Vacant Throne

“What is this? How… How did you manage—”

Alyssa had only stayed a few days at the new monster settlement. More days than she had expected to spend, but less than she could have spent. The original plan had been to leave in the morning. Lueta’s presence changed that. Not just because Brakkt wanted to chat either. Alyssa stayed because she wanted to make sure that everything would go smoothly. No hiccups of any kind.

Brakkt was still there, as was Kasita. Both agreed with Alyssa’s assessment that the situation could turn sour… especially as more supplies were due to arrive in only a few days. Having the delivery guys stop the moment they spotted Lueta and rush back to Illuna with tales about how the settlement had been taken over or destroyed by a giant snake would probably cause a lot of problems. Brakkt was going to return with them to Illuna and… diplomatically alert Martin to the situation. Assuming Volta hadn’t already done so.

But that was neither here or there.

What was here was…

Earth?

Alyssa walked into what had once been Irulon’s abattoir to find both the princess and the dragon right where she had left them. She started questioning whether or not they had even left to eat, only to trail to a stop as she noticed the wall. It looked like a window. When she had left, it had looked like a window into the Endless Expanse. A shattered window with each facet of the shattered whole showing off a different view.

Now, it wasn’t shattered. It was a whole pane of glass that seemed to be looking out onto a city street. Cars drove by, people walked up and down the sidewalk, and even a jet leaving a long contrail in a clear blue sky. Looking closer, she focused on the signs and writing, things that would prove that it was Earth and not some other world that might exist out in the universe. The language wasn’t English, but that didn’t mean much. Alyssa might have been able to recognize Japanese or Chinese and most of the Western European languages, but this was a bit different. That wasn’t to say that she didn’t recognize it. It looked like a middle-eastern script. Something they might use in Afghanistan or thereabouts. She didn’t know what it was called, or even if it was really that language.

Though it looked like Earth with the tall buildings and even what looked like a No Smoking sign, she couldn’t say it absolutely was Earth. Even if she did see English, she would have to see the names of cities or notable locations to be sure, since English was the predominant language of Nod as well. Though she still suspected that Tenebrael had done something that just made her see and hear everything as if it were English here. A little translation fish in her ear or something. Or maybe a reverse translation fish, as Kasita and Irulon could understand the English from videos on her phone just fine.

“How did you get this to work?”

“It’s a brand new spell,” Irulon said. “We analyzed the moment the spell shattered over and over again, trying to figure out why it might… do what it was doing.”

Companion stepped forward, looking through a thick notebook that Alyssa didn’t remember seeing before. “We’re actually still not exactly certain, but we distilled enough information down to its basics to figure out that Fractal spells, or at least that Fractal spell, interferes with how reality functions. When it fails and shows off the Endless Expanse, we figured that it was because the Endless Expanse and its ‘Throne’ operate on a higher level of reality.”

“As you said Tenebrael said, the Throne encompasses all. It’s right here, next to us in a metaphysical sense. Once we realized that, tapping into it without crashing the staff into the spell became much simpler. A reworking of the Fractal magic wasn’t even necessary. Just a few minor tweaks to… put it simply, it starts shattered. Except in one piece. If that makes sense.”

Alyssa supposed it made sense. When she had first met Irulon, the princess had claimed that Fractal magic was a branch rarely researched because most people who tried went insane. It was that complex a magic type. Or so she assumed. Who knew, maybe they went insane because of all the mucking about with reality. In fact, it was probably that. As such, she wasn’t sure that she really wanted to take the thick stack of papers that Companion was holding out for her.

Though she did anyway.

But… flipping it open and looking through it? She had to question whether or not Tenebrael’s Babel Fish was working properly. The words were English, sure, but they weren’t put together in sentences that made any kind of sense. The rest of it was mathematics. Looking at it made Alyssa wish that she had been able to get a picture of Tenebrael’s lesson back on Earth. Companion and Irulon would have surely been able to make some sense of it.

Closing the notebook without looking further into it—she would much prefer to keep her sanity as much as possible—Alyssa turned to the scene of Earth. “So how did you get that? And can you move the viewpoint?”

