all. The very first time that Alyssa had seen the princess, she had been sitting all alone in the Observatorium’s library. The only people Alyssa had seen Irulon interact with for any length of time that Alyssa hadn’t introduced her to were Brakkt, Tess, and the Pharaoh.

Now that Companion and Irulon weren’t on a time limit, there would be plenty of time to see the world.

For the moment, as long as they were both just sitting around, staring at their respective work, perhaps they could assist with something Alyssa was testing.

“Irulon, Companion. Would the two of you mind facing away from me?”

Despite her request, both turned to face her. Irulon was sitting at the desk while Companion stood in front of the mirrored wall. Their backs were to each other. Yet they both turned at the exact same time. It forced Alyssa to suppress a shudder. They could easily be attractions at a haunted house with their mannerisms alone.

“It isn’t anything dangerous,” Alyssa said. “Or rather, putting your backs to me will help keep the two of you safe.”

They both blinked. Both their eyes widened ever so slightly. Two sets of identically intoned “Ah” sounds echoed through the small cave chamber. Without any protest, both turned away.

Both had probably figured out what Alyssa was going to do. It didn’t matter. Hopefully. But she would have liked to keep them in the dark for a few moments longer, if only to act as a control and not bias anything. Also because it made for a great pun.

After a few moments, once certain that they wouldn’t turn back to her, Alyssa squinted and raised a hand.

A bright flood of light filled the chamber. She couldn’t see the other two anymore, not with the light right next to her, but she did hear sudden movements from both.

“There’s a bright light in the room,” Irulon said. “And it has gotten warmer as well.”

The dragon hummed. “A bit too bright. It is straining my eyes. Could you possibly alter the intensity?”

Alyssa clamped her hand into a fist, extinguishing the light. “Don’t turn around yet. There will probably be more,” she said without opening her own eyes.

Even with her eyelids shut, she could still see the brightness as she opened her palm once again.

But that was expected. She should always be able to see it. It was the other two she was most curious about.

“It came back,” Companion said, mild irritation seeping into her voice.

“Is there a point to this?”

Sighing, Alyssa clenched her fist once again, cutting off the flow of Tenebrael’s power. This time, she did open her eyes as she wasn’t planning on trying again for at least a short amount of time. “I’m trying to replicate the light that comes from Tenebrael’s halo. Normal people shouldn’t be able to see it.” At least, that was how it had been back at Teneville’s festival. That was the only time that she had actually seen Tenebrael’s halo—or any halo—while people were around. No one else had seemed blinded or otherwise affected by the light at that time.

It was an experiment that Alyssa had tried a few times in the past but had yet to perfect. Or even get close, she suspected. Although she could do a great many things with Tenebrael’s power, even things regular magic couldn’t accomplish, there was still a barrier between her abilities and what Tenebrael could do if the angel ever decided to apply herself. Alyssa didn’t think the halo light would be useful. She had already used what she was creating now to blind those who had kidnapped Volta—something that wouldn’t work with true halo light as it couldn’t be seen by regular people.

But the halo light was the simplest thing that Alyssa could think of that was definitely within the realm of the divine. Creation might count, but given how easy it came to her now, she wasn’t so sure. Especially because Irulon believed that she would be able to replicate the effect in due time. Light was the very first magic that Alyssa had performed. It felt fitting that light should be the first truly divine magic that she would be able to make work on her own.

She could probably make a request to Tenebrael and that would work. But Alyssa really felt like she was past verbal requests—prayers, really—now that she had enough information to figure out how to work things for herself. It was all about knowledge and understanding. But she clearly didn’t understand something about the divine. Tenebrael hadn’t been much help, simply choosing to refer back to her mathematics lesson. Alyssa was still hoping that she would find a way to skip out on that. If she didn’t need to understand the underlying mechanics of DNA to create Companion’s body, she shouldn’t need advanced mathematics to create other miracles.

But she was starting to think that it might be time to ask Tenebrael for another lesson. Hopefully a more… simplified lesson. Something for beginners.

Irulon, apparently deciding that Alyssa wasn’t about to blind her again, turned around. For a few seconds, she didn’t actually say anything. Had this been a week ago, she probably would have gotten right back to work. Now, however, she obviously felt like there wasn’t a need to rush. In addition to sleeping and eating in a far more regular manner, she was also taking breaks from her work every so often. She had even asked to watch a movie the night before after Alyssa sat down with Kasita.

Of course, she hadn’t been able to simply watch. Kasita, though she had only experienced Earth for a few hours, had seen enough movies and was adaptable enough that she caught on to foreign concepts without needing much explanation. Especially now-a-days. It had been a long time since Kasita actually asked a question about something in a movie. Irulon had watched one or two in the past, but most of that had been quite early on, way back when Alyssa still thought it was interesting to get their reactions on various fantasy monsters imagined up by Earthlings.

