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]

... Ah.

As constantly seemed to be the case with Gabe, Skulduggery found himself instantly regretting the question. Although this time, it was for entirely different reasons than the usual inability to accept whatever the answer was.

Skulduggery was still having a difficult time believing in more than what he'd seen to be fact, and was still having a difficult time thinking in terms of Christianity. Where demons came from hadn't properly occurred to him until just now, although it really should have - especially since Gabe had told him all this before. It was an unforgivable slip on Skulduggery's part.

And once again, the reality of the situation pressed in on him. There was a gap in his identity the others couldn't even begin to cross, a gap they didn't even know existed, but which Gabriel had traversed time and time again back at the Institute within days of knowing him. In an effort to help Skulduggery through it, Gabe had told him about his own almost-Fall, and Skulduggery hadn't even have the decency to put two and two together.

Or maybe he'd just forgotten, over the year. It was hard to think of demons as former angels when you were stuck with a demonic equivalent who wanted nothing more than your constant agony. Equating Gabe with a demon just... didn't stick. But it didn't make the Archangel's experience any less traumatic.

Skulduggery beamed out a silent apology, then dragged himself back to the problem of Lucifer, which everyone else seemed to be avoiding. Not that he could blame them.

"Until Finbar can get more specific," he told them, "there isn't much we can do. Raphael might be in better condition to help, or he might need rest first. Michael might not arrive for a while. Either way, you all deserved a warning."

"How are we supposed to recognise him?" Tanith asked. "I'm assuming he won't walk around dressed like a particularly depressing Necromancer." She hesitated, and something new crept into her tone - something almost like amusement. "Will he have horns and a forked tail?"

[impudentsongbird]

Making Skul feel guilty certainly hadn't been Gabriel's intention. It was hard for Gabe to think about in those terms. Easier when he was merely describing a Fall, but to consider just how close he had come to being a demon ... that was all Gabe had meant by it.

That didn't mean the Archangel appreciated the apology less, particularly given the way in which it was broadcast. With the slightest of movements Gabe brushed Skul's back with one wing, near enough that the detective would be able to feel it. (The motion sent rivulets of pain down the limb, but it wasn't so bad as to be intolerable.)

"It's most likely Rafe will need the rest," Gabe said, apology in his tone. "Walking through that ocean strained my entire body, and I had solid anchors. Rafe and Merlin didn't; there's no telling how long they were wandering. My brother won't have open wounds, but I'm not expecting him to be up for much when he gets here."

Not even healing Gabe's own injuries, which was frustrating, but something Gabe was resigned to. He wasn't yet crippled--not yet. He could spare Rafe the energy.

Gabe opened his mouth to answer Tanith and wound up laughing at her final comment. "Only when Merlin's been casting illusions," he told her with that kind of deeply amused grin of someone looking back on a cherish memory. Michael had shown him an image of Lucifer after Merlin had stepped in-between the Fallen Archangel and Joby. "But no. Lucifer will likely go to the Necromancers for allies, but he dresses more like a businessman. Very prim, very proper, very boring and austere and cold. Lately he's been going by the alias Morgan."

[skeletonenigma]

Wait. Hang on. Did that mean centuries of a widely accepted public image, the one that sprang to mind whenever anyone mentioned Lucifer or Satan or the Devil, was just an illusion cast by Merlin for fun one day?

Ghastly couldn't imagine Lucifer actually finding any allies among sorcerers, but... of course, when he thought about it, it made sense. Sorcerers were people too. Some were evil. Some might even know exactly who they wre dealing with, and still choose to ally themselves with him. Otherwise, Lucifer was known for his trickery and manipulation. Finding allies in this universe wasn't going to present much of a challenge.

Damn it. Damn it. And to think Ghastly had been worried about opening one small portal when he woke up yesterday morning. He would have preferred that to this. Not that he wasn't honoured to meet an Archangel, but... that honour was coming with so many different catches and caveats that Ghastly was beginning to wonder what else was next, what else could possibly go wrong.

If Finbar turned out to be God, like one of the plot twists in some of the crime dramas on television he watched, Ghastly was going to have to punch something.

"So what you're saying," said Tanith, slowly and carefully, "is that he's going to look like every single businessman in this city? He could be anyone?" She sighed and sank into the couch next to Ghastly. "Great. I think I liked it better when we knew exactly who we were fighting."

"We could just attack anyone calling themselves Morgan," Fletcher pointed out with a weak laugh. Valkyrie punched him on the arm for it.

[impudentsongbird]

Well, not Merlin. Not originally. Actually, that had been God Himself--the first time, anyway. Merlin, half-human, raised human, with that sense of humour and free will, had merely been intensely amused by it time and time again. Whenever the pair met up and Merlin had the opportunity, the sorcerer teased Lucifer with it.

Lucifer usually fell for it, too.

"Who's going to suspect him when he looks 'normal'?" Gabe asked rhetorically with a shrug. "He invented 'normal', quote unquote. It's one of his tools to bury anyone who doesn't fit into that distinction. Naturally, he's going to make himself seem as if he fits into it. How better to keep himself hidden?"

The Archangel smiled beatifically. "It does make it great fun to mess up his clothes, though. He's far too obsessed with his appearance and far too prone to shouting when easily-startled birds are around."

[skeletonenigma]

Ghastly and Tanith were both laughing, if a little uncertainly. Valkyrie didn't know which was worse - a faceless and formless evil no one had the first idea how to stop, or a businessman who shouted when you messed up his clothes. One was certainly more amusing, but it was also easier to imagine Satan as a general evil like a Faceless One instead of something... almost human.

