AAB

+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| B0: Remiel, gray-winged daughter of Ariel, sees her future |
| as a vivid daydream continually collapsing like a house of |
| cards with each action that renders the former vision |
| counterfactual. The sequence of events in the new future |
| then reassembles itself within her mind. It is almost |
| impossible to harm Remiel, for she may simply absent herself |
| from the place of danger. She calls this technique the Dance |
| of Life. Yet in truth it is a terrible power. Remiel knew |
| when her husband Elroy would betray her with Bat Kol. She |
| knows when people she dearly loves will die, yet at times |
| she can say nothing, because the warning itself leads to far |
| worse outcomes. This Mercy makes Remiel the most formidable |
| among the angels. Davar once told Remiel she alone in all |
| the universe shares the Old One’s divine power of free |
| will. Yet the burden of this thing was judged so terrible |
| Davar required Remiel to submit willingly to her own murder |
| to affirm she was willing to retain the power. Her death |
| proved a temporary inconvenience. |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+

BA: In the second year of the Confederate War muskets discharged
in great numbers along two stone walls. The sound carried
rapidly from man to man, and the smoke of black powder stung the
eyes of those engaged. These walls met at a bridge of dressed
stone over a quiet stream, where the children and converts of
the Lord of Hosts Fellowship were received as sons and daughters
of God by baptism. It was there, on the far left wing of the
Army of the Potomac, that the opposing forces first joined
battle. The Federals advanced in heavy order and with much
shouting. They pressed forward with determination and came near
to attaining the west side of the stream, albeit at the price of
24

many fallen men. On the Confederate side a large gun, loaded
with canister, was placed to command the length of the bridge.
It swept the structure from end to end, cutting the blue-clad
men down in great numbers, so that a second line of the dead and
wounded was formed upon the first.

BB: In the action, two Union guns positioned upstream fired
bursting shells that struck down the Rebel gunners, while a
second gun on the Confederate side returned solid shot with
similar effect until the two Federal pieces were reduced
to splintered timber and twisted iron. Following this, the
Confederate infantry advanced in counterattack and regained much
of the bridge, which by then had become a house of slaughter. A
Federal colonel was struck squarely by a musket ball. To
the astonishment of his men, he quickly regained his feet
unhurt, the projectile having lodged securely within a small
Bible he habitually carried upon his person. The men took
this miraculous escape as a sign of Providence. Emboldened,
the colonel immediately led another charge against the enemy
positions. In the brutal close-quarters combat that followed,
soldiers on both sides stood upon the mounting heaps of the
dead, passing loaded muskets forward like a bucket brigade at a
fire while casting aside the empty weapons.

BC: As the fighting continued, the Confederate infantry began to
exhaust their powder, and the officer commanding them perceived
that the bridge could no longer be held. He accordingly ordered
his guns withdrawn under cover of fresh troops, who maintained a
rearguard action to permit an orderly retirement. The commander
of IX Corps then crossed the stone bridge, following the
retreating Confederates. Having formed his command, he directed
a lieutenant of his staff to ride to headquarters and report

that a bridgehead had been secured on the left of the line. The
messenger, seeing the bridge so thickly carpeted with the dead
of both armies, refused to ride back across it lest he trample
the fallen. He instead went down to the creek and forded it on
foot. The officer suffered no difficulty in this, as the water
of the run was nowhere more than waist-deep in all seasons, a
topographical fact well known to the local farmers.

+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| B1: 𝘈𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭 𝘈𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘺 season 1 ep. 2, October 13, 1960: In 1868 |
| the CSA celebrates five years since winning the war. Mikaela |
| authorizes a Prank. Students from the Academy’s compound |
| in Missouri board a spectral locomotive, traveling to the |
| bloody height of 1862. Their target: a Confederate adjutant |
| general who kept a duplicate copy of Special Order 191 as a |
| memento, preventing its historical loss. The angels have |
| stolen Lee’s dispatch from his home in 1868, but they must |
| plant it in 1862 where Union soldiers will find it without |
| suspecting a 𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘥𝘦 𝘨𝘶𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘦. Remiel suggests wrapping the |
| stolen orders around three of Dumah’s Cuban cigars, tying |
| them with string, and dropping the bait in the smoking ruins |
| of D. H. Hill’s abandoned camp. “The cigars will draw |
| their eyes,” Remiel explains coldly as the temporal train |
| prepares to depart and she sees the timeline settle into a |
| brutal new channel. “The war will stretch on for years |
| longer this time, and cost thousands more lives. But |
| ultimately, the Union will win.” |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+

