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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.
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jovahs_heiress
jovahs_heiress
"Hello there," says Isabella, looking for someplace acceptable to sit. "Did your mother tell you why I'm here?"
Nathaniel is sitting on the piano bench. He stands up and drags it out a little and offers it to her.
"She says you're from the Eyrie and you want to put me in the children's choir," he says. "I've never been in a choir before."
"She says you're from the Eyrie and you want to put me in the children's choir," he says. "I've never been in a choir before."
jovahs_heiress
Isabella is sort of reluctant to take his seat, but it's the only chair without a back; she sits on it, legs on one side and wings on the other. "Thanks. That's about the size of it. The director is very good and he'll be able to teach you to blend in with the other children. Can I hear you sing a little something? River Cara is fine, if you don't have another idea."
(She's going to declare him, at a minimum, "trainable", regardless of whether he sounds more like a frog than like an angel. But she has to hear him sing for that declaration to make sense.)
(She's going to declare him, at a minimum, "trainable", regardless of whether he sounds more like a frog than like an angel. But she has to hear him sing for that declaration to make sense.)
Nathaniel hesitates for a moment, and then sings. It is not River Cara.
He is not 'trainable', he is trained. And he has worked very, very hard to get as far as he has. He's a little quiet; in a choir, his voice would be easily lost. But he doesn't miss a note.
He is not 'trainable', he is trained. And he has worked very, very hard to get as far as he has. He's a little quiet; in a choir, his voice would be easily lost. But he doesn't miss a note.
jovahs_heiress
"Beautiful!" applauds Isabella. "You're a little quiet, but that's okay, so am I. I can tell you like to sing. You know that if I take you to join the choir you'll need to live in or near the Eyrie - in a room with one of the other boys or possibly in the Gabriel School. You can send letters, of course, but it would be a few months without coming back here to see your parents."
He nods.
jovahs_heiress
"I can take you with me today if you can get ready. You're not afraid of heights, are you?"
He shakes his head. "No, angela."
jovahs_heiress
"Okay! Why don't you run along and pack and say your goodbyes?" Isabella says brightly. "It's a bit of a long flight, so you might want to pack a snack, too. The Eyrie is far from here."
"I will," he says, and leaves the room.
A very short time later, he is at the front door with a small bag and his mother is pressing a wrapped sandwich into his hand.
A very short time later, he is at the front door with a small bag and his mother is pressing a wrapped sandwich into his hand.
jovahs_heiress
"All set?" Isabella asks. "We can tie your bag to my belt loop so there's no risk of dropping it."
"Yes, angela," says Nathaniel.
jovahs_heiress
She ties it. She shakes Judith's hand.
And she picks up Nathaniel, gently and carefully, and goes aloft.
"Let me know if you have any trouble breathing, or if you're cold," she says, "and I can fly lower or slower or both."
And she picks up Nathaniel, gently and carefully, and goes aloft.
"Let me know if you have any trouble breathing, or if you're cold," she says, "and I can fly lower or slower or both."
"Yes, angela," he repeats obediently.
jovahs_heiress
"I don't think I ever told you my name. It's Isabella," says Isabella conversationally, as they reach a reasonable cruising-with-mortal-passenger altitude.
"I'm Nathaniel," he says hesitantly, as though he expects her to object.
jovahs_heiress
"It's a lovely name. You know, the first leader of the host at Cedar Hills was named Nathaniel. Although he went by Nathan."
"I didn't know that."
jovahs_heiress
"I study history in my spare time, so I know these things," says Isabella. "What do you like to do besides sing? Practice for the choir is a few hours a day, but you'll have time to do other stuff too."
"I play piano," he says. "And I have lessons. But Mother says I'm allowed to miss those while I'm not at home."
Softly, without excitement: "Yes, angela."
jovahs_heiress
She's not sure she likes that voice. That is the voice of someone who is routinely obliged to "like" things.
For that matter, now she's not even sure if he likes singing. But she didn't have any other ideas for legitimate ways to get him out of the house and directly under Delilah's purview, and she would really need to check with Delilah first before pulling even a small-scale equivalent of the Archangel Gabriel's Exodus of the Jansai Women at the behest of the angel Obadiah, barging in and commanding the release of the abused member of the household on pain of Jovah's thunderbolts.
"Well, you could probably locate a teacher, if you looked, but you could easily find yourself too busy to have time to work on piano," she says. Carelessly. This is not an angel who cares whether Nathaniel plays the piano, certainly not.
For that matter, now she's not even sure if he likes singing. But she didn't have any other ideas for legitimate ways to get him out of the house and directly under Delilah's purview, and she would really need to check with Delilah first before pulling even a small-scale equivalent of the Archangel Gabriel's Exodus of the Jansai Women at the behest of the angel Obadiah, barging in and commanding the release of the abused member of the household on pain of Jovah's thunderbolts.
"Well, you could probably locate a teacher, if you looked, but you could easily find yourself too busy to have time to work on piano," she says. Carelessly. This is not an angel who cares whether Nathaniel plays the piano, certainly not.
"Thank you," he says after a moment, as though he's not sure what the correct response is and is just falling back on a likely guess.
jovahs_heiress
"You're welcome."
She can't ask this kid point-blank if his father hits him. She can't. There's no way he doesn't, but Nathaniel would assuredly lie to her.
So she'll just have to get him set up and then use the months before the Gloria to get Micaiah to talk to him, that's all. Micaiah will have a better shot if he's willing to try.
And failing that she can always just tell Delilah everything.
She can't ask this kid point-blank if his father hits him. She can't. There's no way he doesn't, but Nathaniel would assuredly lie to her.
So she'll just have to get him set up and then use the months before the Gloria to get Micaiah to talk to him, that's all. Micaiah will have a better shot if he's willing to try.
And failing that she can always just tell Delilah everything.