“The view seems to be random every time we start the spell,” Companion said. “We’re not sure why. Most of the world seems to be empty. We’ve gotten mostly ocean views, under and over, and plenty of swaths of mostly empty land. There might sometimes be wires or roads. This is actually the first view of a proper city that we’ve seen.”

“We’ve seen pictures on your phone, so we’re not too shocked. Still, those buildings are quite amazing. I can hardly believe they can stand. The Lyrian palace is tall, but it is also wide at the base. Those things just go straight up. They can’t be sturdy.”

Alyssa shrugged. “It’s actually pretty rare that they collapse. It is almost never by accident. They’re all designed to handle earthquakes up to a certain point. If they do come down, it’s usually intentional. Either sabotage or controlled demolition to replace the building with something newer.”

“Hm.”

“I’m sure I could pull up the theory behind skyscraper construction if you’re interested in building some here, though I don’t know if the strength of the materials you guys have will be up to standards. Earth has heavily refined its steel and concrete production. You guys don’t even have concrete as far as I’m aware.”

“Maybe some other year,” Irulon said with a dismissive wave of her hand.

Companion took over. “As for actually creating the spell, we, again, took what Tenebrael said to heart. The Endless Expanse is connected to everything, therefore it must be connected to all inhabited worlds. Using some of your equipment that you left behind, along with some analysis that Irulon performed on your home near Teneville, we were able to… attune a spell to look through the Endless Expanse to what we believe to be your world. I’ll spare you the technical details,” Companion said with a flick of her eyes to the closed notebook. There was a bit of disappointment in her tone, like she was sad that she didn’t have someone else to discuss the trappings of magic with.

“It isn’t perfect,” Irulon said, walking over to the Fractal spell. Clasping her hands behind her back, she leaned forward, just about pressing her nose up against it without actually touching it. “Several of the scenes we observed using this technique may not have even been Earth. It is hard to say. A world is a vast place filled with many different locales, both natural and constructed. However, we have both seen pictures, videos, and movies. We were able to dismiss some of the stranger sceneries as being from elsewhere.”

There were some strange buildings on Earth. Sometimes it seemed like an architectural student got authorized to design a building that really didn’t look like a normal building. And then there were theme parks and other places of fanciful styling. If their viewpoint had ended up in Disneyland, they probably wouldn’t have realized that it was Earth.

Getting closer to the spell, moving up alongside Irulon, Alyssa found it… weird. Disorientating. She hadn’t gotten a good look at the panels in the shattered dome because of the Astral Authority’s Justice and, after, the thick coating of ash that had covered absolutely everything. The windows to the Endless Expanse were all somewhat… abstract. While there were identifiable structures, such as the crystalline towers and buildings, it was all just a bit too removed from normal reality to have triggered a sense of vertigo as she looked through them.

But this looking glass, looking in on Earth—or an Earth-analogue—was like looking through an actual window. As in, when Alyssa got closer, the view changed to accommodate. She could lean right up against it and look to the side to see a much wider field of view than she had been able to get by standing back at the entrance to the chamber. It was getting closer that made her realize that the viewpoint wasn’t at ground level. It was a good twenty feet up. With the spell being perfectly clear, it looked like she could just step through… maybe not to her death as it was only twenty feet, but still, it triggered her mild fear of heights.

Irulon put an arm against it, leaning into it as if to see downward. It was solid. Humans, at least, couldn’t pass through. Kasita might be another story entirely.

Alyssa backed away.

She did not like heights.

If something strange happened because she was the one to touch it, she didn’t want to accidentally fall into Earth. Not like that. And not now.

Thankfully, neither Companion or Irulon seemed to notice her sudden nerves. Irulon was staring into the other world while Companion prattled on with some of those technicalities that she had said she would spare Alyssa from having to hear. Maybe these didn’t count for her, though she severely overestimated Alyssa’s knowledge of magic if she thought discussing the recursive self-similarity of nowhere differentiable fractal ingress meant anything to her. Of course, it was possible that she was just talking to herself, reasoning something out aloud. Irulon often did a similar thing and the two of them definitely had picked up each other’s habits.