BD: In the heat of battle the whitewashed Price Meetinghouse,
the sanctuary of the Lord of Hosts Fellowship, was commandeered
as a field hospital. The interior walls were soon stained with

blood, and daylight streamed through numerous shot-holes in the
structure, illuminating the wounded laid out across the floor.
Medical officers worked without pause. One surgeon administered
chloroform to anesthetize the men, while another plied the saw
to amputate shattered limbs, tossing them into a growing pile
outside the building. Lange entered the chapel and in one
Amen Corner he found the commander of I Corps poring over
maps of Sharpsburg and the surrounding country, directing his
dispositions. When the general looked up and beheld him, he
spoke sharply: "Who are you, and what is your business here?" "I
am a deacon of this church," Lange replied, "which now lies in
desolation around us." The officer dismissed the claim. "This
is no longer a house of worship," he stated. "It is the
headquarters of the army."

BE: The east and south doors had been unhinged and repurposed
as tables for the wounded, resembling improvised altars of
sacrifice. The congregation’s great Bible was nowhere to be
found, whether lost through neglect or taken by a marauder.
Outside, the pews had been dragged into the yard. Federal
officers sat upon them at their ease, smoking cigars and
whittling idly at the wood with their knives as though in sport.
Lange confronted the General, demanding that he order his men to
deal more gently with the property of the church. The commander
took umbrage at the request. "Depart from my sight at once," he
ordered. "If you persist in remaining here, I shall place a
musket in your hands and send you to the front line." At that
moment, a crashing report shook the building, and the sanctuary
filled with flying splinters. The Rebel artillery had opened a
furious barrage from behind their works to cover their retreat.
The General rushed from the building, plucking splinters from
his flesh and shouting orders.

BF: The officers idling upon the pews scattered in haste as
shells burst around them and solid shot struck nearby trees.
Federal artillery was brought up to answer the enemy's guns.
Lange remained within the chapel, maintaining a slender hope
that his presence might yet induce the Lord to spare the
structure. Even as he prayed, however, shot tore great openings
in the walls, and two shells from the enemy’s chief battery
burst directly above the roof. The artillery fire ceased
abruptly and inexplicably. Choking in the dust and darkness of
the ruined chapel, Lange was overcome by a sharp, agonizing
pain. As he lay suffering in the gloom, pinned among the
wreckage with the remaining officers, he heard the voice of
a woman. "Samael, take great care," she said. "Joshua is
still alive beneath this fallen timber, though he is severely
injured." Lange was astonished by her presence. He had confided
in no one when leaving his home, having no desire that any of
his congregation should expose themselves to peril.

BG: As the light slowly increased, Lange watched a massive pine
beam being hoisted upward with effortless ease, revealing a
figure moving beneath the timber. It appeared to him that the
outer walls of the meetinghouse were no longer standing, but had
been swept away entirely. The woman wore a long white coat,
curiously fitted with numerous pockets, over a garment of red
feathers. "You did well, Samael," she said. "You were not here
on the previous pass, so Gabriela cut through to him with Shahar
Haruach, and not a few timbers shifted, and Joshua suffered
immeasurably more." A third voice then reported the presence of
the three other wounded soldiers trapped in the debris. The
woman replied that she would attend to all four, vowing to
preserve the limbs that the ishim doctors had been preparing to
amputate. Listening to this incomprehensible exchange, Lange

began to fear he had lost his reason. The woman addressed him
directly: "Do not be afraid, Joshua. A splinter has pierced your
kidney, and your leg is broken.

