Vacant Throne

For a moment, for a bare instant, Alyssa just about tried to move closer to the Throne again, just as she had moved from some random balcony into the Throne’s room. If she could just grab it before the Seraphim noticed her standing around, everything could be fixed. She could tell the Seraphim to stop chasing her and Tenebrael and she might even be able to fix this stupid Endless Expanse so it didn’t kill her every time she moved more than a step in any direction.

Three things stopped her. The first of which involved the Throne itself. Although it was called the Throne and certainly looked like an over-glorified chair, there was no guarantee that simply sitting on it was all that was required to take control of reality itself. It was, beneath its chair-like facade, a machine of incomprehensible complexity and size. It might be something as simple as a password system or as complex as pulling the machine apart piece by piece until she found the controls.

The second problem was what might happen after she sat on it. If she did take control, then what? Would she be able to instantly figure out exactly what she needed to do in order to stop the Seraphim? Or would she have to sit there and learn about everything like she had when connected to Tenebrael’s power? That had taken weeks if not months of serious investigation, research, practice, and application. If the Seraphim objected to her posterior application of the Throne, they would probably obliterate her so thoroughly that she wouldn’t be able to put herself back together as she had been doing ever since connecting with the Throne.

Seraphim also made up the third problem. Just getting to the Throne would be a challenge. While she might be able to park her buttocks directly onto the Throne’s divine holdings through translating her soul and body across the room, there was the fact that it was surrounded by Seraphim on all sides, as far as she could tell. There had been a hole in its defenses while adrift, so it stood to reason that there was a missing Seraphim here as well—in fact, if the one was still on Nod, there certainly was a missing Seraphim—but she didn’t know how to find that hole or how to exploit it.

Neither Kasita nor Tenebrael were with her. When she had translated herself to the throne room, she had not brought along either of them. Tenebrael could probably find her eventually and Kasita wouldn’t be far behind her, but there was no telling how long that might take. Until then, she was surrounded by angels. The Seraphim hadn’t reacted to her. Neither had most of what Alyssa assumed were Guardians, Principalities, and Archangels. The former were standing perfectly still, sightless eyes staring into nothingness. The latter were fluttering about, busy with their own tasks and not noticing their surroundings.

The four-winged angels in the room were another story. From what she knew of angels, she presumed that all of them were Virtues. Dominions would be off managing their worlds and Authorities were reclusive to an absurd extent. There weren’t any that looked like Bastiel around at the moment… which was both strange and expected. When she had… broken Bastiel, whatever hive-mind the Virtues shared had appeared to have broken the rest of the Bastiel-like Virtues.

A vast majority of the Virtues around now had had their noses in books when Alyssa first appeared in the room. That was no longer true for most of them. One by one, they looked up. Seemingly independent of each other, yet coordinated in some mysterious fashion that Alyssa couldn’t quite discern. The way they each slowly turned their heads to face her was disturbing on a primal level. It wouldn’t be out of place for them to raise their fingers and scream that Invasion of the Body Snatchers scream.

They weren’t doing anything. Yet. They were probably conferring with the Authorities on what to do. A mortal in the Endless Expanse had to be shocking. If they even viewed her as a mortal, that was. It could be that they were locking up like Bastiel had because of the unknown angel status thing. Either way, Alyssa doubted that she had long before something happened. Being in a room with dozens of Seraphim was probably not a good idea when that shoe dropped.

But she didn’t know how to leave either. Moving around with her feet was dangerous because of the warped space. Translating herself would probably work, but there was no telling where she might end up. All she knew was that she didn’t know where she had left Tenebrael and Kasita. Without the guiding power of the Throne to keep her going in the right direction, it was infinitely improbable that she would wind up with them once again.

Though, thinking about it, being here made her wonder if the Endless Expanse had one of those little black books dedicated to it. Messing with that was what had made Bastiel upset in the first place. But here… there were no mortals that would die and need collection. Presumably, there were no real random choices that would need to be determined either. If all the angels acted according to their own programming, there wouldn’t need to be some tree diagram listing off all the possible choices that they could make… right?

So maybe she didn’t need to worry about the Virtues at the moment. If she wasn’t causing problems, they would hopefully not do anything to her. But…

A pair of divine white wings sprouted from Alyssa’s back as she decided to go with the next best option. It probably wouldn’t work for long, but multiple angels had mistaken her for an angel in the past. There was no reason to assume that they wouldn’t mistake her for one now. She just needed to blend in, to hide in plain sight until Tenebrael inevitably found her. Once that happened, they could figure out the next step of their plan.

She did notice that, as soon as she made wings appear, a good fourth of the Virtues stopped paying intent attention to her. All the brunettes wearing sun-dresses turned back to their books. Whether they were actually ignoring her or were trying to look for solutions to her presence was impossible to determine, but it did make Alyssa feel a little better knowing that she had less eyes on her.

