The Girl with the Twilight Hair

"It's about time, Master Leonard!" exclaimed Anne as she pointed at the clock. Leonard nodded in agreement as he filled with excitement, the boy was no longer afraid. That day marked the day Leonard finally stepped out from his estate to the unknown world to him.

They rode on the carriage with Anne and a couple of royal guards, they went into the town to partake in the rite. With his chin resting on his hands, he looked out of the carriage's window, took a long gaze at his old mossy mansion surrounded by the soothing prairie as the horizon started to turn an orange shade. He took a deep breath as a sense of relief.

He finally entered the outskirts of Vorskrig, the center of The Sanctuary faith. As the sun dipped, from afar, he saw glimmering lights emerging from the horizon. The city light illuminated the twilight, It was a sight that he had never seen from such a close perspective before.

He opened the window and felt the gust of the fresh night air beckoned through his face. As the carriage entered the town, he felt mesmerized by the bustling town. Watching people walk in the pathway minding their own business, such a common sight could leave him in fascination. He felt drowned in the mood, he felt like an insignificant speck, dancing among the countless stars.

Upon arriving at the town square, The presence of the royal carriage surprised the gathered crowd, a sense of awe can be seen among the sea of faces. It was truly such a majestic sight. Whispers spread through the air as rumor has it that the revered king of Verdiora, King Audora himself had taken an interest in the procession.

As the carriage door swung open, the crowd began to cheer to their excitement. “King Audora, Long live the King!” They cheered.

The cheering from the crowd abruptly trailed off. To their surprise, it wasn't the king who stepped out from the carriage, but a young boy. The crowd began to wonder, asking for answers as to who this child could be. Erupted a lot of commotion amongst the crowd. Unknown to them, this mysterious boy is the forgotten prince. Leonard felt confounded, to see many people at the same time looking at him. He didn't expect to get such a reaction from it.

A man emerged from the crowd, as he approached Leonard and Anne. Adorned with a long, dark blue coat. His ears are long and pointed, similar to that wild caracal and his menacing amber eyes glowed in the dark as he walked in. Without a doubt it's a Ferinien, they thought. He took a long look at both, squinting his eyes while he was fixing his eyeglasses. He bowed to Leonard with much respect for the young prince which caused the crowd to gasp in confusion.

"Prince Leonard" the man exclaimed with a distinct Ferinien accent. It was the archbishop of Vorskrig, Amari Amarantusa. But Leonard was a bit overwhelmed with so much aristocratic etiquette. To Leonard's surprise, Anne signaled him to bow to the archbishop. He was flimsily bowed to the archbishop.

"Yurr Highness, I'm dewlighted zhat you are able to partake in zhe rite," said the archbishop firmly. "It's such an honor zhat we could finally see you again, Prince Leonard. But nyeow for zhe time being, please follow meow to join zhe others," Leonard followed him to join the other participant.

As they walked, he couldn't help himself but turn his head into the crowd. He expected some warm welcome from the gathering crowd but as he looked at them, it was like his soul was dragged into the abyss. No matter how he looked at them, they did not react at all. All with the same flat faces, no expression whatsoever. He felt like a stranger in his own country. Deep down he gets it, a random child appeared in public claiming to be the son of the revered king. Sounds absurd at best, at least it was what he thought.

He finally caught up with the others. As he glanced at them, he couldn't believe what he saw. It was like a banquet of flowers, with each unique flower complementary to the other —the boys with the white tunic and the crimson robe and the girls with the blue tunic and the flower crown, harmoniously complementing each other.

*diiiiiiiiinggg~~~

"Alright everymeow." as the archbishop rings the bell in his hand.

"We have zhe last entry in our sacred rite, I'm delighted to announce zhat our Prince has joined in our little rite.”

"I know, it caused a lot of stir among zhe populace but zhis young boy here.. ehmmm.. Prince Leonard here is zhe son of our revered King."

"Please be easy on him, as he has nyever been in public in such a long time. But for nyeow, let's zhe procession begin!" Now that the focus has been shifted to the procession, Leonard was glad to hear that as he sighed in relief. The commotion gradually faded away.

The bell has been rung by the archbishop signifying the rite was about to start. The children began to line up for the march. As the representation of the kingdom, Leonard was at the forefront leading up the march to the Temple. With all these crowds cheering left and right, yet he still felt lonely. There was no difference when he was here or when he was in the mansion. He thought leaving the mansion would make him feel no longer lonely, but it's still the same. The feeling still lingers deep down in Leonard's heart.

"Hey, you!" a shrill voice coming from behind. But Leonard remained aloof, drowning in his thoughts.

"Hey Prince!" the same annoying voice keeps bothering him.

"HEYYYYYYYYYY!" the voice screamed in his ears caused him to startle, he swiftly turned his body to the back. Surprised to him, a girl stood before him. A sudden surge of nervousness filled through his body.

For a moment his world seemed to grow smaller, As his eyes were glued to her and mesmerized by the appearance of the girl in front of him. All of his senses suddenly vanished because of her presence. It was as if the world was just him and the girl.

