Chapter 4

It had taken Aria few hours to get to sleep after Calypso’s performance. Dawn was well under way when she finally fell back to sleep. She woke up a few hours later and felt a warm body pressed against her and an arm around her waist from where she laid on her side. There was no question about who it was; the warm blanket of love wrapping her soul in comfort and safety made it obvious that it was Calypso snuggled up next to her.

“Good morning, Aria,” Calypso greeted her warmly. “How did you sleep?”

It took her several attempts to answer, her mouth completely dry. “Wonderfully. Thank you.”

“Your soul is like a sun warmed meadow,” Calypso told her softly. “It’s like a balm on my soul to be close to you and bask in its warmth.”

Aria swallowed, her mouth turning up at the corners. She ignored the warmth in her cheeks, focusing on Calypso’s words. I could get used to this.

She moved her arm so that her hand was covering Calypso’s hand on her stomach. Some of Calypso’s light blonde hair was draped over Aria’s shoulder and cheek. There was a unique smell to her hair, something Aria couldn’t even find a comparison to describe it. It made her think of crystalline palaces and sparkling rivers filled with sweet water. Aria wished she could freeze this moment in time forever.

She laid there for another fifteen minutes in silence with Calypso, enjoying the proximity of their bodies and the comforting aura permeating the room. It finally ended when a knock sounded at the door before opening.

“Breakfast is read-“ Clarice broke off as she saw them snuggled up together, her eyes going wide.

“Hello, Clarice,” Calypso greeted the other woman softly.

Aria’s face was on fire as she stared back at her sister. Clarice’s face flickered through several emotions quickly. Longing, hurt, fear, and finally, resolve.

“Clarice,” Calypso said firmly. “Can you come over here for a minute?”

Clarice looked like she would rather do anything else, but her feet obeyed the angel’s request. She walked up to the bed, trying to keep her expression blank. Hurt and sadness kept sneaking through her mask of indifference.

Calypso released Aria and sat up on the edge of the bed, about a foot away from where Clarice stood miserably. She reached out both hands and took hold of Clarice’s hands, then gently pulled her forward. She wrapped her arms around Clarice and laid back, pulling Clarice down with her. Aria watched as confusion, hope, and longing flashed across her sister’s face.

“I love both of you,” Calypso said softly, her eyes locked onto Clarice’s eyes. “Is that something you can accept?”

Clarice closed her eyes, relief filling her face. “If it was anyone but Aria, I would not be able to accept it,” she said with a small smile, her eyes still closed.

“I know,” Calypso said gently. She reached up and pulled Clarice’s head down next to hers, embracing her tightly. “I always knew you two were special.”

Aria sat up and tentatively rested her hand on Clarice’s head, brushing her fingers through her dark hair. “Clarice, I’m so sorry for putting you through that.”

“It’s fine,” Clarice murmured contentedly, soaking up the love from Calypso’s aura. “More than fine. I have been worrying about how we were going to deal with this for a while now. It was going to hurt one of us no matter what. Are you okay with this?”

Aria laughed brightly, caressing Clarice’s cheek. “You wouldn’t believe what mom said last night. She asked why I hadn’t made a move on Calypso. I told her that I was pretty sure you had feelings for her too. She asked why we don’t just share her. Can you believe that?”

“Yep, I can believe that,” Clarice said with a wry smile. “She’s not nearly as conservative as you are, Aria.”

“Yeah,” Aria sighed unhappily. “She called me a prude. I guess I kind of am a prude.”

“You were traumatized during your formative years,” Clarice pointed out. “Of course you are a prude. The age you were the most vulnerable they were doing the most invasive things to your body. It would be weird if you weren’t a prude.”

“I guess,” Aria sighed again. “I just don’t know how to stop being a prude.”

“Well, now you have help,” Clarise told her softly. “We’ll ease you into it gently.”

Aria felt her face burn as bright as her hair as Calypso’s glowing eyes watched her from beneath Clarice’s head.

“She’s blushing a sunset, isn’t she?” Clarice asked Calypso with a smile in her voice.

“Two sunsets,” Calypso replied with an indulgent smile.

“Clarice are you going to bring her down for breakfast sometime this year?” their mother’s voice called out from down the stairs.

“No,” Clarice muttered resignedly. “Never gonna leave.”

Calypso squeezed her tightly before releasing her. Clarice sighed again and pushed herself up, her hands next to Calypso’s chest. Her face was inches from Calypso’s face, her hair falling down one side to rest on Calypso’s cheek. “To be continued,” she whispered, then lightly kissed Calypso’s lips before pushing herself up all of the way and standing up.

Aria felt her heart racing as her face burned. Damn, that was hot!

Calypso was still laying on the bed, her eyes wide. She hesitantly touched her lips wonderingly. Her ever present aura was suddenly filled with love, as well as a sense of intense need. That was probably her first kiss.

“Come on, Tweedle Dee,” Clarice told Aria with a roguish wink.

Aria followed her stepsister down the stairs to the veranda on the second floor. Their mother had cooked up her homemade pancakes for breakfast, one of her favorite foods. There were several round tables around the veranda and a few larger square tables. Ivy covered the trellises and there were herbs in grow boxes scattered throughout the area.

Aria sat next to Clarice at the larger table and began dishing pancakes onto her plate.

“Thanks for the food, Mom,” Clarice said with a vibrant smile. “I’ve so missed these homemade pancakes.”

“Yeah, thanks Mom,” Aria echoed, distractedly. She still felt shellshocked from the events of that morning. It felt surreal. She could still feel the press of Calypso’s body against her own, filling her core with warmth.

“You’re looking chipper,” their mother noted as she observed Clarice with an appraising eye.

Clarice just grinned at their mother as she took a bite of the pancakes.

“Oh,” their mother said, an eyebrow shooting up as she looked over at Aria. “Oh my.”

Aria’s face began competing with her hair, trying to turn more red. She was pretty sure her face won the contest.

“Good morning,” Devon greeted them as he walked into the veranda, saving Aria from her mother’s knowing gaze. “How did everyone sleep?”

“Like a baby,” Clarice said around a mouthful of pancake. “Thanks a lot for bringing our cars!”

“Yes, thank you,” Aria said fervently. “I was so paranoid that someone would steal our instruments.”

“It was my pleasure,” Devon answered with an easy smile. “It’s good to see you two again.”

“You too, Uncle,” Aria grinned, remembering their last meeting. He had joined them for Thanksgiving and Clarice had switched his sweet potatoes out for cantaloupe. “Had any cantaloupe lately?”

He glared at Clarice in mock anger, chuckling darkly. “She’ll get what’s coming to her.”

Clarice’s face took on an innocent cast, made more pronounced by the recent changes from Calypso’s tears. “I have no idea what you are talking about.”

“I’m sure you don’t,” his tone was dry as he shook his head ruefully. Clarice had always been the joker in the family.

“Is dad going to come out here too?” Clarice asked their mother curiously.

“We’re still debating that,” their mother answered with a frown. “We don’t want him missing work, and we want everything to look normal on the home front. We also don’t want someone following him up here. If he does end up visiting, we’ll have to come up with a way to shake anyone who might be following, especially after you three made front page news again today.”

Aria groaned. She had been too afraid to look at the news. She didn’t want to see herself in the videos she was sure were uploaded after the biker accident.

“What did it say?” Clarice asked curiously, her playful eyes intrigued.

“It seems there was a gas explosion at your apartment,” her mother told them carefully. “Apparently it only affected your apartment, and not the surrounding apartments.”

“We don’t have gas in that apartment,” Clarice objected indignantly. “That’s the best story they could come up with? What a freaking joke.”

Devon laughed at her reply, nodding his agreement.

“They discussed your incident with the biker and the video showing Calypso bringing him back to life,” she continued. “You look pissed in the video, by the way,” their mother said to Aria wryly. “Anyway, people were looking for your car all over the county. Someone found your address and discovered that your apartment had exploded around the same time that you were dealing with that biker. That really got the conspiracy theories going. Most people believe that some kind of shadow government is after Calypso, or a pharmaceutical company that doesn’t want her healing people. The news initially claimed that you were involved in a hit and run with the biker, but there were multiple dash cam videos that showed the entire story, so they had to retract the claim.”

“I wonder what’s going through that biker’s head right now,” Clarice wondered idly.

“He was interviewed by one of the news stations about his experience,” their mother said, shaking her head. “About the only thing he remembered was glowing eyes staring at him before he crashed.”

“There are several televangelists that are saying her miracles are the work of the devil,” their mother told them with a snort. “Because the devil likes to save children from terminal illnesses, apparently.”

“I’ll bet they are feeling pretty threatened right now,” Aria chuckled evilly. “They can’t have someone performing actual miracles, especially without asking for money.”

“Someone has been trying to trace her digital forensic activity to build a chronological timeline. So far, they have claimed she must be at least fifty years old.”

“The religions are going to get really messy if the world discovers that she is an angel,” Aria noted darkly.

“She’s an angel then?” Devon asked intently.

