Bhavakari left the darker room of the Principal. The room was in a closed space; natural light didn't properly reach inside, and the bookshelf covering the windows didn't help the situation.
Hearing the name Sir Vyas from Bhavakari, Viriya stood there with widened eyes, looking at the Principal.
The Principal asked, looking at Viriya, "Want to tell me anything?"
"No!" Viriya was a little startled hearing that.
"No, just looking at the books," saying that, she walked out of the room, which was almost like running.
Bhavakari was waiting outside for her. As soon as Viriya came outside, Bhavakari said as she started walking, "What? Why were you waiting in there?"
Viriya, following her mother, said, "Was looking at — what too many books could look like.
Who has this much time to read?"
Bhavakari didn't reply anything about that; she just kept walking forward along the corridor, and Viriya kept following her, passing by some students along the way.
On the way, against a pillar on the side of the building, Nrit was sitting. One of his legs was on the grass outside, and his cane was resting beside him.
When Nrit noticed them, he called out to the person sitting across from him, leaning against another pillar, "Hey, your assistant is here."
The man— professor Shokre looked back. He had a rectangular face, and blue-greyish eye. He was wearing glasses, and his clothing was white with some stains on it. Looking back, he said, "You already met my letter friend, Nrit." He was holding a paper and a pencil, which he kept on the ground while talking to them. On the paper, it seemed like an unfinished portrait of Nrit.
"Yes, met him at the carriage.
Yeah, he must've already told you that." Viriya replied politely.
Bhavakari was a little ahead; she stood there looking towards them.
Looking at Bhavakari, Professor asked, "How are you?"
"Yes, just dealing with her antics." Bhavakari said, nodding slightly towards Viriya.
"Well, yes, she can be a handful. That flower is from—
Upavana? right?"
Bhavakari nodded hearing that.
"How was Upavana? Anything else new from there?" The man asked.
"Not much, other than this, Professor." Viriya held her wrist up to show the pendant.
"Hm, okay.
Jarikat didn't come; maybe start working today, after whatever you are doing now?" He said, laughing.
Viriya was surprised. Looking at her face, the Professor said, "Don't worry, just joking. Come on your next day of work.
Working alone is a pain in the mind anyway."
"Yes, sure, yes." Saying that, Viriya went towards Bhavakari, who had already started walking again.
Not far from Nrit and Professor Shokre, they entered a hallway. A young adult man was sitting on the floor in front of a large metallic door.
He stood up when they came closer. He could have been a student, but most likely was not. His clothing was much more casual and comfortable than the students'.
Bhavakari, walking forward, said, "Hi, how are you?"
The man replied, nodding once, "Good, how about you?"
"Life just keeps flowing, like forever." Bhavakari replied with a sigh. Then she continued, pointing at the container Viriya was carrying, "We need to put the flower underground."
"The flower? Is that any part?" The man asked.
"The Palm," Bhavakari and Viriya both replied together.
Hearing that, he looked at them both, then took out a monocle exactly like the Principal's. He put it on his eye, and after fidgeting with it a little, he took it off and it evaporated.
Viriya, seeing that, asked, "What was that?"
"It was just a replica. Of Sir Vyas's real one." He replied, taking out another one from his pocket.
"Can we go in now?" Bhavakari asked during the silence between them.
"Yeah, sure, let me grab a light."
He grabbed a spherical object wrapped with a thin layer of cloth. With a key, he opened the door. Inside, after closing the door, the object was lit, but at a very low light level. They started going down curved stairs from there. After going just a little way, they all heard a shout. Viriya wasn't sure who it was, but it sounded familiar.
The shout continued for a while, then stopped. Bhavakari, hearing that, stopped for a moment and said, "Please get Viriya and Her Palm towards Her Breast and guide her," as she started going back up at a faster pace.
Viriya was a bit agitated hearing the sound outside, but decided to follow whatever Bhavakari had said. After going a little more down, they heard a small commotion outside, which stopped pretty quickly.
The man was unusually calm. Noticing that, Viriya asked, "What is happening up there?"
"You know as much as I do about that.
It doesn't sound like too much of a problem; it seems to have stopped or lessened."
Viriya looked back at the dark stairs, then forward, no light at either side. After going down a little more without talking, Viriya noticed that as they were going down, it was getting hotter and more damp. The place smelled like damp cloth, or more precisely, old damp plants or wood.
Viriya saw some vein-like substances wrapped around the walls and stairs. As they went in even further, those were even denser. When they finally reached the bottom, the man said, "Here we are, at Her Breast —" cutting himself off, he asked, "Wait, have you been here before?" He held the lantern near Viriya's face.
Viriya just replied, "No," looking around at whatever she could see. They were standing on the vein-like substance; the ground was spongy but sturdy. Upon closer look, those were coloured faded red and blue. No mixture of colours.
Viriya asked, "Where do I put it in?"