Her twilight hair cascaded down to her shoulders, and her eyes were fierce as she looked annoyed at him. He noticed the long ears beneath the long hair. An Eruvan as he thought.

"Did you hear me? Are you deaf my dear prince?" she starts to shake him.

"U-uh... a..."

"Just move already! we've already waited here for like five minutes waiting for you to start to walk."

"Ah... Sorry, sorry," he scratched his head. "I was thinking of something else."

"Sorry is not enough, we just want you to start walking!" shrieked her as she pushed him to walk.

Flimsily, he started to walk and the others started to follow with the monks on their left and right side. They raised their left hand —no higher than their shoulders with a bell on their hand, chiming along the way. While on the other hand, holding a wooden staff and pounding the tip of the staff to the ground repeatedly as they walked while chanting prayers.

***

They finally arrived in the Temple complex. All eyes were fixed on the main building, the Santjume Basilika, legends told that the building was built on the old ground of where Gods themselves had descended to earth. It was quite an honor to be able to step into the hallowed ground of the Sanctuary.

As they walked inside, they were welcomed by a pitch dark, quite unusual for a place of worship. However, little did they know it was part of the rituals as a man emerged from the tour, it was the archbishop himself together with his monks. They pulled out an ornate container from their red cloaks. Though it was quite small, it radiated an immense energy. The children observed them with fascination as the monks began drawing divine power by placing their hands on top of the container. They channeled the divine power into their hands, "Igunitus Arudere!" they shouted —their voice echoed through the hallway— creating a fire. Along the way, they lit up the brazier on the wall to light up their path and guided the tour into the deeper part of the temple. Unveil an intricate mural about the Divine Blessing.

"Whoa... so this is a Divine Blessing?" awed Leonard.

"Pretty cool eh?" said the girl as she put her arm around his shoulder.

"EEeek!" Leonard flinched.

"What?"

"...don't get me startled like that!"

"Eh... sorry, sorry~. Just a habit at home haha," she said jokingly. "So.. Do you know about it?" she reached out her hand forward.

"About what?"

"The Divine Blessing??" she pointed to the mural.

"Ohhhhh... Just a bit, I know it from a book,"

"Hmmmm... Do you wanna know more about it?" she asked while smirking and steepling her fingers. He nodded to her with enthusiasm.

"Haha yes!.. Ehmm... Well... I know quite a bit of it. I've learned it from my mentor. But this is gonna be brief, so there are three kinds of Divine Blessing. The first one is the Divine Wisdom, it is mostly a blessing focused on the Lux, the light affinity. You know, like casting a barrier, object levitation, healing, and such..." she walked following the mural story, Leonard followed her in the back, fascinated by her.

"The second is Divine Tribunal, I think it is the coolest one as you can manipulate up to four affinities like Tirta the water affinity, Igunisu the fire affinity, Tana the earth affinity, and lastly Kaze the wind affinity. But dummies like us are only able to manipulate only one affinity. But no worries, when you master it you can combine a bunch of affinities with each other creating a new one as you like."

"Ah... almost forget, did you see the container that the monks use before? that little ornate container. It's called Catalyst, hmm... how do I simply say this. To make the Catalyst work, you have to create some kind of stone that has a rune on it, it's called Runestone! Each Runestone corresponds to which affinity. You still need both Catalyst and Runestone to make it work. The usage of Catalyst is used for stabilizing the raw energy from the Runestone for it to be able to materialize it into affinity. Remember, Runestone has a limit of usage before it starts breaking. The limit is based on the quality of both stones and the rune that you draw on them. Every affinity needs ink to draw its rune and every ink is unique to each Blessings and Affinities, like if you have light affinity, then you need a soot from the burning of sunflower oil and a yellow dye from the same sunflower," she continued to walk a bit trailed off from the rest of the tour.

"Hyufftt... I'm speaking too long, did I miss something?"

"Uh... you said three blessings before..."

"Oh right! The last one is the most controversial one. The Divine Delusion! It pretty much controls Organika, the organic affinity such as sap from plants and blood from animals, or humans. Though, the use of humans is highly forbidden by law. Oh yeah the ink that you use if you are a delusion practitioner, it's simple, just use blood... or sap."

“Blood?” He was shocked upon hearing that. “You are not joking right?”

She shocked her head in reply. “Well… from what I've heard, you could use your own blood, it's quite convenient I would say. Although a bit grim.” she added. "So... yeah, what do you hope you gonna get?"

“Well, I'm fine with the first two but Delusion Blessing seems a bit extreme to me,” he placed his hand on his chin and tried to think about what he had learned from it. “Also isn’t it random?”

"Bingo! yeah, you get a blessing at random, what a bummer... I just wish I could ask the Gods personally cus I really want the Divine Tribunal haha..." She said jokingly. "...and ohh... by the way I haven't introduced you to my name," she bent her knees and held her skirt out as she lowered his head and bowed to him.

"The name is Sa.., er... just Sheera... yes, nice to meet your highness and sorry about my rude introduction earlier hehe..." she said with a smile at him.