Vacant Throne

“Truly brilliant. A mortal came up with this?”

“You don’t have to call Irulon ‘a mortal’. You know her name. I know you do.”

“Yes, but for me, her status as a mortal makes this far more impressive than simply saying her name. Thus, not calling her by name is a term of honor and endearment.”

“Uh huh. I think she would find far more honor in knowing that you remember her name at all. And calling her a mortal is… disingenuous, I think. Like, because she is a mortal, Irulon shouldn’t be expected to come up with anything intelligent.”

“Exactly!” Tenebrael flashed a smile toward Alyssa before looking back to the toppled over cannon cart.

While the cannon itself was off to the side, half buried in the dirt. The cart’s underbelly had been turned into a theater of sorts. Concerned over what might be happening with other Virtues given Bastiel’s situation—which had yet to change since Alyssa yelled at her—Alyssa thought to check in on the Endless Expanse. Tenebrael took a quick trip to the palace to examine the window spell that Irulon had crafted and returned to cast it herself.

A slightly better version.

Tenebrael could control it at will, not just moving the metaphorical camera around, but adding in audio support as well. There were features that Alyssa had yet to see as well. Dark areas—which didn’t actually seem to exist in the Endless Expanse—could be lit up as if everything were in constant daylight. Field of view could change. Magnification capabilities. World switching without needing to cast a whole new spell…

It was actually quite a lot better than Irulon’s version.

“You know, I haven’t visited the Expanse in quite some time. Years. So many years that I doubt a mortal mind could properly comprehend it.”

“See, now that sounds like you’re using mortal as an insult.”

“I obviously avoided it for the same reason that I’ve been avoiding the Virtues here.” Tenebrael said without so much as a minor acknowledgment of Alyssa’s comment. “I didn’t exactly want others looking into my operations here. Whether those others be Virtues and Authorities, the Astral Authority, or Seraphim. Or even Archangels. I really just like to be left alone most of the time. Maybe not alone. Maybe left to my own devices? I rather enjoy our interactions, for instance.”

Alyssa almost made a snarky comment about that, but had to stop herself. She didn’t exactly disagree. At least not anymore. When they first started interacting, yes, things had been annoying constantly back then. But now, not so much.

Instead, she just heaved the last of the black powder barrels onto the stack and lit a fire underneath. Unfortunately for her, she had run out of Fireball spells. They weren’t something that she ever used, so she hadn’t expected to need so many of them. Especially after wasting a bunch with that first group of cannons.

“Anything look odd?” she asked after making sure that the little Flame spell properly started some sparks in the time-stopped gunpowder.

“The Endless Expanse looks exactly as it did in my memories. Exactly. Apart from myself to a very limited degree, angels are… unable to innovate as a mortal can. Aside from pure inability, there isn’t much reason to either. Angels need neither food, oxygen, or shelter. Once every century or so, an angel might want to have a chat with a friend… but I’m not sure that any angels can actually have friends either. I have Iosefael. Because I have her, she must have gotten at least a little corrupted as I’m sure she sees me as a friend as well.

“Getting sidetracked,” Tenebrael said with a shake of her head. “But because an angel needs nothing apart from the Throne, there isn’t much need to do anything else.”

“Sad.”

“Ahh…” Tenebrael turned away from the window into the Endless Expanse with a smile. “Now you’re pitying me for what I am.”

Alyssa shrugged, leaning back against Izsha as she tossed a glance to her side. They had found Kasita, and she had taken to watching the Endless Expanse with Tenebrael, though she couldn’t see the angel. It had taken a bit of work and advice from Tenebrael, but Alyssa had managed to pull the mimic into the Accelero spell. She, naturally, hadn’t helped much with the moving of heavy canisters of gunpowder. And neither had Izsha, this time. For this last set of cannons, Alyssa had decided to give the draken a break. Running around, trying to move a ton of kegs… it had to be hard work. It was hard work. So Alyssa had done most of this one herself. With Tenebrael keeping an eye on Bastiel, there wasn’t much need to rush.

