Buffy

I kept my hands clamped tight on Minako's wrist, even as that black stuff dragged her under. As far as I was concerned, either this crap could let her go, or it could pull us both in– either way, I was not letting go for love or money.

Something out there had other ideas, though, because just as my knuckles would have brushed against the surface of the puddle/portal/portable hole, the arm I was clinging to just evaporated, at which point my momentum sent me reeling backwards to land on my tastefully-clad heinie as the black whatever-the-hell just disappeared.

Taking a deep breath, I levered myself to my feet and looked around for other challengers, lurking crows, or mysterious trenchcoat-wearing dudes bearing expository dialogue. None of these made an appearance; it was just me, the silent city, and the swirling greenish fog.

Okay, time to take stock. Minako had been abducted by forces unknown, but judging by the Moby Dick quote that Feather Oblong had delivered right before dying, I was betting it was some sort of backup plan from his "Dark Emperor." (Yes, I recognized the quote. Between Willow and Jonno, I couldn't actually escape Star Trek II, you know?)

I didn't know where I was, where she was, what this place was, or what the damn thing that kidnapped her was, except for something that took its aesthetics from Japanese superhero shows and spouted bargain-basement bad philosophy takes as part of its motive rants. So, time to fall back on the Scooby Gang's Second Law: When in doubt, head to the library.

Luckily for me, the building I was standing in front of was said library, at least judging by the fact that the word was engraved in that fake Roman font you saw on banks and government buildings all over the country. I thought it was a little odd that I could read this sign, when none of the others in town had been legible, but it's not like standing around out here was going to get me anywhere. The front doors of the building were black wood, so scoping out the inside was a no go. Instead, I drew my sword and carefully pulled the door open with my free hand. Nothing lunged out to eat my face, so I took a cautious step inside.

The inside was, amazingly enough, well-lit, and not by that funky greenish-white light that was everywhere outside. No, this was a warm yellow light, one that seemed almost welcoming. I carefully let the door close behind me as I took another step onto the tiled floor. There was a circulation desk in front of me, with a computer sitting on it– the computer was either dead or powered down, and I couldn't see a power switch, even if I felt like tempting fate to find out which. The room itself was lined with bookshelves, and several tables sat in the middle of the room, with books piled haphazardly on a couple of them. No signs of life or habitation– no clothes or purses or phones left behind, but there was still a coziness to this place that contrasted with the emptiness outside.

After a second, I sheathed my sword. My Slayer senses were telling me that this place was safe, or at least as safe as anything in this crazy world got. Who knew how long that would last, but for now, I felt comfortable letting my guard down a notch or so.

A quick check of the bookshelves confirmed my hunch– none of the books were removable. Most of them didn't even have legible titles, and the ones that did were… odd. Who would read something titled "Eagle of East, Wolf of West," anyway?

Next order of business, check the books that are out on the tables. First up, a red-bound book with black lettering on the spine. I had to squint to make it out, it was some seriously spidery printing, but it appeared to be labeled "The World Of The Three Gods." I opened it carefully to find pages of spidery handwriting that I couldn't decipher. Flipping forward, I came to a picture of the seal that had been drawn on the door Minako and I had taken to get back into the foggy part of town.

Or, it was almost the seal. The crystals were missing, replaced on the edges with what looked like astrological symbols. The middle circle was just empty, identical to the other two below it. Beneath the drawing, English writing labeled it "The Halo of the Sun." More English on the next page, so I sat down to do some serious studying.

"Our God has made many worlds beside and below our own, in preparation for the creation of Paradise. These three gods receive the souls of mortals as they pass from the world of our God beyond the veil.

"They preside over three kingdoms: The Queen of Night, who rules the Kingdom of Light and guides the souls of the Holy to be reborn in the world of God; The King of Ruin, who rules the Kingdom of Blood and takes the souls of the Wrathful to serve in his army; and the Monarch of The Wastes, who rules the Kingdom of Steel and takes the souls of the Despairing to sleep eternally in the dark.

