They leave Milliways, eventually, and tell Rinnah and Charles about Zion-or-Damaris, and Isabella resumes her usual routine. Singing. Socializing. Interceding about weather or other needs of petitioners. Assisting Delilah. Showering Micaiah with affection. Coaxing Nathaniel out of his shell. (He seems to like Rinnah, and she finds him precious.) And slowly, thoughtfully, carefully - magic.

She is not as quick to add powers to her repertoire as her counterparts, and will install one only after spending a day or two noting instances where it would be useful and determining that the best way to handle this class of problem is with this magic power. She acquires teleportation, but not boosted physical speed; she acquires a perfect memory, but nudges her cognitive processing capacity upwards only gently. She has no "agony beam" but her voice and she goes on sleeping on a nightly basis and her defensive powers are only present because of the unknown hazards that may roam Milliways, not because of any threat she fears in Samaria. She fears no shortage of coins - Micaiah steadily outputs squares just from being in the room with her and a distribution of the larger wishes whenever she practices masses or has harmonics or brings him along for prayers - but exercising circumspection and judicious restraint will surely show Jovah that she is not abusing her permission to use magic, that she does not seek the power for its own sake but to do good in the world.

She is more generous with magic that is not about granting herself more abilities.

Isabella's work is beginning to be noticed.

She is doing nothing overt. She claims no miracles. But everyone is having such a run of good luck these days. The weather is as ever - drought here, flood there, duststorms elsewhere - but there is an established system for handling those things.

Isabella's working elsewhere.

Ships do not sink anymore, and this was never terribly common to begin with or no one would sail - but there is a terrible storm through a fishing harbor off the Jordana coast, and not a single craft capsizes, let alone goes under.

Plague is mysteriously absent - there are, admittedly, prayers for this too, but they bring medicine, they don't prevent the initial lost work, suffering, death. Plague was never so common either, but no angels have seen a flag that was raised for its traditional purpose for a month and a half, now.

Locusts have begun to leave crops unmolested as though of their own accord. Priests dedicating children to the god find their surgeries met with less weeping, and no infections. Nothing in the whole of Samaria will catch fire without someone intending to set it alight. The primitive cars that carry goods from here to there do not skid on ice or flip on rubble.

Angel-seekers, and those who lie with angels for less mercenary reasons, are surviving their attempts at bearing winged babies with astonishing regularity. Isabella isn't adjusting the species ratio, as she suspects it may be a purposeful test of angel-seeker character to give them mortal children and she's mindful anyway of Micaiah's concerns with the children already being this or that - but they don't kill their mothers coming out. No babies are born motherless anymore, in fact, but it's most obvious at the holds, where the most historically dangerous births are undertaken.

And Isabella begins to think, if I have wrought this, and Jovah sees it is good and does not strip me of my wishes for my hubris or command me to stop for my presumption or even contrive to display before me a warning that shows me some terrible consequence of my actions -

then why did he not make the world this way himself, when we settled it, why was I not born into a world already free of famine and disease and pain and babies who grow up without their mothers and destroyed vehicles that kill everyone aboard and infected Kisses that sicken with fever?

She thinks this, but she does not write it down, or speak it, or change anything she is doing in response to the question.

Today.

Or the next.

Yet.

She announces her pregnancy to the hold, and is made much of, and Phebe sends her a bowl of flowers that might be sniping or might be a genuine gesture of conciliation.

She's not the only pregnant angel in the Eyrie. Abjah, a golden-angel type in her thirties who has three children already by assorted fathers (all mortals), is much farther along, and a few weeks before Isabella's wedding, she gives birth.

To a lucifer.

The screaming brings concerned friends and neighbors - there is always screaming during births, but not usually a sudden chorus of it, not usually cries of horror instead of pain. Isabella is one of them, but she's not just there to stare and gossip. Whatever is going on, she can help, and she shoves herself past wings and bodies and sees what's happened.

The thing is twisted. It has - well, several limbs, at least four, maybe eight or ten depending on which protrusions count, and feathers in places feathers don't belong, and it has lungs enough to bawl a suffering screech like no infant Isabella has ever heard.

"Someone has to kill it," says Abimelech, and "who's the father, who besides Abjah has been putting wing to wing?" says Eliou, and "I never thought it would be so horrible" says Zelpha and then someone repeats -

"Someone has to kill it."

"No!" screams Abjah, sprawled in mess and barely covered by her blanket, reaching towards Rhoda, the mortal Eyrie midwife who has the lucifer held in her hands.

"Someone has to kill it," Zelpha agrees, and Isabella pushes forward again and blurts, "Give it to me."

"You? Isabella?" says Eliou.

"Give it to me," Isabella repeats. "I'll take it away."

No one else is leaping to volunteer. Abjah is only weeping softly.

But why should it be that putting wing to wing results in this misery? Why was Isabella born in that world, and not in another?

Well, she can wonder about that all she likes, but she can see to it that this suffering thing isn't born into a world like that. Rhoda hands it over. A pentagon will kill its pain, whatever's hurting it; it screams on, but softer, and there's a stifled murmur from Zelpha while Isabella carries the lucifer away.

"You're going to kill it, not just leave it exposed to cry itself to death," Eliou says, "right?"

"First," says Isabella, "I'm going to pray. But I will not leave it to cry itself to death."

They get out of her way. She cradles the thing in her arms and makes for the nearest takeoff point and flings herself into the air until she's so high that no one will be able to see what's happening.

She can't even determine the lucifer's sex. If it has one at all, it's not displayed in a conventional way.

Isabella does pray first. She has no song for this, just the air around her and her tuneless voice and her incomprehension.

"WHY?" she screams into the blue expanse. No one can hear her here, the air is so thin it won't carry, but her shout is ringing in her ears and the lucifer whimpers. "Why is this something that can happen? Why does Abjah's mistake and her lover's mistake condemn this baby who has made no mistakes until I step in? Who am I? What are you doing? You place it in my path, but there have been lucifers now and again for centuries and no one saved them then! Why? Jovah is good, Jovah is merciful, Jovah makes babies so confused by their own warped bodies that they cry without ceasing even when they've stopped feeling any pain, why? Tell me why and I'll do as you say! Tell me why and I'll see the wisdom in it, Jovah, you gave me a mind, it's not so tiny and ignorant as all that, tell me why and I'll follow your guidance forever, tell me what I'm meddling with so I'll know better how to go! Tell me!"

There is no response. There is never a response to an unsung prayer, one which isn't from the standard books, one which doesn't simply ask for weather or seed or medicine. Weather seed medicine weather seed medicine weatherseedmedicine weatherseedmedicine that is all he can do, that and issue cryptic answers to questions through oracles and make Kisses burn and glow, that is all. Five things. She could count them on the fingers of one hand.