Okay. So Satan was definitely coming here. And he was coming because Gabriel was here. He would be gunning directly for Gabe, and this safe house, and for anyone in the way, and God wasn't going to lift a metaphorical finger to help. Yesterday, Valkyrie wouldn't have thought twice about this - she put herself in danger's way all the time. Just another day at the office. But this morning... this was Satan they were talking about, and her mother was pregnant. Suddenly, Valkyrie very much cared about the world her little sister would grow up in. And she didn't want it to be a world Satan had any kind of a handle on.

The sooner Gabe was home again, she decided firmly, the better. It was a logical conclusion, but it still caused Valkyrie a twinge of guilt just thinking about it. Because she couldn't help wondering if the sentiment was partly born out of a stupid and petty jealousy that Skulduggery might be replacing her as a partner.

"So now that we're all properly scared out of our wits," Skulduggery said with a look towards Ghastly and Tanith, "and understand that we can't actually do anything yet, the question remains. What are we doing for the next few hours?"

"Panicking?" Valkyrie suggested half-seriously.

[impudentsongbird]

There were a lot of emotions happening in this room. Some of them Gabriel got. Some he didn't. Mostly, there was a lot of fear and uncertainty, and the Archangel wished there was something more he could say or do to ease it. But ... no. These sorts of things had to be overcome on their own, apparently. Even for him.

He could certainly help lighten things up, though.

"We could play cards," Gabe said brightly, and instinctively stretched out his hand to conjured a set before double-taking. Right. He wasn't meant to be using any power. At all. "Er. Assuming that anyone can get a pack, anyway," he said, pulling his hand back and throwing a sheepish look at Skulduggery.

[skeletonenigma]

It had taken Skulduggery a moment to realise, after Gabe's earlier metaphysical wing-touch, that it was a metaphysical wing-touch. Of course, by then it was a little too late to reprimand him, so Skulduggery had grudgingly moved on ahead of everyone else, resolving to mention the oversight to Gabe later. Maybe the angel didn't think a mortal would run screaming from the idea that he was moving an invisible wing, but Skulduggery knew for a fact that mortals tended to get overexcited about things like that.

So he was pleasantly surprised when Gabe caught himself out loud before summoning anything, and Skulduggery didn't try to stop the brief approving smile before his expression soured again.

So they were really going to sit down and play a game of cards while the world was crashing down around them. It went against every single instinct Skulduggery had, but he'd said it himself - there really was nothing they could do until Valkyrie was able to contact Caelan. They might as well have some fun while they were at it. To be on the slightly pessimistic side, it might be their last chance at a little bit of fun for a while.

"I've got a couple of decks at my shop," Ghastly suggested after a moment. "Fletcher?"

When Ghastly and Fletcher returned with said cards twenty seconds later, Skulduggery turned to Gabe with a hint of a smug smile playing around his lips. "Would you look at that. We solved a problem without you, and the world didn't end. One wonders how we managed for centuries without the proverbial angel on our shoulders."

As it turned out, Gabriel really wasn't kidding when he said he played a lot of poker against an undisputed Master of the game. The Archangel was good enough to give even Skulduggery a run for his money - Skulduggery, a man whose normal undisguised head embraced the very definition of a poker face. But Gabe's expression was just as hard to read as that of the skull, because like the eternal grin of the skull, Gabe never seemed to stop smiling. He might have gotten the worst hand in the game, and you would not be able to tell.

A couple of times during the various games, in order to give someone else a chance to win, Skulduggery left the table to either meditate or - the second time it happened - take Valkyrie aside and give her that overdue lesson Ghastly had mentioned. She'd been neglecting her Elemental powers, but that was only to be expected, and Skulduggery didn't mention it out loud. She knew she was behind, and she was already working hard to catch up. That was what mattered.

A different time, Tanith expressed hunger that Valkyrie and Fletcher both leaped on, so she'd left to find some food. There was yet to be a kitchen among all the living rooms, apparently. Ghastly, after a silent and encouraging prod from Skulduggery, followed after her. They were both gone for about an hour, but the smiles on their faces when they came back were identically bright and, as far as Skulduggery was concerned, very promising. Maybe it was the looming threat of Lucifer that finally pushed Ghastly into it, but really, it was about damn time. Now, if Valkyrie would just admit that she was talking to her dead uncle almost regularly in the office of Gordon's old house, everything would be dandy.

The time passed much more quickly than Skulduggery thought it would, to his surprise. Poker turned into blackjack, whereupon Gabe started winning almost every hand, and Fletcher finally gave up, storming off in a huff.

~~

China did not usually enjoy having to deal with enclosed spaces for longer than perhaps an hour, but she could make an exception this time. Not a full exception; she still didn't enjoy it, she merely tolerated it. It was an immense relief to finally arrive and step outside of the car into the fresh morning air.

She had, in fact, driven herself. It raised the eyebrow of her usual driver when she made the request, but he didn't object. He liked his job too much, happily enough. China didn't want to entrust this to anyone else. That added to her irritable mood, certainly - three hours of being stuck in an enclosed space while driving - but even that seemed to drift away in the cool breeze and country smell of the woods the safe house was under.

Her skin where the fresh symbols were engraved still felt slightly raw. The three-hour trip had faded most of the angry red color, but it didn't change the fact that symbols of magic were carved into more than just skin - they were carved into China's identity, her very essence. The librarian winced slightly as her arms gave a pang of protest, but she ignored it. She felt alive again. Back out in the field with nothing to rely on but her magic, the next few hours wonderfully clouded from predictability. One shouldn't make a habit of this, but since this was the first time in a long while, China drank in the exhilaration.

