alleluia

[jovahs_heiress]

Alleluia and Caleb tell their children about magic, one by one. Isabella meets with each one to clarify a few matters. She gives Ezra a job, at the Eyrie - it is convenient to have more people around who know her secrets. And the youngest, an angel girl named Naamah, just nineteen (a last minute surprise to her parents), wants someone to talk to who is more familiar with magic than her but isn't up to their neck in it like Isabella or Micaiah - or even her own parents, who have been to all those Bell parties.

Isabella thinks about this.

[Nathaniel?]

Comments

[alicornucopia]

"I'm barely suited to living in a world the size of Samaria. I like to fly and I still never liked to really travel. And now there are so many more places than I knew about. Can I just - live how I have been, do you think?"

[pythbox]

"Of course," he says. "That's what I do. I mean, I don't go to their parties or do much magic or - do much of anything, really."

[alicornucopia]

"I just live at Cedar Hills - I tried to foster with Delilah here when I was little but the singing all the time even on through the night was unbearable; I was used to the quiet at Sinai or at least the bustle of Father's workshop. So, Cedar Hills. And I do - angel things." She shrugs. "Father thinks I must have an imagination somewhere but he's given up on finding it, I think."

[pythbox]

Nathaniel laughs softly. "I don't think anyone's ever looked for mine."

[alicornucopia]

"I sometimes wish I were interesting, like my parents, or Ezra, or even Zibiah - but I'm not," shrugs Naamah.

[pythbox]

"I don't really wish I were interesting," Nathaniel says wryly. "Micaiah is welcome to my share of the family allotment of interesting and then some."

[alicornucopia]

"I don't know very much about him," says Naamah. "Except that he's to be angelico, but with what I've learned about Jovah - I don't even know what to think because of that."

[pythbox]

"He's very - himself," says Nathaniel. "And about a thousand times more interesting than me. And, as I said, welcome to it." He smiles. "I'm sorry, is that a confusing description? I've never had to describe him before."

[alicornucopia]

"If I knew more about him then saying he was himself might be a very useful description," says Naamah. "But I don't."

[pythbox]

"Well, he's... sweet," says Nathaniel. "And kind of silly, but not when it really matters. And he cares a lot about the people who are important to him. And he's very good at solving problems."

[alicornucopia]

"He sounds a little like my father," muses Naamah.

[pythbox]

"Does he? I don't know your father very well," says Nathaniel.

[alicornucopia]

"Father's an engineer, and he's fascinated by problems, and he has a - Mother calls it zest for life. And he is very intense about our family. He and Mother thought for a while that they wouldn't be able to get married, before they knew about Jovah, before they knew Delilah would be Archangel again, before they knew that Jovah was trying to name Father Mother's angelico but couldn't because of his broken Kiss. And they didn't like that, and then they could after all, and he's still glad about it."

[pythbox]

"Oh. That sounds very nice," says Nathaniel, smiling a little.

[alicornucopia]

"My parents are good role models," says Naamah. "I'm sorry yours weren't."

[pythbox]

"It's okay," he says, and then looks mildly surprised.

[alicornucopia]

"It is?"

[pythbox]

"Well... not really," he says. "But I'm okay. I guess I wasn't expecting to be."

[alicornucopia]

"I'm glad you're okay," smiles Naamah.

[pythbox]

"Me too," he says, smiling back.

[alicornucopia]

Naamah stays a while longer, and then off she goes to start flying back to Cedar Hills.

[pythbox]

It was a good conversation.

It also sets Nathaniel to thinking.



Not quite a week after Naamah's visit, he brainphones Isabella. [Um, can I ask you something?]

[jovahs_heiress]

[Of course. What is it?]

[pythbox]

After a moment's hesitation:

[Do you think I could go visit one of the Jokers?]

[jovahs_heiress]

[I don't see why not. Do you have one in mind?]

After all, none of the Jokers live in Atlantis.