Abnormality
I clenched my hands as the stone started to glow. What would my fate be? I couldn’t see a color yet just white light. Was that normal? I thought they said red or blue so why white. As I’m thinking this the Pretre leaned in to whisper, “This is normal. We should see the color soon.” Just then the stone started to glow purple then flashed to red with streaks of purple. I heard a large gasp coming from the crowd. I had guessed that this was not a normal reaction from the stone to anyone’s ceremony that had been held before. As I looked up to the Pretre, I could see a quizzical look on his face. He didn’t know what was going on either. The Pretre mumbled to himself, “Hmm, this is fascinating. I had not seen this before. But what could this mean? Hmm...” Just as he was ruminating on what the stone revealed, my father had come out of the crowd to approach the alter, “Great Pretre, may I approach?” The Pretre looked up from his thinking and nodded at my father, “Yes, this would be advisable.” My father approached the stone and grabbed my hand to give me reassurance but I knew very well he wasn’t exactly confident himself. He looked down at the stone then back up at the Pretre, “What does this mean?” The Pretre furrowed his brow, “I’m not entirely sure, I believe there is only one time in history that the stone had gone rogue or rather it didn’t react as expected the candidate’s blood. I will need to do research but for now I believe I can declare that The Batiste has been accepted. Looking at her future, I know this to be her destiny and I am not one to go against fate.” My father nodded, “If you feel that is the best course of action but how will you explain the initial purple glow.” I knew it, that purple glow was in no way normal.” The Pretre shook his head in a motion that seemed like he was shaking away his thoughts, “Let me make my announcement and we will confer the steps from here.” My father nodded and pulled me aside so that the audience could see him.
He squeezed my hand as The Pretre stepped forward into the torchlight, “Ladies and gentlemen, esteemed guests of The Batiste, the stone has deemed that The Batiste is worthy of her candidacy. That being said the purple glow is not something that is normal as you all well know. She will be accepted into the Batiste Duchy as is her destiny but I will confer with Head Pretre.” The mention of the Head Pretre caused the audience to gasp and whisper. My father leaned to whisper in my ear, “Head Pretre is rarely seen because she is burdened with the worries of both Vellum and Terre. It is only on very special occasions that The Pretre are able to confer with Head Pretre. He must know that Head Pretre will see him in this case.” The Pretre clears his throat to continue and quiet the crowd, “I will send out an official announcement of what this means at a later time. I trust that it will be before The Batiste enters into her studies at the university.” The Pretre turns to my father and held out his hand and father took it to shake it, “I will be sure to make a visit to see The Batiste before the announcement is made to reveal the results of this investigation. Please excuse me, I believe I should see Head Pretre at once. She will indeed want to know about these events.” My father took a short bow from his neck and nudged me to do the same.
The Pretre walked over to a set of stone steps that had a stone doorway at the top and pulled out a locket that was much like mine except his seemed to be made of bone. He placed this locket in a lock in the notch on the doorway which prompted it to glow but there was only a glow in the doorway. The Pretre stepped forward and my natural inclination was to run to stop him but my father pulled me back. As I looked at him and then back at the doorway, The Pretre disappeared. My father squeezed my hand again, “That is the portal to Vellum, I will show you how it works when the time comes for you to go through.” Father then turned to the crowd and announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming to this ceremony. I invite you to return to the manor to continue festivities if you wish.” He pulled my hand to the crook of his elbow again and led me to the carriage followed by my mother and grandfather. As we were walking towards the carriage, I could hear through the darkness of the forest, chains clinking again.
The carriage ride on the way back to the manor was mostly silent with my mother fidgeting with her glove and my grandfather staring out of the window. Father broke the silence, “I don’t know why you both seem gloomy. Ultimately, we got the color we wanted.” Mother looked up from her glove, “Yes, darling but now we don’t know what this purple means and neither does The Pretre. It could be ominous. What if it is determined she must be sent to the cathedral citadel? There are too much that is unknown and you are far too optimistic.” Grandfather turned to my father, “I am not gloomy, my son. I am deep in thought; I had heard rumors this happened once before but I cannot remember what the course of action was afterwards. I was trying to remember. I want to look through my ancient scrolls to see if I can jog my memory. I may even start tonight.” My father leaned towards my grandfather, “It will have to wait. We have more to speak with Xan about our family and Vellum tonight. I promised her plus it is not something that can be put off any longer or it could spell trouble.” My grandfather nodded and had tried to go back to staring out of the window but we had pulled up to the manor.
As we stepped down from the carriage, I could see Burnett leaning against a column outside with a large smile on his face. I thought he had left and I hadn’t seen him at the ceremony. My father grabbed my hand, “Xan, are you okay? You seem to be staring off into space.” I looked over at my father, “What? Oh. Yes. I’m okay.” As I turned to look back at Burnett, he was gone. He had said I intrigued him but he was becoming rather intriguing to me as well. Father separated from me at the door, “Sorry little rose, I need to go speak with some of our other guests. I possibly need to ease their minds after the ceremony.” I nodded at my father, “Of course, I will just be sitting on a chair in the corner.” As I sat down, I saw Burnett approach me. He leaned down to kiss my hand, “I knew you were intriguing but I never, in my wildest dreams, thought that you would likely catch the attention of Head Pretre.” I looked up at him and frowned, “I’m glad I am so amusing to you but this is not a situation that should be your own personal television show.” He looked me in the eye, “I did not mean to offend. I don’t see this as drama or anything of that nature. I am seeing this as something that could mean an interesting future for Vellum. You are certainly special; I just am interested in knowing why.” At that I heard a crash and looked at the punch table where a frail old countess dropped her cup. I looked up to find that Burnett had vanished. Again.