#to request we turn our very dim string lights in the backyard off

[arlo-venn]

Someone hit Tyrell’s car last night, leaving a huge dent in the driver side door which is now difficult to open :’( The car has sentimental value— it was her late mother’s ❤️‍🩹.

Luckily our neighbor across the street has a camera on her porch that caught it. Genuinely not sure what the car was even trying to do, it was going forward and reversing and changing angles. Almost got my car too, but didn’t. Eventually drove off. Very bizarre. It didn’t even look like they were trying to park or anything.

[ikesenhell]

The Well

The Measurement of Time: Chapter 5. You can find all other IkeSen works of mine here. NOTES:  This was a LiveWrite! Thank you all so much! ALSO: This whole story does not make much sense without the context from To Honor And Protect! Please go back and read that before you proceed with TMOT. Tagging @ikemenprincessnaga at request. Y’all, I am so attached to Toyotomi-Akechi. I love her. She is my child now. 

Sasuke spent most of the next morning in the library, parsing through book after book. After his second shared dreaming experience with Uesugi, he was deeply interested in the data points behind it. Had anyone done a really good, thorough research paper into the topic? It seemed not. That was frustrating. Then again, how could one devise a really proper scientific method to study it?

Mildly put out (only mildly, because that was how the pursuit of knowledge worked--sometimes one needed to recognize a gap in understanding before one could fix it), he returned to the barracks with a few books and settled in at the breakfast table. Tokugawa burst in through the door and shot him a grin.

“Afternoon! Where’ve you been?”

Sasuke really could see a lot of the fabled Masamune Date in Tokugawa’s mannerisms. Historically speaking, it seemed funny. “At the library. I’m doing a bit of light reading.”

A slender hand emerged behind him and peeled a book out from under his stack. Miss Takeda flopped onto the table, a sweet bun in one hand and a grin splitting her cheeks. “This isn’t any ‘light reading’. Do you do math for fun, too?”

Sasuke didn’t know how to respond to that. “Long division could be comforting, I suppose. I rather like going over results from scientific studies.”

Tokugawa snapped his fingers. “You know who you should talk to? They like that stuff, too--”

“Don’t bother yelling. I’m here.” Another woman emerged in the doorway, stretching in her armor. She had sleepy citrine eyes and light brown hair, her hands long and slender. At her waist, two symbols of her house hung: Akechi and Toyotomi. “You’re the new kid.”

“That would be me, yes.” Sasuke thought to stand and bow to her. “Toyotomi-Akechi?”

“Mhm.” She didn’t say much, just skated smoothly across the floor and peeled the book from Takeda’s hands. “Don’t take people’s things.”

“Awww. Don’t kill the vibe.”

But Toyotomi-Akechi fixed Takeda with such a sinister, knowing smile that Sasuke’s unspoken questions faded away. Ah. There was the legendary Akechi smile. The woman flipped the book open. “What are you researching?”

“Shared dreaming.”

“Hm.” If there were questions (and there were, judging by the confused expressions from Tokugawa and Takeda), she didn’t ask them. She just snapped it shut and handed the book back over. “Alright then. I’ll take a bit of looking into the subject myself.”

Sasuke was ready to push half of the books in her direction, but she just shot him a wink and sailed out the door into the backyard. Tokugawa shrugged. “I don’t know where she gets any of her information, but she’s good. I’d just let her do her thing.”

“Fair enough.”

The door opened again, Uesugi standing with her hand on hilt. “Sarutobi.”

“Yes, ma’am?” He’d never called her ma’am before, but it felt impolite not to at this point. Tokugawa choked back a laugh.

“Time for training again.”

“Got it.”

She scowled at Takeda and Tokugawa, who were both stifling laughter. “And you two, while we’re at it.”

“Good luck, Tokugawa!” Takeda vaulted off the table and sprinted out the door with unexpected speed. “Sorry for abandoning you!”

“No you aren’t!”

