A fuss and to-do
Dear Diary,
When we got back, Dusty was riling people up. She’d spent the afternoon at the archivists and she said she met the archivist of love, one of them fellers who studies how people act when they get together. She joked that Geoffry and me might want to go ask him some questions, but Geoffry whispered in my ear that he’d rather learn with me than ask anyone else, and besides we got them books that Aphrodite (girl not goddess) gave us if we want to learn something new.
I blushed at that and was ready for Dusty to tease me on it, but she’d already picked her next target. She told Dorothy that the Love Archivist had told her that Dorothy was betrothed to someone else. Well, that brought out a real to-do: it turns out Dorothy was going to be married to this feller as part of a ritual to bring back gods, she was gonna have his babies and then get sacrificed and they was preparing her for that when we met her back in the crater. She said she was happy to be with us now, but soon after she went off to her sleep cubicle to be all alone and she stayed there the rest of the night.
I reckon Dorothy must be awfully lonely. I mean, we’re in a strange place with strange customs, but at least we have other people with us who know our ways. Dorothy is the only one around from her home and there ain’t nobody around who knows how she grew up or the foods she eats or the gods she worships or anything. Oh, she’s got Hank for funning with, but she ain’t got anybody she can even talk her own language with. I tried to imagine how I’d feel if I was here in Nihon all alone, without Geoffry or Dusty or anyone, and I realized how hard it must be for Dorothy. I’m gonna have to make an effort to be extra special nice to her tomorrow cause I’m thinking she could use a good friend around about now.
After a bit, Lady Michi came back. She’d been sent for by Prince Nobunga, and he’d done something terrible to her because she was hurting all over and even bleeding. Geoffry fixed up the physical damage pretty quick, but her heart was still hurting. Seems that Prince Nobunga had gotten much worse all of a sudden, that his wife was in town and he’d gotten more beastly. Everyone guessed that maybe the dark presence that Dusty saw in him might get stronger when his wife was around. We decided we had to do something.
Dusty went off and got a message to Prince Yoshimune, the Monk Prince. He’s gonna bring his mind-walkers to town to see if they can do something about that dark presence. But it’s gonna be a few days before he can get here.
Meanwhile, we’re gonna hunker down and keep everything safe. But we’re worried that maybe word will get out that we know about Prince Nobunga, and someone might take offense at that and do something about it. We reckon that’s probably why that samurai was slandering Dusty and all, but since that didn’t do them any good, who knows what will happen next. It sure is troubling, and we’re gonna keep a watch tonight and sleep with our swords handy.