Alyssa stayed for ten minutes, just sitting and waiting for something to go wrong. Accelero was still active—if something did go wrong, she wanted the extra speed. That meant that she would have to wait another thirty minutes before canceling the spell, but that might just be worth it.
So many things came to mind. From the Justice having compromised the structural integrity of the sliver before it left reality proper to lesser members of the Astral Authority portaling their way in to try to kill Alyssa for harming the Justice. From the demon doing basically anything to Irulon’s spell not caring at all about the boundaries of the sliver and killing everyone in the area. Which applied to Irulon and her group as well. They could be having the same problems that Alyssa was thinking up.
“They really probably aren’t having those problems given that we aren’t having them,” Kasita said as fast as she could. She had taken to speaking extremely quickly partially unintelligibly to get as much out as she could before her form froze. “The real question is whether or not we killed the Justice.”
“I don’t know that it was ever alive. Those things are… things. The angels are bad enough,” Alyssa said, eyes drifting from one shattered panel to the next. “But the Astral Authority is on a whole other level of robotic.”
Kasita had frozen again. There was no way of knowing how much she had actually heard, but it didn’t really matter to begin with. Alyssa had been dodging the question more than anything else. She didn’t know the answer. Other members of the Astral Authority could be killed relatively easily. Relative to real angels, in any case. But the Justice was a tier higher than them. Attacking the scales had been pure guesswork. It seemed to have done something, but with Irulon’s countdown, there hadn’t been time to find out exactly what.
Frankly, Alyssa hoped it wasn’t dead, but was injured enough that it had to retreat back to wherever it came from long enough for Tenebrael to finish her thing. If it was dead, its corpse would likely stick around for far too long. At its size, it could take years for it to disintegrate if it went at the same rate as the rest of the Astral Authority.
“So. That’s Tenebrael’s homeworld, is it?”
“I assume so.”
“Pretty.”
“Ehh. I think I would die from an epileptic seizure if I had to live there… and I don’t have epilepsy as far as I am aware.”
“I’m going to pretend that I know what those words mean and just nod my—”
As Kasita froze again, Alyssa walked around the mirrored platform. Unlike the dome around them—or sphere rather, as it went all the way around—the platform had been unaffected by the Justice falling on it. The bottom portion of the sphere, the part that had still been forming when the Justice fell, reflected nothing at all. Just mirrors and Alyssa if she leaned over the edge. Any part of it that would have reflected the Endless Expanse was distorted and strange. The only thing that could be seen was that one central tower that was in every single panel no matter how impossible that should be.
For instance, one of the shattered panels showed off the interior of one of those towers. A handful of angels were gathered around in some kind of meeting. Maybe a casual get together, if angels had those sorts of things. Despite there being no windows and no doors, Alyssa could trace a detailed flourish on the wall to find herself staring at the exterior landscape which had that one tower in the dead center.
She was fairly certain that two of the cracked panels were showing off opposing views of the city, perhaps from the tower itself. It was mostly guesswork. The constantly shifting cityscape gave her a headache on par with the math Tenebrael had tried to show her. But there were no commonalities between the views aside from the tower in the dead center. She could tell that it was the same tower thanks to the mass of angels swarming about it. Most of the rest of the Endless Expanse seemed almost vacant. Not quite completely empty, but empty enough that there weren’t more than a handful of angels in any one spot.
Except for that tower.
“Can they not see us?”
Alyssa turned to find Kasita right up against the wall of the sphere. The floating bridge of slivers that she had created to get to the Justice was still intact, leading right to the edge. Kasita wasn’t actually touching any part of it, but she was leaning awfully close with her hands behind her back.
And she froze again.
But Kasita was right. As with the outer shell, none of the angels had taken notice. If there had been cameras where these panels were positioned, one four-winged angel would have just flown right into it in her rush to get to the large tower. The angel didn’t pause or look around or otherwise take note of anything amiss.
Alyssa took out her phone and started snapping pictures. She wasn’t sure just what use it might be, but if she could replicate the effect, she could spy on the Expanse. And on the angels. For whatever that was worth. Perhaps it would help Tenebrael in some way. Irulon would probably like to take a look too. Alyssa couldn’t be certain that the larger dome outside would stay the way it was long enough for anyone to see it, so pictures seemed sensible.
Oddly enough, pictures worked properly whereas the mirror didn’t. And the picture of the group of angels didn’t show the tower anywhere. It captured the scene as Alyssa saw it before she started looking too hard. She honestly wasn’t sure what that meant, but at least the pictures didn’t give her a headache.
While taking pictures, Alyssa tried to spot any angels that she knew, but there were literally thousands of them and she could name four and had only seen two or three others besides them.
Experimentally, Alyssa walked up beside Kasita’s frozen clone. She carefully brushed the tip of one of her fingernails against the formerly reflective surface. It clanked when it hit. Unlike that crazy whiteboard math that Tenebrael had drawn, and unlike how the demon acted with those darkened panels outside, this was not some portal into another world.
