TALIA : ANGEL QUEEN (STORY ONE)

CONNECTION

Talia sat across from Iyabo. The air was tense, especially for the angel realm. As the novice angel queen brooded alongside her, she allowed the silence to control the space between them.

Talia was the first to shatter the strained peace. "I thought I had to make another trip downtown to see you."

Iyabo smiled, then replied. "I'm wherever you need me."

"Right now, where is that exactly?"

Iyabo lifted her hand into the fog surrounding them. "In the heart of the angel realm of course."

"Where is it, this angel realm?"

"It's not so much as a place as it is a presence. For instance, look around. What do you see?"

"I can't see anything."

"Why not?"

"Because of the fog?"

Iyabo asked. "And how are you feeling inside?"

Talia thought for a moment, then raised a brow and nodded. "Huh, I see what you did there."

Iyabo smiled, then calmly asked, "You have questions don't you?"

Talia huffed. "Ya think?"

"I may not be able to answer them all in this moment."

"Well, let me get straight to the point. Give you some advice. How about an offer of guidance instead of thrusting people into this madness. Hell, a warning flare would've been helpful. You don't just take someone's house, then whisk them into some parallel universe and say, "Hey, you're the queen of freaking angels, good luck with that."

Iyabo's response was terse. "I'm an ancestor not a visionary. Some things are beyond even me."

"Ditto. I've never seen my sister glow and have her head light up like a damn Christmas tree. I've never been able to read a stranger's thoughts or feel his emotions as though they were my own. I never thought I would talk to my dead, undead mother. And I damn sure never, ever, have been on fire."

"Fire?"

Talia's forehead creased as she asked, "That's your biggest takeaway from everything I just said?"

"The gift has different effects on those who receive it. But I have to admit I've never encountered fire."

"Isn't this about a bi—" Talia paused her statement, then sighed in frustration. "So, is every angel literally winging  it on my shipwreck of a life right now?"

Iyabo's shoulders relaxed, her tone softened as though she were relieved to have the subject change.

"It's actually quite the opposite. We are proudly observing you come into your own. The angel world isn't different from what you experience in the human one. You're birthed to parents whose life experiences will have similarities to yours, but will never perfectly replicate within your own. You have to crawl before you walk and be sheltered until you're strong enough to be free. But your growth is not predictable, only expected."

"And the voices, the faces?"

"You have connected with your queendom, my dear, and they are eager for your guidance."

"What am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to find all of these angels?"

"You won't. At some point inn their journey, they will  find you. And as they do, you will know exactly what needs to be done to help them."

"The blind is supposed to lead the blind, then. That's awesome."

"Your sight doesn't have to be hindered, Talia."