Vacant Throne

“I think,” Alyssa said, sketching out a design of her own, “it would be more efficient if you were to use these symbols.”

Irulon accepted the piece of paper once Alyssa was finished, held it up, and stared for a long few moments. “Would this actually work? These two right here don’t seem to make sense with what I know of spell crafting and this one over here, I don’t recognize at all.”

“Well, these two just make the request grammatically correct. I don’t have your formal knowledge of spell crafting, but it still seems like it would be better this way. As for that one… it means something like sincerity? Translating it perfectly is literally impossible. I don’t think I have the vocabulary to even try more than that. I don’t even think the vocabulary exists to translate it more than that. But it evokes the feeling of sincerity. I think.”

“And being sincere makes it work better?”

“I think so,” Alyssa said, glancing off to her side. Bastiel observed the discussion intently, not even blinking, though she did spend a great deal of time writing in her tome. True to her word, she had stayed by Alyssa’s side for a full two weeks at this point, ready to answer most every question that Alyssa could ask. It was actually a bit creepy. Trying to sleep with the dead-eyed angelic robot standing over her had caused a few hours of lost sleep.

Irulon was lucky that she couldn’t see Rhoziel on the other side of the room. The other Virtue was following Irulon around just as much as Bastiel was doing to Alyssa. Rhoziel looked extremely similar to Bastiel, both having white hair, white wings, and a similar fashion sense in that they both wore long coats and heavy boots. Their facial structure was different enough that Alyssa could tell them apart with just that alone. It was helped by Rhoziel’s color palate being more of a brown when compared with Bastiel’s black. But it was a close color comparison.

As creepy as it was to be followed around, the benefits of their presence far outweighed the negatives. Tenebrael was helpful, it was true. Especially lately. Her lessons helped a lot. But Bastiel was constantly present and perfectly willing to at least entertain every question that popped into Alyssa’s mind. Some got denied. Some that seemed like they were about to be denied got overridden and answered. Alyssa wasn’t quite sure what was up with those instances, but she wasn’t going to complain about getting access to more knowledge.

And that was the other thing about Bastiel. As a Virtue, the angel was an expert in information. Far more than Tenebrael even. It was a simple matter to distill vast quantities of knowledge into bite-sized chunks that Alyssa could easily digest. Learning Enochian was the chief example of that particular ability. Alyssa couldn’t even explain anything about the language in her native tongue—Bastiel had not used English when teaching, but rather Enochian, which did strange things to Alyssa’s brain yet still worked. Despite not being able to explain spell cards in English, all it took was just a glance at a spell card and she knew what they were trying to say.

And human-designed spell cards were horrible in terms of legibility. The only thing she could liken it to would be a child playing with letter blocks. They had seen Enochian somewhere, though where exactly was likely lost to time and Alyssa hadn’t thought to ask Tenebrael or the Virtues, but clearly didn’t understand it. So they just took the script that they knew, arranged it in ways that worked, and called it good.

“I suppose there is no harm in not testing it,” Irulon said, redrawing the mystic circle on a fresh spell card with far more precision. Alyssa’s had been mostly a mock-up with the Enochian being the only clear parts.

“I hope there isn’t any harm in it. I mean, I don’t think it should violently explode. What do you think?” Alyssa asked, turning to Bastiel.

The angel blinked. “Analysis of Nod-realm miracle enactment system is still underway. No valid conclusions can be drawn at this moment.”

That right there was one of the biggest reasons Alyssa thought the angels were hanging around here still. The Virtues were apparently fascinated with the concept of magic. Or perhaps spell cards, specifically. Even Alyssa’s power to create stuff from Tenebrael’s power didn’t compare—that was apparently relatively expected of mortals—when viewed next to the ability to craft a variety of spells that did whatever the mortal wanted without the assistance or intervention of the world’s Dominion.

But… “Surely you have some idea of what might happen if this spell card is actualized? I mean, a bunch of mortals have a pretty good idea.”