"These three Kingdoms exist within and around each other, intertwined like the tendrils of a creeping vine, and a traveler blessed with the mark of God may pass from one to the next without harm." The rest was more of the illegible chicken-scratching.

Okay, that explained a few things. The "mark of God" was obviously the Halo of the Sun, although it had been altered a bit when I saw it on the doors. So… the doors went between the kingdoms? The dark world to the foggy world… the red wall and white door to a red door… and I was pretty sure it had been set in a white wall. Kingdom of Blood to Kingdom of Light, maybe?

I grabbed up another book. This one had much more modern printing, and white print on black binding. I was beginning to notice a definite color trend. This one was titled "Jung Love: Alchemy and the Great Work of Psychoanalysis." I groaned, since I'd had enough of the history of psychology to get the pun there. This book was a lot thinner, and I opened it up to printed words that were legible, but completely nonsensical. Flipping forward brought me to another readable section.

"There are three stages to the Great Work: the nigredo or blackening; the albedo or whitening, and finally the rubedo or reddening. These three stages also represent the progression of the self through the stages of analysis.

"The nigredo is the decay phase, the "Night of the Soul," where the Self comes face to face with its Shadow, destroying illusions and preconceptions and rendering the soul a fertile ground for new growth.

"The albedo follows this up by purifying the self, separating into elements of outer and inner self, both equally accepted and valued, put on to face the trials of the world as needed.

"And the rubedo is last, the unification of outer and inner self into one healthy, whole Self, proof against the deaths of despair and sloth, a sunrise against the dark, the Blood of the Lamb bringing life everlasting."

Oh great, it was one of these writers. Don't get me wrong, I am… uh, maybe lapsed Protestant? The last church I was in where I wasn't raiding the font for holy water was… probably whatever funeral I went to last. They tend to blur. But the ones who shove Christian terminology into everything always get an eye-roll out of me.

Also, that book was wrong. Or rather, it left out kind of a big step. I didn't know a hell of a lot about alchemy, but it came up occasionally when you live in a town where mystical artifacts have a tendency to show up at flea markets. And we'd only done the basic overview of Jung in my History of Psych classes, but we had covered the stages of psychoanalysis. And in both cases, there was a fourth phase, the golden phase, coming between the white and red ones. Supposedly it represented the transition from illusion to truth, or self-discovery through analysis, in Jung's case. So why was this skipping over it completely?

And… yep, a third book, white binding with red lettering. Shock. This one was titled "Tales of Rural Japan." And Minako was from Japan, though not a rural area. Still seemed like kind of a big coincidence to me, so I pulled it over and opened it. This time, the illegible stuff was all Japanese characters, and I had no way of knowing whether it made any sense or not. Soon enough, I came to the readable bit, though.

"In the rural town of Inaba, tales are told of mysterious fogs that blanket the area every fifty years. In the Edo period, it was said that the notice board outside of town was haunted by hitodama, balls of flame that marked the spirits of the dead. Someone who approached this board on a foggy night might disappear, only to be found lying dead on a roof the next morning. It is theorized that this board was a gate into the realm of some powerful youkai or spirit, and that those who were lured in were trapped in that world and their life siphoned away."

Oookay, that hit a little too close to home. Not that I got near any funky noticeboards, and I didn't see any fireballs, but I was definitely stuck in some sort of alternate world. I tapped my fingernails on the table as I thought.

I was pretty sure I was in the magical world right now, but everything I'd heard suggested that said world was really plastic, and not like our world, in that things didn't always stay put, or match up with each other in any kind of consistent fashion. In the words of the old joke, "you can't get theah from heah." This place was sort of a subdivision or a cul-de-sac of that world, cut off and made into its own thing. So, hostile environment, completely unprepared, and surrounded by things that totally want to kick my ass. It really is like being back in high school. I totally blame Xander for showing me that movie, by the way.