Exhilaration, that was, until the tree she'd used as the doorway no longer responded to her touch.

It was obvious what must have happened. Professional pride was now at stake here. China glanced around at the dozens of other trees in the thicket, then sighed and pulled out her phone to dial Ghastly Bespoke. She may as well simply ask to be let in. Most of her plan hinged on none of them knowing that she knew about Saint Gabriel, after all.

[impudentsongbird]

"One does wonder," Gabriel agreed half in exasperation and half in chagrin, and maybe some faint pride at the pleasure in Skul's soul that Gabe had managed to curtail himself. "Thank you, Fletcher." The Archangel accepted the deck, automatically taking on his customary place as dealer.

He wasn't precisely surprised to discover that Skul was better than him. Gabriel had the virtue of experience, and he did win his fair share, but Skulduggery was simply predisposed toward secrets and strategy in a way Gabriel wasn't. And Gabriel, despite the advantage it gave him, tried not to read their souls too much. Nevertheless, there were times when the Archangel also bowed out of playing in favour of simply dealing, because when the two of them were playing it always came down to them.

When Skul took Valkyrie aside, Gabriel picked up Fletcher's language lessons. And when Ghastly and Tanith returned--before they'd returned, or even entered the room--the Archangel found himself grinning wildly down at his cards at the surprised wonder radiating off both of them from even that distance. When they did come back he beamed at the two, consciously blocking off the memory of the kiss so as to give them their privacy, but soaking in their joy.

When poker turned into blackjack, at which point Gabriel warned the others with calm confidence that he was better at this than poker, the Archangel wound up promising Fletcher to show him some tricks to get the young man back to the table. Not that Gabriel could blame the Teleporter. The Archangel had never really gotten frustrated with losing to his Master; he'd forgotten not everyone had that propensity.

Skul had just accused him of soul-reading, and they were currently, er, debating the issue when Ghastly's phone rang.

Gabriel already knew who it was. He'd felt the warning tingle of his wards, and he suppressed a smile at the ring of irritation above the ground, managing to not mental apologise to his Master for the rudeness. (It would have been a lie, anyhow. He didn't regret it.) "That'd be Ms Sorrows," he said comfortably as he fanned his cards, "wantin' to know where the door is."

[skeletonenigma]

Ghastly rolled his eyes just before answering the phone. "China. What is she doing here?"

"Why didn't she call?" Valkyrie asked, fanning out her own cards, as Ghastly stepped away from the conversation. "It's a three-hour drive. How could she even know we'd be here?"

"It is China's safe house." Skulduggery sat back in his chair with a long sigh. "We may as well see what she wants. I'll admit, I'm curious about what made her drive three hours without so much as a heads up. She isn't that enamoured of me."

Of course, knowing China, the only thing that made her call at all was the misplaced doorway. She'd been hoping to catch them by surprise, off-guard and therefore vulnerable. Why? What on earth could she have been planning to achieve? Not just the looks on their faces, that was for sure. And it wasn't like China to underestimate the power of someone who might be an angel, whether she truly believed the claim or not.

"But this does not mean," Skulduggery directed at Gabe with a good-natured grumble, "that you win this particular argument." He was still internally debating whether or not to get a book on cheating to show the Archangel - and, if he did, whether he was hoping it would deter Gabe from arguments like this or teach him how to cheat better. Honestly, either was an acceptable outcome.

"I'm still confused," Tanith complained, glaring down at her cards like they'd done her some great personal wrong. "You see souls? All the time? Even outside of card games?"

[impudentsongbird]

"Oh, yes," Gabe said with a nod, peeking over the top of his hand. It hid the grin. It didn't hide the twinkle in his eyes. After he'd convinced Fletcher to come back they'd chosen to move on to another game, in this case Go Fish. Valkyrie had suggested Egyptian Ratscrew but Gabriel had claimed an unfair disadvantage given that he didn't have the capacity to move quickly. Skul had liked the idea for the same reason.

In the end Go Fish was all they could settle on, especially since Gabriel had admitted that details like exact card-numbers would have required active mind-reading and he, of course, wouldn't do that.

That didn't stop the friendly argument.

"It's the sweeping emotional changes which are the most visible," he continued as he rearranged his cards with practised flicks, glancing sidelong, and slyly, at Tanith. "Like whether one is hiding something or not. Ten please, Tanith."

[skeletonenigma]

Tanith returned Gabe's sly look with one of complete befuddlement. "Then what were we doing playing poker?"

"How was Skulduggery winning?" Fletcher wanted to know, equally puzzled.

"Poker isn't all about hiding and lying," Skulduggery explained to him with a hint of amusement. "It's also part strategy, part trickery, and part luck. All of which I am excellent at." Fletcher and Valkyrie, in particular, were open books. Ghastly, Skulduggery might have found a challenge, if they hadn't known each other so well. And Tanith was much too honest to get far in a game like that, although she had won once or twice.

Go Fish, even though he'd just learned how to play properly, was also turning out to be a surprisingly strong suit for Skulduggery. Ironic, since the amount of luck it contained was almost double that of poker, and yet somehow it was supposed to be easier.

"I've always thought he's a bit of a psychopath," Valkyrie told Fletcher. "He can lie and honestly believe he's telling the truth. It's kind of creepy sometimes."

It was a good thing Valkyrie had called Skulduggery a psychopath before - purely as a joke - or his already considerable worry over China's intentions might have spilled over and clouded his judgment. As it was, Skulduggery's composure didn't change in the slightest.

Tanith grumbled quietly to herself, and then looked up again a moment later with her expression much more neutral. "At least you can catch other cheaters, I guess," she admitted, grudingly handing Gabe one of her cards. "Have you even had to go fishing yet?"

