Breath of Air
Nox
Alyssa stared at an array of spell cards laid out on the table in front of her, wondering just what was different about them in comparison to what she was doing with Tenebrael’s connection. And she was having a hard time coming up with anything. Aside from the obvious, of course. The cards needed the paper and a drawn pattern while all she needed to make use of Tenebrael’s magic was a verbal… prayer. But… wasn’t that what the Enochian on the cards was for?
Spell cards had definite and predictable effects. Her connection to Tenebrael didn’t. That probably came from the way spell cards didn’t change. Although drawn individually, all spell cards of the same spell were effectively photocopies of each other. They had a static and unchanging nature that gave them their predictability.
Alyssa couldn’t control the size or shape of the mystic circles that popped up when she called down a miracle. At least, she didn’t think she could. Her discussion with Iosefael on the subject revolved almost entirely around the actual spoken words of the prayer rather than any geometry. Tenebrael had insisted that she would need to know advanced mathematics in order to use the Throne’s power directly, so perhaps delving into that might give her more control over mystic circle construction.
The words she spoke could be controlled, to a degree. She still felt as if, once in a while, some spoken words might not wholly be her own. It wasn’t quite to the point of completely taking over her mouth as had happened for the first few miracles back in Teneville. If she wanted, she could override any influence that might push her to say one word over another.
Every time she asked for a miracle, she used different words and phrasing. Per Iosefael’s advice, more desperate situations necessitated longer requests and repeating the same prayers over and over again tended to diminish the value of the miracle. Which seemed somewhat odd to her. Most religions that she knew of relied heavily on repeated rituals where things were generally not supposed to change. Whether that be praying in a certain direction, saying the same prayer every time, or just little things like bowing heads. Here on Nod, the spell cards, the same ones that she had already established were all identical, worked the same and to the same effectiveness no matter how many times she or anyone else cast them.
Besides that, there were only so many ways to phrase kill this thing before she would wind up having to open a thesaurus and pick related words at random.
Perhaps disregarding that tidbit of Iosefael’s advice would be for the best. At least to test some things out. If it failed, then she could go back to saying whatever came to mind. But a repeated, memorized phrase could be said much faster than random words as they came to mind.
And if that bit of Iosefael’s advice turned out to be incorrect, perhaps the bit about the length could be discarded as well. Shrinking down requests for miracles into single sentences or even single words could help out a lot.
What she really needed, and what Alyssa was really trying to do, was to increase the reliability of using Tenebrael. Because the angel’s power truly was a thing to be used. But unless it could be relied upon to have predictable effects, it was… dangerous to use.
Using her pistol as a medium for delivering a laser beam seemed fairly reliable even with varying words. Creating a portal? Alyssa gave it fifty-fifty odds whether or not anything at all would happen.
In a desperate situation, a fifty percent chance of escaping was unacceptable.
Sighing, Alyssa looked up from the spell cards. She quickly glanced around the room, somewhat hoping that Tenebrael would show up. If this place truly was cut off from the rest of creation—as Iosefael had phrased it—then there really shouldn’t be any reason why Tenebrael couldn’t also show up. But it had been a full hour at this point. No sign of the angel.
Alyssa wasn’t sure if she was supposed to try portaling back to the real world or how she might know whether or not it was safe to travel back. She didn’t really want to go back only to find the Astral Authority still swarming around looking for her. Or to, as Fela had mentioned, have the return portal alert them to her presence and start the whole issue all over again. Hence her hesitance to do much without something of a sign from Tenebrael.
Not that she really minded a moment of modern convenience. Much like her first trip to Earth to rescue Chris, the refrigerator was full of food. Fast food. Slow food. Fancy food and cheap food. She had a hot bowl of instant noodles in front of her alongside a bowl of caviar. Alyssa had never had caviar before. Frankly, she wasn’t sure what the appeal was. Having tried it, she was pretty sure that she would take a bowl of cheap noodles first if offered a choice again.