“As it is written, taking into context other examples you have presented to us, we believe that this miracle will produce the intended effect of accurately targeting a remote location for viewing via angelic hijack; the Endless Expanse’s network of habitation worlds. Designating Backdoor:MROH.Observation!act. Threat level: Low. Request for Archangel investigation previously logged. Status of investigation: Ongoing. Investigating Archangel: Adrael. Location of investigating Archangel: Unknown. Attempts—”

“Alright, alright. Stop that.”

The moment Alyssa spoke, Bastiel snapped her mouth shut. The Virtue did things like that on occasion. At first, Alyssa had been concerned about all the requests for Archangels. Especially once she started labeling the missing Adrael as the principal investigator. Now, however, she was far less worried. And that was because Adrael was assigned to this world. As such, Adrael was supposed to have problems like that reported to her. However, none of the angels seemed to be able to find Adrael. Even after the Virtue said that they had other angels out looking for her. Tenebrael had confirmed—via text message as she was still avoiding the Virtues—that Adrael was safe and sound in that prison dimension that Tenebrael had created. Unless the Virtues decided to find a different Archangel, Alyssa wouldn’t worry too much.

And she didn’t think that they would or could assign a new Archangel to Adrael’s station. That was a task for the First Sphere of angels and none of them were really… active.

Shaking her head, Alyssa looked back to Irulon. “The angel thinks it should do just what we wanted it to do.”

“Then let us test.” Irulon pulled out a much more advanced version of the animated spell casting device. Slotting both this card and a simple light spell into it, she angled it to aim at a blank spot on the wall. There was no hesitation in activating the light spell. But, after placing her hand on the wall, she stopped. “Ah. We altered the design. The activation phrase needs to be reconfigured.”

“Here. Let me. You can figure that out later if the spell actually works.”

Nodding, Irulon took a step to the side as Alyssa moved forward.

Placing her own hand on the wall, Alyssa activated the spell. In an instant, the mirrored panels started unfolding.

“Warning: Threat—” “Warning: Backdoor—”

“You can write down everything you want, but can you not verbalize it?” It was especially annoying with both of the Virtues talking at once. They had a habit of… commenting on absolutely everything involving magic. Usually with a bunch of errors or warnings. Thankfully, they would stop if Alyssa asked them to do so. At least until the next time a spell was cast.

Though some errors were far more irritating than others. Bastiel had completely flipped her lid upon noticing one of the jars of light potion. She had gone on and on about corrupted miracles and other such nonsense. That being the first time Bastiel had spouted off her errors, Alyssa hadn’t been so quick to silence her.

As the mirror unfolded into a view of the Earth, Bastiel continued to write in her tome. Alyssa watched her, being just slightly less interested in the view of her home than she was of what the angel was writing down. Her Enochian skills were not exactly fluent. Still, she got the gist of it. The spell was basically punching a hole into the Endless Expanse then another hole from the Expanse to Earth. The Virtues really didn’t like it when that happened. They were surprisingly fine with viewports that went from one point on Nod to another. Presumably, they would also be fine with a viewport that went directly to Earth without the intermission in the Endless Expanse.

“Warning: Tree Diagram errors detected.” Bastiel started again, alone this time. Alyssa did not interrupt her this time. The Tree Diagram error had come up a few times now, seemingly at random. She was trying to figure out exactly what it meant. “Six zero one. Flowchart recalibration automatically engaged. Backpropagation gradient remodeled. Decision tree revectored. Event tree revectored. Game tree revectored. Infinite-State Machine restarted. Nominal process proceeding. No intervention action required.”

Alyssa frowned, watching to see if there was any more. It didn’t seem like it, and any time Basitel brought up the Tree Diagram error, it always was resolved in the same way. Alyssa couldn’t actually decide what was causing Bastiel to talk about that error. Sometimes, she did so when Alyssa cast a spell. So Alyssa thought it had been that. But then it happened once while Alyssa had been simply walking down the street. Another time, she had been woken up by Bastiel talking about the error. Since she definitely hadn’t been doing anything while sleeping, Alyssa had to wonder if it wasn’t actually anything that she was doing, but rather something else entirely.

