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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
Nathaniel is, predictably, very quiet for the rest of the flight.
jovahs_heiress
Isabella finds cause to sing for the cessation of a rather excessive storm (they fly over, not through; it isn't one of those towering thunderheads so huge as to be impossible to detour around, the kind that felled Delilah early in her tenure) but otherwise she allows silence to reign as well.
She lands at the Eyrie when it's almost dusk. "Let's go introduce you to the choir director," she says, setting Nathaniel down and offering him her hand.
She lands at the Eyrie when it's almost dusk. "Let's go introduce you to the choir director," she says, setting Nathaniel down and offering him her hand.
Hesitantly, he puts his hand in hers.
jovahs_heiress
Baruch, the choir director, is just finishing up a practice - it's bedtime for the children, who range from seven to eleven years old. The choir is almost evenly divided between mortal and angel, and several of them look curiously at Nathaniel as they depart their practice room in clumps and pairs. "Hello, Baruch," says Isabella.
"Hello, Isabella. I didn't know you were back. Who's this?"
"I remembered hearing you say the last time I was visiting that you wanted to find more children for the choir from farther away than Velora but could never find the time to get away," Isabella says. "This is Nathaniel. He's got a very pretty voice and he's even been trained most of the way up for you. I found him in Semorrah and his mother thought putting him in the choir would be a lovely idea."
"Hello Nathaniel," says Baruch, squatting with some awkward re-angling of his great tan wings to make level eye contact. "I'm Baruch."
"Hello, Isabella. I didn't know you were back. Who's this?"
"I remembered hearing you say the last time I was visiting that you wanted to find more children for the choir from farther away than Velora but could never find the time to get away," Isabella says. "This is Nathaniel. He's got a very pretty voice and he's even been trained most of the way up for you. I found him in Semorrah and his mother thought putting him in the choir would be a lovely idea."
"Hello Nathaniel," says Baruch, squatting with some awkward re-angling of his great tan wings to make level eye contact. "I'm Baruch."
"Hello, Baruch," Nathaniel says quietly. "It's very good to meet you."
jovahs_heiress
"Likewise. Isabella, you can leave him with me, I'll get him situated - Jehiel's been homesick and I think a roommate will help - what sort of music do you like to sing, Nathaniel...?"
Isabella notes the prospective roommate's name, and she pats Nathaniel on the head and tells him that he can ask anyone in the Eyrie to help him find her if he needs to, and she goes to grab something portable from the kitchens and take it back to her room, hoping to find Micaiah.
Isabella notes the prospective roommate's name, and she pats Nathaniel on the head and tells him that he can ask anyone in the Eyrie to help him find her if he needs to, and she goes to grab something portable from the kitchens and take it back to her room, hoping to find Micaiah.
Nathaniel is listing the songs he's best at when she leaves him with Baruch.
Micaiah, when she finds him, is in a music room practicing that same Gloria mass.
Micaiah, when she finds him, is in a music room practicing that same Gloria mass.
jovahs_heiress
Isabella is, by the time she tries the music rooms and is informed by a passing mortal that Micaiah's in that one, halfway through her chicken salad wrap. She hesitates - you don't walk in on people in practice rooms! - but she opens the door anyway and closes it as soon as her wings have followed her through. She doesn't interrupt the singing - she joins in on Prisca's part at the next phrase.
Micaiah beams at her and stumbles a little on the next line, but recovers.
jovahs_heiress
There's only about half an hour left to the mass. Isabella finishes. She takes another bite. She says, "So, I'm back."
"I noticed!" he says with a fond smile.
"I don't know," he says, more seriously.
Micaiah looks at the floor and swallows.
"Good," he murmurs.
"Good," he murmurs.
jovahs_heiress
"He's nine. He's adorable. He's got a lovely voice. And he's so, so quiet... I put him in the children's choir and he'll be here at least until the Gloria. Before then I need something to take to Delilah. I think if I asked him directly, he'd lie. He might not lie to you, if you got to know him."
"...I'll think about it," says Micaiah.
jovahs_heiress
"Okay." She reaches out to rub his nearest shoulder soothingly. "The Gloria's months away."
Micaiah sighs and leans into her.
jovahs_heiress
A wing goes round him. "You're getting smoother at the mass," she says. "At least if the last fifteen minutes were anything to go on. You like this one?"
He snuggles into her wing and drops his head to rest it on her shoulder.
"I like this one," he affirms.
"I like this one," he affirms.
jovahs_heiress
"Do you want to go through it again together?" she asks. "After I finish my dinner."
Snuggle snuggle. "Sure!"
jovahs_heiress
She eats, with one hand, pets and snuggles him with the other hand and corresponding wing, and finally swallows the last of the wrap. "Do you think you know enough of it to sing through with only me to go by and not the recording?"
"Let's find out," he says adventurously.