and where shall we turn if not to you

[jovahs_heiress]

"Jane," Isabella asks her bracelet one day, "before the business with Milliways and magic and so on, was I likely to be named Archangel?"

[Yes,] replies Jane, politely including Micaiah, since he's in the room with Isabella at the time. [Exact values fluctuated, but since your year with Linus you were consistently rated in the sixty to seventy percent range. You weren't announced because there wasn't a compelling political reason to announce and commit to the best option for Linus's successor earlier than usual and you didn't clear ninety percent for more than six months at a time.]

"Who else was in the running?"

Jane names a few other angels - four from Cedar Hills, a couple others from the Eyrie, and one from Monteverde, [and there's always the possibility that someone who's currently very young would have asserted themselves as a candidate by the time Linus's term was near its end.]

"What kind of political factors did Jovah use to decide when to announce the next Archangel?"

[Its ability to gauge that sort of thing was pretty pathetic. It had ears - which I have now - but only three of them and they're geared towards picking up music, not so much talking. It used oracle input, especially from Sinai, and some statistics about prayer frequency. Your routine intercessions were a significant factor, as was Alleluia's impression of you. But it could also make low-confidence assessments of the contents of many ordinary conversations, especially when they were conducted in flight, and those helped.]

"I don't mean the input methods so much."

[Oh. It thought you'd be dedicated and low-corruption, that you'd be a good fit for the social shifts it's tracking in Samaria's culture, and that you'd be able to muddle along in politics or at least pick smart advisors.]

"Muddle along," says Isabella, amused.

[Don't get me wrong,] Jane says. [You're Archangel material. You're just not a diplomat type of Archangel. You're more of a Gabriel-son-of-Jeremiah than you are a Delilah. You'd decide things, they'd be good things, and then people would complain about the things and you'd stare at them incredulously and explain your reasoning again. Jehovah assigned some probability to Micaiah being able to help you there,] Jane adds. [Especially since he's an Edori and the political status of Ysral is still unclear and Linus hasn't been touching it.]

"Is the Jehovah program smart enough to have any idea what to do if you run it by itself with magic and so on factored in - without regard to the fact that it'll do as I like because I'm captain and you ate it?"

[Yep. It cuts its confidence in everything by a fair bit, but then it says go ahead and name you right away since otherwise conflict between you and another Archangel-elect could escalate seriously and since you'd still do a good job,] Jane reports. [You want me to tell Alleluia or would that be pointless rigmarole since you can tell her yourself and she knows perfectly well that I take instructions from you and ate the spaceship?]

"Hmm," Isabella says. She glances in her husband's direction.

Comments

[yovahs_kisses]

"You might as well tell her," says Micaiah. "The normal way, I mean. Seems less like you're usurping anything if it comes through the channels she's used to."

Also he snuggles his angel. His angel is snuggly.

[mind_game]

[You want me to do it in the deific voice of majesty thing? "Oracle Alleluia, attend closely, for I have chosen a successor to the Archangel Linus, to begin tenure when his ends!"]

[jovahs_heiress]

"Is she even using the interface much these days? I suppose she must, to keep appearances with the acolytes, just as she did before it was you and not Jehovah per se she was talking to. Use whatever voice is typical for the interface."

[mind_game]

[You got it, Cap'n!] says Jane flippantly.

[yovahs_kisses]

Micaiah giggles.

[jovahs_heiress]

Isabella laughs and kisses her husband.

And then something occurs to her.

"The Gloria has been and gone. And I have not returned Nathaniel to where I got him from."

[yovahs_kisses]

"That was the plan, my love," Micaiah observes.

[jovahs_heiress]

"Yes, I know. But his parents didn't know that," she says. "And it is around the time when they will notice that they are less than fully informed."

[yovahs_kisses]

"...aha," says Micaiah. "Well, fuck. So what do we do?"

[jovahs_heiress]

"I believe the standing plan is to simply keep Nathaniel until one or both of them appear to make nuisances of themselves, and then inform them that Nathaniel prefers to stay and that the leader of the host and the Archangel-elect are backing his claim." She pauses. "It's up to you whether the fact that Nathaniel is the Archangel-elect's brother-in-law is permitted to come up during this conversation."

[yovahs_kisses]

...He grins.

But:

"I'm not sure."

[jovahs_heiress]

"Well, as far as I know they are not on their way up the stairs to the Eyrie as we speak, so you have time to think about it," Isabella says.

[yovahs_kisses]

"Okay," he says, and he hugs his angel.

[jovahs_heiress]

Hugs!

"I should probably go remind Nathaniel that this is the plan too," she says.

[yovahs_kisses]

"Yeah, do that."

[jovahs_heiress]

Kisses. And off she goes.

She keeps her aura at a low, gentle level by default, when she's not alone with the handful of people in the know. People notice it, but subconsciously, and it doesn't arbitrarily introduce piccolos and cellos to every snatch of music she utters.

Is Nathaniel in his room, when she checks there? He has his own now that he's staying as part of her family and not simply on the basis of being in the choir.

[pythbox]

He is in his room, reading a book.

[jovahs_heiress]

"Hello, Nathaniel. Do you have a minute?"

[pythbox]

"Yes, angela."

[jovahs_heiress]

She steps into the room and shuts the door behind her and lets her aura unfold a little more; Nathaniel has seen Milliways, after all, even if he doesn't know the whole story. "It's been a while since the Gloria, and sooner or later your parents are going to notice that I am not returning you, since that isn't going to happen. I just wanted to make sure you know - they can show up and make a fuss, but you don't have to talk to them, or see them, or do anything at all but let me and Delilah tell them that you're staying here. I don't think you tend to leave the Eyrie much, so most likely there will be no possibility of you running into them at all."

[pythbox]

He looks a little nervous, nevertheless.

[jovahs_heiress]

"But just in case, so you won't be scared," Isabella says after a moment, "- how would you like to learn a little bit of magic, so that you can call for me any time you need me? Just in case."

[pythbox]

"...I think I would like that, angela," he murmurs hesitantly.

[jovahs_heiress]

She nods. [It's simple,] she says, adding him to the brainphone network. [All you have to do is think at me, and I'll hear you from any distance, like this. You can also send in writing,] she adds, demonstrating, [if you'd rather. It won't work if one of us is somewhere entirely else, like Milliways, and the other isn't, but as long as we're in Samaria it will always work.]

[pythbox]

Nathaniel nods.