let me be the one you call / if you jump I'll break your fall

[impudentsongbird]

Book Four: Dark Days
1 | into the breach
2 | finding skulduggery
3 | retreat to the tunnels
4 | into the cacophony
5 | sanctuary in the cathedral
6 | reuniting old friends
7 | kenspeckle's new patient
8 | holy water and disinfectant
9 | objecting to china sorrows
10 | the roadtrip
11 | baffling guild
12 | shenanigans at the safehouse
13 | reassuring fletcher
14 | valkyrie's intervention
15 | solomon's revelation
16 | visiting the edgleys
17 | recalled to the sanctuary
18 | guild's confusion
19 | gabe is busted
20 | the psychic tattoist
21 | envisioning the cacophony
22 | angel's first migraine
23 | the morning after
24 | china and solomon
25 | detectives' council of war
26 | china's foolishness
27 | the collector dethroned
28 | finding crux
29 | skulduggery's vileness revealed
30 | sorrows in aftermath
31 | finding equilibrium
32 | the devil's number
33 | at the carnival
34 | meeting authorities
35 | solomon's confession
36 | the stray soul
37 | sanguine unsettled
38 | solomon's choice
39 | a cowboy underground
40 | in scarab's basement
41 | striking midnight
42 | craven contested
43 | emergency services
44 | on your feet
45 | and don't stop moving
46 | easy recognition
47 | a deuce of an evening
48 | engines roaring
49 | compromising judgements
50 | solomon's conflict
51 | axis turning
52 | thinking circular
53 | blasting the past
54 | reviling vile

Book Five: Mortal Coil
55 | sanctuary unsanctified
56 | shudder unravelling
57 | catching an angel
58 | layering dimensions
59 | dead men meeting
60 | when it rains
61 | power plays
62 | sing on gold
63 | the valley of death
64 | grand aspersions
65 | no evil feared
66 | new days rising
67 | angelic neuroses
68 | step-brothers working
69 | the many sorrows of china
70 | peacefully wreathed
71 | tarnished gold
72 | the secret in darkness
73 | magical intent
74 | scars worth keeping
75 | benefits of a beau
76 | grand magery
77 | lighting the darkness
78 | old dogs and new tricks
79 | flouting traditions
80 | drawing lines
81 | brothers and sisters in arms
82 | channelling angels
83 | return of the carnies
84 | the death bringers
85 | meriting agelessness
86 | knick knack, paddy
87 | give a dog a bone
88 | americans propheteering
89 | the right side of honour
90 | tailored shocks
91 | hosting angels
92 | elders anonymous
93 | rediscovered strays
94 | changings and changelings
95 | a state of reflection
96 | adding hope
97 | the devil's truth
98 | dead mens' hospitality
99 | lives half lived
100 | next to godliness
101 | devilish plans
102 | beached angels
103 | lights of revelation
104 | heroes worshipped
105 | new devilries
106 | angels under the yoke
107 | brains frozen
108 | father, mother, daughter
109 | parental guidance recommended
110 | driven round the bend
111 | ongoing training
112 | privileged information
113 | reasonable men
114 | passing the buck
115 | gifting magicks
116 | strengths and weaknesses
117 | immaturity's perks
118 | priests and prophets
119 | scaling evil
120 | blowing covers
121 | marring an afternoon
122 | lie detection
123 | five-dimensional pain
124 | reliving nightmares
125 | taking stock
126 | sampling spices
127 | sleeping prophets lying
128 | rueful returns
129 | dead men reunion
130 | medically-approved hugs

The life of an angel was a contradiction in changes and stability. On one hand, they understood very well the way the cosmos was shaped by events within it. On the other, they stood at one step apart from it—or at least had, for a very long time, up until their Master's recent wager with Lucifer. Changes in the recent past had, even for angels, been fast and turbulent, but there were none that concerned Raphael more than Gabriel's abrupt reserve.

In the aftermath of the wager Gabriel had been almost the only one to know where their Lord was at any given time, a fact which had put the Archangel very firmly under Lucifer's radar. Raphael had joked that Gabriel ought to arm himself with more jokes or worse clothes to drive the fallen angel away; Michael had offered the peace of the Garden Coast. (Rafe thought his idea was better.)

Either way, even though their Master was fair hidden, every angel knew that they had only to ask Gabriel and the Archangel would pass on a message.

Then Gabriel had simply blipped off the radar himself. Poof! Gone! No one had noticed at first, because, well, they weren't exactly in constant connection. It was just when Raphael had taken a whim to seek out his younger brother that he'd noticed it, and let it be, because there was absolutely a reason for it. Gabe did not just off and vanish, except that once with his self-exile, and that didn’t count.

But when Gabriel had come back, he had been strangely agitated and yet close-mouthed. The younger Archangel had vanished off to wherever their Master was hidden for a long chat Raphael was dying to have listened into, and yet couldn't (but only partly because it would have been rude). Now he was here, floating among the stars and examining a black hole with unnerving intensity.

For a time Raphael watched without letting on that he was there, but eventually Gabriel spoke. “I’d rather you came to join me instead of lurking, brother.”

Absolutely refusing to feel chagrined, Raphael let himself manifest with an arm around Gabriel’s shoulders and ruffled the younger angel’s hair. Gabriel threw a fond, longsuffering glance up at him, but there was something in his eyes, something distracted and sharp, which indicated that Gabriel still wasn’t truly present. Raphael only wished he knew where the other Archangel was.

“Just wondering what you’re doin’ all the way out here,” he said teasingly. “There’s a party going on down there on Earth, Gabe.” There was always a party going on down on Earth. “You oughta be down there bobbin’ for apples and switching up party-hats!”

“I can’t,” Gabriel said quietly, with a sort of seriousness Raphael had, for all Gabriel’s literalness, rarely heard from him. So Raphael fell into the same seriousness, lost his playful accent, and spoke directly.

“Why not, brother? You’ve been reserved of late. I conf—I’m worried for you.”

For a very long time Gabriel said nothing and stared into the slow-turning swirl of the black hole. Raphael waited patiently, his arm still companionably across the other Archangel’s shoulders. Eventually Gabriel spoke. “Did you know, Raphael,” he said, “that the universe you see around you here isn’t the only one our Master has created?”

Raphael was so startled that he couldn’t answer. That wasn’t what he was imagining. He hadn’t been sure what he’d been imagining, but that wasn’t it. “I’m not sure what you mean, Gabriel,” he said after a moment. “Our Lord told me the story of Creation not all that long ago, and he never mentioned anything of the kind.”