Still, standing around was awkward, to say the least. Many of the angels were in motion. Moving around, carrying souls—probably—to the Throne and then leaving again. Or whatever their tasks were. There were some standing still, but those few seemed to be in conversations with others. There were only a small handful that were doing what Alyssa was doing.

If she could just… call one over for a chat about the weather… that would probably help her disguise. Unless it revealed her and the angels went off to inform the proper angelic Authorities…

What she needed was… Iosefael! There! Alyssa spotted the angel among all the others, flying about the room. Maybe it was familiarity with that impractical golden armor, but Alyssa definitely saw her. It was quite the coincidence that she was here now. Unless, of course, she wasn’t here as part of her duties, but for some other reason. As Alyssa watched, she grew more certain that the Principality was not here to ferry collected souls to the Throne. Iosefael was searching, looking around with her head on a swivel. She had a nervous expression on her face for the most part, but would occasionally offer a shaky smile and wave to passing angels who called out to her.

Tenebrael must have sent her to help search. It was the only explanation that Alyssa could think of. It explained why she was here at this convenient timing, why she looked nervous, and why she was searching. Alyssa just had to reach a hand into the air and flag her down.

Though the moment she did, she felt her hand pass into one of the rifts in reality, torn to pieces as reality tried to send her arm into a million different places at once. Surprisingly enough, it wasn’t painful. She had discovered that the first several times something like this happened. She suspected that it happened just too fast for her nerves and brain to process as pain. The moment she drew her hand back, her constant refreshing of her body put it all back together. She had a hand once again, looking good as new.

Maybe a little too good.

Alyssa tried not to think about the fact that she had likely lost her original body since coming here. It wasn’t even the Theseus ship problem for her. She had completely gained a new body, built around her soul wherever it ended up through those reality rifts, over and over again. All she knew was that it was a good thing she had studied the human body in so much depth while researching for Companion. If she couldn’t create a body practically unconsciously, Tenebrael would probably have eaten her the moment she stepped inside this world. Which was disturbing all on its own.

Trying to distract herself, Alyssa looked up to find that Iosefael had definitely taken note of that little stunt. She was staring with undisguised horror pasted over her face. She might even be shuddering a little. Or trembling. Probably the latter, as she kept glancing around her—especially toward the line of Seraphim who were thankfully still idle.

And she wasn’t the only angel to have noticed. Aside from the Virtues, several of whom had already been staring, Alyssa now had a good dozen pairs of eyes on her. She supposed that she should be lucky that it wasn’t more. Or that the Seraphim apparently didn’t care. Deciding that standing around awkwardly would only attract more attention, Alyssa waved Iosefael over. This time, she took care not to move her hand too far from her body.

The Principality looked like she wanted to be anywhere but where she was. She clearly hesitated. Maybe even thought about pretending that she hadn’t seen anything. Eventually, after Alyssa pointed directly at her and caused a few of the other angels to look to Iosefael, she decided to rip the band-aid off and flew down to Alyssa.

“What are you… No. How are you here?”

“With great pain, I assure you,” Alyssa said, looking down at her hand. Did she even have the same fingerprints after recreating her body so many times? “I assume you’re here because of Tenebrael?”

“What is that stupid angel doing?” Iosefael mumbled. “She was supposed to be the smart one, you know? Always…” she trailed off, voice dropping to a whisper before continuing. “She’s going to get the Seraphim after her if she keeps this up.”

“She didn’t tell you?”

“Tell me? Tell me what?”

Had Tenebrael not told her for a reason? Or simply because Tenebrael had been in a rush? “Where is Tenebrael? Why are you here and not her?”

Iosefael pressed her lips together so tightly that they practically disappeared. She stayed looking like she had bitten into a particularly sour lemon while she threw a few glances around the room. “All she told me was that she brought you here but you disappeared and she needed help finding you. I assume she is looking elsewhere. But now that I think about it, she is probably hiding from the Seraphim or Virtues or Archangels or… just about everyone, really.”

That made sense. There were a lot of Virtues here. Given how she had avoided Bastiel on Nod… except it seemed like the cat was out of the bag as far as that was concerned. So maybe it was the Seraphim she was more worried about. Either way…

“Can you tell her where I am?”

“Let’s just get you back to Nod before you cause any more trouble. You are such a problematic Error: Unknown Angel, Alyssa Meado—” Blinking, Iosefael cut herself off, putting her hand to her throat. “Wait. What?” She coughed a few times, clearing her throat just like any human would. “Mortal. Mortal. Alyssa Meadows is a Error: Unknown Angel. What?”

“Don’t think too hard about it,” Alyssa said, holding up a hand. “The Virtues broke after trying to understand the implications. And… I’m not going back to Nod. Not yet. I have something I need to do.”

“Something you need to do? You need to get out of here! If you can’t go to Nod, we can get you elsewhere. There are a lot of worlds out there, all unique in their own ways. I’m sure you can find a happy—”

“Iosefael. Stop.”

