They arrived on the largest mountain in the world which apparently fit inside his cigar case which he kept in his pocket (canonical, by the way) and which used to be a place only his kind would have access to. He led them across the snow to a ski lodge of all things that sat near the summit. Thankfully the air was a lot more oxygen rich than most mountain tops.
They went inside and discussed the Malkiah situation. Jack figured an expendable vampire would be useful. Johnny wasn't so sure. Rochelle found the whole idea of vampires shudder-worthy. Perhaps some repressed memory from St. Helios? Nico didn't want Malkiah along. She also didn't want to kill him since the last time she betrayed and slayed a vampire left such a bad taste in her mouth. She also wasn't too sure about leaving him here where he might attack the next people who came along to force them to open the door.
It was quite a conundrum.
Nico decided a distraction might be nice while trying to figure out a solution so she turned to the question of the AK-47. She passed it over to Gipontel, hoping he could make heads or tails of it. Gipontel declared that it was non-magical and then started pulling the bandages loose to see what was underneath. After the first few layers were peeled back, a golden glow was revealed. As the final layers pulled loose, a glowing golden feather could be seen strapped to the grip.
"Oh, this is yours," said Gipontel, passing it to her.
As her fingers gripped it, the feather began to absorb into her hand. Nico yelped and tried to dislodge it but it was already gone, drawn inside her hand. Moments later, wings erupted from her back, sharing that same golden colour. In panic and confusion, and lacking any true understanding of what wings are meant to *do*, she sat very still with one wing fully extended its nine foot length (knocking some stuff over) and the other wing mostly closed. She looked a bit like a drunk bird.
Moments later her eyes glowed blue (Castigation: +5 Empathy for a scene followed by a mild derangement involving Innocent Delusions) and since it was the first use both the derangement and the empathy co-occured. After all, the derangement was more a mechanism for coping with the increased insight into other people's minds and emotions. She saw Johnny's shock in his eyes plus his desire to pretend everything was still okay, the fear in Rochelle's eyes, and you didn't need magical powers to know the instinctive horror on Jack's face when he turned Dalu (mostly man, part wolf) and leapt to his feet. With the derangement fully in place, she started crying: "Why are you all so mean?!"
Johnny took the moment to berate Jack for his meanness, deciding perhaps that he might as well go all in, and he came over to console her and feel her feathers. Which were apparently ridiculously soft and ever so warm, like sunlight and happy memories. Johnny naturally convinced Rochelle to feel the wings, which she did, though more reticently and so shocked she seemed a bit in a daze.
Gipontel, on the other hand, was over the moon. He proudly announced that it was her feather, Shaitan's feather, and that she should go out onto the mountainside to fly about. He seemed a touch sorry to see her sadness but didn't seem to realise what a shock it would actually be.
Naturally Nico didn't believe she was a Fallen Angel. Even in her delusional state, it seemed positively insane to believe that a Fallen could be born and live a life like a human. Nope, it was probably a trick played by Gipontel. Or maybe just an aspect of the Lucifuge condition. There was a castigation she'd read about which involved wings, after all.
She decided that instead of worrying about the wings, perhaps they should just talk to Malkiah and see if he can be brought out with him. In her innocent state, she was sure she could make it work.
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