A good question. She understands now that Jericho was born from a deep well of loneliness, a need for companionship and understanding that she has been denied her whole life. She has that now in the real world, the waking world. Does she need the delusion any longer?

“I like it here,” she says. “And I enjoy the challenge.”

“Very well. I shall then do my utmost best to be a good challenge. Perhaps I can still charm my way into your heart.”

He’s cute. He’s got that going for him. Misery doesn’t mind. As long as she knows what the deal is—as long as she keeps her thoughts strong and clear as water—she’ll be in control. She can’t lose.

She smiles. To the delusion, she beckons. “Come here. There’s plenty left to the night.”

CHAPTER 22

Of course they won’t pitch the archangel into battle with the Heretics while it’s untested. The General may be working off faith, but they are no dithering fool. As soon as humanly possible they put Misery back in her archangel mech. They want to see what this miracle can do. They want a glimpse into their glorious, triumphant future.

Misery welcomes this decision ecstatically. There is nowhere in the universe that suits her more than the womb of the archangel she was destined to pilot before the clay of her was formed. In that holy seat archangel and Messiah become inseparable parts of one whole, seed buried in fruit, the universe melting before them, becoming as a song to a musician. Space and time, the great auteurs circumscribing and limiting the existence of the mortal Misery, are mere notes in that orchestration, not but a simple thread of melody and harmony in a greater arrangement. Human language, designed to describe human senses, has no words to describe Misery’s perception of the cosmos when zie is transformed, when zie is weapon. When the archangel Misery swings the blades in hir hands and feet, that movement does not come about or register in the way a mortal body speaks to its mind. It is wavelength. It is mathematical function. It is a state of being.

Facing the archangel Misery are the three seraphim controlled by the remaining pilots of Ono Red-2. A cynical calculation: if something disastrous happens, the disaster would at least be contained to one serving. Ono Red-2 is still the General’s dirty secret, hidden from sight and knowledge of Throne and Emperor. Why should other, legitimate servings suffer if something goes wrong? Sunyata Diamond accepts the General’s suggestion and bears the brunt of her pilots’ responses. Spider, with his mix of insecurity and anxiety. Ghost’s intense curiosity. And Alodia Lightning, having recovered from her ordeal, brimming with strange confidence.