34 Ceremony and Ball- Speeches and Spirits

The ceremony was about to begin. Everyone had taken their seats except for the six seats that were placed behind the podium, where the heads would come up and do their speeches. Once all of the seats were filled, the entire room was called to stand up. The Sergeant at Arms then banged a staff on the floor to draw the rooms attention directly to the empty seats.

"Now announcing the arrival of Princess Aria Seriantil." The room erupted in applause as a small child was escorted across the stage until she was seated in the smallest of the chairs. The Sergeant continued. "Now announcing the arrival of Prince Frederick Seriantil." This time it was a boy who looked like he was maybe ten years old came to fill the seat closest to his size. This went on for two more people, another Prince who was probably a teenager and a Princess who looked to be about Sarah's age.

Then the King and Queen were announced. They were King Victor and Queen Amibia. Once all of the royal family were seated, the actual ceremony was commenced. Every single person that had passed the Tag Advancement Exam was called by name up on stage to receive their new tag. Since we were the new silvers, we went first, ending with me. Every single head of their specific job gave their speech directly after greeting the royal family and receiving the blessing to begin.

"Good morning, my King and Queen." I gave them a bow and then greeted the younger children. Once I had finished with the greetings, the king gave his blessing for me to begin my speech.

"Good morning, everyone!" I began by greeting the whole of the room. "Today, I come to you as the head of the alchemist job for the new silver tags. I'm supposed to talk to you about overcoming." I looked down at the audience keeping eye contact with them and scanning so that they knew I was paying attention to them. "Today, I am supposed to talk to you about overcoming adversity. Well, I have overcome adversity, the proof of that is that I am standing here talking to you today."

I took a moment and looked down at where my friends were sitting, I glanced at Tim, and he motioned for me to continue. "When I first got here, as many of you know, it was shocking. To come here from another world, to leave your family behind, and not know anyone. Well, I was a little too shocked. I wound up being the last person in my entire group of travelers to pick my job, and I wound up being an alchemist." This time I swiveled my head to look at my Master.

"When I began learning what that meant, I was not happy to be an alchemist. The only skill I knew was how to dig a hole quickly, but through my efforts and the efforts of my friends, I grew that skill into something useful. I overcame my shortcomings, and now I am here representing the alchemists of this country as it's silver tagged head, and I could not be any more proud to be an alchemist than I am right now." My Master gave me a slight smile.

"My point is that every single adventurer, traveler, and person has had to overcome some kind of adversity in their life. But it has lead you here today, today you have accomplished more than some of you ever thought possible, and you should be proud of where you are now, and to be of service to this great nation!" I ended by thanking the audience for their time and thanking the royal family for their time as well.

The Ceremony continued with lots of speeches and fanfare. I made my way back to my seat and waited for the ceremony to conclude. When I got back to my seat I felt the familiar hand on my shoulder, and Tim whispered in my ear.

"I told you you'd do great." I smiled but didn't look back at him, so it appeared that I was paying attention to the speeches and names being called up on stage. It all lasted another few hours, and I think everyone was relieved when it was finally over. We filed out of the room by rows and were told to enjoy the palace the view of the palace while we waited for the food to be ready for the ball. I met up with my other party members, and we all talked for a little while.

They all congratulated me on my speech, which I didn't feel was particularly great, but I hoped that it made a good impression on the high ranking people in the room. Jake walked up and asked if Grace would like to take a walk with him, which she accepted. The others decided they would go and do their own thing for a while as well. So it was just Tim and me now.

"You uh... wanna go see the gardens?" I asked him; he smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, that sounds fun! Maybe you can even sneak a few seeds away." He winked at me, and I rolled my eyes. There was no way that I would risk stealing from the royal family, even if it was just a few seeds. We walked in silence for a while before we reached the garden. There were so many unique plants there that I had never seen before. Bright flowers, some that even seemed to radiate energy. I even recognized a Daysprinkle on the far side.

There was a small cobblestone walkway with grass and flowers on each side for us to enjoy; there were also some very interesting topiaries carved into the shape of men and women doing battle. I decided we'd go over to the Daysprinkle and enjoy the shade.

"So, are you having a good time?" Tim asked me.

"Yeah! I really appreciate your help with my speech, by the way." The Cleric told me it was no trouble and that he was happy to help. We sat down under the shade of the tree, and I touched the bark.

"Hey there." I began talking to it; Tim looked at me like I was going crazy.

"What are you doing?" He asked I told him to shush and watch. I went back to talking to the tree.

"Do you know Shina? She's a good friend of mine who entrusted me with one of her seeds." The leaves clinked in the wind as if to respond to me, and rainbow colors of light started to swirl around us, reflecting off of each leaf.

"Wow, that's incredible!" Tim called out; he was smiling from ear to ear while watching all of the colors around him.

"Your friend has good taste!" I was almost shocked to hear a voice coming from above us. There was a green man who I could tell was definitely the spirit of this tree. The man leaped down from his perch on the tree, landing gracefully in front of us. "So you know Shina, huh? How is she doing?" I told him about how I had met her and that she was doing pretty well despite the increase in goblin activity in the area.

"So you're a friend to the spirits! It's refreshing to see someone like you out here. I mostly just get visitors from the gardeners or the Queen." I thanked him for coming out to see us, and he thanked me for letting him know about his friend. The spirit nimbly jumped back into the tree and disappeared. Tim was impressed, I could tell, it was his first time meeting a dryad, and I was glad that I could help do it for him. He wasn't the only one impressed, however, for there was another person who had been watching the scene from just a little far off, and she was now walking towards us.

"Excuse me! Alchemist, Cleric!" We were so shocked to see the Queen walking towards us with two armed guards. We both hopped to our feet as quickly as we could and offered her a deep bow.

"Good afternoon, my Queen. It is a pleasure to see you looking well today!" I said the words that were drilled in my head by the etiquette teacher. She smiled down at us kindly and told us to raise our heads.

"I was just curious who my dear Florin was talking to. He doesn't usually come out for strangers, after all." I explained to her that I knew one of his old friends from the forest. "So you must be a friend to the spirits then if you are able to get not just one but two dryads to come out of hiding and speak to you. Consider me impressed alchemist." I bowed my head deeply and thanked her for her praise.

"You know my husband might be interested to meet the young man who talks to the plants. Would you like that? Your lover may come too if you wish." Our eyes got wide, and we both turned a few shades redder, but neither of us corrected her. She didn't need to be corrected, though. Based on our reactions, she could tell that she had misspoken. "Or your friend, my apologies, I just assumed based on such a romantic location." We assured her that it was ok, and I introduced Tim as my date for the day.

The Queen smiled and thought to herself that she wasn't too far off then. She gave us an invitation to approach both her and her husband at the ball tonight. I didn't think that I could have had any more luck than I did at that point. It was precisely the kind of thing that I was hoping for, to curry favor in the royal family meant that there was a chance that I could protect my own family.