8 Chapter Eight: Elemental Miracle

The Coming of Age ceremony was held the following day at the temple. It was held twice a year. Once in the middle of winter and once in the middle of Summer. The ceremony was attended to by all the children who had turned 10 years old since the previous ceremony was held.

Celeste was escorted off the family carriage by her brother, Chris. The skirt of her white ceremonial dress fluttering around her ankles. They were followed by their parents and were shortly joined by King Albert, Queen Elizabeth, Prince Theodore and Princess Amelia. Once the formal greetings were out of the way, Prince Theodore and Chris swapped places quickly so that Prince Theodore could escort his fiance. Their parents were currently in discussions regarding a possible engagement between Chris and Princess Amelia and so far the pair in question appeared agreeable.

Once inside the temple, each person dipped a hand into a small glowing pool of golden liquid placed in a stone basin. They touched that hand to their forehead and heart. Celeste could feel a lightness flow over her body. It felt like her soul had been purified.

Prince Theodore then escorted Celeste to the seats in the front. While the ceremony was held with the lowest ranking citizens first and the highest ranking ones last, the seating arrangements were held in reverse. The highest ranking citizens sat in the front and the lowest ranking ones in the back. As they neared their seats someone rushed out from the front row to intercept them.

"Theo! I'm so happy to see you again! I've missed you so much!"

A pink haired girl blocked their way holding one of Prince Theodore's hands tightly between both of hers. Aqua eyes fluttered pink lashes up at him. Prince Theodore swiftly removed his hand from hers and loudly called for the clense spell on it.

"One, that is no way to greet a member of the royal family. Two, I have not given you permission to address me as such. Three, if I am not mistaken, you were seated in the Royal seats and you are not a royal. Four, I have no idea who you are and why you would miss me. Five, as the entire Rosevelt Kingdom is aware, I am already engaged and happily so at that."

Prince Theodore's face and voice was the coldest it had ever been as he glared at the pink haired girl blocking his way. The only time his voice softened was when he turned towards his fiance on mentioning her and kissed her hairline as he finished. The soft look in his eyes and the sweetness of his kiss made the girls in the temple sigh in delight. The affection that the Prince held fornhus fiance was well known in the Kingdom.

Only the pink haired girl glared at Celeste with hatred until Prince Theodore turned a cold face back to her and then she switched her face to innocent sadness.

"You don't remember me, Theo? We met at your tea party four years ago and instantly fell in love. Your horrible fiance has been bullying me all this time, preventing us from meeting again."

"I'm sorry, are you referring to me? Have we ever met?" Celeste questioned confused.

"Apart from the fact that you addressed my brother informally again, you're accusing the sweetest girl in the kingdom of bullying? Who is this crazy person and why hasn't she been seen by a doctor? Somebody please remove her from blocking the path way. The ceremony will soon be starting and you are delay us from being seated." Princess Amelia tartly interrupted from behind her brother and his fiance. She snapped her fingers and two guards came to escort the struggling pink haired girl away.

" Don't be too disappointed at your lack of elemental magic, Celeste. Remember, you're the villainess of this game! I'm the heroine!" The crazy girl yelled back at them as she was pulled away.

"Hmmm, was that the Voltair girl that snuck into the tea party four years ago? What was her name again?" Celeste mused as Prince Theodore led her into a seat.

"You're guess is as good as mine, Celeste. Was it Hannah or Molly or something?" Prince Theodore answered.

"Holly... I think. Not that it matters. She's as crazy now as she was back then." Chris commented as he sat Princess Amelia beside her brother and then sat next to her.

"That was some sortbof crazy all right." Peter commented from behind them. His younger sister, Sylvia nodded in agreement. Beside her sat another girl. Celeste recognised her as Hughes sister, Angela. Hughes sat on the other side of Angela.

"Pay that crazy girl no mind, Celeste. We all know you'll have elemental magic and probably more powerful than the rest of us." Hughes added.

Celeste smiled at them grateful for their support. "Thank you, but I'm not worried. Whether Carrion chose to keep my magic as the game Lady Voltair mentioned originally intended or if he has changed it for his own wishes, I will be happy, either way. I have enough magic to suit my needs, regardless."

Prince Theodore smiled wryly at that. "Whatever happens, you are still my fiance and after tomorrow's ball, the official Crown Princess. I won't abandon you, and I doubt Carrion has either."

Ignoring the people around him, Prince Theodore wrapped an arm around Celeste's waist and pulled her closer to his side. Celeste could only lean her head on his shoulder in response since trying to hold it away from him at that angle was uncomfortable. She blushed at all the cooing tbat sounded out around them. Strangely, the sound of soft growling also drifted to her ears underneath the cooing, which left Celeste confused. Turning her head slightly, she was shocked to see the pink haired girl from earlier glaring at her angrily from a few rows away. Celeste turned back to front deep in thought as the lowest ranked children came to the stage to begin their Coming of Age Ceremony.

There were fifty lower ranked children from the normal citizens to get through before they began the ceremony for the lower ranked nobility. Groups made of ten or less completed each ceremony at a time. A boy in the last group of ten in their ranking left the stage happily having unlocked both water and light. He was apparently the son of a local doctor and was excited to follow in his father's footsteps. Celeste clapped along with the others as the last ten children left the stage.

The next stage contained children from nobility of Baronet to just below the rank of Earl. There were eleven children to get through in this section. The pink haired girl stood by herself as the eleventh child and proudly showed off her unlocking of all four common elements as well as the light element. She turned her nose up at Celeste and smirked at her.