Okay, so this place is apparently a clearing house for the living-impaired, sorting them somehow and funneling them to the appropriate monarch, who then rubber-stamps them and sends them out in the proper packaging. One of those was probably Feather Ombre's Dark Emperor, and my money was on the Monarch of the Wastes, what with the whole "eternal sleep" and "souls of the despairing" crap. I personally might qualify as Wrathful, especially since somebody had grabbed my charge, but not dead. Anymore. And trying to keep it that way, thanks.

The Queen of the Night sounded the most reasonable of the three, so that was going to be my next stop, I guess. The question was, how was I going to get there? And as if answering my question, the double doors at the back of the library unlocked with a click, swinging open to show another warmly-lit corridor beyond them.

"You wanna help me, huh?" I said, to the open air. I didn't get an answer, but somehow things felt welcoming and supportive. A lot like the high school library at home, which was weird, 'cause things built over the Hellmouth really shouldn't do that. But it was where I had all the good memories of high school, where Giles had his lair, and it was as much home as the house on Revello Drive.

"Okay, then," I said, to nothing in particular. Standing up, I headed out through the doors and down a hallway. Another pair of double doors opened, letting me back out into the greenish, foggy night. Except that now, I was standing on top of a concrete stairway, looking out over the city arrayed before me. Including an incredibly huge greenspace that had to cover most of a city block. The center of it was open, but the trees were blocking any view I could get of what might be inside.

I snorted. "Subtle much?" Still, it was more direction than I'd had before. Making sure my stake was ready in my sleeve, I headed down the stairs to get back to the street.

Time to go meet royalty.

Minako

I woke up lying on something hard and rough, with bright light filtering through my eyelids. Putting a hand up to shield my face, I cracked my eyes open. Above me, the sky was white and empty, like on days when the haze from the city was particularly bad. But somehow, even so, the sun was beating down like in the middle of summer, except…

Except there wasn't any warmth to it. Brightness, yes, but it was like being under the fluorescent lights in a hospital. I wasn't cold, but I wasn't warm either. I just was.

Carefully, I sat up. I didn't hurt anywhere, and my head wasn't swimming, so whatever that weird black portal had done, it wasn't going to slow me down. Funny thing was, it looked like I was still right where I'd been– on the steps outside that building, with the winged lions, except that the city was… different. The sky was white and full of brilliant light, and all the cement was a light gray that reflected the light back into the sky. All the windows were shiny black glass, and the lines on the road were either black or white. It was creepy.

Using my lacrosse stick, I hauled myself to my feet. There wasn't anybody around to grab me, which meant that the portal that hauled me here had been some sort of last-ditch effort by Feather Onmoraki, rather than any kind of separate thing. Okay, then, first order of business, find someplace to hide before one of his friends came to pick up the package he'd dropped off.

I looked up at the building in front of me. Over the black glass doors, a metal plate had "Library" written on it in English, with "Toshokan" under it in romaji and kanji. Well, it was off the street, at least. I put a hand out, and I wasn't that surprised when the doors slid aside for me with a quiet hiss.

The floor inside was white linoleum tile, with white walls and a white ceiling. The lighting was soft and coming from everywhere, which made for a weird lack of shadows. Up ahead of me, I could see a circulation desk, with a computer on it humming softly. Several tables filled the center of the room, each with two computer workstations on them, and there were shelves lining the walls, all full of equipment that flickered on and off with red and white lights.

Only one of the workstations was lit up, and so I headed for that one, sitting down in the chair in front of it. The screen was black with white text, and I made a face as I realized I was looking at a command line system. My father had been a computer programmer, so I knew what one was, but not much else. Still, maybe I could get something out of it?

After a moment's thought, I typed in "menu." The screen flashed, and then a numbered list popped up. Let's see– Mission Statement, Yukihime Units, Project Shi No Otome– ooh, I didn't like the sound of that one. Well, I was here, and safe for now, probably, time to see what all was in here. I selected the first option and started reading.

I'm not sure how much time I spent reading the files, one ear cocked to catch any approaching footsteps, but the more I read, the less happy I was. The computer systems seemed to be for an evil organization, the kind you find in Featherman, called The Chaos Empire. They were ruled or led or whatever by a Dark Emperor, the guy we'd heard about so much from Feather Onnagata– crap, now Buffy-neesan had me doing it!

