The first class passed by without much issue. After her introductions, Miriam had proceeded to explain what Angels and Demons were, that we were enemies, and that the fate of the entire planet hung in the balance. None of that was new. Rather than listening to what Miriam had been saying, I’d spent the hour watching my classmates and seeing how they acted.

Carmen, sitting right next to me, had been the first, though I quickly realized that she was listening intently and writing notes. Surely she already knew all this stuff, having become an Angel a while ago as part of her deal with Viviana... and yet she’d been attentive as ever. Some people were just built differently, I guessed.

Most of the other Angels in the classroom had been similarly focused. They’d kept their eyes on Miriam at the front, occasionally jotting down some short notes. A few among them had been making whispered conversation with their symbiotes, something I’d been guilty of as well. Then again, nothing too serious had been said yet.

It was already lunchtime. Breakfast had come and gone without a break, and so I was famished. One by one, we filed out of the class and down into the small cafeteria that had been prepared for us. The room was simpler than the one at Flight Magister’s headquarters, and maybe a quarter the size, carved into the same smooth stone as the rest of this section of the base.

Lunch was pizza, and I could hardly complain; it was fresh and delicious. After filling my plate, I looked around to find a place to sit. The tables were mostly full, and I couldn’t see Carmen anywhere. How odd. A group of Angels sitting at the corner table waved me over.

They were all dressed in white, all three of them. Their uniforms each bore the single embroidered hexagon of Flight Magister. “Hello!” said the first. “You’re Quinn, right?”

“Vespa’s host?” the second added.

“One of us,” said the third.

“We should get to know each other better, no?” The first to speak seemed to be the leader, and her symbiote was one that I recognized easily. It was a honeybee, and appeared to be resting in a honeycomb-shaped gap in the plain white earphones that perfectly matched her uniform. “I’m Melody,” she said, offering her hand. She had very light skin and long, straight platinum-blonde hair that fell down to her waist.

“A pleasure to meet you,” I said.

“...if we’re going to have to work together in Flight Magister, may as well,” muttered the second girl. By contrast to Russula, she had a gloomy air about her, emphasized by her heavy eyeshadow and... dark green lipstick? Green? I supposed it matched her equally green eyes, and the streaks of blue dye in her dark brown hair. She held out a gloved hand. “Joy. And my symbiote is Chrysis.” On the back of her finger sat a tiny little iridescent green wasp. I shook her hand, carefully, trying my best not to squish the little wasp with my human fingers.

Finally, the third one She wore her uniform somewhat loose-fitting, with a translucent golden scarf tied around her neck. Her pale pink face and golden eyes were framed with curly blonde hair. A slender, golden-brown wasp buzzed in circles around her head. “My name is Russula. My symbiote is Polistes. I look forward to working with you.”

“It’s nice to met you all,” I said.

“You can sit with us,” said Melody. “Stay and chat, no?”

“I’d love to, but right now I’m looking for someone named Carmen. Have you seen her? She’s kind of small and wears red—”

They’d all stopped smiling and stared at me as if I was crazy. At first, I wondered if they’d misheard, but soon Russula spoke and clarified. “You should stay away from Carmen, Quinn.”

“It’s for your own good,” said Melody.

“What? Has she done something wrong?” I asked. “Should I be afraid of her?”

“No.”

“Not exactly.”

“Then why should I stay away from her? Why are you all being so mean to her?” It was because she wasn’t... she wasn’t... I looked at the matching emblems stitched into all our uniforms. “Oh,” I muttered. “It’s about that, isn’t it?”

“That?” asked Russula,

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Melody.

“She’s probably eating lunch alone outside the classroom,” said Joy. “If you’re really sure you want to find her.”

With a huff, I turned away from them. “Yes, thank you very much. I am sure I want to find her.” I didn’t need to deal with such silly bickering. And these were adults! To think that they were being so immature like this... Carmen was surely more mature than all of them.

***

She was sitting alone outside the classroom.

I opened the door and stepped into the garden. The midday sun beat down overhead, and yet it was surprisingly warm and pleasant. There was a gentle breeze running through the little gap in the rocks that provided shelter to the building, which kept the garden from overheating. The little twisted olive and acacia trees provided some respite from the sun, and their roots made a seat, which Carmen was indeed sitting on.