+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| B2: Dr. Miriam Wahkan (Lakota: Plenty Practice) is the angel |
| named Raphael. As Mary Magdalene in the first century CE she |
| unobtrusively performed the healings attributed in the |
| gospels to Yeshua ben Yosef. Today she is the sole doctor in |
| the town of Havilah, which is large enough to require |
| at least two or three physicians. As part of her V |
| chromosome inheritance, her body produces molecular machines |
| that facilitate rapid self-repair, but Dr. Wahkan produces |
| them in abundance, permitting her to share them with |
| the afflicted by a mere touch. Her use of the term |
| "veterinary primer" is typical of her droll wit, though |
| indeed she occasionally works alongside her sister Ariel |
| tending animals as well as humans. Raphael may heal, but she |
| cannot confer immortality even to angels, only the nephiloth |
| remain deathless. Miriam is frequently seen at the Migdalel |
| College hospital wearing a white lab coat over her cloak of |
| blood-red feathers. When complimented on this ensemble she |
| often replies, "Thanks! It has pockets!" |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+

BH: "You cannot feel it because the beam is compressing it. That
will change when we lift it." Lange could manage nothing more
than a gasp for help. "This will pain you considerably, to my
great regret," she continued, "but I see no way to avoid it."
Samael then hoisted the heavy timber with the same inexplicable
lack of exertion. Instantly, Lange was struck by an agony
surpassing anything he had ever known. His vision clouded with

red, and, overcome by the sheer shock of the pain, he lost
consciousness. When Lange finally revived, he found himself
lying in a bed within a remarkably well-appointed house of
glass, stone, and fine wood. He was nursed with great care by
strangers, who urged him to remain at rest long after he felt he
had recovered sufficient strength to rise. Out of gratitude,
Lange obeyed his caretakers, though he could not banish thoughts
of his congregation. He knew the brethren must be troubled by
the sudden disappearance of their deacon in the midst of the
battle.

+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| B3: Angel Academy season 1 episode 3, October 27, 1960: Dr. |
| Miriam Wahkan, known among the angels of Havilah as Raphael, |
| struggles to conceal her impossible healing abilities from |
| a visiting U.S. Army surgeon. To preserve the secret |
| of her molecule-scale designer “veterinary primer,” |
| Miriam performs a grotesque imitation of frontier medicine |
| before the physician, applying leeches, prescribing mercury |
| compounds, and wrapping wounds in foul-smelling poultices |
| while her molecular machines quietly restore the patients |
| beneath the bandages. Meanwhile, Mikaela and Gabriela host a |
| delegation of the Loyal Opposition at one of Havilah’s |
| scalding geothermal springs for diplomatic talks. The |
| negotiations proceed with overly elaborate courtesy and |
| increasing passive aggression while all parties remain |
| submerged in sulfurous water far too hot for ordinary |
| bathers. At last the demons surrender the point under |
| dispute and abruptly conclude the talks, unable to endure |
| the heat any longer. |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+

BI: A woman clad in green approached his bed, introducing
herself as Cassiel Haivri, the sister of Ariel, whom Joshua had
invited to speak to his congregation before the battle. "Are you
well, Joshua?" she asked. "I am fully recovered," he answered,
"yet I would feel better if permitted to rise." "Please do,
Deacon Lange," she replied. "I wish to introduce you to a fellow
who arrived in the same manner as you did, though under the
threat of fire rather than battle." Lange asked, "Where is this
place?" "It will be easier to show you than to tell you,"
Cassiel answered. "Come and see." She led him outside, where he
observed a young man seated beside a large pool surrounded by a
dark wooden deck. Joshua guessed the youth was of the same race
as the original inhabitants of the continent. As he approached,
Joshua realized with some surprise that the pain in his back and
fractured leg had almost entirely subsided. Given the severe
injury he had sustained during the bombardment this rapid
recovery was extraordinary.

BJ: "Joshua Lange," Cassiel said, "I would like you to meet this
young man. Among his people he is called Shy Bear, though the
name of his manhood which he shall take hereafter is Jashen.

He has not yet learned much English, but I am working to remedy
that." Cassiel smiled and took a seat beside the young man,
gesturing for Lange to do the same. He complied somewhat
reluctantly; having been confined to bed for so long he would
have preferred to remain standing. "I asked that he be present
so you might know him by sight," Cassiel explained. "In a time
to come, God willing, you shall meet again." Lange studied the
youth to commit his features to memory, but his attention was
quickly arrested by the heavens behind the pair. He observed
drifting clouds, but the firmament beyond them was a stationary
expanse of muted colors.