Lots of garbage about how the world was awful and people were awful and suffering and that the only savior from this was the sweet embrace of death. Blah blah blah, Kefka Palazzo wanted his schtick back. (Tou-san liked retro RPGs, okay?)

Foot soldiers for the Chaos Empire were the Yukihime Units, blonde female androids with blue eyes, dressed in white jumpsuits, black boots, and black bracers. There was a serious "Imperial Stormtrooper" feeling going here. Ray guns in their hands, hand to hand programming, ability to share memory modules. And huh, a caution from the head researcher that they had a tendency to develop self-awareness, at which point they needed to be shut down and mind-wiped before they went… Rampant? What did that word mean?

Whatever. Next level of the army were the Auditors. Or Arbiters, or Whispers, apparently these things had a lot of names. They looked like gray cloaks that didn't have anybody inside them, just floated in midair. Apparently they weren't actually part of the Empire, just allied with it. The entry said something about Law vs. Chaos, and wanting to prevent randomness and decay, but it was really technical and I didn't understand a lot of it. What I did get is that they could basically freeze things, either temporarily or permanently. Wonderful.

And then there were– oh hey, there were the things that had attacked Buffy-neesan and me! The computer files called them "Shadows" and were kind of dismissive of them. There were a bunch of different types listed– the bears were called "Bugs," for some reason, and the green things were Mokoi. Then there were walking plants called Mandrakes, weird ghostly dogs called Inugami, and something called a Pisaca, which looked like a human slug with a mouth that took up its entire torso. I wonder how much salt it would take to kill it?

And Project Shi no Otome, or as English would have it, the "Maiden of Death." I already had a bad feeling about that one, given what we'd heard about me being a "pure maiden" earlier. I opened up the file and yep, I didn't like it. Apparently according to this, I carried a shard of death inside me– or maybe Death, the writing wasn't very clear on whether it was supposed to be a natural force or a being of some kind. The Dark Emperor wanted to absorb it from inside me to get stronger. I was not okay with that, thanks.

Let's see, what else? The city was their stronghold, but apparently their control over it wavered a bit here and there. There were orders to secure the gates against possible invasion by the armies of the King of Ruin– that looked promising. If there were ways to get in here, there were ways to get out, and hopefully back to Buffy. So, the next question was, could I get a map?

The computer beeped softly, and then turned itself off. I stared at it stupidly for a moment, and then I heard the sound of booted feet approaching. Sounded like they were coming from behind the double-doors in the back of the room, so after a second, I grabbed my lacrosse stick and dashed behind the circulation desk. As long as I stayed crouched down, anyone coming through wouldn't notice me. I hoped.

"Has there been any sign of the maiden?" a female voice asked. It was oddly pleasant, except for the lack of inflection. It wasn't quite like a text to speech program, but close.

"There has not," an almost identical voice replied. I was getting the feeling that the Chaos Empire wasn't big on individuality in the ranks. "We are instructed to start at the arrival site and spiral outward from there."

A soft hum. "Is it possible that the maiden can leave this layer?"

"Unlikely. No such spiritual power has been detected. Any exit would need to be via gate, and those are currently guarded."

"And what of the entity self-identified as 'The Slayer?'"

"The entity was left in the Light Layer. It will continue its progress to the Garden and exit, as normal. The Maiden is none of its concern."

I had to bite my lip to stop myself from yelling at that. Buffy-neesan had held onto my wrist for as long as she could. She wasn't– she wouldn't abandon me here. But I wasn't a damsel in a tower, and I wasn't just going to wait around to be rescued. I needed to get out of here and get back to her. Then we could get out of this place together.

I forced myself to stay quiet as the two robots went out the front door of the library, then made a dash towards the double doors in the back of the building. I'd try finding a map or some other way of locating the gates through there.

And maybe see about introducing the Dark Emperor to the business end of my lacrosse stick in the process.

