Angel Tongue

quīndecim

"Should we call on the others?" Isaac asked the older ones uncertainly as they walked out of the morgue, keeping a frantic pace.

"I imagine they have retired to their chambers already," Cesare responded. "There is no need for that."

Isaac had told them all that he had seen in the second vision. He had told them about the temple, about what he had seen, how the rainclouds signified that unlike what he had seen the first time, that this was not in the past, but sometime else. The present? The future? Isaac did not know.

They had all looked at him strangely as he spoke, their faces still teetering between disbelief and grudging agreement. He was, after all, telling them something that he was supposed to have seen while he was still in the room with them, in the space of two seconds, during which he had suddenly broken a sweat and found himself disoriented. Manus Dei, it turned out though, were quite an open minded group of people, as after quite a rushed deliberation among themselves, they decided to take the chance that what he had seen brought to them.

"We'll change into our armor then," Sierra announced as they turned a corner.

"Oh, you don't need to," it was Filippa who replied. "It would be better if you stayed behind, let the more experienced hunters take the job."

"But-" Sierra began to protest, and even Pax had stopped walking then, a picture of indignation in his features, but they were silenced by a pointed look from Filippa. They shrunk back into themselves, though not losing the resentment in their faces when they did so.

"I will ask the three of you to do something, anyway," Filippa told them. Her face was that of a mother who wanted her child to feel better after not being given what they wanted, which Isaac realized, was just about exactly the case when it came to Pax. "I will need you to station yourselves in the Athenaeum. You three need to gather as much information as you can, on Manus Dei abilities."

"What for, mother?" Pax asked her. Isaac agreed with this sentiment: they were already caging them within the Sanctuary's walls, why not take the extra step to lock them inside of their rooms?

Filippa stopped walking abruptly, signaling for them to follow her lead. She turned to them as they slowed and eventually came to a stop in front of her. Ahead of them, Isaac could see Piero turning back to see what was holding them back, before returning to what he had been doing before. "I want you to read as much as you can about the dynamics that concern abilities, learn all that you can. We need to understand what Isaac just did, and how he was able to do it."

"But you're supposed to know everything in those books already," Sierra half-reasoned, half-pleaded with her, her voice building up. It was almost like a whine, like she was a child not given a special toy that she wanted, which, it seemed to Isaac, was not too far from the truth.

"Then pray read the more obscure ones," Filippa told her, her intonation keeping itself steady, calm, not rising to Sierra's bait.

"Why does it seem so hard," Isaac voiced, "finding out what my ability is?" At this, they all focused their attention on him, on their faces uniform looks of confusion. "Do your people not have names for everything?" He looked at the three of them in succession: Sierra, Pax, Filippa. "Ironskin, Silvertongue, Bibliotheque, and those other things?"

"For your ability, Isaac Stjerne?" Filippa's voice had dropped considerably, barely hovering into a whisper. "No, we do not. At least I am not sure. When we return, I will do what I can." She began walking again at that, further and further away from them and towards the direction the others before her had gone.

Isaac looked at his two companions, who could not hide the obvious frustration in their faces. Even as the dim torchlight created dancing patterns of shadow across their faces and distorted his view of them, the emotion showed. By now, the others had gone far ahead of them, and they were left in relative silence, only the sound of rain thumping distantly occupying the space.