Vacant Throne

“Hey… What’s different about me compared to other mortals?” Alyssa asked. She almost left it at that until she realized just who she was asking. “To narrow down your responses, I’m specifically looking for the reasons why I can see and talk to angels. Not like ‘oh, your hair color is this specific shade of brown and your eyes are that shade of brown.”

“Query accepted… Five zero three. Service unavailable. All Virtues of the Throne are currently occupied with other tasks. Please try again later.”

“What? Really?” Alyssa had long suspected that the Virtues had some sort of hive mind thing going on. Something that let them keep in contact with each other despite Bastiel being here and the rest being in the Endless Expanse. That right there was as much of an admission as Alyssa was likely to get without directly asking. But for all of them to be busy… “What are they doing?”

“Tree Diagram error incidence rate has risen drastically. Authorities are concerned. Virtues are required for logistic purposes.”

“The errors that I’m causing?”

“Yes. You are the reason I am still on this world. All other Virtues have been recalled to assist the Authorities.”

“Even Rhoziel?” Now that she thought about it, the angel tasked with observing Irulon had not been present in the last few hours. Ever since returning to the city from meeting with the Juno Federation, she hadn’t seen Rhoziel around. It hadn’t really registered until now because she didn’t pay that angel much attention. And Bastiel gave a confirming nod. “When were they called back? Give me the time relative to Nod in days and hours.” She had to request the time specifically in Nod hours or Basitel would tell her in terms of Ophanim turns and Alyssa had no idea what point zero zero three one turns equated to.

“Surge of errors occurred zero days, thirteen hours ago.”

“Thirteen…” Pulling out her phone, Alyssa did a quick check. It was a few hours before daybreak now. Thirteen would have been…

Roughly when they had been meeting with the Juno Federation. In fact… Alyssa had strong suspicions that she could pinpoint the exact moment the errors had occurred.

It would have been when Alyssa revealed herself to the Juno Federation. Possibly the moment she fired the Annihilator over their army.

She hadn’t hit the army, had she?

No. Of course not. If she had, she would have known. Not through any prescience or even her sense of souls, but because Tenebrael would have said something about her being a reaper again. She hadn’t received such a message, therefore, she hadn’t killed anyone. Kasita, currently spying on the army, hadn’t mentioned any deaths either.

Alyssa stood and strode out from her room. She had spent most of the night entirely unable to sleep and had occupied herself with asking various questions of Bastiel, alternating that between studying up a bit with her phone and investigating the dragon armor. Nothing important. She hadn’t talked with the intention of learning and most of what she had looked up went in one ear and out the other. It was all done purely with the desire for a mild distraction from the real world.

The last she had heard from Kasita, the Juno Federation’s main army had finished their march late into the night and had set up a small camp. Which, in Alyssa’s honest opinion, seemed like a massive waste of time that could be better spent tossing out a blanket and just sleeping on the ground in their gear. They would get a whole lot more sleep if they didn’t have a camp to set up.

The Annihilator crossing over their heads had definitely shaken them, according to Kasita. Bercilak and the others who had actually been present were attempting to claim that the beam had been a sign of their impending victory and of Lyria’s cowardice. But Kasita was going around, dressed up as one of the regular guards, sowing discontent and otherwise trying to debunk such claims. Not a single person had tried to desert so far, apparently, but they weren’t as steady as the scouts reported.

Now, Alyssa wanted a more up-to-date report. Both from the scouts and from Kasita. Unfortunately for the latter, as before, Kasita wouldn’t be able to reply to Alyssa’s Message in a timely manner. Though if she did casually respond to the Message without really trying to hide herself, it might work out better. Seeing what was supposed to be a trusted comrade reporting information to the enemy had to be a massive blow to morale. As long as she could get away in the end.

Alyssa quickly sent a second Message as she walked to the palace’s war room, putting her idea to words. Though she made sure to specify that such a tactic was only to be attempted if Kasita was absolutely positive that she could get away safely. And if it didn’t interfere with something else that Kasita already had planned.

But even with that, it would probably be at least a few minutes before she got a response.

The war room was busy. Busier than it had been the night before, even. People were running around, updating the map on the table with information based on the scouts’ reports. With the Juno Federation having made camp, Alyssa didn’t think that there could have been that much to report, yet it seemed as if the map was trying to keep track of individuals. Soldiers receiving messages were moving around small markers along the edges of what had to be the main camp. Patrol routes. Likely looking for the first sign that the army was mobilizing.