Celeste only raised an eyebrow and clapped along with everyone else in response. Prince Theodore didn't even clap. He was too busy looking down at Celeste and twisting her long silvery blue hair around the fingers of his hand still wrapped around her waist.

It was the highest ranked children's turn now. A total of eight of them including Princess Amelia, Celeste, Angela and Sylvia. The priest approached them with a golden needle followed by a nun holding a plate of wafers and tray containing a silver jug and small cups.

Taking the needle, he pricked a child's forefinger and dripped the blood on a single wafer and into one of the cups now filled with the same glowing gold liquid Celeste had seen in the front. He cast a spell before ordering the child to eat the wafer and then drink the liquid. The child glowed before two orbs of green and blue appeared in front of him.

"Earth and water." The priest declared before moving on to the next child. Angela unlocked air and earth. Sylvia unlocked fire and darkness. Princess Amelia unlocked light, air and water. Celeste who had been standing at the end of the row and did her ceremony last, stunned everyone when not one, not two, not three elements appeared but all six! It had never been heard of unlocking both light and darkness at the same time.

"What! How can this be?! I'm supposed tobe the special one! I was the elemental miracle for unlocking five elements. How can you, whonwas supposed to be a dud with no elements, have all of them?!" A girl screamed out.

Everyone turned to see the pink haired girl that had blocked the Prince's path earlier and had shocked the temple by unlocking five elements, was the one who was shouting. Prince Theodore had had enough by then and stood up.

"Guards, please remove this person from the temple. This is not the first time today that she has disrupted the ceremony. Fine her family 50 gold coins as a penalty to be paid to the temple."

Prince Theodore then stepped forward to help Celeste leave the stage and escorted her back to her seat. Both ignored the struggling pink haired girl as she was removed from the temple by two guards.

It wasn't long before Celeste was surrounded by children excited to meet the first person in history to have unlocked all six elements. They were soon followed by the priest who performed the Coming of Age Ceremony who requested for Celeste to meet the head priest in a private room. Celeste only consented to the meeting when Prince Theodore stated that he would be coming with her.

He escorted Celeste in his usual manner of tucking her hand around his arm and refused to leave her side even when the priest tried to indicate that he could go no further.

"Celeste has no secrets from me. I will not leave my fiance alone with men that I have no background information of the identity of. That person may be the head priest but I am the Crown Prince and this is my Crown Princess."

The priest had no choice but to allow Prince Theodore into the room then. Inside was a fat older man in dark blue robes and gold trim. He slouched back against a chaise chair and was in the process of putting down a greasy looking chicken leg onto a gold plate filled with similar looking bones.

"Ah, Lady Von Drake. How good of you to come and see me. I am Andrew Voltair, Head Priest of this temple. Greetings to his highness, although you were not invited to this meeting."

"Nevertheless, I will not allow my fiance to be alone in the presence of another man without me. Now explain why have you requested her presence?"

Prince Theodore pulled Celeste a little closer to his side. Something about the way the Head Priest looked at Celeste made him uncomfortable. Celeste, for her part, clung to Prince Theodore even tighter than before. Even going so far as to wrap both hands around his arm. She was also feeling uncomfortable from the man's gaze.

"I only wanted to enquire how it is that Lady Von Drake managed to unlock all six elements, when it had never been done before." Andrew Voltair's voice felt like slime was flowing over Celeste. It was heavy and degrading in tone.

"You would have to ask Carrion. May we leave now." Was all that Celeste would say in reply.

"Not yet. How is the God Carrion related to you having all six elements?"

"Carrion is a God, is he not?" Celeste replied shrugging her shoulders. "Who else would you ask?"

Prince Theodore held back a snort at that comment. He was glad she mentioned nothing about having actually spoken to the God Carrion before her birth. He had a feeling that this man would be the wrong person to tell. "Are you happy now? My fiance has answered your questions. We have no further information to give you. We will leave now. Our families ate waiting."

Andrew Voltair could do nothing but agree to let them leave after that.

Outside the temple, Celeste stopped walking. She turned into Prince Theodore's chest and clutched at his clothes for comfort. In response, he wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight.

"That man scares me." Celeste whispered once she had calmed down.

"Don't ever be alone with him." Prince Theodore commanded of her.

"Don't worry. I won't." Celeste shuddered.

They continued walking to the Von Drake carriage where both their families waited.

"Father, Your Grace, I have something to request of you." Prince Theodore stated as soon as they had arrived. "Do not leave Celeste alone with any priest in the temple, especially the head priest. Actually, don't leave any woman alone with him if you can avoid it."

"Why is that, my son?"

"He's creepy as heck, that's why." Celeste spoke. "The way he looked at me... I want a bath. I feel dirty."

Both mother's looked shocked at that. Both fathers looked concerned. Chris and Prince Theodore looked grim.

"I think I will send someone to investigate the situation then. The man does not sound very pleasant and I would wonder how he got the head priest position if what you are implying is true."

"Thank you. I would appreciate that."

"All right, say your good byes. It's time to go home. You'll see each other tomorrow for the Engagement Ball. Celeste, make sure to bring your tiara. It will be placed on your head during the official engagement ceremony." Queen Elizabeth exclaimed as she clapped her hands together.

" Yes, Mother. See you tomorrow, Theo, Sister Amelia, Father, Mother." Celeste bobbed a small curtsy in goodbye before Chris helped her into their carriage.

Prince Theodore could only wave forlornly as the carriage left at not being able to kiss his fiance goodbye in his usual manner.