Buffy

Weirdly enough, nothing tried to jump me on my way to the garden. Or maybe not that weird– there were the usual spray-painted graffiti symbols all over the place, but while most of them were abstract squiggles, the ones that weren't looked like protective runes to my admittedly inexpert eye. Regardless of what they actually meant, though, I was pretty sure they signified that something with a lot of power had tagged this area as its personal territory, and the little creeps knew better than to mess with it. Or her, if it was this Queen the book had mentioned.

But without interference, it took hardly any time at all for me to reach the gates of the greenspace. And they were, in fact, gates, big shiny ones, made of scrollwork and standing wide open. I was pretty sure they weren't really intended to keep anything out, either, given the gaps in them. Then again, in magic, the intent is the main thing. Apparently Ray Stantz can ward a parking space so tightly, the oogie boogies can't get a finger into it, but that guy's been doing this sort of thing for sixteen years.

Still, the gates were open now, and that pretty much signified an invitation as far as I was concerned. Taking a deep breath, I stepped forward onto the crushed stone path and made my way through the trees.

It didn't take long for me to come to the first junction, which was marked by a statue of a woman. She was dressed in some kind of Greek dress, the kind you see on old pots and stuff, and smiling gently out at the world. In her left hand, she was holding a sprig of holly; in her right was a yew branch. Oh, wonderful, it was a puzzle, of course it was. Like I needed the extra aggravation. Me Slayer, me hit things.

Okay, okay. Holly and yew were both evergreens, but holly represented resurrection, whereas yew was just death. And alcohol, juniper berries came from a yew, after all. So which way did I go? I was looking for a Queen of the Dead, after all… but the book had said she funnelled souls back into the wheel o' karma. Looked like it was holly, then, and hope that the penalty for guessing wrong was just a dead end, rather than the more literal interpretation of that term.

I followed the path along, listening to the sighing of a gentle breeze and the trickling of water somewhere. Or— not somewhere, here, I realized, coming out into a clearing. A fountain stood in the middle of it, with four benches sat around it, facing off in the four directions. Each one had a bare spot on the back, where something obviously was supposed to go. And… yep, standing on the rim of the fountain were four statues, made of what looked like solid glass. Okay, fine, I could play this game.

First order of business, examine the benches. Each one had a compass rose engraved on it, with one of the four directions emphasized. Underneath, in fancy calligraphy, was the inscription "Follow your guiding star." Whatever the hell that meant.

Then it was time to check out the fountain and the statues. The fountain itself was shaped like a globe with lots of bands around it– oh, it was an astrolabe! I'd seen one of those at the Sunnydale Museum once, when we were there stomping out some unrelated badness back in junior year. I'd thought it was really pretty.

Okay, then, time to look at the statues. The first one was a bull with its horns stuck up in the air, like it had just tossed a bullfighter and was waiting for him to come back down and get the point. Then there was a human figure, couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman, with what looked like a jar or an urn on one shoulder, pouring out a stream of water. The water was also glass, which, very impressive.

After that was a scorpion with its tail curved gracefully over its back, ready to strike, and lastly a lion caught in mid-roar, with an incredibly detailed mane. Obviously I had to match each statue to a bench.

Okay, guiding stars and an astrolabe pretty much screamed astronomy or… maybe astrology. Or that weird overlap between the two, there was one. And those four statues matched up to four signs of the Zodiac. But how to get from that to the directions? I didn't know a lot of astronomy, but I was pretty sure those things moved around some.

Calm down, step back, take a deep breath. I didn't think this place would give me a puzzle I couldn't solve– it didn't feel malicious like that. So what did I know about those four signs?

Believe it or not, I sometimes actually do study. (Snyder would have had a stroke from shock if he'd known.) According to Ms. Calendar, astrology is bullshit, but it's systematic bullshit, and that makes it useful in other ways. Labeling, categorizing, or doing symbolic work that acted as shock absorbers for your suspension of disbelief. So I had the basic idea of how this all worked. Taurus, Aquarius, Scorpio and Leo were the four fixed signs of the Zodiac, one of each element. That meant they were stubborn and slow to change, for good or bad. Four elements arranged around a circle… something was nibbling at me about that.

