Remain Calm
A Harsh Mistress
“I think I understand,” Alyssa said as she scribbled a few notes into a fresh notebook.
Tenebrael, after waiting a moment, tilted her head to one side. “But..?”
“No. No buts. I understand.” Leaning back at her desk, Alyssa held out her hand to try to put what she had learned into actual use. Going from theory to practice was always a challenge. But this…
Closing her eyes, she took a breath and concentrated. An angel, she now suspected, was something along the lines of a super computer. It had been almost sarcastic or joking when, in the past, she had referred to Tenebrael’s rules as programming. Now, she was pretty sure that it was more literal than not. But because they were super computers, they were beings capable of… computing. All those mathematics lessons and instant calculations came easy to them because that was what they had been designed to do. They saw every aspect of the world in terms of numbers and equations.
Alyssa was not a super computer. She wasn’t even a non-super computer. She was just a pathetic creature of meat and bone. Some humans might think that they can do all kinds of amazing calculations in their heads, but surely nothing on the level of a computer. Humans, however, were amazing at pattern recognition. Especially in abstract patterns. Could Tenebrael perform amazing feats of pattern recognition? Probably, but she was a super-super computer. And what Tenebrael could and could not do wasn’t actually the point behind any of Alyssa’s learning.
It was all about what Alyssa could do. Realizing that had given Alyssa a few keys. Angelic magic worked off understanding. The exact form the understanding took didn’t seem to matter, as long as large components were understood. For an angel, that was mathematical understanding.
For Alyssa, that meant patterns.
There were six main theories of pattern recognition: template matching, prototype-matching, feature analysis, recognition-by-components, vertical processing, and something called Fourier analysis. The latter theory involved a good deal of math, so Alyssa had been mostly ignoring it, but the rest all made basic sense.
Human bodies were made up of patterns. Although she hadn’t understood what she had been doing at the time, in retrospect, Alyssa could easily fit a human body into each of the theories. Or parts of it, at least. Every human body was roughly the same, template matching. The differences between individual humans came into play with prototype matching and feature analysis. Component recognition, top-down processing and bottom-up processing had all been used in making alterations to the human body. From the scales that Companion possessed to the wings Alyssa had tried to give her and even the paint applied for the ritual.
Even when creating other things, things that she had gone and looked up molecules for, that was all just a pattern repeated over and over again for a single material. Manufacturing information was a pattern. Everything was a pattern.
While she had been doing all that unconsciously and unknowingly, with understanding came greater ability. She was pretty sure that she would be able to create a body with completely functional wings now. Though, unfortunately, she also understood physics to a greater extent. An average human body would need wings to be a good three times bigger than the human… and what would make them way too heavy to actually work as proper wings. Harpies, though human in appearance, likely had several variations to their physiology to allow them to fly. Lighter bones, less muscle mass, no fat, and so on. Although Companion hadn’t said that a dragon’s flight was magic, Alyssa couldn’t see any other way that they might be able to fly.
Tenebrael’s wings were just for show. Or maybe they were antennae connected to the Throne given that more powerful angels had more wings. Either way, they didn’t assist in her flight.
But Alyssa wasn’t trying to make a body with wings. Or any body at all, for that matter.
The fingernails on Alyssa’s outstretched hand turned dark as magic pulsed through it. A mystic circle formed, stretched between her fingers. Her eyes were closed, but she still knew what was happening. No marbles spouted from her hand. Nor did any other creation form.
Alyssa felt herself… drift. Not the same drifting that she underwent when connecting with Tenebrael. This was a physical drift. Her arms no longer needed her muscles to keep them up in the air. The pressure of the chair against her back lessened until she couldn’t feel it at all. She drifted through the air. Slowly and carefully, Alyssa kept her control in check.
Her arm tapped against something hard. Soon enough, the rest of her body pressed up against that same thing. It was smooth, cold to the touch, and quite a bit more rough than the floor was.
As Alyssa got to her feet, she opened her eyes.
An upside-down Tenebrael stared at her.
“Seems you did understand,” Tenebrael said with a… pattern recognition broke a little when looking at a human face upside down, so it took an extra moment to realize that she was grinning.
