Vacant Throne

Alyssa set down her phone, pausing the video on some more advanced physics—her topic over the last two days, since arriving in Lyria. She thought that she might be able to make more interesting things if she knew a bit more about how the normal world worked. Unfortunately, she also thought she was reaching the limits of just what could be accomplished through simplified video tutorials.

Luckily, a distraction arrived.

The Pharaoh walked into Irulon’s room. His presence commanded attention. He was exactly as Alyssa remembered. About as young-looking as Brakkt, sharp features, dark beard and hair, and robed in fine cloth. But something was different this time. His expression was neutral at first glance, but the moment his eyes flicked to Irulon, his gaze hardened to a tight anger.

When Irulon looked up from her notebook, glanced at him, and looked back down, that hard gaze tightened even further.

“Daughter,” he said in a calm tone betraying none of his irritation. “You have ignored my summons.”

“Oh no.” Irulon’s tone was flat and sarcastic. “Sometimes I get mixed up between me and Companion. Must have sent her on accident.”

The Pharaoh put on a smile. “I rather enjoyed my conversation with your counterpart. But I called for my daughter.”

Groaning, with a half mumbled, “I know,” under her breath, Irulon set down her pen and turned to her father. “Well, you’re here now. What did you want? And don’t say a feast. I know what you said to Companion. While she might be happy to go, I would rather not. She can take my place.”

“You’ll both be at the head table,” the Pharaoh said in a tone that left no room for argument. “Along with Alyssa.”

Jumping at being addressed, Alyssa bit her lip. She had been hoping to go unnoticed—the Pharaoh still kind of scared her, especially because she didn’t have the staff with her at the moment; his Time magic wouldn’t have a hard time affecting her.

Irulon, on the other hand, was not shocked at the announcement. “Excellent. If Alyssa is going, she can just create a copy of me to take my place.”

“That… wouldn’t last long at all.”

“And that’s the beauty of it!” Irulon stood up, walked over to Alyssa, and placed one hand on each shoulder. “You create a copy of me, set it down at whatever chair I’m supposed to sit at. After a few minutes, it slumps over, dead. Everyone witnesses me dying in a public setting. They think I’m dead. I never have to attend another one of these banal events for the rest of my life!”

“That’s going a bit far, don’t you think?”

“I’ve had a few blissful months where I didn’t have to interact with anyone I didn’t want to. I didn’t have to put on airs, dress up, sit around with no mental stimulus more exciting than shoving a fork in my mouth while smiling at all the people trying to thrust adulations my way in an attempt at raising their own standings. Returning to that is like a nightmare. I can’t imagine what Companion is thinking when she says she wants to go and I’m literally thinking the exact same things that she is.”

“Regardless, you are my daughter. You will be attending. As will you, Alyssa.” He turned, steely eyes locking onto Alyssa. “You will find a servant waiting at the stairs. He will take you to a tailor. Your dress will be ready by evening.”

“Tonight?” Frowning, Alyssa looked to Irulon for help only to realize that the princess wanted help from her in getting out of this. She didn’t have any desire to attend a feast any more than Irulon did. “Why am I going?”

“Why, it is celebrating your accomplishments, of course.”

“What.” Accomplishments? Alyssa’s mind went completely blank, unable to come up with anything she had done recently that might be worth celebrating.

The Pharaoh filled her in. “You and my children returning home after successfully closing the pit? A feast is the least of all the ‘banal’ events I could throw you into,” he said with an aside glance to Irulon. “Be thankful that this is it. You won’t even be required to make a speech.”

“I didn’t—” Alyssa clamped her mouth shut. What she did or didn’t do probably didn’t matter nearly as much as what appeared to have happened. Instead of arguing that she had little to nothing to do with the actual closure of the pit, Alyssa decided to help Irulon out. “Izsha and Kasita were there too. Izsha even got severely injured in the process. Fela helped out too. Will they all be attending? Because I won’t go be celebrated if you’re going to ignore their contributions.”