“We think so,” Aria confirmed. “though not the religious angels. We think there must have been others of her kind long ago that spawned the stories of angels. She can’t remember anything before her fifth birthday after World War One.”

His eyes widened at the revelation of how old she was. “So, she was a child at one point,” he said musingly. “She definitely wouldn’t be an angel in the religious sense, because there are no child angels in their lore.”

“She also doesn’t require food, water, or sleep,” their mother told Devon. “She seems to have some kind of bond to an energy source she calls light. She doesn’t know how a lot of it works, acting by intuition for most of what she does.”

“She also has some strange ridges below her shoulder blades that I’m certain are for wings,” Clarice told him firmly. “I don’t know if they just haven’t grown in yet, or if she lost them as a child in whatever event led to her being found by her adoptive parents. She can see auras. She says our names are engraved on our auras. Sick people have some kind of red and black cords wrapped around their aura. When she sings, it shatters, and they recover. I suspect what she sees is metaphorical, and that her mind is making visual manifestations to simplify the underlying process of healing.”

“She has lived an extremely isolated life, with almost no human interaction outside of the hospitals where she heals people,” Aria told him. “She struggles with a lot of colloquialisms, maxims, and slang. She’s spent almost all of her time constantly making music and healing children. She had no idea that her YouTube channel was known to the world because she just used it to upload music she would make at night while mortals slept.”

“She really didn’t know she was the most famous musician on earth?” Devon asked in amazement. “She really was isolated.”

“Oh yeah, she’s filthy rich too,” Aria added with a small grin. “She invested in oil in the nineteen twenties. She withdraws the interest on her savings account every year, which is about two hundred grand.”

“When we talked to her at the hospital the day before all of this blew up, she had no idea that over a hundred years had gone by,” Clarice added with a chuckle. “She had no idea that she still looked like a twenty year old. That’s the level of obliviousness we were dealing with. When we were on our way home from the hospital we saw the reddit post exposing her, so we rushed over to her house and convinced her to come with us. We were convinced evil scientists and corrupt governments would try to abduct her and put her in a lab.”

“That was good thinking on your part,” Devon told them approvingly. “You two are pretty smart for how young you are.”

“We read too many novels that depicted rogue intelligence agencies and powerful billionaires,” Clarice shrugged, glancing at Aria. The two of them had both been voracious readers growing up. They always shared any good books they found with each other. “I’m pretty sure they weren’t that far off from what happens in the real world.”

“What did Calypso heal you of?” Aria asked Devon curiously. “Just tell me to mind my own business if I’m prying too much.”

“I would have had to fabricate a lie for you yesterday,” Devon laughed humorlessly. “I spent a lot of years working for a contracting agency that the world governments use to handle their dirty work. They have some pretty advanced technological gizmos. One of them is a shot full of nanobots they pump into our system. They are programmed to monitor our communication at all times. If we say anything that could implicate the agency, these little bots release a toxin that shuts our heart down.”

“Oh my god!” their mother gasped in horror. “That sounds awful!”

“They listened to everything you said?” Clarise asked in amazement. “What if you were out of any satellite or radio tower range?”

“The nanobots weren’t connected to an outside network,” he replied, glancing up as Calypso joined them. “There are enough of them that they form an artificial neural network. It’s not AI, but it’s close enough. It is programmed to monitor biological signs for duplicity whenever conversation regarding the agency arises. It’s basically machine learning.”

“How often are their false positives?” Clarise asked in dismay. “Doesn’t it kill a lot of people by mistaking intent?”

“It used to be a pretty high error rate,” he nodded grimly. “They have gotten pretty good with the technology over the years though, so they don’t have very many false positives any more. The bots can also simulate the effect of pharmaceuticals, releasing dopamine or shutting down pain receptors. I wasn’t a combat specialist, but I understand that it helps them keep those operatives under control by managing their moods based on the situation.”

“Wow, it sounds just like some of the sci-fi books I’ve read,” Aria observed with a kind of sick fascination. “I always figured they were pretty far ahead of what’s available to the public, but that’s basically mind control territory.”

“That’s the holy grail of any government,” Devon sighed with a disgusted shake of his head. “Complete control.”

“So, Calypso destroyed the nanobots inside of you?” their mother asked hopefully.

“Yep,” he nodded solemnly. “It was an odd feeling. I’ve had them interfering with my natural moods for so long that I recognized immediately when they were gone.”

“I’m surprised they haven’t tried pushing that technology on the whole population,” Clarice muttered darkly.

“What makes you think they haven’t?” Devon asked her with a raised eyebrow. “Can you think of any recent historical events where they convinced everyone to inject themselves with a special medicine?”

“Oh my god, seriously?” Clarice asked, her eyes wide with horror.

“I’m just making assumptions based on what they did with us,” he shrugged. “I can’t imagine they didn’t do that though, with an opportunity like that.”

“I have an idea,” Calypso said quietly.

All eyes turned to the beautiful woman as she stared out at the beautiful scenery around them.

“I’m not sure if we have the technological knowledge to do it, but we may be able to recruit those who do,” she spoke thoughtfully.

“What’s your idea?” Aria asked her gently.

“We discussed the idea of healing people through YouTube with a live audience when we were back at your apartment,” Calypso reminded her, absently brushing some of her long blonde hair behind an ear. “I can’t really go to the children’s hospitals, or an audience hall. I don’t know enough about the internet and how they can track you to know if this would work, but if we could host a live event on YouTube and notify the hospitals ahead of time, we could attempt to heal the children still. I’m not sure why, exactly, but I get the feeling that it will work. However, we would need to be untraceable, or we would be back where we started. I have a feeling that we can trust the kids that I’ve helped over the years. There are enough of them that I think there are probably some who specialize in computers and could help keep us hidden.”

“Cyber espionage specialists,” Devon nodded thoughtfully. “If we could recruit some of your former patients with the requisite skills, we could definitely keep anything from being traced back to places we don’t want it to go.”

“That’s brilliant, Calypso!” Aria praised her exuberantly. “You could reach a much wider audience too.”

“I feel like my abilities have increased significantly in the last two days,” Calypso observed with an affectionate smile at Aria and Clarice. “Mostly thanks to the two of you.”

“I have some contacts that could help us as well,” Devon offered musingly. “Especially if you can clear out their nanobots like you did for me.”

“Absolutely,” Calypso agreed confidently.

“Just thinking down the line a little here,” Devon said thoughtfully. “But if broadcasting live works for healing, you could potentially cripple the agency by clearing out the nanobots in contractors throughout the world. A lot of them would turn on the agency, given the chance to do so without instantly dying of heart attacks.”

“Are they the ones that blew up our apartment?” Clarice asked shrewdly.

“Almost assuredly,” Devon nodded grimly. “They probably already see you as a threat. They may have more intelligence about who and what you are, which may have them spooked.”

“What am I?” Calypso asked with a puzzled crease to her brow.

“You’re an angel,” Aria told her with an exasperated sigh. “I know we’ve told you several times.”

“I thought you were just being sweet,” Calypso said in confusion. “You actually think I’m an angel, like mythological angels?”

“Yes, just like mythological angels,” Aria confirmed. “We think your kind are where the myths came from.”

“Oh,” Calypso replied with a troubled frown. “So, you don’t think I’m human?”

“No,” Aria said slowly. “Does that bother you?”

“I’m worried about the implications if I’m not,” Calypso replied, closing her eyes. “How did I get here? What are the other angels like? Why aren’t they helping humans if they do exist?”

“It’s possible you are from some other world or dimension,” Clarice told her with a reassuring smile. “Maybe you got stuck in a snarl between dimensions, or some kind of accident happened.”

“I just don’t want to get taken away to some other world or dimension,” Calypso sighed with a small frown. “This is my home. I want to help people. I need to help people. I don’t want someone showing up from another world and trying to take me away. I couldn’t bear to lose the two of you. Any of you.”

“I think you’ll be okay,” Aria told her confidently, her heart swelling with love. “It’s been over a hundred years. If someone hasn’t shown up looking for you by now, they probably aren’t going to.”

“I suppose you are probably right,” Calypso relaxed, the look of worry in her large, innocent eyes disappearing.

“How do we want to go about contacting former medical patients?” Clarice asked reflectively. “Should we try to get someone at the hospital to cooperate with us, or should we start some kind of front group on a social media site and request all of the people who have been healed by Calypso join it? Then we could contact them privately.

“I think that last one is a great idea,” Aria said eagerly. “We had already talked about forming a group of musicians from former patients to put on a charity fundraiser before we talked to Calypso. I have a feeling that most of the people that Calypso healed are going to have music in their soul and know how to play at least one instrument. We could engage with them on the same basis as before. We could probably even convince someone else to be in charge of recruiting former patients so that it isn’t all falling on us.”

“First off, we need to make sure we have a secure channel of communication for engaging with the outside world,” Devon said, pointing at his phone. “I have a faraday cage around the study to prevent any signal from getting out from devices, so if you need to turn your phones back on for some reason, do it there. Our internet is beamed up from a radio tower and through a few private relays, so our location will look like somewhere in town for any internet use here. We’ll use a voice app on the computers for any phone calls or one of the IP phones. Don’t use your own laptops on the internet, just use the ones in the house. They have a locked down version of Linux free of the exploits used by the various intelligence agencies. They have standard web browsers, so you should be able to get into any social media sites you need to access to set up your program.”

