A New Normal
Disclaimer: Characters and premise are the property of Kazue Kato. I'm just borrowing them for a little non-profit fun.
Chapter Ten: Jealous Worries
Amaimon nudged the hobgoblin he was using as a pillow in an effort to get comfortable on one of the cots set up in the infant area of the Apollo temple. He'd almost managed to fall asleep when a soft snuffling sound of unhappiness whispered through the room. The Earth King made a face and started to roll to his feet but saw that Shiemi was already heading toward the crib. He closed his eyes and listened to her murmuring the baby as she headed toward the row of prepared bottles and a small, carefully regulated, lukewarm spring that had been encouraged to bubble up in a the corner of the room.
About the time Shiemi settled into a rocking chair with bottle and baby a second infant started whimpering. Amaimon sighed and got up. "Hush, I hear you," he said quietly, leaning over the crib. "Don't wake all your cousins, there's only four of us big people on duty." Amaimon wrinkled his nose as he picked the infant up. "Mine smells," he complained to Shiemi carrying the child at arm's length.
Shiemi giggled. "You know what to do," she reminded him.
Amaimon scowled, but headed over to the changing table. Standing as far back as possible he removed the safety pin on baby's the diaper and gingerly unwrapped the child. "Uggh!" he exclaimed, being careful to keep his voice low. He wrinkled up his face in a parody of disgust and held his breath as he used the edge of the diaper to wipe away the worst of the mess. Once the child was clean and the dirty diaper was safely sealed in an odor-tight hamper Amaimon grabbed a fresh cloth. "You will learn to use a restroom quickly," Amaimon informed the child sternly. "I'm your king and it is beneath my station to deal with all this shit you insist on producing."
Shiemi ducked her head and bit her lip to keep from laughing too loudly at Amaimon's declaration.
"I can't believe I was ever curious about human waste elimination," Amaimon informed her. "It's revolting."
Seeing that the first baby had finished his bottle and fallen back asleep Shiemi returned him to his crib and filled a second bottle with lukewarm water from the spring then shook it up and handed it to Amaimon. "Thank goodness Nishiki's volunteers thought to bring bottles and lots of formula," she said.
Amaimon perched on the window ledge and offered the baby her bottle. "Its' almost dawn," he observed happily. "Almost time for someone else's turn to change diapers."
"I should head to the gardens before too many of our… neighbors wake-up," Shiemi sighed.
Amaimon grimaced. "You are the Oracle of Delphi, Mother's vessel on Assiah, you shouldn't hide from a bunch of humans." He smirked. "It's fitting that they want to worship you, but they need to learn to do so from a distance. If they pester you tie them up with stinging nettles or something until they learn better."
"They don't mean any harm," Shiemi protested. "And they shouldn't worship me. I'm not Gaia, I'm just me."
"You're the one who intercedes with Gaia," Amaimon disagreed. "Normally gods of her stature, of Middle Gehenna, only concern themselves with the destruction and recreation of Assiah. But Mother stayed her hand because of you."
"Middle Gehenna?" Shiemi asked.
Amaimon gave a small huff, as if he couldn't believe Shiemi's ignorance. "The lesser gods and demons, the young and the weak, are the ones to interact with Assiah, it's stage for us to learn on, with humans as our game pieces and score counters…" He trailed off for a moment, "Big brother punished me when I called humans soap bubbles. He says humans are more than that. Even though you live such short little lives, hardly more than mayflies, he says you're as real as us. And, of course, you're my priestess, you matter. You stood up to mother and made her compromise... Still, the other is what most everyone believes."
"Anyway, the gods of Middle Gehenna are the greater gods, they create Assiah for their children to play with, when one Assiah becomes too damaged or degraded they destroy it and make a new one. Last there's Outer Gehenna, it shields us all from the Void. When a god grows too powerful for Middle Gehenna they retire to the walls, their bodies become our shelter."
Shiemi nodded, she remembered Gaia mentioning the Walls.
Amaimon frowned, "Father broke the rules. He's too powerful, too old, his touch burns Assiah but he won't leave. Instead he controls things through the Eight Kings."
"Only you, Mephisto and Egyn don't follow him," Shiemi interjected.
