Prepare for the Festival!

[nearly 4 years later]

Lance is currently running around his room, hurriedly throwing his clothes everywhere while trying to look for the gift he had made.

He spent all night making a necklace out of the seasonal flowers of the tree in his garden as a good luck charm for Vicky. Finally he finds it under the side desk which he left it on. As he grabs it, it lets out a faint glow that circulates through the entire necklace. The deep pink petals swirl deeper into the flower where it turns into a pearly white-almost lavender. The string placement isn't aligned perfectly but all in all it's a beautiful necklace and it's the thought that counts right?

After getting dressed he makes his way down the mansion stairs to greet his parents.

Lance: "Hello mother and father, can I go-

Both: "out to the garden to wait for Victoria?"

Lance chuckles and nods his head

They both shake their heads but nonetheless nod, laughing a bit.

As he walks out into the garden he sees Vicky trying to pick a rose and he decides to sneak up on her for a change. As he walks closer he starts to hear her muttering to herself about something.

Vicky: "I don't get it, why do I have to go to some training school? I bet I can be really strong here where I can stay with Lance.

Lance: "you're leaving?"

She turns around to find a quietly crying boy softly gripping a necklace. Vicky rushes over and tries to hug Lance but he grabs her shoulders and starts questioning her all the while tears rush down his face.

Lance: "Where are you going?! Why do you have to go?! Do you even want to?! Why can't I just go with you?!

Vicky starts to explain with teary eyes.

Vicky: "I'm going to a new fancy school for gifted kids. My father paid for my attendance in it. It's way too expensive for even you and the entrance exams are gonna be really hard without the money. And why are you even asking? You already know I don't wanna go!"

Lance: "When are you leaving?"

Vicky: "That the good part. I don't leave till I'm a high schooler so I still have at least 5 more years till I start heading off! That's still plenty of time right?…"

She says this but her voice trails off showing that she doesn't fully agree with what she's saying.

Lance: "of course it's not enough time! We're supposed to be together forever!"

Vicky looks at the ground silently. They both just stand there. Lance has already long forgotten his gift he worked so hard for as he's unable to think of anything to stop this. That is until a genius idea strikes him! Well at least what he thinks is genius.

Lance: "Hey Vicky let's get married!"

…

Vicky: "E-eh?! What do mean Lance?! This isn't a time to be joking around y'know!

Vicky is violently blushing but Lance keeps going.

Lance: If we get married than they have to let us be together! That way you won't have to leave the town!

Vicky is stunned but the more she thinks of it, the more exited she is with the idea.

Vicky: "I-if you say so then o-ok, let's go tell my parents!"

Lance: "Oh right I almost forgot!"

He shows off the necklace he made before putting it on her neck.

Lance: "It's a good luck charm! That way you'll get an awesome magic type!"

Vicky: "is that how it works?"

Lance: "I think so! Your supposed to make something out of something that you really like and give it to them so I made it out of flowers in the garden!"

She lets out some laughter.

Vicky: "Of course you would choose the garden! That's so like you Lance!"

She laughs some more.

Lance: "Hey I worked hard on it! Don't just laugh at what I like! That's rude!

Vicky: "I'm sorry, but if it helps, I really do like the necklace! Thanks a bunch Lance!

She hugs him as Lance blushes for a while before making a huge grin

Lance: "N-no problem!"

They talked for almost an hour afterwards until it was time to go unlock their magic types. They waved goodbye and got into their separate carriages both thinking they'd go to different sites due to them being so different in levels of class. However Lance was still smiling thinking that he was able to find a way to stop Vicky from leaving. Soon his parents caught on.

Maranda: "Something good happen darling?"

Lance smiles even wider and exclaimed proudly

Lance: "Me and Vicky are gonna get married!"

His parents smiled warmly and laughed but their was a hint of bitterness and sadness in the eyes during it. Lance noticed this.

Lance: "What's wrong? Aren't you happy?"

Harold: "Yes son we're very happy. We're happy that you get along so well with her but I sadly don't think you would be able to get married to her."

Lance quickly became distraught and panicked

Lance: "Why not though?!"