"I still don't see how drawing a card counts as fishing," said Skulduggery. "They are two very different activities."

Valkyrie glanced up at him. "You're never going to let that go, are you?"

"It bothers me."

[impudentsongbird]

"And unfortunately for me, Skul is both very controlled and a lot better at strategy," Gabriel said as he grinned at Tanith and accepted her card. "I maintain that a passive glance is still only using the qualities my Lord gifted me, but reading Skul's poker-face would often require a more active glimpse. That would be cheating."

Primly the Archangel laid the cards down crossways on his last set. "I don't know," he said cheerfully. "Haven't been keeping track. May I have a four, Valkyrie?"

As it turned out, the phone-call had indeed been China asking about the new door--as Ghastly told them when he had hung up and asked Fletcher to pick her up (given that it was difficult to tell just where the front hall was). Gabriel tried to hide his smile behind his cards, but he wasn't entirely sure how effective it was.

When Fletcher returned with China a few seconds later, the Archangel smiled beatifically up at her, his eyes twinkling. "Hello, Ms Sorrows. Nice morning, isn't it?"

[neutralcollector]

China might have thought they didn't want her to know where the new doorway was, if she didn't know the exact layout of the safe house underground like the back of her hand. Chances were, the ragtag group of detectives had wandered far away from the entrance hall. The thought caused her no end of amusement. It was a good thing they had Fletcher with them, or Skulduggery in particular would never be able to live down the embarrassment of getting lost.

China did find, though, after Fletcher hesitantly greeted her and Teleported her into their chosen living space, that being faced with Gabe again after her talk with Solomon was slightly nerve-wracking. How annoying. China decided the Teleportation must have had something to do with the unwanted sensation, wound her nerves back under her control, and returned the angel's smile with one of her own. "Hello, Gabe. Yes, it's a wonderful morning. Very brisk." She nodded briefly at each of the others, never losing her smile, subtly tapping the new symbol on her right forearm that removed any lingering doubts.

China didn't normally use magic to change or focus her own mind. This time, the slight trespass would be frustratingly necessary.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything important?" she asked, one delicate eyebrow raised in response to the card game. Go Fish, by the looks of it. China would never have believed it, if it weren't for the evidence of her own eyes.

[impudentsongbird]

China Sorrows, Gabriel noted at once, was under tight control today. Not that it was a surprise, but it meant that Gabe couldn't read anything without being intrusive, and he was more determined than ever to not be intrusive with a woman who was, herself, intrusive in the worst of ways to everyone else. The fact that her mind seemed ... sharp, as if supplemented, didn't help. That might have required a breach of his promise.

He left it be.

"Only my winning streak," he said easily, holding out his hand for Valkyrie's four and setting the pair down precisely on top of the tens. He glanced up and met Skulduggery's gaze, shifting his shoulder in a near-shrug to indicate he had no idea why China was here. "It's been a long time since I've been able to win at cards so regularly."

Try almost never, except when he'd played the rare hand with one of his siblings. Usually it was something he played only with his Master, as His companion. Spending time with his family on missions? Yes, of course. But some extraneous activities didn't really happen with the undercurrent of being on duty.

Gabe knew better, now.

[neutralcollector]

"We've been letting him win," Skulduggery clarified with, to China's undeniable surprise, a teasing smile. "His confidence needed the boost, and none of us feel like particularly horrible human beings."

"Speak for yourself," Tanith mumbled quietly from her corner of the table with a jealous glance at the angel.

China needed another moment to adjust to the quite sudden shock of seeing Skulduggery's old face. Oh, she'd noted it on first glance, recognised it as the one she caught a brief glimpse of yesterday. But China had assumed it was an illusion, similar to the ones she could cast. The one she had cast as a favour to Ghastly. This... this was nothing like that. This was Skulduggery, right down to the hair. It was his smile, his jawline, his eyes, his brow. As clear and expressive as the day before she'd led his family into the trap.

Just two minutes ago, the craftsmanship of Skulduggery's face - quite unlike anything China had ever seen - would have done more than given her pause. She would have recognised the talent, the power behind it. And she would have backed off. Now, thanks to the gentle pulse of the sigil on her forearm, the thought didn't even occur to her. Once she was over the surprise, China smiled again. Excellent; a better challenge than she could have hoped for. "I see you've been brought back from the dead. Properly, this time."

"Was there something you wanted, China?" Ghastly cut in. "Not that we're not all delighted to see you, but it's a long drive to make on the spur of the moment."

China took in the furniture of the room with a glance, and settled on the brown loveseat closest to the door. She would need physical stability for this, and the comfort wouldn't hurt.

She also needed to get Gabe talking. Focusing on something other than her. In light of that, she'd come up with a series of questions in the car to ask, innocent questions that wouldn't betray her true motive. It hadn't been too difficult, as most of the questions were ones she was genuinely curious about anyway.

"I'm a collector," she reminded Gabriel placidly, "of books, certainly, but also information. Aside from Dimensional Shunters, who aren't very reliable, your unique situation is our universe's first foray into another one. You can imagine how anxious I am to learn about it, and I decided a phone call wouldn't be enough to do it justice. What is your dimension like, Gabe?"

Underneath the genuinely curious questions, China readied her mind for the task before her.

[impudentsongbird]

Ah. This, now, this was more what Gabe had imagined and hoped for when Skul had first mentioned China Sorrows as a collector. Surprise flickered across the Archangel's face, followed by gratification and then a more genuine smile than he'd offered China since the very first--before she'd used her power in him.

