Alice answered in confusion:
"Of course he isn't dead. He's an Archangel. Being gravely injured is one thing, but how could he die so easily? Even if he did, he might get back up a couple of days later..."
"?"
Although the early members of the Tarot Club had been stunned when Alice counted her resurrections on her fingers, they still marveled at an Angel's tenacity. They looked as though they wanted to speak but didn't know what to say. Only Alger, the Hanged Man, remembered poor Emlyn:
"Miss Fortune, could you tell us what happened in more detail?"
Alice nodded without much concern.
"Hmm... It's simple enough, though the story starts a bit earlier...
"Some time ago, Will Auceptin was gravely injured. He discarded his umbilical cord blood and forcibly Restarted, but accidentally ended up in the womb of someone I know...
"At my request, Amon took Will Auceptin away from her. Unfortunately, he left the signs of pregnancy behind... I don't know how to explain it, but that young lady, well...
"She isn't married, and she's never had a partner she's been intimate with... No, I don't think she's ever had a partner at all!"
All the women present swallowed. Though they already knew such a thing was possible—Xio, the Judgment, had heard about it from Fors, the Magician—it was still horrifying.
Leonard, the Star, had the most striking expression of all. Clearly, Klein's lessons hadn't covered this.
He asked a remarkably bold and inventive question:
"She's never... Hiss. If that's possible, what about men?"
"Normally, no." Alice blinked. "Men don't have wombs... But the Supernatural Abilities of some Sequences can create one. Besides, an Angel's body is rather unusual..."
"Then could you give birth to yourself?" Leonard asked, somehow finding an even more inventive question.
Alice's expression