Walking a little forward, he crouched and said, "Here."
It was a straight, or circular, or most likely octagonal pool of white flowing liquid, with swirling red bits that weren't mixing together. In the middle of that, there was an island-like place, which was made out of those vein-like structures, but thicker than the ones outside.
On there, Viriya could observe one mushroom the size of her head, and maybe one more which might have just been a part of the island, pretty hard to determine.
Then she asked, "Should I drop it in the liquid? Or on the island?"
"Anywhere should be okay; I'd suggest the pool."
Hearing that, Viriya also crouched down. The container was made of brass, and on top of it was a cage-like structure, which she took off.
Before taking the flower out, she asked, "Should I put just the flower in, or the water with it too?"
"Just the flower," he said, standing up. As he stood up, looking at the vein-like structure under their feet, he mumbled, "The purple mycelium is always uncanny."
Viriya looked at the man and said, "Purple? But it's just faded red and blue? Separately — purple?"
"It's vibrant purple. Yes, some places are faded, almost white, but it's purple." The man replied without much thought.
Viriya looked back at the mycelium. For her, it was faded red and blue. Without dwelling on it further, she gently took the flower out. As she placed the flower in the white-red pool, she mumbled, "Take rest here, I guess."
Then, standing up, she said, "Now let's go outside and see what happened there."
While going up, the man asked, "Left handed?"
Viriya was carrying the brass container with her left hand. Hearing that, she switched the container to her right hand and said, "No, it's just more stable, I guess."
"I am left handed, see, carrying the lantern with my left hand."
Viriya hadn't noticed till now that the man was carrying the lantern with his left hand, but recalling the whole situation she remembered the man opening the door with his left hand, holding the lantern with his left hand, sitting outside leaning left — which could just be anything. She said, "Yes, I didn't notice."
"Yes, it's a really minor thing after all."
Both kept walking up. They passed by the start of the mycelium on the stairs. Eventually Viriya again took the container in her left hand.
When they were more than halfway up, they heard some talking, a commotion. Viriya quickened her pace hearing that, and the man followed behind with the lantern.
When they reached the door of the underground chamber, there were some metallic plants in the shape of two palms. Seeing that, the man was surprised, but he didn't wait there observing them. As he was opening the door, he wasn't as surprised as before.
After opening the door, there were more plants like that on the ground, made out of concrete. The plants were slanting forward, and had two different cluster lines of them, like two thin carpets made out of plants.
When they were outside, the sound of people was clearer, but it somewhat sounded like a chant more than anything.
The man decided to wait at the door instead of going with Viriya.
Viriya followed the plant carpet trail, which was leading towards the voices.
As she went closer, the sounds became clearer. Some people were chanting it without any coordination,
"Beloved human
You may never re-born
The World shines when
Only be back then."
Hearing that, Viriya was a little creeped out but slowly kept going. The path, which had surely not taken this long before, was feeling longer.
When she finally reached the end of the plant carpet, there were students, professors, and some other people, all gathered.
And against the pillar — the pillar where Nrit had been sitting, smiling, talking to his friend Shokre before — he was still sitting there. His cane was nowhere to be seen. In his hand, he was holding a paper, the paper with a half drawn picture of him. And he was maybe slowly chanting the same thing.
Viriya slowly went ahead, cutting through the crowd. In the middle, Bhavakari was sitting, and in front of her, Professor Shokre was lying down. Around him the same plants had grown. Some vials were also scattered around him. There were other people too, but Viriya didn't pay attention to them.
Along with the chanting, she stepped back and went towards Nrit. "What happened to the Professor?" Viriya asked, stuttering.
Nrit looked at Viriya, and after looking at her for a while, he said, "Heart—. His heart stopped. Right there." He said looking at the pillar where professor Shokre was sitting.
Viriya, hearing that, rushed back into the crowd. She sat down on her knees after moving the empty and full vials aside. She quickly checked his pulse and breathing. After finding neither, she looked at the emotionless face of Shokre, then put her right hand on his chest. She went to push once, then stopped. Then slowly started pushing in rhythm. With one hand it was awkward and she wasn't getting full control. While she was doing it, Bhavakari did say something to her; Viriya, intentionally or unintentionally, just tuned her out in that situation.
The brass container still in her left hand, she almost like threw it to the ground, then braced her right hand with her left.
Taking a deep breath, she pushed on the middle-left of his chest, on the usual heart position. The push seemed a little too easy, like pushing against something spongy, or just paper. That easy push caved down, like thin paper or fabric getting ripped by an arrow. It was like loose sand with no structure. With a loud crack, Viriya's hand was touching the ground through Professor Shokre's chest. A sharp metallic smell was spreading everywhere.
Professor Shokre's white clothing wasn't white anymore near the chest; it was dyed crimson. It wasn't only the clothing that was soaked — Viriya's palm was soaked in still warm crimson blood.