“But,” Tenebrael said, tone far more serious. “Something certainly propagated out from this Virtue to the rest.”

The exterior view, watching the channels of angels as they swarmed about, shifted and drew closer to the central tower. The Throne’s dwelling place. Or maybe it was the Throne itself? Its interior was the one place within all of the Endless Expanse where she couldn’t actually see the crystal spire. Even from the inside of other enclosed rooms, it was somehow still present.

But not here.

Here, there were hundreds if not thousands of angels swarming about. The walls were lined with tomes, scrolls, tablets, and books of varying sizes and types. All of which was haphazardly tossed on shelves with seemingly little rhyme or reason.

Tenebrael adjusted the viewpoint, bringing it closer to one of those shelves. Lines of Virtues stood about. Some with books in their hands. Others stared at the walls of the library. About an eighth of them were dressed in the same long coat and heavy boots as Bastiel. Others all seemed to wear similar clothes to each other too. One set wore a simple sun dress. Another looked like they were wearing a suit crossed with bath robes. And so on and so on. The angels wearing the different outfits seemed to have decided which to wear based on their hair color. Those with snowy white hair all wore the dark long coat and boots. Red hair wore the sun dress. Their faces were all different…

“Is that like some kind of uniform? Virtues specializing in different tasks wear different clothes or something?”

“No. They simply lack originality,” Tenebrael said. “But look close. A full half of them are not moving. At all. They normally take books off the shelves, check them over, maybe write something down, then put the books back and move on to the next. They never take breaks. They never just stand.”

“So the ones that are standing still are the ones on the same… uh… network? as Bastiel?”

“A close enough metaphor. I am surprised others haven’t noticed already. But they will. Sooner or later, other angels will notice. Other Virtues might try to connect with the still ones to diagnose the problem. Maybe they’ll get stuck too. Maybe not. Authorities are sure to get involved. Other angels will notice eventually too. Things are… probably about to get very noisy. Thanks for that,” Tenebrael said with a half-hearted glare.

“Time frame?”

“Hard to say. Normally, angels don’t pay much attention to Virtues.”

“But this is unprecedented so you have no real idea.”

Tenebrael dipped her head in a nod. Which, really, just made Alyssa scowl. She had expected it, of course. Bastiel might have been able to come up with a more accurate guess had the issue not involved her… Now that the Juno Federation was thoroughly sabotaged, she considered going back and trying to talk to the Virtue once again. If she broke her out of her stupor, maybe nothing big would happen and Bastiel would either go back to passive observation or possibly back to the Endless Expanse. Alyssa might be able to convince her to do nothing at all if her status as an angel kept confusing angels.

Notably, Tenebrael had not commented on that little issue much at all. Alyssa presumed that she was deliberately ignoring it to spare herself from Bastiel’s current situation and, because of that, had not pressed her questions about just what it meant to be considered an unknown angel. When it had initially happened back when Alyssa had been asking a number of questions of Bastiel, it had been strange but nothing particularly stranger than being able to see angels in the first place. Now, she was starting to wonder if it wasn’t an advantage that she could leverage against all angels.

After all, she didn’t need the powers of Tenebrael, or anything else for that matter, if she could just lift a hand and order any angels bothering her to stop under the authority of a higher tier unknown angel.

Alyssa wasn’t going to assume it would be that easy. Some other angel would probably reboot the frozen Virtues and they would figure out a workaround to being confronted with something they couldn’t understand. But for the moment, it bought her time.

“I think it is time,” Alyssa said.

“Are you—”

“Don’t ask if I’m prepared. We’ve done that bit before.”

“Still…” It wasn’t often that Tenebrael looked concerned. Alyssa could probably count the number of times on one hand. But today and now, she was just going to have to deal with it.