Her power was ingrained, after all. She used it badly, but she wasn't damned yet. Maybe this was his chance to make a difference in her mentality. Maybe that's what the clarity he could sense in her mind was for--to keep her power in check. It wasn't working, if so, because he could tell it was still the same passive level it had been the last two times they'd met, but it was possible.

There were certain things he wasn't about to talk about, but this was a better start than the other times.

"Actually, it's very similar to this one," he said, tapping his cards closed. "Not all our laws of magic and metaphysics are the same, but more than I thought would be. Earth, in general, seems nearly identical--save the exact people on it, and the history of the more clandestine communities. Do you have a nine, Skul?" He wasn't sure. The others didn't have anything he wanted, or at least nothing he could divine; statistically this was his best chance for another pair. Not a good one, but still.

[neutralcollector]

China's mind was, quite easily, split in two. The top half was listening to Gabe's answer, attuned to its surroundings, very involved in the conversation that would ensue and in everyone else's reactions to it. In other words, the top half was the mundane part of China's mind given temporary authority over the rest. A version of China that wasn't quite as smart, quite as clear-thinking, as the full package.

"Go draw a card," Skulduggery was telling Gabe, when the split state of mind solidified.

"It's Go Fish," Valkyrie corrected him again in the exasperated tone of someone who really no longer cared, and was just keeping up appearances.

"Do I mock your life choices?" Skulduggery asked her. "When you decided to shorten the name of an entire ancient form of martial arts to 'that thing where you kick a lot,' did I complain?"

"Yes," Valkyrie returned vehemently. "A lot, actually."

"That is my prerogative as your mentor. You, on the other hand, need to respect your elders."

While their good-natured teasing was certainly another way to distract Gabriel, China found herself to be, once again, legitimately curious about this. An inside source on alternate dimensions was so difficult to come by. "I assume, then," she responded, "that your home universe isn't where the Faceless Ones were banished to? How did you come by where Skulduggery was? Or am I to understand we've all been worrying over the past year for nothing?"

The other half of China's mind was steadily working throughout the conversation. A sigil tapped there to focus the magic, a symbol tapped there to increase higher concentration, and China could suddenly tell, with vivid clarity, that Gabriel was in fact the man's true name. And it wasn't buried in a way she was used to. In fact, for so much obvious power, there didn't seem to be much guarding it at all.

It made China wonder what she'd find when she actually attempted to control it.

The thought was enough to allow a small sliver of trepidation through a crack in her magic's defenses. But it wasn't enough to form a doubt, and it was quickly banished. Concentration completely intact, China mentally steeled herself and took the plunge.

It was the magical equivalent of trying to squeeze all the water out of a sponge. With a person's given name, this process was simple and boring - more like a glass of water being dumped out than a sponge. The difference was that when you dumped the water out of a glass, there was always something left over, a last few stubborn drops of water, that formed the basis of who the person was. Their thoughts and emotions remained their own. Their identities were still there. All China did was replace the water with her own powerful suggestions, and the person was physically helpless.

Controlling a true name was a more subtle art, when done correctly. A sponge, rather than a glass. You could squeeze out only some of the water, slip in undetected, replace whatever you wanted with whatever you needed. Love, loyalties, thoughts, memories. Everything a person was lay at your feet. It was a mistaken assumption that control occurred only when the true name was spoken out loud. Real control occurred much earlier, silently, magic slowly woven into place; speaking the true name only sealed the intent.

The so-called 'sponge' of the name Gabriel was almost impossible to find, first and foremost. China didn't think she would have managed it at all without the proximity to its source - and even then, it took her several minutes. As it was, China had to nudge down a small thrill of pride when the edge of her magic finally thrummed against it.

This was it. With his power, he'd be able to feel her now. Part of China was still consciously alert and focused on the conversation, but that shouldn't be misleading for too much longer - not for someone whose true name apparently didn't need protecting, even from their own soul. China didn't waste time looking for the proverbial weak spots in the armour; nor did she attack outright when she had no idea what to expect. She simply slipped in, and hoped she'd come out somewhere useful.

Hoped she could make sense of whatever she saw.

[impudentsongbird]

Gabriel was laughing as he drew a card and flipped it around to show Skul the nine. "My luck's running wild with the big fish this morning. That's this round to me." Of course he was going to take the opportunity to tease Skul's objection to the naming theme. Of course. Gabe started picking up the cards to shuffle back into the deck and turned to China.

"It wasn't, no," he said, and although the smile and humour written all over his face didn't show it, he was choosing his words carefully. "Skulduggery wasn't attached to an Isthmus Anchor the way the Faceless Ones were, so he got a bit lost after going through the portal. We met in another dimension."

Let China think that it was because Gabriel had always had the power to travel other dimensions. Well, he had, technically speaking. He just hadn't known.

Skul and Valkyrie's continuing argument attracted his attention again and he grinned, throwing in a few teases of his own. China's working her magic slipped completely under his radar. He wasn't used to having to be on guard around humans, and he had a headache, and this place was built from China's own wards. Amidst all that, he missed the signs of sigils activating.

"We first met when I taught him to make rosaries," the Archangel continued, his hands not exactly a blur because he didn't have the dexterity right now, but still with the motions of a master. He cut the deck, shuffled again, and then began dealing. "Of course, back then I wasn't letting on that--"

A fission ran through his being and the Archangel stopped short, his face going so abruptly blank that it was frightening. Very quietly he put down the cards and turned to look at China, and as their eyes met she stepped into his soul.