Gabriel nodded. “He told me that story as well. And then He asked if I really wanted to know details.” He hesitated. “I … admit, I declined. It’s something He said—about faith. I decided I didn’t need to know details. But it’s true, nevertheless. Just beyond this …” The Archangel reached out his hand and touched that gossamer and unbreakable fabric that supported reality. “There are other universes, even with different versions of us.”

“Different versions of us?” Raphael repeated, appalled and uncertain and entirely confused. How could that be possible? What could their Master want with more than one of any of them? What was going on? Where had Gabriel gone in that time he’d vanished? Then something occurred to him and he smiled with relief. “This is a joke, right?”

Gabriel looked up at him and smiled back with such a gentle understanding that for a moment Raphael felt very small indeed. “No, Rafe. I’m not joking. It was a shock to me too. That isn’t the point, though.”

“Isn’t it?” Raphael asked, feeling as dazed as an angel possibly could, especially when he wasn’t even inhabiting an actual physical body.

“No.” Gabriel returned to watching the black hole intently. “I met some people from other realities. One of them is in a kind of Hell, and he very much does not deserve it. I promised him that, if I could, I would save him from it.”

Which did not in the least explain why Gabe was staring at a black hole, let alone a million other questions Raphael would have liked to ask and for which he couldn’t find the words. Finally he found one. “How?”

“First,” Gabriel said with a sort of tranquillity Raphael had heard in his brother’s voice a million times but never after delivering so turbulent a piece of news, “I’m going to jimmy open a crack in the door through this hole.”

Raphael stared at Gabe, and then at the black hole, and then back at Gabe. He opened his mouth to ask whether their Master knew he was planning this and then closed it, because that was a stupid question. He opened it again to query if Gabriel had asked whether he could go around lifting the sheets and then realised that was also a stupid question, because whether he had or not, their Master probably would have told him to do what he felt was best.

It was equally clear that Gabriel very much planned to go through with this, no matter what Raphael said, and really, did Raphael have the right to object? Surely if this carried a risk, their Master would have already forbidden Gabriel from making the attempt?

“I’ll come with,” Raphael said at last, and this time when Gabriel glanced back the younger Archangel’s expression was startled. A moment later that expression shifted into grateful apology.

“I’m sorry, Rafe, but I’m not entirely certain I’ll make it through, and we can hardly leave Michael here alone.” He grinned. “Did you see what he was wearing last festival day on the Garden Coast? He hasn’t moved out of the eighteenth century yet. How would he possibly handle the rest of the world?”

Raphael laughed out loud, warm but startled, and the sound of it rang through space. Gabriel chuckled quietly beside him, and for a few minutes there was just companionable humour that faded into an equally comfortable silence.

Still, Raphael had a lot of questions. How did Gabriel plan to find his friend, let alone the universe he was in? How was he going to get back? What would he do if he met another version of himself? Or, worse, Lucifer? Finally the Archangel just asked, “Have you figured out how to crack open the door?”

“I think so,” Gabriel said, considering the black hole. “Once I figured out what to look for. I wouldn’t have gotten even that far if it weren’t for some things our Master said.”

Which meant that, in some fashion, this expedition was sanctioned by their Master, Raphael translated, and something tense in him relaxed. “Something do to with this drain here, I’ll bet,” he said, falling into his casual accent once more. “Gonna rip out the kitchen sink, li’l brother?”

“Just to see what’s hiding underneath,” Gabriel said with a grin.

“I’ll try’n keep it open for ya,” Raphael promised, and Gabriel sent him a smile which lit up the very space around them with its brilliance.

“Thank you, Rafe,” he said, and straightened. Raphael took his arm away as Gabriel lifted his hands, not exactly stepping back so much as giving Gabriel space. The youngest Archangel didn’t often reveal his power, but it was always a sight to see, a song to hear, when he did.

As it was now. Gabriel’s voice started deep, lifted high, split and wove and became more melodies than one would think a single being could possibly sing at once. The sound of it made Raphael’s heart soar, made him want to fly and laugh. It was so deep, so light, so resonating that it was physical; it touched the slow turn of the black hole and made it, for just the briefest of moments, still. In that moment Gabriel sent a carefully-aimed bolt of energy into the heart of it.

It was the kind of sight Raphael hadn’t seen in thousands of years, a play of physics and metaphysics which he hadn’t thought possible, let alone imagined. There was an eruption in the centre of the black hole, where gravity was condensed; the cascade of energy plumed upward and was dragged back down as quick, a tear in the fabric of the reality not allowed the time to widen or become a danger.

Raphael didn’t even know Gabe had moved until the younger Archangel was gone, he was so busy staring in awe. With a start the Archangel stretched out his senses and just barely managed to catch a glimpse of his brother shooting toward the hole at speeds few angels could have achieved through such a gravity well. Raphael certainly couldn’t have.

How, he suddenly wondered, was he meant to keep that open if he didn’t even have the speed of thought to track Gabriel’s movements through it?

Desperately the Archangel cast about for something to jam in the door, as it were. There was some dark matter nearby and with a thought he fashioned it into a spear and pitched it toward the centre of the black hole. It struck just as Gabriel flitted through the crack nearly wholly collapsed in on itself; the star’s gravity caught it, pulled it in, and plugged the opening like a metaphysical sink.

Slowly Raphael made every part of himself relax. For good or ill, Gabe was gone on this quest of his, and now Raphael should probably go and round up some of their younger siblings to guard the area. Just in case.


Book Four: Dark Days
into the breach | finding skulduggery | retreat to the tunnels | into the cacophony | sanctuary in the cathedral | reuniting old friends | kenspeckle's new patient | holy water and disinfectant | objecting to china sorrows | the roadtrip | baffling guild | shenanigans at the safehouse | reassuring fletcher | valkyrie's intervention | solomon's revelation | visiting the edgleys | recalled to the sanctuary | guild's confusion | gabe is busted | the psychic tattoist | envisioning the cacophony | angel's first migraine | the morning after | china and solomon | detectives' council of war | china's foolishness | the collector dethroned | finding crux | skulduggery's vileness revealed | sorrows in aftermath | finding equilibrium | the devil's number | at the carnival | meeting authorities | solomon's confession | the stray soul | sanguine unsettled | solomon's choice | a cowboy underground | in scarab's basement | striking midnight | craven contested | emergency services | on your feet | and don't stop moving | easy recognition | a deuce of an evening | engines roaring | compromising judgements | solomon's conflict | axis turning | thinking circular | blasting the past | reviling vile

