Chapter 35, Shrine Maiden

"Sylphid! Sylphid!" I called out Sylphid's name as I stood at the place where she brought me. "Sylphid! Sylphid!"

"Who goes there!" A voice suddenly shouted and I jumped back and my hands are on the ground.

From the shadows, a young lady emerges. With sky blue hair that reaches her feet, skin as white as a cloud and eyes like the azure skies. She was dressed in a shinto-priestess attire, no a shrine maiden attire is probably more accurate.

"Etto, who are you?" I asked.

"I think I should be the one asking that." She said as she glared at me. Why do I feel like she a storm is brewing behind her?

"Arata or Argent. Feel free to call by any of the two." I stated. "You are?"

"Alicia Grace." She said as she stepped closer. "Why have you come here?"

"Etto... Sylphid... right! I'm here to see Sylphid!" I answered.

"Hmmm... are you perhaps... interested in joining us?!" She asked with a bright smile and immediately c

grabbed my hand. "This way. This way. I'll take you to the registry!"

She drags me to the front and opens the door and I realize that this is a shrine. Is it a shrine to Sylphid perhaps?

Suddenly, the winds began to blow from inside the room and at the front Sylphid emerges.

"Oh, Alicia, you're back." She said and our eyes met. "Master, what brings you back here?"

"Master?" Alicia asked.

"Sylphid, I wanted to talk about something with you." I answered.

"Go on." She asked.

"It has relation to the Sacred Flower, can we talk about it here?" I asked and she narrowed her eyes at me.

She turns to Alicia urging her to leave. Alicia nods and leaves the room. She snals her fingers and the winds broke egan to blow rapidly and soon a wall of compressed wind had surrounded us. She then nodded to me.

"The Sacred Flower has been passed down through countless generations, right?" I asked and she nodded. "Each time a new Flower emerges, they come to visit you right? To learn about the past?"

"Precisely. I, Sylphid, am the one who unite the past." She said. "Is there anything else you need to ask?"

"You said you unite the past, does that mean that you literally oversee the past memories?" I asked and she nodded. "Then, can you read a person's past?"

"Yes. I can." She answered. "Why?"

"Can you show me my past?" I asked.

"Very well." She said. "But why?"

"I've forgotten it. Everything about my past." I told her. "Please show, my past!"

"Very well. Then let us depart into the depths of your mind." She said and suddenly a sword appeared before her. "This is Memoria, the blade of Memories. Your memories have not been lost, they are inside you, sleeping within the depths of your mind."

She brings the sword closer to my forehead and the moment it touches my head everything that I forgot return to me and plays out before my eyes.

The days I soent with my parents, the times when I was alone, the times when I was with Theo. Everything has returned to me. I've forgotten so many things but thanks to Sylphid I remember them all.

We come back to reality and I stand there for a second before the wall of compressed wind begin to dissolve.

"Thank you, Sylphid." I thanked her.

"Don't worry about it." She answered and Alicia enters the room.

"I've been meaning to ask, what is Alicia?" I asked, I sense a large amount of Vi surrounding her.

"Alicia is the Priestess of the Wind." She answered. "There are many similar to her in the worlds, they serve certain entities."

"A Priestess..." I stared at her.

"She possess the ability of the Elemental of the Wind. There are a few more who serve Primordial Beings like me." She said. "If you meet with the others you're bound to meet people similar to Alicia. In my case, I found Alicia when she was a child and I decided to raise her as my own."

"What are priestesses exactly?" I asked.

"We serve the Spirits and do their will, Lady Sylphid serves as the guardian of travellers, my job is to greet and pray for safe travels for travellers." Alicia puffed her chest. "I may not seem like it but I'm pretty good. Despite our shrine's state right now we have a good reputation."

"I can tell. You are surrounded by so much Vi, you must be extremely skilled." I answered with a smile and looed around the shrine. It wasn't exactly in good condition. "Is business not going well?"

"Lately people haven't been visiting the shrine as much as they used to." Sylphid stated. "And the owner of this land isn't vwry forgiving and wants us to give him the shrine."

"Is there anything I can do to help?" I asked.

"Don't worry about it, he is nothing to us." Sylphid smiled as she patted Alicia's head. "We can handle him. I haven't showed him that I'm the Ancient Spirit Sylphid yet."

"Okay, but if you need my help, contact me via this Mirror." I siad and handed Alicia a mirror and suddenly I hear the voices of the others calling me out. "Oh, it looks like my friends are here for me."

"Arata, if you want, I can wish for your safety!" Alicia smiled and I smiled.

"Thank you." I told her. "We'll be leaving tomorrow, please do come meet us there at the port."

"Okay!" She smiled.

I left the pair and joined Theo and Will who dragged me back home. At the inn I tell the others about Sylphid and the things we discussed because apparently Theo and Will saw Alicia and they asked what I had to do with her. When I told them about asking for Alicia to send us off they smiled and agreed to my idea.

The next day as we were at the port, we waited for Alicia and after twenty minutes of wiating she arrives but she's panting and sweaty and her clothes are a bit messy. She has been running. Is something wrong?

"A-Arata, please, help Lady Sylphid!" She suddenly exclaimed.