Then I looked at the clear glass and I remembered. The doors, with the altered Halo of the Sun on them, had glass or crystal balls set in them. Clear in the center, and the others around were… completely backwards from the usual compass rose. Except, hadn't I read once that the Chinese put South as up on old maps?

Okay, Leo was Fire, and Fire went in the South. Taurus was Earth, in the West. Aquarius, surprisingly enough, was Air, and went in the East. And Scorpio was Water, and went in the North. Setting the last statue in place, I held my breath.

For a second, nothing happened, then the globe began to spin and the fountain swung out of the way, revealing a staircase spiraling down into the ground. I sighed– nothing could ever be simple, could it? Then I headed off down the stairs.

At the bottom of said stairs, I found a long passageway, lit with bronze lamps that cast reflected light everywhere, resulting in some seriously funky shadows. There were niches in the walls here and there, some filled with flowers, or alcohol, or in one case, a well-worn teddy bear. I winced at that one– it was obvious that the decor down here was funeral offerings, the kind of thing left at graves or those little roadside shrines. I was getting a definite vibe here.

At the end of the corridor, a set of bronze double doors blocked the way. No visible handles, no hinges. The bronze was covered in a relief of flowers, vines, and grapes, indicating a lush garden. No clue as to how to open it.

… Oh man. It couldn't be that easy, could it? Well, I might as well give it a shot, I supposed. Taking a deep breath, I reached out and knocked.

Almost immediately, the door swung inward, revealing a woman with reddish-blonde hair, purple skin, and a dress made of what looked like black feathers. She gave me a warm, gentle smile, a lot like the one I'd seen on the statue in the gardens.

"I am Nyx," she said, voice echoing slightly. "Be welcome in my home, my daughter."

Say what?

Minako

The double doors led onto a corridor, just as white and polished as the library had been. There were steel plates on the walls here and there, displaying patterns and diagrams I didn't understand, and didn't want to take the time to examine any closer. Luckily, I didn't run into any more of those robots, and the doors at the end of the hall led back outside, as much as that meant anything here.

I came out on top of some sort of stage or balcony thing, overlooking more of the city. Right in the center of the view was a building; black, short, and massive. Something about it suggested that it was like an iceberg, with most of its substance hidden underground. Somehow I just knew that was the base of the Dark Emperor. Mostly because it was the only thing dramatic enough.

That definitely wasn't where I wanted to go, but I didn't see a lot of other paths. So I'd head down the stairs, pick a direction and see if walking away from the building got me to one of those Gates sooner or later. Which direction didn't really matter, which was good, because there was no way I could tell one from another anyway.

When I reached the bottom of the stairs, I stepped out into a round plaza like the one outside the library. Except this time, the person waiting for me wasn't an evil Featherman– it was a girl. My age, my height, with blue-black hair and dark eyes. She was wearing a frilly black dress– wait. That wasn't a dress, it was a Sailor Senshi costume. Except instead of white with colored skirt and accents, it was all black.

"You're going the wrong way," she told me pleasantly.

"... There's a right way?" I couldn't help but ask.

She laughed, and it sounded real, not evil or fake like you usually heard from villains. "There is, yes. Like the poet found out, the only way out is down, so far down that you wind up going up."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," I admitted.

Her smile gentled. "I know. But you're on a journey, a strange one, and you need to go through the door ahead of you, not the one that leads back. No butterfly ever crawled back into the cocoon, after all."

Oh boy, riddles. I tightened my grasp on my lacrosse stick, just in case. "Who are you, anyway?"

"Mmm… why don't you call me Venus?" Snapping her fingers, she summoned a naginata, black wood and black steel blade.

"Uh, that makes you look more like Saturn," I pointed out.

Another merry laugh. "That's appropriate too," Venus said. "Come on, sister, if you're coming. If you want to meet your rescuer half-way out of the dark, you'll have to prove you can best me."

