all that remains is you

[jovahs_heiress]

It has been a couple of months now since the wedding, since the revelation about Jovah. Isabella has been busy. She is not as overt as some of her counterparts. It is not now impossible on Samaria to commit crimes of violence, for example - although anyone who gets going with one will tend to feel a sensation of being watched, and this is enough to noticeably ding reports of such misbehavior.

She's been noticed.

Linus has been calling all of the changes, collectively - because once one or two got overt attention the others were plain as day - "Jovah's hand moving among us".

Isabella is all right with the ship getting credit for her handiwork. It will be more accepted that way. No one riots over the god choosing to peer closely at them if they raise their hands to strike; no one theorizes about the appropriateness of meddling in the natural processes of things like childbirth when they believe Jovah is the active party.

Meanwhile she shadows Delilah. She makes routine visits to Monteverde to talk with Linus about this or that. (She can bring Micaiah, now that they're married.)

She gets steadily more pregnant. The heaviness is no burden to an angel, but it is somewhat physically awkward to be so bulky. She works around it. She's going to have a baby, and she just glows with it.

And, one day, for the first time since before the wedding, she finds Milliways in her and Micaiah's guest room in Monteverde.

"Oh, here it is, I was wondering when it would come by again," Isabella says.

Comments

[jovahs_heiress]

One of Angela's wings goes around Micaiah, settling there comfortably. "One of us, nicknamed Stella, comes from a world with a form of magic that works by wishing. She's been able to share this magic with several others of us, including me. If I wish on a wishcoin -" She makes a little triangle, and shows it to him - "then what I wish for happens, as long as the wishcoin is the right kind. Triangles like this are for trivial little wishes. Turning you human took a pentagon."

[yovahs_kisses]

Micaiah snuggles up to her.

[deslandes]

"You're sweet," says Beast. "Do you have any more advice for me, or can I borrow your husband now?"

[jovahs_heiress]

"I think I'd have to meet her to get any more specific," says Angela. "Borrow away."

[deslandes]

He holds out his arms.

[yovahs_kisses]

Micaiah leaps into them.

A moment later, they both disappear, still cuddling.

[jovahs_heiress]

Angela goes up to the Belltower.

She has a rather significant entry to insert.

[yovahs_kisses]

A little while later, Micaiah appears, looking slightly rumpled and very pleased with himself.

"He woke up," he reports. "Or disappeared, anyway. What's new with the Bells?"

[jovahs_heiress]

"Apparently there is an afterlife and it has got to go," says Isabella. "I am also advised in the strongest possible terms not to ever turn into a Sunshine vampire. Juliet has been minted, with some mishap. Awful things have befallen Shell Bell but she has recovered. Coins can apparently be made with as many as nine points."

[yovahs_kisses]

"Nine," he says, and grins. "Imagine that."

[jovahs_heiress]

"I'm not sure I want to imagine that. But the Joker has made several and Stella wrote that she intended to see about her Alice and the staff mints."

[yovahs_kisses]

"Imagine how much fun I'll have trying to make one," he amends.

[jovahs_heiress]

"You might have to boost your Kiss again," she points out.

[yovahs_kisses]

"I'll try it without first," he says cheerfully.

[jovahs_heiress]

"We hardly ever get even evils that way, let alone the next thing up," Isabella points out.

[yovahs_kisses]

"I know," he says. "But I want to try."

[jovahs_heiress]

"All right. I'll try to sing especially prettily," says Isabella, kissing his forehead.

[yovahs_kisses]

"I love you," says Micaiah, hugging her.

[jovahs_heiress]

The rest of that visit to Milliways goes predictably.

The Gathering on Ysral - not the first to be attended by an angel, but the first to be attended by more than one - also goes predictably.

The Gloria goes predictably as well, with much lovely singing by this angel choir and that soloist and this orchestra (and of course Linus and his angelica Naomi). The children's choir that Nathaniel belongs to is featured.

As soon as the last note of the Gloria is sung, it is officially disbanded.

[pythbox]

And shortly after that, the angel Isabella acquires a new shadow.

[jovahs_heiress]

"Hello, Nathaniel," says Isabella.

[pythbox]

"Hello," he says in that soft voice of his, emerging reluctantly from behind the table that wasn't really hiding him in the first place.

[jovahs_heiress]

"How did you enjoy the Gloria?"

[pythbox]

"It was very beautiful."

[jovahs_heiress]

"I think so too. It's my favorite time of year. Did you want to talk to me about something?" she asks, getting up to push open the door that will lead from this part of the Eyrie pavilion to the next. They haven't left the Plain of Sharon yet.