His parents looked at each other again. He hated that. He hated when they did that because he knew what it meant. He knew they didn't want to be the parent who explained the bad news and that just made him even more panicked.

.

.

.

Eventually his mother sighed.

Maranda: " Darling our family is only a mid-sized noble one, while her family is almost directly under the royal one. It's simply impossible that her family would ever allow something of that kind."

Lance felt as though the world was torn away from him. He slipped away from reality and just dwelled in his thoughts, he didn't even move until the carriage stopped. They had arrived in what looked like a simple forest, albeit it'd only count as simple in this world due to all the magical creatures and the fact that the plant life was twice as big as any of it should have been.

Once he got out of the carriage he was shocked to see that were actually in the same awakening group. Then immediately afterwards he remembered what his parents said and looked back down at the ground.

Vicky saw this and wanted to go ask him what's wrong, but her parents stopped her.

Mrs. Vortis: "And where are you going right before the festival?"

Before anything more happens I feel I should explain what exactly the festival is for those who don't get it yet. The festival is a gathering of nobles to help supervise the potential awakening of mages. It's also used by warrior families to show off the strength of the future generations. These festivals take place every ten years, but it can be called together by a big enough noble family if their child is about to reach the age of ten, such as Vicky's situation.

Vicky: "I-I wanted to go see lan-"

Mrs. Vortis: "You will remain by my side until the festival starts, is that understood?"

Vicky:"Y-yes mother"

And with that Vicky and Lance stayed with their separate families, some people tried to interact with Lance (mostly because he was handsome) but he just answered whenever they asked him a question and he never even looked at them. He probably wouldn't even have done that much if it wasn't an important gathering. His gold eyes seemed less like shining treasure and more like a cold pool of gold in a dim room, amazing, but gloomy and devoid of life.

After about 2 hours they were all called into a small arena with fancy chairs surrounding the outline of the slightly smaller oval shaped pit. Then a bulky figure in a robe covering their face began to speak.

???: "Welcome to the festival, my name is Alfrenshire but you may refer to me as Alf for your convenience."

Alf was wearing a basic tuxedo with a red bow tie. He has neat blonde hair with a thin mustache and a strong body builder like figure.

Alf then began to explain that the children of the families would be called in a random order to start the test as the first participant was called he began to explain how the awakening would take place.

Alf: "for anyone new to these festivals, the way this works is we send a child who around 10 into the arena with a weapon of their choice and limited armor, and release a beast into the area for you to fight to unlock magic abilities or simply just display your power."

Everyone sitting simply nodded at this and the boy in front of the arena door did the same albeit nervously. He then slowly walked into the sandy area awkwardly holding a rapier. After the gate shut behind him, he nervously looked at a trapdoor on the other side of the arena. After it opened a blue lizard ran out of it at an incredible speed and bellowed happily until it saw the slightly distorted border of the arena indicating it was locked in here, it then looked at the boy in front of it and growled making the boy jump backwards and drop his weapon. He immediately ran to the border and started yelling.

Scared brat: "I demand that you let me out of here right this instant!"

He stomped his foot on the ground trying to seem intimidating but Alf simply looked at two people with matching emblems who shook their head before he stopped paying attention to the boys plea's.

At this time the lizard the boy was ignoring rushed toward the boy at a blinding speed and as the boy turned around he closed his eyes seemingly accepting his demise.

That was until the head of the lizard exploded all over the boy and he quietly looked at Alf, who was holding a simple remote like device occupied with multiple switches and his finger was pushed over one of them. The boy was then dragged out by his family and scolded for shaming their family name with such a pitiful performance. After this Alf simply called the next kid into the chamber ignoring the blood splattered on the invisible wall behind him.

The children were really a mixed bag in their fighting ability. Some seemed to just follow the footsteps of the first child, but some actually did handle the beast well enough. Of course they still took damage but they were able to kill it.

However not a single one of these children have been able to awaken their magic so far.

After a while Lance simply stopped paying attention to the performances, that is until he heard that Vicky was being called on. His head quickly flew up to look at the girl who was putting on a brave face but if you looked closely you could see that her hands were shaking slightly. But before Lance could say anything the door opened and she walked into the arena.