The rest of the room was all down on the floor. The desk, the bed, the blankets… it all looked like someone had glued it to the ceiling. But in actuality, Alyssa stood upright on the ceiling, feeling no different than she did when standing around normally. Even her hair fell down around her shoulders like it normally would, instead of falling toward the actual floor.
She wasn’t just floating. Gravity itself now worked according to her desires.
The mystic circle slowly spun in her still open palm.
Alyssa’s stomach clenched as she fully realized just what she had done. Her room, a formerly vacant room for children of the Pharaoh, wasn’t that large. A square ten paces from end to end. The ceiling was smooth and slightly curved with a potion-based chandelier hanging from the center of it—which was currently an outstretched arm away from Alyssa. The whole thing was maybe twelve feet off the ground. Less. With Alyssa standing on the ceiling, half that height was basically gone from her perspective.
Knees shaking, Alyssa crouched down, getting closer to the ceiling. It made the floor even further away, but by ducking, her head wouldn’t be the first thing to hit the ground. She would have tried a hand stand, but that seemed even more dangerous. And if it broke the mystic circle in her right hand…
“Tenebrael… help.”
“Help? Help with what?”
“Help me down!”
“Just undo what you did. Gravity will do the rest once you let it affect you the right way again. I thought you understood?”
Alyssa slowly inched across the ceiling. Her bed wasn’t far away. Beds in this world weren’t nearly as… good as they were on Earth, but the blankets might provide some cushioning if she fell. For a moment, she considered filling her entire room with plastic balls like a restaurant ball pit, but feared that doing so might interfere with the only thing keeping her from falling several feet in the first place.
“Tenebrael!”
“Alright, alright,” the dumb angel said with an exaggerated roll of her eyes. She drifted upward and held out her arms. “I’ve got you, just annul the miracle.”
Alyssa reached out, gripping the angel’s shoulder just to confirm to herself that there was something solid about to catch her. Feeling Tenebrael’s arms up against her back, she took a breath. Then another breath. Then another.
“I do have souls to collect sometime today.”
With one more breath, Alyssa clenched her fist, destroying the mystic circle.
Her stomach did ten flips as gravity realized it had been cheated and grabbed onto her. The fall only lasted an inch before Tenebrael took over, lowering her gently to the bed beneath them. Despite feeling the proper floor beneath her now, Alyssa still maintained an ironclad grip of both arms around Tenebrael’s neck. Only when Tenebrael patted her back did she finally start to relax.
“You’ve been up higher than that before without this big of a panic,” Tenebrael said with mild admonishment. “I mean, this whole room is right up near the top of the palace.”
“Ugh. Don’t remind me,” Alyssa said, slowly getting her composure back. “They don’t call it an irrational fear because its easy to rationalize away. I just pictured what might happen if I did that while outside and you weren’t around…”
“Well, yes. Probably avoid that until you can control it better, I guess.”
“Nope. No more messing with gravity. It is a fundamental force of nature and one that shouldn’t be disturbed. If I need to get somewhere high, I’ll just conjure up a staircase.”
“Couldn’t you conjure up a parachute?”
“What if I can’t? What if I forget how? I don’t know how to pack a parachute in the first place.”
“You have a phone.”
Alyssa opened her mouth, stopped, and closed it again with a flat look. “You know what?” she said after a moment. “I’m a bit too on edge right now to continue. How about we pick this up again tomorrow?”
Tenebrael let out a soft chuckle. “If you insist.”
Closing her eyes with a long sigh, Alyssa was about to say that she did insist. Only to realize that it would be a waste of breath. Opening her eyes, Tenebrael was gone. There were just a few feathers floating through the air.
“Figures,” Alyssa said instead, flopping back on her bed for an few moments of relaxation. Even despite the sudden paranoia that the magic might fail at the worst possible time, she was making progress. She wasn’t quite sure what she was making progress toward. Maybe a way to fend off angels. Tenebrael’s power might not be able to do that, especially if any higher ranked angels showed up, but it probably didn’t need to. When Alyssa had first started this whole thing, Tenebrael mentioned that connecting to her was merely a stepping stone to connecting to the Throne itself in the same way that angels were connected to it.
