In one large shared room in one of the buildings of the shrine, fifteen or so maidens slept in rows stretching horizontally across the room. Sunlight began to creep in, accompanied by the cawing of birds.
Takae was shaken awake by the girl beside her. She sat up, her eyes still drowsy, and stretched with a yawn.
Yuriko was sleeping soundly beside her, and the same maiden who had woken Takae offered to wake her as well, but Takae insisted that she spare herself the headache.
After waking Yuriko, she went to wash her face. Once she did, she stood there, lost in thought.
"Today marks the end of our first month here," she thought. "I don't know about everyone else, but I'd say we've been accepted by most of the maidens already."
"Good morning, Takae," a maiden said as she walked by her.
"Good morning," she replied.
"Do you want to go get breakfast with me?" the girl asked with a bright smile.
"Sure."
As the two walked together, Takae couldn't help but drift back into thought.
"This place... so far we haven't found anything outwardly suspicious, but I still feel like I'm missing something."
Even as she ate, that thought continued to trouble her. She only occasionally looked up whenever someone greeted her or wanted to ask her something.
After they finished eating, all the maidens gathered in the main hall of the central temple, where they performed their early morning rites before dispersing to their assigned duties. Takae, meanwhile, headed straight for the mail room.
In the Ember Shrine, maidens often stayed within the confines of the shrine for months or even years at a time, so a special mailing system had been established to help them keep in touch with their families.
When Takae first heard about it, she had marvelled at its ingenuity. Almost every family in the town had a daughter in the shrine, so whether intentional or not, the system greatly increased the town's literacy rate.
Whether it was simply to greet their daughters or to ask them to pray for a specific matter, families now had an incentive to learn how to read and write.
Of course, incentive alone couldn't fund the townspeople's education, so in most households only one or two members would learn to read and write before passing that knowledge on to the rest of the family.
It was therefore only natural that the mail room was perpetually crowded, with lines stretching well outside the building.
One had to wait in line simply to confirm whether or not a letter had arrived, and disappointment was common, but Takae still waited patiently.
It had become a pattern for Miyuki to send them a letter at the start of every week, updating them on any major developments on their side. So far, however, nothing significant had happened.
Once her turn finally came, she asked one of the maidens in charge of the mail room whether a letter addressed from Kanami Shio to Takae Yamada had arrived.
Sure enough, it had.
She left the mail room with the letter and made her way to a secluded corner by the northwestern end of the compound that she often frequented. There, she checked to see whether anyone had followed her, and once she confirmed that she was alone, she opened the letter and started reading it.
She skimmed through it quickly, only pausing over the major points hidden within what appeared to be ordinary household remarks.
It said that, so far, Lloyd had also made little progress in uncovering any suspicious activities related to their search within the Doshin, but there was no immediate risk of his cover being exposed either.
Once she was sure she had understood everything, she lit a spark by clashing her nails together and set the paper on fire. She made sure to keep the flame controlled as it consumed the letter, and once it had burned away completely, she buried the ashes before leaving.
By then it was noon, and the compound was alive with maidens scurrying to and from different places as they carried out their various duties.
Takae was passing by the central temple when everyone around her suddenly came to a stop. She turned to see that it was the Shrine Priestess, Sayo Kiyohara, accompanied by her personal guard and two high maidens.
Everyone in their path bowed slightly until they had passed, then quietly returned to whatever they had been doing.
Takae kept her gaze fixed on the priestess as she walked by, but she never returned the look.
As they passed, Takae thought to herself,
"The upper echelon of the maidens and the Shrine Priestess... Why is it that they are so obscure and rarely even make an appearance in the central temple unless there is a major ritual?"
"I can't help but feel suspicious, but I don't have any proof to back up this feeling yet," she thought as she rose and walked away. "I shouldn't jump to any conclusions. I'll just watch and see what happens before the others about it."
"In the meantime, I'll just tell Yuriko."
From there she headed to the laundry grounds, where she and Yuriko had been assigned under Leina.
Their routine was simple.
Wash, rinse, dry, hang, and repeat.
It was so monotonous that it was practically torture for Yuriko, who was constantly complaining about it.
The advantage of this assignment, however, was that people were always chatting, making it an excellent source of information.
Thanks to all the chatter, the two of them had learned a lot about the shrine's inner workings in such a short time, though most of it amounted to little more than meaningless gossip.
As they worked, Takae found herself absentmindedly watching Leina.
"Our senior sister," she thought. "Thanks to her, we've avoided any major slip-ups so far."
A faint smile crossed her face.
"She really is a good person," she thought. "I didn't want to drag her into this if possible, but she is one of the longest-serving maidens here, so eventually we have to learn as much as we can from her."
As she stared at her, she noticed Leina suddenly turn her head, so without thinking, Takae did the same.
Her eyes met one of the high maidens. To be exact, it was the same one who had guided them on their first day and introduced them to Leina.
Behind her stood a timid-looking girl who seemed to shrink behind the high maiden. Even so, she stood out because of the small bells attached to her hairpiece that chimed softly against one another with every movement.
The three of them paused as the two approached.
"How is the work going today, Leina?" the high maiden asked in a much more casual tone than the one she had used when the two girls were first brought to her.
Takae took note of the difference, and so did Leina, though she simply replied politely,
"Our work is going pretty smoothly today."
"And your juniors?" she asked. "Have they been causing you any trouble?"
"None so far," Leina replied with an awkward smile.
"Good. Then you won't have a problem if I add you one more," the maiden said with a smile.
She turned to the girl behind her.
"No need to be so shy. These are your new sisters. They will be taking care of you until you can get by on your own here."
The girl nervously stepped forward, the bells in her hairpiece chiming softly.
"H-hello... My name is Taki Y-Yoshiko," she said with a stutter. "Since you're my new sisters, you can just call me Taki."
The three of them introduced themselves as well.
Then Yuriko said,
"What a strange hairpiece. I never would've thought to put bells in mine."
The girl lightly touched it.
"Oh, this? It's because I used to hide and get lost a lot as a kid, so my mother told me to always wear it so she could find me around the house."
"I've gotten used to it, so I don't take it off very often," she continued. "The people I know also say the familiar sound reminds them that I'm around since I don't have much presence in any room."
"You don't have to worry about that here," Leina said with a reassuring smile. "But that doesn't mean you should take it off."
"Thank you," she replied quietly.
"I'll take you to get a new set of robes and show you where the sleeping quarters are," Leina said before turning to the two of them. "Can you two wrap things up here?"
"Way to ditch work again," Yuriko said with a pout. "You really expect us to finish all of this?"
But by the time she finished speaking, the two of them were already gone.
All she could do was clench her fist with an annoyed look.
Takae turned back to her basin, the steady rhythm of the routine slowly pulling her back into her thoughts once again.