She hoped she'd come out somewhere useful. There was nowhere useful. Not for her. He could see in her how she'd been thinking of this, how she'd visualised it, and if she weren't already entrenched he might have laughed at how ignorant it was. China was viewing him as a sponge she could manipulate, one containing nothing more than the waters of its limitations.

She would have done better to imagine herself as trying to absorb an Olympic-sized swimming pool with it. And China herself was the sponge.

The first thing she'd feel was the surface tension of that pool--his pain. The dull throb in his head, the ache in his body which curtailed his movement, the sharp rivulets that ran down his wings whenever he tried to move them. A dash, a surprise, for someone who wasn't expecting to leap so fully into the deep end. A cold shock, followed by the sudden pressure and weight of water, the inability to breathe, the bottom too deep to touch.

Aeons upon aeons were under that surface. A timelessness, a knowledge that he would exist for always or until his Master bade him not. The whisper of billions upon billions of voices, of humanity's prayers. A connection to the lifestream, to every atom and particle around him--separate for now, but so potentially present if he only wished to be part of them. Not just on Earth; that connection was depthless, extending far into the outer reaches of spaces, to an edge of the cosmos humanity couldn't conceive.

And there was more. Behind Gabriel, like a swimming-pool built on a rocky shore and cordoned from the sea by nothing more than a wave-washed wall, there was a greater presence. If China was a sponge to the unreachable depths of Gabriel's pool, Gabriel was only a pool with a barely-discernible bottom to the crushing pressures of an ocean.

For only a moment, Gabe let her remain. An infinitesimal moment, a fraction of a second, which to China would feel like a lifetime.

Then, quite unceremoniously, he tossed her out.

[neutralcollector]

Rosaries...? was the last thought of the conscious half of China's mind. A complete stranger had somehow managed to convince Skulduggery to make rosaries? Now that, China would have paid money to -

- the thought shattered while she was having it.

She'd been prepared for fear to leak through the protective shield of magic around her. She'd been prepared for a deep mind-numbing terror, the likes of which she hadn't felt for centuries. She'd been prepared for a possible backlash, something slicing into her mind, wrapping around her presence like a boa constrictor, or perhaps simply a sheer amount of pain. Maybe an emptiness, nothing to find or see, getting lost in the bottomless fathom of such a powerful true name.

China may as well have prepared for a hike into the Alps by wearing a bathing suit.

She'd predicted the pain. She just hadn't counted on the form, or the amount, or for it to come crashing down so quickly. It wasn't a physical, endurable agony that China knew how to handle. It wasn't even a psychological, all-encompassing emotional waterfall that she imagined she would be able to handle again. It was both - and yet, somehow, neither. It transcended them; it was metaphysical, pain China not only hadn't ever experienced, but was never meant to. Unexplainable. Coursing through limbs she shouldn't have, piercing every part of her as it went with a sharp sort of ringing noise that managed to be another pain all on its own, as if China's entire body was suddenly able to take in and process sound.

Having burned its way through like a forest fire, the pain receded as a tide off a beach - but like a forest fire, the devastation it left in its wake continued to burn, to char, to become ash. It felt like a small piece of China's mind was being destroyed forever with each passing moment. And as if to mock the delicacy of the aftershock and the damage, China was given no respite. Scarcely a moment had passed before a weight descended.

'Weight' wasn't quite the word - not that China was in any kind of a state to think. 'Weight' implied mass. There was no mass in what dropped on top of China. It was like finding herself at the bottom of an endless abyss, trapped and lost and getting crushed by time itself, but even that would have been a blessing compared to what truly happened. The time didn't just drop by her, unseen; it stretched out all around her, in every direction, crushing her, closing off her lungs, forcing her down, and up, and everywhere at once. She had no control, no control whatsoever, for the first time in her life. A plethora of lifetimes hammered against her skull, intertwined with the passing millenniums and countless voices and everything, from the smallest particle in the smallest atom on Earth to the furthest stars of the furthest reaches of the furthest galaxy.

It was a whole universe, the way Archangels saw it, everything and nothing at once. It was a whole universe the way Archangels were supposed to see it, and it was never meant to fit even a fraction of itself inside a human mind. The edges of China's sanity, already brittle as charcoal, broke.

That was probably a blessing. What China felt a glimpse of next might have utterly destroyed her otherwise.

To be shown such knowledge and time and existence and power, all impossible by themselves, all mind-crushing, all in the one being, and then told there was someone - something - beyond even that? And not just beyond him. An answer. The answer to a question China had never asked, never wanted to ask, wouldn't be able to ask for a while yet. The puzzle of which Gabriel was just a piece, an existence that gave Gabriel the power to be. It was...

Even sane, lucid, and thinking clearly, China would never have been able to grasp the concept. As it was, the broken pieces of her mind reeled away from it, rebelled against it, suddenly and inexplicably found the pounding abyss a comfort, a reprieve, but there was no way out - no way out of the frightening certainty and knowledge and sheer power and -

And then, quite suddenly, there was.

And then there was nothing.

~~

Skulduggery's temporary relief that something had interrupted Gabe from finishing his story had the lifespan of an average and highly annoying gnat. He stiffened when Gabe's face went black, and shot out of his chair when the Archangel's eyes, locked onto China's, were as distant and downright ancient as they had been at Finbar's.

But while everyone else, confused and on the verge of panic, went to Gabe's aid - as they should - Skulduggery strode toward China. Part of him was already clamping down the virulent feelings stirring, thanks to the centuries of practice, but this time, it just wasn't enough. After seeing what Gabe had gone through last night... if China caused another downward spiral, another migraine, if she was what tipped Gabe over the edge and caused him to disappear, to die, maybe even to Fall -

Skulduggery didn't have a chance to do anything. China's eyes, for a split second, took on the same agelessness and pain of Gabe's. And then the veins stood out from underneath her skin, different sigils all around her body flashed rapidly in and out of existence, and - with the short, choked scream of someone who'd forgotten how to - an invisible force flung China up off the couch and back against the wall, where she slumped, motionless, down to the floor.