“Won’t they be able to find and track the main base station that is providing the internet in town and follow it back here?” Clarice asked in concern.

“We aren’t, technically speaking, using a legal internet service,” he said blandly. “The main base station is on a motorized mount that scans the area up to a mile for residential WIFI. It hacks the encryption and saves it as one of the usable profiles. It’s constantly changing which WIFI it pulls from every five minutes. To anyone tracking our IP packets, it would appear to be coming from houses all over the city.”

“Is this what you did for your contract work?” their mother asked curiously.

“More or less,” he nodded. “I worked in a lot of server farms as well, since that’s where all of the juicy data is stored.”

“Okay, I’m going to go see if there are already any groups we can join,” Clarice informed them, standing up. “There is no point reinventing the wheel if someone has already created a group with the former patients.”

“I guess I’ll start calling the hospitals,” Aria sighed, her face full of dread.

“Aren’t redheads supposed to be extroverts automatically?” Clarice grinned at her. “I’m not sure you are an authentic redhead.”

“And we’re fiery tempered, hotheaded, bold, and brash, right?” Aria asked with a patient sigh.

“You said it,” Clarice’s grin widened.

Aria put her face in her hands and groaned. “I’m being discriminated against by a Snow White clone.”

Clarice’s grin vanished. “Snow White?” she spluttered. “Now you’re accusing me of rooming with a bunch of short dudes that I love cleaning up after?”

“Wow, that’s what she took away from being called Snow White?” Devon asked mildly. “I thought the most beautiful woman in all of the land would have been the first trait listed.”

“I thought she was saying that she’s super gullible when it comes to poisoned apples,” their mother noted dryly.

“Maybe she was calling her a lazy lay about that just sleeps all of the time,” Devon suggested.

“You two are mixing up your Disney movies,” Clarice told them acidly. “That’s Sleeping Beauty.”

“Okay, princess,” Devon replied blandly.

“I’m going to make you pay for that, Uncle,” Clarice threatened ominously.

“I’ll make sure to check my apples for poison,” he assured her, his dark brown eyes sparkling with amusement.

“You better check more than apples,” she warned him with a glower.

“Where are the laptops located, Uncle Devon?” Aria asked, looking around.

“They’re in the library,” he replied, his face becoming serious. “It’s on the first floor on the back side of the house.”

“I can’t believe this place has a library,” Aria said dreamily. “This place is so cool.”

“I’m glad you like it,” Devon smiled as Aria and Clarice started walking to the library.

“Seriously, what did you mean by Snow White clone?” Clarice demanded as they walked out of the room.

Aria heard their mom and uncle start chuckling as they left earshot.

“I meant that you have gorgeous hair, the perfect pretty girl face, and a lot of men falling over themselves to get your attention,” Aria replied with a sigh. “It’s just not fair.”

“You want men falling over themselves to get your attention?” Clarice asked with a snigger.

“Ewe, gross, no,” Aria said in disgust. “I’m just jealous, I guess.”

“You jealous of me?” Clarice said in outrage. “Do you know how much I would kill for natural red hair like yours? You don’t even have the typical orange hair that everyone calls red; yours is bright freaking red! It’s so not fair.”

“I feel like we’re both just fishing for compliments now,” Aria giggled infectiously.

“Damn right,” Clarice grunted with a sidelong look at Aria. “We’re going to be hermits for a while, so we have to get our compliments where we can.”

“Yeah, I guess we probably are going to be pretty isolated for a while,” Aria contemplated idly. “It’s a little surreal that we are hiding out in a cabin in the mountains from rabid YouTube fans and shadow organizations. Still, at least I’m with the people I love.”

Clarice shoulder bumped her lightly in response as they arrived at the library. It was two stories tall, with ladders on tracks around the room.

“Okay, I’m totally fine with the life of the hermit,” Clarice said in awe. “Maybe I won’t poison Uncle Devon after all.”

There were several desks throughout the library, as well as comfortable looking couches and chairs. Each desk had a laptop on it, along with an IP phone.

“You go look for existing groups,” Clarice told her, pity on her face. “I’ll call the hospitals.”

“Really?” Aria gasped hopefully.

“Yeah, really,” Clarice replied airily.

Aria tackled Clarice in an embrace, squeezing her tightly. “You are the best sister,” Aria said in elation. “I was really not looking forward to that.”

Clarice’s eyes softened at the powerful response to her offer. “You are a goose. Even so, I’ll always be here to save you from yourself.”

“You always are,” Aria beamed, releasing Clarice. “Thank you.”

“Any time, Aria,” Clarice smiled at her affectionately.

The two of them spent the next several hours making phone calls and searching social media. Devon interrupted them to let them know that their mother had prepared lunch out on the veranda.

“She is the best freaking mom ever,” Clarice declared as she stood up from the desk.

“By a wide margin,” Aria agreed, her stomach rumbling. “We need to do something nice for mom. She’s really bent over backwards for us.”

“Speaking of people in need of attention,” Clarice frowned. “How is Calypso doing?”

Devon smiled slightly at their words. “Calypso has been getting all of the musical instruments set up in the theater room. I think she was going through withdrawals.”

“I’ll bet she has,” Clarice said fondly. “I can’t wait to watch her lay down some tracks.”

“I’m definitely not going to miss that,” Aria said fervently.

When they reached the veranda, the smell of expertly seasoned rice and stir-fry filled her nostrils.

“I really miss the days of gourmet meals every day,” Aria said wistfully. “Mom makes the best food.”

“We were spoiled for too long,” Clarice grimaced slightly. “Everything we eat anywhere else tastes second rate. Especially our own food.”

“Your mom definitely has a magic hand when it comes to food,” Devon agreed heartily. “She started cooking when she was six and just kept at it. We used to dread her meals growing up. By the time she was about twelve though, we started requesting her to cook instead of our mom. She’s always loved cooking, and it certainly shows.”

They quickly dished up their lunch from the serving table and sat down to eat. It was almost like old times, if you could forget that the shadow government wanted them dead.

Calypso joined them as they sat down, her glowing eyes showing a sense of satisfaction.

“Did you get all of the instruments set up?” Aria asked Calypso.

“Yes,” Calypso replied with an excited smile. “I was going to do some recording in a little bit. I wanted to see if you and Clarice would like to join me and help with some of the instruments and vocals.”

“Would I like to join the most famous musician on earth in a jam session,” Aria pondered with a twinkle in her eyes. “Yeah, I think I most definitely do.”

“Words cannot even convey how excited I am,” Clarice said excitedly, her eyes shining with anticipation.

When Calypso looked at Clarice, her cheeks colored slightly, and she looked back at Aria and smiled. “Thank you. Both of you.” Her eyes darted back to Clarice and the blush was back.

Aria had to use every ounce of will power she had not to giggle hysterically at the blushing angel. One little peck on the lips from Clarice and she was as bashful as a school girl. Clarice shared a look with Aria. Clarice winked mischievously before looking back down at her food. Aria had a feeling their angel was going to get more than a peck in the near future.

“Any luck with the hospitals?” their mother asked her.

“Yeah, I had some luck,” Clarice answered wryly. “I got a handful of names and numbers.”

Their mother laughed and shook her head with a resigned look at Aria.

“How about the social media search?” their mother asked with a raised eyebrow at Aria.

“I found a ton of existing groups,” Aria answered eagerly. “There are a lot of angry former patients out there. Apparently, the fact that someone is trying to kill her is pretty common knowledge. They are organizing protests and threatening to riot in Washington DC if the government doesn’t reign in whichever group is trying to kill her. The NSA and CIA are both claiming ignorance of any involvement and the senate is trying to ignore the problem altogether. I have a video call with some people tomorrow morning. I tried to narrow it down to people who seemed more responsible and had organizational skills. I didn’t tell them who I was, of course. I just asked if we could have a quick video conference to discuss some plans we would like to share. Once they see my face, I think they’ll recognize me from the news and be cooperative. I was thinking I could have Calypso join me if necessary. I’m hoping we can put some of them in charge of recruiting additional help so that we can just let them know what we need when we need it, and they can make it happen.”

“Well done, Tweedle Dee,” Clarice congratulated her. “It was probably a good thing that we switched tasks.”

Aria grinned at her exuberantly. “It was actually kind of fun. There are so many people ready to stand up for Calypso that it makes things a lot easier for us.”

“That sounds promising,” Devan said approvingly. “I still think the key to getting us some real breathing room is finding a way to get rid of the nanobots in other contractors so that they have more immediate concerns on their hands.”

“Calypso still has her channel,” Clarice pointed out. “If we spring a live event on the population without much warning then she could probably push out the cure before anyone could pull the plug on the internet. I’m assuming they can pull the plug on the internet.”

“They control all of the backbone routers that connect everybody,” Devon nodded his agreement. “Without those, the world wide web is no longer world wide.”

