I am not quite sure what to say.  I am a little awed, and a little excited, and a little worried.

When I came to meet Orison for our training this afternoon, Ruhamah was with him.  This was startling in its own right, but his reason for coming was even more so.  After a brief greeting, he asked me, “What do you know about scouts, Asa’el?”

I was puzzled by the question, but I told him what has Orison told me.  “Scouts are skilled Guardians who serve Cherubs in much the same way that watchers serve other angels.  They go out into the world and pinpoint the locations and numbers of the Fallen, so that the Cherubs can plan movements against them.  Orison has taught me that it is a difficult and dangerous duty, for the scouts cannot themselves see the Fallen and must rely on their other senses to locate them.”

“Precisely,” Ruhamah answered.  “We would not use scouts at all but for the small numbers of Cherubs who fight for us.  They must use their power and their time wisely.  Still, it is a wrench to place our younger Guardians in such peril, and we ask it of them only when they have shown themselves with a talent for locating our enemies, as well at skill in protecting themselves.”  He gazed at me for a long moment—now that I think of it, I wonder if he were hesitating to ask me what he had come to ask.  But presently he went on, “But even knowing the danger, are you willing to undertake the training?”

I could only stare.  It took the gentle shifting of Orison’s wings to call me to greater respect.  “Me?” I asked.  “I have hardly begun my work as a Guardian—”

“And yet you have already been strongly recommended to me,” he told me.  His stern eyes gazed back at mine, and shadows were gathering in the Lower Eye on his brow, making me shiver.  “I will be honest with you, my young brother—I do not like that we must ask this of you so soon.  But you have the skill, and we have need of you, as we believe you will have need of it in times to come.”

I wonder who it was who recommended this to him.  I looked at Orison, but he only looked gravely back at me, and I could not read him at all.

“Of course I would be glad to help,” I said, and it was the truth.  And so I will begin my training as a scout in the next few days, working with Ruhamah himself.  But I cannot help but feel anxious, for if my seniors feel that I will need this training, I believe that they are right.  Are they worried about an upcoming battle?  Or is it I myself who will face danger in the days ahead?

Whatever is to come, may I meet it with courage.