Alyssa had to admit that part of her was somewhat disappointed. The particular pane of glass she was tapping her fingers against looked like it was suspended over a bottomless pit between the large buildings. Walking through it would probably lead to her death. Even if she used some spell to slow her fall, she could easily die of starvation if it truly was as bottomless as it looked. None of the buildings in that other world looked like they were connected to any sort of ground. But they didn’t exactly float either. It was like looking at that one optical illusion of the three pronged tuning fork except multiplied an infinite number of times.
There was also the very real problem that, while she might not be in any direct danger from the angels because of their rule that mostly kept them from harming mortals, Alyssa wouldn’t put it beyond them to lead her into a trap, summon the Astral Authority to do their dirty work for them, or just imprison her until she died of starvation. Iosefael had already admitted that they weren’t above indirect methods of dealing with their problems.
Which was why Alyssa tensed when she noticed a new Kasita’s arm halfway through the mirror.
Alyssa grabbed her by the shoulders and yanked her back. “Can we please not draw the attention of a million angry angels?”
“I didn’t think my hand would go through it!” Kasita shouted, genuinely shocked tone in her voice. “Yours didn’t… There are really a million angels back there?” she said a little softer, looking at her hand as she turned it one way then the other. “I really can’t tell.”
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“There are lots of them and… you’re frozen again.” Accelero’s effect on Kasita was really starting to get annoying. If Alyssa wasn’t worried that they would need the speed, she would stop it immediately. But for now, she focused on the world beyond, watching for any change in the angels’ behavior as a result of Kasita’s arm being in their world.
Angels were not omniscient. Kasita’s arm was one tiny speck in the Endless Expanse. The panel with the bridge next to it wasn’t even near the large tower with most of the angels around it… probably. It was actually really hard to tell with how space seemed to twist in on itself in that other world. But none looked to have deviated from what they had been doing before. Or, at least, none were flying over to inspect it.
Most of the angels didn’t seem to notice. So that was a good thing. The real problem were the white feathers drifting about inside the sphere.
It was… strange. Every other time Alyssa had an angel appear around her, it had been in real time. Now, the feathers drifted so slowly that they were still exploding out from a central point. There was a silhouette in there, like the cocoon of a monarch butterfly. Except feathery. In the center was a bright golden light that Alyssa couldn’t remember having seen before on an angel’s arrival. There were never any flashes. But yet, there it was.
The light faded out a whole lot faster than the feathers could expand out. It gave Alyssa ample time to see just who was slowly unfurling from that cocoon.
Just a single pair of white feathers with a red dress was all Alyssa needed to identify who it was.
Archangel Adrael.
The one angel who had demonstrated an intent to cause direct harm. Though she didn’t appear to be much of a danger at the moment. Alyssa had never actually gotten to watch an angel appear. Tenebrael liked to pop up from out of view. So did the rest, now that she thought about it. Even the ones who hadn’t known that she had been watching, like the angel in the alley that had taken the soul from Chris’ clone, still managed to pop up quick enough that letting her eyes drift to one side had been enough to miss the actual appearance.
In slow motion, it was really flashy and drawn out. Adrael was doing that thing from shampoo commercials where she was standing up from a crouch to send her hair flying back behind her. If Tenebrael popped up in even a remotely similar manner, it was no wonder that she kept doing it behind Alyssa’s back.
Shaking her head, Alyssa held out a card. An instant later, Spectral Chains lashed out and wrapped around Adrael. It was… really quite pathetic compared to how tense Alyssa had been about the Justice. Tenebrael could escape from Spectral Chains, but Kenziel hadn’t. Or, at least, Kenziel hadn’t really tried. Tenebrael had shown up and bullied her into submission before she could. Still, her lack of action at the time was encouraging.
When the flash fully disappeared, Adrael opened her eyes. It was slow motion, but much quicker than Alyssa would have expected from any mortal. Surprise on her face shifted to anger about as fast. With as fast as she emoted, she sure didn’t speak clearly in the slightest. It took a full twenty seconds for her to get a single word out and Alyssa had no idea what that word was supposed to be. Or even if she had spoken a full word.
“Got to speed it up,” Alyssa said, pointing to her mouth. “I know you can. Unless demons can do things that you angels can’t. Wouldn’t surprise me, but it would disappoint me.”
Adrael blinked much faster than she spoke, looking affronted. She opened her mouth and…
Some kind of noise assaulted Alyssa’s ears. A high pitched warble. It only lasted a second but it left Alyssa’s head spinning.
“Jeeze,” Kasita said with a big wince. “The demon figured out how to talk to you on the first try, didn’t she?”
“That was trying to talk to me?” Alyssa said, rubbing her forehead. “I thought it was an attack.”
“I guess the demon did get to—” “—observe you for a lot longer than this thing has.”
“Can you even see her? Or hear her?”
“About as well as I can see Tenebrael. I based my guess off your reaction—”
Alyssa dismissively waved a hand. Not that Kasita saw it. Her frozen forms were really starting to pile up. She might have to start popping up in a smaller form. A gremlin, maybe. Or a kitten. But…
“I knew I smelled something from this corrupt world,” Adrael sneered. Her voice still wasn’t perfectly matching Alyssa’s speed. It was, however, understandable at this point. “What have you done, Alyssa Meadows? Release me at once.”