“So,” Alyssa said, taking a seat on the far side of the room. “What does this mean for us?”

Irulon looked over her shoulder. “Besides proving that other worlds truly do exist to the academics at the Observatorium? At the moment, not much. While I’m sure there is a great deal that we can glean merely by observation of Earth, the Endless Expanse, and any other locales that we can view, traveling to such locations is currently beyond our capabilities. Fractal magic doesn’t tend to allow for traveling in the way we will need. Though I do want to take another look into the spell our other selves developed back during the assault on the Lyrian palace. That may provide some clues that we can use to adapt a proper transportation spell.”

“We are aware of the angelic problem and the likelihood of drawing… undesirable attention to both this world and Tenebrael,” Companion added before Alyssa could mention that particular problem. “At the moment, such thoughts of interacting with the realms we can observe are merely theoretical.”

Alyssa let out a slight sigh at hearing that. “As much as I want to go home, I think that would be best for now. But there is another problem you might not be considering.”

Companion and Irulon, at the exact same moment, turned and looked to each other with raised eyebrows. It was brief, they looked over to Alyssa soon after, but eerie all the same.

“Oh?” “Oh?”

Ignoring them turning into the exact same person for the moment, Alyssa continued with what she was going to say. “If you did get to another world… you might not be able to return.”

“Explain.” “Explain.”

“Magic here is powered by Tenebrael. At least magic in the form of spell cards is…” Kasita had functioned just fine during her brief stay on Earth. “All spell cards are essentially prayers to Tenebrael, asking for her to intervene on your behalf. Earth, and other worlds, are not within Tenebrael’s dominion. Magic doesn’t exist on Earth. Not like it does here. Tenebrael took away my spell cards on all my trips to Earth, so they may work there, but I wouldn’t count on it. You could teleport to Earth and wind up stranded there. It wouldn’t be like a… bad life. Earth is technologically advanced and relatively friendly, but still… you probably don’t want to stay permanently.

“Of course, if you did make it to Earth, Tenebrael would probably notice and immediately whisk you back here. So maybe it wouldn’t be that big of a deal…” It really depended. Tenebrael seemed to have been able to transport Alyssa from Earth to Nod because her continued presence there had not been accounted for by Iosefael’s little black book. But something was strange about Alyssa in that she broke those books. Or at least she had after avoiding her death. If Iosefael’s Earth book updated to include Irulon should the princess make it there, Tenebrael might not be able to return her to Nod.

Alyssa considered asking Tenebrael the next time the angel stopped by, something she had been doing with surprising regularity, but wasn’t sure if she should actually ask. As far as Alyssa knew, Tenebrael didn’t know about all these experiments that Irulon was running. If she became aware, she might put a stop to it, either because she wanted to protect herself or maybe because she would be forced to by her programming.

All of it had to be theoretical, anyway. Alyssa, at the very least, couldn’t go anywhere until she had a real way of avoiding angels. Not killing them. After having seen the Endless Expanse and all the uncountable members of the Heavenly Host, Alyssa had a feeling that she would never be able to kill them all without dying along the way. Maybe she could get a few. Maybe she could get a hundred. But there were simply too many.

She needed a way to hide. To turn herself invisible to their senses. To cloak her soul like Empty Mirror cloaked her body.

Or… Alyssa’s thoughts trailed off as she looked between Irulon and Companion. For a moment, she closed her eyes just to check on their little soul connection. It was still there. Still just as strong as it had been just after the ritual. Their souls interacted with each other in a way that Alyssa would define as normal if compared to everyone else, yet…

They clearly shared something between themselves. Their simultaneous speech, mimicked expressions and postures, and seeming ability to see through each other’s eyes was proof enough of that. But it got Alyssa wondering if she couldn’t do something similar. Not a connection between herself and another person, but…

“Hey, Irulon… and Companion,” she quickly added—she was so used to only addressing Irulon, but now that Companion was here, she didn’t want to leave the dragon out of the conversation. Not that Companion hadn’t always been around, but now she had a body and facial expressions and a pout when people only looked to Irulon. “The connection you share… Would it be possible to adapt that to other purposes? Maybe by, say, sticking a soul into an iron ball but having it tethered to a body?”

