They go on hugging for a long time, Alleluia and Caleb standing back uncomfortably.
Finally Isabella looks up. "You found this out decades ago. During your time as Archangel, before I was even born, you found out."
"Sinai is - wired a little differently than the other two oracular interfaces," says Alleluia. "The ship can issue a slightly less constrained set of outputs compared to Mount Egypt or Mount Sudan. I went there when it stood empty and the screen said send help in the oracular language that I'd been learning; it told me how to teleport up here, and Caleb caught me at it and followed, and we replaced the broken part of the machine."
"And Delilah's wing was fixed - and that was you, Caleb, wasn't it everyone called you a miracle-worker -"
"Not as much as they'll be calling you one. But I did use a little ship technology to do it. Batteries - I've been inventing my own, but the ones on the ship, that power the music machines, they're much smaller, hold a lot more power, there's one of those joining up a broken connection in Delilah's wing," says Caleb.
"So you found relinquished technology that calls itself a god and you used it to fix a wing and get the - the weather control back into shape - and that was all, you took up your post as oracle and you set up your workshop at the foot of the mountain and you've been pretending piety since -"
"It would destroy the fabric of society, if we were even believed and not ridiculed or stoned as mad heretics," Alleluia murmurs. "And if it went badly enough, there would be no Gloria."
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Finally Isabella looks up. "You found this out decades ago. During your time as Archangel, before I was even born, you found out."
"Sinai is - wired a little differently than the other two oracular interfaces," says Alleluia. "The ship can issue a slightly less constrained set of outputs compared to Mount Egypt or Mount Sudan. I went there when it stood empty and the screen said send help in the oracular language that I'd been learning; it told me how to teleport up here, and Caleb caught me at it and followed, and we replaced the broken part of the machine."
"And Delilah's wing was fixed - and that was you, Caleb, wasn't it everyone called you a miracle-worker -"
"Not as much as they'll be calling you one. But I did use a little ship technology to do it. Batteries - I've been inventing my own, but the ones on the ship, that power the music machines, they're much smaller, hold a lot more power, there's one of those joining up a broken connection in Delilah's wing," says Caleb.
"So you found relinquished technology that calls itself a god and you used it to fix a wing and get the - the weather control back into shape - and that was all, you took up your post as oracle and you set up your workshop at the foot of the mountain and you've been pretending piety since -"
"It would destroy the fabric of society, if we were even believed and not ridiculed or stoned as mad heretics," Alleluia murmurs. "And if it went badly enough, there would be no Gloria."