+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| B4: "And the angel of the LORD came again the second time, |
| and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the |
| journey is too great for thee." This angel was Isda, a |
| heavenly Julia Child. Angels do, in fact, eat. She prepped |
| the box lunches when Yeshua fed the four thousand and |
| another time when he fed the five thousand. With Elroy as |
| her on-site caterer she baked fresh angel food cake for the |
| Israelites in the desert. When they saw it they said "What |
| is this?" (manna) and the name stuck. Angel food cake tastes |
| great the first hundred times you eat it. Isda keeps trying. |
| A little cinnamon, some dried fruit, different textures, |
| perhaps a glaze, perhaps toasted. Meanwhile the Israelites |
| grew tired of manna to the point where they would murder for |
| a potato chip. Migdalel College in Havilah has a rigorous |
| program, ten hour days, six days a week, and Isda is there |
| running the whole show in the kitchen. Isda knows more about |
| the emotional state of the Academy than Dory does, even, not |
| because she's telepathic, or alert to idle gossip, but |
| because she watches who skips lunch. |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
32

BK: He realized with profound disorientation that he was looking
at land masses suspended in the sky. Above them, the sun hung
directly overhead. It was irregular in shape, and slowly waxing
in brilliance, yet it remained entirely fixed in its position.
Confronted with these astronomical impossibilities, he asked
once more, "Where are we?" "This place is called Kemen," Cassiel
replied. "There is no measure of distance, nor any heading, by
which it can be placed in relation to the places you know."
"Have I passed on, then?" Lange asked. "No, Joshua," she
answered. "You are safe, as are your people in the other world.
The invading army is presently retreating across the river, and
the United States forces will soon also vacate your lands. My
sister will return your livestock, just as she promised in her
letter." Cassiel smiled gently. Reaching beneath her chair, she
produced a roll of canvas and placed it in his hands. "This map
will guide you and your people to a place where you can make
your new home.

BL: "Jashen will be waiting for you there, and, it is much to be
hoped, I will be there together with him." Lange unrolled
Cassiel's canvas for inspection. It depicted rivers, forests,
and elevations, yet it was devoid of names or boundary lines.
Discerning the location of their designated settlement, he
observed, "It is a considerable distance." "It is indeed as far
as you can go by river and by rail, and yet further on foot. The
Haivri family maintains a small holding near the terminus of the
rail line where my grandmother Lailah awaits. She will provision
your company for the final leg of the journey. I bid you to
proceed to the very source of this river, where your people may
dwell in peace alongside the Kuwapi." Hearing that name, Shy
Bear looked up in recognition and offered Lange a smile. "But I
must caution you, Joshua," Cassiel continued, "that some among

your own congregation will judge you unsound of mind when you
recount your brief stay in this place, and how swiftly Raphael
restored your body."

+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| B5: The body of Ariel Haivri-Lange, daughter of Mikaela, |
| produces an overabundance of carefully engineered molecules. |
| In the case of Ariel these are airborne pheromones that |
| strongly affect animals. In her presence beasts eagerly |
| comply with her vocalizations and gestures. Ariel returns |
| their affection in equal measure. Some talebearers among the |
| Root of Jesse Fellowship (who proudly call themselves the |
| "Stiffnecks") say that Ariel's husband, Apostle Joshua |
| Lange, likewise fell under the influence of her "vapors". In |
| the fourteenth century Ariel became known among the Lakota |
| as Ptaysanwee, or Buffalo Calf Woman, after she restored the |
| bison herds following a sharp die-off. In celebration Ariel |
| introduced to the Lakota the seven ceremonies of the |
| sacred pipe, which persist unto this day among the Kuwapi. |
| Her wings bear brown feathers, and when folded they are |
| concealed beneath a fringed and bleached buckskin jacket. |
| Ariel was deeply involved in the Academy operation bringing |
| the Stiffnecks and Kuwapi together at the Dole impact |
| complex, future site of Havilah, in 1862-1865. |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+

BM: "Then I shall entreat the Lord to select servants more
worthy, that His will might be accomplished," Lange answered.
"There is no call for that," Cassiel countered. "The brethren of
the Lord of Hosts Fellowship are very much like those who first
loved Lord Yeshua when he walked in your world. However, the
territory designated for your settlement would only bring a slow

starvation if the water marked upon that map proved to be a mere
mirage." "Then God invites us to proceed by faith," Lange
observed. "Yes indeed," Cassiel answered. "Even at the slow pace
of oxen and wagons. However, Ariel will travel with you, should
you receive her. So too may any who hear of what you have seen,
come to believe, and elect to make the journey. As it has been
from the very beginning, El Elyon, God Most High, seeks earnest
students, not thralls." She paused, looking directly at him.
"And you, Joshua, are not excepted from the liberty of this
choice. Do you freely choose to take up a new life in the West?"

