87 This is a crack house! (1/2)

The high priestess sighed a third time as she walked through the halls of the temple. The fragrant temple, the centre of the entire island, had been her home since the time she was ten. The halls looked pristine and polished, her soldiers had been tasked with its care since the time she had been inducted, never missing a day.

On either side of the hall stood exquisitely carved pillars, each carved with a spiraling form of a Yuda. It was said that the building had taken over three generations to build, and the attention to detail to even the smallest aspect of the huge building had been one of the reasons.

Unlike the other structures that existed on the island, the temple was built on a stone foundation.

Overall the temple was a five storied tower, at the lowest level was the prayer hall. There was never a time when this hall had been seen empty ever since its inception. It housed the priests, who spent all their time brewing the 'elixir', a mystical component that was taken from their Yuda.

The prayer hall was a bland and plain circular room, with a central hall that remained closed to the general populace. The main feature of this room was the massive pool of water in the very centre. The pool was linked to a conduit which was directly connected to the nest that existed below the island.

The conduit allowed for a single Yuda at a time, and this Yuda would then be led directly to the pool's center from where they would emerge.

The priests dressed themselves with the remains of the skin that these magnificent beasts shed, treated with a special concoction whose sole purpose was to calm the creature. They would then milk the fangs of the snake, collecting the 'holy milk' from these beasts that they believed to be their progenitors. At this stage the liquid was at its most potent and only the priests were able to handle them, to the rest the fumes alone would be a terrible problem that could seriously incapacitate them.

This 'milk' then be treated with a collection of other ingredients, certain parts of a sea king were known to be specially useful in the brewing process.

The result of the mixture would simply called the 'nectar' still unfit for consumption, this mixture would be aged and the final result was what was called the 'elixir'.

Above the prayer hall was the prison, some would be of the opinion that a prison at the very heart of the city was a terrible idea, but often times the fumes that existed on the lowest level of the temple would keep them in a permanent state of sleep!

The prison was a simple room, with a horde of cages that each housed a single person, at the very bottom of the cage was an open vent that allowed for the fumes to enter from the lowest level.

This noxious fume could only be diluted at the second generation, if not the third, where the offspring would be capable of leaving the hollow mountain for a small period of time.

Even then they would have to constantly consume the 'elixir' at intervals for the fluid to remain in their blood at an optimum level, if not the only outcome that they could face was death!

The third floor was the priest's barracks, where the scholars of the temple lived, forever celibate.

The fourth floor was the place where the high priestess currently walked, called the floor of the general, it was the place where the leader of the island, the high priestess, lived.

She lived separate from the rest of the priests, chosen from their ranks by her predecessor whom she succeeded at the end of his time.

The priests themselves were chosen from the general populace. When one of the inhabitants saw a 'vision' upon their consumption of the 'elixir' they would be selected as a priest. Returning to the public eye only if they ever became the high priest.

The fifth floor, was a mystery to all but the high priest. Some claimed that it was her private prayer booth where she may drink her 'elixir' and ponder upon her visions in piece, other's claimed that it was the place where an idol of the island's deity was kept.