Best her? I was carrying a lacrosse stick, that wasn't going to be any use against an actual spear. Except… the reach was the same. Our strengths were the same. And I couldn't forget how the net had sliced through that Mokoi as though it had been a real blade. Maybe, just maybe, I could do this after all.

I came in with a high slice aimed at her head, and she blocked with the haft of her naginata, turning the motion into a loop that came around to go for my knees. I didn't bother to block, just faded back and swung around to go for her left side. She kicked out at my knee, and I just managed to dodge having an inch-high heel driven into the side of said joint.

Cool. Calm. Methodical. I tried to remember everything I've ever heard or read about real fights, which unfortunately wasn't much. She could have finished me off at any time, but she was holding herself back. Not playing with me, she was testing me. So what was it that she wanted to see?

I blocked a strike with the haft of my stick– wait. I kept thinking of it as a stick. But it didn't have to be, did it? This whole place seemed like something out of a dream sometimes, and dreams could be controlled, if you thought hard enough. Maybe, if I thought hard enough…

I stopped trying to whack her. Now I was striking to cut, and I remembered something I'd heard in one of the old samurai dramas Kaa-san had liked to watch. When striking with a blade, you aim beyond your target, following the strike through. Force comes from the hips and shoulders, from speed and flow and movement.

Now we were trading blows and blocks, pivoting around the center of the plaza. I'd fallen into almost a Zen mode, nothing existing but my opponent and the clash of steel on wood. Finally, I spotted a tiny hole in her guard and struck, slicing her cleanly from shoulder to hip.

At which point, she and the naginata puffed into black smoke, which roiled a bit and then came back together. The cloud solidified into Venus, now unarmed, beaming at me.

"Excellent! You chose to fight rather than hide, to stand rather than run. That's important– it's so important. Not just now, but eventually, it'll be important to everything."

"What do you mean, everything?"

"Do you know the Christian story of the Garden of Eden?" she asked, instead of answering me.

"Uh… God made a garden, filled it with animals, and made man and woman, and told them they couldn't eat the fruit of one particular tree. The snake told the woman that it was because God didn't want humans to become like God, and so she ate the apple, and got her husband to eat it, and they got kicked out?"

Venus laughed; not at me, I didn't think. "That's good enough. Some people believe that the snake gave Eve a great gift that day. After all, is it better to live a happy life with no conception that it might end? Or to know your days are numbered, and make the most of them while you can?"

"... My head hurts."

"You're eight, it is a little soon for existential questions," she agreed, sympathetically. "But it's a question you should ponder, eventually. A happy lie, or a painful truth? Which is better?"

She dusted off her hands. "Now. You need to get moving, there's a great deal for you to do. Take that path; it will lead you into the Dark Citadel. But before that, you'll find a gift waiting for you. And good luck, sister." She puffed into smoke again, leaving me alone.

… Well, it was a lead, anyway. I moved in the direction I'd been told, coming at last to a platform that had a naginata stuck in it, blade down like Excalibur in all the movies. Written on the pedestal were some kanji I didn't recognize, but the kana under them read "Ame-no-Nuhoko." The spear Izanagi used to raise Japan from the primordial soup. This was a gift? But…. Well, I hadn't come this far by ignoring good advice. And in all the games, you got a weapon upgrade after fighting a boss, so…

Carefully, I climbed up onto the platform, grabbed the shaft of the naginata, and pulled it free. Then, for no reason I could name, I gently slid my lacrosse stick into its place.

"Thank you," I told it quietly. "You got me this far. You can rest now." I don't think it was my imagination that felt something… oddly approving in the air at that.

I took a few test swings with the naginata, enjoying the balance. This thing was definitely better than what I'd been carrying. So, now it was time to go deeper, and find out just what it was that Venus had wanted me to find.

Onnagata - Kabuki term, specifically a male actor who specialized in playing female parts after it was made illegal for women to perform in kabuki.

Yukihime - Literally "Snow Princess."