A long silence came over the group for a few seconds. The Pharaoh just stared. But eventually, he nodded his head. “Arrangements have already been made.”

“They have?” Alyssa thought for sure that she had an out. Kasita could disguise herself completely as a human and Fela, while not liked, was a known associate of the royal family. But by bringing in Izsha, she thought that the Pharaoh would capitulate. A draken at a table of humans? Izsha was the smallest, true, but even a small draken was a giant lizard.

“Of course they have,” Irulon said, arms crossed with a scowl on her face.

“Indeed. Irulon, you know what is expected of you. Alyssa, the tailor is waiting.”

Alyssa barely got another word out before she found herself ushered off to a servant who led her through the palace. A whirlwind of other people took measurements, asked for her opinion on styles and colors—though she was apparently required to wear some metallic thread that was gold mixed with some violet-hued metal embroidered in a fanciful symbol of a raven.

Even before she had finished giving her input, two arcanists and a tailor worked together to rapidly put together a piece for her to wear… though she didn’t get to see the finished product. The Pharaoh hadn’t mentioned it but the servant apparently had more to do than simply take her to a tailor.

Instead, she got ushered off to one of the most uncomfortable situations she had ever been put in.

Bathing.

She hadn’t just been led to a bath. Two servants, females thankfully, followed her into one of the palace’s grandiose baths, insisting that they were under orders to make her presentable. Which translated to them wanting to bathe Alyssa instead of just letting her do it herself. They were quite pushy about it too. Insistent.

Irulon might be content to laze around in rose-scented water while Tess scrubbed her body, but Alyssa was absolutely not. She felt a bit bad about using Spectral Chains on two poor servants, but she could bathe herself.

When it came to her hair, however, that she let them handle. She had been planning on simply pulling it back in a ponytail, which was what she always did. They have her a quick trim, which was welcome as Alyssa hadn’t gotten it cut once during her entire stay in Illuna, followed by a bit of styling. Four braids, two on either side of her head, were pulled back around the rest of her hair until they joined in the back, where the braids were braided together in one large ponytail of braids… or something like that. Alyssa had always thought that her hair was a bit coarse, but the soap they offered her must have been a potion of some sort. It felt soft and much smoother than normal.

After the hair, they applied just a touch of makeup. Not modern makeup that Alyssa was used to, though there was a little of that, but mostly some dark markings around her eyes, giving the corners a bit of flourish.

By the time they finished, it was already early evening. Alyssa got sent straight back to the tailors where she found a finished dress laying out for her. It must have been partially completed before she actually showed up earlier, because there was no way they could have made such a fanciful thing in only a few hours.

It was in two distinct pieces. The upper half and the lower half.

The top was almost more of a vest than anything else. The left side went beneath the right side, which itself extended about three quarters of the way over her chest. Buttons hidden on the inside kept it closed around her without any visible clasps. Although it had sleeves, they stopped right at her shoulder—which ended up showing off her tattoo almost in its entirety. There was just a bit of ink on the top of her shoulder and shoulder blade that went hidden.

The lower half was a long dress, going all the way down to her ankles. It was narrow. No poofy ball gown or regency-style dresses here. No. It was slim and fitting. And… just a bit too much for Alyssa’s tastes. It was effectively one square sheet of fabric. A servant informed her that it was to be worn with the opening on her right side. Essentially, it was a slit dress with the slit running all the way. If she stood straight, it would look mostly normal, but the moment she moved or sat down, it would open up. People would be able to see all the way up to her hip.

And the servants did not offer her anything to wear underneath.

She had half a mind to toss it and find something else to wear, but it was just so… beautiful that she couldn’t bring herself to do so.

The cut itself wasn’t that impressive. A bit strange for Nod, at least based on what she had seen walking around for several months now, but then, she had never been to something like a formal event here. The closest she had come had been her little evening meal with Decorous—and he had been wearing a fairly fancy suit back then.