BN: Lange did not hesitate. "I do," he replied. "It shall be as
you have spoken." And Shy Bear, a youth raised among the nomadic
tribes of the Great Plains, observed how pleased Cassiel had
become by Lange’s response, despite understanding little of
the exchange himself. Rising to his feet, he approached Lange
with his hands held open in a gesture of peace and said in
farewell, "Joshua Lange, hello." Now by sundown on the day of
the great battle the Rebel army had been pressed back into a
wide bend of the Potomac River, but it had rained, and the
waters were running unexpectedly swift, rendering the fords
practically impassable. The Federal commander surveyed the field
but declined to renew the advance, despite holding a numerical
advantage. Discontent circulated among the ranks and the officer
corps alike; it was widely remarked that even if the commanding
general's strength were multiplied several times over, he would
still manufacture delays and complain of insufficient troops to
strike the enemy.

BO: At dusk on the following day the river subsided, and a
mounted courier arrived with orders for the general evacuation
of the wounded. Among those awaiting transport were three men

who had been fully restored by Raphael in Kemen, though the
medical staff dismissed their accounts of the place as the
ravings of delirium. Outside the field hospitals the accumulated
heaps of amputated limbs were set ablaze. Ambulances began the
grim work of bearing away the maimed. At every roughness in the
road cries of anguish arose from the men confined within the
wagons. No man who witnessed the procession of the casualties,
nor the carnage left upon the field, could ever again speak
lightly of the glories of war. This was a sentiment already
deeply shared by the faithful of Lange's congregation. Then
Deacon Lange was safely debouched in the empty ruins of the
meetinghouse even as his fellow worshipers emerged from their
homes, in a state of deep apprehension, to begin the cheerless
toil of burying the dead.

BP: The morning of the nineteenth rose gray and thin. Smoke
still clung in the low places, and the fields about the ruined
meetinghouse were strewn with cast-off gear and darker burdens
awaiting the brethren. Daniel Price came first among them,
walking with the stiffness of a hard-laboring man who had not
slept, and after him John Rowland and Samuel Fahrney, with Klaus
Reichard and David Stouffer close behind. To a man they rejoiced
to find deacon Joshua Lange standing without the ruins of their
chapel and seemingly unharmed. “Brethren,” he said, his
voice hoarse but steady. “Ye have come early to the house of
the Lord, albeit the house be cast down.” And the men marveled
that much of the fallen timber was not to be found, as though
the men of the armies had carted it away to be used in their
breastworks. Lange inclined his head, and told them, "A great
timber brake my leg, so that I could not rise." He set a hand
against his back. "Another pierced me here and I felt the warmth
of my own blood depart me.”

+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| B6: Angel Academy season 1 episode 4, November 10, 1960. A |
| patrol of Confederate cavalrymen arrive at Ariel's quiet |
| Maryland farm, intent on seizing the gathered horses for the |
| Army of Northern Virginia. Joshua Lange tries to play the |
| brave protector, using nothing but his wits and a pitchfork. |
| But Ariel's solution is not violence, not intimidation, and |
| not even deception. The cavalrymen tug on reins. The horses |
| plant their feet. They push and the horses refuse. They |
| bring additional men and the horses refuse harder. One horse |
| sits down. Another begins grazing. A third wanders over to |
| Ariel looking for an apple. "What is wrong with these |
| animals?" one man asks. Joshua, leaning on the fence, says |
| "You're dealing with Hebrews." The soldier stares. "The |
| horses?" "Especially the horses." The soldiers can seize a |
| horse but they cannot make it want to go. The patrol finally |
| gives up and rides away, Ariel scratches one of the horses |
| behind the ears and says: "You were very brave." The horse |
| immediately tries to eat her sleeve. Because horses are |
| horses, miracles notwithstanding. |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+