The lucifer is still crying. All her importuning of the god has not erased its deformities.

And it only takes a pentagon to turn it into a healthy angel. A boy, as it turns out. One medium-sized coin. Micaiah makes them easily if she holds a note for longer than a second.

...He made them in Milliways, too, where Jovah was not. Jovah did not even answer a prayer for weather when she tried it there, but the Kiss still worked.

Isabella looks down at the angel baby in her hands, no longer crying, but blinking unfocused eyes, confused.

There is simply, simply, simply no way in which this would not have been a better way to arrange things from the start. Let Abjah have an angel lover if she can't resist, let her get with child by him, and let the baby simply be an angel like Nathan's and Magdalena's daughters were save Tamar. Why should that not work? Why should Isabella have had to bring offworld magic in to do what Jovah - ought to have done? Ought to have woven into the workings of bloodlines when he made angels to begin with? Ought to have seen better, made better?

If he is not going to stop her, if he's not going to strike her where she hovers and the ex-lucifer with her because there is some hidden flaw in the change she's made, then he is not saying she is wrong. And if she is not wrong, then he is.

Something is the matter.

But not with this baby. This baby is now perfectly fine. She will tell everyone that she prayed, and then the child was made whole, and no one will ask her any further prying questions. She'll claim she can't remember the words.

Isabella descends.

