Veila's struggle (part 1)

"No way!" the elder shouted, slamming his hand at the wall of the entryway to his mansion.

His voice was filled with coldness and disappointment, the two emotions that he displayed ever since they bore witness to the mess at the neighboring division of the sect.

"But Master!" Veila protested, raising both of her hands to the level of her hips before bringing them slightly towards the man as if trying to offer an invisible treasure for him to reconsider.

"We are not going to get involved with other divisions!" the elder shouted in the same, cold voice as before. This time, however, he managed to rein his anger in and replace it with simple determination.

The middle-aged man took a deep breath before lowering his hand from the wall.

He wasn't the strongest among the elders. He wasn't even at the level of some of the stronger inner sect disciples… but his anger-fueled slam on the wall still left a huge dent in the stone it was made from.

Veila's elder then moved away from the wall, heading towards his main office located in the middle of the small mansion.

Just like it was the case with the residences of the other elders, his office was out in the open, surrounded by empty space on the carpeted floor.

During normal hours of the day, his disciples would sit around Elder's spot, listening to his teachings or simply cultivating under his watchful eye.

This was what this room was designed for. What its creators didn't expect, though, was how one of its future owners would only ever bother to accept a single disciple, making this room nothing more but a pain in the ass to keep warm in the winter.

Veila's teacher approached his desk and grabbed one of the papers from it. He then turned around and flung the parchment at the girl.

"The patriarch has requested my division to provide a supply and a battle unit," the elder announced. "All the other elders received the same order, meaning, the situation of the sect is really bad."

The elder turned around, giving the girl some peace of mind to look down and study the writings on the parchment.

Veila looked down… only to see the orders exactly as her teacher announced. And to make matters even worse, the document was marked with the patriarch's seal, making it the second most authoritarian form of communication after the patriarch's direct summons.

"They gave the same order to all the divisions…?" Veila muttered, gritting her teeth as she struggled to imagine just how drastic the current situation had to be to warrant this kind of measures.

The divisions within the sects were vastly different. They were nothing more but the shadow of the historical events when the sect's ancestor united several smaller sects by force before giving them some authority back to placate any sort of unrest.

Due to this arrangement, some divisions boasted power on par with some of the outside sects, easily capable of fielding entire armies of cultivators all on their own. Yet, when it came to Veila's division, a relatively young and craft-focused group, a request to field two entire divisions was nearly the same as an outright dissolution!

"I understand that there is a lot on your head…" Veila gulped her saliva down as she raised her eyes from the parchment, still unwilling to give up on her findings.

"You understand nothing!" Veila's teacher flared out. His face twisted in anger that returned when the girl refused to drop the topic that he already gave his ruling for.

"Those raids are a huge damn pain in the ass! And it's near impossible to staff all the units that patriarch asked for!" the elder lashed out, unleashing all the doubts and regrets bottled up in his soul.

The middle-aged man raised his hand to his head as if trying to squeeze his brain out.

"I cannot refuse the patriarch's order unless I want the entire division to be labeled as rebels. And even if I put together all of the cultivators that are in the sect right now, I will come short by half of the necessary number!"

Elder's hand moved from the sides of his head to the front of his face, covering his eyes as he brought his chin up, raising his cries to the skies.

"And that's exactly why we should…" Veila attempted to get some words in.

"This topic is over," the elder announced in a voice that suddenly returned to its former, cold, and emotionless state. "I understand you trying to bring in your crush to this division, I really do," he then added in a voice that bore some hints of… sympathy? "But if that old snake figures out what's going on, then you can be damn sure he will jump on the opportunity to swallow our division without a second thought!"