[Michael waves a little impatiently, because as much as it warms some part of him to hear Alex say once more that he's a good person, that's really not what he's on about. It had factored into his fears, certainly. Most paladins probably don't come with millions of years' worth of crimes on their heads. But there were also a lot more basic issues.]

I'm a demon and half the spell descriptions include the word "divine". I'm lucky it didn't just blow me up on principle.

[Even if he's not drawing on a god's power, that extra magic has to be coming from somewhere. If it weren't still divine-aligned, wouldn't that extremely relevant fact have been in one of the books?

...but then again, this seems to be a far less common mode of becoming a paladin. Maybe it wouldn't? This may require some experimentation.

Thinking about that, it takes Michael a moment to catch on to the rest of what Alex said.]

Wh - really? I thought...I mean, you have one with Will already.

[He does his level best not to sound jealous, because he's really not jealous of Will. He likes Will! For all his faults, Michael's never felt especially possessive of his friends. How could he? He likes making new ones, too, and he could never deny even Eleanor or the others that.

Still, he hadn't felt nothing when he saw them all bond with Simone on Earth. He hadn't felt nothing here. But in both cases, even if it, maybe, hurt a little bit...that was his problem, not theirs.]