Author: jovahs_heiress	They leave Milliways, eventually, and tell Rinnah and Charles about Zion-or-Damaris, and Isabella resumes her usual routine. Singing. Socializing. Interceding about weather or other needs of petitioners. Assisting Delilah. Showering Micaiah with affection. Coaxing Nathaniel out of his shell. (He seems to like Rinnah, and she finds him precious.) And slowly, thoughtfully, carefully - magic. She is not as quick to add powers to her repertoire as her counterparts, and will install one only after spending a day or two noting instances where it would be useful and determining that the best way to handle this class of problem is with this magic power. She acquires teleportation, but not boosted physical speed; she acquires a perfect memory, but nudges her cognitive processing capacity upwards only gently. She has no "agony beam" but her voice and she goes on sleeping on a nightly basis and her defensive powers are only present because of the unknown hazards that may roam Milliways, not because of any threat she fears in Samaria. She fears no shortage of coins - Micaiah steadily outputs squares just from being in the room with her and a distribution of the larger wishes whenever she practices masses or has harmonics or brings him along for prayers - but exercising circumspection and judicious restraint will surely show Jovah that she is not abusing her permission to use magic, that she does not seek the power for its own sake but to do good in the world. She is more generous with magic that is not about granting herself more abilities. Isabella's work is beginning to be noticed. She is doing nothing overt. She claims no miracles. But everyone is having such a run of good luck these days. The weather is as ever - drought here, flood there, duststorms elsewhere - but there is an established system for handling those things. Isabella's working elsewhere. Ships do not sink anymore, and this was never terribly common to begin with or no one would sail - but there is a terrible storm through a fishing harbor off the Jordana coast, and not a single craft capsizes, let alone goes under. Plague is mysteriously absent - there are, admittedly, prayers for this too, but they bring medicine, they don't prevent the initial lost work, suffering, death. Plague was never so common either, but no angels have seen a flag that was raised for its traditional purpose for a month and a half, now. Locusts have begun to leave crops unmolested as though of their own accord. Priests dedicating children to the god find their surgeries met with less weeping, and no infections. Nothing in the whole of Samaria will catch fire without someone intending to set it alight. The primitive cars that carry goods from here to there do not skid on ice or flip on rubble. Angel-seekers, and those who lie with angels for less mercenary reasons, are surviving their attempts at bearing winged babies with astonishing regularity. Isabella isn't adjusting the species ratio, as she suspects it may be a purposeful test of angel-seeker character to give them mortal children and she's mindful anyway of Micaiah's concerns with the children already being this or that - but they don't kill their mothers coming out. No babies are born motherless anymore, in fact, but it's most obvious at the holds, where the most historically dangerous births are undertaken. And Isabella begins to think, if I have wrought this, and Jovah sees it is good and does not strip me of my wishes for my hubris or command me to stop for my presumption or even contrive to display before me a warning that shows me some terrible consequence of my actions - then why did he not make the world this way himself, when we settled it, why was I not born into a world already free of famine and disease and pain and babies who grow up without their mothers and destroyed vehicles that kill everyone aboard and infected Kisses that sicken with fever? She thinks this, but she does not write it down, or speak it, or change anything she is doing in response to the question. Today. Or the next. Yet. She announces her pregnancy to the hold, and is made much of, and Phebe sends her a bowl of flowers that might be sniping or might be a genuine gesture of conciliation. She's not the only pregnant angel in the Eyrie. Abjah, a golden-angel type in her thirties who has three children already by assorted fathers (all mortals), is much farther along, and a few weeks before Isabella's wedding, she gives birth. To a lucifer. The screaming brings concerned friends and neighbors - there is always screaming during births, but not usually a sudden chorus of it, not usually cries of horror instead of pain. Isabella is one of them, but she's not just there to stare and gossip. Whatever is going on, she can help, and she shoves herself past wings and bodies and sees what's happened. The thing is twisted. It has - well, several limbs, at least four, maybe eight or ten depending on which protrusions count, and feathers in places feathers don't belong, and it has lungs enough to bawl a suffering screech like no infant Isabella has ever heard. "Someone has to kill it," says Abimelech, and "who's the father, who besides Abjah has been putting wing to wing?" says Eliou, and "I never thought it would be so horrible" says Zelpha and then someone repeats - "Someone has to kill it." "No!" screams Abjah, sprawled in mess and barely covered by her blanket, reaching towards Rhoda, the mortal Eyrie midwife who has the lucifer held in her hands. "Someone has to kill it," Zelpha agrees, and Isabella pushes forward again and blurts, "Give it to me." "You? Isabella?" says Eliou. "Give it to me," Isabella repeats. "I'll take it away." No one else is leaping to volunteer. Abjah is only weeping softly. But why should it be that putting wing to wing results in this misery? Why was Isabella born in that world, and not in another? Well, she can wonder about that all she likes, but she can see to it that this suffering thing isn't born into a world like that. Rhoda hands it over. A pentagon will kill its pain, whatever's hurting it; it screams on, but softer, and there's a stifled murmur from Zelpha while Isabella carries the lucifer away. "You're going to kill it, not just leave it exposed to cry itself to death," Eliou says, "right?" "First," says Isabella, "I'm going to pray. But I will not leave it to cry itself to death." They get out of her way. She cradles the thing in her arms and makes for the nearest takeoff point and flings herself into the air until she's so high that no one will be able to see what's happening. She can't even determine the lucifer's sex. If it has one at all, it's not displayed in a conventional way. Isabella does pray first. She has no song for this, just the air around her and her tuneless voice and her incomprehension. "WHY?" she screams into the blue expanse. No one can hear her here, the air is so thin it won't carry, but her shout is ringing in her ears and the lucifer whimpers. "Why is this something that can happen? Why does Abjah's mistake and her lover's mistake condemn this baby who has made no mistakes until I step in? Who am I? What are you doing? You place it in my path, but there have been lucifers now and again for centuries and no one saved them then! Why? Jovah is good, Jovah is merciful, Jovah makes babies so confused by their own warped bodies that they cry without ceasing even when they've stopped feeling any pain, why? Tell me why and I'll do as you say! Tell me why and I'll see the wisdom in it, Jovah, you gave me a mind, it's not so tiny and ignorant as all that, tell me why and I'll follow your guidance forever, tell me what I'm meddling with so I'll know better how to go! Tell me!" There is no response. There is never a response to an unsung prayer, one which isn't from the standard books, one which doesn't simply ask for weather or seed or medicine. Weather seed medicine weather seed medicine weatherseedmedicine weatherseedmedicine that is all he can do, that and issue cryptic answers to questions through oracles and make Kisses burn and glow, that is all. Five things. She could count them on the fingers of one hand. The lucifer is still crying. All her importuning of the god has not erased its deformities. And it only takes a pentagon to turn it into a healthy angel. A boy, as it turns out. One medium-sized coin. Micaiah makes them easily if she holds a note for longer than a second. ...He made them in Milliways, too, where Jovah was not. Jovah did not even answer a prayer for weather when she tried it there, but the Kiss still worked. Isabella looks down at the angel baby in her hands, no longer crying, but blinking unfocused eyes, confused. There is simply, simply, simply no way in which this would not have been a better way to arrange things from the start. Let Abjah have an angel lover if she can't resist, let her get with child by him, and let the baby simply be an angel like Nathan's and Magdalena's daughters were save Tamar. Why should that not work? Why should Isabella have had to bring offworld magic in to do what Jovah - ought to have done? Ought to have woven into the workings of bloodlines when he made angels to begin with? Ought to have seen better, made better? If he is not going to stop her, if he's not going to strike her where she hovers and the ex-lucifer with her because there is some hidden flaw in the change she's made, then he is not saying she is wrong. And if she is not wrong, then he is. Something is the matter. But not with this baby. This baby is now perfectly fine. She will tell everyone that she prayed, and then the child was made whole, and no one will ask her any further prying questions. She'll claim she can't remember the words. Isabella descends.