Book Five: Mortal Coil
sanctuary unsanctified | shudder unravelling | catching an angel | layering dimensions | dead men meeting | when it rains | power plays | sing on gold | the valley of death | grand aspersions | no evil feared | new days rising | angelic neuroses | step-brothers working | the many sorrows of china | peacefully wreathed | tarnished gold | the secret in darkness | magical intent | scars worth keeping | benefits of a beau | grand magery | lighting the darkness | old dogs and new tricks | flouting traditions | drawing lines | brothers and sisters in arms | channelling angels | return of the carnies | the death bringers | meriting agelessness | knick knack, paddy | give a dog a bone | americans propheteering | the right side of honour | tailored shocks | hosting angels | elders anonymous | rediscovered strays | changings and changelings | a state of reflection | adding hope | the devil's truth | dead mens' hospitality | lives half lived | next to godliness | devilish plans | beached angels | lights of revelation | heroes worshipped | new devilries | angels under the yoke | brains frozen | father, mother, daughter | parental guidance recommended | driven round the bend | ongoing training | privileged information | reasonable men | passing the buck | gifting magicks | strengths and weaknesses | immaturity's perks | priests and prophets | scaling evil | blowing covers | marring an afternoon | lie detection | five-dimensional pain | reliving nightmares | taking stock | sampling spices | sleeping prophets lying | rueful returns | dead men reunion | medically-approved hugs

Comments

[skeletonenigma]

That was the one thing Skulduggery would never be able to wrap his mind around when it came to Archangels. They had nicknames for each other. He suspected he might have accepted Gabriel's identity sooner if the Archangel had introduced himself as 'Gabriel' from the beginning, instead of 'Gabe.'

"China is a collector," Skulduggery explained, "and a librarian of sorts. Very little happens in the world she doesn't hear about. She's useful, if not exactly trustworthy."

Ghastly shifted uncomfortably. "About that. She's actually been... voluntarily helpful lately. She's been working on a disguise for me the last month." He hesitated. "And I don't think she asked for anything in return."

"She's also unpredictable," Skulduggery added with a bemused glance towards Ghastly.

Right as Kenspeckle spoke, Valkyrie and Fletcher appeared in the middle of the room, each with a hand on a relatively large barrel and - predictably - already bickering. Most of Fletcher's words were cut off by the teleportation, but it wasn't difficult to figure out what the pair were talking about.

"-do not! If anything, you were the one he was staring at!"

"Fletcher," Valkyrie was teasing with a smirk. "It's a compliment. Take it as one. Seriously, if you stopped spiking your hair up like that-"

"My hair is cool!" Fletcher crossed his arms, face remarkably close to a pout. "And I do not look like an angel."

Valkyrie's tone grew deliberately condescending. "Fletch, for a few minutes there, you did. And you do again now. You're just going to have to deal with it."

[impudentsongbird]

"Ah." Gabriel's smile turned wry. "I think I've met her type of person before. Which field of magic does she study? Something to do with language, I assume, if she's a librarian?" If that was the case then Gabriel's interest was piqued, even if China wasn't exactly trustworthy.

Valkyrie and Fletcher's abrupt return interrupted any continuation in the conversation, but it did allow Kenspeckle to get right down to business. "There you are! Call yourself a Teleporter, boy?" He pointed to the area to the side of him, on the opposite side to Clarabelle and the trolley. "Bring them over here, Cupid; I can't reach that far."

There was a flicker of a wink in Valkyrie's direction, but it was hard to tell given that the professor's expression didn't otherwise change from stern focus. Rather, he turned at once to Gabriel. "Right. Judging by the look of these feathers of yours, it's not unreasonable to assume your injuries are, for lack of a better phrase, infected. To be expected from a Faceless One, I suppose. That means, like any antiseptic, the chances are that the holy water will be extremely painful when we clean your wounds."

"Oh," Gabriel said, and looked just a bit sick as he glanced at Skulduggery. That thought hadn't even occurred to him; it was an alien concept, to apply these kinds of things to himself. And the thought of adding something to him which would make his pain exponentially greater--well, it was understandable if his wings twitched a bit, as if fighting the urge to wrap them around himself.

"Given the rate of decay of my pain-numbing spell," Kenspeckle continued, "I don't believe I'll be able to numb the pain and then clean the wound quickly enough. So!" He clapped his hands and pointed at Valkryie. "I will maintain the spell. You, Valkyrie, will pour the water at my direction; Renn, keep track of the water-levels. Pleasant, Bespoke, I imagine Gabriel could use the help to keep his wing still. Low, keep our patient here talking. This isn't going to be pretty."

Clarabelle didn't get any direction, but she didn't seem to be paying attention anyway. At least, not until she patted Gabriel's wing, smoothing down his feathers, and announced, "Don't worry! The professor's very good at this. I'll get a feather-brush for the grooming afterward. Angels have to look their best!"

With that she skipped out of the room.

"She's delightful," Gabriel murmured, and actually managed a smile, but it didn't clear the worry on his face or change the way he was staring at Skulduggery. Because they had a problem, now. Valkyrie's ring would almost certain taint the water. As it was now, the containers the water was in protected it, but if the girl was going to be actively pouring, there was no way she was going to be able to avoid direct contact. Add to that, Gabriel did not want that ring anywhere near his back while it was in the state it was.

Yet if he called her on the possession of the ring, in front of her friends, she would surely feel slighted and embarrassed, and Gabriel had no wish to do that to her. The Archangel was at a loss, and the underlying throb in his head that he was thus far managing to ignore made a telepathic conversation undesirable.

Still. It would probably be the best way. He directed a thought toward the girl, braced himself, and wasn't quite able to keep his face from lining as the headache pounded back to full life. 'You'll have to remove the ring.'

[skeletonenigma]

Skulduggery had to wonder how many times the Archangel had gone through anything even close to this. With the apprehension that crossed the angel's face at Kenspeckle's words and his look to Skulduggery for reassurance, Skulduggery's lack of a heart went out to him. Pain was horrific enough for anyone who'd experienced it even once before, and this was on a level even the Institute wasn't capable of.

When this was over and Gabe was healing, the two of them would need to have a serious conversation. Skulduggery was not worth even a tenth of what Gabe was going through to rescue him.

Clarabelle was her usual delightful self, welcome at that moment for breaking the tension and amusing Gabriel. But even as Gabe smiled, the look in his eyes didn't disappear, and Skulduggery realized something else had to be worrying him. Something the detective would know about, but Gabe couldn't talk about with everyone else standing there. Skulduggery was still trying to figure out what that was when he caught Valkyrie's frightened start out of the corner of his lack of an eye, visible only to those who spent most of their time completely still.