On the couch next to her, Fela was happily snacking on an oversized stick of beef jerky. The hellhound had been going through the fridge and cupboards like crazy, pulling out one of just about everything. The only things that didn’t interest her were the dishes of pure vegetables or grains. Peanut butter was apparently fine, but a bag of mixed nuts was not.
So really, there was no need to rush back. Although Brakkt might be a little worried. Alyssa had tried sending a Message, but she wasn’t sure if it had gone through. If the cube could block out whatever angels used to detect something that was supposed to be as omni-present as the Throne, it probably also blocked out mundane Messages.
Her phone didn’t seem to work to call Jason, for instance. She had tried asking him to send a Message to Brakkt, but the call wouldn’t connect. It did that same jamming-signal thing that it had done when Adrael had blocked its use.
Without the ability to contact anyone, there wasn’t much to do aside from sit about and puzzle out the mysteries of magic.
Alyssa held out her hand. Notably, her fingernails darkened before any words came out of her mouth. In fact, they darkened before she fully decided on what exactly she was going to do. It was clearly anticipating her intent. Which said something mildly disturbing about the intelligence of the connection she shared with Tenebrael. Unless it was Tenebrael herself getting ready to act through Alyssa, but that went counter to Iosefael saying that most of the miracles didn’t directly involve Tenebrael.
As for what she was going to do, something simple would be for the best. Light. It was the simplest spell in terms of mortal-usable spell cards. And it was probably the first thing she had ever done with Tenebrael’s power. It wasn’t particularly useful as an ability inherited from Tenebrael given how prevalent light and enhanced vision spells were. Still, as a testing bed, Alyssa couldn’t think of anything better.
Especially nothing that she wanted to cast while inside a small cube. Transportation might let the Astral Authority come in. Anything destructive might wind up too big and end up turning the small chamber into an incinerator. At worst, overpowered light might leave some spots in her eyes for a time.
At first, Alyssa tried to simply use intent to bring forth some miraculous light. Whatever intelligence was in her connection with Tenebrael could clearly sense her desire to create a miracle. So why not try to get it to work for her? If she could silently create miracles the same way that she could cast spells, then she wouldn’t need to bother with any prayer at all.
But after ten minutes of trying, she wasn’t getting any results at all. It didn’t matter how she framed it in her mind or how she imagined a ball of light appearing on her hand. Her fingernails stayed black, but no mystic circles ever popped up. Perhaps she would try more later on, or after she got used to manifesting a miracle repeatedly in the regular way. Starting with the hardest task was probably not the wisest choice.
Obviously, the wisest choice would have been to figure all this out weeks ago. But when she had first made the connection with Tenebrael up until meeting with Iosefael, she hadn’t thought that she would get embroiled in a war with divine entities. Since meeting with Iosefael, or perhaps since encountering her first member of the Astral Authority, using and practicing with the connection was too dangerous.
And maybe the even wiser choice would simply be to cut her connection with Tenebrael. The Astral Authority would no longer be interested in her. She wouldn’t be able to manifest miracles, but she wasn’t really able to without drawing their attention anyway. After Tenebrael booted them off her world, she could always reconnect.
But for now, while inside Tenebrael’s isolation chamber and separated from the Astral Authority, she might as well continue trying to make something happen.
“Light,” she tried. It was still starting with the harder end, but it also felt like the next step up from trying pure intent.
Except for Fela looking over with one of her eyebrows raised, nothing happened.
“Light,” Alyssa said again, trying to not feel self-conscious about shouting a random word. “Light.”
“What are you doing?”
“Trying… anything, I guess. Light,” she said again. “Light.”
“Is anything supposed to be nothing?”
Alyssa sighed, keeping her eyes focused on her hand. “No. It’s supposed to make light.”
“I’ve seen you make light before. With human magic, you didn’t say anything at all. With that other magic you use, you gave a big speech.”