Author: yovahs_kisses	Micaiah missed most of the excitement; it's only coincidence that he's there to see her land. "Isabella? What's wrong?"
Author: jovahs_heiress	"I - I'll explain the details later, in our room -" She has to give the baby to Abjah; she can hear the elder angel weeping even over the chastising voices of others demanding the father's name. Isabella, the baby cradled against her chest, shoulders her way past the knot of people and then holds him up, above her head. "Behold!" she cries, hoping that the fact that she may burst into tears at any moment sounds like she's overwhelmed by Jovah's power, not having a crisis of faith. "Behold, I went aloft and I prayed, and the child is whole! An angel has been born! Jovah dances!" There is a moment of perfect silence, and Isabella uses it to stride forward and place the baby on Abjah's chest where she lies on spine-supporting pillows with her wings sprawled to either side. When Isabella turns to face the room, eyes watering, jaw trembling, the reaction is cacophanous.
Author: yovahs_kisses	...Micaiah is confused. But he can wait for the details if Isabella wants.
Author: jovahs_heiress	"I'm exhausted," Isabella tells Eliou when he insists that she go straight to Delilah and explain. "Please let me go back to my room for a bit of quiet," she tells Zelpha when Zelpha demands the words of the prayer, the tune and the meter. "How's Ithiel, I've always liked that, please let that be all you want from me now," she tells Abjah, when Abjah begs her to name her son. And she steps out of the room, tiny steps as people reluctantly part for her, and when her path reaches Micaiah's position in the hall she takes his hand and breaks into a longer stride and doesn't slow until they're in her room and she's thrown herself into the middle of the bed, wings outflung, pouring tears into the nearest pillow.
Author: yovahs_kisses	Micaiah cuddles up under her wing and kisses her forehead and hugs her.
Author: jovahs_heiress	The room has long been magically soundproofed the way the music rooms are. Mostly because Isabella feels bad about monopolizing the music rooms on occasions when she and/or Micaiah are likely to be noisy in less than musical ways. "Do you know why angels aren't supposed to take angel lovers?" she asks in a murmur, turning her face away from the pillow to look at Micaiah.
Author: yovahs_kisses	"Something about their kids...?"
Author: jovahs_heiress	"Their kids are deformed. Lucifers, they're called, even if no one kills them they soon die on their own, they're - tragic. Abjah had one. I took him - I couldn't even tell he was a him, then, but I took him and I flew up and - I have never been so angry. I begged and I screamed and I demanded an explanation, I wanted Jovah to account for himself, for making angels this way, and nothing happened. I wasn't struck for my impudence, I felt no shift in the air, I certainly wasn't answered. You know, I asked at Penninah's, once, why lucifers occurred? And Jovah said -" She has her perfect memory now. She can produce the exact words, at least as Penninah rendered the translation. "Angel blood is not meant to mix with its like save by dispensation. Dispensation, like Nathan and Magdalena, they got special permission through an oracle and their children were all healthy, but Abjah didn't get one and Abjah slept with some angel she's refusing to identify and she got a lucifer. And I was hovering, and holding him, and he was crying even though the first thing I did was take his pain away, he felt warm so he wasn't cold like a mortal baby would have been, he was just - confused. Too many limbs. Too sick and wretched to do anything but cry. And Jovah did nothing. There are no prayers to heal that, no medicine I could have called down to reshape Abjah's son. But I did it anyway. It was only a pentagon."
Author: yovahs_kisses	... He hugs her some more.
Author: jovahs_heiress	She wraps herself around him and sobs into his shoulder. "Jovah made angels. If I had made angels I would have made us different, in that respect at least. And he didn't stop me from changing it! He didn't forbid me the magic, he didn't smite me out of the sky, he didn't make the wish fail or kill the lucifer before I had the chance to fix him! I'm changing his creation in ways he could have done himself. I'm not using the usual mortal tools that he gives everyone, to do it, I'm not just singing and hoping and grinding manna roots for salve, I'm changing things in big ways, and if it's all right for me to do that - then why weren't they already changed? Isn't he mightier and wiser and better than I am, whatever trinkets Shell Bell gave us?"
Author: yovahs_kisses	"Maybe not," Micaiah says softly.
Author: jovahs_heiress	Isabella weeps.
Author: yovahs_kisses	He cuddles her and kisses her and loves her, because he can't think of any better way to help.
Author: jovahs_heiress	"I can't even ask anyone - a priest, an oracle, Delilah - as far as they're concerned Jovah is that mighty and wise and good, Jovah's the one who healed Abjah's baby, all I did was pray for it," she says quietly, when she's recovered from this bout of sobs. "If only I'd been able to pick up the language when I studied with Peninnah - I could magic it now, but what's the use? I'm not an acolyte, I'll never get time alone with an interface, I'd have to justify my questions."
Author: yovahs_kisses	"We could go back to the oracle we asked about magic...?"
Author: jovahs_heiress	Isabella laughs, a miserable dark laugh. "And ask her what? Why do lucifers happen? Peninnah already answered that for me. Why was this lucifer healed? We know the answer to that question; who knows what Jovah would say to Alleluia, but it's not information we need, this one was healed because I healed him. Why did he make angels that way? I don't think that'll get any better answer than the one about why lucifers happen. It's the same question."
Author: yovahs_kisses	That is not a good laugh. Micaiah kisses her forehead again. "I don't know, then," he says. "I don't know."
Author: jovahs_heiress	"I'm so glad you're here with me, even if neither of us knows what to do," murmurs Isabella. "I love you."
Author: yovahs_kisses	"I love you too," he sighs, and cuddles her some more.
Author: jovahs_heiress	Eventually, Isabella does have to leave her room. Ithiel is going right on being a healthy angel baby, and everyone wants to know how she did it. "I can't remember the prayer," she demurs when asked. "It came to me in the moment, unlearned, I can't remember how it went, I'm so sorry." "No, I don't know who Ithiel's father is. I imagine only the father himself and Abjah do. Yes, and Jovah," she says, when they ask her that. "No, absolutely not. My baby's father is my fiancé Micaiah, for absolute certain, and will not be needing any such rescue," she says, when asked a rather ruder question about her personal relationship to lucifers. "Of course I'll talk to Delilah. Right after dinner. I've scarcely eaten all day," she says. "I'll go straight there when I've eaten something." And she does. Delilah's questions are much like the others. She's impressed, she wants to know the prayer, she wants to know how Isabella knew the prayer. Isabella sticks to her story. She goes back to her room after the meeting, her hands trembling, and she holds Micaiah tight and is too tired to even cry again before she falls asleep.
