Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
And Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners
Now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.

Softly a whisperingly breezy alto floated on the air of the massive chapel of the baroque style Roman Catholic Church. High archways soared above with buttresses of gold leaf long worn by the hand of time. The Tabernacle in its curtained chamber of reverence was annointed in the light of a candle while the stations of the cross lined the walls above dark brown pews showing the passion of Jesus in his final hours. An alter of white marble was set before a massive crucifix, the figure of Jesus upon the gold-leaved boughs hung in resigned wisdom, eyes closed in the depiction of death's quiet. His form, nude save for a loin cloth, was lanky, not inspiring the awe that just the presence of the depiction itself managed to summon. Hollow cheeks, a visage that was far too caucasian to be from the blood of Nazareth, were lined by a beard and atop his head was a crown of thorns.

Within Kim's mind, her thoughts were like the churning force of a hurricane. 'Why am I here? I did not even go to church after Evangeline's death... and I saw a freed human soul for the first time in my life...'

Even as the words of her own prayer lifted upon the air like a softly reverberating song, the beads of the black plastic rosary draped over her slender porcelain colored fingers, they rang with a hollowness to her own ears.

"At this point your prayers are as important as anything else" Sue had said. 'But of what use are prayers when you are a Scientist?' came Kim's thoughts 'Even the Sons of Ether leave little to chance, Science must be exacting even when it is creative and based upon uncertainty. Beatrice is home, beaten and tattered, Rad is still missing... of what use are my prayers even if they are all I have to offer?'

"Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with thee"

Amidst the echo of her own soft words, Kim heard again Rahtiel's remembered voice "Your Forces experiment failed because you have lost your faith."

"Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus."

'Faith? How does Faith and Science work together? Science is provable, Faith by its very nature is the belief without proof.'

"Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners,"

'Sinners... Sinners like me. I am a soldier, my hands awash in the crimson of blood and the stench of death. And here I pray for Beatrice and Rad, thinking only of my own frailties.' Still Kim prayed on, her voice echoing in the empty chapel.

"Now and at the hour of our death..."

Distantly she heard her voice joined by a note of music. The singular note built upon itself, multiplying into a woman's voice, hauntingly beautiful in is full-formed power. The angelic voice was nearly drowned out by the sound of her own heartbeat.

"Amen"

As the final, Hebrew, word rolled off of her lips she felt her chest tighten. Spots of black, green, red, and white crowded the edge of her vision as she tried desperately to control her breath which game in laborious gulps of air. The insides of her palms were itching, burning, and the singular haunting voice grew into a multitude, a veritable host, of voices as though a choir's bell tone voices filled the chapel with their power.

'What is happening?' thought Kim 'Am I going insane?' The candles seemed to flare to life of their own accord. Candles which were not lit sprang into new flame, all the flame in the church rising higher. Voices, singing in a song that she knew she had always heard, raised high. For only the second time in her life she saw the ripples of reality, the very potential waves that made up its structure, without any instruments of Science as they reverberated about the candles with the sound of the host of voices.

Sticky warmth trickled from within Kim's palms and a single drop of crimson fell to the ground.

"Errin." the familiar alto rang in her ears with the same question as when she had spun helpless n the void of death, or the first timefacing her Avatar directly rather than in vague dreams "What are the ripples Errin?"

The thunder of her own heartbeat raged as though in defiance of the heavenly song that swelled around her like a tide as she parted her hands so quickly that the cheap plastic rosary snapped, sending crimson-soaked beads splashing to the ground as their plastic bodies clicked against the church floor like a rock dropped in a subterranean cavern. Blood welled from twin holes in the palms of her hands, streaming in dark ruby rivulets down her forearms.

'Stigmata?!?!'

"WHAT ARE THE RIPPLES ERRIN?"

"Ether...." she whispered, her voice as broken as the rosary that swam in a river of blood at her knees, the visage of Rahtiel visible in the reflection as she watched over Kim's shoulder.

"Yes. A lesser song you began to sing centuries ago..."

*pulse* *PULSE* *pulse* *PULSE*

The sound of Kim's own heartbeat melted into the visions of the past with only time enough to think of Sue's words "You now have empirical proof of the existence of the soul"

The Kitab Al Alacir opened before her eyes, a scroll written in Greek upon a pedestal in Golo's private Chambers.

"Welcome to House Golo, Lady Althea Pala'mas. Welcome to the Natural Philosopher's Guild"

As history faded to the present, Kim could still not peel her eyes from her palms 'Why?' she thought, 'Why is this happening? Now, when my family needs me?'

Blood welled in a continuous stream, no pain searing her hands save a burning warmth as though she held fire within her grasp and yet remained unburned.

'I will not scream.'

Her hands raised, almost as though of their own volition, to her eye level as her lungs filled with searing air.

'I shall not scream'

The blood coursed down her arms, repelled by her ionic cloth but soaking into the canvas of her black duster's sleeves as it caked in in caressing the air. The voices were a cacophony that filled her senses, shook her very being as the ripples of Reality filled her senses.

'I have faced things beyond most people's imagination.'

Hot blood drizzled from her fingertips as it spattered the kneeler's padding with wet tapping of watter dripping upon paper.

'I am a defender of humanity from the demon hordes'

The deluge of crimson seemed unstoppable and her back arched as she raised her hands as though to show the Heavens what was happening.

'I WILL NOT SCREAM RAHTIEL'

From atop the chapel dome of a New Hampshire based Roman Catholic church, a murder of crows took flight in unison as their incandescent wings shone with the light of the fading sun spilling its crimson luminance over the horizon. Seven black forms against the coming darkness were silhouetted as their wings reflected stars in the depths of raven feathers. Their perches upon the cross were fled in earnest as a woman's tortured scream erupted like a blast from Gabriel's horn into the coming night.