BQ: Reichard frowned and glanced at the others. Your leg, sir,
may we see it?” Without protest, Lange drew his limb forward.
The cloth was rent, but the flesh beneath showed no swelling, no
misalignment, and no sign of fracture. Stouffer shook his head.
“There is no break here.” “And your back,” Price added
gently. Lange loosened his coat. There, between his spine and
his hip, was a pale mark no longer than a finger, as from a
shallow cut long healed. Lange could not see the hurt he claimed
to have suffered, but he said, "The pain was fierce. It overcame
me, and I fell into darkness.” Rowland and Fahrney exchanged a

worried glance but they said nothing. Reichard said, "Joshua, I
believe you were struck upon the head. It is the mercy of God
that you live, but visions do come of such blows.” At this,
Joshua reached into his coat and drew forth a folded canvas
which he opened with great care. Upon it were traced winding
lines. No names were marked upon it, no towns, no mountains or
borders, only the flowing paths.

BR: The men bent close. “I know these rivers,” Fahrney said
slowly, though his brow was knit. “Or I think I do. Yet I
cannot say which is which.” “There are no names,” Stouffer
said. Reichard straightened, shaking his head. “A map without
names is no map at all, one would think.” “And yet it was
given me,” said Lange. Price studied him a long moment, then
laid a hand upon his shoulder. “However it be, Joshua, you are
returned to us, God be praised." Rowland glanced toward them,
then back to Lange. “Can you walk?” Lange moved without
aid. His leg bore him true. Fahrney gave a quiet, almost
incredulous laugh. “Broken, was it?” “So I believed,”
Lange answered. In the uncomfortable silence the women of the
congregation were seen coming to join them. Price spoke again,
and his voice was heavy. “Come. There is work to be done. The
living must tend to the dead.” But Rowland and Fahrney walked
beside Lange as they left the sacred precincts, neither pressing
him further nor dismissing what they did not understand.

BS: Now to expedite the necessary burial details, the Federal
government promised a bounty of one dollar for every soldier
interred by the people who lived nearby. It was whispered that
one local farmer, unaffiliated with the church, had dumped
scores of bodies into a dry well without ceremony to quickly
collect the funds. Amid the desolation of the battle, Elder

David Long sought to rally his dismayed flock. "Do not grieve
overmuch, my friends," he told them. "We shall bury the dead,
and make our beloved meetinghouse as it was before.” "It may
be greater wisdom," Lange countered, "that we accept the
assistance offered by Ariel Haivri and our new friends of
Congregation Derekh Me'hudeshet, and remove ourselves entirely
from the path of the war." "We must seek the Lord's will in this
matter," the Elder decided. "Therefore let every man among us
pray upon it. And at present, there is no prayer better than
hard work." The brethren who had taken the prudent course of
driving their livestock to the Haivri farm at the invitation of
Ariel had accomplished the task in strength.

BT: Yet following the battle Ariel Haivri managed to return,
unaided, every horse, mule, and head of cattle entrusted to the
Haivri family, as she solemnly promised. Ariel seemed to possess
an uncanny affinity for the animals, a skill that did not pass
unremarked by the faithful. And it was noted that her own mount
was tended with greater care than she bestowed upon herself.
Even so, Lange found his heart drawn to her, which fueled
whispers among the more suspicious believers that her peculiar
power over beasts might well extend to men. When the work of
burying the fallen was completed, the Haivri family pledged to
assist any of the brethren willing to relocate far from the
threat of war. But the seemingly boundless generosity of Ariel's
kinfolk continued to engender suspicion among some who feared
an underlying motive. Lange reminded them of the Apostle's
injunction: "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for
thereby some have entertained angels unawares."