If she could manage that, she could probably manage to keep herself safe from any angelic interference.
Though…
That had been her goal once upon a time. To get angels off her back and get back to Earth. But…
Nod had grown on her. Sure, it was technologically deficient. That could change with time and magic. And Jason, as long as he was allowed to work with Guillem. Though… their machine did inspire some amount of trepidation regarding future work they might pursue together.
Still, Alyssa wanted to see her father and brother again. And if her mother wanted to go back, then she would still have to do all this. But if it was just her… she thought she might not mind just hanging around the place.
That wasn’t going to stop her from learning as much as she could. As long as there were cosmic beings that could screw with her at a whim, she would try to get stronger and stronger to at least be left alone. Manipulating the fabric of reality was just a handy side bonus.
With all the adrenaline out of her system, Alyssa decided to check in on Companion. The dumb dragon wound up tearing her body apart the day before and clearly needed some amount of supervision. She was also likely the only person in the palace that Alyssa cared to talk to at the moment. Irulon was off at the Observatorium as she had been nearly every day since they returned to Lyria. Kasita got it in her head that offering her abilities to spy and infiltrate would be a good idea; Oxart was apparently putting her to good use with some of the more suspicious of the great houses. Although demonic activity was at an all-time low, there were still concerns that plenty of plague incidents had gone unnoticed during Fela’s stay in Illuna, so she was working with the plague containment team once again.
Brakkt was still in Illuna, but he should be back for the night… which Alyssa would be lying if she said she wasn’t looking forward to. But that wouldn’t be until later.
So Companion it was…
“Ah. Alyssa. Just who I was on my way to see.”
Until a certain someone intercepted her on the way to Irulon’s floor. It was only one flight of stairs up and she had taken the servant’s passage, so Alyssa couldn’t view the Pharaoh’s presence as anything but intentional despite the casual way he greeted her.
“I often take the servant passages when I wish to avoid notice. They might see me, but they won’t tell anyone.”
“I didn’t ask.”
“Hm.” His eyes glinted in the dark stairwell. There was no light for them to catch, but they still glowed a faint gold-violet color. Of course, now knowing a few spells that might achieve that effect, Alyssa couldn’t help but feel like some of the magic had been taken out of his imposing stature… in a figurative sense. There was obviously literal magic in his eyes. “There will be a meeting in two days. I would like for you to be in attendance.”
“Uh… why?”
“I will ask for you to give an accounting of your experiences with various monsters. And the viability of humans working with monsters to achieve specific goals.”
“Specific goals? Like what?”
“That is what I hope for you to bring to the table.”
“Hmm…” Talking in a narrow staircase was a bit awkward. Alyssa couldn’t easily step away from the Pharaoh. Given how suddenly he had appeared around the narrow curve of the spiral stairs, he was quite close as it was. “I guess I can come,” she said, more hoping that agreeing would get her some space. Then an idea popped into her head. “Two days from now? I assume in the evening?”
“That would be correct. There will be a meal served, but it will not be a great feast, so do not fret.”
“I wasn’t…” Alyssa shook her head. “I was going to ask if it would be possible to meet earlier in the day.”
“You have arrangements in the evening?”
“No. But there is a demonstration going on earlier in the day that might be relevant to the meeting. We don’t have to sit around and talk about it until later in the evening if you want, but an elf and a human have been working together—”
“The Farmer. Yes…” He pinched the bearded tip of his chin between his thumb and forefinger. “I am aware of its existence. Several attendees of this meeting will be observing the demonstration, which is why the meeting will be held later in the evening.”
“Oh. You’re already… Well, whatever. I can be there then.”
“Excellent. I will send a servant with further information tomorrow morning. Will that suffice?”
“Sure?”
With a nod of his head, the Pharaoh slipped past Alyssa with far more grace than should have been allowed in the tight servant stairwell. He continued on downward without any further acknowledgment of her presence. Strange, but she shrugged and decided to not worry over it. Once upon a time, she had worried over the Pharaoh attacking her randomly, probably because of how their initial meeting went, but she was far less concerned about that now. He wasn’t a bad guy… just… overprotective? In his own way.
