“I’m not living that far away, you’ll be able to visit me whenever you want.” Calum wondered how he’d been able to convince them this far, if this was the reaction that they were giving him now. “I promise you won’t have to worry about me.”

  His mother still did not stop hugging him. “Oh, honey, you know I’m never going to stop worrying about you.”

  “You’ve seen me, I’ve been practicing! For years! I’m going to be fine—“

  “You should get a bird. That way you’ll know you can send a letter to us if you need anything.” She stepped back from him only to look at his father, who showed his concern through an emotionless mask. “Don’t you think?”

  “Takes a lot of effort to take care of a bird, doesn’t it? And not much use aside from letters.” He shrugged.

  “What if I ended up getting a roommate?” Calum asked. “Would that make you both feel better about me being on my own?”

  “I’m sure that would help your mother some,” his father remarked. “But we all know you came here to be on your own. You know what you’re doing—you’ve done your research and I assume you’re going to act on it as soon as we stop bothering you and allow you time to do it. Stay safe and use that brain of yours. You’ll be fine without us hovering over you—just let us know if there’s anything you need.”

  …

  One does not need physical strength in order to move mountains.

  It was a phrase he found sprawled across stray sheets of paper, between margins of the devotional he worked his way through when he had the time. The fact he was strangely fascinated with the phrase—how he kept writing it, so he kept finding them in new places—wasn’t exactly the strange part to him.

  No, the strange part was that he didn’t know who had first told it to him. He’d casually mentioned it to his parents and the town’s priest, but each of them considered the wisdom behind it as if it had been their first time hearing it. He tried to think of the first time he found himself marking it down, but the only thing he could recall was a fuzzy dream.

  It would be amusing, he’d found on a note he must’ve used to collect his thoughts, though never remembered writing, if I, of all people, had some divine revelation… and forgot it, like any other dream.

  He’d tried, admittedly somewhat half-heartedly, to understand it over the course of the month. It seemed it took returning from a completely unrelated service for another mysterious phrase to come to him.

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  And why would one move mountains, if not by the will of a god?

  If someone had ever asked Calum, it was just like a random thought that popped into his head. Yet, unlike most, it caused him to stop what he was doing to listen to what else it might tell him.

  There is something within you that I, in my countless centuries of watching mortals, have been hard-pressed to ever find. I believe it would be a shame to let such talent go to waste.

  “Alright, talent shouldn’t be wasted,” he responded with a bit of caution. He glanced out the window just to make sure no one would’ve thought he was going insane. “What are you hoping I do, then?”

  So you sense that this isn’t normal. Good. Before I bind you to any obligation, I would like to ask: Who do you think I am?

  “A god, first of all, if you’re definitely not my own thoughts. Vaso, I’m assuming. There’s not many others who would mention moving mountains.”

  There was something that sounded like a laugh. You’re correct, Calum. Now, I have a mission for you. I would like to make you my Messenger—a bearer, if you will, of my powers as tools to guide these mortals. You won’t be mortal anymore, you’ll be one of the divines… though that doesn’t mean you’ll immediately have to leave your family.

  “That’s… a great honor, but I don’t know…”

  I’ll answer all the questions you have; unlike some of my peers, I will not subject you to a future to which you had no control of. I don’t request an immediate answer. Quite the contrary—I want you to deeply consider each of these things. This is not a decision that should be rushed.

  …

  At first he was unnerved to see Micah. Calum had seen the stained glass of the angel, of course, but there was something more striking about the three sets of wings and eyes that the Angel of Messages possessed. Since Sanctuary was decidedly not very wheelchair friendly, however, Calum went from being uncomfortable in the angel’s presence to truly grateful for his assistance.

  “Thanks again,” he said with a smile to the angel.

  Micah shrugged. “Trust me, you’re the lighter of some of the loads I’ve got to carry. I’ll let Vaso know that you’re here and see what he wanted to talk to you about.”

  Calum nodded his thanks and went to where the other Messengers were gathered.

  “Oh, hey, it’s the new guy!” one of them, who he hadn’t yet been introduced to, said when she saw him. She walked up to him and held out her hand. “I’m Bottle, one of Daphni’s! Seems like I’ve been on mission after mission these days, I heard of you but I never got to see you!”

  “To be fair, I also haven’t been in Sanctuary often…” Calum shook her hand, though, to return the gesture. “I’m Calum, and you probably know by now that I’m one of Vaso’s Messengers.”

  She was smiling, but he found something oddly unnerving and a bit unhinged about it. “Great! Have you met with all the others yet? You probably know Jun, they’re so boring it’s hard not to notice them. But what about the rest?”

  “Honestly, I don’t think I’ve seen this many in one place… and I definitely don’t know all of them.”

  “Then let me introduce you! You should have some time before Micah comes back, anyway. That’s what the rest of us are waiting for—that guy goes to send one message and comes back with three more!”