After finishing lunch, Aria and Clarice followed Calypso back to the theater room where she had set up the instruments. Calypso continued to avoid eye contact with Clarice, blushing profusely the few times she did. Aria shared another amused glance with Clarice.

Aria watched in fascination as Calypso expertly set up her studio applications on her pc and prepared the tracks for recording. There were a lot of buttons and settings in her studio application.

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Calypso recorded the drums for her first track, in order to provide timing for the rest of the instruments. She wasn’t just a skilled drummer; she was a true virtuoso. Her timing and technique were better than anything Aria had ever seen.

She moved on to the second track, a bass guitar, and made the air come alive as her fingers flew up and down the fretboard. Aria had watched some of the interviews online where they critiqued Calypso’s guitar skills. There were very few guitarists who could play some of her more complicated songs. Her fingers would blur as she moved up and down the fretboard, making sounds with harmonics and slides that actually blended with the song and were not just fancy artifacts.

After she had added around eight tracks, she asked them to play the cellos with her for the next track. Aria and Clarice quickly learned the notes Calypso wanted them to play. Calypso started the track recording and then they were playing with Calypso. The thought made Aria so giddy that she nearly fumbled the bow of her cello, barely recovering in time to keep the song going. Clarice played the viola while Calypso played her antique violin. It was poignant and beautiful. Aria couldn’t believe Calypso could just pull these melodies out of the ether and arrange them so perfectly. She never had to re-record a track. She would play it perfectly every time.

It was the vocals that really slammed home the reality that they were playing with Calypso. Her voice split off into harmonies and she effortlessly moved from note to note with the precision and grace of a…well, an angel.

Aria and Clarice joined in on her vocals, adding their soprano and alto to the array of vocal tracks. The end result was a masterpiece of soul stripping beauty. Calypso’s aura blanketed the area in emotion as they played, showing the passion she felt as she sang.

When they had finished, Aria was trembling from the intensity of the experience. She felt exalted, like she had been taken to the heavens and then returned to earth with the memory of that slice of paradise. It was more like a powerful religious experience than a recreational activity.

“That was amazing, Calypso,” Clarice told her in tones of deepest respect. “You are such an inspiration.”

“Thank you,” Calypso replied shyly, trying and failing to maintain eye contact with Clarice.

It was well into evening when they left the makeshift studio. They had a gourmet dinner and briefly discussed their plans for the video call the next morning.

“Aria, can I talk to you?” their mother asked after Clarice got up to go to her room. Calypso had said she wanted to go up to the widows walk on top of the third story and enjoy the view of the valley in the distance.

“Sure, what’s up mom?” she asked curiously.

“I’m just wondering what all of the blushing is about when Calypso looks at Clarice,” she said with a slight smile. “I can tell by the way you are almost giggling yourself silly every time it happens that you know what is going on.”

Aria started giggling as she thought about the interactions. “Clarice gave her the barest of feather kisses this morning,” Aria informed her, laughter still thick in her voice. “I think it opened another door in her mind or something. She was all about hugs and snuggles before, but it was all completely platonic. I don’t think she even understands what kissing is, let alone the rest of it. When Clarice kissed her, it seems to have awoken something inside of her that she doesn’t know how to deal with.”

“Are you sure she has a gender?” her mother asked with a frown. “You know in the mythological stories they were genderless.”

“I’m pretty sure that was just Christianity putting it’s spin on things because they viewed sex as a necessary evil. Since angels couldn’t be evil, they had to make them genderless. I would be very surprised if there aren’t passionate parts on Calypso.”

Her mother rolled her eyes at her terminology. “Well, be careful with her,” her mother said cautiously. “If this is all new to her then don’t drop her in the deep end before she can swim.”

“You’re talking to the wrong child,” Aria said pointedly. “You need to be having this conversation with Clarice.”

“You’re probably right,” her mother agreed. “Okay, just take it slow with her.”

“Did you send her up to my room this morning?” Aria asked suddenly. “It seems oddly coincidental that she would show up in my bed the morning after our talk.”

“I didn’t tell her anything,” her mother put her hands up defensively. “Why, what happened?”

“I woke up with her spooning me,” Aria said dryly. “Then Clarice walked in and looked like a kicked puppy when she saw us. Calypso convinced her to come over, then she pulled her down into a hug on the bed. She asked Clarice if she would be willing to share her with me.”

“Really?” her mother asked thoughtfully. “I wonder if she heard us talking last night. Do you know how good her hearing is?”

“No. I guess it never occurred to me to ask,” Aria answered musingly. “I’ll ask her tonight. Maybe she heard you and thought that what you had in mind was snuggling.”

“That would make sense,” her mother said with a wry smile. “She is still extremely naïve about so much in life.”

“I’ll make sure to let Clarice know to take it slow,” Aria told her reassuringly.

She left her mother, intending to return to the library for some additional research. She felt Calypso’s aura somewhere up above her, filled with confusion and uncertainty.

She sighed and decided to go up to the widows walk to clear her head. As she emerged from the ladder she found Calypso staring out at the moonlit night with a puzzled look on her face.

“Hey,” Aria greeted her with a smile. “Penny for your thoughts?”

Calypso blinked, and Aria could tell she was trying to translate another colloquialism. “I’m just feeling a little odd,” Calypso replied in a troubled voice.

“How so?” Aria asked companionably.

“I’ve been feeling a strange sensation in my abdomen,” she replied slowly. “Almost like impatience. It’s hard to define. It’s like there is something I need, but I’m not getting it, and I don’t know what it is.”

“Interesting,” Aria said carefully. “Are there any other odd sensations occurring?”

Calypso nodded slightly, her cheeks flushing. “I’m not sure why, but it’s uncomfortable to talk about. I’ve never really understood the concept of people having uncomfortable conversations until now.”

“Let me try to walk you around the boundary of the things that are uncomfortable, without actually touching on them specifically,” Aria suggested, glancing at the nervous woman with a calculating eye. “Are you feeling new sensations in parts of your body, like heat or longing?”

Calypso blinked, staring at Aria in surprise. “You know what this is?”

Aria carefully hid her smile before answering. “I think I might know, depending on your physiology. How much do you know about angels?”

“Just what they taught me in church when I was younger,” Calypso replied reflectively. “They were agents of a god that had a lot of power. They played trumpets and had wings. Some of them seemed like messengers, while others were destroyers of civilizations.”

“Okay, well there are some other attributes that they claimed angels had as well,” Aria hesitated as she fumbled her way through phrasing the question in a way that wouldn’t be embarrassing. “According to the Catholic lore, angels were androgynous. Like, they didn’t have the things that differentiate men from woman.”

Calypso looked at her in confusion. “You mean like breasts?”

“Yeeees,” Aria replied slowly, drawing out the word. “And the other bits down below.”

“What bits down below?” Calypso asked curiously.

Aria stared back at her helplessly. Oh man, maybe they are genderless!

“You know,” Aria gestured down between her hips. “Like in the nether regions.”

“Nether regions?” Calypso replied in bewilderment. “Like Amsterdam?”

Aria facepalmed and blurted out, “like men have ding dongs and women don’t.”

“Ding dongs?” Calypso repeated, her brows creased. “Those packaged cakes?”

“I’m talking about a penis!” Aria growled in exasperation.

“Okay…” Calypso frowned in thought. “I know I’ve heard that word somewhere when I was younger, but I’m not sure what it means.”

Aria’s face was bright red as she floundered. “Do you know how babies are made?”

“I’ve never really thought about it,” Calypso admitted, glancing at her red face. Her aura was probably going haywire, adding to Calypso’s confusion.

“Oh man,” Aria breathed in embarrassment. “I am so the wrong person to have this conversation with you.”

“Who would be a good person?” Calypso asked, eyeing her curiously.

“Well, I would say your mother, but since she’s unavailable I’m stuck with the task,” Aria said with a grimace. “Okay, I’m just going to bite the bullet and get very explicit, embarrassing the hell out of both of us.”

“Okay,” Calypso said warily, her face full of cautious curiosity.

“Right between your legs on your hips, is it just smooth skin, or do you have a hole there?” Aria blurted out quickly, treating it like a band-aid to be torn off swiftly.

Calypso’s face flushed bright red as she stared back at Aria in mortification. “Oh.”

“Yes, oh,” Aria buried her burning face in her hands in defeat.

“Um, yeah,” Calypso muttered almost too quiet to here. “It’s not smooth skin.”

“Well, that’s good to know,” Aria grumbled into her hands. “Cause that would have been really weird.”

“What does that have to do with my feeling weird?” Calypso asked after a while.

“Oh gods,” Aria almost wept. “It’s going to be the whole birds and the bees conversation.”

“Your saying this weird feeling has something to do with birds and bees?” Calypso asked doubtfully.

Aria took a deep breath before speaking. “Okay, girls have holes, guys have penises,” Aria told her, trying to keep her voice clinical as her face lit up like a sunset again. “That’s the real difference between men and woman.”

Aria sighed and cursed Clarice for getting her stuck in this situation. She spent the next few minutes explaining in graphic detail how babies were conceived. Calypso’s face had a look of revulsion as Aria finished.