Ah. Skulduggery remembered the way Gabe seemed to sense what he was feeling at Landel's - and the way he filled Skulduggery's mind with hope after finding him among all the Faceless Ones. And of course the Archangel would know about the ring; of course that would be a problem. When Valkyrie glanced from Gabriel to Skulduggery, understandably confused, Skulduggery nodded to her.

The ring, when she looked down at it, seemed to be the only thing in the lab that wasn't at its peak beauty. Quite the contrary, it looked like exactly what it was - a ring that controlled the dead. Pale, sickly, sucking in the beauty in its surroundings and killing it. Skulduggery fully understood Gabe's worry now, as Valkyrie quietly slipped the thing off and surreptitiously placed it on a nearby counter.

Everyone took up the positions Kenspeckle specified, Valkyrie and Fletcher near the barrels now moved closer to Gabriel, Fletcher still looking offended, presumably because the Professor had called him Cupid. Skulduggery and Ghastly each took one side of the wing, and Tanith hovered near Gabriel himself, looking slightly hesitant, but mostly determined.

"So, uh..." She glanced around at the rest of them. "What's your family like?"

[impudentsongbird]

'Thank you,' Gabriel whispered to Valkyrie, unheard by anyone else and relieved that the girl hadn't argued.

Kenspeckle nodded amiably to Valkyrie as she took up position beside him. His eyes narrowed a little at the unsettlement on her face, but he let it pass. It could have been anything. Such as the fact they were about to pour holy water all over an angel's infected wounds. "We'll start with his back and work our way outwards," he said calmly, as if they weren't about to pour holy water all over an angel's infected wounds. "It's going to be tough to say how the infection will react, so better to drive it away from the joints. Don't pour it directly into the wounds; do so at the top and sides, and let the water drain into them through gravity's work. Start here, and move along here."

He pointed, indicated the gouges and the manner in which Valkyrie ought to pour. "Don't stop until I say so. I suppose it doesn't matter if it gets on me? Of course not. I probably won't feel it even if it did. Lower your wing a little, please. Carefully now!"

Obligingly Gabriel did so, thus putting any scrapes on the upperside of his wings within reach and allowing Skulduggery and Ghastly a better hold without hurting him themselves. (Or pulling out his feathers. That would have been annoying.)

The Archangel smiled encouragingly at Tanith, and the question made a grin bloom on his face. "That depends a bit on which side of the family you're asking about," he said with a laugh, "but my closest brothers are far nicer and more interesting than Lucifer's group."

Kenspeckle was about to lay his hands on the Archangel's back, but he faltered just a little, at those words before doing so. Perhaps telling Tanith to keep him talking wasn't such a good idea. Oh well. "I'm beginning the spell now," he informed the angel, and sure enough, the sweet painlessness began seeping through his back and the joints of one wing.

Gabriel didn't breathe a sigh of relief. Without meaning to his wings tensed up with the anticipation of what was coming next, and he went on quickly, "I'm not sure how much you already know, to be honest, though admittedly we are a bit--misrepresented." Kenspeckle nodded to Valkyrie to begin pouring. "The Ancients, especially. As I said in the van, Lucifer put a great deal of time into--"

It could have, all-told, been a lot worse. Flying had been worse. But Gabriel could feel the soothing wash of Kenspeckle's magic; it dulled the initial sharp edge and soothed the throbbing pain of after.

That didn't mean this was a picnic. The moment the holy water touched the deep gouges, Gabriel's words broke off in a cry of pain, his wing jerking and shuddering with the instinctive urge to pull away from what was hurting it. The Archangel gripped the table-edge so hard it began to crumble, trembling and with tears in his eyes, but then he blinked and consciously made himself refocus on Tanith.

"Lucifer--" he said again, faltering quite obviously but equally determined to fight through this, "spent a--a great deal of time making sure those who followed my Master's Will wouldn't help them. It ... made things pretty difficult. It's one of the reasons the magical communities began hiding themselves."

[skeletonenigma]

It was one thing to be told Archangels exist - assuming Tanith believed whoever told her. It was another thing to meet one, and to find out very quickly what they were really like. And while Gabriel had obviously been in pain the whole way to the cinema, he'd been jovial and friendly enough that it was easy to ignore. Maybe the initial shock, which was still in the process of wearing off, had helped a bit too.

But it was impossible to ignore this. They were, as far as any of them could tell, pouring water over a large wing. Gabriel's sudden agony halfway through his answer was jarring, and Tanith had absolutely no idea what to do about it. Everyone else had physical tasks - even Valkyrie was working on her manipulation of water. Tanith was feeling useless again, and that flash of anger, more than anything, helped her sail through all of the weirdness of the situation and focus on helping what was in front of her. That was, after all, what she was good at.

A bit misrepresented. Yeah. If by a 'bit' you meant 'everything you ever thought you knew about them is totally and completely wrong.' You know, aside from the wings and the halo.

Tanith placed a sympathetic hand on Gabriel's shoulder, slowly and hesitantly, unsure whether it would help or just cause more pain. It also hit her, for the first time since helping him out of the church, that she was touching an Archangel, but she would have to ignore that. "What about your closer brothers? What do you guys like to do for fun?"

She was pretty sure no one wanted to hear about Lucifer right now - although Gabe's next answer could kind of go either way, depending on what, exactly, Archangels found fun.

[impudentsongbird]

Gabriel gave Tanith a wobbly smile and released the edge of the table to lift his hand and squeeze hers in gratitude. He didn't dare take her hand, though he would have liked to, for the comfort; but he wasn't sure if he'd grip her unconsciously, and the last thing the Archangel wanted to do was hurt her. So he let his hand drop again a moment later.

"Lots of things," he said, and his voice was as shaky as his wing. It trembled with the need to move, the necessity to not, and Gabriel felt a flash of gladness that Skul and Ghastly were keeping him steady. He couldn't have done it himself.

"Sometimes it's a while in-between our seeing each other," he admitted, "at least as mortals reckon years. But often that just makes it more fun, because it means the world's changed a lot and we can discover some new things to do." He summoned a grin, a wan and faintly distant one, one that spoke of remembrance. "I remember when Michael and I joined the pilgrims moving through the American West. Michael was guarding some of our siblings' descendants pretending to be an Ancient himself, but I travelled with them for a number of years. It was great fun. Well ..." he amended, and the smile faded.

"It wasn't always a good time. The Native Americans were very poorly treated, and that broke both our hearts. But among the settlers, there was a great sense of camaraderie and determination."

[skeletonenigma]

Tanith had to admit, Gabriel was growing on her.

