Students screamed in terror as fire suddenly shot up to the ceiling. Burning an ominous blue, students watched in horror/awe as Princess Marina held the hammer without any hint of discomfort on her face.
Seeing her calm demeanor, the students eventually relaxed and the flame receded to the flat square head of the hammer.
"Blessed by the spirit of fire, the third star of the empire, Princess Marina has finished her attunement ritual with a high level of attunement to the spirit of fire." the overall Dean said as the stamp was removed from the back of Princess Marina's palm to display a four star mark.
Handing the hammer to a temple official, everyone watched as the temple official whispered something and the flame died out. Walking to her seat with a part happy and part sad emotion Princess Marina took her seat next to her friends who couldn't celebrate her without making Maria Price feel bad.
"The next student to be called is Rassera Dawnspire." the overall Dean said and the whispers began.
"Dawnspire?" asked a student as Rassera Dawnspire passed by.
"Is that not the surname of the Marchioness?!" students whispered as Rassera Dawnspire took to the stage.
"But she looks nothing like the fierce and cold Marchioness!" a girl gushed as she praised the soft and cute features of Rassera Dawnspire.
"Look at her eyes," said another girl.
"The very definition of an angel!" another girl exclaimed and Princess Marina, Esmira and Maria smiled with pride in their eyes.
Putting her hand before her in a cupping motion, everyone watched as the leaf levitated towards her and the minute it touched her palm the leaf tripled in size. As the leaf tripled in size, another identical one to the one that tripled in size sprang forth but nothing else happened.
"Blessed by the spirit of water, Rassera Dawnspire has finished her attunement ritual with a high level of attunement to the spirit of water." the overall Dean said and the stamp was removed from the back of Rassera Dawnspire's palm to display the three star mark upon it.
Clapping politely instead of the thunderous roar that would have resounded in the auditorium for those with high attunement to their blessings. The students marvelled inwardly at the difference between Aleron McGrath's attunement ritual and Rassera Dawnspire's attunement ritual.
Trying not to let her disappointment of not getting a four star rank show, Rassera Dawnspire took her seat next to Princess Marina and watched student after student come up until the attunement ritual was finally completed.
"Four hours huh?" The overall Dean said with a slight smile and the students chuckled.
"I assure you that this would be the longest ceremony we will ever have." The overall Dean said and the students cheered.
Clearing his throat to get the students to calm down, the overall Dean announced "You are now allowed to head to the dorms and at the doors of the entrance lies the welcoming committee for each blessing."
"With the attunement ritual done and with each student bearing a mark, the academy formally welcomes you." The overall Dean said and everyone clapped.
After the overall Dean and the Deans behind him dispersed, students walked out of the auditorium to meet their respective welcoming committee.
"The welcome comitee welcomes the 266th class to its dorms." a group of boys and girls said before separating everyone based on their blessings.
For those blessed by the spirit of water, skating shoes were handed to them and the path leading to the dorms was frozen by members of the welcoming committee in an instant.
"For those who haven't done this before, feel free to hold hands with people that are experienced and for those who have no experience but still want to have fun let's go." yelled a girl with chocolate locks as she zoomed down the ice.
Readily following her footsteps, those blessed by the spirit of the water immediately changed into their skating shoes and stepped on the ice. Some who were naturals like Aleron and Rassera zoomed out of sight along with the welcome committee for those blessed by the spirit of water while some who had friends that had experienced this before held onto their friends hands. The unfortunate ones who weren't naturals, had no friends and had no experience, had no choice but to move carefully on the ice like babies learning how to walk.