Truth be told, Riv didn’t spend much time thinking about the difficulties and stresses of leading the hundred. Only the glory of it. The pride and respect she felt for her sister, and for her mam, who had accomplished the same task before Aphra. And an ever-growing pressure upon her own shoulders, made all the worse by the thought that she might not actually ever become a White-Wing, let alone rising through their ranks into a position of leadership.

‘What do you think Israfil’s meeting’s all about? It’s late to call it, eh?’ she asked her mam, wanting to steer herself away from that uncomfortable thought.

‘It is,’ Dalmae said with a slow, deliberate nod. ‘Whatever it is, it must be important.’

Riv’s mam had led the hundred for many years, only stepping down when the combined effect of age and cumulative injuries made the decision for her. If anyone understood the pressures and politics of leadership within the hundred, it was her.

‘Maybe these beacons,’ Riv said.

‘Maybe.’ Her mam leaned close to her. ‘Don’t let Aphra’s moods trouble you. She has her own pressures, and sometimes we take them out on those that we are closest to.’

‘So it’s a compliment, then.’ Riv snorted, smiling.

‘Aye, you could say that.’ Her mam laughed.

‘Doesn’t much feel like one.’

‘No, I’m sure it doesn’t, but Aphra will deal with her concerns, sooner or later. And then you’ll enjoy her apology, no doubt.’

‘Aye, that I will,’ Riv agreed. ‘I’d just like it to be sooner, not later.’

‘What about you?’ her mam said. ‘How are you doing?’

‘Me? I feel a bit, heavy-hearted,’ Riv said, a whisper, as if even speaking of it was wrong, a betrayal to the Ben-Elim and the hundred. ‘This afternoon,’ she said with a wave of her hand as explanation. Every time she closed her eyes she saw Adonai’s wings tumbling to the dirt, heard his screams. She almost had sympathy pains for him, her back aching between her shoulder blades.

If these pains had only just started, I’d have believed that.

‘Part of me understands. The Lore says what they did was wrong, so it is wrong.’

Though I am not really sure what they did. Improper relations? What does that even mean?

‘There is only one path to Elyon, and that is Faith, Strength and Purity,’ Dalmae intoned from the Book of the Faithful. ‘The Lore cannot be broken, and if it is, those who broke it must be punished, else the Lore is made to appear meaningless,’ her mam said.

‘I know. But part of me . . .’ Riv shook her head. ‘They have lost so much. Their lives, almost.’