The Celestial Court watched expectantly as their lord measuredly paced his dais, his pale eyes half-lidded in thought. The carpeted surface of his platform absorbed his footsteps and his tread was silent, leaving only the low murmurs of his courtiers to disturb the silence that had fallen across the great hall. A scout stood at the foot of the dais, holding up admirably under the tension. She did not shuffle her feet or fidget with her fingers, but stood resolutely in place upon the black marble floor as their lord thought over what she had just told him. Only a faint pulsing of the starlight that illuminated her horned crest like a corona betrayed her own tension.

The Ascended himself did not seem troubled, merely thoughtful. None of his followers could say they had ever seen him lose his composure, at that, but that did not prevent them from feeling the effects of their own worries.

Finally he returned to the center of his dais and sat again where he usually did when holding court, directly upon the carpet itself. The platform was lifted above the level of the rest of the hall only so that he could see all who were present more easily. He claimed no ostentatious couch or throne and the carved obsidian pillars that backed it were no different from all the others holding up the hall ceiling. He was the Ascended, their lord and leader, their savior and salvation, but he refused to be worshiped.

Those who knew only had to look at his face, at the mask that only partially concealed the scars put there by the god he had defied, to remember why. He had seen what happened when divinity became blind with pride and righteousness and so had forbade his own followers from ascribing any kind of divinity to him. Whether it was because he feared that he might follow in the Exalted One’s footsteps should he let his pride be so played to, or whether it was solely on principle, was unknown.

When he spoke his voice was calm, his timbre strong and easily carrying to every ear of the court as he announced his decision: “I shall go see this new realm for myself.”

The courtiers’ voices immediately rose in urgency and protest, but the Ascended silenced them with a gesture, spreading his silver-and-ruby wings wide as he continued. “We are no strangers to the countless other realms of the universe and planes of existence, and have found many allies among the peoples that call them home, but this is the first time we have discovered so strong a reflection of ourselves. I must see it for myself.”

The Ascended looked down at the scout again, ignoring another wave of raised voices. She, like all the others descended from those he had drawn away from his old master so many aeons ago, looked nothing like him. The Ascended was an ancient creature, black-furred and crimson-feathered, who had ultimately earned his title when he had climbed out of the darkness that his kin, the Abyssals, called home. He had not been alone those millennia ago, but few of his original followers remained. A new people had risen from their number, a people who favored not empty blackness but the vast infinity of a star-studded night: the Celestials.

His Celestial people had always sought allies against the greater numbers of the Abyssals who still served his old god, the entity called only the Exalted One. Often those searches sent them into worlds and realms far beyond their own, and now a very startling discovery had been made.

“These Supernals,” he went on, “seem to be our twins in this other universe—but only ethically. I cannot send any of you out again to meet with them, for physically you resemble their own dire enemies, the Infernals. Thus, I shall go myself, for my form is closest to theirs. I do not expect they would immediately take me for one of their own, but it is safer than sending one of you.”

The court went into uproar, but in the end the Ascended was their lord. They could advise and protest all they wished, but could not stop him when the only basis to their arguments was fear at exposing him to danger. They did need allies, and who better than their own twins in an alternate reality?

It had been a long time since the Ascended had had any reason to use his actual name, but it turned out that Supernals were not at all hard to find when you looked like one so strongly. People came up to you, in fact, and when they told you of a small and fairly isolated Supernal family eagerly in search of company…it was actually rather nice to just introduce oneself as “Lapriusozeric” for once.