"I'm not sure. They didn't even know angels were real, I thought they'd obviously know it."
"It's possible they did. It isn't common knowledge, and they may not have preferred to make claims they didn't have evidence for. But the Seven Deadlies are pretty minor demons, so it's possible they may never have heard anything they considered conclusive."
"Yeah, it would. Does Heaven guarantee angels? Or vice versa?"
"Well, I guess there could just be God in Heaven and no angels, but if there were angels and no Heaven then they'd have to be on Earth and probably be common knowledge."
"It would be harder to be hidey if it were all of us instead of just nine, and for thousands of years instead of a little more than a decade so far."
"Yeah that's true. But maybe there wouldn't be as many? I dunno, there's probably no reason to figure out how it'd work because it doesn't work that way."
"Thinking about unpleasant counterfactuals is unpleasant sometimes. Don't worry about it."
"By which I mean: don't ever be afraid to ask me something because you're worried I'll find it unpleasant. If it's not real it can't really hurt me and if it is real not thinking about it won't make it go away. Making sure you know what you need to know is what's important."
And after a few more weeks, the magician--hasn't actually finished his project. But he's hit a plateau and needs to think about something else for a while.
Mehitabel shows him! Here are her notes and the spells she has learned and how she can vary him and her accumulated questions that Anna couldn't answer!