“I’m trying to cut down on the speeches. But… Light!” Alyssa let out another long sigh when her exclamation failed to produce any results. “But my brother once asked me if he ever told me the definition of insanity. It’s doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Actually, it wasn’t just once that he said that. It was like his favorite phrase for a few weeks several years ago. Then he forgot about it, I guess.”
“Huh…” Fela mumbled, gnawing on the jerky.
“Let there be light,” Alyssa tried, testing out what might be the most famous religious phrase back on Earth. This time, she actually felt something. Nothing visible, but something deep within. It felt a lot like the times when she manifested a miracle successfully. Emboldened by the feeling, Alyssa tried the same phrase another three times. Each attempt produced the same result.
So, in fitting with her brother’s odd advice, she varied up the phrase, injecting some of her own personal knowledge of how reality functioned into her words.
“Let the glory of the Throne shine forth.”
Nothing. Not even the mildest of sensations. It was worse than her first attempt, even.
“The Throne? What’s that?”
“I… really don’t know, I guess. The seat of whoever was supposed to rule over the angels, but I guess it’s been empty for some time.”
“It’s more than just a seat,” a faintly melodic voice broke into the conversation.
Turning, Alyssa had to frown. Tenebrael sat on the side of the bed, legs crossed, with feathers falling all around her. She looked prim and perfect as usual. A stark contrast to the true demon earlier, who definitely looked like she had taken some damage in her fight against the Astral Authority.
At Owlcroft, the demon had mentioned that she and her forces wouldn’t be able to fight them off for as long as Tenebrael needed. Seeing the angel now reminded Alyssa of that little conversation, making her wonder just how long Tenebrael did need…
And whether or not she had time for even a brief conversation at the moment.
“The Throne is reality. Everything you’ve seen, touched, smelled, felt. All of that is the Throne. I don’t know where it came from, who built it, if someone built it, how it exists, when it began its existence, or how it could have formed when it literally is everything—a sort of chicken and egg scenario—but I do know that its previous occupant used it to shape everything, from us angels to the universe as you know it.”
“And what happened to them?”
Fela blinked, cutting off the fire from her eyes for just a moment. “What? Oh… she’s here, isn’t she. I’ll just eat more then…”
Alyssa turned to Fela with a frown before directing that frown at Tenebrael. “Is there really no way for you to show yourself to others? I feel bad leaving everyone out of our conversations.”
“It’s against the rules. Besides, I’m not here for long. Just to take you back to Nod.”
“Are there even rules here? I thought this place was cut off from the Throne. Which calls into question how it exists in the first place if the Throne is everything.”
“My greatest genius. Using a sliver of what power I can call upon to shape just a tiny bit of reality to the point where it effectively doesn’t actually exist. Remember that mathematics lesson I tried to show you once upon a time?”
“Yeah?”
“That was actually the equation for this place. Or a part of it, anyway.”
“So… far beyond my ability to comprehend. I see.”
“As for what happened to the Throne’s occupant… well, that’s the big mystery that’s been plaguing angels for years now, isn’t it? Maybe they died of old age. Maybe they just got bored and decided to up and leave. Maybe they found some new Throne-like toy to go play with.” Tenebrael shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t particularly care which. It doesn’t matter to me. All that matters is that it is empty.”
“You intend to take it over?”
“If it was so easy to walk up to and sit upon, I would have done so a long time ago. Brick walls though they are at the moment, the Seraphim will undoubtedly vanquish any who approach.”
“Will they? Because you used to be concerned that Archangels would go running to the Seraphim at first sign of anything amiss on your world. And that obviously wasn’t the case. Or rather, didn’t Kenziel mention something about Adrael constantly petitioning for the Seraphim to act? Your world doesn’t seem to be destroyed, so…”
“That concern might not be that big a concern anymore. I will admit that I had been unaware of Adrael’s presence for who knows how long a time. But the Throne is different. All but about three of the Seraphim stand around it in an endless vigil in the Endless Expanse. I can’t say that any angel has tried to sit on the Throne, but a few have tried to get close. They are… no longer with us. The Seraphim cut them down without hesitation.”
