My mouth fell open, and I was silent with shock as we all got off the carriage. I looked up with wide eyes at the festival banner. The words, in this world’s language, simply said “Temple Festival,” but the logo beside it was what had caught my eye.
However, after walking closer to it, I saw a lot of differences. The letter “A” was actually just a triangle, though it was made of brown vines and green leaves, just like in Adventure Incarnate. The letter “I” that I saw from the carriage window was likewise not a letter but rather a wooden branch. The painted illustration was that of vines encircling a temple shrine.
“What is it?” Prince Baiyu asked.
“I’ll tell you later,” I murmured. “Can you discreetly find out who made that banner?”
He gestured to one of his guards and sent him off to inquire about it. The prince guided us from the landing area to the temple guesthouse, where we waited for the others to arrive.
The mountain temple complex was the Fox clan’s oldest and most sacred one, the site of many miracles where the fox goddess had once lived with her human acolytes. Only the outer temple, where this guesthouse was located, was ever opened to the public. Today was a special tenth-year celebration, which ant that at noon, the goddess’ shrine would be taken out of the innermost temple for a parade where the onlookers would presumably be granted blessings of good fortune for the next ten years.
Since the temple’s patron was a solar deity, the parade was during the day. When the sun set, according to local folklore, phantom foxes, known for their illusions and trickery, ca out to join the night festival.
At the inn’s courtyard, we t Shuye and his wife, along with so other people from the White Tiger clan that we knew, like the Commander, so ssengers, and guards from the Ancient Hill Forest area. The vibe was convivial, with everyone wearing colorful festive clothes and masks.
When the others arrived, we all went to the temple to pay our respects as a group. Due to the antiquity of the place, the stone steps leading up to the temple were worn down in the middle. The holy building itself was a nine-story pagoda made of wood, and visitors were now only allowed on the lowest floor to reduce the wear and tear on the ancient structure.
The main hall was dominated by a ten-foot-tall statue of the Fox goddess, whose lowest parts had been worn smooth by the touch of the faithful. I felt a little nostalgic since it reminded of my parents. My dad was fascinated by churches, temples, shrines, and other historical religious sites. I couldn’t even rember how many temples like this that my parents and I had visited over the years.
I, as the head of the Emberstone Farm household, set down a small wooden box full of silver coins in front of the statue. This served as a donation for all of us. The hall was full of devotees, so we had to wait almost an hour before a priestess, dressed in red and white ceremonial robes, led us to an inner room where we could get our fortune told. I opted for the simpler lottery machine, but the others all went to the altar with the fortune sticks since that was what this temple was famous for.
The fortune-telling device was the sa as the one in Hongzhen, a tal cage containing a lot of wooden balls inside like a bingo cage. I turned the handle a few tis, and a ball dropped out. A priestess twisted it open, revealing a wooden charm the size of my thumbnail.
[Fire Charm:
A small wooden charm with the Fire symbol carved on it.
1% Elental Fire Damage]
“You’re in luck, this charm will protect your ho from fire for the next year,” said the priestess.
“Thank you!”
She handed it to , and we bowed to each other.
I stepped to the side to let others try it, and I watched as everyone else had their fortunes told.
The thod was surprisingly similar to what was done in Chinese temples back on earth. People knelt in front of an altar and offered lit incense sticks before shaking a bamboo tube containing dozens of bamboo sticks with numbers on them. When one of the sticks fell out, the person then took it to the interpreter, who consulted the temple’s oracle book for the deity’s answer. Then the numbered stick was taken back to the altar by a priestess for another person to take a turn at fortune-telling.
It took a while for the fortunes to all be read, and by the ti we were all finished, I was raring to go.
“For good luck,” I said to my staff as I handed out strings of bronze coins. A string wasn’t very valuable, and could only buy a cup of tea or a bowl of rice, but they were said to bring good fortune to both the giver and receiver. “See you later!”
We went our separate ways. Mo and Kharli went together, and Lari took off to have fun with Deming’s assistants. The maids went one way, the couples ford pairs, and the rest of the staff either went alone or in small groups.
I took my prince by the hand and followed the crowd, who were all on their way to the Fox clan’s village. The temple complex had austere, no-frills guesthouses for nobles, but ordinary folk could stay at the village near the temple that had sprung up to take care of the needs of the pilgrims.
“There are more people here than I expected,” said Prince Baiyu. “I thought everyone used up all their available funds during the demon war.”
“It's nice,” I said.
There were enough people around that it was lively, but not so many that it was crowded. Every house in the charming little village was decorated with flowers and colorful banners depicting whatever service they were offering, from tiny bakeries that were selling sweet pastries to a cobbler who was showing off his wares like mountain hiking boots and ladies’ silk slippers. The village square was also full of rchants who had co here to sell their goods. So had tables, but most had spread blankets on the ground on which they spread their rchandise. I was glad I was wearing pants since I frequently had to crouch down to view the items closely.
Of course, I pigged out on the local delicacies even though they were nowhere near as good as Deming’s food. I also bought a bunch of hairpins and hair ties for my boyfriend, and he did the sa for .