Watching horror the night before had probably been a mistake. Irulon turned into one of those people, even after being told that everything was just fiction. “His body was torn apart with hooks, wasn’t it? Humans on your world can recover from that with just a little blood?” “There is nothing magically significant about the designs on that box or their reconfiguration.” “Demons? Is that what true demons look like?” For that last one, Alyssa had been about to answer in the negative until she actually thought about it. Before losing her mask and transforming, gaining charred skin with veins of magma, the true demon had looked somewhat similar to Cenobites.

With Irulon more willing to take breaks, maybe she would watch enough that she didn’t feel the need to comment on everything. Still, for the time being, it was just a little strange to see her not immediately delve into work the moment she had a chance. It was quite the contrast from her previous behavior.

“I’m not sure that there is anything we can do to assist,” Irulon said after long enough that Alyssa’s train of thought had run through enough topics that it took a moment to remember what they had been doing in the first place.

Trying to channel Tenebrael’s power in a more divine nature.

“Yeah,” Alyssa said with a sigh. “I don’t know that anyone but Tenebrael could help.”

“However!” The dragon stepped forward, platinum scales glistening in the normal potion-based lights. “We would be more than excited to analyze absolutely everything that you can do. Your mysteries have remained… well, mysteries long enough. The more we unravel, the more we might be able to determine exactly how Tenebrael operates.”

“Don’t get too excited. Based on what we have observed so far, Tenebrael’s magic operates on a higher level than even a dragon’s magic. As should be expected of Tenebrael.” Irulon let out a small sigh as she threw a look to a suddenly scowling Companion. “Offering advice before was… really the only most general bit of help I could think to offer.”

Though she nodded at Irulon, Alyssa had to turn to Companion. “Irulon suggested that a dragon is higher than Rank Six in terms of magical ability. Have you actually been able to cast a higher ranked spell since the ritual?” Alyssa hadn’t really thought about it until now, but she didn’t actually know what that meant. She had never seen a spell card with anything above Rank Six drawn on it. Given how large dragons were, she couldn’t really imagine them making their own spell cards.

“Ah.” Companion frowned a little, looking disappointed all of a sudden. “I don’t know that this body would be able to handle higher order magic.”

“Your body wouldn’t? Why—”

“Monsters don’t use spells the way you or I think to use them.” Irulon stepped forward, moving around her desk to sit against it from the side closer to Alyssa. “Monsters have innate magic, generally inherent to them. Think of those you know, Kasita, Fela, Volta, and so on. Kasita doesn’t draw out designs to change shape. I… We haven’t done enough research to determine whether this is something that their bodies can do or if it is in their soul, but…” Irulon trailed off, looking to Companion a moment before the dragon started to speak.

“It must be the soul, for I feel like I could do what I used to be able to do. I am just fearful for this body’s resilience.”

“Regardless,” Irulon continued. “A dragon’s magic comes from its breath. Fire, lightning, ice, and far more esoteric effects. A dragon could likely breathe something similar to your Annihilator.”

“And sitting in this mostly human body, I’ve been loathe to try. Don’t really find the idea of melting my face off with some jets of white-hot flame all that enticing.”

“Wait.” Alyssa held up a finger toward the dragon and looked to Irulon before deciding that Companion would actually be the better person to ask. “You can breathe lightning?”

The black and white swirling eyes of the dragon stared at Alyssa for a moment before looking to Irulon. “Is there something strange about that?”

“Most humans can’t exhale and generate magical lightning.”

“They can’t breathe fire either.”

Alyssa crossed her arms as she stared at Companion. “Yeah but… That’s… Fire is what dragons normally breathe.”

“So is lightning. In fact, lightning is probably the most common thing to breathe. Fire is imprecise. Lightning will chain to every living thing around, which, since we usually only breathe at all when we’re threatened, is generally what we’re aiming for. Ice is just annoying and hurts my teeth,” Companion said, rubbing her jaw as if remembering something painful. “But we can breathe other things as well. Imagine a wave of destructive time washing over an army.”

“You breathe time?” Alyssa scowled, looking between the two while trying to decide if they were just messing with her at this point. “I have no idea how that might look.”

“Oh it’s a mess,” Companion said with a small chuckle. “Picture an army. Some of them disappear, just poof out of existence. Others grow old in an instant, decaying to dust in a matter of seconds. For some, time stands perfectly still. And it doesn’t just affect the people, but the land as well. In the future or past, perhaps there is a tree or hill where one soldier is standing. All of a sudden, you’ve got two things trying to occupy the same moment in space and time. Very messy.”

“Speaking from experience?”

“I’m young for a dragon. But young is an entirely relative term when discussing dragons. I’ve had more than one group of humans discover my body and try to slay me for… whatever reasons. Potion reagents, hatred, or just for the sake of challenge.”

That wasn’t exactly a yes, but…

Well…

Alyssa didn’t have room to complain about aggressive self-defense.

“Back to examining Tenebrael’s magic,” Alyssa said, not sure at all that she wanted to know more about just what could come from a dragon’s mouth. “What do you need me to do so that you two can analyze everything?”

Irulon and Companion glanced to each other. Both smiled. Companion put on a wide, tooth-filled grin while Irulon managed something far more debonair.

Alyssa suddenly had a bad feeling about going along with this.