The thing with the feathers was the size of the wings made them look smaller than they were. On average, they were a good eight inches long. Gabriel's longest flight-feathers were over four feet, though they didn't look it due to the layers hiding them. Of course, given the size of the wings, that was still a big job.
Even though the Archangel suspected the answer, hearing the confirmation made Gabriel bite his lip and consciously have to keep his wings steady. An angel's wings could say a lot about what they were feeling--to those who could see them. Not that Gabriel usually withheld his emotions that much anyway.
"Oh," he murmured. "I thought so, but ..." That would explain the loss of metaphysical sensitivity. With a sudden pang of fear Gabriel wondered whether it would regrow, or whether Raphael could regrow it, and this time his wings did rustle apprehensively before he could still them.
"Stop that," Kenspeckle snapped, turning from where he was mixing an assortment of things Gabriel couldn't see. "Keep still, you idiot."
"Sorry," Gabriel said automatically, and obeyed as best as he could. With the wings, at any rate. The little instinctive twitches of individual feathers as Skulduggery picked them out and turned them gently where they were meant to go, he couldn't quite help. For a little while there was silence other than Kenspeckle's mumble. Gabriel closed his eyes and concentrated on the sensations in his wings, relief and discomfort flickering across his face in equal turns.
Whenever Skulduggery adjusted a feather, a flurry ran through it and the ones adjacent as if to settle them, a reflexive series of twitches that made the feathers ripple and rainbow light shine across Skul and the room around them. Those feathers that had been given attention fairly glowed; they looked brighter, cleaner, healthier than the rest.
Then he felt one feather Skulduggery had just fixed jostle another, and swallowed hard against the cry of surprised pain. That didn't keep his wing from quivering. "Okay, um. That one next to the one you just did--I think it's torn something underneath. Or it's been torn out but isn't free enough to fall loose. You'll have to check its root and whether it's still attached."
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Even though the Archangel suspected the answer, hearing the confirmation made Gabriel bite his lip and consciously have to keep his wings steady. An angel's wings could say a lot about what they were feeling--to those who could see them. Not that Gabriel usually withheld his emotions that much anyway.
"Oh," he murmured. "I thought so, but ..." That would explain the loss of metaphysical sensitivity. With a sudden pang of fear Gabriel wondered whether it would regrow, or whether Raphael could regrow it, and this time his wings did rustle apprehensively before he could still them.
"Stop that," Kenspeckle snapped, turning from where he was mixing an assortment of things Gabriel couldn't see. "Keep still, you idiot."
"Sorry," Gabriel said automatically, and obeyed as best as he could. With the wings, at any rate. The little instinctive twitches of individual feathers as Skulduggery picked them out and turned them gently where they were meant to go, he couldn't quite help. For a little while there was silence other than Kenspeckle's mumble. Gabriel closed his eyes and concentrated on the sensations in his wings, relief and discomfort flickering across his face in equal turns.
Whenever Skulduggery adjusted a feather, a flurry ran through it and the ones adjacent as if to settle them, a reflexive series of twitches that made the feathers ripple and rainbow light shine across Skul and the room around them. Those feathers that had been given attention fairly glowed; they looked brighter, cleaner, healthier than the rest.
Then he felt one feather Skulduggery had just fixed jostle another, and swallowed hard against the cry of surprised pain. That didn't keep his wing from quivering. "Okay, um. That one next to the one you just did--I think it's torn something underneath. Or it's been torn out but isn't free enough to fall loose. You'll have to check its root and whether it's still attached."