Despite the flurry of activity among the guards and around the map, the actual number of important people was much lower than it had been. One of the lesser advisers sat in a chair around the map, staring at it with a Message spell in hand. He was probably waiting to contact someone a little more important if something happened. Decorous was seated adjacent to him, looking far more calm as he sipped at a cup of tea with one hand resting on a spell tome. Oxart was nowhere to be seen. Neither were any members of the royal family with the exception of the First Prince.

He wasn’t the first to notice her entrance, but he was the first to acknowledge her. “Alyssa,” he said, voice polite but mildly strained. “Have you managed some rest.”

“Eh…”

“I see you’re dressed for combat, at least.”

Alyssa straightened slightly, squaring her shoulders. She had switched into the dragon hide armor shortly after leaving Brakkt’s room. It still felt a bit weird to wear now, but at least Companion wasn’t in the room at the moment. In addition to the armor, she had her pistols and spell cards, just in case she suddenly couldn’t use Tenebrael’s power, and Adrael’s ruby-tipped golden staff, mostly just to block hostile effects directed at her.

It was less that she was planning on charging into battle and more that she didn’t want to be caught unawares by a shadow assassin sneaking into her room.

“We were about to send a servant to wake you. Both Brakkt and Companion are requesting your presence down with the main force. They have gathered just north of the city fields and are preparing to march.”

“Right. Has anything changed with the Juno Federation’s army?” Alyssa asked, eying the table and the map once again.

“Their rest period has ended and they are preparing for a fight. The scouts are estimating that they will finish within the hour then start marching toward the city. Kasita has informed us of a small group that broke off from the main army, made up of about ten people. Likely arcanists,” he said, pointing off to the side, much closer to the city than Alyssa really thought was safe. “We have our own team moving to intercept.”

“They can handle the unknown group?”

“Kasita does not believe there are any monsters or fairies involved. If it is just a dozen arcanists, we should be able to handle them easily.”

“Oh. Good. Good.”

“Over the night,” he said, pointing back to the rear of the markers that represented the camp, “an additional group reinforced the existing army, adding at least a hundred more of those weapons you commented on.”

“I have something of a plan to deal with those. A hundred extra shouldn’t matter.”

“Oh?”

“Black powder doesn’t work well at all if it gets really wet.” Earlier, Kasita had confirmed that they were using some kind of dark powder to operate their cannons. Alyssa couldn’t say for absolute certainty that it was black powder, but it would fit if they were just developing gunpowder. The saltpeter was water soluble. If their powder was something that wasn’t water soluble, getting it wet probably wouldn’t help much, but it might still ruin their day even if they were using a more modern version of explosive material.

“Water spells, huh?” the First Prince said, humming to himself. He looked off to one of the Message takers and said, “inform our arcanists of that possible weakness. It would have been nice to know such details last night. Give our arcanists time to prepare such spells.”

“Yeah, well…” Alyssa hadn’t really known at the time. She had spent part of the night looking up medieval cannons and black powder.

“Barring any more strategic information you wish to share, I would suggest making your way down to the rest of the army. We’ve got work to do and wish to avoid distraction as much as possible in the coming hours.”

“Sorry. I’ll just get going then.” Alyssa couldn’t think of much that she could really add. Not at this stage, anyway. She was still hoping to avoid fighting entirely. Both because she wanted to keep her side safe and because she was still relatively sure that the people from the Juno Federation were basically being sent to die. Maybe not this year, but their little conflict had been going on for decades without any real successes.

Maybe all the soldiers here were political dissidents or something like that.

Rushing down to the draken stables after being shooed out of the war room, Alyssa quickly mounted up. Izsha had already been saddled and armored up with the armor Alyssa had made for the meeting earlier. Dasca, Ensou, Musca, and the others were gone. It was just Izsha left. It did make her wonder why she hadn’t been called earlier whenever Brakkt had gone. Maybe he thought she had managed to get to sleep and hadn’t wanted to disturb it, letting her rest for a few minutes longer.

Whatever the case… “You ready to go?”

“I am always ready.”

Alyssa started for a moment. For an instant, just the briefest instant, she thought Izsha responded to her. But, in the very next instant, she recognized that voice. Glancing to her side, she narrowed her eyes at Bastiel. She thought about telling the ever present angel that she wasn’t speaking to her. In the end, she decided that it was likely pointless. All angels were inhuman, but Bastiel felt so much less human than any other that Alyssa wasn’t even sure that it was worth wasting her breath.

