Upon reaching the bottom of the atrium, Indra had found that in fact this tower was only one, and the temple actually had three. While the one they had started in was the largest, the other two were similarly designed. Further, he found that the bottom of the temple, what had once been the entry way at the surface, had been excavated out into the ground, and down into the water table deep below the desert. The plant life that Indra had found teeming throughout the lower portions of the temple, even in the darkness, had began to make sense. He was thankful for Sakaze, who's mastery of Sunakinesis had made excavating the deeper portions of the temple far easier, able to clear out the giant spaces of sand and debris effortlessly. While Indra could help with puppetry and strings, Sakaze had certainly expedited the process. While they were idealogically in vastly different places, Indra had found a deep appreciation for Sakaze's presence. Where he was hesitant to go out into the world given the risk it provided him, Sakaze was undeterred in being an agent for their cause. In their excavations they had many long conversations about Yuumegure and the belief system they shared, their faith, and the ways they found worship and faith.
The third tower had not yet been fully excavated, but the second tower they'd identified had been quickly identified as not quite as suitable for the use of the people staying with them in this underground haven. The space had been much more archaic, which was already saying something given the age of the temple over all. The walls were covered in religious art work, but there were virtually no book shelves or studies as was the case for the tower they had started in, and he had found that while there were 30 stories in their original tower, this tower had enormous arching spaces between the pathways that resulted in only 12 stores within this tower. Each of the stories and balconies had spaces though that had been clearly been used for some sort of ceremony, with sinks and wash spaces along the walls. As the first tower had become increasingly occupied, with more and more people in the studies and dorms, reading books in the same way Indra had when he was the solitary occupant, he had found himself more and more often within the bounds of this tower instead. This tower had a very active water flow, with many fixtures regularly pouring water out of them into large pools that drained deep into the towers inner workings invisible to the occupants. At the higher levels where the desert heat still penetrated ever so slightly, this resulted in mid-day mists forming from the evaporated water, which lead to thick mosses developing on the walls. Regardless, many solitary hours had been spent standing on the edges of the overlooks, deep in thought over the challenges that laid ahead of them.
Eventually, Indra would begin a slow stride down the winding pathway of the tower towards the central grand hall of the temple. His hands in his pockets, today was an important day. Six people from a small oasis they'd met during a trade outing had spoken of being expelled from their village given their...vocal opinions on the occupancy of Wind Country. Their coming to the temple would bring the total number of occupants in the temple to two hundred people. They were no longer a small outpost hidden in the desert. They were a bonafide village.
The grand hall was lively now. While a handful of the people lived in the top of the tower in the studies and dormitories Indra and Soseki had first discovered, they were primarily people who were often coming and going and didn't want to make the trek up the tower. The vast majority of people had moved down to the lower levels, bringing a great amount of life into the ground hall. The kitchens were alive with family matriarchs who had taken roles of caretakers, others who taught small classes to children no longer able to attend schools. Or simply friends and peers spending lively times together. But as Indra emerged from the hallway from his tower, a hush would fall over the hall. Even as a 15 year old, every occupant of the tower had come to know Indra as their leader. While only a Prism in the formal construction of Sunagakure's branch of Yuumegure, he functioned as this temple's Lucent, and while not all of the new occupants followed Yuumegure, many were in crisis and relied on the wisdom and guidance he was rapidly forced to develop.
Indra would stride across the hall, nervousness bubbling up in his stomach as he felt all the eyes land on him, the conversations dying off to watch him. He would stop in front of a little girl, a 4 year old that had been in the temple for a few months now, her mother and father being one of the first people Indra had personally recruited. Indra had become quite fond of her, and he would pick her up and flip her around onto his back, giving her a piggy back ride as he continued across the room, "You have a big breakfast?"
"Mmhm!", she nodded excitedly.
"Good, me too. We have a big day ahead of us I think.", he whispered to her with a soft smile.
As he approached the small steps leading up to platform, he'd let her down, leaving her at the base as he stood slightly above everyone else in the room. His eyes would scan the room, soaking in all the people. While there were a couple of people out on missions or trades, the vast majority of the people they had recruited, their followers, many of them Sakaze's, but just as many followers for Indra, were in the room now. All of they eyes locked onto him. The nervousness he felt would slowly wane away, perhaps it was Her Light filling him in the moment, but instead it would be replaced with confidence. He would close his eyes and take a deep breath, silently doing a quick prayer before releasing the breath and looking back out into the crowd.
"I am leaving.", he would announce to the room.