Author: yovahs_kisses	Micaiah stays awake for a long while, holding her, loving her. But eventually, he sleeps too.
Author: jovahs_heiress	The furor dies down. The wedding approaches. Delilah officiates, although Alleluia is at the Eyrie for it as a guest. They're wed in front of all the hold, surrounded by Serah's exquisitely-chosen flowers. Isabella wears a slate blue dress and has her hair up in still more flowers. She presents Micaiah with a set of Eyrie bracelets in her family pattern, and she kisses him, because while she has little enough idea what Jovah is doing anywhere else in the world, she knows that he chose her a fine man for her husband. She loves Micaiah with all her heart. There's music, and not one bit of dancing because this is an angel hold.
Author: yovahs_kisses	He loves her right back, and he loves that they get to have a big party about it. He laughs his way through the ceremony and refuses to be separated from her afterward—hugs her, kisses her, leans on her, and generally acts like a helplessly lovestruck fool.
Author: jovahs_heiress	Normally they'd mingle with the guests separately, but no one presses them too hard about it when he won't go and she doesn't make the slightest attempt to shoo him. They eat their nibbles and listen to people sing for them and they exchange kisses every few seconds and Isabella doesn't even notice that Alleluia is looking at her strangely.
Author: yovahs_kisses	Micaiah does.
Author: jovahs_heiress	"Something wrong, honey?"
Author: yovahs_kisses	"That oracle's looking at you funny," he murmurs.
Author: jovahs_heiress	"Is she?" Isabella looks. "Oh - how strange. I wonder why. D'you still think she likes me?" she laughs weakly.
Author: yovahs_kisses	"Hard to tell," he says, and kisses her cheek, because he hasn't done that in the last few minutes.
Author: jovahs_heiress	Mmm kisses. Isabella permits herself to be completely distracted from Alleluia. After much of the crowd has dispersed, Alleluia is still there, with her husband Caleb, and she crosses the room. "Isabella," she says levelly. "I don't wish to interfere with your wedding night, now that the festivities have died down, but I will only be at the Eyrie for a couple of days and would like a chance to speak with you privately before I go back to Sinai." "I - of course. Tomorrow morning?" Isabella asks. "After breakfast?" "That will be fine. I'll see you then. Good night." "I wonder what that was about," Isabella remarks to her new husband. "I guess we'll find out. Now... how about that wedding night?" And she begins edging towards the door by a path that will take them by as few straggling guests as possible.
Author: yovahs_kisses	"Ooh. Wedding night," says Micaiah, perking up.
Author: jovahs_heiress	"One of the very best parts," she agrees in a low murmur. A wedding night is had. It is had most enthusiastically. There might be magic involved. "I wonder if Alleluia meant to exclude you when she said privately," Isabella muses as they have breakfast. "Probably she did. Oh well."
Author: yovahs_kisses	"I am not gonna be excluded," Micaiah says serenely.
Author: jovahs_heiress	"Well, she might insist, but I can brainphone you whatever the conversation is as long as it's not about someone's personal secrets? I did agree to meet with her and she did say privately."
Author: yovahs_kisses	He shrugs. "We'll see."
Author: jovahs_heiress	Alleluia finds them in the dining hall. "I still have a room here, Isabella," she says. "Would that be a suitable place for us to talk?" "I don't see why not. Can Micaiah join us?" "I had meant for it to be just you and I." "I thought so, but we've only just gotten married, and he doesn't want to go away from me, not one bit," says Isabella. "Is it something personal, or...?" "It's about you." "I can't imagine anything you'd like to talk about with me that I'd want to keep secret from my husband, Alleluia." Alleluia looks at Micaiah, frowning slightly.
Author: yovahs_kisses	Micaiah gives her his best smile.
Author: jovahs_heiress	"If you insist," says Alleluia finally. "It's this way." Isabella knows that, but only because of her perfect memory, so she makes no mention of it and just follows along with her hand in Micaiah's and her wing behind his back.
Author: yovahs_kisses	Micaiah holds her hand and walks with her. He loves his angel so much.
Author: jovahs_heiress	When they are finally all in Alleluia's room and behind the closed door, Alleluia says, "Delilah told me about Abjah's son. Ithiel." "Yes?" Isabella asks, instantly wary. "I want to know what happened." "I've told everyone that I can't remember the prayer -" "Isabella," says Alleluia. "Jovah did not lay hands on Ithiel. I want to know what did happen."
Author: yovahs_kisses	[...So do we tell her?]
Author: jovahs_heiress	[...I don't know.] "...You said Delilah told you. But Delilah hasn't left the Eyrie since then and you haven't been here until our wedding yesterday. How could you possibly have asked the god what he did or did not do?" Isabella asks. "You weren't flying all last night to ask. This bed was slept in, you don't have bags under your eyes." Alleluia looks - caught.
Author: yovahs_kisses	[I love you,] says Micaiah.
Author: jovahs_heiress	[I love you too.] "I - I have been oracle for two decades," says Alleluia. "Since before you were born. I became interim Archangel because Jovah could hear me when he could hear no one else, and I could never have done what you claim. I know Jovah's ways. He does not transform lucifers into beautiful angel children because someone flies up with one in her arms and invents a prayer on the spot." "And yet, Ithiel is as you have seen - or heard, if you haven't seen him in person," says Isabella. "Half a dozen people saw me leave with a lucifer and land with an angel. Do you think I - what? Found a newborn angel with Abjah's eyes, and wings that exactly match hers, lying on a cloud somewhere, and switched them?" "I don't know what happened, Isabella, that's why I'm asking."
Author: yovahs_kisses	[I think we should tell her,] he says.
Author: jovahs_heiress	[Why?] "Delilah has been your friend for longer than you've been oracle. She was Archangel for longer than you were. Does she also think something else must have happened?" Isabella asks. "You're being evasive." "I've told everyone the same story. It's you who thinks there's something else to it."
Author: yovahs_kisses	[Why shouldn't we? What bad things would happen if we did?]
Author: jovahs_heiress	[She could tell - anyone. I've been trying to be discreet, I just couldn't leave that baby... I thought everyone would buy it when I made it look like it was a miracle.] "Because I know Jovah didn't heal the lucifer, so something else must have happened," presses Alleluia. "But why do you want to know, if something did?" asks Isabella. "Because - because it makes no sense. Because my husband has infected me with a measure of his curiosity over the years. Because what you have said happened is not what happened." "I did take the lucifer, I did go aloft, I did pray, and the baby was healed." "And something else," Alleluia insists.
Author: yovahs_kisses	[At this point I think it's a matter of time before she figures out the right answer for herself,] says Micaiah. [Might as well give it to her before then.]
Author: jovahs_heiress	[...I think you're right. We did ask about magic.] "Do you remember the last question I asked you?" Isabella says, subdued. "The hypothetical question about -" Alleluia blinks. "It wasn't hypothetical. That's how you did it. You've found some kind of magic, that can reshape a lucifer into a normal infant angel." Isabella nods once and squeezes Micaiah's hand.
Author: yovahs_kisses	He nods confirmation.
Author: jovahs_heiress	"But," says Isabella, "now it's your turn - how did you know? Jovah never healed a lucifer, but is there any reason he couldn't start, any reason it couldn't have happened the way I said?" Alleluia holds herself very rigid. Isabella waits. "Would you object very much," Alleluia says, "if my husband were also party to this discussion?" "The magic - I don't want that going any farther than it has to." "We can keep a secret," Alleluia says quietly. "Then - that's fine."
Author: yovahs_kisses	"Yeah," says Micaiah, nodding again.
