Vacant Throne

Kasita lounged around, relaxing on the bed in Alyssa’s room. So far, she hadn’t said much, but she was watching Alyssa with the eyes of an eagle. When Alyssa paced to the left, Kasita’s head slowly followed her. When she lifted an arm, Kasita’s eyes went up with it. It was a bit uncomfortable, really. Alyssa was finding it difficult to concentrate.

And her current task did require some small amount of concentration.

Every time Alyssa practiced with Tenebrael’s crystal orb, she got hurt. It wasn’t a long-lasting pain. And she was pretty sure that Tenebrael was not healing her afterward. At least not anymore. She had yet to repeat anything like the first time that she had used the orb. It was just pain. Weird pain.

She could feel something different about herself. Her body hadn’t changed. She hadn’t put on weight or lost muscle mass. True, she hadn’t weighed herself since arriving at Nod, but Alyssa was aware enough of her own body to know that there hadn’t been a significant change in that regard. The difference was something more… internal. More of a feeling. She was trying to figure out what that feeling was.

Which took a lot of internal reflection that Kasita’s constant staring was not assisting with.

Still, there was one specific thing that she could pinpoint as being different. She hadn’t noticed at first, but looking around…

She no longer had to close her eyes and concentrate to see souls. It was a subtle thing. She had barely noticed when she first… noticed. Perhaps because it wasn’t so much a sense of sight that was keying her into the nearby souls. It was more of a gut feeling. Another sensory organ that could be used specifically with soul observation. She could still close her eyes and view souls the same way she had before, but this way felt more… natural.

There was something more, but she was having trouble putting her finger on just what it was.

“Well?” Alyssa asked, looking back to Kasita. “Notice anything different about me?”

“Uh… you… started wearing a bit of Irulon’s eyeshadow? To entice Brakkt?”

“That isn’t true and you know it.”

“Which part?”

“Both. First of all, I can make my own makeup if I was really that concerned. I don’t need to plunder Irulon’s supply. Second of all, I don’t need to entice Brakkt.”

“Because he is already enticed?”

Alyssa let out a long sigh. “So you don’t notice any physical changes in me?” That was the main reason Kasita was here. Just to double check. Kasita, with her innate awareness of the world around her, would presumably be able to tell such things rather easily.

“Should I notice something?”

“No… at least not physically. I was just double checking. But what about less… physically?”

“Less… physically…” Kasita raised an eyebrow, staring with a little more curiosity than she had before. Before Alyssa could do any clarification, that curious expression shifted to one of puzzlement. Her brow furrowed and her lips pressed together. A shimmer ran over her entire body as she moved from a reclined lounge to sitting fully upright in the blink of an eye.

Alyssa could feel her nerves tightening in worry as Kasita stared without talking. There was something. There had to be. Why wasn’t Kasita saying anything? Was something wrong? Unable to bear it any longer, Alyssa had to say something. “What is it?” she asked after a long moment of no motion from the mimic.

Kasita held up a finger, silently asking for a pause.

That only made Alyssa’s nerves tighten all the more. Her stomach felt like it did when she felt that brief moment of zero gravity on a roller coaster… except on repeat. A distinctly unpleasant feeling that reminded her of being too high up. Biting her lip, she just stood, suddenly feeling far more self conscious than she had before. Kasita had been sitting there staring all while Alyssa had been testing and investigating herself. But now… it was just so much more intense.

“You…” Kasita started. But then she stopped. She didn’t continue.

“Me?” Alyssa prodded.

“Did you get a new outfit? You’ve been wearing a lot more black since that feast. Is that because Brakkt liked the dress you wore that night?”

Something in the back of Alyssa’s mind snapped. She slumped back, practically falling onto the desk. “Enough about Brakkt! Our relationship is just fine. You don’t need to obsess over every little thing.”

“Ufu~”

“No ufus~!” Alyssa let out a long sigh, shaking her head. Ignoring Kasita and her antics for the moment, she had to sigh. Maybe there really wasn’t anything special going on. Whatever she was feeling was just a figment of her imagination. Maybe because she was expecting to change a little from all the divine energy going into her body, her mind had tricked itself into thinking that it was changing. A placebo effect of sorts.

“I know I don’t need to obsess over you and Brakkt. But I want to. Also you looked a little tense, so I thought I would distract you a bit from the fact that you feel a little like the empty space when an angel is around.”

Taking a breath, Alyssa said, “I appreciate you checking up on me, but really, you’re a bit too obsessed. And I certainly don’t need more advice on…” Blinking as the rest of what Kasita said caught up with her exasperated train of thought, Alyssa glanced back to find Kasita staring at her with a serious expression. “What did you say?”