“Hmm… Do you think you’ll ever be able to challenge them? I mean, that is your goal, right? Take over the Throne?” Tenebrael hadn’t ever expressly stated such an intent, but it seemed fairly obvious to Alyssa. There was a powerful artifact just sitting around, unused. Ripe for the taking. One that might be able to help destroy whatever plan involved those black books of death—which Tenebrael had stated as one of her primary goals.
But Tenebrael didn’t answer. She stared down at nothing in particular, seemingly giving the question serious thought. But eventually, she did look back up. “Perhaps someday. Perhaps. However, that is a long time off. Until I can simply wave my hand and destroy the entirety of the Astral Authority, what hope do I have against even a single Seraphim? They’re gnats in comparison, but they’re forcing me to hide.”
“Isn’t that what you’re working on right now? You said a month, right? How close are you? And… can the demons hold out that long?”
“Oh no,” Tenebrael said with a chuckle. She waved her hand like an old lady denying that anything special was going on. “Have you seen that demon lately? That’s what I would look like if I actually tried to fight them. And she had a whole army backing her up, so I would probably wind up far worse off. No, what I am doing is simply trying to block their ability to spring up those portals all over the place. That should buy me the freedom to go back to normal… mostly. One or a few might still squeeze through to this world, but I can handle a few. I just won’t have to worry about an avalanche of those little gnats burying me so deep that I would never see the light of day again. And… hopefully… I shouldn’t have to worry about any Cardinal Virtues either. They won’t be able to squeeze through like the little ones.”
So they were still going to be around looking for Tenebrael, just in lesser numbers? That sounded irritating for Alyssa in particular.
Perhaps she should just end the connection. It helped out a lot in situations involving the Astral Authority, but she only got in those situations because of the connection.
Maybe after Tenebrael finished, she could reactivate it, but for now, it was probably best to disconnect. Especially with how hard they came after her following that demon showing up.
Alyssa opened her mouth, but hesitated, not sure if she should mention it to the angel or not. Would Tenebrael be offended? Would she recommend against it?
Tenebrael stood, rising to her feet from the bed with a slight stretch. “Well, I think I have had enough of a break for today. Got to get back to work. And we need to drop you off back in the regular world. Don’t worry, the Astral Authority has been recalled back to the pit. They won’t be around when we put you back.”
“They’ve been getting better and better at detecting me using your magic. Will there come a time when just walking around without doing anything will be enough to draw them? Should I… end our connection? If only temporarily.”
After drawing in a short breath and looking over Alyssa with her glowing white eyes, Tenebrael could only shrug once again. “If you feel it is necessary. I’m not going to stop you. Having had the connection active for so long will probably help reconnect at a later date without nearly so much hassle as you’ve gone through in the past.”
“So no side effects or anything?”
“Not on my end.”
“Ah,” Alyssa said, slumping slightly. “So helpful…”
“I’m sorry. I just don’t have much experience with this kind of thing. It isn’t that common to begin with, but I don’t remember any stories of others in roughly your position having anything bad happen to them after their miracle work was done with.”
“Then I’ll end it now. Just in case the Astral Authority notice on returning to Nod. I’d rather not be swarmed immediately.”
“I don’t think they would notice, but I suppose I don’t know for certain.”
Alyssa closed her eyes anyway, concentrating for a moment. She had ended a connection between herself and Tenebrael once before, so it wasn’t a wholly new experience. It didn’t require all the effort and trouble of going to that floaty place like starting the connection took. After just a few moments of thought, Alyssa felt it.
Like she had been sitting in front of a warm campfire that got snuffed out. A faint chill set in. Nothing too uncomfortable. It was just that the radiance of Tenebrael had vanished.
A light went out.
A light went out.
Poetic.
Thanks.
Well she did want to stop relying on Tenebrael.
Thanks! I’m excited to see what happens next.
that big of a concern anymore
-of
Fixed