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“Do you call endless exile in this soggy, foggy island favor?”

“But you picked it,”M ike pointed out. Gaby’s companion was a great and good being, but logic was not what the discussion required. Gaby had warned the Other that the Shee had absorbed the Irish love of an argument for the sake of arguing.

“Much choice we had!”M ac joined the argument. “The Other said it was time to go to work running this crazy universe and that if we didn’t choose to work, we’d have to leave our home and go live on earth.We saw this green island down here, as green as home, and said we’d go there because it was the place on earth most like home. We didn’t realize that it was green because it rained all the time. And the Other didn’t warn us that we’d have to share it eventually with the Celts—noisy, contentious, drunken savages.”

Poor Mac was still angry and still giving speeches.Well,we’d have to let him vent for a while, though it might take him another millennium or two.

There had never been a real war in heaven. And it wasn’t in heaven anyway, but in the home where they had all lived in peace and plenty and happiness.Mike had never waved a fiery sword at anyone. The Other had not sent anyone plunging into flames. He had merely made it clear that those who didn’t want to work would have to go somewhere else, anywhere else. No one had thought it would ever come to that. But some of the angels had backed themselves into a corner and walked out because they didn’t think it was fair. The angels, you see, and especially the Seraphs, tend to pride, and, as they themselves would have said in defense, they have a lot to be proud about. They were also vain, but they had reason to be vain. Gaby was very vain about her human surrogate and was delighted at the attention she attracted.

She tried again, knowing that she was digging the hole deeper.They were replaying the scenario of a millennium of millennia ago. It seemed like only yesterday.

“You can come home,”sh e said, sipping from her jar of Bailey’s. “Or you can stay here in Ireland, which will become for you just like home, and we all can visit back and forth.”

“Gabriella,”Maeve said, her green eyes sparking fire, “you always were a silly little bitch. “The Other wants us to admit that we were wrong.We’re not about to settle for that shite.”

“That’s a little strong, dear one,”M ac cautioned his companion. “There is no point in offending the Other.”

Maeve took a deep breath, then reached out and touched Gaby’s fingers. “I’m sorry I lost my temper. Sure, it’s not you I’m angry at.”

If any of the other diners had been watching closely, they would have wondered if they had not seen a stunning display of multicolored lights leap back and forth across the table, lights into which the two women were transiently absorbed.

“ ’Tis all right, old friend.We understand.”

Mike waited till the strength of that sudden blast of love had abated before he spoke.

“We’ve been separated too long,my friends. It’s time to end it.”

“I wonder if that’s still possible.”M ac became the orator again. “It’s been a long, long time. You have found your work to be satisfying, even though it’s nothing more than correcting some of the imperfections in the Other’s cosmos. We, on the other hand, have become content with the joys of Irish country life. Why is not the Other content to let it be so? Surely He doesn’t need our help merely because of globalization?”

Filled with love for these two old friends, Gaby tried to cut to the quick.

“Are you satisfied with night rides on your splendid steeds, dancing till dawn in the meadows and scaring the living daylights out of these poor people . . . Besides, do they scare that easily anymore? Has not the Church finally won out? Does anyone believe in the Shee?”

“Does anyone believe in Seraphs anymore?”M aeve shot back.

“Have you seen the angel shelves in bookstores?”M ike asked.

“You are not claiming, are you, that the people who write such books understand what you really are?”M ac said. “The readers are mostly frightened and superstitious people. As are the people