“Isn’t that violating?” Calypso asked in disgust.

“Yeah, it is,” Aria agreed with a nod. “But that’s how the world works, unless you’re a fish.”

“A fish?” Calypso prompted questioningly.

Aria explained how fish did it.

“Why don’t we all do it like that?” Calypso asked approvingly. “That seems a lot less invasive.”

“I haven’t got a clue,” Aria replied, shaking her head. “But apparently, nature decided we needed a different way since we crawled out of the seas.”

“How are there even new babies made?” Calypso asked doubtfully. “Why would anyone submit to something so invasive?”

“Nature found a way to make us want to do that too,” Aria replied with a sigh. Her cheeks had finally stopped lighting up the night like a beacon. As she continued, they quickly filled with color again. “The act of procreating is very pleasurable, so people do it for that aspect of it.”

“Oh,” Calypso replied, her cheeks going red as well.

They stood staring out at the landscape in silence for several minutes before Calypso finally spoke again.

“I’m still not sure how this is related to me feeling odd,” Calypso said with a sideways glance at Aria.

“Well, part of nature’s method to motivate people to, um, do it is by making the body release hormones that make you feel attracted to someone,” Aria said carefully. “In humans, those urges typically start at puberty, right before our teenage years. We start feeling attracted to certain people. I don’t know how it works for angels. Maybe it is based on reactions to events, rather than age.”

“What kind of events,” Calypso asked awkwardly.

“I don’t know,” Aria teased exaggeratedly. “Maybe being kissed by someone…”

“Oh,” Calypso said again, her hand unconsciously reaching up to touch her lips.

“Does the odd feeling happen when you are around Clarice?” Aria asked delicately.

Calypso nodded silently.

“Well, now you know why,” Aria told her with a sigh, feeling like she had run in an awkward marathon.

“Because I want to procreate with Clarice?” she asked faintly.

“Well, not procreate,” Aria corrected with a short laugh. “You have to do it with a man to procreate. Clarice doesn’t have a penis. With Clarice, it would for the intimacy. You know, for the pleasure factor. Experiencing that kind of pleasure with another person is supposed to be another expression of love.”

“Have you done this thing before?” Calypso asked curiously.

“Um, no,” Aria admitted with an awkward cough. “I’ve never been with someone I feel close enough with to do that.”

“So, this is something you only do with people you are close to?” Calypso asked thoughtfully.

“Theoretically,” Aria frowned. “Though there are a lot of horn dogs that just screw everyone they come across.”

Calypso’s brows furrowed as she tried to translate Aria’s sentence. “Horn dogs?”

“I need to give you a crash course on pop culture,” Aria told her ruefully. “Horn dogs are what you call people who think about nothing but sex. Sex being the act of procreating.”

“So, it isn’t a matter of intimacy for horn dogs,” Calypso stated.

“Correct,” Aria nodded, feeling like there was a light at the end of the tunnel.

Calypso gazed at Aria speculatively.

“What?” Aria asked, feeling a sudden foreboding.

Calypso continued staring at her, looking down at her lips. Aria swallowed, feeling her mouth suddenly go dry. “Have you ever kissed a person?”

Aria shook her head, feeling too tongue tied to speak.

Calypso’s glowing eyes began glowing slightly brighter as she stepped into Aria’s personal space. “Would it be wrong for me to kiss you? We are close, are we not?”

Aria felt her knees go weak as the other woman stared at her intently. She was clearly reading her aura, which she knew was probably begging for her to proceed.

She slowly put her face toward Aria, her eyes flickering around Aria’s face. Aria felt like she had been frozen to the spot as Calypso’s soft lips parted. As her soft lips touched Aria’s lips, she felt like a lightning bolt had zapped her soul. Unbidden, her arms wrapped around Calypso and pulled her close as her sudden need shut down her fear. She let out a soft moan as their lips melded together. The aura that Calypso projected changed from its normal loving affection to something much more passionate.

Calypso pulled back with a gasp, her irises swirling like a nebula. She stared down at Aria with a deep blush on her cheeks and a radiant smile on her face. “So, this is what intimacy feels like.”

Aria clung to her tightly, her knees too weak to stand on her own. She took deep breaths as she stared at Calypso with desire filled eyes. “Yeah, I think that was pretty intimate.”

“Do you two want to tone it down a little?” Clarice’s voice called up to them from below the ladder. “Or figure out how to retract your aura so that the rest of us aren’t watching.”

Calypso’s eyes went wide and her face scarlet with mortification as she stared at Aria in chagrin.

“Don’t worry about it,” Aria told her softly. “They can just deal with it.”

So saying, she pulled Calypso’s head back down for another round.

XXXXX

“So this is awkward,” Clarice said to her mother as they sat in the veranda observing the starry sky. “I think she needs to figure out some aura control, if that’s a thing.”

“Let them have their fun,” her mother chided dryly. “It’s Aria’s first kiss, after all. Calypso’s second, from what I hear.”

“If you can call the first one a kiss,” Clarice snorted. “I barely touched her lips.”

“It was apparently enough to set her blushing every time she looked at you,” her mother noted with a chuckle.

“I can’t believe Aria got up the nerve to kiss her,” Clarice said, shaking her head in wonder.

“I expect it was the other way around,” her mother said thoughtfully. “Aria is too much of a prude to initiate a kiss on her own.”

“Yeah, she really is,” Clarice agreed with a fond smile. “I just wish we could have recorded her expression in the events that led up to it. I’m sure it was epic.”

There was a sudden flash of light that turned the night to day, illuminating the entire mountain range around them. A deep booming noise rattled their teeth and shattered some of the glasses. The aura above them that had been filled with passion suddenly exploded with an intensity of emotion that nearly knocked the two of them out.

“What the hell was that?” Clarice asked groggily as she tried to put her brain back in her head.

“Aria,” her mother said in a worried voice. She stumbled to her feet and lurched drunkenly toward the door.

Clarice followed behind, trying to regain her equilibrium as the mental gut punch slowly faded away. They became steadier as they moved closer to the ladder that led to the widows walk. When they emerged at the top, they found Calypso in Aria’s arms, unconscious.

“What happened?” their mother demanded urgently. “Are you okay?”

“We were just kissing, and she suddenly exploded with light,” Aria replied in a tremulous voice. “Then she passed out. She is insanely light now too.”

Clarice stared as Aria held the unconscious angel in her arms without any strain. “She evolved again.”

“What?” Aria and their mother said simultaneously.

“She’s done it before,” Clarice reminded them as she stared intently at Calypso. “Last time it made her eyes start glowing.”

“You mean after the back massage?” Aria asked, understanding dawning in her green eyes.

“Exactly,” Clarice confirmed with a nod. “Intense emotional experiences seem to trigger evolutionary leaps in her body.”

“First her eyes, and now her weight?” their mother asked musingly. “I have a feeling those wings you theorized about will eventually make an appearance. She would need to be a lot lighter before wings did her any good.”

Devon had arrived part way through their mother’s statement. His eyes were wide as he stared at them in concern. “Was anybody hurt?”

“Just my brain,” Clarice griped, rubbing her temples. “That felt like a pan galactic gargle blaster.”

“A what?” their mother asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Come on,” Clarice demanded in a pained voice. “Don’t tell me you haven’t read Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy!”

“Don’t panic,” Devon said in an amused tone.

“He gets it!” Clarice declared triumphantly, pointing at her uncle.

“Did you feel like your brain was slapped by an angry elephant?” their mother asked Aria curiously. “You seem less affected than us.”

“All I felt was a weird sense of de je vu and a sense of vertigo,” Aria answered, her worried eyes still on Calypso. “Is she going to be all right?”

“I’m guessing her brain is just rebooting,” their mother said mildly as she studied the unconscious angel.

She hadn’t even finished speaking before Calypso’s eyes opened. She blinked at them in confusion as they peered at her concernedly. “What happened?”

“You lit the place up like a Christmas tree and then passed out,” Clarice told her cheerily. “It was pretty epic. How do you feel?”

Calypso’s eyes were no longer just glowing; the irises were constantly swirling like the spiral arms of a galaxy. She stared off into the distance for a moment before replying.

“I feel different,” she finally said hesitantly. “I feel like things make more sense now.”

“Have you noticed how much lighter you are yet?” Clarice asked her with a playful smile.

Calypso blinked her swirling orbs, then stood up straight as Aria slowly released her. “Oh my,” she whispered as she walked around them. “I feel so much lighter.”

“If you’re going to eventually get wings, you have to be light enough for them to do you any good,” Clarice told her matter-of-factly.

She stared at Clarice intently, her swirling eyes speeding up. Clarice shifted uncomfortably after a few seconds of silent scrutiny.

“What’s so fascinating about my aura?” Clarice asked suspiciously.

“It changed,” Calypso murmured thoughtfully.

“Really?” Clarice asked in fascination. “How so?”

“It’s stronger,” Calypso replied, turning to study their mother and Devon. “It’s the same with the two of you. It’s emanating further away from your bodies than it used to.”