Uesugi stood, gazing off into space as if a silent audience there saw and understood her struggle. At last, she sighed. “You two, come on. With me.”

---

The dreams didn’t stop.

For the next week, he had a disjointed series of them parade through his unconscious mind. A stone wall, crumbling inward--dark, stately hallways--the faint orange glow of a string of lights, illuminating in patches against columns--quiet whirring of something mechanical--

What was going on?

He asked Uesugi about the first two. Of course she’d had them too. Afterward, they didn’t even talk about it anymore. He would come down into the kitchen at early hours to see her prepping some tea, they’d nod at each other in quiet understanding, and she’d pass him the mug she’d fixed up just for him.

“We should probably notify the Queen,” she remarked once, her smooth voice a thread in the tapestry of morning sounds. As much as the Ishida family line laid claim to being affiliated with the ocean, he couldn’t help but look at Uesugi and think of the sea, too. Uesugi with her ocean eyes of blue and green, her white-blonde sandswept hair, the sharp and soft and angular and rolling parts of her that shaped like the crash of a wave. “She’d want to hear about this.”

“I don’t know that it is entirely of interest yet, aside from being scientifically curious.”

But Uesugi laughed ever so lightly. “I’m pretty sure her whole family line is ‘scientifically curious’. If anything odd is afoot in this city, I’ve little doubt that the Queen would know better than either of us if these dreams are some kind of a portent.”

Admittedly, Sasuke was nervous for other reasons. He still felt that misplaced crush on her Highness. It simmered in him the same way all his favorite questions did. In some ways that felt inappropriate; like a conflict of interest during research, twisting the results ever so slightly in the tester’s favor. It was a ridiculous thought, but he still couldn’t shake it.

Uesugi arranged the meeting regardless. The day of, someone hammered against his door early in the morning.

“Hey there, sleepy!” Tokugawa laughed at Sasuke’s fatigued expression. “Hope you slept well. Uesugi told me to grab this for you.”

“What is it?”

“If you’re in care of us, you have to look like it.” And with that, Tokugawa set a bundle in his arms, shooting him a wink. “Get changed. Your appointment with the Queen is in two hours.”

Confused and curious, Sasuke unrolled it on his bed. Out came a blue and silver uniform. Emblazoned on the chest in shimmering white-blue was the crest of the Nine.

---

The throne room was an informal affair. At the farthest end, a massive window opened out to the ocean, the swirl of waves and distant storms the perennial backdrop of the City. The jet tiles were polished so bright they shone, and at the center, near the wall, was a massive, round, obsidian table. Several stately chairs sat around it.

“Welcome.” The Queen stood as they entered, her sweet smile at home against the waves. “Uesugi. Sarutobi.”

“Your Highness.” Uesugi clasped her fist to her chest and bowed deeply. Sasuke followed suit less gracefully. “We came to talk to you about an odd situation that we find ourselves in. I think it might be something of interest to you.”

She listened with a frown as they laid out the situation: the dreams, their contents, the connected nature of them. After a moment she stood and circled around her seat, pacing by the glass wall.

“My grandfather and grandmother had a very interesting bond,” she noted finally. “They were notable in that not many people in the history of magic--the history we know of, mind you--can both share the same staff.”

“Of course.” Sasuke commented. “Most magic users report that their staves won’t interact well with others. They state that there is odd sparking, resistance, backfiring…”

“Correct.” The Queen motioned to him. “I know your prior employment was involved in studying that. I don’t think your team pinpointed the causes of it?”

“Not yet. We are still formulating theories.”

“It takes time.” She paused. “My point is that it wasn’t just two people using that staff.”

Uesugi frowned. “No?”

“No. Because my grandfather didn’t make that staff--he found it. On the Trinity Islands, as it so happens. It belonged to the same mage that invaded our city. Ergo, three people were able to use it.” She took a moment to consider. “I can’t imagine what my grandparents thought of that, or if it ever occurred to them what that meant, but I imagine that in some ways, they are still linked to that original force.”

