War clicked her fingernails. "None of it makes sense," she said, "and yet I just can't believe that Pestilence would have got her pregnant and abandoned her, not from what I know of him and from what you've told me of his behaviour."

"I'm not sure what my opinion of Uriel is, but from what I'm seen and heard, I'm not overly inclined to make it a positive one. If she is so mentally ill, could wanting a child be linked to that, somehow? I could understand her leaving him if she got pregnant and he rejected her but then regretted it... but I can't see that, quite, either."

Twisting her hair round her fingers, she continued, "I don't understand what could have happened. The bare facts, though, are that Uriel and Pestilence were clearly together, and PEstilence cared about Uriel deeply. Now, Uriel is female and noticeably pregnant, and Pestilence has disappeared. Clearly, something odd has happened - and neither of us really know what."