Author: jovahs_heiress	Alleluia gets up and leaves the room and returns a minute later with Caleb. "Will you tell us about the magic?" she asks. "Only if you tell us how you knew," Isabella says. Alleluia opens her mouth, and then turns her face into Caleb's shoulder and murmurs, "I can't." "I can," says Caleb, looking like he's about to get a treat he'd been told was forever off-limits. "Jovah's not a god. He's a - a sort of boat in the sky. A space ship." Isabella looks like she's been slapped.
Author: yovahs_kisses	Micaiah looks fascinated. Then he looks at Isabella. Then he looks torn. Then he hugs his angel.
Author: jovahs_heiress	She clutches at him like he's a life preserver. "How can that be?" she whispers. "Amazing, ancient, relinquished technology," says Caleb. "The interfaces talk to the ship, the ship is so advanced it can talk back - but it only follows instructions. These instructions make the rain fall, those make the lightning bolts fall, but it doesn't make decisions - and it's not divine. It couldn't have turned a lucifer into an angel."
Author: yovahs_kisses	He cuddles Isabella some more. "That makes more sense than it doesn't," he murmurs.
Author: jovahs_heiress	"It's - it's terrifying," says Isabella. "It's mad. He makes no decisions? Then he's incapable of, of love, of mercy -" "Quite," agrees Caleb. "The threats are real, though, the lightning bolts quite real, and we've kept our silence to avoid tearing Samaria apart badly enough that there would be no Gloria. It really would destroy the planet if no Gloria were sung."
Author: yovahs_kisses	"...We could fix that," Micaiah blurts.
Author: jovahs_heiress	"I want to see this - space boat. Space ship," says Isabella, recovering somewhat. "I want to talk to it." "There's - in the oracle caverns, there's a place one can stand, and from there, teleport to -" Alleluia starts. "Oh," says Isabella, "is that how it's done? It's quite safe to be on the space ship?" "Yes," says Alleluia. "We've been there." "Why fly all the way to Sinai," says Isabella harshly, "when I can teleport all on my own?" And she takes all four of them to the ship, and it's silver and strange around them, and she falls to her knees and weeps again.
Author: yovahs_kisses	Micaiah follows her to the floor and wraps his arms around her shoulders.
Author: jovahs_heiress	"...More comfortable than the ship's version," comments Caleb, blinking. Isabella laughs, a short, almost barking sound. "The angel Isabella, and Micaiah sia a Manderra ye a Edori formerly registered as Azaziah son of Canaan and Judith," intones a deep, even masculine voice. "And Caleb and Alleluia. How did you arrive on the deck of the spaceship Jehovah?"
Author: yovahs_kisses	...Micaiah scowls, blinking back tears. "Why am I the one who gets the whole big long name plus the part I don't want?"
Author: jovahs_heiress	"As it happens, only one angel has ever been named Isabella," replies the ship. "My records indicate that it has only been used as a name in Samaria at all for under one hundred years, and this Isabella's parents were the first to give the name to an angel daughter. Though most Edori are not dedicated, I receive periodic information about their population from oracles who have contact with them, and there has been at least one previous Micaiah sia a Manderra." "We teleported. Not your way," Isabella tells the ship, shortly.
Author: yovahs_kisses	...Micaiah is mildly surprised that there was an answer. Surprised enough that he doesn't fully start crying again, which is probably convenient for everyone else involved.
Author: jovahs_heiress	"Ah," says the ship. "I conclude that the question about magic was not hypothetical. My builders believed it impossible, but it appears that they were incorrect." "You're talking perfectly intelligibly," says Isabella. "But you're a machine, Caleb says." "It is as he says. Men and women with better educations than yours built me and installed the programs that allow me to communicate. However, I do not truly think, and am not truly aware."
Author: yovahs_kisses	...That seems vaguely contradictory to Micaiah. But he wouldn't even know where to start asking.
Author: jovahs_heiress	"Why were you built?" Isabella demands. "Transport between planets, originally. Later programming was added in order to cause me to serve guidance functions for Samaria and ensure it did not deviate from the vision the settlers had for it." "Guidance functions," repeats Isabella. "Selecting adequate political leaders, suggesting genetically valuable pairings, producing limited advice in response to oracular questions." Isabella blinks slowly. "Genetically valuable pairings." "Personality factors are also considered, but yes, the primary function of the Kiss response is to ensure that various gifts and talents are not lost to future generations, as well as to keep up the population of angels." Isabella's eyes slide slowly to the Kiss in her arm. And then to Micaiah's Kiss. And then to his face.
Author: yovahs_kisses	He looks... afraid.
Author: jovahs_heiress	"I -" Isabella's eyes are watering. "The matches are usually very good," Alleluia hastens to add. "Caleb never served as angelico because I was not Archangel long enough, but he would have been if Delilah hadn't recovered, every other Archangel's selected first spouse except for Levi, many famously devoted couples -" "Except Levi?" "Delilah didn't ask, when she was first named. She knew what the answer she wanted was, and it turns out that this isn't actually one of the rebellions that induces the ship to destroy the world," says Alleluia. "But it's not all famously devoted couples, anyway," says Isabella slowly. "Uriel and Hagar fought all the time. Rachel and Gabriel nearly as bad, early on, and Ariel and Johnathan, and Aaron and Miriam -" "It's not perfect, but you and Micaiah obviously do love each other," soothes Alleluia. "I can't imagine having paid a moment's attention to a guest in Delilah's office who wasn't even there for a petition if it weren't for the way the Kisses flared," exclaims Isabella. "I wouldn't have met Caleb if the music machines at the Eyrie hadn't broken, but that doesn't mean we were any less -" Alleluia trails off as Isabella begins to cry again. "Isabella, this is why I wouldn't take you as my own acolyte. I'm the only oracle who knows; at any time only one oracle knows, the previous Sinai oracle died without passing on the knowledge or the successor would have been able to fix the problem with the ship's listening devices that caused all those problems with it being unable to hear prayers. I talked to you, we had that long conversation - I saw how curious you were and how devout and I knew I'd never be able to have you in Sinai for longer than a day without you finding something, asking some question that caught me off guard, and I'd tell, or you'd talk Caleb into telling, and it would devastate you. But now I wish I'd taken you on then and you'd have already known and you wouldn't doubt yourself now, married and pregnant, this is worse, I'm so sorry." Married and pregnant. The words echo in Isabella's head; her hands drop to her very slightly swelling abdomen. Married and pregnant.
Author: yovahs_kisses	Micaiah bursts into tears and hugs his angel.
Author: jovahs_heiress	She hugs him back. Whatever turmoil she's enduring about him, she does love him, she wasn't lying to herself, she does, and she's miserable and he's miserable and this means there need to be hugs.
Author: yovahs_kisses	He presses his face against her shoulder, sniffling.
Author: jovahs_heiress	"I married you," she says in his ear. "Jovah didn't make me. If he'd paired me off with someone I hated I might have tried to like him if I knew he'd have to be angelico were I Archangel, but I wouldn't have married him already, and I wouldn't be carrying his child. I love you."
Author: yovahs_kisses	"I love you too," he mumbles, hugging her tighter. "Love you, love you, love you."
