We knock and the same old lady answered the door. She walks us in just like last time. The boy was not watching TV this time. He was studying the army men. It was the same game board as before but there were a few differences. The black army had one soldier lying down.

"What happened to him?" I say.

"You don't remember killing Agony, Marcus?" he asks.

"Yeah, but...."

"Every thing that is happening in the battle will be reflected on this board."

"So you already know everything."

"Who can know everything? Sometimes the board surprises even me."

"Does your board show you what I should do about the Travelers who are making our jobs even harder by putting our every move in the Splash?"

"That is unfortunate, but do not be so hard on them. Travelers are necessary," he says.

"You're saying that Travelers are actually useful?" I ask bitterly.

"I take it you don't know your history, Marcus. What about you, Ameana?"

"There are four types of angels: Travelers, Ground Walkers, Guardians, and Paras."

"And what did they contribute to humanity?" the Sage asks.

"Travelers gave the Arts and Sciences to humanity," she says.

"And the Splash," I add.

"Not all of them are gossips like the stereotype would suggest. Most Travelers simply report information to the council. It is unfair to paint them all with the same brush. Had it not been for Travelers we would not have had Shakespeare, Van Gogh, Mozart, or Galileo."

"The Grounds Walkers have inhabited humans whose actions have brought about great change, such as the suffrage movement and the civil rights movements," Meana continues.

"Yes, Ground Walkers played a big role by using already powerfully courageous humans such as Harriet Tubman, Gandhi and Jean-Jacques Dessalines."

"Para angels did not give anything to humanity but rather helped them eliminate major, all-consuming evil, such as n.a.z.is, dictators and warlords," my learned girlfriend says.

"n.a.z.is and dictators are humans who were so evil they nearly rivaled Atourum. Their souls had become so dark, Atourum took them from them while they were still on Earth. So they were essentially soulless sh.e.l.ls of human bodies. It's rare that Para angels come down to Earth because they have to remain pure. But with that kind of darkness, only the purity of a Para angel could help the council balance humanity."

"Then there's us, Guardians. We save the world all by ourselves. That seems a little unbalanced to me," I say.

"You can thank Julian for that. Guardians are capable of putting the whole world in danger, but they are capable of saving it as well. We are all pulling for you to be victorious."

"Yeah, I can tell by the latest issue of Splash. You guys really believe in us."

"Freedom of the press-what can you do?" he says.

"Well, not that we don't appreciate the history lesson, but we actually came because we need help finding Julian."

"You young people never want to do any work. It is your job to find him, Marcus, not mine."

"You don't give a d.a.m.n what happens to the humans?" I ask.

"I'm not an Akon. Watch how you talk to me, Marcus."

Ameana puts her hand on top of mine to get me to take a beat and not overreact. It's a good thing. I want to jump out of my chair.

"There is no way the Akons can capture Julian without getting help from Runners. You just have to find the right Runner to question."

"So the only advice you can give us is to keep looking?"

"Yes. Now, you have one more question, do you not?"

"No," I say bitterly.

"Come now, boy. Ask your question and never let pride get in the way of obtaining knowledge."

"Have I conquered the name that was going to ruin me?"

"No."

"I don't have feelings for her anymore. I'm with Ameana, and we're happy."

"Yes, I dare say you are. What of it?"

"I have no feelings for the human."

"You also have no Triplex. Do you think that is just a coincidence?"

"You want me to get close to her so that she can tell me what I need to know? Even if it means that she will end up making me Turn?"

"You said you would never Turn, so what are you afraid of?"

"I don't have feelings for her like I do for Ameana, but that doesn't mean I have a right to go and screw with her just so she'll open up to me."

"You are not here to win 'nice guy of the year,' Marcus. You are the First Guardian. You will do whatever is needed."

"It's cruel to use her like that."

"I wonder which concerns you more: the way the human may begin to feel for you or the way you already feel for her?"

"I'm really tired of these games. What do I have to do to find the d.a.m.n Triplex?"

"If you speak to me in that tone again, I will not make myself available to you any longer. And you will never swear in my presence again, Guardian. Do you understand?"

I just want break him in half. Lightning and thunder are coming from outside. There should not have been. It is a clear night.

"What are you doing?" I ask.

"I'm summoning the council. It seems you are unhappy with me as your Sage. Maybe they have been wrong to have chosen me. Maybe ten thousand years of being a Sage put up against your one year of being a Guardian doesn't match up. Clearly, you are wiser than I."

The thunder and lightning strike again. If the council comes, none of what happened matters. They will be highly p.i.s.sed off at having been summoned. Keeping the world in balance is a huge undertaking and they don't have time to sort out arguments between the Sage and me. They had never come down to Earth, and I don't want to be the reason why they do so now.

"Look, I just don't understand why this human is so important," I say.

"You are thinking like a boy. You need to think like a Guardian. Look at the bigger picture and get it out of your head that you need to be nice. You don't need to be nice, Marcus. You need to be triumphant. Spending time with a human to let her open up to you is in no way evil."

"Even if she is falling for me?"

"Even then, it is considered necessary for the greater good. You don't have to marry her. Just talk to her."

