"You know why you are here, ko-Roko?" the judge of admissions asked.
Roko stood with as straight a back as a boy of seven sets could manage. He looked the old woman in her eyes, just as his uncle had instructed him before he had been ushered into this large room and been made to stand before these people of such high rank, who would decide the next step on his path.
"Yes, Senja." he nodded, senja meaning 'judge'.
"And why is that, ko-Roko?" she asked, her lips drawn tight and without a sign of humor or kindness to her face. The other eight people on the dias regarded him closely and in silence.
"Because I can make things grow." he responded quietly.
"That is correct, ko-Roko. Because you can make things grow. I have seen it with my own eyes and now you must show the other judges. One of us will become your master and you will become that person's student and apprentice. Your uncle has consented to this, and what is more - it is the Emperor's law of requirement. Do you understand?
He understood, though he didn't like it. His aunt and uncle cared for him and living with them was all that he knew. He worked in the rice fields along side of them in the mornings, and they worked hard. They riddled and sang songs; and in the afternoons he built furniture with his uncle, and then they would sit to eat the supper his aunt prepared in their little cottage. In the evenings, the three of them would go for walks with their neighbors, and the adults would take turns telling stories. On days of rest he would race the streets with his little friends and their dogs through the twisty paths of their village.
He understood that he would have to give all of that up.
"I understand, Senja." he replied.
"Excellent." she said. The other judges, who were seated on their mats which corresponded to their robes of office, hadn't moved the entire time. Roko would have thought them to be carved of wood if it wasn't for their glittering eyes and slow breathing.
The old senja in her purple robe with wide stripes of mauve, reached forward with a copper plate, it's edges etched with vines. On the plate were a handful of different seeds. Roko took the plate as it was handed to him and looked down at the seeds, wishing he had never let it be known what he could do.
He picked a seed at random and held it up, looking at it intently. He took in its details and looked for what he thought of as the spark. This particular seed resembled a tan pebble, pitted in some places and irregular. His felt that leaves lived inside of it, dark green and oval - that they wanted to be born. It was then that he saw the spark. For just an instant, it seemed like a small, gold powderwork exploded at its center. He opened his mouth and placed it under his tongue and closed his eyes.
Roko found himself remembering the first time he had discovered his ability. It had been two sets ago, and he was holding a rice grain up to the sun to look at it. His uncle had been explaining to him that each grain of rice had the potential to become a stalk of plant, and that plant in turn would be able to yield many more grains of rice. Roko gazed out over the field of stalks rooted in the shallow waters and he immediately fell in love with this idea. He asked his uncle if all plants came from rice. His uncle laughed in the deep, rich way he had and explained to him that all plants came from their own seeds and that they sprouted roots and became stems. He called Roko his sprout and the boy had liked that.
It was after his uncle had walked away that Roko held the grain up to the sun and saw it spark. He assumed that it was the light glinting off of the rice and he put it in his mouth, rolling it around and noticing every little texture to it. He settled it under his tongue and when it suddenly began growing roots there, he spat it out and began to cry.
He did not cry as he stood before the judges and felt the seed grow tiny bumps, which rapidly became roots, and he felt those little tendrils elongate to form more tiny roots. From the tip of the seed a stem began to shoot out like a slow moving arrow. He made a sort of kissing face and forced himself not to laugh as the shoot pushed out of his mouth and grew three perfect little leaves, oval and pale green. For some reason, he always felt like laughing as the leaves unfurled in a spiral from the stem. His mouth was starting to fill with roots when the Senja said, "Very good, ko-Roko."
Roko gently pulled the plant out of his mouth and studied it. This was a new plant for him.
"It is called, horenso." she said.
"Horenso." he repeated, mulling the word over in his mind. He liked finding new seeds to try, and on the plate before him were seeds like he had never seen before.
"Another one then." she said. He took a larger one this time and held it up until he saw the spark. He placed it into his mouth and looked directly into her eyes as it began to sprout. This went on one after another, for what seemed to Roko to be the entire afternoon. Every time he took a sprout from his mouth, he handed it to a servant, who in turn, placed it into a small clay pot filled with soil. Although he could not read, Roko had noticed that each pot had a different kanji painted on its side. He also observed that not all of the pots contained the same soil, and he felt that he would very much like to put his fingers in the different soils to see how they felt. By the the time the plate was empty and the servant had potted the last plant, Roko felt exhausted and more thirsty than he had ever been in his life. They let him drink.
The judges remained silent, but looked back and forth at each other nodding. A very tall man in his fifties, with silver hair in a long braid, and clad in a light blue robe with kanji script embroidered all over the sleeves and collar, said, "I will accept him as my apprentice."
That was the day the boy, Roko Yoshiture from the village of Atarashii Mizu, became the pupil of Master Koriyama.
'ko' - little
'Atarashii Mizu' - New Water
the diviners © 2012 blue christian winterhawk
the diviners © 2012 blue christian winterhawk
