"Arvi..."

  Ellissae could not speak anymore. She choked on her name, her words swallowed down by the trembling caused by her silent tears. She had lost- lost her hope, lost her love, lost the only person she ever had in her life in the name of 'family.'

  They could hear the rustle of leaves outside, somewhere in the distance some students said something amongst themselves and hurried away. Everyone was now busy with the approaching thunderstorm, but only Ellissae knew how her heart wailed in the blizzard of her sheer agony.

  Silence bore down heavy on her bony shoulders. Thick, black smoke rose from the ground where the runes had burnt and charred, and within one of the burnt runes were the Luminous Flowers- The Pearly Anthuriums, the flowers that were as white as the snow with lustre of pearls and which glowed fiercer under the moonlight- were now burning with the stench of despair and death.

  "So, this is it?" Ellissae asked herself, her blue eyes set on the dying flowers, as if they were taking their last breath, bidding farewell forever.

  Villaira had conjured those flowers for Arvi back then, they were still children - innocent, guileless and Villaira was still not tainted by her hatred then, not yet blinded by her absolute anger.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Summoning the spirits needed to have a medium, and these flowers were the only things left that were closely-related to Arvi for she had cherished those flowers all these years even when Villaira had shunned her out in a corner as if she were plaque. Seeing them burning into those black flames right now told Ellissae that her last bits of memories were also gone. Her fingers curled into fists at her sides. "Why?" She wanted to ask. "Why would you do this Villaira?" She thought. "Why take away the last bits of her tangible memories from me?!" She wanted to scream, but all that came out of her dry throat was a silent gasp, followed by a silent cry within her soul that no-one else could hear except for herself. She wanted to see Arvi desperately, and probably that is why she couldn't be angry on Villaira in that moment. She had waited, counted the minutes, starved to receive just any words about Arvi's whereabouts. But all she got in the past three months were empty talks about how evil Arvi was. No one could say where she was, but everyone wished her to rot in whichever place she was at.

  "Where?"

  Ellissae finally spoke, her voice so low that Villaira had to strain her ears just to be able to catch what she said just now. She could already see the grim ache etched across Ellissae's tear-stained face that made her own heart twist into tight knots. But she knew it was too late to have regrets. And so, in the dark Secret Chamber through the black smoke that foretold of the dead, she whispered.

  "The Glass Lake Forest."