Unconscious. Probably for the best, Skulduggery thought with a furious look at her prone form half-lying on the cold, wooden floor. He managed to erase the look when he glanced back at the others, even though it did nothing to temper the anger he was still feeling.

When he spoke, it was with deathly calm. "What did she try to do?"

[impudentsongbird]

Part of Gabriel felt as if he should be more concerned for China Sorrows. He had felt her mind crack beneath the weight of his identity, and she wasn't technically damned, which meant she wasn't damned, and all other times he had considered that worthy enough of being concerned.

But that was before he could choose to like someone or not. Before Ms Sorrows had done everything in her power to perform actions which were the equivalent of damning, but not quite falling yet. Before she'd tried to steal his love and now his self.

For a long moment Gabriel's unreadable gaze was focussed on Skulduggery and the writhe of darkness in the depths of his soul. No, he wasn't concerned for China. But he was concerned for Skul, even as he was touched by Skul's concern for him. "Skul," he said with a slight smile, his voice full of humour--a reminder, a potential anchor, for the detective to clutch. "Breathe. I think you're about to start hyperventilating."

See, Skul? He was fine. Perfectly fine.

To give the detective the chance to regain control Gabe picked up the deck, turning to the others around them and giving them a faint but reassuring smile. "I'm okay," he said. "Really. She's even more foolish than I thought she was, but I'm okay. There's no way what she just tried could hurt me."

He glanced back to Skul. "Are you ready?" A beat, for the detective's emotions to lock down. "She was preparing to use my true name. As I said, stupid. That kind of thing only opened her to everything that I am, and to be perfectly frank, the human mind isn't capable of comprehending that. I'm honestly not sure what condition she'll be in when she wakes up, but if she's still sane, she's not going to be happy about it. Ghastly--" The Archangel turned suddenly to the tailor. "I don't suppose you could put her on the couch for me? It's more comfortable than the floor."

[skeletonenigma]

... Breathe.

Easier said than done, when you didn't have to, but Skulduggery was startled enough to instinctively start taking deep breaths anyway. Gabe getting snarky with him was a new enough occurrence; Gabe getting snarky with him after an episode that had left the Archangel helpless the last time it happened was enough to snap Skulduggery out of the blinkered rage.

But he still watched Gabe's face as the Archangel reassured the others, searching for any sign of pain or weariness. There wasn't any. Slowly, Skulduggery forced himself to relax, to drink in the favorable outcome, even though it didn't quite add up in his mind. Whatever China tried to do, it was a mental attack. How did that equate to getting physically thrown against a wall? Skulduggery might have accused Gabe of breaking their earlier promise, if he thought Gabe was capable of consciously causing someone harm like that.

He nodded once when Gabe asked if he was ready, but didn't quite trust himself to speak yet. He trusted himself even less when Gabe explained what China had tried to do.

"She tried to..." Ghastly paused, glancing over at China's unconscious form, then back at Gabe in amazement. "She was really going to... but then she must have known who you really are. And she was going to try anyway?"

"She's certainly arrogant enough to," Tanith pointed out, heading towards China's body, tapping Ghastly on the arm as she passed him. Ghastly was startled out of his puzzlement enough to join her, and together, they hoisted China back up onto the couch.

Skulduggery had to resist the sudden urge to burst out laughing. He'd always known China was arrogant. He'd always known China was willing to do some pretty self-serving things regardless of how stupid they might have been. But trying to control an Archangel? Trying to control an Archangel? Oh, he was angry, no doubt about that. He was angry she'd even thought about attempting it. And he still wanted her to pay for it, as part of a general need for revenge the anger instilled in him. But if China would wake up insane, or broken, or... if she even woke up at all with her memory intact, that would be punishment enough. And when Skulduggery thought about it, it was really very amusing.

"How did she find out?" Valkyrie asked, misplaced concern for China written all over her face. "What made her that desperate?"

[impudentsongbird]

"She wasn't taking me seriously," Gabe said simply in answer to Ghastly, fanning the cards to cut them, shuffle them once more and then start to deal a new hand. "Do you remember what she said our second meeting, Skul? That she doesn't believe in the divine, just analogous power? She was thinking of me as something close to human. As if the word 'angel' was just another word for 'sorcerer', instead of another being altogether."

The Archangel glanced up and over at the detective, and smiled with relief to see Skulduggery had calmed down considerably. The smile turned gentle. "You didn't really understand the difference either, until you saw my true form. And you were more willing to trust me than Ms Sorrows."

At Valkyrie's question Gabe only shrugged. He knew, of course. For the moment that China had stepped into him her clarity had only made her clearer, and he had seen the intent and reasoning behind it. Seen Solomon speaking to her. He chose not to mention it; Solomon Wreath was on a quest of his own, and Skulduggery would only get irritated.

"I don't think it was desperation," he said, setting the deck down and picking up his hand absently even as he turned to look at China. There was a clinical facade on his face, but in his eyes was pity, sorrow and resignation. "Just hubris. Ms Sorrow's magic is under my domain. If she had a patron saint, it would be me. I suppose that only made her more interested in claiming control."

He sighed. "Unfortunately, I'm no healer, even if I was up to strength. If she's truly broken, there won't be anything I can do."

[skeletonenigma]

So this was what Tanith's life had come to. See Archangel break sorcerer. Play cards with Archangel.