Even going so far as to keep a demoniacally infected Octavia around. Who Alyssa still had yet to encounter. Following Brakkt’s advice, Alyssa had not even attempted to seek her or Tzheitza out. They didn’t come up to these floors at all and Alyssa had only rarely ventured down from the palace to where she might chance across them.
And she was unlikely to find either of them up on Irulon’s floor.
Companion’s room in what was once Irulon’s laboratory was quite sterile. She had books, but they were all taken from Irulon’s room. That was about it. There was a bed, one rather simple in comparison to either Irulon or Brakkt’s beds, and a desk and a chair.
“You want me to create a pile of gold coins for you to sleep on?” Alyssa asked as she stepped through the already open door.
Looking up from Adrael’s golden staff, Companion turned like she couldn’t move her neck in the slightest. Her entire body shifted from her waist up, keeping her shoulders stiff. “That sounds like it would be quite uncomfortable. This body is sore enough as it is currently.”
“It was a joke,” Alyssa said with a half sigh.
“Ah. I must have missed that. Sorry.”
“No, it’s… Dragons on Earth are said to love to sleep on piles of wealth that they hoard.”
The rings in her eyes spun up for just a brief moment before returning to a passive, languid pace. “I was under the impression that you didn’t have monsters on Earth.”
“Myths.”
“Ah.”
“Anyway,” Alyssa said with a little force. “How are you feeling?”
“Like I never want to move this body again.” As she spoke, Companion barely moved more than her lips.
“You aren’t still tearing your body, are you?”
Despite her comment, Companion stretched her arm out and started waving it back and forth. “No tears,” she said, “but it makes my muscles… sore? I think that is the proper term.”
Closing her eyes, Alyssa did a quick check of Companion’s soul. People near death had that status reflected in their soul. But even with the oddities involved with Companion and Irulon, everything looked mostly normal. “You’re lucky your strength breath didn’t make your heart explode. That’s a muscle too, you know.”
“So you’ve mentioned every time we have talked since then.”
With another sigh, Alyssa just shook her head in exasperation. Companion just seemed so unconcerned. It was probably something about being a dragon. If it wasn’t a problem, then it wasn’t worth thinking about… or something like that.
“How did your luncheon with your attackers go? You did invite them, right?”
“Amicably.”
Alyssa raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
“No.” Companion turned away. Her entire upper body shifted so that she could lean over the table that had the staff on it. “I’m confident that they wished to assault me again, but were restrained by the threat of being in the palace. Even though no guards attended our meal, the mere thought that they were on the other side of any given door made them stiff and unwilling to do much aside from ingest the offered meal and flee immediately after.”
“Well, you can’t win them all.”
“I will be able to. I just need to think more on the topic. Learn more about humans in general. I couldn’t have known how I would end up at the time, but I can’t help but regret being so passive while with Irulon. I could have learned so much, but I mostly just sat back and observed without cognitive thinking unless Irulon directly addressed me.”
“You’ve got plenty of time to figure things out.”
“Perhaps…”
“If it helps, my world has done tons of studies of humans. Anthropology and psychology are two entire fields with millions of experts all dedicated to studying how humans live and why they act the way they do. I’m sure you could pull up a million resources on my phone.”
“You would allow me to use it?”
“Sure,” Alyssa said, pulling it out of her pocket. It was indestructible and she could call it back to herself whenever she wanted, so there was no danger in lending it out. “Though I reserve the right to take it back should I need to look something up. I do have my research to delve into after all.”
“Of course. I understand. I have several projects to work on should you require its use.”
“Here,” Alyssa said, sitting down on the same table that had the staff on top. “Let me show you how to use it…”
“demoniacally”=>”demonically”
Enjoying the story a lot!
I quite like demoniacally though. Very evocative. 😉
Well this will have fun consequences imagining what Companion can do with the internet…
whoops forgot to reply!
Thanks for the chapter. No obvious stray words.
—
Yes, I’m also wondering how the world will be changed by suddenly giving a dragon access to a lot of information.