"We're no more obedient than we have to be," Amaimon agreed. "And Big Brother has plans, but Father could smash any of us if he wanted to. Or if he was in a good mood he could just order us to submit; he's our Father it's hard to disobey him. Egyn talks a lot about how much he hates Father but all he actually does is pick fights with Iblis, Astaroth and I. He's too chicken to pester our older brothers."
Suddenly a thought occurred to Amaimon and he grinned, "With Mom here, Father can't boss me around!"
"Would Egyn be the same?" Shiemi asked. "Even though Gaia isn't his mom?"
Amaimon pouted at Shiemi's interest in Egyn but he still considered her question. "I'm balanced between Gaia and Satan, they have equal claim to me and they disagree a lot. It was always harder for Father to make Egyn and I submit than to make Iblis or Astaroth, because they moms are simpering idiots and ours aren't. Mom being around wouldn't affect Egyn directly because he doesn't owe her any loyalty... that might be why Egyn's courting Mom."
Shiemi looked thoughtful, "Sir Pheles would probably like us to be friendly with Egyn."
"He's a bastard!" Amaimon protested loudly which started the child he was feeding crying. "Don't make that noise," he ordered in a whisper as he held the bottle enticingly. After a moment the child picked suckling over crying to Amaimon's relief. He looked back to Shiemi, "You don't have to make any oaths with Egyn. Father won't challenge Mom in her own territory."
"What about the other four kings?" Shiemi asked. "Could Satan force Mephisto to submit to him?"
"If they ever fought straight out, Father would smush Big Brother," Amaimon said matter-of-a-factly. "But he can't make Samuel submit, not even a little. I don't know why. It's probably not because of his mother; Lucifer does everything he can to impress Father… But then maybe that's just Lucifer being a suck-up."
Michelle showed up followed by Mamushi and several other volunteers. "Time to start baths," Michelle said.
"Good morning, have fun," Shiemi said as she headed out to her gardens.
Amaimon grunted a disinterested greeting and left to check that the changes he'd made to area's the geothermal activity were stable.
His first stop was the bathhouse. As he walked down the stairs he heard Obizu's voice. Without a second thought, Amaimon shifted to his hamster form and crept closer, using the crack under the door to spy on the Duchess of Water.
Obizu was leaning over the bath and trying to shove a large chest into the water. "I am not giving Shiemi-san a box full of pearls and gems," she declared. "Lord Egyn, you sent me here because I, quote, talk girl, so you will listen to me!"
"Stop being such an old killjoy. All girls like jewels," Egyn argued from the depths of the bathwater. "Shows I can provide for her much better than the Earth-brat."
Amaimon ground his teeth together.
"It's too much you big oaf!" Obizu insisted sternly. "This early in the courtship overly expensive gifts will just make her uncomfortable."
"I know where every last doubloon of sunken treasure lies. At my whim oysters produce pearls," Egyn declared. "It is nothing to me to give her such riches."
Obizu groaned in frustration, "Exactly, it means nothing to you and to her it will look like you're being pushy again. Give her meaningful presents. She liked the fish for the children."
"I want to give the lovely and kind Shiemi something for herself," Egyn sulked.
"Then give her flowers," Obizu suggested. "Or maybe a nice living coral arrangement. Show her that the world beneath the waves can be as beautiful as the gardens she tends so lovingly. Put some thought into it my lord, don't just throw treasure at her."
The resistance on the other side of the chest vanished abruptly and Obizu fell face first into the bath. She stood up and shook herself off with a grin. "So now you're ready to listen to me?"
Amaimon slipped away, resolving to search Obizu's room later for anything Egyn might send to tempt HIS priestess away; in his hamster form the thought of chewing Egyn's gift up had great appeal. Once he was halfway up the stairs Amaimon popped back to his normal form. 'And maybe I'll just take Obizu's advice for myself if Bastard-ni's too dumb to listen,' he thought.
'I'm already doing everything I can to help with the squirts and the camp but I suppose that doesn't count. They're my subjects, my nieces and nephews, after all. I could make Shiemi some nice clay planters. She liked having plants share her rooms at Big Brother's school."
