"If it helps any I'm also scared for me? I'm sorry, I know it probably doesn't."

"It helps to be able to pray. So I can do something to keep you safe."

Christ what does he even say to that. "Thank you. I'm -- glad that it helps, I guess, and I'm sorry about all the other times you've asked and --" and then he stops.

"It's okay. I don't want to if you--"

"Thank you."

"Anyway, I expect St. Michael to be more useful in this situation than St. Francis de Sales is for you normally. Dealing with demons is St. Michael's entire job. And St. Francis de Sales is only incidentally about not getting in trouble for angering a corrupt mayor."

(This is sort of a joke, except for the part where he's serious.)

He laughs. He hadn't really expected he'd be able to laugh and mean it.

"You're very good. It -- helps, too, I think, to be able to remember that all the things I cared about before this still exist and the rest of the world hasn't gone away."

"I'm still here. I still want you to be safe. If you think a sacramental would help, I can mail you one of mine. I don't know if it's-- that you didn't want Genial's, or--"

"Taking it felt like making a promise and it wasn't one I was sure I'd be able to follow through on, and it's not like I never lie to people but there's lies and then there's lies."

"The promise to... be an agent of the Lord against the devil?"

"A promise to be the sort of person who gets called things like that, I guess? It would be very comforting to believe that there is someone who created the whole world and cares about every fallen sparrow and wants things to be okay but in fact I don't believe that, and I don't -- do things because they're righteous or I'm righteous, I just want to fight the whole world all the time and don't know how not to."

"St. Paul persecuted the Christians. St. Augustine was unchaste. Even St. Ignatius of Loyola wanted to fight, and then God chose him for a different battle. You don't have to believe that but I think God works through people like you."

"It is very kind of you to say that and it does not change the amount that representing myself as St. Paul or St. Augustine would have felt like I was lying. ...also on a more worldly level mailing me things is sort of complicated because I have no idea where I'll be in a week."

"I can mail it to you wherever you go next and hope you stay there. Or you can come back to New York for a bit and pick it up." The I want to see you is left as an exercise for the reader.

"...I can probably talk the others into stopping in New York while we decide what we're doing." I want to see you too remains unspoken.

"New movie came out that I thought you would like. I've been putting off seeing it."

Mordred smiles down at his hands. "I'll look forward to it. Thank you."

Gale talks quietly about his work and his friends and asks about Lev and the other investigators.

Mordred talks about Lev and Anemone and Zoe and Carrie and Lacie and what he knows of Oswald which is not very much, and asks about life in New York and misses living in a world that made sense. Well, no, what he misses is believing he lived in a world that made sense. But he still misses it.

It is starting to snow, and the family that lives above Gale's apartment has had a new baby, and Gale thinks he is going to go see the Ziegfeld Follies revival this year, and everything is as normal as it can be.

<3

Meanwhile--

Oswald has led Lev to the place he is thinking of that gives concealment on the conservatory side of the house, and is now watching the kitchen and patio with his binoculars, at a slightly awkward angle to account for the fact that he doesn't want to be in the kitchen's line of sight.

The staff includes a half dozen serious and muscular Mexicans who always seem to be handy. A couple of them also drift towards the front of the house whenever a car arrives.

They also notice someone being carried out of the mansion dead.

Don't like that!

No one bothers them.