Though it did remind her of telepathy once again. Telepathically communicating with Kasita might have been convenient. But for Izsha, it might be one of the only ways to truly have a conversation.

Unfortunately, as with every other time the thought had popped into her head, there just wasn’t time at the moment to continue exploring that topic. She hadn’t even continued her conversation with Bastiel about telepathy the night before, so she was effectively right where she started in that regards.

Even without mind reading, Alyssa read enough of Izsha’s body language to know that it was ready. And, as soon as a guard shoved open the door for them, Izsha took off at speed, racing through the streets of Lyria, faster even than it had done the first time Alyssa had ridden the draken.

Alyssa was far calmer this time, trusting Izsha.

Right around the city wall, Alyssa got an incoming Message.

~Sorry for the delay,~ Kasita’s voice echoed in her head. ~I’m currently putting your idea into action, so there might not be a chance for a follow up message for some time.~ Which meant that she was deliberately letting herself be overheard? Probably. ~The soldiers here are tired, hungry, and quite clearly going to lose today’s battle. Especially with us knowing about their secret weapon. The only real change to the situation since my last report to the war room is that they also have smaller guns as well. Like your shotgun except only one bullet at a time? I think that’s how they work.~

Muskets too? Unless Kasita only recently discovered them, that really should have been something she reported back immediately. Alyssa waited for a bit more, but it was quite clear that that was the end of the Message. Maybe all that would fit into a Message—Alyssa hadn’t ever really tested the limits.

“Message. Kasita. Understood. Take care. Stay safe.”

If Kasita wasn’t safe…

Alyssa leaned forward a little more. The wind whipped past her head a little faster as Izsha took her motions for a request to speed up. She hadn’t thought moving faster was possible, but clearly she had been proved wrong.

With that enhanced speed, Izsha tore out of the city and across the fields to the north. The army must have started moving. She saw signs of trampled plants all over the place beyond the fields. But even if an entire army was marching at full speed, it couldn’t even come close to the speed a draken could move at. Soon enough, they came into view.

Alyssa could hardly believe how many people there were. She had been around Lyria for a while. She had seen the force that marched against the monster army the Juno Federation brought to the walls. There had only been a few hundred at that point…

Where had they pulled a few thousand people from? Conscription? Or did they have reserves kept in the wings specifically for this kind of stuff?

Actually, now that she thought about it for a moment longer, that made sense. They expected a war on occasion, but didn’t need a standing army for the vast majority of the time. Not wanting to pay a guard in full for them to just stand around, the city probably paid a reduced amount under the expectation that they would rise to situations like these and had them do farm work or some other profession in the time they weren’t needed.

It was probably something she could have asked about, but it just hadn’t occurred to her.

Izsha didn’t hesitate upon finding the army. There were gaps between rows and columns of marching soldiers. Izsha used them to great effect, dashing between soldiers—probably giving them mild heart attacks in the process—and homed in on the other draken.

Brakkt headed the group. Or perhaps the Black Prince headed the group. He was in his full armor, helmet included. His enchanted sword glowed brightly at his side, looking somehow eager as if it was anticipating being used. Companion and Irulon were flanking him with Fela trailing not far behind. They were all mounted on Ensou, Pesca, Musca, and Dasca, respectively.

“Glad you could join us,” Irulon said as Alyssa and Izsha neared. “We weren’t sure if you were coming.”

“I expected someone to let me know when everything started…”

As one, Companion and Irulon looked toward Brakkt. “Hm.” “Hm.”

“It’s fine,” Brakkt said. “There was no need for you to sit around and watch while the army gathered and readied.”

Alyssa… didn’t disagree. She would still have rather at least known that people were heading out. But it wasn’t that big of a deal. She was here now. “How long will it take to reach the opposing force?”

“Depends on their speed. There are still a few hours before daybreak. I’ve been told that they have left their camp and are marching approximately directly toward us now. We’ll know more once we get a more accurate estimate on how quickly they can move.”

“Right… I have a few preparations to make,” Alyssa said. It was something she had been brainstorming up while talking with Bastiel—who was still hovering near her, having not been inconvenienced in the slightest by Izsha’s speed—and thought would help solve everything. Hopefully. “I’ve got to test a few things, so unless something vital crops up…”

“We can leave you alone.”

“Good. Thanks.”

Narrowing her eyes and concentrating her focus, Alyssa looked up to the clear skies with dawn on the horizon.