The point in history wasn't what Tanith found fascinating. Nor was the amount of time - she was a sorcerer, she'd had friends who were born during the Renaissance, and liked to talk your ear off about it too. While Tanith was barely 90, she was plenty used to people much older than herself. No, what fascinated her was how sweet Archangels had turned out to be. She'd always pictured them as warriors, far above the mortal race and engaged in far more important things - a lot like sorcerers, now that she thought about it.

But no. They protected people, they traveled with pilgrims, and that was what Gabriel considered fun. Just putting her hand on his shoulder had made him grateful; she could kind of see how he and Skulduggery had become friends now.

Plus, the image of Gabriel as a cowboy didn't hurt. Although Tanith banished the image a few moments later when it came a little too close to Billy-Ray Sanguine.

Keeping the Archangel talking was turning out to be much easier than Tanith thought. She was genuinely interested now. "Is that the sort of thing you always do? Don't you have to follow orders as well?"

[impudentsongbird]

"We thought we did," Gabriel said, making a rueful face. "But no. The whole time, our Master was trying to encourage us to break out and make our own decisions just because we wanted to. It took a while for that to happen."

He smiled, and this time it was truer than it had been. He could still feel every drip of the holy water on his wings, gathering and trickling down his feathers, but it was also ... cleansing. The hurt never really faded, but after a time it became a dull sort of ache which felt more natural, less sharp, than before. That made it easier to bear.

If Skul hadn't told him that psychic power wasn't all that common Gabriel might have thought that Kenspeckle was empathic. The professor always seemed to know just when one injury was cleaned and to move on to the next. Maybe it was a part of his magic, and he could sense the basic nature Gabriel's pain; maybe he was just that observant. Either way, he was indeed an exceptional doctor.

"But even when we did believe that obedience and love were inclusive," Gabriel continued, "our Master always encouraged us to do the things we enjoyed. He travelled with us sometimes too, but others, He'd tell me to go ahead with Michael while He went to visit Rafe or attend some matters at Home." The smile broadened, and far from going distant, the Archangel's eyes seemed to sharpen. There was only one other time it had been necessary for him to escape the present, and he had done that in the worst of ways. It was necessary again, and the memories were still so close as to be almost as vivid as if they were happening again. He wasn't seeing through Tanith to view them; if anything, it was more like they were being brought into the now.

"Michael was posing as a tracker and a lumberjack," he said, "and I took care of the horses. There was a group of us--almost all of the blood, but not quite--who had joined a larger train. We knew there was a remnant of Eden on the west coast, so we actually had a destination, unlike most of the others in the pilgrimage. That was Michael's job, to guide them there. I was just along for the ride."

He grinned. "My favourite part was always the campfires. A lot of the people in the pilgrim train didn't know each other at all; even the ones we were escorting only knew about as much to know they were distantly related. The campfires were where we ate and talked to one another. Where you could discover the histories of dozens of other people and their families. A lot of us brought small instruments, so we'd play and sing and dance, and others knew how to tell stories. So they would. It was marvellous."

At least, it was those times they weren't attacked. Sometimes that had happened. Michael and Gabe only did as much as they needed to protect their charges, and avoided causing harm to the Native Americans. They'd only been protecting their land.

[skeletonenigma]

It was obviously helping Gabriel to talk without being interrupted, so Tanith didn't. That didn't stop her jaw from slowly falling open, or her eyes from growing impossibly wide at several parts of the story. Archangels walking the Earth in disguise - it was sweet and unexpected, but she could still imagine it. Kind of romantic, in a way. God walking the Earth in disguise? She didn't even know where to start imagining that.

It wasn't until a few moments after Gabriel finished talking that Skulduggery's voice startled her from the other side of the wing. "A remnant of Eden."

"Oh, good," she heard Ghastly mutter a short distance away, sounding annoyed for some reason. "I'm not the only one having trouble with that."

Tanith ignored them both. "You had the whole of the world to choose from," she said, "and Eden, and even Heaven-" or, at least, what Tanith assumed Gabriel meant by Home, "-and you chose to guard a group of pilgrims?" Her tone wasn't derogatory, exactly. If anything, it shone with awe. You were probably supposed to expect that kind of thing from angels, but it was still heartwarming to learn that there were people out there with nothing but good in their hearts. Not even Tanith could make a claim like that, try though she might.

... Oh, no. Oh dear. No, Tanith was better than this. She was pretty sure she'd gotten over the whole schoolgirl crush thing back in her 50's. Please tell her it wasn't happening again.

... Please tell her it wasn't happening because of an Archangel.

[impudentsongbird]

"Well, yes," Gabriel admitted with a gentle smile, perhaps not entirely oblivious to Tanith's reaction but choosing to ignore it. "I'd been to America before, but for the colonists, it was entirely new land. What they were doing took daring and courage, and although I can't countenance a great many of their choices while they made the journey, it was in many other ways glorious to behold."

He tilted his head a little, just enough to catch Ghastly out of the corner of his eye, and the smile quirked up into a measure of amusement. "Eden didn't come first," the Archangel said. "It was cultivated by the Ancients. After my fallen siblings were banished to Earth, Lucifer and his ilk created a ... a metaphysical dungeon, I suppose you could call it, so they didn't have to walk the planet surface. But the others, the ones who repented, took the beauty already on the Earth and made it greater."

Gabriel sighed and shook his head, and then winced, pressing a hand to his temple. "Of course, Lucifer couldn't bear that," he said, his mouth drawn rather tightly. "He did everything in his power to see it destroyed. In the end, he succeeded--but only partly. Remnants of it were left hidden all across the globe, and many of the Ancients' descendants settled in such places as caretakers."

There had already been Native American caretakers fostering the Garden Coast, but once it became clear that America was to be colonised, it seemed prudent to ensure the Europeans and Native Americans of the blood should be joined in friendship, rather than risk Lucifer inciting a war over that most precious of territory.

[skeletonenigma]

Here they were, listening to a story most people on Earth would kill to be listening to, helping a being wars had been fought over, and Ghastly could barely pay that any attention. It was ridiculous. Of course Tanith would be smitten by him; they all were. And why shouldn't she be? She was perfectly capable of handling herself.

It was even more ridiculous that Ghastly came even close to seeing an Archangel as a threat, but.. oh, for God's sake. Ghastly almost hoped that unintentional prayer would be heard; maybe then everything would stop. He forced the memory of Gabriel squeezing Tanith's hand from his mind, frustrated and annoyed, but with really no one to blame for it other than himself.