The most beautiful part of the dress wasn’t the silky cloth it had been made from or the style. It was the embroidery. The gold and violet thread woven into it. When the tailor had said that it would have the emblem of a raven on it, she had been imagining some little patch like the kind someone would wear over a breast pocket or on a hat. Just a little thing an inch or two across. The high collar did have something like that, a pillar supporting a shield bearing a pair of ravens. But the golden thread was so much more than that. It first lined every outside edge of the outfit. The hole for the shoulder, the slightly higher collar on the neck, along the bottom, and the right side of the overlapping portion of the vest.

An intricate wing covered most of her chest, embroidered in that golden thread. The left side of the vest didn’t have anything on it, being simply plain black, but the right side had a distinctly raven-like pattern to it that must have taken days to finish. Looking at it in a mirror, the ends of the wing were pointed straight downward, spreading out into complicated and detailed individual feathers. The flat front edge of the wing cut straight across her chest, forming a sharp angle. If there was a bird, it would have been hidden beneath her right arm, but there wasn’t. The back of the dress was mostly blank save for a few much smaller embroideries.

The dress portion was much the same as the vest, except with an even larger detailing of a raven. A full raven, this time, not just the wings. This time, the feathers were aimed upward. The wings were far larger than the bird down around her knees, but somehow it all worked out.

The servants finished by handing her a pair of sandals. At least, that was what they looked like at first glance. In reality, they were far more ornate than anything Alyssa would ever label as being sandals. They didn’t have golden thread woven into their straps except across the slightly thicker band that went over the front of the foot. All the other criss-crossing straps were much too thin for that.

Alyssa actually frowned harder at the sandals than at the slit in the dress. At least her legs and thighs were well toned from all the walking and running she did in this world. But she had never liked showing off her toes. They all curled off to the left or right, foot dependent, in just a slightly strange way. It probably came from wearing socks too tight or the wrong size of shoes as a child, but it was far too late to fix that now. Not without surgery that had always seemed incredibly unnecessary. She could run just fine.

“Ah. All dressed up, are we?”

Turning her glare away from the shoes in the mirror, Alyssa found Companion strutting toward her. The draconic humanoid was dressed up as well. Given that her scales mostly covered her limbs and torso, Alyssa would have suspected that the Pharaoh would try to cover them up with a dress similar to Alyssa’s except with longer sleeves. But no. Companion’s dress was almost the opposite, clearly designed to accentuate her scales. In fact, while Alyssa had a single slit going up to her hip, Companion looked more like she was wearing a loin cloth that went down to her ankles. Both sides were open and not just in a small slit. The upper part of her dress was part of the same cloth that really just covered her shoulders, breasts, and stomach before becoming the loin cloth. Her sides were completely on display.

Like Alyssa, her dress had the golden-violet thread in birdlike patterns, though the patterns on her dress were far smaller given that she had less total cloth to work with.

Companion’s dress was both shocking and stunning. She was clearly out to make an impact on whoever would be attending this feast.

It took a long moment before Alyssa found her voice. “It’s a bit much, isn’t it?”

“Of course. Far too much. But that’s the point of things like these. I always thought Irulon squandered opportunities such as this one far too much.”

Alyssa’s eyes traveled up and down Companion’s dress once again before nodding slowly. “You are clearly making up for all the lost chances.”

“Why thank you, Alyssa. You’re looking rather enticing yourself.”

Avoiding a glance at the mirror, Alyssa just sighed. “I’m surprised you’re so into it though. Given Irulon’s personality…” Alyssa trailed off, hoping that the dragon would get the hint that she didn’t want to talk about herself.

“We aren’t the same person.”

“I know. But still—”

“It is in a dragon’s nature to allow the world to wash over them. But I have been given a new chance at life and I won’t spend it being as a stone at the bottom of a riverbed. I want to jump into the river, standing upright as I force myself upstream against the raging current.”

“I feel like I’ve lost track of your metaphor.”

Companion waved a hand. “I merely wish to participate in life, I suppose you could say. And that means actively engaging with everything I can, even if Irulon thinks feasts and dances are wastes of time.”

