"Darius, what were your birth parents' names?"

"I've met her. I've never heard a word against her," Alleluia assures him. "She's - she's very smart. Delilah likes her. About your age. She wanted to study here, but I sent her to Peninnah at Mount Sudan instead. I believe she also spent some time working with Linus at Monteverde, so she'll be as ready as she can be so young."

"Okay," says Darius in a small voice. "Um. I hope we'll get along? Jovah's good at this kind of stuff, right, he does it all the time."

"He did pick my husband for me," remarks Alleluia. "...But it is suspected that he often has other things in mind than the hearts of the people he names. If you don't like her - let me know and I will intercede with him, all right, Darius?"

"I'll send word to the Eyrie, and she should be here in the next few days, then," says Alleluia, with a smile that is both encouraging and wan.

"Okay. I. Will - I don't have time to get singing lessons in a few days, do I, uh. Probably pack my stuff, it would need to be packed, wouldn't it."

"You'll want to be packed, yes, and you'll find no shortage of people who can help you learn to sing at the Eyrie so don't worry about that yet, and you'll want to write your father and sister," says Alleluia.

"Right, yes, they'll want to know. Thank you. Um. I. Am going to go do that now."

"Let me know if you need anything," Alleluia says.

Alleluia goes and closes the door behind her.

"Darius?" says the oracle's voice outside his door. "She's here."

"I, uh, yes." Pause. "I, don't actually know your name yet."

"Isabella."

"It's nice to meet you too. Um, are you ready to go to the Eyrie? I can carry you or if you'd rather I didn't I can ask to borrow one of Alleluia's children...?"

"Have you been flown before?" asks Isabella.

"Um, no. I promise not to make an undignified squeaking noise?"

"Um. I. Should be okay for now. Not height-sick or dizzy, just. Actually wondering if angels drop mortals all that often. Please don't drop me, it will be really hard to sing in the Gloria if you drop me."

"I won't drop you. I've never actually heard of it happening outside horrible storms, and if we encounter a horrible storm I can sing it away."

"Well, I promise not to drop you, either on purpose or accidentally. Or push you off any mountains."

"Thank you. I also promise not to drop you, or, push you off of mountains. Even with wings I assume it would be alarming."

"It might take me a moment to straighten myself out, yes."

"Right, yes."

"I'm not sure when you'd have occasion to drop me, though."

"I... don't actually know, but it seemed like the thing to promise. 'Oh, good, we are decided on not being terrible to each other,' except in. Dropping from high places."

"I," she laughs, "also promise not to set your hair on fire."

"Thanks! I appreciate it."

"I assume if you wanted to have burned hair you could have arranged it without help."

"Yep! And I do not want to set my hair on fire. Scissors work just fine if it needs to be trimmed."

"I have found the same."

"It's almost like people find having parts of them being set on fire inconvenient."

"I mean, I've never actually tried it."

"Well, you can if you want to, but I'll just pass on experimentally setting myself on fire. I've heard bad things about it."

"There are plenty of things I haven't tried that I want to get to first, certainly."

"Like?"

"Well, I'm still pretty new to being Archangel."

"Thank you."

"...We can find you someone to help you. What's your range?"

"Low tenor."

"All right. There are some easier masses that'll be fine for that range with mine, I'm a high soprano - you have to pick the mass yourself but you can take suggestions."

Nod. "Yeah. If you have a favorite, let me know."

"There's a few I like, but you should at least listen to a few before I start giving you input on that. Have you been to a Gloria before?"

"Once! With my dad and my sister. Three years ago."

"Oh, Delilah's last one. Noah picked a nice mass but it might be a little challenging for your first."

Cough. "Yeah, that's what I was thinking of, and uh. I am. Not ready for that, I think. I'm glad there's easier ones. That's actually really comforting."

"There are easier ones. They're all still pretty demanding - and long - but you only have to learn one a year."

"Right, yes. Not saying it'll be easy. Just a little less frightened. Which is nice."

"And we can get you a voice teacher, someone with a range like yours."

"Yeah. Is, there actually other angelico duties I need to do, or is it just the singing?"

"There's nothing else you have to do. But you might be considered more approachable than me, so people might approach you."

"Ah, okay. ... Is there anything you would like me to do?"

"Linus's angelica tended to soften up hostile negotiators before he came in to talk business or politics with them; I don't know if that would suit you - obviously if someone comes to you with a problem you can solve, solving it is an option - if you want to do anything useful with the Eyrie budget and it's not actually beyond our means you can do that."

"Okay. So. Important person with no obvious job besides singing once a year, but a decent amount of soft power and sway to do things that need doing and help where I can. ... I can work with that."

"And if you have ideas for what I should do with my less soft power then you may tell me, of course."

"You've been thinking about this," laughs Isabella. "Alleluia mentioned she warned you in advance, but did you put that together in, what, a day?"

"I mean, yes and no? It's more like. I saw the problems before but I didn't really have a good way to handle them, without trekking all the way over to the Archangel myself and going, 'Hey! Do this, please!' Which uh, sort of hard to do. And also I was very nervous earlier so in between packing and prayers to Jovah and writing letters I was also trying to figure out what I would say? What we could talk about? And uh. Yeah."

"Oh. I hope I'm not more nerve-wracking than the situation itself?"

"Um, no, though there's an element of. 'Oh no what if we end up hating each other.'"

"There have been some... famously distant... Archangel marriages. But you seem nice."

"Thanks. So do you. For example, you're not going to drop me."

"I'd like to say there has never been a murderous arrangement but there actually was one."

"... Really? Uh. I don't know my history as well as I should I think, which one?"

"Raphael and Leah. Raphael's successor Gabriel discovered that the Leah who had served as angelica was actually a replacement for the original, who was not to Raphael's liking. Her family didn't notice because the original was Jansai and presented quite wrapped up whenever they were about."

"But I promise not to murder you and replace you with an angel-seeker? Along with not dropping you and not setting your hair on fire."

"You're welcome."