“You know how I can kind of detect Tenebrael when she is around? It is a very faint feeling that I probably would never have noticed if Her presence had never been pointed out to me. Well, you’ve got the same thing about you. Except even fainter. I’ve been with you all day and only just noticed when you asked.” Kasita crossed her arms, frowning a little. “Of course, it might have helped if you had told me why I was here in the first place. You know I’ve been helping out Companion and the First Prince, right?”

“I wanted your impression of me without mentioning anything too specifically that might have tainted your observations.” Besides that, Alyssa really wasn’t sure what Kasita should have been looking for. “Sorry for dragging you away from your work, but… When you say I’m like Tenebrael…”

Kasita shrugged, flopping back over on the bed again. “I don’t know how to explain it more than I already have. If you were a mimic, maybe I could explain a little, but you don’t sense things the way I do.”

Alyssa nodded with a stray thought crossing her mind about a way to give herself a sense somewhat along the lines of Kasita’s innate awareness. But she still had yet to figure out a way to let draken talk, so that was probably not something really realistic at the current time. She had been meaning to talk to Tenebrael about that, but every time the angel showed up, there was something new to distract her. Whether that was a challenge to make a pizza or a magic rebound orb designed to acclimatize a mortal body to a divine power.

It was interesting that there were some changes that Kasita could detect, however. It made Alyssa wonder if Kasita was actually seeing Tenebrael when she detected the angel or if it was the magic itself that she detected. It probably wouldn’t change much either way, but was still interesting.

It made her wonder just what might change when Alyssa switched from Tenebrael to the Throne itself.

Speaking of… Alyssa pulled out her phone and glanced at the time.

“Tenebrael going to show up soon?” Kasita asked, noting the action.

“She should have been here by now, actually. She hardly ever keeps to an exact schedule. There is always something cropping up that requires her attention. But she has been pretty good these last few weeks about keeping her appointments.”

“Could something have happened?”

“I don’t know what could possibly have happened that would significantly disturb Tenebrael… unless the Astral Authority broke through whatever it was that was keeping them from swarming this world.” A few popped up every now and then. Alyssa just shot them down whenever they appeared. It was hardly worth making a note of anymore. She had yet to see more than one at a time too.

If the Astral Authority was back, Alyssa would have expected them to swarm over to her given her current connection to Tenebrael. The whole reason she had severed the connection in the first place was because they hadn’t been leaving her alone.

So Alyssa doubted that possibility.

Another angel then?

Feeling a modicum of curiosity, Alyssa pulled out one of the drawers of her desk. Inside was Irulon’s original prototype for the motion spell system. She was up to version three now, but Alyssa had asked if she might keep the first one so that she could use the window spell whenever she wished. Theoretically, she should be able to just cast it directly with Tenebrael’s power, but so far, all attempts had been less than successful. Same with making portals.

Soon. Hopefully. Alyssa had hopes that acclimatization, after a few more sessions with Tenebrael and that crystal ball, would help. She could already feel like she had improved a bit in using Tenebrael’s magic. But there was just some missing piece. That key that would let her go from somewhat knowing to complete understanding.

Until then, Alyssa had to slide in one of the light spells into the little machine and aim it at the wall. The actual window spell could be swapped out. Irulon had a few dozen variations that were all places that looked interesting. Earth, other planets with life, some planets without life, and the Endless Expanse. The latter was the one Alyssa selected. When the projection appeared, she placed her hand just above it. Unlike Irulon, she didn’t need an activation phrase.

The facets of the mirrored window unfolded to a view of the iridescent towers of the Endless Expanse. Angels flew back and forth between various towers. The massive wheels in the sky turned slowly. The Throne sat dead center in an impossible position where it looked more like the central tower was sprouting off from one of the smaller spires. Strange, but it was everywhere, so Alyssa didn’t pay it much mind. Rather, she focused on the angels. If something had happened to Tenebrael that involved more than just Iosefael or Adrael, she would have expected to see some difference in their movements. After all, there shouldn’t be much that could actually bother Tenebrael except the Seraphim and if the Seraphim had moved, it should have been a notable event.

But everything looked normal. At least, as normal as a pandimensional reality could be. The angels didn’t look panicked, anyway.

“Ufu~ Worried about Tenebrael?” Kasita said, leaning against Alyssa’s shoulder as she peered into the mirror as well.

“No.” Alyssa gave her answer instantly and without so much as blinking.

“Aww, she would be hurt to hear you reject all concern so easily.”

“If she were a little more mortal, maybe I would be a little more worried.” As it was, there was probably nothing special going on. Just some deaths that she was collecting souls from or maybe Iosefael showed up to nag her about letting a mortal run around with her powers.

Whatever it was, given how late it had gotten, tonight’s meeting might end up canceled completely.

Alyssa shot out a quick text, but when things like this happened, Tenebrael had a pattern of not responding right away, so she wasn’t expecting much.