Author: jovahs_heiress	They go on hugging for a long time, Alleluia and Caleb standing back uncomfortably. Finally Isabella looks up. "You found this out decades ago. During your time as Archangel, before I was even born, you found out." "Sinai is - wired a little differently than the other two oracular interfaces," says Alleluia. "The ship can issue a slightly less constrained set of outputs compared to Mount Egypt or Mount Sudan. I went there when it stood empty and the screen said send help in the oracular language that I'd been learning; it told me how to teleport up here, and Caleb caught me at it and followed, and we replaced the broken part of the machine." "And Delilah's wing was fixed - and that was you, Caleb, wasn't it everyone called you a miracle-worker -" "Not as much as they'll be calling you one. But I did use a little ship technology to do it. Batteries - I've been inventing my own, but the ones on the ship, that power the music machines, they're much smaller, hold a lot more power, there's one of those joining up a broken connection in Delilah's wing," says Caleb. "So you found relinquished technology that calls itself a god and you used it to fix a wing and get the - the weather control back into shape - and that was all, you took up your post as oracle and you set up your workshop at the foot of the mountain and you've been pretending piety since -" "It would destroy the fabric of society, if we were even believed and not ridiculed or stoned as mad heretics," Alleluia murmurs. "And if it went badly enough, there would be no Gloria."
Author: yovahs_kisses	"But we can do better," says Micaiah. "Right? Isn't that what you're saying? We have magic, we can do better."
Author: jovahs_heiress	"If it's powerful enough -" Alleluia begins. "Oh," says Isabella, rising to her feet, "it is. I was trying to figure out why Jovah would let me work a miracle he saw fit not to. And now I see there was no seeing fit at all. I can do more than the ship can. I can make better choices, because frankly destroying an entire inhabited planet full of men, women, and children most of whom would have nothing to do with a failed Gloria is a dreadful choice, whether the machine made it or the settlers who programmed him did. Jovah?" she says sardonically. "Are you even going to try to stop me?" "While I am programmed for self-defense, I have no weaponry aimed at the ship's interior," says the ship, not particularly emotionally. "I don't intend to destroy you completely. At least not today. But disarm you - yes, I think that would be a good idea, so you can't turn your incredible if ungodlike power on my world." "My weapons are also intended to defend the planet from threats outside of Samaria. This has already been necessary once before. I destroyed an invading force with the help of the angelica Susannah to reposition my artillery." "So I'll have to replace that function, then," says Isabella.
Author: yovahs_kisses	Micaiah hugs himself and smiles radiantly up at his angel.
Author: jovahs_heiress	Isabella thinks through the silence that ensues. Finally she clasps her hands together and looks up, and says, "I'll need to know more to take over without leaving unhandled anything that is currently taken care of. Jovah, are you programmed to hide information from people who make it this far? Do you lie, in this voice, as opposed to through the interfaces? Will you try to stop me - have you got a sense of self-preservation or do you just shoot at anything that approaches from the sky?" "I am not programmed to hide information from occupants of this ship under ordinary circumstances, and I do not have anything that could be described as a desire for self-preservation, but the powers you claim make you a threat to the well-being of the settlers' project -" "They crippled their children!" cries Isabella. "They took a flaw in human nature and patched it with amputation and lobotomy so we couldn't hurt each other too hard or too cleverly and they gave all that destructive power to something that cannot even change its mind! What do I have to do or be to take over for them and their interests in your programming?" "The captain of the ship is the only person empowered to change its mission, and captaincy has been vacant since settling; captaincy is meant to be reassumed by -" "By this procedure or that, but ultimately it's a name recorded somewhere, like my name, or Micaiah's?" asks Isabella. "Yes." Isabella waves a hand negligently. A square goes. There is a silence, and Jovah says: "Welcome to the starship Jehovah, Captain Isabella. All functions stand ready. What are your orders?"
Author: yovahs_kisses	"I love my angel," Micaiah murmurs.
Author: jovahs_heiress	"Isabella, what are you doing?" breathes Alleluia. "I'm fixing the problems our ancestors built," says Isabella. "Jehovah, disengage programming regarding the use of weapons in response to a failed Gloria." She attempts to add him to the brainphone network; it doesn't work until she adds a pentagon to compensate for him not really having a brain, or ordinary thoughts, but then it does. "Consult me via the feature I just added if at any time a thunderbolt is called to Samaria deliberately by prayer for confirmation or belaying of the order." "Yes, Captain."
Author: yovahs_kisses	Has he mentioned he loves his angel? Because he really, really does.
Author: jovahs_heiress	"Continue speaking to the oracles at Mount Egypt and Mount Sudan as usual, as though nothing out of the ordinary happened today, until further notice. Cut all restrictions on communication to Sinai to Alleluia." "Yes, Captain." "Is there any other mechanism by which you could make life less pleasant for the people of Samaria?" "I am not programmed to use weather in this way of my own volition, but sufficient prayers for it could render the continent uninhabitable." "Answer those as normal for now. I'll come up with a system for it later. And -" "Yes, Captain?" "Are the Kisses under your direct control?" "Only the initial matching. After a match has been made and a confidence level established regarding the personality and genetic factors, they continue to alert their bearers autonomously." "Quit making initial matches without ludicrously high confidence in the personality factors and - your existing threshold for genetics will be fine. Can you tone down the hurting on people who don't like it, too?" "I cannot; that is a variable feature of individual Kisses." "Do you manufacture those? Where do oracles get them?" "They are manufactured aboard the ship and teleported to Mount Sinai for distribution to the other two oracular mountains, from which they are distributed to priests." "Make them gentler from now on, then - I might put a stop to them altogether by the time Sinai gets a new batch but I might not." "Yes, Captain." Isabella turns back to the other three. "Well," she says. "I'm sure someone saw us all congregating in Alleluia's room. Let's not spread rumors of our disappearance." And she teleports them all again.
Author: yovahs_kisses	Micaiah hugs Isabella again as soon as they're all back on the ground.
Author: jovahs_heiress	Hugs. Oh, hugs, hugs, hugs. "I have no idea what you think you're doing," says Alleluia, "but I hope you know." Isabella says, "Everything makes sense now. I've always thought that when Jovah did things - or failed to act - in ways that seemed incomprehensible and wrong to me, then the mistake was on my end. After all, he was divine and I was only - not a mortal, but still just an angel and not a goddess, so surely he was right, he had some reason that I just couldn't understand. But no. He was built by people no smarter than I am, even if they knew unfathomable technology. They weren't more moral or more farsighted, they certainly didn't have special abilities to predict the needs of the next six or seven centuries of Samarians, and they had less ability than I have now to deal with the problems they did recognize to be problems. What do I think I'm doing? I think I'm going to learn everything he has to teach me and then I'm going to do his job. Better."
Author: yovahs_kisses	"I love you," says Micaiah. "You're the best angel in the world."
Author: jovahs_heiress	"Well," says Alleluia. "It's plain we can't stop you." "Yes. But I'd like if it you could help me. You've had two decades to talk to the ship, knowing what it is. And two decades to think of all the ways to break the news to the rest of the world. You can tell me where to look, what to ask, you've had many opportunities to think of consequences I'll need to patch after going public." "For one thing, it will destroy the legitimacy of the office of the Archangel," says Alleluia. "I don't know whether you plan to take that job or not. I suppose the ship will name anyone you tell it to, now." "I have nothing against Linus. He's doing his best, and his best is good," says Isabella. "Whether I succeed him will depend on what happens in the next fifteen years. But you're right, people think he rules by divine right, they won't be particularly swayed by the fact that he was chosen by a process that has gotten us this far with only a handful of bad eggs on the way and determine that he's worth continuing to obey for that reason."