+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| B7: Angel Academy was shot on 35mm film, in imitation of I |
| Love Lucy. Unlike that sitcom, Angel Academy used a single |
| camera production technique, with no live audience or canned |
| laughter. Each episode provided twenty-three minutes of |
| content, beginning with a one minute thirty second cold |
| open. The title theme, credits, and sponsor billboard |
| followed for a minute. Act I ran eight minutes, followed by |
| a two minute commercial break. Act II ran eight minutes |
| thirty seconds, followed by another two minute break. Act |
| III concluded the episode in five minutes. End credits and |
| the sponsor plug lasted one minute thirty seconds, followed |
| by a half-minute network ID and preview of the next week's |
| show. Total non-content amounted to seven minutes. In the |
| 1970s and 80s, when local stations needed 23-minute blocks |
| to fill their schedules, Angel Academy was a perfect |
| fit. Fans collecting the DVDs often commented on how |
| "ahead of its time" the pacing feels, comparing its dry, |
| single-camera style to modern mockumentaries rather than the |
| loud, laugh-tracked sitcoms of the early 1960s. |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+

BU: The Haivri family made a small cottage available for Joshua,
situated somewhat apart from Ariel’s own residence. Her
extended kin made similar provisions for each family of Joshua's
faith assembly who believed his incredible tale and joined the
migration. Food was supplied daily in abundance and without
cost. This charity, however, sat uneasily with the uprooted
families. It ran contrary to the ingrained independence of
rural Americans, who were wholly unaccustomed to accepting
sustenance without offering commensurate labor in return. As

for himself, Lange’s growing affections for Ariel became a
source of profound internal disquiet. He could no longer
dismiss the events in Kemen as a vision or the figments of a
battlefield fever; the rapid healing of his shattered leg stood
as undeniable proof. He suspected the Haivri were real angels
dwelling amid humanity, yet this thought brought him no comfort.
As a man grounded in scripture, Lange was aware of the doctrine
set forth in the Gospel of Luke which stated that celestial
beings "neither marry, nor are given in marriage."

BV: If Ariel was indeed an angel, Joshua realized his growing
attachment to her was not only futile but perhaps bordered on
being presumptuous. Ariel's obvious fascination with livestock
hardly aligned with traditional depictions of the heavenly host.
Seeking clarity, Lange approached Ariel while she was brushing
down her favorite mount. He broached the subject cautiously,
framing his dilemma as a matter of theological inquiry rather
than a personal confession. He asked how a man of faith ought to
reconcile the revealed nature of House Haivri with scriptural
teachings. Ariel paused in her work, recognizing something of
the personal anguish hidden beneath his question. She understood
the rigid view of the Bible held by most rural congregations and
seemed reluctant to unsettle the foundation of his faith.
"Joshua," she replied, her tone careful but direct, "you seem to
read the scriptures as though they were a monologue by God. But
consider the texts you know so well. The Book of Proverbs, for
example, promises the righteous will always prosper and the
wicked will always fall.

+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| B8: Wiiya Wiiya (Lakota: "Coyote Cub") Shybear possesses the |
| XY allosome of baseline human males. Nevertheless, as one of |
| the Sarim, descendants of Sar (Princess) Lailah, the Eloh |
| named Davar has granted him the power to effect a Mercy. His |
| peculiar talent resembles the “Bag of Holding” that |
| features in the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, though |
| in Cubby’s case a black velvet bag conceals his hand |
| where it vanishes into the space-time pocket that always |
| accompanies him. Even Yeshua found this sight disturbing. |
| With his right hand Cubby may place objects into this pocket |
| or retrieve them. With his left hand, retrieval leaves a |
| duplicate behind. This Mercy is made possible by the Growing |
| Forest nature of time. Loops generate new parallel branches |
| of history. A warm loaf of bread stored within Cubby’s |
| pocket may be set beside a prior instance of itself, |
| resulting in two loaves. One time he produced five thousand |
| loaves in this manner. Hagar named him El Roi ("God sees |
| me"). Cubby embraced this, and now goes by the nickname |
| Elroy. On Academy Pranks he is known as The Magician. |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+

BW: “Yet turn to the Book of Job and you find a world where
the innocent suffer terribly under an inscrutable God. Perhaps
what we really have in the scriptures is a dialogue by men. The
ancients weren't idiots, Joshua. The scribes who compiled
the texts surely knew these contradictions existed, yet they
included them together to capture the complicated breadth of
existence. So please do not assume that the nature of my family
is bound by that one verse in Luke." That evening at supper
Mikaela remarked to Ariel that she stood in clear need of a male
companion, if only to quiet certain persistent rumors passing

among the refugees. The following morning, Ariel promptly
purchased a stallion. On another occasion, Lange betrayed a
momentary, sharp jealousy upon discovering a strange hair
clinging to her coat; Ariel simply led forth the horse from
which it had been shed, to his considerable embarrassment.
Determined all the more to proceed properly, Lange approached
Mikaela in earnestness and asked, "Madame, what must I know of
the customs of the Haivri clan concerning courtship?"

