Nicholas listened carefully as Eliana recited her reasons for obeying God.  Part of him desperately wanted her to say something convincing, something that would make him believe again.  Surely an angel could explain why an entity that supposedly loved him had sent his life into a horrible downward spiral.  But all her words proved unsatisfying.  She obeyed because she was supposed to?  Because God was her ruler?  That was nothing more than blind subservience.  “So, if God told you to do something that seemed bad...like kill a person...would you do it?  Just because he said so?”<br/><br/>Frowning, Nicholas shook his head.  Maybe God didn’t love humans.  Maybe they were just too frustratingly imperfect to deserve it.  But until this moment, Nicholas had always assumed that God must love angels.  Now he wasn’t even sure about that.  If God really loved Eliana, wouldn’t he help her, regardless of whether she’d proved her loyalty?<br/><br/>Again, her words coaxed Nicholas from his thoughts.  “Oh!” he exclaimed, producing the soap.  “I can wash you, if you want.  I usually do that for Sebastian.”