Amaimon was still considering the merits of the notion when Meda ran up and tugged on his arm. Holding up her rag-doll she announced, "Young Roger came tapping at Dolly's window. Thumpaty, thumpaty, thump! He asked for admittance, she answered 'No!' Frumpaty, frumpaty, frump! 'No, no Roger, no! As you came you may go! Stumpaty, stumpaty, stump!"
Amaimon frowned at her thoughtfully. "You're right," he said. "Shiemi's smarter than to be swayed by that watery bastard's stupid presents."
Meda shrieked and stomped her foot. "There were once two cats of Kilkenny! Each thought there was one cat too many; so they fought and they fit and they scratched and they bit. Till, excepting their nails and the tips of their tails, instead of two cats, there weren't any!" She scowled up at Amaimon. "Young Roger... " Her voice caught for a moment then her face screwed up with effort and she spat, "Young demoneater came tapping! Some aren't as smart as Dolly." Throwing one last disgusted look over her shoulder, she stomped off.
Amaion stared after her for a few moments then he shrugged and turned in the other direction.
"If you won't let me, I'll beg Gaia," Amaimon heard one of the former La Llorona, he thought her name was Sofia, declare.
"You'll only be wasting her time," Echidna replied. "You can't leave."
"I'm not staying here to raise my baby in the middle of a target!" Sofia exclaimed. "I'm taking him somewhere safe, somewhere we can hide. Gaia has to understand. I can't stay here where everyone hates us!"
"You murdered your last child," Echidna said coldly. "You won't go off on your own with this one."
"I killed myself in penance, I was a La Llorona for a hundred years, I have atoned!" Sofia protested.
Echidna shook her head. "You were forgiven and given a second chance, you can never make up for what you did."
Amaimon stepped aside as a sobbing girl ran past. "You made her cry," he observed to his older sister.
Echidna sighed, "I told her the truth."
"Shiemi would have been nicer."
A reluctant smile touched Echidna's face. "Does my baby brother have a crush?"
"I'm your king," Amaimon sulked.
Echidna tried to work up the motivation to tease Amaimon about how he might be the Earth King but he was still her baby brother, but what came out instead was a sigh. "I'm tired," she told him. "My daughters aren't my daughters, their nascent personalities were smothered when the La Llorona merged with them. We live in a siege state, surrounded by humans who would kill us or torture us rather than worship us as they should."
"We're working on it," Amaimon tried to offer comfort.
"I'm tired, I wish for rest," Echidna said. "But my power doesn't grow as your does. I would have to survive several dozen Assiah's before my strength would match yours and you're only a few centuries past five thousand. It's likely that I'll fall in one ragnarok or another long before I grow powerful enough to be called to the Walls. I'll fall and leave my bones to become the foundation of a future Assiah, hopefully a better one."
"This is my Assiah," Amaimon rumbled. "And I like it."
"Your Shiemi is a sweet child," Echinda sighed. "But I almost wish that she hadn't dissuaded Mother from destroying this hateful world and built a new one where humans on the whole would be humble, respectful and… and not so terribly numerous."
"They're not so bad, most of them," Amaimon argued awkwardly. "Big brother likes them."
"I don't," Echidna said. They stared at each other for a few moments, knowing that they couldn't come to agreement.
"I have stuff to do," Amaimon muttered and left.
He started toward Shiemi's gardens wondering if she wanted some help, but Renzo headed him off. "I've got a new email about our power problems," the pink haired boy said steering Amaimon into the generator's building. "They said we're still not getting enough steam pressure. We're turning the turbine, but not fast enough."
Amaimon scowled, "I've cracked the Earth's mantle to the core. If I open it any further it will be an eruption instead of a steam vent." He leaned around the lazily turning turbine and stuck his head into the vent, ignoring the scalding heat. "Shouldn't have any trouble boiling water in here,"
Obizu joined them, curiously she leaned over Amaimon's shoulder. "Plenty of heat," she agreed. "Not enough water. The volume of steam should be higher."
"Who asked you?" Amaimon snapped.
"We've tried all our ideas," Renzo pointed out. "Might as well give hers a try. I mean it won't blow up or anything if you open up the passage from the spring a little, right? We're not short on water."