“What does that mean?” their mother asked with a frown.

“It usually indicates the life force of a person,” Calypso replied, her eyes shifting between them. “People with stronger auras tend to live a lot longer and healthier. It usually reflects strength of character as well, I think.”

“I thought I felt different,” Devon commented in his deep voice. “I thought it was just adrenaline.”

“Do you think that light show will attract any unwanted attention from the bad guys?” Clarice asked him warily.

“I doubt it,” he replied with a shrug. “It probably just registered as a bolide coming through the atmosphere.”

“Are you feeling any other changes?” Aria asked Calypso, her eyes concerned.

The angel closed her eyes, making the light in the dark widows walk dim. “I feel like my abilities have become more intuitive.”

I think she got even prettier, Clarice thought admiringly.

“Really?” Calypso asked her with a slight blush.

“Really what?” Aria asked in confusion, staring between the two of them.

“Did you just read my mind?” Clarice asked in shock.

“Didn’t you just say you thought I had gotten even prettier?” Calypso asked, her blush deepening.

“No, I thought that in my head,” Clarice replied, staring at her in amazement.

“It sounds just like you are saying it out loud,” Calypso told Aria in amazement. “But I didn’t see your lips move.”

“So, you can read minds now,” Clarice confirmed with an evil smile. “Get ready for some seriously embarrassing thoughts from me.”

“Behave,” their mother told her reprovingly.

“Hey, I can’t help what I think about,” Clarice declared innocently. “Not saying it out loud is as much restraint as you are going to get from me.”

“This could be a huge advantage,” Devon said contemplatively. “There will be times we need to know if someone can be trusted. Now we won’t have to guess and hope.”

“That’s true,” their mother agreed with an eager gleam in her eyes. “Our biggest weakness is our ability to remain hidden. If we can add allies with confidence, our chances of remaining safe from people hunting Calypso will increase dramatically.”

“I wonder if there is a distance limitation?” Clarice pondered with a shrewd look at Calypso. “Could you read someone’s mind over a video call?”

“I didn’t even know I was reading your mind at all,” Calypso replied helplessly.

“We’ll have to investigate that possibility tomorrow,” Clarice decided, smiling at Calypso brightly. “Aria has some video calls with former patients in the morning. We could test it out while she is chatting with them.”

“I feel like we should test Calypso’s dexterity now that she is so light,” Aria said, her eyes fascinated. “Maybe we go running up the mountain and do some rock climbing. I want to see how fast she is.”

“Now that would be awesome!” Clarice exclaimed excitedly. “I’ll bet you could jump down a lot further without getting hurt too.”

Calypso smiled indulgently at their enthusiasm. “I’ll confess, I’m curious as well.”

“I think it’s time to call it a night, for those of us who sleep,” their mother said with a yawn. “Let’s pick this conversation up tomorrow morning.”

“I agree,” Devon said with a yawn of his own. “I’m not as young as I was, and I’m still catching up on that all-nighter.”

The two of them went down the ladder, leaving Aria and Clarice with Calypso.

Hey Calypso, do you feel like a little more smooching? Clarice thought, watching Calypso to see if she was always hearing their thoughts.

“What’s smooching?” Calypso inquired curiously.

Aria’s eyes immediately looked over at Clarice suspiciously. She winked at Aria with an alluring smile.

“They call that smooching?” Calypso asked disapprovingly. “That word is not very attractive.”

Clarice chuckled to herself, realizing Aria’s thoughts must have supplied the definition to Calypso. “I agree; it is an awkward word for an intimate act.”

“Kissing is a much more attractive word,” Calypso said critically.

“I’ve always wanted to make a new language where the sound of every word complimented it’s definition,” Aria said reflectively. “To actually have a beautiful language, without all of the synonyms, homonyms, and other silliness that so many languages are plagued by.”

“That’s tickling something in my memory,” Calypso murmured, squinting in thought. “I usually remember everything, but this is just outside of reach.”

“Wait, you remember everything?” Clarice asked, impressed.

“Doesn’t everybody?” Calypso asked in surprise.

“No,” Clarice and Aria said at the same time, then shared a smile.

“Humans forget things all of the time,” Clarice told her ruefully. “Especially names.”

“Do you remember every name of every child you have ever healed?” Aria asked in amazement.

“Yes,” Calypso nodded with a smile. “I can remember you in the hospital like it was only moments ago.”

“Wow, that is an amazing super power,” Clarice breathed enviously.

“It seems odd that this isn’t normal,” Calypso said in a puzzled voice. “How do you manage in life if you have trouble recalling events?”

“That’s why we invented writing,” Clarice said dryly. “We have to write things down, take photos, videos, post them to YouTube, that kind of thing. When we revisit those things, the memories usually return, though they are not fresh in our minds.”

“That reminds me,” Aria peered at her, pursing her lips. “How good is your hearing?”

“That’s a subjective question to ask,” Calypso noted wryly.

“Let’s do a test,” Aria suggested, walking over to the other end of the widows walk. She was about fifteen feet away. The night was filled with the sounds of crickets and frogs.

Clarice saw her lips move in the faint light but heard nothing.

“Loud and clear,” Calypso replied with a nod.

“So did you hear my mother tell me that I should share you with Clarice the other night?” Aria asked curiously.

“Yes,” Calypso confirmed with a gentle smile. “I heard how difficult it was for you to be close to someone. That’s why I came to your room while you slept.”

“Wow,” Aria whispered. “You really are amazing on so many levels.”

Calypso blushed as Aria gazed at her with admiration in her green eyes.

“I want to know how well you can see with those beautiful eyes of yours,” Clarice said playfully. “Can you see color in the night, or is it all just washed out like it is for us?”

“You can’t see colors at night?” Calypso asked in surprise.

“I guess that answers that question,” Clarice said with a laugh. “Can you read the sign on the gate at the end of the driveway?”

Calypso looked out into the night where the mile long driveway ended with a large wooden sign. It would have required binoculars for Clarice to see it.

“The one that says Shaw Ranch?” Calypso asked, her eyes distant.

“That’s the one,” Clarice nodded. “No wonder you love looking at the view from up here. You must be able to see all of the way into town down in the valley.”

“Yes, it is a very picturesque town,” Calypso murmured as she looked toward the town.

“Can you actually see individual objects in the town that far away?” Aria asked in amazement.

“Yes,” Calypso nodded with a faint smile. “There is a van parked on the main street in the center of town with a logo that looks like an S that says Swanson’s Cleaning Service.”

“Wow,” Clarice shared a goggle-eyed look with Aria. “That’s insane.”

“What other super powers have you been hiding?” Aria asked her intently. “Things that you take for granted assuming humans can do.”

Calypso blinked at the question, frowning in thought. “I’m pretty fast,” she admitted. “As a kid I always won any races by a pretty large amount. That could just mean the other people were slow though.”

“Now I’m really curious just how fast,” Aria murmured as she studied Calypso. “Especially now that you weigh practically nothing.”

“What about smell?” Clarice asked with a raised eyebrow. “How keen is your sense of smell compared to humans, I wonder.”

“Are we going to have a sniffing contest?” Calypso asked with an amused smile.

“You know it,” Clarice winked at her. “Compared to other animals, humans have a pretty weak sense of smell. Dogs could smell my hand and tell you what the last thing I ate was. However, since you don’t eat, I wonder if your sense of smell is highly developed at all and if you could even identify the food based on smell.”

Calypso inhaled deeply. “I smell some kind of fruit, I think. And lotion.”

Clarice stared at her in shock. She was still several feet away. She hadn’t even tried to sniff Clarice’s hand and had still identified the smells.

“I think it’s safe to assume you have us beat in the smelling ability too,” Clarice said faintly.

“That’s a safe bet,” Aria agreed with an awed smile. “We have a freaking super hero with us. An honest to god super hero.”

Calypso blushed, looking down at the ground demurely.

“What else is there?” Clarice pondered, tapping her lips thoughtfully. “Oh, I know. How strong are you?”

“I have no idea,” Calypso admitted with a shrug. “I don’t think I ever need to lift anything heavier than a cello.”

“Could you lift me?” Clarice asked with a challenging smile.

Calypso hesitated, looking at Clarice uncertainly.

“Don’t make it weird,” Clarice quipped, walking over to stand in front of her. “I’m a hundred and ten pounds. Let’s see what you’ve got.”

Calypso blushed again as she hesitantly put her hands under Clarice’s armpits. She braced herself and then seemed to effortlessly lift Clarice up into the air above her head.

Clarice was laughing as Calypso set her down, her eyes delighted. “So, you’re super strong too.”

“Is a hundred and ten pounds really a lot?” Calypso asked doubtfully.

“Show her, Aria,” Clarice said confidently, turning to face her step sister.

Aria stared at her levelly for a moment. “You’re going to make fun of me when I can’t do it, aren’t you?”

“I would never!” Clarice gasped, her eyes filled with mischief.

Aria rolled her eyes, then braced herself and tried to repeat Calypso’s feat. She pushed up as hard as she could, but Clarice wouldn’t budge. With a growl, she bear hugged her and was finally able to lift her several inches off of the ground.

