Sarenith 23 (Imperial Shrine, Early Morning)

A

matatsu Onoko is here. Why she wasn’t here yesterday when we needed more timely information about what we are getting into is anyone’s guess. Maybe Shigure’s temper tantrum scared her away. I don’t know if she had children in life, but if I were a mother and was granted immortality as an archon, the last thing I’d want is a front row seat to the Terrible Twos for basically all of eternity. Your reward in heaven for a devoted, pious life is not supposed to double as punishment.

Ameiko spent some time communing with her in private and then opened up the conversation to the rest of us. I took the opportunity to ask her my new favorite question. “Why is there something called ‘The Well of Demons’ in the Imperial Shrine?”

Her answer was as unsatisfying as it was uninformative. “It doesn’t have a name. That’s just what Shigure calls it.” Which is not what I was asking. I don’t care about the name; I want to know why it’s here. But bickering with an archon didn’t seem like a healthy plan, so I let it drop. And, to be fair, she did shed some light on what is down there and what we have to do.

“The handmaiden devil Amatatsu Maemi and her handmaiden have infested this place. I can’t bestow my blessing until she is dealt with.” One guess as to what she means by “dealt with”. Also, apparently the Well of Demons contains devils. Note to self: Correct Shigure on his terminology.

Who was empress Amatatsu Maemi? It’s a given that she was not a very good person if she was a petitioner to Hell, and being given form as a greater devil suggests she was especially vile. Suishen confirmed as much, giving us a fairly pointed review of her tenure as emperor. “She was unnecessarily cruel and selfish, seeking her own power over what was best for the empire and its people.” And she’s had plenty of time to refine her personality since then.

Who is Maemi’s handmaiden? No clue. But if they come as a pair, I’m guessing she has to go, too.

And, of course, we have to do this one thing in order for Ameiko to get Onoko’s blessing. On top of the other thing that we have to do for Shigure. Maybe it’s a blessing of its own that the spirits from the other families can’t communicate through the Shrine until this business with the Well is resolved. I don’t think I can handle each of them asking us to do yet another “just this one thing”, too.

Sarenith 23 (Still The Imperial Shrine, Still Early Morning)

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ur first descent into the Well of Demons went poorly. This is the problem with not knowing what you are getting into: you can’t plan for everything. You can only be so flexible, and if you get caught reacting instead of acting, then odds are good you aren’t going to recover.

The force that contains the demons and devils within the Well almost certainly saved our lives, as there is no such thing as running away from something that can teleport at will. When you start this kind of fight, it needs to be one that you are sure you can finish unless you have similar powers of your own.

It’s been less than 10 minutes, and Amatatsu Onoko has already gotten on my list. We went to stop the water from dumping into the Well because it was so loud we could barely hear ourselves think, much less communicate, and she appeared and blasted us with her trumpet. Just in case it wasn’t clear what kind of archon she was. Branding is important.

I had what many might consider to be a reasonable question: “What the shit, lady?!”

This was probably not the most respectful way of addressing a herald of Shizuru, but the whole thing caught us by surprise. Also, I was feeling kind of cranky.

“Why would you halt the flow of water into the well? The lake sends the cleansing water that contains the evil within!”

Uh…how about because no one fucking told us? Like, when we were fucking asking about it? What is it with celestial beings treating information like caviar? Is there some divine rule that crucial knowledge about saving the world can only be fed in small bites? If it’s not a game of twenty questions, it’s riddles and metaphor. No one can be direct about anything until it’s smiting time, and then it’s all, “How dare you disobey this rule I’m just now telling you about!”

This is no way to run an organization.

“Because it’s so loud down there we can’t hear ourselves think. And because we just got our asses handed to us! And also because we didn’t fucking know! How would we know?!”

Gods, I am just not in the fucking mood.

But at least now we know what we’re up against, and what we can (and can’t) do about it.