The instant Alyssa spoke, Iosefael’s mouth slammed shut. Which, judging by her facial expression, came as a surprise to the angel. Had it always been like that? Direct orders worked on Bastiel—tell her to view Alyssa as an angel was how she got that status as an unknown angel—but she couldn’t actually remember ordering around angels before that. She was sure that there were some times and she doubted that the angels dropped everything to carry out her orders back then, so it must be something that happened somewhat recently. Maybe because of Tenebrael’s crystal ball and filling her body with divine magic. Though it didn’t work on the Seraphim. Maybe it was just coincidence and Iosefael wasn’t surprised at that.

And… her body no longer existed… That body didn’t, anyway. Did her new bodies that she had to create because of the rifts come pre-acclimatized? Maybe it was something more to do with her soul than her physical body at this point. Regardless…

“Find Tenebrael. Tell her that she better get herself over here quickly.”

“No need.”

The voice from behind Alyssa made her jump. Thankfully, she didn’t jump into any rifts. Turning, she found both Tenebrael and Kasita standing—or floating in the former’s case—just a short distance away. Tenebrael had an arm out to her side, which Kasita was grasping hold of like her life depended on it. She had said that she felt sickly before. Now, she really looked it.

But, upon meeting Alyssa’s eyes, she offered a wan smile. “Just a bit dizzy,” she said before Alyssa could ask.

Nodding, Alyssa looked to Tenebrael. “Do you always have to show up behind me?”

“The entrance is over there,” Tenebrael said, pointing off into the distance where she had approached from. Alyssa couldn’t see anything over her shoulder except more library, but that didn’t necessarily mean that there wasn’t an entrance that way.

“Mhm,” was all Alyssa had to say to that. “Thought you were hiding from the Seraphim and Virtues.”

“After watching them and you for a few moments, I decided that it was probably safe. So far, I’d say that my decision is proving the correct one.”

“Tene…” Iosefael leaned around the side of Alyssa, looking utterly deflated. “What are you doing? You can’t be doing this… It’s too far this time. I—”

“It’s alright,” Tenebrael said, drifting forward to put one hand on Iosefael’s shoulders. Kasita kept hold of Tenebrael the entire time, not letting her go. “Hopefully, anyway. There was a Seraphim on Nod. Blowing things up. I thought it was just going to destroy the entire world, but it must be trying to salvage at least some things. But there are probably people dying. If not from the Seraphim, then naturally. I need to stay here with Alyssa and Kasita for a while longer. Would you please perform your duties on my world for the time being?”

“Tene…”

“And if you can’t do it, then find Kenziel. She should be around somewhere.”

“I will do it.”

“Thank—”

“But not for you. For those poor people that you’ve abandoned.”

“Abandoned? I was driven out,” Tenebrael said, dropping her hand from Iosefael’s shoulders. “I wouldn’t be here if I had a choice.”

“You did have a choice. You were the one who messed with everything in the first place. If not for you and…” Iosefael shot a half-hearted glare to Alyssa. “I’m going!” Turning, she floated a few arm lengths away before vanishing into a confetti of feathers.

Smiling after letting out a short sigh, Tenebrael looked back to Alyssa. “Oh don’t worry about her.”

“I wasn’t.”

“Right. Well. Now we’re here. What next?”

“Next… Kasita. Are you sure you’re alright?”

Putting on that wan smile again, Kasita shrugged. It looked a bit pained. “Things are really weird here. I can’t even tell which way is up and which is left. I can hardly believe you’re alright at the moment. From my perspective, there are dozens of yous, all talking at once from all sides of me. You you,” she said, pointing directly at Alyssa, “are the closest of all of you. So I assume I’m talking to the right one.”

“I guess so?” Alyssa really wasn’t sure what Kasita was talking about. She felt like one regular person. “If I move more than a few inches in any direction, I come apart.”

“That doesn’t surprise me in the least. I’m surprised I’m not coming apart. At least this me. I feel like I’m in a few dozen places all at once too.”

“Well, maybe the Throne could fix the way this world works. It is in charge of everything, after all. Can you do the same thing you did while we were adrift and find a direct path to it? One without guards, preferably.”

“Possibly. I’m pretty sure we’re all already in it, but ugh. This place is making me actually sick. If I could throw up, I’m pretty sure I would be doing so right at this moment.”

“Maybe it would be better if you were here in your natural form? Less magic around—”

“I don’t advise that,” Tenebrael said quickly, before Alyssa could even finish her suggestion. “If she were here in a fully fleshy form like you, she would likely be having the same problems that you are having. And Kasita is probably not experienced enough in manipulating miracles to grant herself a body every instant.”

“Right. Sounds bad. Don’t do that.”

“No. I’m fine like this,” Kasita said, not sounding like she believed her words at all. “Just give me a minute. Maybe I can get used to it a little. If the world stops spinning even a little, I could probably focus a little better.”

“A minute,” Alyssa repeated, looking around from the unmoving Seraphim to the Virtues and the other angels that were still watching since the accident with her hand. None were attacking or even looked like they might attack. At least not yet. “We can probably spare a minute.”