By mid-morning, I had gone through all of the stalls and decided to return to the guesthouse to rest, eat a proper al, and get into place for the noon parade, which was the highlight of the dayti festival. I planned to nap after that to have more energy for the night festival, which lasted throughout the entire night and only ended at dawn.
Indeed, as we were shopping and eating food from the stalls, most of the talk around us was about the people preparing for the much more exciting night activities.
Back at the inn, I washed my face and tidied up my hair in the room I was given. A single, low wooden bed, little more than a platform, occupied one corner. It was covered with a cotton mat and a neatly folded cotton blanket. There was no other furniture except for a small table and a single wooden chair, but it did have a large window, which was a big plus since the view of the surrounding mountains and forest was spectacular.
When I exited the room to rejoin the others, I found a Fox clan mber waiting for in the corridor. She was wearing red robes and the ubiquitous fox mask. I knew she was from the temple since she had white ribbons tied to her sleeves, which served to mark the festival workers.
“Lady Violet, it’s ti to go to the temple to prepare for the parade,” she said. “Please co with .”
“Okay.” I followed her down to the lobby, which was empty, so I left a note on one of the tables to let the others know where I went.
She led through back alleys and side paths to one of the smaller buildings in the temple complex where I was given a small bowl of purple rice and stir-fried tofu and vegetables to eat as they brought out a few festival robes for to choose from, explaining that I could take whichever I picked ho with .
These must be the “limited-ti outfits” that the quest ntioned!
They were all made of silk and embroidered with fancy motifs. Though they weren’t really my taste, I couldn’t resist the idea of acquiring items that could only be gotten during a ten-year festival. Therefore, I made another donation of silver coins and bought all of them.
My choice of what to wear during the parade was a wide-sleeved, cross-collared, ankle-length yellow silk gown worn with a red overcoat that had an eight trigrams and yin yang symbol motif at the back. It was surprisingly comfortable, but the sa could not be said of the shoes. They were the traditional shape from hundreds of years ago and had high wooden heels along with curled-up toe caps. It was horribly impractical.
“Don’t worry, Lady Violet,” said the attending priestess. “You won't have to walk at all if you don’t want to. I’ll reserve a flower chair for you.”
I heaved a sigh of relief. “Thank you, that would be great.”
They led outside to the inner courtyard, where there was organized chaos as everyone took their place, the goddess’ shrine in the middle on an ornate wooden platform carried by a gaggle of young Fox clan mbers wearing shorts and sleeveless cross-collar tops.
“Please sit here, lady,” said my guide.
The “flower chair” turned out to be a sedan chair with a cloth canopy covered in flowers. Though I was to be carried in the chair by the sedan bearers, I still had a role to play. A priestess gave a short staff with eight bells attached to it and directed to shake it whenever the others did. She told that the sound of the bells would ward off evil spirits.
I sat back and waited. Soon, the parade started, with all the participants, around two hundred of us, streaming out of the temple doors and into the open space in front of it where a small, temporary platform had been set up for Lady Hoshi’s dance. The shrine circled the platform three tis before it was set down in front of it, and the temple musicians started playing their instrunts as the little girl took center stage.
The festival attendees were lined up on either side of the platform, but unfortunately, I was positioned at the back of the parade, and couldn’t see the dance very well. From what I could tell, it consisted of a series of slow, dramatic gestures, with much stamping of the feet and jumping around.
I clapped with the audience, and then Lady Hoshi got down and led the parade out of the temple grounds to the village below. I sat back on my chair and enjoyed the passing scenery as the parade went down the mountain stone steps. Occasionally, no doubt at so predetermined interval that I couldn’t figure out, the priests and priestesses would take three baby steps forward, lift their right arms, with their left arms holding their sleeves back, and wave a sort of ceremonial whisk-wand back and forth left and right three tis.
As we went down the mountain, a new shrine, carried by colorfully ribboned n and won, would join the parade from ti to ti, until there were dozens of deities in the parade. So had veiled statues, but I spotted many unveiled fox god and goddess statues of different colors and aspects. The most common ones had sheaves of rice piled in front of them, but there were so warrior statues that were armored and had their teeth bared in a snarl. The devotees carrying the shrines often wore clothes with striking motifs like foxes, waves, clouds, lightning, and so forth.
Halfway down the mountain, the musicians struck up a lively tune on their flutes, drums, and sistrums while others clapped in ti to it. I joined in the clapping and wished my prince was beside to enjoy the spectacle, too.
So it went until we reached the village square. There, to my surprise, a hush fell over the crowd, and the villagers and visitors all prostrated themselves. The priestesses rang their bells, so I shook my bell staff, too. In eerie silence, we went back up the mountain to the temple where, once again, the audience prostrated themselves as I and the others rang our bells.
The parade ended at the inner courtyard. The shrine was taken back inside to its regular place, and I got down from my chair. I thanked the bearers for their work and tipped them a generous amount of silver.
I said goodbye to my guide and returned to the inn.
“Teacher, did you see?!” Mo was waiting for right at the door. “Lord Shuye and the others said there were real deities in the parade!”
User Comments
0 comments from readers