Kuro: A Land in Eternal Night

Chapter 12.2: A girl named Vannah

When none of the villagers stepped in to take care of me, I was sent off with a caravan to the temple of Tengoku-ji on the Amaya peninsula, home to the Order of Talthys. At the time, the plague left many children orphaned. The Order took care of orphaned girls, saw to it we were cared for and brought up properly.

I was happy because I found myself in the company of a new family. I could eat three square meals a day and be among people I could trust.

The life of an orphan in the care of Talthys was not a bed of roses. It was regimented, and discipline was enforced for all. We rose early, did our chores – most of them taxing physical labor – and read books, memorizing vast tomes and reciting back the knowledge within. The order believed a weak mind was as bad as a weak body, and both needed to be trained equally. I did not mind any of it. Despite the hardship, I felt fortunate.

We ate, slept and said our prayers together. My faith had been shaken by my experience, and I must admit that at that age, I was not entirely ready to accept the Goddess' benevolence.

The Order trained us in the art of Sealcraft. Most found the training rigorous, difficult, and not everyone had the gift. But I was different. I took to it. At the time, we had no idea what was being asked of us, but I enjoyed it, forming seals, learning the art of drawing characters, locking words of magic into little slips of paper.

With the Goddess gone and the Darkness left unchallenged, it fell to Talthys to defend Kuro. Members of the Order found a way to to draw out the Goddess Essence and store it in the seals, imbuing them with Amaterasu's power. By inscribing seals into the paper, the priestesses could store magical effects that could be used at their disposal, giving them the power fight the Darkness.

Gradually, my interest turned into a passion. I was a voracious reader, devouring books, scrolls, anything I could get my hands on. The Order noted my growing passion with a keen interest. They encouraged it, and I blossomed under their tutelage. By the time I was twelve, I was one of the most talented priestesses in the history of the order. I progressed by leaps and bounds. The order kept giving me knowledge and like a sponge, I absorbed it all.

I learned the many kinds of Seals: Protection, Casting, Conjuring. Seals of Effect and Command, each serving a different purpose.

As I mastered the art of Sealcraft, my lust for knowledge grew even stronger. I began to turn my attention to forbidden seals. Seals with powerful effects but terrible consequences, discovered by talented priestesses in the past, but deemed too dangerous to use by the Order.

There was a particular seal I obsessed with, the Seal of Tsukuyomi. Tsukuyomi was Amaterasu's brother. Though related to her, he was fickle, compared to the benevolent Goddess who loved mankind indiscriminately. Neither good nor evil, Tsukuyomi did what suited him at the moment. So it was rather fitting his seal contained an interesting aspect to it. A Command Seal by nature, the Seal of Tsukuyomi allowed a worthy priestess to borrow the God's power, and bind anything under her control for a short time. The time would begin counting by means of a magical hourglass containing sands of one's immortal soul. When the sands ran out, so did one's soul, and payment for the gambit was oblivion.

One night, I sneaked stealthily into the Inner Sanctum, the most sacred place in the temple, where the knowledge of the forbidden seals was kept. Only the highest ranking elders were allowed within the Inner Sanctum and even then, it was only to keep watch. The priestesses guarded the knowledge zealously, but did not themselves partake of it. They knew the dangers of unleashing such power upon the world.

The Inner Sanctum was a large area that was sectioned off from the rest of the temple. It had constant patrols that stopped by on a schedule that changed on a daily basis. The entrance itself was through an arched doorway that stood about twelve feet high and about fifty feet wide. It was not closed, but heavily guarded by the elite priestesses belonging to the first tier, a designation accorded those who had reached a high level of proficiency.

Growing up, we were all taught that the forbidden place was full of challenges, that it had been designed in such a way that entrance would only be possible for the truly gifted or a chosen few. It had been all too easy for me, however. The elites that guarded the chamber hardly felt my approach, let alone notice the high-level seals of binding I had latched onto each of them. Once bound, they stood there unmoving as I slipped past.

I approached the Inner Sanctum with caution. There were seals of lighting, illuminating the room with a soft, steady glow. The musty smell of old books and moldy paper reached my nostrils. How I loved it, the smell of knowledge, kept through the years.

I let my hands wander about, touching dusty books, feeling ancient scrolls. The priestesses had records of the time before Amaterasu's disappearance. The bindings on the books were beautiful. Intricate patterns blended in with ornate materials.

So engrossed was I, in admiring my surroundings, that I hadn't noticed the girl in white who was standing before me until I almost bumped into her.

She appeared to be a girl my age, fiercely beautiful even then. Her body was curvaceous, slender. Long lashes framed beautiful, deep blue oval eyes on a perfect face, with a pointed nose and lush, full lips. Her hair grew long, all the way past her shoulders and tumbled down in dark beautiful curls. There were freckles on her face, though it was most certainly untouched by the sun. I could only imagine how beautiful she would be as a woman. Dressed in a flowing white dress, book held in hand, the girl smiled at me, noticing my surprise.

"I see you've finally made it here," she said, smiled and made a wave of her hand. Then she frowned at me. "But you've made a big mess of things, you know."

She wagged a finger at me as if to chastise me. "You made quite the ruckus getting here. There are other ways into the Inner Sanctum, you know. The High Priestess is going to flog you for this."

I looked at her, completely at a loss for words. I hadn't the faintest idea what was going on, but I had a strange feeling, then and there, that this was fate at work.

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