“If you think there are no wolves at the College of Angels, Suriel, then you are blind.”
“I’ve angered you,” she said.
“You’ve offended me on behalf of my friend and colleague.”
“So, you are no longer Christian,” she said.
“I am still a follower of Christ.”
“How is that different from being Christian?” she asked.
“I find organized religion difficult to deal with.”
“What does that mean, Zaniel?”
“What does my religion have to do with you helping Ravensong and advising us on the object that harmed her?”
“I want your help to heal her, Zaniel, but if the angels no longer speak to you, then you cannot aid me.”
“The angels still speak to me, Suriel.”
“Even though you take part in pagan rituals?” she said.
“Angels aren’t Christian, Suriel, you know that.”
She nodded. “We share the same angels with all the religions of the Book.”
“The book?” Goliath asked.
“The Bible,” Lila said.
“The Qur’an, and the Torah,” I added.
“Oh, you mean Judaism, Christianity, and Islam,” Goliath said.
“Yes,” I said.
Goliath nodded. “Okay, but what does that have to do with what happened to Detective Ravensong or the two of you getting knocked out?”
“Nothing,” I said.
“Zaniel, you know that’s not true; our faith protects us from the powers of evil better than any other.”
“I know that is what you believe, because I believed it once, too, but I have seen too much of the world outside the College of Angels, Suriel. I have seen Ravensong back down a demon by invoking the Goddess more than once; all good faiths shine a light into the darkness.”
She shook her head. “That is not what I believe, and it is not what you believed once.”
“Once upon a time I believed many things, Suriel, but that time is not now.”
“When I knew you were involved, I did not request a second to accompany me, for there is no one better at my side for the work ahead, but now I am unsure that you are up to the work.”
“You’ve had over ten years more training than I have, Suriel.”
“Why did you not call upon the angels to deal with the relic, Zaniel?”
“Because we needed a magic circle up as quickly as possible so we could keep the rest of the unit safe; Ravensong is faster at that than anyone else I know.”
“The witch says you gave her your power to tap into for her spell.”
I didn’t like the inflection on the word witch when she said it, but it was Lila who said it out loud. “You say witch like it’s a bad thing.”
“I was taught that all ways of power are lesser than the way I was taught. I mean no offense, but it is what I believe.”
“Do you think that witches are all evil?” Lila asked.
“Don’t ask her that, Lila, you won’t like the answer,” I said.
“If you think witches are evil, then why are you willing to help us?” Goliath asked.
“Yes,” Charleston said from behind us all, “if you think we are all evil pagans, why are you helping us?”
“I did not say you were evil, just misled.”
“Misled?” He said the one word in that tone he used sometimes when you knew that you were in trouble. Either Suriel didn’t understand the tone or she wasn’t worried about the consequences. She was still comfortable and secure in the College of Angels and everything they taught us there. No, not taught, indoctrinated. How do you know you’re in a cult? You usually don’t until something happens that is so terrible you can’t ignore it, or pretend it didn’t happen, and then you start questioning everything.
Suriel’s face was peaceful; she hadn’t had her moment yet, and maybe she never would. Maybe she’d be one of those people who go through life without anything forcing her to question everything; part of me envied her that, but the rest of me was sorry for her.
“It is my duty to help those afflicted by forces of the Enemy.”
“She means Lucifer,” I said.
“I know who she means,” Charleston said, still with that purr of threat in his voice.
She was looking around at all of us. “I have offended you again. I did not mean to be offensive.”
“When is the last time you were outside the College, Suriel?”
“I am not cloistered away, Zaniel.”
“How often are you allowed outside the walls?” I asked.
“It is not a prison, Zaniel.”
“You’re right, the day I left no one tried to stop me.”
“I did not mean to offend anyone, but I do find it difficult to deal with people outside.”
“You don’t get out much, do you?” Lila said, not sounding exactly friendly.
“No,” Suriel said as if she hadn’t heard the sarcasm, or just hadn’t understood it.
“What color of sash is in your bag besides red?” I asked. I’d finally noticed her small black bag like an old-fashioned doctor’s bag from a movie. When I’d left there’d been talk of going to a backpack, but apparently they’d decided it was too modern.
She looked up at me, startled at last, as if she hadn’t expected the question. She should have known I’d ask, even if it had only been for old times’ sake.
“What sash?” Goliath asked.
“We all come in to be trained as Angel Speakers, but there are different specialties. We differentiate by sashes worn over the robes,” I said.
“You should not be telling secrets to strangers,” Suriel said.
“Honey, all of us that watched Where Do Our Children Go?, that documentary on Netflix, knew about your little sashes and a lot more,” Lila said.
“I do not know what you are talking about,” Suriel said.
“It was a documentary about parents trying to get their children back from the College of Angels,” I said. I hadn’t been able to watch all of it; it had been too hard to watch the kids going into the big double gates with their parents. That would be the last time they saw their families unless they failed the training.
“I did not know there was such a documentary,” she said.
“Are there still no televisions at the College?” I asked.
“There is one for playing DVDs of movies and educational programming in the teachers’ lounge now,” she said.
“Well, at least that’s some progress,” I said.
“You say the angels still speak to you, Zaniel.”
“They do.”
“I need your skills with the angels in order to help your coworker.”
“You have studied a decade longer than I have, Suriel; I can give you nothing that you do not already have in your arsenal.”
She smiled, but this was a sad smile. “You always underestimate your worth, Zaniel.”
I shook my head. “I did, and then I thought too much of myself, and the price of that was too high, so let me be humble, Suriel. I’m too dangerous any other way.”
“Oh, Zaniel, that is not what happened.”
“I was there, Suriel, I know what happened.”