Silence. She didn't receive an answer. "Are you ignoring me?" her voice sounded hollow, no emotion was transmitted. Like a robot her voice only seemed cold and living creatures would probably get goosebumps hearing it. Yet nobody answered her. The priests kept a steady pace completely ignoring her existence or so it seemed.
*This old woman hates nothing more than being ignored you brats. Who cares about what is going on. Hmpf, let me teach you some manners first* the old woman wanted to stand up to look around and get her eyes out of the sun. All she could see was a blinding white and even though it didn't hurt it was getting annoying. She raised her body, or so she thought, and struck against something solid. It felt like her body gave way and spread out. A feeling she had never felt before. Confused she stopped. Extending her "hands" she touched the surface above her and followed it. It was smooth yet hard and should look like an egg, she concluded.
*This really was way too confusing. Reincarnation or transmigration, lots of blood, an egg shaped prison and a sun so strong that one was unable to see anything no matter the direction ... Wait, that doens't make any sense. The direction should make a difference and if there is sun, there should be heat, yet it is freakishly cold and the prison didn't seem to have holes. Where does the light even come from?* The more she thought about it, the less she understood, but at least it seemed more interesting than a hospital. She wasn't bothered by the cold while a human would have died from it and while she was mentally confused and angry or rather annoyed by the lack of control, there didn't seem to be a physical reaction. No fast heartbeat, twitching muscles or an aching face from frowning. *Actually ... i don't feel my body at all. There IS no heartbeat.* By now she was probably losing it. *I'm definitely a new kind of crazy, interesting!* The old lady smirked mentally as her face didn't seem to work. Most likely the worst system error she ever experienced, but since not making progress wasn't a good thing she settled down and tried to sense "herself". Meditation was better than nothing as long as her patience allowed it to anyways.
The first few hours she wasn't able to feel anything and it was getting more and more difficult to stay awake. Time just seemed to blurr and the melody of the chimes seeped into her mind. Her mind was blank, she didn't think of anything and whenever her former active mind tried to resurface it just didn't have the energy to resist the monotonous music. It was like her life force was constantly draining, her mind just couldn't spare any energy to deal with anything else. Unbeknownst to her the temperature kept dropping at a steady rate as a thin missed made its way out of the shrine maidens vessel and spread to all priests. The maiden looked like an angel, absolutely no blemish on hair or skin, just her eyes, apart from a flickering white light, seeemed to be empty again.
Time is a concept only the living can understand. Those who do not need to satisfy needs paramount to their survival also had no use for a concept like time. Did it matter whether or not they slept for a day, a year or ten years? No. The soul in the vessel had not stirred ever since her first awakening. Under the constantly released mist the priests walked on without rest or even shifting their position, crossing dry plains and dying forests. Behind them the ever present trail of blood framed by rapidly drying corpses of men and beasts. Not long ago the progression had crossed the land that would one day become the land of lightning and reached the southern border. A tall cliff seemed to block their way, the waves crashing against the shore below. At the horizon a green dot painted an oasis into the blue desert. The last obstacle before the migration to Gōsutobirejji came to its end. Before they would reach the eternal island where the underground temple was located. The leading priest stepped over the edge follwed by the others. He dropped straight down with no change in expression or posture, even his legs kept walking as if on solid ground.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
A normal person would have died, hit the surface with lots of broken bones and inner bleeding. The priests however landed on the surface as if he didn't just drop down 50m and as the palanquin neared the water it froze solid immediately providing a path for the priests to follow as if everything down to the very temperature emitted by the maidens shell was carefully planned.
The green island was getting closer. Smaller green islands were passed by the priests until they stepped onto the only large island around. This was the first time where a visible change in their pace could be felt. They began to stagger as if their energy was beginning to run dry. The island itself was full of green vegetation, the classic wild jungle one might argue. Those who took a closer look however would realise that the vegetation itself was an abnormality in itself. The ground underneath was dry and black, not the slightest breeze disturbed the leaves, no animal broke the silence. Yes, silence, absolute silence. How could trees grow here, how could the small white lilies that covered the ground, rocks and tree trunks surviv without sun reaching them. The eternal island was an enigma that should never be disturbed.
The blood on the priests robes and feet didn't stain the ground as they made their way across. Instead the red color slowly faded leaving behind stainless white robes while the white lilies they stepped on now stood in a proud red.
The progression stopped in front of a huge rockface in the middle of the island. The same faint symbols that were covering the shrine maidens body covered it. The cardinals body twitched as if trying to touch the wall and disintegrated into grey dust entirely. Not even his robes where spared. The grey particles spread across the markings making them pulse with energy. The rockface opened up into a dark tunnel overgrown with blood red lightly glowing lilies. Their petals fell upon the progression as they passed through as if greeting or testing them.
The tunnel kept them for several hours before opening up into a large cave. Even though the cave was underground and heavily overgrown with all kinds of plants rays of light lit up the end of the cave. The progression madde their way towards the light. Old stone buildings, some crumbled into ruins, stood on both sides of their path until they reached a huge and old stone arc. Directly behind this work of art a bridge led over a chasm.
On the other side a large stone coffin inscribed with symbols that might have once been a language stood on a round pillar produding out of the endless darkness. Right behind, carved into the rockface, stood a temple like structure. The architecture was beautifully carved and not even a scratch could be found on the stone, only plants seemed to be tolerated on the structure. The middle of the temple reaching all the way up to the ceiling was different. The wall seemed to break away into nothingness emitting a ghostly blue flame that was especially prominent in the eye sockets of a face carved into the rock in the middle of the structure, staring at the coffin below. Slowly the priests made their way over the bridge and finally lowered the palanquin to the ground. 5 priests stepped forward and began to push the heavy rock cover on the coffin. Stone grinding on stone reververated through the cave as the coffin was opened. It was empty except for a carpet of white petals.
Another 3 priests closed in on the shrine maiden as they carefully lifted her stiff body while the other priests passed them and formed a circle around the coffin. The priests lifted the soul vessel into the coffin and slowly forced it into a lying position. The soul inside could not be hurt no matter what nor was it allowed to wake up. Everything was done as quietly as possible as the 5 priests who opened the coffin went ahead to close it over the resting body inside.
The very second the cover shifted back into place all priests disintegrated into the familiar grey dust that stuck to the inscribtion and activated a ghostly glow that pulsed across the entire coffin.
The peace and quiet was restored. The Migration to Gōsutobirejji came to an end.