jovahs_heiress | yes, we believe in the wisdom of our god

Isabella is generally referred to as: promising.

Angels in general are a breed apart. Of course they've all got lovely voices, they've all got classical music training and know the masses and prayers, they're all blessed winged creatures -

But that doesn't mean they're all smart, or all good, even (Isabella was taken to see Windy Point, once, or what's left of it, and of course she sees the scars on Galo Mountain every year at the Gloria; there stood angels who were not good). And Isabella is smart and good.

Isabella is always the first to volunteer for an intercession. She likes them. She'll call down weather, plead for seeds, pray a shower of medicine to fall from the sky, and she will get what she asks for, and she loves nothing more than to dive from hours aloft in prayer and clasp the hands of the people she helped and go home to the Eyrie to take on her next assignment. When there are none - when there is the right amount of rain and sun in the province, when there is no plague and no famine - she studies. She studies a bit of everything, but she fancies herself particularly a historian, investigating the accounts of Archangels' reigns past. From books, mostly, although once she wrangled herself a year in Cedar Hills to assist the Archangel Linus, and when she is in the Eyrie she closely follows the leader of the host there, the former term-lapsed Archangel Delilah.

She tried to get in with the other living former Archangel, too, Alleluia the oracle who served as Delilah's interim while the latter's wing recovered from an injury, but after a few hours' conversation Alleluia said that she could not accept Isabella as even a temporary acolyte and sent her to Peninnah instead. Isabella learned a lot from Peninnah, but she's confused about why Alleluia turned her down personally only to send her to another oracle, after such a prolonged interview. Particularly since Sinai is in her own province; what was the point in sending her all the way to Gaza?

But the instruction came from an oracle, and oracles' words more often than not come from Jovah. She went to Gaza, learned from Peninnah, and went home.

Now she is back at the Eyrie, and the first thing she wants to do is let Delilah know that she's back. Her wings aren't so tired that she can't immediately fly to the Corinnis or the outskirts of Semorrah or anywhere and accomplish something. Failing that, she'd love to sign up for harmonies again now that she's home and wants to know what she ought to schedule around.

Delilah is with her husband Noah, and a visitor. He doesn't seem like a petitioner, and he doesn't look like an Edori, although the fact that he and Noah are talking in Edori suggests that he might be an adopted one. (There are hardly any Edori of either sort left; most of them live in Ysral, now.) Isabella waits patiently outside the door for the host leader's attention.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

jovahs_heiress

Isabella tenses marginally, but - well, he's already said something like that, isn't this a good thing, she doesn't have to chase him all over Samaria convincing him that Jovah says, and she doesn't want to lie to him just to be kind but there's no reason to freak out. She relaxes again. She closes her eyes.

And then - just before she's about to fall asleep and start babbling - she opens them again.

"Is it possible that you have siblings?" she asks in a dismayed murmur.

From:

pythbox

Micaiah hisses, jerking as though he would like to curl up into a little ball of misery again and is only just stopping himself.

"I don't know. I don't want to know," he says vehemently. "I hope not."

From:

jovahs_heiress

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Isabella murmurs. "You - don't want to know? Are you sure?"

(Not wanting to know a thing is alien to her - especially a thing that could be about someone she might care about being hurt - but if he doesn't want to know, she can fly to Sinai herself, ask Alleluia, and go investigate herself, perhaps bringing Elisha or another angel as backup. Angels are still the law where they choose to operate as such. Delilah won't contradict her - nor Linus, if Micaiah is from one of the other provinces.)

From:

pythbox

"If there's another kid where I was ten years ago, I feel bad for them," he says. "But not bad enough to think about my father any more than I have to."

From:

jovahs_heiress

"If I look - and there is one, or more - and I get them out - do you want to know them?" she asks quietly.

From:

pythbox

"Maybe," he says hesitantly. "If they want to know me... maybe. If they didn't turn out like him... maybe."

From:

jovahs_heiress

"All right," she soothes, picking up her enfolding wing just enough to pet him with it and then settling it over him again.

She makes sure her clock is set to ring its bell in time for her to prepare for the Sunrise Chorus, and then she sleeps, murmuring words.

From:

pythbox

Micaiah curls up close and goes to sleep as soon as she does.

From:

jovahs_heiress

The bell on Isabella's clock dings softly in the morning, and she reaches out to still the sound as soon as she opens her eyes. She checks to see if Micaiah managed to sleep through that. It is very early.

From:

pythbox

Zz.

From:

jovahs_heiress

Yep.

Bella puts the blanket over him as soon as she's withdrawn her wing. She changes into her leathers and meets up with Elisha for a quick warmup. But Micaiah did say he wanted to be sure he was listening when she performed. So on their way to the harmonics she ducks back into her room to wake him up. "Micaiah? We're going to sing the Sunrise Chorus now," she says in his ear.

From:

pythbox

He stretches out and yawns and opens his eyes and kisses her.

"I wanna listen!" he says, beaming. "Lemme get dressed."

From:

jovahs_heiress

"Sure. Be quick," she says. "I didn't want to wake you up sooner than I had to, you looked peaceful."

Elisha coughs. Isabella rolls her eyes at him.

From:

pythbox

Micaiah scrambles out of bed and into clothes with astonishing speed.

From:

jovahs_heiress

And they're off!

The Sunrise Chorus is a pretty song, the sort that it is reasonable that Delilah would like to wake up to. Unlike when practicing, Isabella and Elisha prefer to do public performances facing each other from a few feet away; the acoustics make that the best way to hear and react to one another's timing and dynamics.

From:

pythbox

Micaiah finds somewhere to sit—a corner of floor will do—and closes his eyes, and listens.

From:

jovahs_heiress

Their timeslot ends; they conclude the song with an improvised handoff to the next group, and Isabella trots over towards Micaiah. Elisha calls, "See you around, I promised to go visit Abel," and takes off. (Visiting Abel does not sound like a source of joy in his life.)

From:

pythbox

"Who's Abel?" he wonders.

From:

jovahs_heiress

"His son. Probably. Abel isn't an angel, so it's hard to be sure, but he looks more like Elisha than like the other possibilities," says Isabella, sounding resigned.

From:

pythbox

"Um..." says Micaiah.

From:

jovahs_heiress

"I think things will improve in a few years. Elisha just doesn't seem to... see the point of babies, when they can't talk yet, let alone sing," Isabella says apologetically. "It was the same with his brothers when they were babies, and he likes them both very much now. And Abel's mother is nice as angel-seekers go."

From:

pythbox

"That's better," he says doubtfully. "I just... I feel like you should either love your kids, or give them to somebody who will and then leave 'em alone."

From:

jovahs_heiress

"There used to be much more of a problem in that department before the angelica Rachel. She and Gabriel set up a sort of a school system that now has branches near each angel hold and it absorbs... strays," says Isabella. "I think about it sometimes, but I'm not sure what else to do. The angel population is a real problem. Gabriel started his tenure with barely a hundred angels flying around Samaria, because the entire contingent of Windy Point died - some of poison when they wouldn't follow Raphael, some by thunderbolt when they did and he challenged Jovah - and we still haven't gotten back up to the numbers we had before that in all the intervening generations. The angel-seekers are willing, angels like Elisha are willing - and the mortal children are - not an easily avoidable consequence of all this willingness," she shrugs helplessly. "If the mothers of angels weren't honored and welcomed into the holds, I'm sure fewer would try to join their ranks, but then there would be fewer angels."