Week 10: Disturbance
Title: Duty
Author: britedark
Genre: reflection
Universe: pre-canon
Words: 300
Duty
She felt it before it came to her. When she first felt its disturbance, she would have fallen had she not already been kneeling, so powerful was that flare of rage and death on the spiritual plane. Sinking into trance to find the source of that power, she did not then learn what it was. But realization did come-she had sensed this power for years: a dark thread of malice oozing just beneath her conscious awareness.
She was not surprised, then, when the battle- and grief- weary taijiya came to her. She listened to their story of the legendary miko whose battle resulted in the Shikon no Tama, and how the jewel had returned, costing their greatest warrior's life.
She held the jewel in her cupped palms: a dark crystal, glowing black, with hints of light swirling within the darkness. She studied at it, coldness seeping through her thoughts.
Had she been born for this duty, to cleanse this ancient artifact? Was this why the priest had requested her father to teach her the bow? Why her teachers at the temple had occasionally looked at her with unease or pity?
Or was it just chance, of being the most powerful miko the taijiya could find?
It didn't matter.
She closed her eyes. Until now, using her power had often been tinged with awe, that she was allowed such strength; or the warm pleasure of knowing her gifts could help others.
But now, as she felt the musing daydreams of a girl withering and dying, it seemed as if her soul were moving from spring into winter, the purity of her power shifting from the careless abundance of the sakura to the pristine chill of heavy snow.
Duty bound her to the Shikon no Tama-
-Until one of them was destroyed.
Author: britedark
Genre: reflection
Universe: pre-canon
Words: 300
Duty
She felt it before it came to her. When she first felt its disturbance, she would have fallen had she not already been kneeling, so powerful was that flare of rage and death on the spiritual plane. Sinking into trance to find the source of that power, she did not then learn what it was. But realization did come-she had sensed this power for years: a dark thread of malice oozing just beneath her conscious awareness.
She was not surprised, then, when the battle- and grief- weary taijiya came to her. She listened to their story of the legendary miko whose battle resulted in the Shikon no Tama, and how the jewel had returned, costing their greatest warrior's life.
She held the jewel in her cupped palms: a dark crystal, glowing black, with hints of light swirling within the darkness. She studied at it, coldness seeping through her thoughts.
Had she been born for this duty, to cleanse this ancient artifact? Was this why the priest had requested her father to teach her the bow? Why her teachers at the temple had occasionally looked at her with unease or pity?
Or was it just chance, of being the most powerful miko the taijiya could find?
It didn't matter.
She closed her eyes. Until now, using her power had often been tinged with awe, that she was allowed such strength; or the warm pleasure of knowing her gifts could help others.
But now, as she felt the musing daydreams of a girl withering and dying, it seemed as if her soul were moving from spring into winter, the purity of her power shifting from the careless abundance of the sakura to the pristine chill of heavy snow.
Duty bound her to the Shikon no Tama-
-Until one of them was destroyed.