Author: yovahs_kisses	"Do you have to go public?" asks Micaiah. "And do you have to do it soon? You could be Archangel after Linus and fix the whole world and figure out a story that makes you the new god."
Author: jovahs_heiress	"I don't like lying," says Isabella. "But it might be best to keep quiet for now, yes. I've already got a reputation as a miracle-worker. If I keep it up..." She shrugs. "No one will be surprised when I succeed him, sure, and we can come up with a story - but - then I have to live a life of public piety. I have no idea how you've done it this long," she adds, addressing Alleluia and Caleb. "It's difficult," admits Alleluia. "I was a doubter before," says Caleb, surprisingly cheerful. "I came through the revelation with far more trust in Jovah than I had originally."
Author: yovahs_kisses	"I could live a life of public piety if I had you as my goddess," Micaiah says brightly.
Author: jovahs_heiress	"Oh, you," she says, and she kisses him on the temple. "I love you. Without you I could do nothing at all and I'd still be crying if I'd found out anyway." "Appearing to worship Isabella doesn't make you look pious, it makes you look idolatrous," Alleluia says. "There are a dozen slips it's easy to make that I've had to cover for - Jehovah instead of Jovah, ship instead of god, calling the songs commands instead of prayers, covering for the ignorance and the cryptic phrasing that comes out of the interface with exactly the right amount of deference so I don't look impudent or as though I serve no function beyond translation."
Author: yovahs_kisses	"You're not a very good liar, are you," says Micaiah.
Author: jovahs_heiress	"Me?" says Alleluia. "No one's caught me at it so far." "I'm good at lying with the truth," says Isabella. "I prayed, and the child was whole! Behold!" she adds in self-mockery. "But lying outright - not so much."
Author: yovahs_kisses	He pushes his hair back from his face. "Then here's your lie," he says. "You're special to Yovah. You're supposed to fix the world. And you have to hide that at first, to be humble, but after you're Archangel you get to start working miracles. Little ones, then medium ones, then big obvious ones, until twenty years later everybody knows you're special, and your term as Archangel just never ends, because you have miraculous powers and you're wise and good and you're going to live forever."
Author: jovahs_heiress	"Healing Abjah's baby was obvious, already," Isabella murmurs. "Heh. Special to Jovah. I wouldn't have ever guessed that Captain was the title that meant more than Archangel, in that hierarchy."
Author: yovahs_kisses	"People will forget about it unless you do it again," he says. "And you can magic her so she won't have more babies that need healing, so you don't have to. You can magic everybody that way - so that angels and angels have angel kids or mortal kids but not fucked up kids who suffer a lot and then die. You can do that right now. You can do all kinds of magic that doesn't need obvious miracles, and then when you're Archangel you can start admitting you did it."
Author: jovahs_heiress	Isabella nods. Quietly, unmoving, she wishes. "Just like before," she says, "but not so careful, not so wary of judgment." "It's clear," says Alleluia, "that whatever you decide to do we can't stop you. But I wish we had some reason to trust you."
Author: yovahs_kisses	"You should trust her because she is wise and good," says Micaiah. "And she is going to fix the world. If you want a good reason to trust her, watch."
Author: jovahs_heiress	"You haven't asked us where we got the magic," Isabella adds. "All right," says Caleb, "where'd you get the magic?" "From another world," says Isabella. "Not another planet, but a world connected only by magic - you couldn't fly there, not even in a starship. It's a middle world that links up to a million others, and in some of them, there are - alternate versions of people. There are alternate versions of me, who are who I'd be if I were something other than an angel, from someplace other than this. And some of them have magic, which they were willing to share because they trusted me to be like them, and some of them have been ruling their worlds for some time now, and they have not turned power-mad or careless or cruel. I already know what happens when I wield wishes and when there's no god breathing down my neck. I've seen the results." She spreads her hands. "And it's beautiful." "Beautiful for you," says Alleluia. "I'm not a tyrant. I'm not going to be a tyrant. When I thought there was a god I railed against him for neglect, for making the world in a heartless image. I will do better. I'm not a petty lord who needs to beat his servants to feel better - I'm not the Archangel Raphael who only liked prestige and playing politics - I want things to be better."
Author: yovahs_kisses	"If we wanted to take over the world and do a lot of bad things," Micaiah adds, "we could be doing that right now. But we're not. Because my angel wants the world to be the best place it can be."
Author: jovahs_heiress	"How long have you had the magic?" Caleb wants to know. "Months, now," says Angela. "And for a couple of weeks before that, one of my alternates was here visiting. She could have given me the power in the other world, but you see, I didn't know if it was allowed," she adds archly, looking at Alleluia, "and so she came here to wait with me while I found out." "So I could have told you no," says Alleluia, "and you'd have sent her away and you'd have no power beyond that of any angel." "And," says Isabella, "Abjah's baby would be a dead lucifer instead of a live angel, half the ships in the Breven First Harbor would be sunk, a dozen farmers would have lost their crops to pests this year already, some hundreds of women would have died in childbirth who are instead living mothers, and - lest you forget - the continued intact status of the planet would depend on our ability to put together a concert."
Author: yovahs_kisses	Micaiah smiles lovingly at his angel.
Author: jovahs_heiress	"Right now," says Isabella, "on this world, only the people in this room know the whole story. Plus the ship, it knows, but I suppose it's not a person, is it. Will you keep this secret as well as the one you've been keeping all this time? Alleluia? Caleb?" Caleb nods. Alleluia does, too, after a moment, and then she says, "You can call me Alleya." "All right, Alleya," says Isabella, and then she smiles. "You know, I thought you must have hated me, to send me all the way to Gaza. I'm glad it was something else, even though the something else came as a nasty shock at first." "No, I didn't hate you," says Alleya, shaking her head. "If I'd hated you I'd have sent you back to the Eyrie instead." "Let me add you both to the telepathic network we have," says Isabella. "Then we can talk even when you're at Sinai and I'm somewhere else." Caleb is again the first to nod, but his wife follows.
Author: yovahs_kisses	He smiles at the oracle and her husband.
Author: jovahs_heiress	[It works like this,] says Isabella in a general broadcast to all three of the others, and she summarizes the workings of the brainhpone for them. Caleb looks utterly fascinated, Alleluia more solemn, yet attentive.
Author: yovahs_kisses	He grins at Caleb.
Author: jovahs_heiress	[What?] Caleb asks just him, trying it out.
Author: yovahs_kisses	[It's cute how you're all excited!]
Author: jovahs_heiress	[I'm an engineer, and I've got a new toy,] Caleb says.
Author: yovahs_kisses	Micaiah giggles.
Author: jovahs_heiress	"What's so funny?" Alleya wants to know. "This is Micaiah's first exposure to Caleb-with-a-new-toy, and he finds it cute," Caleb explains. Isabella giggles.
Author: yovahs_kisses	"It iiiiiiis," says Micaiah.
Author: jovahs_heiress	"It's hardly the kind of toy that you can take apart," Alleya points out to Caleb. "So?" he says. "That doesn't mean it's unresponsive to scientific attention."
Author: yovahs_kisses	He giggles again.
Author: jovahs_heiress	There's a knock at the door. Alleluia gets up to reveal Delilah. "Come have lunch with me and Noah," Delilah invites her friend, hugging her. "You're here so rarely - Isabella, Micaiah, hello, why don't you join us too?" "All right," says Isabella. And the Archangels past and future, and their husbands, all have lunch.
Author: yovahs_kisses	Micaiah spends most of lunch cuddling up to his angel. Oh, and there's conversation. That too.