“See?” Clarice told Calypso with a delighted laugh. “Super strong. Which is crazy, considering how light you are.”

“It really makes the stories of angels wiping out whole civilizations seem plausible, doesn’t it,” Aria said thoughtfully. “If all angels are as powerful, or more powerful than Calypso, they must be able to squish humans like flies.”

“I would never do anything to hurt anyone,” Calypso declared firmly.

“Oh, we know you wouldn’t,” Aria assured her quickly, reaching out a hand to place it reassuringly on Calypso’s forearm. “I’m just referring to the ones from biblical lore.”

Calypso looked troubled, her large, swirling eyes watching them worriedly.

“What’s the matter?” Aria asked her in concern.

“What if I’m not the only one,” she said, concern in her voice. “What if there are other’s here as well, and they aren’t peaceful?”

“I’m pretty sure we would have heard about a rampaging angel in the media,” Aria told her reassuringly. “And you’ve been here for over a hundred years. I seriously doubt there are any others hiding under rocks somewhere.”

Calypso nodded at the reassurance. “I guess you’re right. I suppose we might have a better idea of whether there were any others if we knew how I’d gotten here in the first place.”

“What if you just spontaneously exist?” Clarice suggested thoughtfully. “Like, say there is some energy well for spiritual energy in the world, and when it reaches a certain level it spontaneously spawns an angel.”

“That’s a pretty wild idea,” Aria said doubtfully. “How would it just spawn a complex entity?”

“I don’t know,” Clarice shrugged. “I came up with the theory. It’s your job to figure out the details.”

“That’s not how theories work,” Aria told her levelly.

“Of course it is,” Clarice declared airily. “That’s what happened with Newton. He watched apples fall and had an idea. Then he tried to fill in the details.”

“That’s a hypothesis,” Aria told her critically.

“Oh, please forgive me for getting the terminology wrong!” Clarice cried in feigned remorse. “We’re not all physicists.”

“You’re a physicist?” Calypso asked Aria in surprise. “You know, I’ve never really had a chance to learn about your lives after our first meeting.”

“It’s a lot less fun than I thought it would be,” Aria grimaced. “Everything is funded through grants and donations, so you basically work on whatever some big company or government wants you to work on. Either that, or convince them your own idea is worth investing in. It’s usually not. I had visions of making scientific breakthroughs as a kid. The reality is a lot more bureaucratic and far less interesting than I thought it would be.”

“I guess I never thought about it, but are you missing work to help me?” Calypso asked, her face chagrined.

“I was on a sabbatical,” Aria told her reassuringly. “I’m not due back for another month. I was trying to decide if I wanted to move into another career. I was feeling the waters. That means I was investigating other careers to see what they were like.” Aria remembered at the last minute to include an explanation for her colloquialism.

“You don’t need to explain colloquialisms and slang to me anymore,” Calypso told her with a fleeting smile. “Now that I can hear your thoughts I can understand your meaning.”

“Well, that’s useful,” Aria grinned. “You’ll be a master of pop culture in no time.”

“What about you?” Calypso asked Clarice. “Are you missing work?”

“I’m definitely not missing it,” Clarice declared fervently. “I was working for a soulless corporation. All I did was crunch numbers all day to make their crappy MRP system work. I’ll never be sad for leaving that job behind.”

“Neither of you were happy with your career choices?” Calypso asked, her face filled with compassion.

“You could say that,” Clarice nodded grimly. “Being an adult kind of sucks. I don’t even know what kind of work I would actually enjoy doing. It looked so different from the outside.”

“Yeah,” Aria agreed with a sigh. “I think I could have been happy as a YouTuber, but that’s not a very solid career foundation. It’s too easy to get booted off of the platform or demonetized.”

“I should have been an author,” Clarice said musingly. “I could have just made stuff up all day and gotten paid for it. I could definitely put my life into authoring.”

“I don’t know how much authors make,” Aria said doubtfully. “Unless you are a bestseller or something.”

“Don’t smash my dreams,” Clarice admonished her defensively. “I’ll be an author someday, just you wait and see. I’ll go on adventures and conquer evil wherever I find it.”

“You could certainly write a good book based on our lives for the past couple of days,” Aria said wryly. “It would have to be a work of fiction though, because nobody would believe it.”

Calypso was watching them thoughtfully, her face taking on a pensive cast as she stared at them.

“You’re the best thing that happened to our lives,” Aria told Calypso earnestly, breaking the silence. “Twice. First you saved our lives from a horrible disease, then you saved us from a life of corporate slavery and mediocrity. We have no regrets about where this adventure has led us.”

“None whatsoever,” Clarice agreed fervently. “Life was pretty damn boring until we found you again.”

Calypso’s face relaxed into a smile at their words. “Okay, as long as I haven’t ruined your lives with this debacle.”

Aria impulsively hugged the smiling angel. “Exactly the opposite. I wouldn’t trade anything for what we have now.”

Clarice nodded her agreement, marveling at Aria’s empathetic nature. Sometimes she could be scarily accurate at reading people, just short of mind reading. She had accurately guessed what was bothering Calypso and put her fears to rest.

Aria had clearly decided the embrace wasn’t going to end any time soon, soaking up the warmth and love of Calypso’s presence.

Clarice glanced down at her hand curiously. It had started feeling tingly as they were talking. It was the same hand that Calypso’s tear had fallen on. The tingle slowly spread up her arm and began emanating throughout her body. She gasped as she felt a flash of warmth erupt in her core. It was a pleasant sensation, bathing the rest of her body with some kind of light.

“Clarice, your glowing,” Aria exclaimed as the light caught her eyes.

“I noticed,” Clarice said in bemusement.

“Why are you glowing?” Aria demanded as she stared in shock at Clarice.

“I have absolutely no idea,” Clarice replied with a faint smile. “It feels kind of good though.”

Calypso was staring at Clarice with a puzzled frown. “There is something else on the tip of my memory again. I feel like I should know what is going on.”

“It started with the hand that your tear landed on,” Clarice told them absently. She felt small channels of energy begin to build some kind of geometric grid throughout her body. The energy coursed through the channels, glowing brighter at the nodes where multiple energy lines intersected. After almost a minute, the grid had completed the spread throughout her body. The nodes suddenly snapped into place on the flesh inside of her, binding itself to her body like it was a template. The warmth changed to heat, burning away at her insides. There was no pain, but she could feel organs vanishing in flashes of brilliant energy. She felt her stomach and intestines burn away, followed by her kidneys and liver. The torrent of fire moved upward, searing her insides until all that remained was the grid of energy and her outer human shell of muscle, bone, and skin. Her brain was the last to go, causing her eyes to flare with bright light. The fire finally extinguished itself and she felt a profound sense of happiness fill her entire body. She slowly stopped glowing as the energy diminished. She could still feel it coursing through the matrix of nodes and channels that had replaced most of her insides. She felt like her former body had been a prison as she tentatively took a few steps. Her senses were heightened beyond anything she could have previously imagined. The night was no longer dark to her eyes. She could smell millions of scents, easily cataloged and matched to their source. She could hear Aria’s frantic heart beat and panicked breathing. She could also feel the energy coursing through Calypso’s body, just like it was through hers.

“Oh my god, your eyes,” Aria whispered in stunned disbelief.

“What about my eyes?” Clarice asked, then grinned as she heard the power in her voice.

“They’re violet, like Calypso’s used to be,” Aria said in awe. “Are you…” she licked her lips and started over. “Are you an angel now too?”

Clarice couldn’t stop smiling as she stared at the other two. She felt so alive! Was this how Calypso always felt?

“I think I might be,” Clarice said, her voice throbbing with an authority that demanded attention. She laughed again, joyously this time. “Can you hear my freaking voice? It sounds so freaking cool!”

Aria nodded, wide eyed and awestruck. She stared at her formerly human sister with something close to reverence in her eyes. “I could listen to that voice all day long.”

Clarice laughed again, and it seemed to light up the night with its exuberance.

“I thought you were pretty before, but now…” Aria said, shaking her head slowly. “Wow.”

Clarice waggled her eyebrows with giggle, reveling in the supercharged energy of her new body.

“How can this be?” Calypso whispered in shock. “Was I just a human that turned into an angel?”

“I think that may just be the case,” Clarice nodded, unable to stop smiling. “I can’t believe how much better I feel. It feels like I’ve just recovered from a lifetime of being bedridden.”

“You think Calypso’s tear on your hand is responsible for the change?” Aria asked, her eyes full of wonder.

“That seems to be the best theory available,” Clarice said with a shrug, then grinned mischievously. “And yes, Aria, I still have passionate parts.”

Aria’s cheeks lit up like a sunset, but she laughed through the blush. “You would not believe how hard it was to ask Calypso that question.”

“But one of my tears touched Aria too,” Calypso said slowly. “Shouldn’t she transform as well?”

“That’s true,” Clarice said with a thoughtful look at Aria. “It started while we were talking about careers. Right after I said I wanted to be an author, go on adventures and vanquish evil wherever I found it.”

