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Isabella is generally referred to as: promising.
Angels in general are a breed apart. Of course they've all got lovely voices, they've all got classical music training and know the masses and prayers, they're all blessed winged creatures -
But that doesn't mean they're all smart, or all good, even (Isabella was taken to see Windy Point, once, or what's left of it, and of course she sees the scars on Galo Mountain every year at the Gloria; there stood angels who were not good). And Isabella is smart and good.
Isabella is always the first to volunteer for an intercession. She likes them. She'll call down weather, plead for seeds, pray a shower of medicine to fall from the sky, and she will get what she asks for, and she loves nothing more than to dive from hours aloft in prayer and clasp the hands of the people she helped and go home to the Eyrie to take on her next assignment. When there are none - when there is the right amount of rain and sun in the province, when there is no plague and no famine - she studies. She studies a bit of everything, but she fancies herself particularly a historian, investigating the accounts of Archangels' reigns past. From books, mostly, although once she wrangled herself a year in Cedar Hills to assist the Archangel Linus, and when she is in the Eyrie she closely follows the leader of the host there, the former term-lapsed Archangel Delilah.
She tried to get in with the other living former Archangel, too, Alleluia the oracle who served as Delilah's interim while the latter's wing recovered from an injury, but after a few hours' conversation Alleluia said that she could not accept Isabella as even a temporary acolyte and sent her to Peninnah instead. Isabella learned a lot from Peninnah, but she's confused about why Alleluia turned her down personally only to send her to another oracle, after such a prolonged interview. Particularly since Sinai is in her own province; what was the point in sending her all the way to Gaza?
But the instruction came from an oracle, and oracles' words more often than not come from Jovah. She went to Gaza, learned from Peninnah, and went home.
Now she is back at the Eyrie, and the first thing she wants to do is let Delilah know that she's back. Her wings aren't so tired that she can't immediately fly to the Corinnis or the outskirts of Semorrah or anywhere and accomplish something. Failing that, she'd love to sign up for harmonies again now that she's home and wants to know what she ought to schedule around.
Delilah is with her husband Noah, and a visitor. He doesn't seem like a petitioner, and he doesn't look like an Edori, although the fact that he and Noah are talking in Edori suggests that he might be an adopted one. (There are hardly any Edori of either sort left; most of them live in Ysral, now.) Isabella waits patiently outside the door for the host leader's attention.
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jovahs_heiress
Isabella reaches for his hand and squeezes firmly. (Not too firmly. She doesn't want to break anything. Just wants to be warm and solid and present for him.)
"And he wasn't... reformed by the disappearance of his firstborn, or by time," Delilah asks, looking at Nathaniel.
"Nathaniel grew up thinking that his father had killed Micaiah," Isabella puts in. "That seemed plausible to him."
"Nathaniel?" Delilah says.
"And he wasn't... reformed by the disappearance of his firstborn, or by time," Delilah asks, looking at Nathaniel.
"Nathaniel grew up thinking that his father had killed Micaiah," Isabella puts in. "That seemed plausible to him."
"Nathaniel?" Delilah says.
"He told me I used to have a brother who was very, very bad," Nathaniel whispers. "But he never said what happened to him. Just that he got punished a lot, and I should be glad I'm so good because my brother had it worse."
jovahs_heiress
Delilah regards Nathaniel silently for a few moments, then returns her attention to Isabella.
"Where are you going to put him?" she asks.
"There's options. If nothing else, the Gabriel School in Velora, maybe one of the oracles when he's older, but there's only one of him and I think there will be room somewhere in the Eyrie for one little boy if I look," says Isabella gratefully. "What are you going to do?"
"Well," says Delilah. "You can tell your father what this man looks like and have him barred from entry; if he has legitimate petitions I can send someone unrelated to this situation to meet him in Velora and hear them, but he won't be in my Eyrie. If he escalates - then we can also escalate. What about your mother?" she asks, addressing the boys. "Is she also at fault? Is she safe herself?"
"Where are you going to put him?" she asks.
"There's options. If nothing else, the Gabriel School in Velora, maybe one of the oracles when he's older, but there's only one of him and I think there will be room somewhere in the Eyrie for one little boy if I look," says Isabella gratefully. "What are you going to do?"
"Well," says Delilah. "You can tell your father what this man looks like and have him barred from entry; if he has legitimate petitions I can send someone unrelated to this situation to meet him in Velora and hear them, but he won't be in my Eyrie. If he escalates - then we can also escalate. What about your mother?" she asks, addressing the boys. "Is she also at fault? Is she safe herself?"
Micaiah shrugs.