"I could do it," Obizu offered. She grinned at Amaimon. "If it's too much trouble for the Earth King to increase the passage, I could ask the spring to flow more quickly."
"I can do it," Amaimon said quickly as he stepped away from the vent. "I just don't get why you think her idea will work." He gave Renzo a suspicious look. "Unless this is one of those flirting things." He grinned unpleasantly. "Fine, I'll do it… then I'll tell Shiemi you wanted me to."
Renzo rolled his eyes. "First, I'm not anywhere near that subtle when I flirt. Second, Shiemi-chan knows me not to care if I was flirting with her. Not that I was, all I want is to figure out if Blue-belle here had a good idea or not."
Amaimon huffed doubtfully then turned and stretched out his hands. The earth shivered and shifted. A massive plume of steam shot out of the vent. The turbine whined as it's blades spun blurringly fast. The excess of superheated steam billowed out to filled the room.
Yamantaka burst into Assiah and yanked Renzo out of the room before the steam could broil him alive.
"Too much!" Obizu exclaimed as she reached into the vent.
Amaimon glared at her angrily as she adjusted the flow until the turbine was humming happily. Then he stomped outside to find Renzo doubled over, leaning on his thighs and panting heavily. He stared at the pink-haired boy for several minutes. "You didn't summon Yamantaka," he noted.
"And he didn't possess you either," Obizu added.
"Damn, wasn't ready for that," Renzo muttered to himself as he blinked black spots out of his vision.
"If Yamantaka's not your familiar, what is he to you?" Amaimon demanded.
"He's my familiar," Renzo said.
"Familiars don't just show up unsummoned," Obizu remarked.
"Izumo's do," Renzo argued. "What's with the twenty questions?"
"In places sanctified to Inari, maybe," Amaimon allowed. "But this place is Gaia's hallowed ground, not a flame demon's." He thought for several moments, "Mike and Uke might be able to come if their priestess' life was in danger."
"My life was in danger," Renzo said. "Maybe you two don't care about getting steam cooked, but I do."
"It's in their contract to protect Inari's priestess," Amaimon remarked. "What binds Yamantaka to you?"
"I don't see it's any business of yours," Renzo said drawing himself up indignantly and stalking away.
Once he was alone Renzo leaned back against a nearby wall tiredly. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the faintest shimer of black flames. "Thanks for the save," he said to Yamantaka. "You're not going to get in trouble with Iblis? I mean saving my bacon from a stupid accident isn't quite the same as me giving you permission to fight Exorcists or screw up Egyn's plans."
"Oh, I don't know," Yamantaka replied in a dry whispery voice. "It was a Duchess of Water who instigated the accident, it might have been a plot to inconvenience Gaia. Iblis doesn't loath the Earth Kingdom the way he does the Water Kingdom. Of course, he still remains unaware that Amaimon has sworn his love and honor to a human girl."
"Yeah, that'd hit King Cranky-pants' hot buttons," Renzo agree. "It might even be enough to cost Egyn his least favorite brother status, even with his whole, 'I hate my dad. Here have some holy water' thing." The pink haired boy gave a self-deprecating grin, "I'd probably like Egyn if he hadn't made Shiemi cry. But anyway, that's why I was worrying. I know Iblis is not going to be cool with you going around saving human lives."
"Maybe not, but you're a special case," Yamantaka said. "The payment made against your life hasn't been fully spent yet."
"Takezo," Renzo said with a touch of bitterness. "So even Iblis agrees that me for Take was a bad trade for mankind."
The flames fluttered a bit as if Yamantaka had shrugged. "Takezo sacrificed his life to give me more power in Assiah; Iblis likes those kinds of deals, even if I did promise to protect your life in return. And so, as long as even a spark of Takezo's life-force remains I will protect you."
"Takezo must have been pretty amazing," Renzo sighed. "You've saved my life three or four times now and haven't repaid him. Almost makes me wish I remembered him more… Or I suppose my life just isn't worth much to anyone."
"It doesn't take much to save you from hot water," Yamantaka temporized. "Just the energy it took to come unsummoned. Besides I like having you around, not many humans bother themselves to learn about Gehenna's internal politics."
Renzo managed a small smile, "Thanks."