A seat with room enough for two.

“Hello,” I greeted, sitting down with my now-cold pizza. Cold? The ambient heat was probably enough to keep it relatively warm.

“Oh. Hello,” she muttered, as if surprised that anyone had come to see her. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m going to eat lunch with you.”

At that, she seemed to get agitated. “Don’t... don’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t need your pity.”

“Look, Carmen. I want to sit with you. And there’s plenty of space.” The pizza was still good, a sentiment she seemed to share, given the number of slices piled up on her plate. Carmen didn’t say anything, but she did shift over slightly to make more space for me. We ate in relative silence, kept company by the bubbling of the little brook running through the oasis garden.

But my mind was elsewhere. How could those three girls have such a strong opinion about Carmen so quickly? Everyone here was new, right? So then, what was this based on? Did they really just think themselves superior for being... for being in Flight Magister? I mean, sure, some people were like that, but would such people really be chosen to become Angels? “If you don’t mind me asking—”

“I don’t,” she interrupted. “Ask whatever you want.”

“Do you know any of the other people in our class?”

“No...”

“Melody? Joy? Russula? Because they seem to already know you. Or know of you.”

“Ah,” she said. “I don’t rally know them... well...” She pressed her fingers against her temples, hard. “Well, I used to be friends with Joy, I think. But then, one day, she just... stopped hanging out with me. I don’t know why. It’s around the same time that she started hanging out with Melody and Russula and...”

“I see how this is.” So Joy had been her friend, but ditched her when she saw... really? Grown adults, acting like this? And to a poor little girl like Carmen. I tore into my pizza.

“Don’t be upset at them. At her.”

“Don’t even think about them, Carmen. You don’t need friends like that.”

***

“What is an Angel’s destiny?” The question from Miriam was, of course, rhetorical. “As mere humans, you controlled your own destinies. But now, you are Angels. That is more than just a set of powers that you gain, more than just a job, it is an eternal destiny. You are players in a cosmic battle, the billion-year war waged between we, the defenders or Earth, and the Demons who threaten us.”

So far, so similar to everything else that they’d said.

“And as actors on this stage, you have relinquished all free will.”

Sorry, what?

Miriam continued, completely unfazed. I looked around the class, but if anyone seemed uncomfortable, none showed any sig. “As contracted hosts, your bodies and minds and futures are being conformed, woven into the great tapestry, the story of the world. Proof of this is the anchor embedded in your neck, the shard of the great crystal that binds you to this planet. So long as it remains intact, you remain intact, part of the eternal Angelic order, untouchable. So long as it remains intact, you cannot die until your part has been played in the story laid out before you. No, instead, you will regenerate, rise again from a tiny chrysalis and regrow, over and over and over again until your story reaches its climax.” Regeneration. So, then, that was what had happened to Angelina? That even her survival was... was dictated?

“As Angels, this should be a comforting thought. Everything that happens to you, both good and bad, happens according to this purpose. You will fulfill your purpose as part of something far greater than yourselves, and achieve beyond your wildest dreams. For such purposes, you have been divided, according to your places: your Flights are organized according to the purposes of your new bodies. And at their helms, the Archangels, such as myself, our purposes to guide you on this journey.

“For some of you, it is easy to give up your presumption of free will. For others, this can be a challenge. Though you may struggle with this, our leader, Archangel Viviana, can always lend her own aid. With her help, it’s so easy to see the clear purposes of our lives, and take them all in stride.” Viviana. This all went back to her, didn’t it? “But don’t let it come to that. I am only telling you the truth. Simply embrace it. After all, for all of you, here, a magnificent destiny awaits” And she winked. She winked! What was that supposed to mean?

“Did she just wink at me?” I whispered.

“No,” said Vespa.

“Then who?”

“You already know.”

“Well... nearly all of you.” Miriam smiled. And I realized who she’d winked at. Not me. But... well... who was sitting next to me? We all had bright futures ahead of us.

Except for Carmen.