"About a week?" says Micaiah. "Maybe a little less."

"Jovah chose us for each other," says Angela. She glances at Amariah's bare arm and explains: "The bits of crystal in our arms - they're our dedications to the god - they get people's attention when they've met their true loves - mine never looked like this before I met Micaiah. And to be sure, I checked with the oracle at Sinai, and she said that if I were ever named Archangel, he'd be my angelico."

Micaiah beams and snuggles into Kas's lap.

Kas laughs and hugs him and kisses his cheek.

"...What are you two doing?" Angela asks, genuinely confused.

"...Okay, look, maybe your one is different, or something," says Amariah. "But based on what I know about the template doubled up over there, I was almost surprised to find them just cuddling and not making out or outright absconded into one of the bedrooms by the time we came back. Maybe your god is really good at finding true loves, and sure, he'll always come back, but I don't think you're looking at a life of monogamy with - what is an angelico?"

"The husband of a female Archangel. Archangels rule Samaria," says Angela absently, digesting this information. "...Micaiah, is she right?"

"...Well, I was gonna ask if it made you sad first," he says. "And then I might try not to. But I really like sex, I don't just wanna have it with one person for the rest of my life. That would make me pretty sad."

"Oh," murmurs Angela, blinking. "...Is that an Edori thing? I suppose I wouldn't necessarily know if Noah - or Rachel - or Susannah - had - lovers..."

"It's kind of an Edori thing?"

"It's an us thing, too, though," says Kas.

"I didn't know," murmurs Angela.

"You're one of me. You can live with it," Amariah says encouragingly. "Stella does too. Shell Bell and her girlfriend aren't exclusive either."

"...Yes, that confused me, the 'girlfriend' thing, is that meant in the usual way even though...?"

"What the hell kind of world are you from?" asks Amariah, shaking her head. "Yes. Girlfriend is meant in the usual way. She has special circumstances, you're not likely to wake up one morning and want to kiss the girl next door, but that's a thing."

"I'm from the kind of world in which I'm an endangered species," Angela says defensively. "Everything I know was presented with the expectation that I'm on board with the project of making more angels. Dalliances aren't uncommon - anything to make more little angels - I can get used to that, particularly if the other people he wants to dally with are other angel girls - but no, this is new, give me a minute."

Micaiah waits patiently.

"I am suddenly and intensely curious about your childhood," says Amariah to her counterpart.

"Why, just because I've never heard of - people absconding to bedrooms with others of the same sex? All right," says Angela, sighing. She is tired of standing. She sits on the floor, extending her wings behind her; this will be uncomfortable in a while but by then her feet will be ready to hold her up again. "I was born in an angel hold. It's - rich, and comfortable, and there is always music, and the leader of the host there was also Archangel for the first fifteen years or so I lived and even now that the title has passed on to Linus at Monteverde it's still a place of political consequence for the province. Angels pray for weather, or sometimes for seeds or medicines, and Jovah grants our prayers, and I've been able to do intercessions alone or with help since I was thirteen. We are always concerned about making more angels, and there's never a guarantee that any given child will be one - even the one time in history Jovah allowed two angels to wed, this was only because they were not about to produce malformed lucifers; even the only safe pairing of angels ever to have occurred resulted in one mortal daughter along with her angel sisters. My parents tried for more children but Rinnah hasn't been able to get pregnant again since she bore a stillborn mortal brother when I was six."

"A life of useful luxury," marvels Amariah. "Yeah. Okay. I could see turning out like you."

"What about you? You're not an angel, you're a 'witch'."

"Yeah, but there are lots of witches, and while not all our kids are witches, all our daughters are," says Amariah. "And - you kept referring to people as 'mortals'. Are you not mortal?"

"At some point I suppose I'll have to cross the river into Jovah's keeping," says Angela solemnly. "It doesn't mean I'll live forever. It means I'm divine."

"You've really never heard of people taking lovers of the same sex?" asks Micaiah.