As Dawn broke, things were already moving.
The entire party had woken up early. More than that, so had their parents and siblings. Specifically, they were changing in to formal attire that had been made by the elves and handed down for generations.
The reasons that they had to change in to such clothing was simple, it was part of the ceremony. The rune patterns had been carved years and years ago by specific elves that had done so in belief that the runes, which did not work, were able to promote natural mana to some degree.
While all races had their own false beliefs, it felt foolish to the elves now that they knew so much about how to access true natural mana. But when they saw some of the other races' fairy tales, they believed that they were just the same as others. It was an odd way to relate amongst the races.