Not that she was complaining! Tanith had wanted China to get what was coming to her for a long time - maybe not quite so violently, but still. It was just... a little unnerving, seeing a display of such power like that, and then continuing on like everything was normal and nothing had interrupted them.

Tanith was still the first one to sit back at the table, though, when Gabe finished dealing. Freshly determined and ready to win some hands, for once. Or really just to see anyone who wasn't an angel or a skeleton win a hand. She'd be happy with either.

"I still believed you," Skulduggery insisted to Gabe as he joined them at the table, followed hesitantly by everyone else. "Eventually. I didn't think you'd be able to cross between dimensions, though. That came as a surprise."

Hearing that there was nothing Gabe could do to heal China should have made Tanith feel a little sorry for the woman, but she couldn't muster up even that, really. A modicum of pity, but no real sorrow. Tanith was no angel. She did hope that China would wake up, but only to find out what she'd seen - even if she wouldn't be coherent enough to express it properly. Especially if she wouldn't be coherent enough to express it properly.

No one ever said Tanith couldn't be just a little vindictive.

"Someone's going to have to watch her until she wakes up," Ghastly reminded them as he picked up his own cards.

"I call not it," Fletcher responded immediately.

[impudentsongbird]

In truth, Gabriel had been dealing a new hand partly just for the sake of something to do. He wasn't rattled. Not exactly. China Sorrows had never been a threat to him, because he was already owned. But his own words had sparked something in his mind, and now he was regretting the way he'd treated her.

It didn't matter whether or not she was a believer or not. She was under his domain. She was his responsibility. And he had treated her as if she ought to be left all alone in the cold, when in fact, as someone so incredibly lost, she'd deserved more of his attention. Whether he liked her or not.

I'm sorry, he apologised silently to his Master, chagrined.

His brow was crinkled as he stared at his cards, and the Archangel glanced up with a start at Tanith's arrival at the table. With a grateful smile around at them and then a gentle one to Fletcher he said, "That's okay, Fletch. I'll do it. She's my responsibility, technically speaking, and I'd rather stay here than go to meet the vampire. I wouldn't mind some other company, but if you'd rather not stick around, you're by no means obliged to."

[neutralcollector]

She didn't want to wake up.

It was the first and only thought or feeling China was cognisant of. And it wasn't a... feeling, exactly. It couldn't be, when she couldn't feel anything. Nothing pressed in on her, nothing grabbed her attention, nothing needed her immediate opinion. There was simply nothing.

How could there be nothing?

A memory rose up from somewhere, then fell away just as quickly. China didn't try to make a grab for it. The peace, she found with a start, was preferable. She didn't want to know what had happened to her. She didn't want to become more cognisant of anything but the scattered thoughts in her own head. Because those thoughts were frighteningly fragile and if even the slightest true feeling came down on them, they would break - break into pieces so small China didn't think even she would be able to put them back together.

China had never understood the peace of sleep. She'd never had a need for it. She slept because she needed to and was otherwise working in some way. Sleep was a distraction.

She'd never realised quite how peace enveloped you like a blanket.

It felt like a lifetime, longer even than being trapped in that... thing, but it couldn't have been. Maybe a few hours? Days? Even weeks wouldn't really be stretching it. So when China opened her eyes to see the exact same sight she'd walked in on, the flash of surprise was able to hold off the crash of memories for a few moments longer. But then there was nothing holding the dam back and China couldn't quite stifle a cry of pain as her own mind - her own mind, some distant part of her marveled in disbelief - overwhelmed her.

It was surprisingly easy not to think, for someone who'd never stopped thinking and calculating in their life. Lock the thoughts away from herself, keep them safe from the sea of emotion she was drowning in. So much water. So much. A leak sprung and China lifted her hand to her eyes, only mildly startled when it came away wet.

But it made sense, of course. A leak had sprung. It wasn't weakness, it was just... it was just too much.

Was she supposed to be embarrassed?

Some of them were looking at her now. What they expected was a complete mystery, a new enough sensation that China had no idea how to react. She couldn't meet their eyes. On top of everything else, there was suddenly an absurd amount of what felt suspiciously like guilt piling in on her. Guilt over... what? Over whatever caused the pain? Over whatever broke her thoughts? It must have been. It must have...

... Gabriel.

China's head sunk into her arms. Residual throbbing attacked her temples and the single word almost seemed to burrow into her skull. She swallowed hard, tried to beat back the pain, but for once - for once - she didn't succeed. She couldn't. There was no possible way to deny the existence of something she'd just seen with her own... what? Being? Mind?

It didn't matter. Her own life didn't belong to her.

She should probably try to say something, but strangely enough, China didn't feel the need. Maybe it was because she didn't trust her voice not to crack under the weight of the water. Maybe it was because there wasn't anything to say. Maybe it was because she suddenly and violently cared about what the others thought of her and what she'd done. The comforting feel of her magic was gone, the magic that guaranteed she would never have to worry about the impressions of others. She'd never realized just how much of a comfort it was, how much she took it for granted. She'd always viewed it as a tool to get her what she wanted.

But China didn't traditionally mourn the loss of tools.

After a moment, when she opened her mouth to speak, her voice was completely flat - a jolt to everyone there, who'd never heard her speak with anything less than precise passion. And it did crack. There wasn't anything to say, but there was one lingering question.

"Was that...?"

As it turned out, not even a question she could finish. She couldn't finish it in her own mind - what on earth made her think she could out loud?

But if it was - if the immense presence she'd all but blocked from her mind completely really was, then....

How China wasn't completely shattered, even she didn't know.