The Ceremony Begins

Not minding his surroundings, Aasir dashed through the streets, making his way through the crowd, swerving around the shops and carriages that came in his way, chomping down on his apple.

The only thought running through his mind was to hurry as he didn't wanna imagine the outcome if he was late. Best case scenario would be missing the ceremony and then waiting an entire year for the next one. As for the worst case he dreaded to even imagine that. He blamed himself for being careless and not paying attention to the rules properly. Well nothing could be done now except running and wishing that he reached on time.

As he dashed through the streets, some people gave him an amused look and others cursed in their minds as he was disturbing their sales and wrecking havoc. The people who recognised him took the initiative to greet him and wished him well for the ceremony as everyone knew about it and also its importance.

Aasir was quite well known in the town and was quite popular among the people for his kind and fair nature. Since childhood he had the conviction to help others and even among the children his age he was friends with almost everyone and liked to avoid conflict. Ofcourse such wasn't the case everytime, he had his share of fights and injuries. After all not everyone had the same perspective and fights were a natural consequence to disagreements. And in the end, he himself was just a teenager whose blood would boil occasionally, giving him the urge to fight. Contrary to what one would expect due to his nature, Aasir in actual loved fighting and winning, he would get immersed in the pleasure of standing tall against his adversaries and sometimes get so drunk on it that there were a few cases where he heavily injured his opponents. Due to such occurrences, he decided to avoid conflicts and became more constrained in his actions.

Finally after running through half the town, the huge dome of the Hall came into his view, the sight of which made him more invigorated to run faster and faster. Turning around a corner the rectangular area appeared in front of him which was still full of people, similarly waiting for the hall to open.

'Thank God, I made it in time.' Thought Aasir as he walked towards his counterparts, his chest heaving up and down as he tried to catch his breath after all the running. His appearance gave rise to a new wave of discussion among the adults as they talked about his late entrance and prospects. Unlike the adults, most of the children were too engrossed in their own worries to notice someone else's arrival. Still there were some who did notice, among whom some considered him as a rival whereas others were his close friends.

Aasir greeted his friends and then made his way towards a corner, he too needed to rest and concentrate, making sure that he was in his top form for the ceremony.

As he was resting, a boy similar in age, came towards him. The boy had short golden hair and viper like green eyes, dressed in a knee length white linen robe and pants of a similar colour.

"Right on time, aren't you Aasir ?" he asked jokingly, " if a few more minutes had gone by, you would be taking the test next year and I, Yasan the Great would have left you far far behind, " saying so he laughed heartily and patted Aasir on his shoulders.

" Boasting as always, Yasan. When will you grow serious and stop your self inflating attitude," reprimanded Aasir.

Hearing this Yasan laughed again and cocked his head upwards, showing how proud he was of himself.

Aasir sighed watching this,knowing that this friend of his is never gonna correct his ways, however it was exactly this attitude that amused and entertained Aasir and led to them becoming such good friends. Thinking so Aasir thought that maybe Yasan was better this way only, after all he just liked to boast and it wasn't like he was being arrogant or anything.

The two friends sat besides each other waiting for the fateful time, as did others.

Finally at sharp 8 o'clock the huge doors of the Hall opened ever so slowly. The attention of the entire crowd was drawn towards it, the children watching eagerly, not knowing what the future held for them. Their hearts jumped into their throats, some anxious, some full of anticipation, all eagerly watching the door open.

As the door opened to more than half the way they stopped moving. Behind the doors the only thing visible was complete darkness and out of this darkness stepped out 2 middle aged men, with the insignia of a Phoenix denoting the Royal family of Roxor on their chest. Their entire focus was on the children gathered in the rectangular area, scrutinising them with their gazes which seemed to be able to penetrate through everything. To the people of the town the two men were unreachable existences, their auras as powerful as the looming mountains.The adults as well as the children bowed slightly to show their reverence towards the two men.

"We will now begin the Awakening ceremony in accordance with the rules and regulations of the magical codex of Zesteria," said the man in yellow. "All of you enter the hall one by one," he ordered.

The children although initially nervous and disorganised, soon came to their senses and started to line up and walk towards the hall.

Aasir and Yasan also joined in and moved towards the hall, their eyes full of excitement and hope.

The inside of the hall was dimly lit by the presence of torches attached to the wall and chandeliers which hang from the ceiling. Various murals were also carved onto the walls similar to the ones present on the dome. It was a mesmerising sight for the teenagers as they watched it all in astonishment, talking amongst themselves about it.

As all the children finished entering the hall, the doors closed behind them, preventing the outsiders who had already experienced once in their life, today's day, from knowing the events which occurred inside.

" Now then, shall we begin. We will be your examiners and the one's responsible for your awakening," said the man in black with a slight smile. "As for what you will call us," he pondered," lets go with Vind for me and Houst for him," he said pointing towards the other person,"Now that the introduction is over, we shall begin."

After that the two men moved towards a huge stele kept in the middle of the room. They put their hands on the stele and then out of their palms poured, what seemed to be shiny particles to the teenagers into the stele. Reacting to this the stele lightened up brightly making everyone unable to look at it.

When the light finally died down, huge letters became visible on the once blank stele. This amazed the teenagers as most of them had rarely ever seen someone perform magic. After all despite being one of the largest town, Baro was still just a town and people with the ability to perform magic were as rare as a phoenix's feather. Many became excited and dreamed of using magic too. Alas most of them would have their dreams shattered after the ceremony. As the main purpose of this ceremony was to awaken and measure a person's potential and affinity with magical energy. Those who succeeded would go on to study in the academy and become magicians, wizards, warlocks and witches, envied and worshipped by the common populace. Whereas others would go on to lead a normal life becoming farmers and merchants and soldiers and if lady luck smiled on them they might become a noble or general or someone notable.

Everyone's gazes turned towards the stele, trying to read the words written onto it.