“You think something may have activated it?” Aria asked in fascination. “Like your intent or something?”

“We’re freaking angels, Aria,” Clarice said wryly. “I said I wanted to vanquish evil; and I meant it. Maybe it has something to do with Angels standing for truth and justice and all that jazz.”

“I want to vanquish evil too,” Aria said dryly. “I don’t think you have to be a-“ she broke off, her eyes widening. She looked down at her hand in shock. “It’s tingling.”

“One more angel, coming up,” Clarice raised her fist in the air and cheered loudly into the night air.

She watched Aria light up like an incandescent bulb, glowing brighter and brighter. She looked at them in open-mouthed wonder. Clarice could sense the same blueprints unfolding throughout Aria’s body as she had felt in her own. The process ended with Aria’s eyes blazing with light. As it dimmed, Aria stood with a wondering smile on her face as she stared at them with violet eyes. Her brilliant red hair seemed to have an inner glow, adding to its luster. Her already beautiful face had become ethereal, something poets would weep to describe.

“Is this how you always feel, Calypso?” Aria asked in amazement. “I can’t believe how good I feel!”

“I have no recollection of being human, so I can’t really compare,” Calypso replied, her eyes drinking in the sight of the changed sisters.

“You know,” Aria said, her voice filled with such heartwarming energy that the area seemed colder without it. “Clarice’s first theory about you was that you were an amnesiac angel. I’m starting to wonder if something traumatic happened to you in the years that you can’t remember. Maybe you were dying, or sick, and you somehow came into contact with an angel tear. Perhaps there wasn’t much left of your mind when the transformation happened.”

Calypso nodded slowly, her expression thoughtful. “Something like that would explain why I can’t remember anything.”

“Can you feel our energy meridians?” Clarice asked Calypso curiously.

“Your what?” Calypso asked blankly.

“I can sense a matrix of channels and nodes with energy flowing through them all throughout your body,” Clarice told her, peering at her closely. “Just like Aria.”

“No, I can’t see anything like that,” Calypso replied with a perplexed frown. “Can you, Aria?”

Aria nodded, studying the two of them. “When I look past your physical shell, I can see a whole lattice of energy lines, billions of them.”

“I wonder if there were complications with your transformation, since you were still a child,” Clarice suggested quizzically. “Maybe this process is only supposed to happen to adults.”

“Maybe that’s what those hints of memories are that you’ve been getting,” Aria suggested hopefully. “Maybe something will eventually trigger a full recall.”

“I don’t think I can hear your thoughts anymore,” Calypso announced with a searching look at the two of them. “Can you think something at me?”

Clarice blinked in surprise, then stared back at Calypso silently.

“Nothing,” Calypso shook her head. “Apparently angels’ thoughts are protected.”

“That’s pretty disappointing,” Clarice lamented with a sigh. “I was going to have a lot of fun sending you all kinds of interesting thoughts.”

“Are you two ever going to go to sleep?” her mother’s voice asked from below the ladder. “What’s with all of the cheering, Clarice?”

Aria shared an impish look with Clarice and they both dissolved into peals of laughter.

“Your voices sound…odd,” their mother said, concern in her voice.

“Hold on mom, we’re coming down,” Aria said, her eyes full of excitement.

“Yeah, that’s not your normal voice Aria,” their mother said warily.

Clarice went over to the ladder, then paused. She looked at Aria and winked, then jumped down to the third floor. She landed lightly in front of her mother, who emitted a startled squawk. She moved out of the way and Aria jumped down as well, landing as gracefully as a cat.

“Instead of Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, you can now call us your little angels,” Clarice told their goggle-eyed mother with a jubilant grin.

Calypso followed their lead and jumped down next to them, falling much slower than either of the angels had.

“How?” was all her mother could say, studying them with tears in her eyes.

“We think when one of Calypso’s tears landed on our hand, it created some kind of angel seed,” Clarice told their mother excitedly. “Then when we said we wanted to vanquish evil, the seed went crazy and transformed us. It was so freaking cool! It feels so amazing. Every sense is enhanced so much, and this constant feeling of bliss is intoxicating. It feels like we were living shadow lives before this.”

Their mother seemed captivated by her riveting voice and radiant aura. Clarice pulled her mother into a hug, being careful not to squeeze her too tightly in case she had super strength. “We also discovered that angels are basically super heroes. From our vision, hearing, smell, strength, speed, and dexterity, it’s seriously like having super powers.”

Her mother was silent as she soaked up the powerful aura of love that Clarice exuded. Clarice remembered when she only felt that powerful love when Calypso embraced them. Now it was with her all of the time, filling her with wonder.

“Does Calypso have these abilities too?” her mother asked after Clarice released her a few minutes later.

“She does,” Clarice laughed ruefully. “She didn’t know that she had them though. She has no memory of ever being human, so she didn’t know that she was so much more powerful than everyone else. When we were testing her for super powers before we transformed, we had her lift me up into the air. She did it like I weighed nothing, and was surprised when Aria couldn’t do the same thing.”

“Wow, so we have had a powerhouse with us the entire time and we never knew it,” her mother said with a chuckle. “I get the feeling that she never had any need to use these powers in the life she lived before this. She spent all of her time dedicated to music and healing children.”

“I wonder if we can heal people,” Aria mused, looking at Clarice questioningly.

“I suppose we would have to try making a song to do it, the way Calypso does it,” Clarice said thoughtfully. “Wait a minute. She also sees people’s auras and that’s how she knows they are sick. All I see in my mother are her meridians with energy flowing through them. Calypso can’t see meridians though. Is it possible that her mind has transposed meridian lines into auras?”

Calypso pursed her lips as she considered it. “I’ve seen auras since I was a child. I wonder if it was a matter of learning to see them in a way my young mind could understand, while you see a more complex version of what is happening inside of people’s bodies because your minds were more developed when the transformation happened.”

“That would make a lot of sense,” Clarice nodded, looking closely at her mother’s meridians. The energy was flowing freely, with no snarls or breakpoints. “I think I would need to see other people to know for sure. I think when Calypso strengthened their auras it cleaned their meridians. We would need to see someone who is unwell to know for sure.”

“Do you no longer require sleep either?” their mother asked them curiously.

“I can’t even imagine trying to sleep with the energy coursing through me,” Clarice breathed, her face bordering on euphoric. “If it is always this way, we definitely won’t need sleep.”

“I’m not sure how I feel about that,” Aria sighed with a troubled frown. “I kind of like sleeping sometimes.”

“Normal people need to sleep to break up the stress between days and catalog memories,” Clarice told her gently. “We have perfect recall now, and with this glowing love constantly suffusing our bodies, we aren’t ever going to get stressed.”

“Or age,” Calypso added with a wry smile. “I really was oblivious, wasn’t I?”

“Yeah,” Aria said fondly. “But that’s what made you so endearing.”

Calypso smiled shyly, looking between the two new angels. “If you two weren’t such good people and gone out of your way to spoil me, this would have never happened. I don’t think angels cry very often.”

“You have a point,” Clarice admitted musingly. “I can’t imagine what it would take to make me cry with all of this positive energy running through my system.”

“So how does this affect our plans going forward?” their mother asked, tilting her head inquisitively. “We were trying to keep one angel safe. Now we have three, and you seem a lot more durable than we had thought initially.”

Clarice shared a look with Aria and Calypso. “I feel like we can still push forward with the same plan. Calypso is the world famous musician that everyone knows. We can still use her connections with former patients to form a support system. We can also follow Uncle Devon’s plan to destroy the nanobots in the shadow government contractors and attempt to break their power hold on society. I’m starting to wonder if the rumor of her being an angel might also help our cause. She has a lot of fans, and if they had to march on Washington DC and throw bureaucrats out of their offices, they would do it for her if she asked. Especially if they believe she isn’t just a wonderful human helping people, but an actual angel.”

“So, you don’t want to have her just come out and admit it publicly?” Aria asked, her compassionate voice humming in the air around them like a living manifestation of love.

“No, because then we would have to deal with all of the world religions going nuts,” Clarice pointed out wryly, her lips quirking up on one side. “I think we’ll want to remain in the background as much as possible, working through the network that we create.”

“Speaking of which,” Aria recalled with a sudden frown. “I have a video conference with some former patients later this morning. I think it might make things weird if they see me as I am now. Maybe we should have Calypso be the one to meet them after all. She would even know all of their names by sight.”

“Good idea,” Clarice nodded her approval. She looked at Calypso, her head tilted to the side. “Are you okay with that Calypso?”

“Of course,” Calypso nodded with an eager smile. “I want to see how they are doing anyway. So far, you two are the only former patients that I have met.”

“Okay, I’m going to try and get some sleep with what’s left of the night,” their mother yawned. Her lips curved into a wry smile. “Though I’m not sure I’ll be able to sleep now, knowing my little angels are angels.”

Clarice and Aria burst out laughing, filling the room with warmth. Their mother smiled at them fondly as she felt the waves of positive energy radiate around her. She gave them each a long hug, then went to her room with a look of joy on her face.