"Who's that?"

"Runs the temple. Githzerai monk. She's obsessed with the Sleeping Man - something about the light of Heaven in the depths of Hell, the surf between the ocean of wickedness and an island of virtue."

"Won't shut up about it," one of the petitioners grunts.

"Exciting. Thanks for the heads up."

"Beats sitting here waiting," one of them says dully.

The temple is large, and while it isn't warm inside, it keeps out the wind.

"Greetings," says the grey-skinned woman waiting inside.

"Hello."

"Go ahead and ask," she says, waving her hand in a come on gesture. "I can't just act on what I already know."

"We want to ask the Sleeping Man for directions."

She nods. "You're not the first," she observes. "But I know what you're doing is very important, and you care very much about it. So I suppose I'll help you - if only because it would be tedious to refuse and then have to be convinced."

She turns, unlocks a door behind her, and strides down the hallway thus revealed.

"Thanks for not wasting time on that then," says Belmarniss amiably enough.

Follow follow.

"Many have sought the Sleeping Man," the Sensei says idly as they walk. "I only let in the ones who I'm going to let in. It's a tidy system."

"How many times has someone been allowed in?" Jojo wonders.

"Counting this time?"

Sensei Dharvana counts on her fingers.

"Twice."

"Who were the other lucky winners?"

Sensei Dharvana smiles thinly. "A lovely girl. Killed rather a lot of people, felt terrible about it. Figured she should try to make up for it somehow, even though she'd been consigned to the Hell of Traitors - that's what this place is for, when it's not taking all comers as it is now. So she tried."

She opens a door. Before them lies an angel with emerald skin and massive white wings, facedown on a plinth in the center of an arched chamber. The Sensei approaches reverently, kneels before the plinth, and takes the angel's hand.

"Now. What did you need to know?"

"We need to find the Knower of Names."

She nods. "He sought the Knower of Places... a fact of which I can't imagine you're ignorant. I shall delve into his mind, and tell you how to find her. She will tell you where to find her sister."

Sensei Dharvana closes her eyes, which glow purple through her eyelids. She's silent for a while, then her eyes flutter open again.

"The ring on his left hand," she says. "It will show you the way."

There's no ring on the angel's left hand.

"Ah... I don't see a ring."

She looks down at his hands.

Then she laughs. "Oh, that sneaky little bitch."

"How dare our adventure in Hell be neither warm nor straightforward."

"Oh, this must be tremendously irritating for you - but it's become very rare that someone gets one up on me. I've learned to savor the feeling."

She shakes her head and gets up. "She's in a cave to the east - go up the slope, then when the path splits take a sharp right, sharper than the actual path, and you'll find her. You'll need this." She offers a single red berry between her outstretched fingers.

Yoink. "Pardon, who is?"

A moment's hesitation. "My previous visitor. The one who took the ring."

"Is this, like, you have a weird curse, or, like, it's the Valsharess and you like drama."

"Closer to the latter. She isn't the Valsharess. I do actually think this works better if you don't know who she is beforehand, and it's not a joke on you in particular."

She considers.

"Technically I suppose I could have said 'she never gave her name', but I suspect you wouldn't buy it."