When Leon came to, the first thing he noticed was that his body ached. It was a painful sort of ache, like echoes of a trauma that had been far worse to his nerve endings, the type that would make one glad to be or fall unconscious. His left arm felt heavy, constricted and the majority of the discomfort seemed to be coming from it. He also felt as if he lacked some ability to move.His vision was fuzzy, his gla.s.ses missing and all around him seemed quite white, although he could tell he was lying upon his back. His throat was quite dry, longing for a drink to soothe it. With a slight frown, he turned his neck to one side and there he saw a blur of colour.
"You"re finally awake!" The clearly feminine voice sighed with relief.
"Maimai?" Leon croaked slightly, before swallowing, drying to ease the dryness.
"Oh! Let me get you something to drink!" He heard the sound of water filling a small vessel and the soft shimmer of silk rustling as the colour began to form some shape before his poor vision. "Can you sit up?"
There was some struggle as Leon summoned the strength to raise his upper body enough that he could drink without the water spilling everywhere. After most of the cup was emptied, he lie back down with a relieved huff. "C-Could you p-pa.s.s me my g-gla.s.ses?" He asked her.
"Oh, they were broken," Maimai admitted. "Smashed beyond repair this time. So I took the liberties of purchasing a new pair. Hope you don"t mind!"
His vision cleared as the new frames settled upon his nose. "I will p-pay you b-back," he told her, earnestly. But she waved her hand in dismissal.
"No need," Maimai looked a little shamefaced. "I"m partially responsible for what happened, so let"s forget it!"
"What exactly d-did happen?" Leon asked, his memory vaguely recalling last that he was attempting to make an unfamiliar pill, but beyond that...
From what Maimai advised him, he was the victim of a prank gone horribly wrong. His Master had left him instructions to practice forming a pill, but those were switched with a false recipe. That recipe listed half the ingredients of not the White Lotus pill, but a pill called the Seven Lotus pill, a completely different pill that required an adept hand due to its six opposing ingredients and the seventh which would bring the whole creation together.
Leon"s senior had given him the new instructions and ingredients, but he was not responsible for the accident. Hue was a successful alchemist, but very slow of thought and was the type to need clear instructions. However, he also had a retentive memory, so only needed those instructions once. It was just, he never thought too deeply about the fact that the name of the pill did not match the recipe, his trust completely in his Master. He did, however, recall exactly which student had pa.s.sed on the instructions.
That student had dragged several others down into the pit with him once he had realised that they would not escape punishment, clearly not the magnanimous type and Maimai was upset to admit that these students, mostly first years with a couple of seniors who should have known better, were from her father"s sect.
Maimai"s father had several children, most being shu born, though the man never divided his love unfairly between his legitimate and illegitimate children. He also was known to be highly protective of his daughters, thus their future spouses would have had to attain his acknowledgment, something that was worth much more than the wealth he would surely provide for his daughters" dowries. Of course, most standard sect members could only dream of such things, but it never hurt to get on the good side of the sect leader or his children.
When Merylin and Maimai enrolled in the school (with several sect members who saw their opportunity to shine), the sect member students saw their chance to not only get close to the two girls, but prove their worth to the sect leader by "protecting them" from "undesirable elements" or at least that was what they told themselves. They could not accept the fact that "outsiders" were becoming close to their Lotuses.
Of course not all of them were so low as to bully and prank, Justin, for example chose to directly confront Jin Li who he felt was trying to take away the girl he held affections for. Others simply took a page from Merylin"s book and chose to try to impress with their talents. So it was a minor few who were lowering the reputation of the sect with their disgraceful actions.
"They panicked when they realised what had happened," Maimai mentioned, as she continued to explain, her tone clearly unhappy. The prank had left Leon wounded and unconscious and he had been sent to the Healers Hall. "They didn"t expect the recipe to blow up in your face, just expected the pill to fail and herbs to be ruined. They were trying to get you into trouble for wasting valuable herbs. But when the accident happened, they stole away the note and the leftover herbs before running away. They are in detention, waiting for punishment at the moment."
"Ah, Leo, you are awake!"
Leon glanced behind Maimai, who turned towards the speaker. The man was a robust looking individual with a really long, grey beard, but lacking hair upon his shiny head. He wore robes not unlike Leon"s off-white linen ones, but his rounded stomach protruded over his belt. He approached the bed Leon was lying on, nodding to the girl sitting beside him.
"My name is Quint, I am one of the Healers of the Inst.i.tute," he advised Leon. "You experienced quite the backlash during that incident. There was some damage to your internal organs and your left arm was broken, the rest was superficial surface wounds." He went on to explain that Leon had consumed two Blood Pills over the two days he had been unconscious and that his arm was wrapped in Fox Bandages as it was not good to consume too many healing pills in a short frame of time, so his internal injuries had been prioritised first.
While he was speaking, he placed his fingers upon Leon"s wrist, taking his pulse for a fresh diagnosis. Afterwards, he stroked his long beard with his fingers.
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"You should be fine to take a Bone Replacement Pill now," the man said, leaving the room and patient to go and get one. As he opened the door, he almost collided with a couple of students in the hallway. "Take care, there!"
"My apologies, sir" came the response, which caused Leon"s brows to rise in question.