Sasuke paused for thought. “So--allow me to base a guess off your previous conjecture--you perhaps believe that Uesugi and I are connecting with a singular force with this creature on the Trinity Islands, the same way that the Lord and Lady Ishida and that Mage connected?”

“That’s my guess.”

“Alright.” Uesugi shifted uncomfortably. Sasuke watched the dim light flutter and play over her severe, beautiful features, and realized all at once--oh. Well that was an unprofessional feeling. “Alright, but here is my question, your Highness. There was a physical object in question when the Lord and Lady existed: that staff. As best I know, there is no physical object in play here, unless I’ve utterly missed something.”

“That’s my question, too.”

All three of them fell silent. Sasuke peered out the window, over the lip of the obsidian cliffs, and realized he could just make out the statue of Mitsunari and the Queen dancing in the surf.

---

Two days later, Toyotomi-Akechi emerged from a downpour in the kitchen, shaking out her boots. “Uesugi.”

“Where have you been?” Uesugi didn’t sound upset by any means. Sasuke had gathered they were rather used to Toyotomi-Akechi’s comings and goings being erratic at best.

“That doesn’t matter. You and Sarutobi should come with me.”

“What?”

But the woman just motioned again and turned back out into the rain. Cursing, Uesugi flung a cloak at Sasuke and donned one herself, racing after her.

They sloshed through the empty cobblestone streets, kicking up water in thick sheets. Thunder rumbled ominously overhead. Taking twisting, labyrinthine side streets, they slid through the curving underbelly of the City with the kind of ease Sasuke had never imagined. And then--

“Here.” Toyotomi-Akechi led them into a little courtyard. Several houses backed up around a circle of patchy grass, a well sitting squat between them. “Down there.”

“Down there what?” Uesugi snapped, squinting down into the well.

Sasuke held his glasses against his face and took a look. Nothing but blackness greeted them. What was he even looking for?

“Don’t look.” Toyotomi-Akechi laughed at them. “Listen.”

He shut his eyes obediently. Was there a point to this? He heard the thunder overhead. He heard the rush of wind and the surging tide. He heard the rain hammering against stone and rooftop and fabric, and--

And he didn’t hear water plinking against water.

“There’s no water in there,” Uesugi murmured. “Alright. So it’s an empty well.”

And at that, Toyotomi-Akechi grinned like a snake incarnate. Stretching out her hand, a flutter of magical lights emanated from her fingertips and circled downward. They watched the dark stones of the well inch by inch by inch--and then, there it was: a strange looking doorway at the very bottom, an ancient padlock holding it shut.

“That looks like a place to get murdered,” Uesugi commented.

“One would hope not.”

“Do you think--” Sasuke paused. “This is a bit of a stretch, but--”

He didn’t need to finish the sentence. Uesugi just turned to the other woman. “I’m assuming you brought a ladder?”

“Brought? No.” But she motioned to one leaning against a nearby house. Uesugi just fetched it herself and lowered it into the well, jostling it a few times to see if it would stick. It did.

“Alright. Sarutobi?”

He swallowed all of his misgivings. “Right behind you.”

“Good.”

They clambered down the ladder and onto the wooden platform. For a second he thought she would try and pick the padlock, but she just smashed her heel through the hinges of the old door and watched it snap loose. There: there was another ladder, leading down into an unknown depth.

Uesugi blinked against the rain and yelled up to Toyotomi-Akechi, “If we don’t return in four hours time, come back and get us!”

“Got it.”

Sasuke waited for her to clear the door before he hopped onto the second ladder and descended. The rain above sluiced through the slats of the wooden door and sprayed him, but he kept his head down as the whole world went dark around him. Down, down, down--and finally his foot met pavement again.

“Alright,” Uesugi muttered in the pitch black. “Give me a second.”

Shhck, shhck--finally her match caught. She lifted it in the dark and found a long-unused torch, and as soon as it went up, they both gasped.

Before them, stretching out into nothing, was a long, dark hallway under the city.