Grey stone walls rose around her on all sides, speckled with stained glass windows of many dark colors. Had the cathedral been any more dimly lit, it could have been described as foreboding. But rows of candles along the pews provided plenty of light, in the traditional manner so often lost among modern-day florescent bulbs and the like. The entire building could never have been built by man - the mortal mind was too frail to conceive such beauty and majesty, the mortal eye too weak to register so many rich shades of so many colors. It could only have been built by a powerful, otherworldly mind, with the tools and materials that only such careful, detailed thought could provide.

She remained in her typical humanoid form for sake of recognition, though there could be no one but her present in this place at this time. She had a private appointment, in this place that did not exist save for within the confines of its creator's mind. This was an alternate plane of existence, separate from the mortal plane and even Heaven, an excellent place to hold a secret meeting.

Her humanoid form, a tall brunette with pitch black wings, dressed in a sleek black gown, offered additional protection against being detected. Were she in her purest, most natural form - light - she would be too easily found if someone happened to be seeking her.

"Where is your bo? Present arms, Colonel."

She turned around slowly, her back to the altar, and extended her hands. The thin, clear staff appeared in them, held at the ready.

Their weapons clashed before she saw him. He wielded a longsword of the same material as her staff, clear and brilliant. Bo and sword met again and again, high, low, high, and low again, in a swift battle that took them down the aisle until she was nearly pinned against the pulpit. She fought her way out of the press and forced him back up the aisle, and had gotten a fourth of the way up before a sudden stronger blow sent the bo flying out of her hands. In the next second, she felt the thin, sharp blade of the sword bite at her neck.

"You're getting better." The bo on the ground and the sword in his hands both disappeared, the latter without doing the fallen any physical damage. She studied her supervisor for a moment. He'd dressed in black, including a long overcoat, and his large wings were the colors of a darkness; they were not black, as there were too many shades within them to be considered that simply. An archangel should not have had dark wings. This was an obvious nod to her status as a fallen; it was widely understood that the sight of pure white wings made almost all fallen feel jealous and bitter, and she was certainly no exception in this case.

"You have a unique weapon," he was saying, circling her slowly. "Use it. Keep it light in your hands so as to alternate both ends more quickly, and to allow yourself more room for error. Relax your posture as well, and don't shuffle your feet. You'll find it easier to move."

She growled. "You speak as though I haven't been using a bo for the past several thousand years."

Gabriel smiled darkly. "And yet you haven't reached perfection."

"I didn't come here for a lesson, Gabriel."

"Then talk to me." He sat on the arm of a pew.

"I found another hole today. I don't know what's making them. Who or what, I guess. I plugged it with the demon that escaped from it, but we're gonna need a more permanent solution than that. A little boy almost got dragged in there. And I just happened to be there. What if we don't know where else this is happening? Or when? We have no control, Gabriel."

"But we're gaining it." His wings flapped in an absent motion. "We're mapping it out. There has to be a pattern. The mortal plane only has so many weak spots. If the demons can find them, then we most certainly can."

Her voice was quiet. "I don't think only the demons are looking."

Gabriel glanced to her, one eyebrow arched slightly.

"I think Satan has something to do with it."

He answered patiently. "What makes you think so?"

"The orders he's been giving my regiment, and me. He isn't sending us out to punch holes in the Breach, obviously. But... he put mine in Jakarta until Leoniel found the passage in the Puncak, and then we hung out in Russia until Averel found Regana in Novosibirsk, then we went to Miami and this happened, and now he's sent us to New York... I won't be surprised if we find a hole in Times Square or something."

"That's a pattern." Gabriel smiled. "Just keep an eye out, and let me know if or when he moves you again. I'll station a few angels near you so you don't find the portal yourself. It hurts your cover when you do that."

"It couldn't be helped." Jael stretched her arms and torso, and then her wings. "Anyway. Satan's already interviewed me. I told him I happened upon it completely by chance, which flew because it's totally true."

Gabriel nodded. "You're doing well, Jael. Just be careful. I'm not ready to play my trump card just yet."

Jael tilted her head toward him and gave him a warm smile.

"How have you been?"

"Well enough. Bored."

"As usual." He chuckled. "Not for long. Things are happening quickly. The reckoning is soon."

"You've been saying that for millennia."

"It's been approaching for millennia." He grinned again before taking another serious turn. "Do I have you?"

"You could."

"Jael. I'm being serious."

The fallen tossed her hair. "Yes. I'll quit straddling and flip over to your side of the fence when the time comes, yadda yadda yadda. Have I told you that black really suits you?"

"Why would you tell me that?"

"Because I like to see you wear it."

"I'll be sure to wear pink next time."

"You won't." She winked and started toward the cathedral's entrance. Halfway there, she stopped and turned. "The mind that could build this... have you any idea how much I want to explore it?"

Gabriel's answer was more solemn than necessary. "I would let you, if only my mind were all you wanted to explore."

"Oh, Gabby. Don't be such a prude. It disappoints me." She winked again and continued on her way, listening back as she did, knowing he would want to have the last word.

"Jael."

"Yes, darling?"

She was looking back at him expectantly, but still walking. Her foot did not quite find its next step; the tall heel bent under her, and she swayed suddenly, only stopping her fall with a few beats of her wings. Glancing back to check whether he had seen her slip, her face reddened and she rolled her eyes upon seeing the satisfied smirk on his lips.

"Watch your step."