Nathaniel hesitates, then says, "Mother was very glad to send me to join the choir."
Nathaniel hesitates, then says, "Mother was very glad to send me to join the choir."
jovahs_heiress
"She was," confirms Isabella. "I didn't have to talk her into it at all. She didn't even ask for my name. She packed him a sandwich and shooed him away."
"That's only half an answer to the question I was asking. Does she, too, need protection? If she does, we can whisk her away instead of checking with Alleya a couple of times a year to see if a new child has been dedicated as the son or daughter of Canaan."
"That's only half an answer to the question I was asking. Does she, too, need protection? If she does, we can whisk her away instead of checking with Alleya a couple of times a year to see if a new child has been dedicated as the son or daughter of Canaan."
"I don't know," says Micaiah.
Nathaniel looks at him for a moment, and then shakes his head: he doesn't know either.
"I never saw him do anything to her, anyway," says Micaiah. Nathaniel nods, but looks troubled.
Nathaniel looks at him for a moment, and then shakes his head: he doesn't know either.
"I never saw him do anything to her, anyway," says Micaiah. Nathaniel nods, but looks troubled.
jovahs_heiress
Delilah considers this. Ultimately, she says, "In the event that they come here to visit or attempt to retrieve Nathaniel, someone can take her aside and inquire then. Failing that, Isabella, I am assigning you to check with Alleya as frequently as your conscience requires, is that understood?"
"Yes, Delilah," says Isabella.
"Yes, Delilah," says Isabella.
Micaiah and Nathaniel exchange a look of relief.
Then, spontaneously, Nathaniel hugs him.
Then, spontaneously, Nathaniel hugs him.
jovahs_heiress
"Now," says Delilah, making a shooing motion, "I believe you have some long-term plans for Nathaniel to hammer out, and procrastinating until the Gloria will never do. Go on now."
"Yes, Delilah," repeats Isabella, smiling and getting up to usher the hugging boys out of the room.
"Yes, Delilah," repeats Isabella, smiling and getting up to usher the hugging boys out of the room.
Out they go.
jovahs_heiress
"Are you getting along with your roommate?" Isabella asks Nathaniel as they head through the Eyrie halls. "If so there's no reason to rearrange things just yet, although of course I'll start asking around about arrangements for after."
"Yes, angela," he murmurs.
jovahs_heiress
Isabella does not know what to do with that soft, compliant voice. She can imagine him saying "yes, angela" if she announced she was going to hurl him off the top of the mountain. "If you want to move away from where you are sooner than the Gloria, you can talk to me, or ask Micaiah to talk to me, or ask Baruch," she says. "You aren't stuck there. It's not the only place you can go, not even within the Eyrie."
"Thank you," he says, again with that not-sure-what-to-do-with-this pause.
jovahs_heiress
"You're welcome," says Isabella. "But you don't really need to thank me. Helping people is what angels are for."
Nathaniel considers this for a moment.
Then he says, softly but with a trace of a smile, "Thank you anyway."
Micaiah laughs and gives him a friendly one-armed hug around the shoulders.
Then he says, softly but with a trace of a smile, "Thank you anyway."
Micaiah laughs and gives him a friendly one-armed hug around the shoulders.
jovahs_heiress
Isabella laughs too. "You're welcome anyway," she returns. "I'm so glad I was able to do something for you."
Nathaniel smiles a tiny bit more.
jovahs_heiress
They find Nathaniel's room. Jehiel, his roommate, is another mortal boy, currently lounging in the bed on his side of the room and peering at sheet music with the door open. "Hi, Nathaniel," he says, glancing up. "...and angela. And... person."
"Hi," laughs Micaiah.
"Hi," murmurs Nathaniel.
"Hi," murmurs Nathaniel.
jovahs_heiress
"See you later, Nathaniel," says Isabella, patting him on the head.
And she and Micaiah return to her quarters.
"He's safe," she says, satisfied.
And she and Micaiah return to her quarters.
"He's safe," she says, satisfied.
Micaiah spontaneously hugs her very hard.
"I love you," he says into her shoulder.
jovahs_heiress
She hugs him back tightly. He keeps saying that. The colors in her Kiss, calmed with reduced urgency but no less present, say true love. But she's mapped her mind - her mother likes to say that instead of putting on a facade of piety and goodness on the outside, she reached into her soul and built it so deeply in herself that it is simply real - and she doesn't have the reply there. Not yet.
She does have hugs. She has an ample supply of hugs.
She does have hugs. She has an ample supply of hugs.
"You're the best person I've ever met," he says, pressing his face into her shoulder.