The angel Lucifer watched the object of his interest from a distance. "That one," he said, nodding at the dark-haired young woman who was shouldering her way through the Gloria crowd towards the dais. His friend, Absalom, narrowed his eyes to see, wings stretching out behind him as he leaned forward. "My angelica-to-be," Lucifer said with a smirk.

"Deborah? That's who Levi chose for you?"

"Jovah chose her for me."

Absalom straightened up, face troubled. "It's an odd match, but you could do worse, I suppose."

His friend sniffed. "Odd match indeed--it's an ideal match!" He rested a hand upon his friend's shoulder. "The folk of Samaria have lived under Uriel for half their lifetimes. They're all uneasy about the change from him to me--what better way to reassure them than to marry Jonathan's daughter? True, Miriam would have been a better match--but you've seen what is produced by two angels together."

Absalom shivered, thinking of poor Reu, the monstrous child who had been born to the angels Adah and Eliab in their earliest years. He was a well-kept secret in Samaria overall, but in the angel holds he remained a powerful incentive for many angels to restrain their passions for one another. "Does she know?" he asked Lucifer.

The other angel shook his head, his ruddy-gold mane of hair catching the rays of the afternoon sun. "Not yet." His shrewd eyes grew speculative. "She's not pretty, is she?" Absalom made an indecisive gesture. "She has her father's looks," Lucifer continued. "Little and dark and hard...If she has Jonathan's ways as well, then she will be an angelica to reckon with."

Absalom hunched his shoulders and wings uncomfortably, and looked out over the swarm of people. "So what do you plan to do when you're Archangel? I imagine many people are uncomfortable because they don't know where you stand on a lot of things."

"Hmm." Lucifer folders his arms across his broad chest. "For one thing, I mean to bring those oracles and priests down a peg or two--I daresay they've been playing with us like toys for too long."

Absalom's thick eyebrows flew up in alarm, then furrowed deeply. "What are you saying?" he asked softly.

"I'm saying they've been playing games with us for too long. They sit up in their mountains and pray before those panels, and tell us that only they can interpret the God's word. Think of it, Absalom: why is it we have never seen Jovah? Why is it that only the oracles can speak for him?" The red-haired angel sneered. "I'll tell you why: the oracles use him to justify their power and influence. They invoke him to frighten the ignorant farmers and city-dwellers into obedience."

"I'm not sure that's all true," Absalom said. "And besides, you have to admit that the angels too use Jovah as their right to rule--"

"--but it's not the same thing!" Lucifer cut in, gesturing his impatience with his hands. "We use our prayers to Jovah to benefit the people of Samaria; the oracles have no real power such as ours. They're false pretenders!" The angel's voice dropped to a low whisper. "Do you know how I found out that Deborah was to be my angelica?" he asked, an unpleasant smile on his lips.

Absalom shook his head.

"I asked the God myself."

The brown-haired angel was incredulous. "You--you used the interface?"

Lucifer nodded his head once, decisively. "I took up Levi's phrasebook while he slept, and puzzled it out for myself. I asked, 'Jovah, are you there?' After a moment, he spelled out 'Yes' on the panel, in letters I could read. I asked him who the next angelica would be, and he named Deborah." The fire went out of Lucifer's eyes, and his lips twisted ironically. "Now you see why I can't tell her."

His brown-haired friend sighed, bewildered. "No, I suppose you can't. But Lucifer--if anyone ever gets word of this, they'll call you a blasphemer, and worse!" He raised his eyebrows as the Archangel-elect shrugged nonchalantly. "All I can say, Lucifer, is that you're not likely to have a peaceful reign."

Lucifer chuckled. "No, I suppose not. But it would hardly be interesting if I did."