preces meæ non sunt dignæ

[jovahs_heiress]

Isabella thinks it's time to start spreading the word. Before she ascends to Archangelhood. She'll have more work on her plate, then, and it will be easier if she can trust more people with the details of how she's carrying it out.

Alleluia should be the one to tell Delilah. But she's going to tell Serah herself.

"I have been thinking about telling your auntie Serah about magic-and-everything," Isabella says to Damaris one morning. Magic-and-everything has been a term unto itself; it encompasses the magic, and where it is from, and the nature of Jovah and Jane. "Do you want to be there when I do?"

Comments

[jovahs_heiress]

"Caleb knows, too, and their children know - and Micaiah, of course, learned everything when I did. Ariel and Peninnah are too young to keep it discreet - and the reason I had you babysit those two and not these, a few months ago, was because we were going to a party where there was a lot of magic."

"I had wondered," murmurs Serah.

"Is this too much revelation for one day already or do you want to hear the rest?" asks Isabella.

"I - I don't know."

[carillons]

"Maybe you should do some magic, Mom," Damaris suggests. "Just a little. To show it's for real."

[jovahs_heiress]

[I think that's a good idea,] Isabella agrees to everyone in the room.

Serah lets out a soft cry.

[campanas]

[It's okay! It's just the brainphone!] says Keziah encouragingly.

[carillons]

[I like the brainphone a lot! You can use it to talk to anybody who has it, no matter where they are! But if you don't want to be talked to you can make it say you're busy instead!]

[campanas]

[Not quite wherever they are,] corrects Keziah. [Uncle Nathaniel is too far away now.]

[carillons]

[Well, if they're in the world,] says Damaris. [But he's not.]

[jovahs_heiress]

"If they're in the world," says Serah blankly.

"That's the rest of it," sighs Isabella. "I got the magic from another world. There are many, and I've been to several. It used to be that anyone who knew how to ask could go to any world they liked, any time - but the machine that used to do that has broken. Nathaniel was visiting another world at the time, and he can't come home until the machine is fixed."

"I thought you said your magic could do anything."

"Almost," says Isabella. "Only almost."

[carillons]

"And almost anything is still a lot of things!" says Damaris. "But it's not always all the things you want."

[jovahs_heiress]

"So that's what you meant when you said he moved out," says Serah faintly. "Gone as far away as the Samarian settlers went -"

"Farther," says Angela. "In a way. The settlers came from another planet. You can travel there, by moving through space. The other worlds can only be reached by magic - not the kind I have; a sort that acts randomly - or with the help of the machine I mentioned, which is a person where Jovah is not, and which is broken. It has broken before, and come back; but it may take a long time. It was a decade, last time."

"Randomly?" says Serah.

"It doesn't scoop you up and deposit you," Isabella puts in hastily. "It offers you a door, that normally leads someplace in your own world, and makes it lead to the hub between the worlds instead. You don't have to go if you don't want to; you can close the door without going through. Although if you ever do find one of these, please tell me by brainphone, right away."

[carillons]

"The hub is called Milliways!" says Damaris. "It's really busy and it has a huge window all down one side that shows stars exploding."

[campanas]

"And there is a bar who is a lady and she can't talk but she can write!"

[jovahs_heiress]

"Sweet Jovah singing," murmurs Serah. "Or - maybe not. I had wondered why you became so suddenly noncommittal about the faith. I don't remember what excuse you gave."

"I told you," murmurs Isabella, "that I thought everyone would come to understand Jovah in due time and there was little point to my rushing things."

"Why didn't you tell me then?"

"I didn't know how you'd take it. Or if you could keep it secret."

"What am I supposed to tell Daniel?"

"You can tell him the truth, if you like. I'm ready for more people to know. No singing it from rooftops, but individual people - can be told."

[carillons]

"And you're an individual person and Daniel is an individual person!" says Damaris.

[campanas]

"And Gideon! But he is only Ariel's age and she isn't big enough to know."

[jovahs_heiress]

"We'll tell Ariel soon," says Isabella. "When she's six or seven."

[campanas]

"Maybe by the time Jane is back again there will be another Ariel how there is another me and another Dars!"

[jovahs_heiress]

"Excuse me," says Serah, "what?"

"...Oh," says Angela. "In these other worlds... sometimes there are copies of people. If there are more of you, I haven't encountered them, but there are several of me, and of Micaiah, and some of them are also together, and one of those sets has two daughters. The eldest looks like Damaris, only older and not an an angel - the younger is like Keziah in the same way."

[campanas]

"The other me is called Céleste and she has a pet griffin because in her world they can do as much magic as they want in front of anybody!"

[carillons]

"The other me is called Dominique - I mean Yseult," says Damaris, "and she's an enchantress!"

[jovahs_heiress]

"What odd names," murmurs Serah.

"Most of me are named Isabella, but when we are all together we use nicknames; they just call me Angela," says Isabella. "The Micaiahs have all sorts of different names. But of course in all these different worlds they don't speak Samarian, so there are many different names as well as some that are similar."

[carillons]

"People in other worlds have weird names," Damaris asserts.

[jovahs_heiress]

"But of course I have only your word to go on," says Serah.

"Mine, Damaris's and Keziah's, Micaiah's if you like, Alleluia and Caleb and their children," says Isabella. "And any magic you'd like to see done, and a visit to the spaceship, if you want, and I hope that suffices to convince you about the worlds and the alts - the other versions of people."

[carillons]

"And you could ask Nathaniel if he was here but he's not 'cause he's in Aurum," says Damaris.

[jovahs_heiress]

"Aurum?"

"One of the other worlds. This one is just called Samaria."

"I... suppose that makes sense."