Avi's swift strides carried her to a building similar to the one that had housed Toil and Trouble: large, tall, windowless, with doors on each side. But the differences were profound even to her untutored eye: Large tiles covered the outer walls, each a portion of a picture. Men and women of the city's yellow-skinned, large-eyed race, in minimal attire, made up one section; in another, naked children played on slides, swings, and other such equipment. Others showed people engaged in athletics, or families looking at pictures. At least she presumed they were families, going from what she recalled of Jack's explanations of the Solstice decorations. Other sections showed other activities, and she walked around the building several times before finally walking in the unguarded doors.
Inside, the building was like and unlike the other; men and women, yes, but also children and some who seemed to be between very large children and very small adults. She knew how she and her sisters had developed, of course, yet there seemed to be no equivalent to their post-child, pre-adult period, only children, the transitional, and adults of various sizes. The merchandise was quite different, and more importantly the general ambience, in a way she couldn't quite identify. But her wanderings took her past various stores, and eventually into an area that sold various sorts of food. Still well-fed from breakfast, she contented herself with learning the names of a few new foodstuffs. Of the stores, some she could understand. Clothing, books and magazines, those were clear. Others, she could have only honestly described as "rectangular solids with things in them." But it was fascinating to see them, even if she didn't quite have the nerve to ask about them.
Aji's travels took her down broad, but largely untrafficked, streets, lined with large buildings with curved sides and curious crests over their doors, seemingly carved from single great stones and placed behind tall fences made from intertwined strands of what she had learned was called plastic. Men and some women moved between the buildings with synchronized steps, or fought each other in open areas. Their clothes were odd, strangely patterned. She saw target ranges, and what she presumed to be exercise courses, and strange vehicles that looked like large… oh, she could not remember the name of them! She wasn't even sure she knew the name, only that she had seen them in the fields outside the city where they had wintered over. Whatever they were called, these things had extremely large guns on top of them. She could not help but wonder what god was worshipped on the site. Certainly not Aku, she would have known instantly. But their devotion was admirable, whoever they worshipped. Perhaps… perhaps they worshipped multiple gods? That would explain the many structures. Multiple temples, shared cooking and eating spaces, ritual combat between congregations, that fit with what she saw and heard and smelled. What a marvellous city, where a dozen gods or more could be praised in a single place. Wonders unending.
As she approached the guarded gate, Aji slowed, and turned to the sentry. "May I go in? I wish to pay my respects."
The young man shook his head. "No entry without authorization," he told her firmly.
She bowed to him. "Thank you," she said, and went on her way. She kicked herself mentally for not realizing sooner the orders were cloistered. Still, the district was intriguing, and she continued to wander for a time, then turned back toward the hotel and her sisters.
Ari found herself almost immediately in an area filled with curving paths, broad swaths of grass, trees like tall tents, playgrounds with curved sides and sandy floors, and most of all, tall, round towers faced with glass. She slowly walked the area, gazing around as she went, especially watching the children at play. It was such a wonderful thing to see, children being happy. She envied them bit, but not for all the world would she have spoiled their happiness. A child hardly big enough to walk well toddled up to her, tapped her leg, then toddled away again, saying a simple word Ari didn't understand. A man then walked up beside her. "Chase her. Slowly, of course. She wants to play with you."
Ari frowned, then did as asked. Play itself was still a largely foreign concept to her, but she understood the concept of tag from her exercises in the city, and so went after the little girl, keeping her speed down to the toddler's and deliberately missing with many strikes. The child dashed about and made sounds she now knew were happy sounds; soon enough, the girl's interest shifted to a slide, and Ari found herself invited to games with the older children, mostly tag and variants thereof, enjoying it surprisingly much. Eventually, of course, her stomach insisted on food over play, and so she pled need and turned her face hotel-ward.