“What did that mean?” Alyssa asked, just as she had every other time. It had become something of a ritual.

But Bastiel didn’t even look in her direction. “Information regarding the Infinite-State Machine denied outside the Angelic Choir by order of the Throne. This setting cannot be overruled without direct Throne access. Is there anything else with which you require assistance?”

Alyssa didn’t bother answering. She honestly didn’t think that Bastiel really expected a response. It was something she said after most every extended comment. More importantly, Alyssa got the same canned line of dialog that she got every time she asked about the Tree Diagram error. Access denied. Except it could be overruled with direct Throne access. Alyssa really wanted to know if direct access meant sitting on the Throne or simply being connected to it the way other angels were. If the latter option was true, she might be able to do something about that once Tenebrael thought she was ready to connect to the Throne.

Although the angel was avoiding her, their setup at the lake south of Teneville was still there. Alyssa could slip through the area of inaccurate inertia and spark the orb just like Tenebrael wanted her to do. It still threw her back and had yet to cause another incident of awareness, but hopefully it was just helping to acclimatize her body properly.

“Hm… It is, indeed, working.” Irulon didn’t bother asking about Alyssa and the angel. She had heard that phrase a few times already and had already put forth the idea that the Tree Diagram error referred to Tenebrael’s black book, which was what had Alyssa so interested in the error. But Irulon was busy playing around with the mirror. With the additional clarity brought about by proper grammar, not to mention the extra space that came from removing unnecessary script, Irulon had been able to create a modified version of the spell. One that could move around somewhat. Touching the top of the mirror would tilt the viewpoint downward, while the bottom would do the opposite. The sides would angle it to the sides. Touching the center would maneuver the viewpoint forward, though the speed wasn’t that great.

Still, just being able to move around to see words on signs or move from street level to the top of a skyscraper made it worth the wait.

“So smoothly too,” Alyssa said, watching as Irulon inspected some book shop. She didn’t want to touch the mirror herself given what happened last time, but with Irulon around, that wasn’t necessary at the moment. “I don’t know that sincerity helped, but the other changes we made definitely have this working better than before.”

“I would like to find a low ranked arcanist and hand them highly ranked spells that have been grammatically modified. Test whether or not casting ability changes if the words are properly arrayed. You and I can’t really test that, not unless Companion finishes her Rank Seven spell project.”

“Not a bad idea.”

“We… Is it truly impossible to learn the script for myself?”

Alyssa glanced over to Bastiel, frowning. “I can ask again…”

“I’ll get the same answer, I imagine.”

Much like Tenebrael, Iosefael, and other angels Alyssa had encountered, the Virtues did not want to directly interact with anybody if they could help it. Alyssa was the sole exception, presumably because of the whole book thing and being able to see them in the first place. “Maybe one day I’ll understand enough to teach you myself.”

“That would be nice. Until then, I’ll have to make do with analyzing the characters in the order that you put them in and try to replicate that on my own for other spell cards.”

“Feel free to bring me any that you want proofread.”

“Since you’re offering…” Irulon reached to her side and unlatched the chain that held her spell tome to her hip. She set the book on the desk. Alyssa expected her to open it and pull out a few cards for review.

Irulon slid the entire thing over toward Alyssa.

Alyssa gave the princess a flat stare. “Why don’t you select five to start with. I’ll look over them before I go to bed and bring you revisions in the morning.”

“Hm.” With only that, she flipped open the tome. The page she opened to was Fractal magic. Two Fractal Mirrors. The next page was similar. More Fractal spells. Irulon started to reach for an invisibility spell, but hesitated as a thoughtful look crossed her face. Flipping through several pages, she stopped on a few simple spells.

“Light,” Irulon said, pulling one card from the tome. “Flame. Chill. Message. And…” After looking over the simple spells for another moment, she flipped back to the Fractal section and pulled out a Fractal Mirror. “There. Start with these.”

