"Sorry. But being the--thaumaturge--of a church that pretty sounds amazing."

"I like it a lot. Before I went to school to become a thaumaturge I was a swarm responder."

"Why'd you switch?"

"I got more religious over time, and swarm response was steady work but it wasn't very interesting after doing it for years."

"Oh. Why did you get more religious?"

"I think God called to me more over time until I heard Her."

"Oh. What's God like?"

"She loves beauty, and wants us to celebrate it. She loves people. And sometimes she picks out a little girl like you and touches her -" Veronica taps Anna-Charlotte on the head - "to tell her that she should be as beautiful as she can, and protect people from swarms if she can, and she'll get magic to do it with."

"God saved me from my guardians?"

"We don't know why she picks who she picks. Not everybody who gets magic needs it for a reason like that, and not everyone who needs it gets it. But yes, God gave you the magic that let you fly away."

"How do I tell God thank you?"

"Do you want me to teach you how to pray?"

"Yeah!"

"People do different things, but I do it like this." Veronica demonstrates kneeling by the sofa, hands clasped, eyes closed.

Anna-Charlotte copies her. 

"Dear God: Thank you for helping me get away from my mother's cousin and her husband."

"Thank you, God," says Veronica, "for helping Your child Anna-Charlotte escape to a safe place; thank you for bringing her to Imani and to me, and for guiding the authorities to the right choice. We pray that you will find a good home for Anna-Charlotte to grow up in."

"And thank you for all the prettiness. Amen."

"Amen," agrees Veronica.

Anna-Charlotte hugs her. 

Awww. Hug.

"Do you have books about God? We don't learn about Her in school."

"Yes, I do. The book with the pictures I gave you is a little about Her, since it's about the founder of Thaumatology, but if you've finished it I can find more."

"I finished it. Comic books are fast."

"Well, there's the Wisdom, which will have been mentioned in the history, it's the most important book she wrote."

Nod. "I wanna read that."