BX: Mikaela Haivri replied with her characteristic detachment,
"If you have a mind toward Ariel, then know that she is wholly
free. Our family keeps no rules of the sort you imagine. If
there are to be any such customs they shall be appointed by
Ariel herself, and it would be your task to discover them. That
is the nature of it, and truth be told, Joshua, therein lies all
the interest!" The matriarch then shifted the conversation to a
more serious theological footing. "But now I would ask you,
Joshua," Mikaela said, "what are your views concerning divorce?"
"The brethren have always held the New Testament to be the
absolute rule for every part of our lives," Lange answered.
"That is exactly why I asked," Mikaela replied. "In the Gospel
according to Mark, the Lord Yeshua is reported to have forbidden
divorce altogether. Yet in the gospel attributed to Matthew, he
permits it in cases of infidelity. The apostle Paul also wrote
to the church in Corinth that the marriage bond may be dissolved
when one party remains in unbelief. The Roman church calls this
the Pauline Privilege.

BY: "So it is, Joshua, on this specific matter, that your
scripture says both yes and no, and something else besides."
Lange answered, "I know little of what the Romanists teach, but
I admit your view of the scriptures has merit. Yet to me it is

of no consequence. I truly love your daughter, and I swear to
you the Christian ordinances concerning divorce shall never
become an issue between us." "Your words do you credit, Joshua,"
Mikaela said. "Yet even with the veil of affection over your
eyes, I caution that you do not allow yourself to be overtaken
by surprises too profound to endure." Soon after taking counsel
with Mikaela, Joshua perceived that Ariel sought out his company
in her turn, requiting his affinity in signs that waxed at a
stately pace. Joshua took encouragement from this and responded
in kind, until there came an evening when his suit crossed some
invisible boundary, and Ariel loosed some of the bonds of her
corselet. She discreetly revealed something substantial of what
a mortal man was set to receive when one of the Elyonoth set her
heart upon him in return.

BZ: Yet, rather than feeling triumphant, this development
precipitated in Joshua a profound sense of inadequacy. Aloud he
wondered, the very next morning, “What could a woman such as
you possibly see in a man of my humble station?" Ariel paused in
her work, leaning against the stall door. "Joshua," she said
solemnly, "Clear-sighted were they who appointed you deacon of
your church. I have never in my life met a man more abundantly
possessed of the grace of God and more willing to share. But I
am simultaneously astonished that a man of your age has
never received the Mommy and Daddy Talk." He had expected a
philosophical treatise on the nature of love across time. The
absurdity of her response shattered his insecurities entirely,
and their course toward matrimony was firmly established. At her
bridal gathering a few weeks later, Ariel received numerous
gifts, a significant portion of which were, perhaps inevitably,
horse bridles. On the day appointed for the wedding itself,
Ariel tarried overlong mucking and tending the stables. Joshua
Lange proceeded with his vows regardless.
43

+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| B9: Angel Academy season 1 episode 5, November 24, 1960: |
| Elroy’s career of service spans millennia. At the Council |
| of Royals in Kemen he served chilled wine. He was the |
| on-site caterer when Isda baked manna for the wandering |
| Israelites, a dish that tasted divine the first day but |
| provoked curses after forty years of nothing else. He |
| supplied Yeshua with his first meal in days after the |
| Accuser took three runs at him. Yeshua asked Elroy why he |
| used the bag. Elroy demonstrated how his hand vanished at |
| the wrist into a space-time pocket to fetch food, and Yeshua |
| agreed the bag was a good idea. Later Elroy provided nine |
| thousand box lunches of bread and pickled fish. In 1868 |
| Havilah, this deathless caterer brings comfort as the |
| Stiffnecks mourn the first death among them. Last Rites are |
| held at the newly constructed Temple. Elroy moves through |
| the grieving congregation, handing out a seemingly endless |
| bounty of impossibly fresh, warm rolls from his velvet |
| satchel. In the timeless fog beneath the Island in the Sky, |
| the hands of the angels continue to feed the stubborn |
| faithful. |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+

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