Ashi made her way to an area whose signs she didn't understand at all. Oh, the words were clear, but the meanings were considerably less so. What was a "barrister?" Or an "accountant?" The tall buildings were very beautiful, to be sure, but what did people do in them? Many people went in and out, so clearly people did a lot, but that was all she knew. She wandered in and out of the buildings, reading the signs, trying to work out what the numbers meant, and at one particular building froze cold. It could not be. It must not have been. And yet, as surely as the fall of night, it was. She forced herself to breathe slowly, and to think about the numbers. They meant something, showed somehow how to reach places. Wait. Yes. That just might be it. She walked over to the banks of sliding doors, and looked at the lights above them, watching them go on and off. When the light over one door changed to the letter that meant "earth" or "land," that door opened. She stepped in, and looked around. A panel with numbered buttons. She pushed the highest number, and jumped to the ceiling when the floor shifted under her. She was ready to drop down when the ceiling jerked briefly downward, and the door slid open.
Ashi stepped out into a brightly lit hall which led to stairs at each end, stairs of what looked like dark stone, and at the top, a light far too familiar. Taking her courage in both hands, she climbed the stairs, dreading what she might find.
Dark stone, or what looked like dark stone, on floors and walls. Torches, tall torches, shed light the dark ceiling did nothing to spread. The main light source was just what she'd feared: an idol of Aku, much like the one she had prayed to more times than she wanted to think about, though much smaller. Before the idol, people of the city bowed in prayer, men and women alike. The chants were different, the clothing strikingly so; where the Daughters of Aku had covered themselves crown to sole, the men wore only loose pants gathered at the ankles, and the women similar pants gathered just above the knee, with fabric bands covering their breasts. Even so, there was no mistaking their devotion, and the spiritual coldness that permeated the great hall. Held by her own curiosity, Ashi listened to their prayers.
"Lord Aku guide us, Lord Aku shelter us. In Your shadows we find safety, in Your word we find wisdom," the apparent leader said, and the other repeated, several times. Then, "We thank you, Aku, for sending the Deliverers," he said, and the others repeated, "We thank you." Then the high priest (she presumed) rose and turned to face the congregation. His eyes opened wide, and he told the others to rise and turn as well. "Our Lord shows us special favour, sending one of the Deliverers that we may thank her in person! May we know your name and your tale, Deliverer?"
Ashi blinked slowly, several times, then answered. "I am Ashi, and my tale is this," and she told them of her raising and her training, of how she and her sisters fought the samurai, and were defeated, and what had come after.
The high priest approached her. "Welcome to our temple, Ashi of the Daughters of Aku, Ashi Twice-Blessed," he said and bowed deeply.
"Twice-Blessed?" she asked, baffled beyond words.
"Of course," he said. "Come, let us sit and talk," and he guided her to the back of the temple, another man following them while the rest of the supplicants resumed their prayers. She sat cross-legged as the men did, and the high priest introduced himself. "I am Zagis, priest of this temple, and this is Debak, our scholar. I will leave the explanation to him."
The second man smiled to the priest. "Thank you. You see," he said to Ashi, "you are twice blessed because you were raised into the service of Aku, and now have been trained into the service of the Samurai, Aku's unknowing ally."
Ashi's bafflement was clear on her face. "His ally? But he hates Aku, and seeks to destroy him!"
"Yes," the scholar agreed. "And in his rage against Aku, he destroys Aku's creations. Aku is a creator, Ashi, but if there were none to check his creation, there would be no room in the world for anything else. And so, though they know it not, the Samurai aids Aku and all the world, clearing away the unneeded and obsolete so that there will always be room for new things, both of Aku and of others."
"I… I need to think about this," she temporized as she stood. "It's a lot to take in." The men nodded, and thank her once more. Then they both held her, lightly, one on each side, and kissed her cheeks, though the light of the temple hid her blush. When they stepped back, Ashi departed, head in a whirl. Once back on the ground floor, she sought out a library to sit and contemplate, then turned her steps hotel-ward. She needed to talk to her sisters about this.