“So,” Kasita started. She paused long enough for Alyssa to look away from the iridescent scenery. From the tone of her voice, Alyssa first worried that she was going to start asking about Brakkt again. But her face looked far more serious than expected. Even after looking in Kasita’s direction, it still some time for the mimic to actually start talking. “All this work you’re doing… You aren’t going to just disappear one day, are you?”

“No? I wasn’t planning on it.”

“Will you have a choice?”

Blinking, Alyssa frowned. “What do you mean by that?”

Kasita didn’t answer right away. Moving away from the window, she lingered next to Alyssa for a few minutes. She didn’t speak, instead choosing to lean up against Alyssa’s shoulder. “I don’t know. I didn’t really think about it until tonight. Until I noticed how similar you and Tenebrael feel to my senses. But now… Well, I can’t see Tenebrael. What if I can’t see you someday either? I think I would be a little upset,” she said with a wan smile.

“Oh. You mean disappear like that.” Alyssa shook her head, trying not to disturb Kasita as much as possible in doing so. “I don’t think I will. I have a fleshy, mortal, matter-y body. Tenebrael doesn’t. Tenebrael is basically just divine magic and light organized into the form of a person. No matter how much divine magic I pump into my body, I’m pretty sure my body will still be around. Therefore, you will still be able to see me.”

“You saying you’re only pretty sure is less than reassuring.”

“Well… yes. Okay. You got me there. I don’t understand everything perfectly. Not yet anyway. But even still, I’m pretty sure I will just die if my body goes away. So… I mean, I guess that would count as disappearing? But I don’t want that to happen and I’m positive that Tenebrael doesn’t either.” If she did, she could have simply not healed Alyssa when her head split open the first time she used the orb.

“And you won’t be taken away, either by Tenebrael or some other angel?”

“That’s ninety percent of the reason why I’m doing this. So that I will be strong enough to not be subjected to the whims of angels. Or anything else, for that matter.”

“Hmm… You know, I think I’ll stick around with you for a while.”

“You’ve been sticking around with me since we very first met.”

“Yes, but also no. Or at least, recently we’ve all been busy doing our own things. You were working on Companion’s body, I was managing relationships between humans and monsters. But now, I think I might just hang around with you. At least during these meetings with Tenebrael. I’d like to at least know if something happens to you instead of you just disappearing one day for no explicable reason.”

“That’s fine I think,” Alyssa said after a few moments of thought. “I don’t have any objections. I doubt Tenebrael will either. But I have no idea when the next time might be. Tenebrael likes to just pop up. There usually isn’t much time between her appearance and our training sessions. If you aren’t with me when she does appear.”

“I just said that I’ll be sticking with you.” Kasita pressed up even closer to Alyssa’s side.

“Oh. That closely, huh?”

“Don’t worry, I won’t disturb you when you’re with Brakkt.”

Alyssa didn’t even react beyond saying, “You’re really never going to let that die down, are you?”

“Ufu~ Isn’t it a sibling’s duty to tease?”

“Maybe an annoying sibling. But, unless you wanted to do something, I guess I’ll just research some physics on the internet. Orbital mechanics are surprisingly interesting once you get into it. Don’t know when I’ll ever actually use that knowledge, but without a dedicated topic to research, I’d like to just look into what interests me.”

“Orbital mechanics?”

“On Earth, we’ve launched things so high up that they never fall back down. Or rather, they do fall, they just miss the ground constantly, falling around the entire planet. I believe I’ve mentioned satellites and the space station before? Maybe that was only to Irulon…” she said upon seeing a slightly confused expression on Kasita’s face. “Anyway, I got the idea to put something in orbit around Nod, something I might be able to visit with a carefully pressurized vessel, after Irulon showed me a view of Earth from space using the windo—” As she spoke, she tapped on the window currently showing off the Endless Expanse.

A jolt of white-hot fire burned at her fingertips as she did. Jerking her hand back, she stared at her fingers. But there was nothing there. No charred skin or even sunburned blemishes. Her hand trembled and she couldn’t get it to stop. But it wasn’t hurting any more. The pain died down the moment she pulled back. The fire in her fingers was almost exactly the same as when she used Tenebrael’s orb. The jolt of divine power entering her body burned her, though in a less-than-literal way. This was just her finger rather than her whole body, but it was too similar to have been a coincidence.

Looking up at the window, she had half a mind to try again. Nothing appeared to have changed, either in the Endless Expanse itself or in the angels flying about the place. But…

“Your hand went inside. Like mine did that one time.”

Alyssa tore her eyes away from the Endless Expanse to stare at Kasita’s concerned expression. She pulled her hand back to her chest, cradling it. “It went inside? You’re sure?”

That… was bad.

Really bad.

When Kasita had done the same back in the dome beneath the Justice, it had called Adrael straight to them. Adrael had said that she had only noticed because of how familiar she was with Nod, but…

Alyssa bit her lip as a feather floated down between her and the wall. A white feather.