“Rank Zero spells?”

“I want to see how drastic of an improvement can be made, if any. I posit a theory that low Rank spells are more refined. They have simpler effects that most people are capable of casting if they have any capacity for magic. The Fractal Mirror is included to compare the amount and breadth of changes that must be made.”

“I see…” It was as good a theory as any. Light, at just a glance, was almost perfect, so the theory might have some merit to it. There was something strange about the Chill spell though. She wasn’t quite sure what it was, so she would have to ask Bastiel for help later. In the mean time… “I’ll get on these later tonight,” she said, sliding all five into her satchel. “But before then—”

A slight pressure intruded on Alyssa’s mind. The sign of an incoming Message spell.

~Alyssa,~ Kasita’s voice echoed in the back of her head. The mimic, despite wanting to stick around Alyssa more often, had gone with Companion to a meeting about monsters and humans. ~Scouts just informed the Pharaoh of an incoming group bearing the sigil of the Juno Federation. Too small to be an army, but who knows what they have planned. Thought you ought to know.~

“Great,” Alyssa said, pressing her lips together. She glanced to Irulon, about to inform her of the Message. But without even saying a word, it was clear that Irulon knew. Her back straightened and she was just a little more tense than she had been a moment ago.

“Companion told me,” Irulon confirmed. “I assume you are aware?”

“Juno Federation. Not an army?”

“Mhm… Tess!” Irulon called out. Barely a second passed before the heavily tattooed young servant appeared in the shadows of the doorway. “Secure the floor. You recall the traps I installed? Please ensure that all of them are active. Especially the ones targeting shadow assassins.”

Tess nodded, swallowed, and disappeared once more without a word.

“You think they’re going to try the same attack again?”

“No. Both other times, they approached without being detected. This may be something else entirely. But I would prefer to not wind up in such a precarious situation this time should they attempt something.”

Alyssa’s first thought was to Message Brakkt. So she did. A Message card that was not the one Irulon had handed over appeared in her hand. Just as quickly as it appeared, it disappeared as she spoke. “Message. Brakkt. You’ve probably already been told this by your father or someone, but there are Juno Federation personnel approaching Lyria. Don’t have any more information at this point.”

“We destroyed the artifact that they were using to control monsters,” Irulon said, ignoring the Message Alyssa just sent off. “Adrael is still locked up, correct?”

“Yeah.”

“Then she hopefully has not given them a replacement.”

“There might be some other angelic artifact that she gave away. And who knows what kind of magic they might have in their pockets. What if they have one of those ritual magics like what you used to turn the Astral Authority to ash?”

“Unlikely. The Juno Federation is known to have few arcanists as a result of them eschewing magic in general. The Society of the Burning Shadow that we decimated earlier was likely their specialist team. Having them gone… Perhaps they have come to surrender unconditionally.”

“Maybe…” Narrowing her eyes, Alyssa glanced off to the side. “Bastiel,” she said, looking directly at the darkly cloaked angel.

“With what do you request assistance?”

“There are some people approaching this city, presumably from the northern desert. Can you tell me why they are coming here?”

“Four zero three. Forbidden. Information derived from the Infinite-State Machine cannot be divulged to those outside the Angelic Choir by order of the Throne. This setting cannot be overruled without direct Throne access. Is there anything else with which you require assistance?”

“No. Thank you. Just that was very informative,” Alyssa said as she pulled out her phone. Tenebrael probably wasn’t going to appear unless the Virtues disappeared, but she was still responding to text messages. So Alyssa sent a simple text asking the same question. She wasn’t expecting a response right away and she absolutely was not going to rely on angels when there was a possible threat approaching.

Message sent, Alyssa looked up to Irulon. “I’m going to meet up with Kasita and see if we can’t find out a little more about what is going on. Those traps you mentioned aren’t going to get me, are they?”

Cruel smile crossing her lips, Irulon shrugged. “It would be best if you avoided them. I’ll come with you. And show you what to look out for on the way, I suppose.”

“Good.”