“It might never happen if it doesn’t happen now. I almost think I shouldn’t have delayed at all, even to sabotage this whole army. But, in the event that I do explode, I wanted—” Izsha shifted uneasily upon hearing that, interrupting Alyssa. Patting the draken, Alyssa gave some assurance. “I’m sure I’ll be back. Tenebrael and I have been preparing for this. It’s just a little earlier than either of us expected it to be. I just wanted to ensure that all my friends got through this battle at least, in the slim chance that something does happen to me. They will make it through, right?” Alyssa said, looking to Tenebrael.

The angel shrugged. A completely carefree shrug. “Isn’t it wonderful?” she said, pulling the little black book out and holding it open for Alyssa. “I have no idea what is going to happen!”

Alyssa’s first look at one of those black books since learning a little Enochian was… disappointing. The entire page was absolutely covered in script, but she could only make out maybe a tenth of it. Compared to a human-created spell card, the complexity was like going from a children’s picture book to a dissertation on the synthesis and reactivity of transitional metal complexes supported by borato ligands and the functionalization of silica surfaces. While some of the same words could be found in each, the vast majority of the latter just blurred together into incomprehensible nonsense.

There were a few things she could pick out. Many mentions of the concept of souls, for instance. Presumably those were notifications of deaths along with locations, names, or whatever else was considered required knowledge for a Principality’s duties. If given time, she might have been able to make a little more sense of it all. However, for the moment, her eyes were drawn to what were clearly the more recent sections.

The once incomprehensible script took up an utterly alien form. Even without understanding half of the Enochian from before, there was a rhyme and reason to it all. Almost literally in the former’s case. But now, that rhyme was completely absent. Everything she knew about Enochian no longer applied. It looked more like someone had dumped every variation of every character into a hat and decided to pull them out one at a time at random and use that to assemble the concepts the script was meant to convey. Which did not work at all. Not even in the slightest.

Nonsense. Absolute nonsense.

“Is it just your book? What about Iosefael’s book?”

“I’ve not had the opportunity to ask her just yet. Given that none of the Principalities in the Endless Expanse are buzzing about confused and seeking answers from the Virtues, I assume that it is only mine. Or perhaps without you there on their worlds, there has been no need to update their books. Once that happens, they may break. In which case, pandemonium will ensue without a doubt.”

“All the more reason to get this done sooner rather than later.”

Hopefully it would help. If an angel could just touch her and cancel her connection to the actual Throne…

Best to not think that such a thing was possible. If this didn’t work, then she didn’t have even the slightest idea of how to proceed. She supposed she would go back to her idea of trying to hide her soul somehow, though that sounded like a generally terrible idea. Not only had her best idea of becoming a lich sounded absolutely horrid, but if she did die and no angel could find her soul, she would wind up rotting inside her own corpse. Potentially for eternity. Even without everything that she knew about souls and the vessel housing them, that did not sound like a pleasant experience.

“Alright Izsha,” Alyssa said. Then she paused and looked to Tenebrael. “Can you make me a pen really quick?”

Holding out a hand, Tenebrael created a modern ball-point. Alyssa took it and, after pulling out a spare notebook from her satchel, quickly started writing out a few quick letters. Nothing fancy. Just a few notices for Brakkt, Irulon, and Fela. Quick little words to tell them what she was doing and that she would hopefully be back before the battle had even progressed far enough for them to read the entirety of the letters.

Kasita hummed as she read the letters over her shoulder. She, notably even with her behind Alyssa’s back, paid extra attention to the missive to Brakkt.

“I don’t think we’re in love or anything,” Alyssa said after a long few minutes of otherwise silent writing. “We care about each other and like each other, but… it’s just a casual companionship. One I am definitely enjoying. Basically since coming here, I haven’t felt like I could just relax at all. Even during downtime between all the angelic nonsense or monsters or whatever else, I always felt high strung, you know? But when I’m with him, I feel like I can just slow down and take a few minutes to myself.”