Once again, the two blinked and glanced to each other. This time, their expression was just short of alarmed. Breaking their copied motions, Irulon turned back first. “Yes. There is quite a well known method of doing just that. Death magic rituals can separate the soul from the body, placing it in a soul jar. Several humans in the past have done so. We call them liches, as they generally are not humans any more at that point. Not even monsters. They are functionally more akin to infected.”

“Not a wise thing to do,” Companion continued right from where Irulon left off. “Most cases reveal several problems. First, the body tends to decay at an accelerated rate. Flesh wounds do not heal. Infections spread far faster. The body otherwise begins falling apart.”

Irulon broke in quickly with a raised finger. “Though it should be noted, the lich does not appear to feel any pain from this. In fact, the body continues to operate even after sustaining wounds that would be incompatible with life. They will be decayed, rotting husks of people, but they’ll still walk around. Talking somewhat depends on how much the mouth, throat, and lungs are intact.”

“Second,” Companion said, flowing perfectly on the moment Irulon was done. “And potentially far more worrisome… if—or rather, when the body is destroyed, the soul will remain in the soul jar. Recovered soul jars have been experimented on, proving this fact. Tenebrael does not show up to collect them when the body dies. They are left trapped in perpetuity. Then there are all the problems that can arise from someone getting their hands on your soul jar…”

“It was once thought to be a form of immortality. And if a lich could learn to create a new body, much like you can, and bind their soul to it even if their original body was destroyed, it might actually be a way to live forever. However, even that is in doubt. There was once a time where the Observatorium performed a number of infamous experiments involving a lich’s soul jar. They removed a soul from a condemned man and then tried to bind the lich’s soul to the empty body. The results were… not pleasant to say the least. The Observatorium now labels all research into anything related to liches to be anathema. Banned. Discovery warrants exile to the First City.”

Leaving that bomb of a comment, Irulon and Companion allowed silence to hang over the conversation for a few moments. Mostly to emphasize their point, Alyssa suspected. They really didn’t need to. Turning into a rotting corpse sounded bad enough. And the souls… Irulon hadn’t said it, but Alyssa imagined that it would be something similar to those souls she and Tenebrael had used to save the other Earthlings. Those tortured expressions on their faces still lingered in the back of her mind.

“Why do you ask?” Companion said, tilting her head to one side.

“I thought I might be able to leave my soul here and visit Earth with just my body, thus hiding from the angel’s ability to detect souls.”

“Oh.”

“Hm.” Irulon and Companion glanced at each other before Irulon spoke again. “Perhaps if it were temporary…”

“There has never been an experiment involving the length of the tether, correct?”

“A soul jar was once recovered from deep in the northern desert, suspected to be that of—”

Alyssa cut in with a firm voice. “No. Stop. No planning this one. Thanks, but we’ll figure out a different way.”

The two of them looked to Alyssa. With their faces almost exactly the same, Alyssa felt like she was being crushed by the doubled disappointed looks. They wanted to experiment on her. Because of course they did.

Time to distract them. “Why don’t we go back to figuring out how to create material using Tenebrael’s power with spell cards? Weren’t we making progress there?”

Silence. It lasted a moment. Maybe a full minute. Irulon slowly shook her head. “We got stuck in the problem of creating a spell card that can change itself during the spell. Conjured light is our best option at the moment. However, we would have to specify the end result in the initial spell card. A spell to cast a spell, essentially.”

“Activation of the second spell is also a problem,” Companion said, joining in on the conversation.

Alyssa tried to concentrate. They were taking the time to explain things to her, after all. But the relief that they seemed to have moved on from any of that lich stuff was a little distracting…

As was trying to think up another way to cloak her soul from angels.