Lucky Prodigy

3: The Power of Ur

^^ the Silver Grove ^^

— James —

I watched disinterestedly though half-lidded eyes as the Miko's followed the first one inside, and helped her up. They bowed in front of me, and saluted in what I supposed was their tradition, placing one fist and one flat palm in front of their (I couldn't help but notice how full and... healthy,) chests.

I recognized the way I meditated when I was not writing the Mantra, and hummed. "So... you are the people who call yourselves Holy Shrine Maiden Miko's... what god do you pray to, I wonder, that you call yourselves so?" I asked calmly.

Ameran, the visibly eldest of them, cleared her throat. "We tend the Shrine of the Sage, Master. The Gods have blessed you, and then us, with long life and power, in return for service."

"Which gods? And what power?" I frowned.

"Well... the Gods? All of them? Maybe only one of them had a hand in your appearance, but they never came forward... and the power of Ur, of course, Master." She closed her eyes, and a thin film of purple energy surrounded her body, then grew into a wreath of flames, close to her skin. The grass around her began to grow longer, the tatami mat thickening in that spot, in response to this energy.

"Ahhh... I see. My Ur gifted you with the ability to manipulate the same power, and you thanked the Gods... or rather, your ancestors, I suppose, seeing as I was in the Spirit World for 100,000 years. How long has my physical body, which I was reincarnated into, been sitting on this mountain?" I asked, looking at her directly as she opened her eyes, breathing heavily.

She looked drained, just from that one action, and I nodded, letting her recover before answering. The act of manipulating the world around you was an incredibly difficult thing to master, and most didn't even believe it possible; still, I'd seen Mika create a pillar of rock with her own Ur, and that was clearly more difficult than growing some grass.

"Master, the truth is, no one really knows how long you have been on this mountain. Underneath you, that Shrine was built on a stone that was cut by mortal hands, so we know that you lived in a castle, and that that stone in particular was saved from the sands of time by your presence, as with our youth; but the '1,000 years' myth has been around since I started apprenticing here, 972 suns ago. My mistress told me that she had been your caretaker for 100 Suns, and then she became a Holy Miko, and then the Head Miko; she served that role for 900 Suns, until she retired, and I became her successor. There are nine statues of nine Head Shrine Maidens who served a total of 1,000 Suns, the position of the very highest honor; therefore it has been, at the very least, 9,972 Suns, plus however much was watched by Shrine Maidens who didn't reach 1,000 suns." She spoke and gestures to nine statues in a U, behind where I'd been sitting in the pavilion, carved from a type of black crystal.

I hummed. "I see... so it's 10,000, and then the Spirit World has <Ten Day:One> Rules... or maybe that's just when I was found, and I was on the mountain for the full 100,000 years?" I nodded. "And you have 28 Suns until your statue is added to that collection?"

She smiled proudly, sitting up straight. "That is Correct, Master!"

"I see... and these other Miko?" I looked at them, and controlled my gaze from slipping down to the very generous exposed cleavage of the form-fitting white robes.

"They are in their second century, having served one century as simple Shrine Maidens, such as that one who was speaking to you without my permission, and then one more as Holy Maidens." She smiled proudly.

"Without your permission? Since when does a being require your permission to speak to another?" I raised an eyebrow.

"I-I only meant that surely you would prefer a more enlightened person to speak to than-"