“Do you want it to be more?”

“No… Maybe. But not right now.” Alyssa threw a glance around the frozen battlefield. “Especially not right now.”

“Obviously,” Kasita said, tone flat.

“The future in general is just too uncertain to think about anything more long-term.”

“Ufu~ Maybe tomorrow.”

Alyssa raised an eyebrow before throwing a look to Tenebrael and the little black book in her hand. “Maybe. But I think someone else prefers the uncertainty. At least for the time being.”

Folding the letters up and addressing each to the intended recipient, Alyssa held them out for Kasita.

Only for Kasita to take a step backward. “No way,” she said. “I said I would be sticking with you. Circumstances might have forced me away to spy on this army here, but now that we’re back together again, it is going to stay that way.”

“Then…” Alyssa turned to Izsha, lips pressed together. “Alright. I’m tucking these right into the saddle side pocket. I’m trusting you to make sure these get to everyone.”

Izsha, predictably, started to make a noise. Not a whine, per se, but an elongated note of disagreement.

“Nope,” Alyssa said. “It has to be you. Kasita’s right to come with me. She can let people know what happens if I am… unable. That way they aren’t all sitting around wondering if I’m going to show up. I’ll be waiting until you’re back near Brakkt before trying anything, just to ensure that you’re as safe as possible given the circumstances. Ideally, time will stay stopped until I’m done and then I can come back and destroy those letters before anyone reads them, but I’ve learned not to leave things like this to chance.”

After slipping the letters inside the saddle, Alyssa ran her hands along Izsha’s scales on the underside of its neck. They were smooth, though not really soft. “I’m sorry. But you are the only one around to do it. Thanks for charging into danger after me. If it weren’t for you, I don’t know what I would have done. And not just today. So many times since coming to this world have been… hectic, but you were always there for me.”

“You’re making this sound like a goodbye,” Kasita said, note of concern creeping into her voice.

“Yeah. But it isn’t. I just want to make sure Izsha knows how much I appreciate it, being there for me and everything. Now seemed like a perfect time to do so.” Alyssa gave a good hard rub rub against the scales before taking a step back. “We’ll go out hunting tomorrow. How does that sound?”

The slit pupil of Izsha’s eye narrowed for a moment before it made a gruff noise of pure irritation. With a light snap of those sharp teeth toward Alyssa, Izsha turned and started dashing off back to the Lyrian side of the battlefield. Alyssa watched it go, sighing to herself.

“I made Izsha mad.”

“Ufu~ You’ve made me a little upset as well. Maybe if you didn’t sound like you were going to disappear on us…”

“I’m not.” Turning, Alyssa faced Tenebrael. Kasita vanished from her side, turning into something that added just the slightest bit of weight to her satchel. Mimic safely stowed away, Alyssa said, “Take me somewhere a little safer than here, please?”

“You’re set on this, then?”

“I am. I’m sick of angels and of the Astral Authority and of demons and… probably other things too. No offense.”

“They irritate me as well. Come then. Let us commence.”

Tenebrael stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Alyssa. Rather than taking off into the air as Alyssa expected, the angel enclosed her within her wings. Alyssa felt a shift. The dirt underneath her boots changed. A moment later, she found herself out on the edge of the lake near her house. The temperature, far colder than around Lyria, actually made her shudder.

“Try to remain calm,” Tenebrael said, not letting go of Alyssa. Her arms remained firmly on Alyssa’s shoulders, clutching her like even she was afraid that this would make her disappear. Her wings were still wrapped tight around Alyssa. Taking a deep breath, her eyes ignited with a sudden flash of brightness. “Witness the Throne.”

Alyssa blinked twice at the cheesy line. “Was that supposed to… do… something?”

She didn’t make it any further before the strength left her legs. Slumping against Tenebrael’s warm chest, everything went dark.