"I wish the stories of our Ancients were as noble," he murmured. That was one thing Ghastly already admired about Gabriel and his brothers - they had immense power, enough to do anything they wanted. But save for a select few, they didn't use it for anything further than helping people. To them, it was merely a means of being everywhere and protecting everyone at once. They didn't see themselves as any better. Hell, they probably didn't even see themselves as divine.

It was probably a little late to hope that Valkyrie would learn a lesson from it, but it was certainly an example all sorcerers should follow.

"If Eden didn't come first," Skulduggery asked, "what did? When did Lucifer come into the picture?"

[impudentsongbird]

Even if Gabriel's aching head hadn't been a block to his being able to get the sense of the people around him, Ghastly's soul and body-language was speaking volumes. The prayer wasn't for him, exactly, but that didn't mean Gabriel didn't hear it. It didn't mean he couldn't tell what it was for, either. Ghastly's heartache was almost audible.

"That depends on who you ask," said Gabriel quietly, glancing toward the tailor as if in answer to his comment. "The Ancients are still today considered evil by most of the Church. It takes," he added obliquely, meeting Ghastly's eyes, "a good and steady heart to see past the thin veil of such presentations." And he inclined his head ever so faintly at Tanith, and smiled with approval at Ghastly.

Only for a moment. Ghastly would see it, because he was apparently paying special attention, but then Gabriel tried to glance over his shoulder at Skul to avoid anyone else catching on and winced.

"Look forward, idiot," Kenspeckle snapped. He sounded tired and tense, but wasn't nearly out of energy yet. (He may have been using the healing to avoid having to think too hard on what he was hearing. Time later to get the shakes and have a bottle.)

"Sorry." With a sheepish smile Gabriel turned forward again. Skul could hear him anyway, apparently. "He came into things with Adam and Eve," Gabe answered the detective, "but they weren't in Eden. Those stories were conflated. I told you that 'enough' of the Bible is true. Well, a lot of it is true and misrepresented at once. The bit about the tree of knowledge, Adam and Eve's awareness--it's all allegory. They did exist. They were granted self-awareness. And they were rebuked for having it. But it wasn't my Master who did any of that; it was Lucifer."

He shook his head with disgust, pressing his lips together. "Lucifer always felt he knew better than our Lord how the universe ought to be run. I suppose he wanted the validation. So he found two primates whose evolution had progressed far enough and opened their eyes to his divinity, purely so that he could have someone to worship him. But they didn't live up to his expectations, so he just left them there, confused and frightened and without any guidance at all."

The Archangel's tone was clearly indignant on Adam and Eve's behalf, his jaw set, his shoulders a bit tensed. "When our Master found out what he'd done He ordered Lucifer to go down and explain things properly, to take care of them, but instead Lucifer told them it was all their fault for being imperfect. And that," he sighed, "that's when things really hit the fan."

[skeletonenigma]

Once again, an awkward silence pervaded the room, contributed to equally by everyone. It didn't start out too bad - just the natural quiet progression of someone's story finishing - until each sorcerer slowly realized what Gabe's story implied, and what that meant. By the time a minute had passed, the silence was absolute as everyone tried to avoid catching one another's gaze. Ghastly looked like he might try to say something, but then thought better of it, brow still furrowed. Skulduggery slowly shook his head, as if careful not to dislodge something hidden inside his skull.

"I have to hand it to you," he told Gabe with a glance towards Valkyrie. "You are one of the only people I know who can manage to make me regret asking a question."

It wasn't this reality, of course; it wasn't here that Lucifer had inadvertently created the human race because he happened to be bored and spiteful one day. But somehow, the knowledge that it had happened somewhere was more than enough. Gabriel sitting here was easily proof of that.

Skulduggery was about to ask for more details when Valkyrie cleared her throat, clearly anticipating that plan, and quickly jumping in to intercept. "So," she said loudly, the cheer forced into her voice actually sounding somewhat genuine after a moment. "Gabriel, tell us more about the theme parks. I mean, why ride roller coasters instead of... I dunno, hanging out at Jerusalem?"

Skulduggery stared at her. She didn't want to hear about Lucifer, so she... asked about something else that could potentially be even more traumatizing? What kind of logic was that?

[impudentsongbird]

It was the quiet, more than Skul's words, which alerted Gabriel to what he'd just done. He straightened, almost rocked back, really, in a way that made little fissions of pain run along his wings, and then looked at Tanith with something like panic in his eyes. He hadn't meant to say all that. Hadn't meant to--

Talking to mortals on this level was new. Usually people didn't even know he was an angel, let alone enough for casual conversation. Gabriel hadn't been paying attention; hadn't been careful enough.

"I didn't mean to--" he began, and then had to stop because he didn't know where to go next, glancing around with a strange sort of lostness. There was no one here to ask for guidance. No one to tell him whether he'd done right or wrong by revealing the truth of humanity's inception.

Oh Lord, what have I done?

With that odd kind of detachment of either someone who had heard just a little too much or someone who was just that focussed in their task, Kenspeckle announced, "This wing's done. Renn, get the barrel."

They had shifted down to just past the wing's wrist; it was the more badly injured of the two. The other had injuries which extended beyond the same point, but they were shallower. Gabriel exhaled, made sure that the others were out of the way on the other side of him, and then stretched his wing gingerly. It hurt, still, with Kenspeckle's magic fading. It hurt and it was raw, but less sharp, and felt clean.

"Thank you," Gabriel murmured, and his tone was a mix of chagrin and gratitude. He'd just all but told them they were created by the Devil, and they were still helping him. When Valkyrie asked her question, the Archangel seized on it with the relief of a drowning man.

"It's more fun," he said brightly, and then sobered a little. "Jerusalem has long been a war-zone. We've got forces there, of course--as many or more than Lucifer has. But it's not really a place you'd go for rest and relaxation. Theme-parks are better." He grinned. "You haven't lived 'til you've ridden a roller-coaster as a seagull. Though to be honest my Master and I both prefer the arcade games and bumper-cars."

[skeletonenigma]

This time, the silence was less awkwardly frightened, and more the silence of someone trying very hard not to laugh. Skulduggery was glad for that; it looked like Gabe needed it. The Archangel had told him about his wrestles with free will, but it hadn't been too much of an issue in Landel's reality. Skulduggery generally took the lead there, and any split-second decisions the Archangel made, he'd been confident about. The expression on Gabe's face just before Valkyrie asked her question wasn't completely unfamiliar, but that didn't make it any easier to see.

