It wasn't long after the guests were gone that I was dragged up the stairs to a dressing room and dressed for the ceremony. If my dress from the ball was lovely, this dress was like a dream. It wasn't often that I liked the gown for balls and galas, but I loved my gowns for ceremonies. They always meant something to the ceremony at hand, every piece of jewelry created and hand crafted to the point of the ceremony at hand, plus I got to be barefoot.
For the ceremony today I wore a soft gold turtle dress that was as soft as clouds and floated around me as I moved. I softly held my shoulders and curves in all the right places before flaring at my hips. In between the floods of tulle were small butterflies and on my soft bodice were several brightly coloured creatures strategically placed. My wild curls were set free to their natural form and cricket decorated my brow with a simil rough piece of opal at its center.
Alexis wore a dress of pure silver with a necklace of silvered leaves around her neck and free arms, and like myself she was barefoot. We all were.
We arrived at the back garden greenhouse where the ceremony would take place. Moonlight shone down upon the glass and provided the only light in the room casting everyone there in her glow. Each person was dressed similarly to myself and Alexis. I walked to where my mother and Aunt stood with several other women. In my mother's hands she held a golden bowl and in my Aunts, a golden anthem. When I arrived I held out my hand for my Aunt to create the incision on my palm before letting my blood fall into the bowl and then onto a book begin held nearby by. It was only after those things were done that the ascended spoke.
"We welcome our daughter home. We welcome our daughter under the Goddess of the Moon and her Stars to witness her ascent to her seat of power. We acknowledge our daughter." The voices echoed in unison around me.
My mother had explained to me once that we always take oaths and pacts under the glow of the Moon goddess as she is the force who seals all oaths and promises. It is her sister, the Goddess of the Sun and her Stars who punishes those who break their oaths. They are the balance of oaths and pacts. Though oaths and promises made during either eclipses were considered the highest of their kind and even the slightest violation of those would cause both of the sisters to punish the offender.
The Moonlight coating us all grew dark as my blood dripped onto the book as the moon was shadowed by the Sun for a few brief moments. A dual of voices whispered into our minds.
"We accept your oaths and hereby bind in the names of the Moon and the Sun and all the Stars."
Everyone in the room was still, no other sound was heard until after the moon reappeared and bathed us in her light.
"Is...is that normal?" I leaned towards Alexis to whisper.
"Not at all. Not even a little bit." She was quiet for a moment before she noticed something on me. "Look your highness….." As she pointed to my wrist.
A silver and gold tattoo had carefully woven itself over the spin of my wrist and now faintly glowed. I looked around to notice that my mother had one as well, and I was damn sure that she didn't before. What the hell was this?
"This concludes the ascension of Princess Helixii of Fey. Please retire to the salon for the gift opening." Mum managed.
The guests shuffled out of the room, leaving myself, my mom, and Alexis and her slew of parents.
"What just happened?"
"The Gods are meddling is what's happening." My mother responded to me. Her tone told me just how annoyed she was.
The Gods? On top of everything else now there are Gods who meddle? Can we just end this early and I open gifts another time? I really need to curl up with a nice cup of chocolate to process all this." I tried to get someone to agree with me. However no one was listening at all.
"Let's get the gifts open and then we can try and handle everything else. Right now though, we do have the first gift. The Sun, Moon and Stars' gave our family a blessing. With this blessing all oaths given to or made by us are binding no matter the time of day. And they fall under the rules of the dual rulers. Meaning they are very much permanent sort of oaths." She explained, It might sound like a great gift but I could tell my mother knew as well as I had figured out that this was a freaking double edged sword.
"Can...we just give it back? I mean, its a great gift and all but we aren't really worthy of it." Like a fool, I whispered down to my bracelet, "Can we please refund this blessing for a different one? Oh mighty Goddesses, we are unworthy of this gift."
"Hexi you can't return gifts from the Gods. And even if they took them back they would likely choose something else we'd likely want to refund. In their minds they are helping us, and they might really be….or they just like giving double edged swords." Mother fussed at me. Though I could tell she was on the verge of laughing as were the group around me. Sometimes a good half serious joke is all that is needed to calm everyone down.
It wasn't long before we were in the parlor with our guests and preparing to open the gifts. Normal people get video games and other electronics, but apparently Fey gave crystals, magical items, and various poisons and potions. None of which I had the foggiest of clues how to use. Oh, there were a good number of dresses made out of what I was informed to be fey araneae silk. They had sent a representative with hundreds of dresses and gowns in different fashions that their noble family had carefully created. Their Lady had a love of fashion, even in this human world where they had settled to be closer to my own family, and thus she was a famous designer of garments. Granted she only used her own silk for the finest of garments and those would never appear against the skin of a human. No, those were only for my family and myself apparently. Another House sent over jewelry made in the shape of nature and with everlasting flowers on some pieces, while others had rough natural stones with the pieces built around them. All in all, from what miniscule amount I understood about Fey as a whole at this point, I would consider it a great haul, even if I didn't understand more than two thirds of what was told to me, I was determined to fake it until I made it at the moment. Actual knowledge would have to wait until after I had actually managed to digest it all.
"And that should be everyone." Aimée spoke. I had learned through this ordeal of a day that she was actually a Grand Duchess of a rather large house and was actually my mother's first cousin in addition to her best friend.
"We are thankful for your gifts in celebration and offer you our grace for your continued loyalty." My mother spoke.
As she did, a large pile of gifts teleported down right in front of me and a little man zipped out and headed right for me before anyone could say anything.
"Grand Crown Princess Helixii of Houses Dragona and Titania, yes?" He looked at me and before I knew it I had nodded my head. I didn't have the slightest idea what the rest of it was but I surely heard my name in there somewhere. As I nodded he swiped at my hand, extracted a bit of blood and continued on. "Confirmed. As the messenger of the Goddess of Destiny we send you the gifts of the Heavens. Enjoy our blessings." And with that he disappeared.
The whole house was in shock, myself included. What the fuck was that?
As if that wasn't enough to completely boggle my already overwhelmed mind, one of the top boxes floated over to me, and settled itself on the table before me, shoving all the other gifts away in the process, and proceeded to open itself right then and there. Something flew out and invaded my body and after what felt like an eternity of pain.
[Initializing...]
[Initialized! Destiny System successfully in host and all deginstated races.]
[Welcome to the Destiny System]
Race: Fey Dragon Offspring
Bloodline: True God of Flame, True God of Nature and Feykind, True God of Souls and Dragonkind, True God of Magic. Imperial Dragon bloodline, Imperial Fey bloodline
[Notice: All True God bloodlines seal at current evolution. Please evolve to unlock]
Evolution: None
Level: 1
Name: Helixii Dragona Titania
Titles: Grand Crown Princess
Beloved of the Gods
Sun and Moon Blessed
Hand of Destiny
[Notice: Not enough power to use titles. Please upgrade your power to use properly]
Magic School: Wild Magic (Novice Grade)
Soul Magic (???)
I stared and the information in front of me before at that point, my mind and body had just about enough of this and I promptly blacked out. Was all this shit returnable?! I want a gift receipt please!