Walter nodded slowly. "...If I questioned them or didn't read the Scriptures correctly, they would deepen it."

"After that, Valtiel was always with me. Whispering to me." A small, empty smile crossed his face. "The pictures they gave us of angels showed them smiling. Like people, with wings and halos. But they're not. His flesh was...sewn together and stretched out. His wings were the same; sewn flesh with soft feathers stitched in. Sometimes he wore a mask with a smile on it."

He looked up, through his hair. "Was your angel pretty, Manaka?"