I would love to throw him into traffic, but that would be wrong.

"And it wouldn't be the nice guy thing to do," he said, amused.

Well, at least he stopped summoning the council, I think.

"Yes, that would have been bad," he says.

Okay, so here is my list of things I can't stand: Travelers, the Splash and mind readers. I'm not sure which is at the top.

"Your list is short, young Marcus. Wait until you've been on Earth a little longer."

Yeah, mind readers are definitely at the top of my list-the very top.

After our frustrating meeting with the Sage, Mimi and I head to a small city in the Arabian Peninsula, called Dubai. It is home to the tallest structure in the world. It's two thousand feet and looks like any other skysc.r.a.per, except it keeps going up so that the tip of it looks more like a needle than a building.

The ride was smooth and quiet. Once we reach downtown Dubai, we fly to the skysc.r.a.per. Mimi gets to the very top and jumps off of it. I follow her. We make several trips, jumping and flying. Finally, she sits near the ledge, a few feet away from the top.

"I've never been here before," she says.

"It's the calmest place I've been to. You think the humans feel comfort with height? Maybe that's why they keeping building things higher."

"Many of them have a real fear of heights."

"How is that possible?"

"I guess they spend too much time on the ground."

"Or we spend too little in the air."

"Could be."

"Thank you for taking me here."

"Well, I've got a whole night planned. This is just the beginning."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah, and don't even think about trying to get any information out of me. My lips are sewn shut with Samson string."

"Are you sure I couldn't get it out of you?" she says as she leaned in.

I was gonna stay strong. Then I smell her perfume. It smells like lavender in the summer night. It mixes perfectly with her natural scent. She leans in even closer. Man, I can't keep a secret for nothing around this girl. I kiss her. I had to. For several minutes we just hold each other. We don't speak. We just look out onto the world we are supposed to be saving.

"Baby?" she says.

"Yeah?"

"Never mind"

"You want to know how I feel about Emerson."

"Yes."

"I have no feelings for her. You're the one I love, please believe that."

"I do. And I was wrong not to side with you about the Sage."

"Really?"

"Yeah, he isn't Omnis. He can be wrong. Sure, it's never happened, but there's a first time for everything." She embraces me and I feel like things are finally okay with us again.

One of the reasons I took my girl to Dubai was because they have a Snap shop I heard was really good. It's fun to try out a new power. Too bad it only lasts a short time. They have all different kinds. You can get a Fire Snap five, which means you will be able to shoot Fire from your mouth for the next five minutes. Or you could get a Fire Snap for ten minutes. The longest Snap is fifteen minutes.

Para angels invented Snaps so we could all see what it feels like to have other angels' powers. Akons can have Snaps, but nothing will happen. Their powers don't come from Omnis. They come from Atourum, so only he can give them more powers or take them away.

The thing about Snaps is they are fun to mess around with but should never be brought in during a battle because sometimes they are faulty. It would be dangerous to take a Fire Snap during a battle. You could open your mouth but instead of fire, you hiccup dry air.

To a buy a Snap, I won't use human money. It has no real value in our world. The currencies we use are our wings. Our wings have three layers. The first coat is the one that is easily replaced. It is made to withstand all types of flying conditions. Things like Snaps cost about two or three feathers off of our first coat. It's no big deal as our outer coats grow back quickly.

The second coat is closer to our souls, so it's more valuable. When we go to Sellers to purchase things most of the time their asking price starts with the second coat. Say I went to Tony-Tone to get weeping oil. Weeping oil costs five two-coats. That means five feathers taken from the second coating of my wings. But knowing Tony-Tone, he would probably ask for ten two-coats.

The third coat is the one that covers our soul. Since our souls are to us what the heart is to humans, angels rarely pay from their third coat.

The person we buy from doesn't literally pull out our feathers. They simply touch our wings and the agreed upon layer will fly away into the merchant's hands.

Fifty first-coat feathers equal one second-coat feather. And four second-coats equal one third coat. Third coats do not grow back like the first and second coats do. You give too much away from your third coat, and you will no longer be able to fly. And the light will no longer be in your reach.

A few angels have gotten addicted to Snaps and the power they hold. They begin to look for ways to extend the duration of time they have powers. In the black markets, Sellers sell Snaps that can last for days. But they cost five third-coats. And there is no guarantee that there won't be any side effects.

Some angels have stripped their third coats bare in an attempt to get more and more power. They become power junkies. Soon they have no more third coating and cannot fly back home. I knew all about junkies from my Earth life. Once they taste something they like, getting them to give it up is almost always a losing battle.

When an angel has given all of their third coating away, it is called being Grounded. If an angel is Grounded he will be reduced forever to a life on Earth. There are a number of angels who have had that happen. They request to be heard by Omnis. He rarely looks into matters of angels who have been Grounded. I think it makes him mad that we could trade in our wings for temporary power.

Sellers who operate Snap Shops have to be licensed by the council. There are rules they have to follow. The council gets to inspect all their flavors to make sure none of them are harmful. Also Sellers have to have a meter in the front of the shop to tell them if the person entering their shop has a soul. If they sell to Runners or p.a.w.ns, their shop will be closed down.