The Elder's Hall of the Fiery Lotus Institution was one of the largest gathering spaces within the Institution, second only to the Cultivators' Ground that was used to awaken the young cultivators at the Awakening Ceremony and to hold the yearly Swordmanship Contests.
The Hall had several rocky pillars tightly hugged by the intertwined vines and creepers that grew from their bases and stretched all along their lengths. The ceiling was a vast stretch of a hand-painted constellation - The Eternal Blessing. It was the Guardian Constellation of the Cultivation World and the Mother of the Sky that looked down at the world with her radiant smile and promised of flourishing prosperity. It was the largest Constellation that appeared only once in every three hundred years and when it did appear, the entire night sky would be illuminated so bright as if all the candles of the earth had been lit up at once to put the sky on fire. The walls of this great Hall was adorned with many other hand-paintings, wall-carvings containing ancient mantras and sutras and an array of charcoal-colored candelabras.
The end of the Hall had a heightened platform on which was resting a Shivling with a Serpent around it, both carved out of a single rock. The various garlands surrounding it was changed on a daily basis, and offering incense sticks was a part of the everyday morning prayers.
The floor of this Hall was an enclosed space filled with sloshing water, containing a rocky trail through it used for the purpose of walking. Out of all the major Institutions for Cultivators, The Fiery Lotus Institution was the only Institution conjured on the mountains, surrounded by the mountains and supported by the mountains. So water bleeding out of the heart of the Institution from here and there was not a rare sight. But what was different about the waters of this Hall was that the floor was adorned with the Thousand-Petal Lotus that never ceased to burn in the White Flames.
This was the name and symbol of the Institution, Fiery Lotus, specifically derived from the representation of the two Masters of the Institution- Master Thane, the purest Fire Elemental of the Continent who had conquered the fiercest of the flames - The White Flames, and Master Zachar - the greatest Earth Elemental who had mastered even the toughest of the plants like the Thousand-Petal Lotus itself.
But Ellissae already knew all these, didn't she? She knew how this Institution accepted students of all elements unlike the other Institutions that focused on only a single Element. She knew all these because she herself had studied there for all these years, for this Institution had been the home for an orphan like her, for this Institution had given her the only friend that stood by her side.
Arvi.
Just the mere reminder made her tremble and her step faultered. Villaira was shocked, because she had never in her life seen Ellissae faulter. And yet here she was, like a prideful mountain that had been worn down by years of weathering and erosion, like once a gigantic tree but now eaten inside out by insects.
Both haultered outside the Elder's Hall. Without any words spoken, a silent tremor crossed both of them together. And then they stepped inside.
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As expected, both the Masters were already there. Master Zachar didn't acknowledge their presence and continued to speak to the few students gathered around him whereas Master Thane just stood in a corner, his eyes fixed on the wall.
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Conditions within the Institution had changed drastically after the Battle - the Battle of Oblivion on the Oblivion Mountain three months ago. Why Battle of Oblivion? Because the Mountains that once held the beautiful scenery, where Earth and Sky had seemed to touch each other at the oblivion was drowned in millions and millions of Spirits and the Miasma of Decay so thick that even after three months of the gory war, no common person can go there without the certainty of losing their lives, not a single low-level cultivator could be rescued from there with their sanity intact and no high-level Cultivator could cleanse the Mountain even after exhausting all their prowess. So the entire mountain had been sealed off from the outside, with thousands of Cultivators emptying their Cores just to sustain the demonic spirits inside.
Did this affect all the other Institutions? Yes. Then why was Fiery Lotus, the greatest of the Institutions, had suffered this much?
Arvi.
Ellissae knelt, Villaira froze. Master Zachar sent off the students, his comforting eyes now held only bitterness.
"Master, Arvi's corpse is in the Glass Lake Forest."
Tears rolled down Ellissae's cheeks but her eyes stayed on the floor.
Arvi. She had called those spirits back then on the Mountain of Oblivion. She had turned the paradise - like place into a living cemetery, wrecked havoc throughout the Continent, killed so many people that not enough place was left for their pyres to be burnt individually. She had ripped off flesh from bones, drank blood with her bare hands, danced while she burnt village after village and then, when humanity was at the end within her palms, she had lost her own sanity, cried like a dying animal and ran off like a maniac.
"Master, please don't!"
Ellissae heard Villaira's cry beside herself as she felt Master Zachar's thunderous slap across her face. Ellissae fell back from the sheer force but immediately regained her posture and knelt once more, head lowered.
She was silently begging.
"How dare you?!"
Master Zachar shouted. No one would have believed that this man, who had literally brought up the students of the Institution like his own children, the man who would put his own life on the line to keep his students safe, could even raise his hand on any of them. But that's how he had become now- eyes filled with distaste and disgust, his entire form trembling from the efforts of refraining from slapping Ellissae again.
Villaira's wide eyes were now filled with tears, and she too now was kneeling beside Ellissae. And just when she was contemplating of the pros and cons of speaking without being asked, a movement had captured her eyes.
Master Thane.
Arvi had seduced him, drugged him, slept with him and yet he was there to protect her from her own evils. Master Thane loved Arvi the most, and being left betrayed by her had left him to be like a walking corpse, the usual fire of his eyes bled out until they became bleak, his tall frame now shrunk like a decaying trunk.
But now he had moved, a familiar spark within his bleak eyes had flamed up just now. And Villaira knew this was the chance.
"Master, I'm certain of her location."
She pleaded, her heart thundering against her ribcage.
Moments passed by until it turned into a full, heavy minute.
"She is our greatest disgrace." Master Zachar mocked, disdain dripping from his tongue.
"She was also my greatest honour, my only direct disciple, my sheer pride." Master Thane countered, the weariness leaving his form like how a withered branch comes back to life after surviving the harshest of the frosts.
"There was nothing I could do to bring her back alive." This was true, because after the Battle, Master Thane had been in complete unconsciousness for over 45 days and when he did come back to his senses, he had searched for Arvi like a madman. And in each day that he couldn't find her or even trace her location, his recuperation had drifted away from him inch by inch farther.
"Disgrace or not, Zachar, I will bring her back."
Ellissae looked up now, her water like blue eyes still on Master Thane.
Eleven years ago, Master Thane had brought Arvi into the Institution. She too was an orphan like Ellissae. And she'll never forget that little Arvi she saw that day - clothes torn into rags, skin lined with dirt, garbage knotted in her curly hair and still, her smile was so bright that even from a distance Ellissae noticed her innocent charm.
"Even if it's her corpse," Master Thane spoke, his Fire Sword materialising beneath his palm, "I must bring her back."