“Dances?” Latching onto that one word with a cold feeling in her stomach, Alyssa glanced back into the mirror. She wouldn’t be tripping over her dress, but… “There isn’t going to be dancing tonight, is there? They aren’t expecting me to dance, are they?”

A wide grin slowly spread across Companion’s face, making Alyssa thrilled that she hadn’t given the dragon those sharp teeth that she had wanted. But before Companion said anything, she turned to the two servants still in the room. A slight toss of her head had both the servants rushing from the room.

“They listen to you?” Alyssa said, frowning as she watched the servant’s fleeing backs.

“I am practically royalty.”

“Did the Pharaoh agree to make you his heir?”

Companion tilted her head, still smiling. “Not yet.”

Alyssa looked at that smile, wondering just what kind of horror they had unleashed upon the world. But she didn’t get a chance to wonder for long. Companion stepped right up next to her, moving close enough that Alyssa could feel her hot breath. She tried to take a step back, but Companion put her hands on Alyssa’s shoulders, drawing her even closer.

“Do you know how to dance, Alyssa?”

Jumping at the words practically coming from inside her ear, Alyssa started to shake her head. But she stopped, considering. “I, uh… Uh… I attended a few school dances. But I don’t think those are really all that similar to the kind of dancing people do here.” At least, she didn’t think a school dance would be very similar. Alyssa didn’t know much about medieval dancing, but she had watched movies. The first half of the dance scene in A Knight’s Tale seemed a whole lot more like what she would have expected.

Companion was a bit too close for that, however. Customs here were clearly different, unless the dragon was just riling her up.

“There isn’t time to teach you everything, but there are a few things you should know in case Brakkt offers a—”

“Brakkt?” Alyssa pulled back enough to look at Companion. The dumb dragon’s grin was even wider now.

“Is there a problem? You fancy his company often enough, why not tonight?”

“We’re friends,” Alyssa said, “but not like romantic friends. Or— He’s still in Illuna anyway.”

“He is back for tonight. The portal you created still works, you know.”

“I know, but…”

“What’s the problem? You like each other, he has wealth and power. You—”

“Wealth?” Alyssa held out a hand to her side. Golden coins rained down, clattering against the marble flooring of the tailor’s room. “Power? I’m pretty sure I could level this city if I wanted and I doubt anyone could stop me.”

Rather than being intimidated into dropping the topic, Companion just chuckled. “See! You would fit well with my younger brother.”

“You’re really trying for that familial thing to get to be a queen, aren’t you.”

“Seems like a fun thing to do for a few years. And wouldn’t it just drive the humans up a wall to know that their queen is a monster?”

“It will probably start wars.”

“I will end them.”

“But—”

“Enough distracting me. We’re talking about you.”

Alyssa gently pushed Companion away from her. They hadn’t started doing anything resembling dance lessons and hugging someone while carrying on a conversation was fairly distracting. Thankfully, Companion didn’t fight it, instead choosing to lean against a roll of cloth set into the wall. “Look. I like Brakkt well enough. We’re friends. But I’m from a whole different world. I’ve hardly spared a thought to becoming more than friends with anyone. And even if I was interested in romance or even a one-night stand, I don’t know that he would be interested back.” Companion, what with her being a dragon and having scales, seemed far more his type.

“First of all, it’s just a dance. Not even a courtship dance. You’re thinking twenty steps ahead. Getting too flustered. Live in the moment and wade through these waters however you think will be most interesting.”

“Back to that metaphor again?” Alyssa mumbled.

“Consider it this way: If Brakkt were to request your hand in a dance tonight, would you accept?”

“I mean…” Alyssa frowned, but slowly nodded. “Yeah. Probably.”

“Then you need to learn.” Companion shoved off the rolls of fabric, once again moving to embrace Alyssa. “And I shall teach you. But it is my first time dancing too… I just know what I know from Irulon.

“I’m sure it will be fine.”