“No. I don’t think I will. That sounds like a bad idea.”
“You abomination. You couldn’t just sit quietly, quarantined on this nightmare of a world, could you? What are you trying to do to the Expanse?”
Alyssa didn’t even have a real response to that. She wasn’t doing anything. This whole scrying chamber was the Justice’s fault. Entirely. Would Adrael believe her? That was irrelevant. The real question was whether or not it mattered if Adrael believed her.
The answer was no. Not at all.
“You sensed Kasita’s arm? So it really was in the Expanse then? Not an illusion?” Back to the panel of glass, Alyssa rapped the knuckles of her free hand against it, finding it just as solid as it had been when she tried to pass her fingernail through.
“I’ve spent enough time here that I would recognize a part of it anywhere.”
It was something unique to Kasita then. Or perhaps mimics in general. Irulon had mentioned that Kasita wasn’t wholly within this reality, or world, or something. Without discussing with Irulon or Tenebrael, that would be Alyssa’s primary guess as to why Kasita’s arm could slip through whereas Alyssa could not.
“What about the other Archangels? The other angels in general? You’re saying that none of them noticed because none of them have been here? They certainly don’t look like they noticed,” Alyssa said with a glance toward the panel showing off a few angels inside a room.
“Those fools? They sit about trying to decide whose quarter-century reports have progressed the most? They wouldn’t know a real problem world if they were chained up under your…” Adrael trailed off, devoting most of her energy toward trying to spread her wings and break the chains.
A fruitless endeavor.
“So there is no backup coming? No cadre of angels teleporting in to rescue you?”
The struggling stopped immediately. Adrael looked up, red eyes narrowing. “What are you saying?”
“Oh come now,” Alyssa said, fighting to keep a smile off her face. This was it; she had a chance to solve at least one of her current problems. Possibly more than one. “You angels might be trapped in your own programming, but you aren’t that stupid. I’ve got you trapped and at my mercy. I might be willing to release you if you do a little something for me. And if you don’t… I’ll have Kasita stick her head into the Endless Expanse and start shouting about how you harmed a mortal.” Adrael tensed, but Alyssa didn’t let up. “Something like that will work regardless of whether or not you are here. So even if I let you go and you decide to betray me…” Alyssa waved to one of the frozen Kasitas before continuing. “I gathered from a few other angels that such things are heavily frowned upon. You might even be reclassified as a fallen angel before morning.”
That was mostly guesswork, but it seemed to work. Adrael opened her mouth, snapped it shut, glared for a moment, and opened it again. “What do you want?”
“As an Archangel, you’re in charge of getting a world on track with… ‘the plan’ or whatever it is, right?”
“Yes.” The response was clipped, but instant.
It was hard to avoid smiling at that.
“The Astral Authority—”
“Is here?” she asked, perking up. “Are they finally dealing with Dominion Tenebrael? Have my pleas been answered?”
“Don’t look too excited. Tenebrael is handling them. We were using demons to occupy their attention, but the demons have been… disappointing.”
“Demons? Demons?” Her eyes narrowed to thin slits as she looked Alyssa up and down. “You disgust me.”
“Yeah, yeah. Get over yourself. The point is, there are a few out there that have been annoying me in particular. I want you to go tell them to find something else to occupy their time with. Tell them about some other world with a rogue angel mucking things up. Do that and I’ll let you go. I’ll even forget that you skewered a human and a draken with your staff.”
“I want that staff back.”
“Do this for me and maybe we’ll talk about your staff.” Like how it’s in Iosefael’s hands.
“You think I can just walk up to the Astral Authority and order them around? The Seraphim are their leaders. Not me. Not any Archangel.”
“And what if they are acting on their own? How much weight would your word carry? Enough to get a Justice off my back?” If the Justice was still alive. There was every possibility that Alyssa had killed it. Or that the demon had come back and finished the job in the time since Alyssa sequestered herself and Kasita away. Or even that Irulon’s spell had dealt the final blow. Any one of those options was plausible.
Adrael looked to be considering the prospect. Unfortunately, she shook her head slowly. “I don’t think it will work like that.”
“Shame.” Yanking Adrael off her feet, eliciting an undignified squawk from the angel in the process, Alyssa moved forward and pressed a foot down in the small of her back. “You’re going to sit right there and you’re going to be good. No attacking me or my friends. I’m sure Tenebrael or Iosefael or someone will be here someday. Until then… Do you suppose Fractal Lock works on angels?” Alyssa said, glancing to the latest instance of Kasita to appear. “Because I really don’t want to have to hold onto these chains for any length of time. And you need to stick your head into the Expanse and start shouting about Adrael.”
“Only one way to find—”
“Wait! Wait I’ll try. Don’t… say anything.”
Alyssa raised an eyebrow. “Now we’re getting somewhere.”