Gabe. How exactly did prayer work? Was it really as simple as just thinking his name? Ah. Well, maybe his real name. Gabriel, Skulduggery amended. What else? Maybe in the form of a prayer, too? Maybe it needed to sound hopeful. I pray- No. No, that was just absurd. I hope you realize they're all much stronger than you're giving them credit for.

And actually, there was one thing Skulduggery would need to know sooner rather than later, even if the others preferred to remain in the dark. Any chance Lucifer could realize you're missing and work out how to come through? If any of the Archangels could do it, they needed to at least entertain the possibility. The last thing Skulduggery needed was Satan using their reality as a vacation home.

"Arcade games and bumper cars?" Fletcher asked, unable to keep a broad smile from crossing his face. "What, you and... you just played arcade games against each other? And sat in bumper cars?" He paused. Skulduggery might have thought he was deciding on the best phrasing, if he didn't know Fletcher never thought before saying anything - and sure enough, the boy's next bluntly-put words were "Who won?"

Valkyrie and Tanith both burst out laughing.

[impudentsongbird]

The change in atmosphere helped Gabriel relax out of sheer relief, and then Skul's fumbling prayer made him grin, if a little shakily. His head still ached, but between having drunk the whole bottle of holy water and the relative soothingness of his treated wounds, he felt like he could respond.

'It's not that, exactly.' But it was too complicated to explain using just telepathy while he was in the state he was. 'He'd likely notice I'm gone, but he won't know where, and he won't be able to get to where I left the door in my universe. He can't leave Earth.'

It was unfortunate Gabe couldn't see Fletcher's face, and the Archangel tried for a moment to turn before settling down at Kenspeckle's grumble. He could hear the good humour in the boy's voice, though, and that made Gabriel grin too. A moment later, Tanith and Valkyrie made him laugh. "Well, we drove bumper cars, of course. As for the games, mostly we just made bets as to who could win the most teddy bears. As long as the games didn't include cards, I could actually win pretty frequently."

[skeletonenigma]

There were many things wrong with Gabe's response - chief among them that if one Archangel could open a door in the universe, then why couldn't another one do the same thing? - but Skulduggery was having a hard time keeping his thoughts coherent when the most interesting mental images kept trying to steal the spotlight.

Valkyrie's laughter petered off into the general sound and expression of someone who'd just seen a litter of newborn kittens. "You guys won teddy bears? Really?"

"Was there anything left over for anyone else?" Fletcher wanted to know.

"Whatever happened to the smiting?" Ghastly's face was hidden from Skulduggery behind the wing, but he could imagine the look on his friend's face - something like confusion and frustration rolled haphazardly into one. "And the wrath? Wasn't God supposed to be an angry person?"

"Actually," Skulduggery responded levelly, "I don't think God was supposed to be a person."

"What do you do with the teddy bears?" Tanith asked eagerly, finally over her own bout of laughter. "Do all the angels get one? Or is there a big basket of them up in Heaven or something?"

Skulduggery glanced towards Kenpeckle. As amusing as all of this was, he couldn't help being very aware of the amount of time this was taking. It wouldn't be long before Guild would come here - even shorter if the Grand Mage had seen the sort of condition Gabe was in during his split second glimpse - and Professor Grouse had made it very clear that his help came with the caveat of no Sanctuary cleavers.

[impudentsongbird]

"The teddy-bears are the best," Gabe declared solemnly, but then winked at Tanith, a wink the people behind him wouldn't be able to see, even as he directed his next words to Fletcher. "Don't worry, we're careful to leave most behind! We can't very well take away everyone's chance for fun. There'll be plenty there for you to win next time you go to a park."

He grinned at Tanith. "We keep a few for the children who come Home before their parents. But mostly, the winner gets to choose where to donate them on Earth."

It was Ghastly's comment, though, which made him sober and stop to think, and it was Ghastly Gabriel could actually see as he couldn't the others. The Archangel turned just slightly to do so. "A lot of that was Lucifer being Lucifer. He spent much of his time trying to make sure humanity would be too afraid of my Master, or feel too guilty to believe He'd accept them. My Lord tried everything to help you past that."

There was even that time when He hoped if He punished humanity they might feel absolved. Gabriel chose not to mention it. "The truth is," Gabriel continued with a sweet, gentle smile toward the tailor, one that showed no hint of envy, "the truth is that you've been His favourites for a long, long time."

Kenspeckle looked back at Pleasant and lifted his eyebrows without breaking the contact between his hands and Gabriel's wing. They were more than halfway done, but even through the Archangel's aura Kenspeckle was beginning to look tired. Not strained, but tired. They had now covered the bulk of the injuries on Gabriel's back, but there were still some deep gouges along the line of the wing to take care of.

The professor turned away from the detective and nodded to Valkyrie to move across again. Kenspeckle himself stepped to the side, sliding his hands along Gabriel's feathers, and tacitly guiding the Archangel's wing down so they could reach the injuries properly. He didn't dare speak. He wasn't entirely sure what would come out if he did, and he needed to concentrate, and he rather didn't want to be thinking about exactly what they were discussing. So Kenspeckle summoned up his reserves and focussed on his magic instead.

[skeletonenigma]

Coming Home. What a pleasant way to phrase such an ugly truth. And with Gabriel's gentle explanation, it almost sounded preferable - like going to sleep after a long, hard day. At least Ghastly no longer needed to wonder if the souls were in good hands. One universe, at least, was getting it right.

The tailor was not, however, enjoying the look on Tanith's face. Gabriel might be subtly prodding Ghastly into telling her - and he still wasn't sure how he felt about that - but the knowledge didn't do very much for Ghastly right now. As it was, he had to bite back a childish interruption with the fact that he also donated to charities whenever he could.

But it was impossible to stay annoyed with Gabriel for long. Skul was the same, with the way he could disarm you after only a few words. Ghastly found himself smiling back at the Archangel. "He does sound much more generous than I remember," he admitted. And the fact that Gabriel could say he wasn't God's favourite without even the faintest trace of jealousy... that, more than even the wings, was what proved his divinity to Ghastly. Disregarding Lucifer, of course.

"How come," Valkyrie piped up, pausing each time she needed to concentrate on the holy water, "your universe got God and Archangels, and all we got were the Faceless Ones? How is that fair?"

[impudentsongbird]

It was only ugly depending on the perspective, really. People were afraid of death because they didn't know what would come after it and because they were afraid it would hurt. And some of them did have things to worry about ... but not everyone. For them, Heaven really was one long party. There wasn't anything to fear from that.

"You'd probably be surprised," Gabriel said to Ghastly with a chuckle. It was hard to be jealous when he loved them as much as his Master did. "I'm looking forward to the time you meet him."

Because they would, of course. Because even here, in a universe where he hadn't seen any evidence of angels, his Master must be present. Different universes or not, God had known about them, had known what Gabriel wanted--needed--to do. Yes, the Archangel had faith, still, that his friends' path would lead to Heaven.

It took everything he had not to flinch at Valkyrie's question. Everything he had not to let his expression flicker or let on at all that there might have been something to her words at all.

"How do you know that is all you got?" Gabriel asked over his shoulder, but he was still looking at Ghastly as he spoke. How did they know his Master wasn't here, in this universe, right here and now?

[skeletonenigma]

Just a moment ago, Ghastly had been comparing how Skul and Gabriel both seemed to be naturally disarming. Now he realized something else they had in common: the ability to strike him completely and utterly speechless with a couple of sentences.

"What do you mean?" Valkyrie was asking, haltingly, as if she was still working through it in her head. "We would know, wouldn't we? I mean... the Ancients, they... well, wouldn't they have wiped out the Faceless Ones?"

The silence following her words was absolute. Ghastly couldn't see many expressions from where he was standing, but he imagined they all held some form of shock very similar to his own. Skulduggery, of course, would be mostly stoic, but even he couldn't possibly have thought of this. Maybe that was why they'd all accepted Gabriel as an Archangel so relatively quickly. Ghastly, at least, had been operating off the assumption that Gabriel and his family all came from an entirely different universe. But the Archangel was right; how did they know?

"Skulduggery?" Valkyrie's voice sounded much smaller than before. "Please tell me we would know."

After a long moment where even Ghastly was waiting with bated breath, Skulduggery spoke. "Gabe, are you planning on Him taking you back home? Or is there something else you're not telling us?"

[impudentsongbird]

"The same way that Lucifer would never have managed to succeed in turning our Ancients into a bump in the night, or send them into hiding because of it?" Gabriel asked Valkyrie quietly, tilting his head in such a way to indicate it was her he was talking to. He could almost see them out of the corner of his eye without needing to strain, now that they'd moved along.

"My Master isn't the kind to interfere to any truly great degree without due cause, Valkyrie. He can't interfere without violating the sanctity of your right to choose your own destinies, and He won't do that. That's why ..." The Archangel faltered a little and looked apologetically between Ghastly and Tanith, the only two whose gazes he could meet. Yet still he spoke to them all. "That's why we don't generally reveal to people that we're here, or that He exists, or any of the true historical facts on which the Bible was based. You can't choose to believe in Him or not if you know He exists. You can't choose against a proven fact. It isn't fair to humanity to take that choice away. I'm sorry it was--I'm sorry that I took it from you."

The was a genuine weight of regret and sorrow in Gabriel's words. He could blame it on the pain, on the strain, on many things most likely, but it didn't change what he'd done and allowed Skulduggery to do. It wasn't the detective's fault at all; he'd given Gabe the option to say no, and Gabe hadn't. He shouldn't have left that choice on Skul's shoulders.

Again the Archangel turned his head to the side, this time to look at Skulduggery. "I have no plans, Skul. Not for that. But He knew what I was going to do before I left. He all but told me outright how to travel safely, and then let me decide whether to go ahead or not. He knew. So, yes, I do believe He's here in some way. I believe it because He has promised me that He never leaves behind anyone who does not wish to be abandoned. And there are people here, still, who do not wish it."

There was almost no way to argue against the certainty in Gabriel's voice. It was hard to not be certain, when Gabriel could hear the prayers of all those who did believe. How they were being addressed, he had no idea; but there were believers here, and God had promised, and God did not break His promises. Therefore, He was here.

[skeletonenigma]

"Oh, believe me," Skulduggery responded. "Knowing that God exists won't affect belief as much as you think. Humanity is a stubborn species. There are plenty of flesh-and-blood saviours a lot of people still don't believe in." He paused, head tilted to the side. "If it makes you feel any better, I still don't believe in Him."

It was a simple statement, one that his friends might take issue with considering their company, but there was a lot hidden underneath it - remnant feeling that the Archangel might pick up on. Skulduggery and Gabe had had this argument before. Gabriel seemed to think that God was the solution to everything - which was understandable, what with him being an Archangel and all - and that all Skulduggery needed to do was accept forgiveness that was apparently being offered with no strings attached. Quite apart from not believing that in the first place, the only forgiveness Skulduggery sought was his own. And he'd nowhere near earned that yet.

It didn't help that Gabe had given up so much more than Skulduggery thought just to find him. To not even know if he was going to get back? Having faith was all well and good, but at some point, you needed a backup plan. Add to that the injuries, the infected injuries, and... he'd just robbed an entire universe of one of their Archangels.

But what worried Skulduggery even more was that Gabe might be right. His Master might be here right now. Gabe hadn't mentioned Valkyrie's ring yet beyond a possible telepathic connection with her before the treatment started, but Skulduggery doubted God would be as delicate. Maybe there was nothing strictly wrong with Necromancy itself as a branch of magic, but the words 'Death Bringer' didn't bring with them a list of fluffy associations.

[impudentsongbird]

"You're a prime example of humanity's stubbornness," Gabe said with a laugh. Strangely enough, that did make him feel a bit relieved, because it wasn't an inaccurate observation. But at the same time, the concern still stood--robbing them of the choice to decide wasn't something Gabriel intended to start doing every day.

"Besides," the Archangel added, looking at the detective sidelong. "You're a little biased, my friend." Not that Gabriel wasn't, but he did know a few more of the facts than Skulduggery did. Still, Skul was that very special kind of biased. The same biased Joby had been.

Gabriel had said before that his Lord had tried hard to stop humanity from feeling they weren't worthy of Him. Those words had been deliberate. He wasn't giving up on Skul just yet.

[skeletonenigma]

... Well. There wasn't really any way to argue that particular point, and especially not with the others there. But it was getting a little too personal for the detective to be completely at ease, and came a little too close to traversing the well-known path into anger. So Skulduggery quickly and easily changed the subject. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but you have more than a little bias yourself. You're not going to convince me to change my mind."

"Your conversations must be fun," Ghastly muttered. "Do they always descend into this?"

"Not always," answered Skulduggery. "Sometimes we talk about how difficult free will is. Most of the time we were discussing how to escape. If you think I'm stubborn, try having a philosophical discussion with an Archangel sometime."

Valkyrie was giggling. These were all good signs; it meant, perhaps, that no one was questioning Gabe's comment. Skulduggery was a little biased in general, after all. It was entirely possible that Gabriel had been talking about his death and subsequent resurrection.