Lia began to explain the awakening ritual to June. It was fortunate that her maid was hired from a prominent human family. She enjoyed explaining things to people who would listen.
"The awakening ritual is designed to show one's latent potential with magic. It is the ritual that shows what element one should pursue. Magic itself is a broad and ever-expanding area of study. Currently, magic is spread out into separate categories. Light, Dark, and Black. Light magic is categorized as Water, Fire, Earth, Air, and Arcane. There are subsections for each element, such as metal for earth, or illusions for arcane."
June posed a question. "Fire and the elements are self-explanatory. What is arcane exactly? The wording is...strange."
Lia nodded. "Indeed. Arcane magic is a branch that includes Illusions, both physical and mental, as well as the natural force and form for mana. Hitting someone with a blast of pure Mana force would be considered a form of Arcane weaving."
June nodded. "Makes sense."
Lia continued. "Arcane is the most versatile form of magic, and also the most common, aside from maybe Fire because of its pure destructive capabilities. Dark magic includes only two elements. The element of darkness, and the element of light."
June seemed a tad bit confused. "Why is Light considered a 'Dark element'?"
Lia answered with a chuckle. "Honestly, I consider Dark to mean 'neutral' it makes more sense. In any case, these two elements are considered neutral. Their utility mostly lies in healing and restoring, though darkness can include obscuring and various other effects."
June nodded along as they passed by two other maids sweeping the hallways. They seemed to look jealously at June, who looked at Lia in response. Her silver hair molded her face perfectly, and her gorgeous crimson eyes and naturally long blood-red fingernails made her look gorgeous. She shook her head as Lia continued.
"Black magic is mostly taboo, although our kingdom and the human one don't view it as narrow-mindedly as that. This branch includes the most diverse areas. Anything ranging from Disease, Death, and Nightmares, to even Dreams. If it's even slightly 'evil' you can be sure it's in the black magic category."
June responded without thinking. "Seduction magic would be in this category."
Lia had nearly spat the word "evil" out. She hated that. So many people view things as evil and thus give up on them before even beginning. It was surely a waste. She stopped for a moment and looked at her maid with a perplexed look as she heard the words "Seduction Magic"
She responded after a moment as it seemed she was thinking about something. "It is." Those two words were said with absolute certainty.
June ignored the strange reaction. She had seen the Princess do that multiple times by now, though she had no idea why.
The two of them entered a large oval room. There were stands filled with various vampires from all over the kingdom. Some humans were even there as well.
Lia saw the faces of both Dukes and their kingdom's single Arch-Duke. Their sons were there as well, though Lia didn't particularly like them.
A man wore a flowing robe, emblazoned with a large circular eye. He had a comically oversized witch's hat atop his head. His voice was loud, and Lia inwardly remarked that it was empowered with Mana. "Greetings all, I am Valentia, from the High Mages Tower within the City of Haven. I will be administering the awakening ceremony."
Lia didn't like it. Some deep part of her told her that she should take over and run it herself. She knew how, hell, she probably knew how to do it better than this clown. She stamped those thoughts out, however. She didn't want to cause a scene right now.
A voice spoke seductively in her head. "Come now, it would be fun...put this trash in his place."
Lia looked around the room, trying to find out if someone was speaking in her mind, but she couldn't find anyone. 'Strange...What was that?' She thought before all of her thoughts were suddenly swept away by the booming voice.
"As is custom, the Princess' maid will undergo the ceremony first. Please, step forward."
June was previously instructed by Lia to take orders from no one but her, so she instinctively looked toward Lia.
Lia nodded. "You may approach."
June did as she was informed and approached the raised dais. She held her hand out and it was swiftly pricked by a small golden sewing needle engraved with dark blue runes.
June's blood began to rise into the air, as it formed into one large sphere of blood. It began to morph into three smaller ones. The largest sphere turned a dull, mute gray before the other two began to glow white and black, respectively. The second largest sphere ended up being white, and the smallest, which was no larger than a pinprick, remained black.
June had a high aptitude for Neutral magic, a small aptitude for light magic, and no aptitude for black magic.
After the blood seeped back into June's body, she began to feel faint. Her eyes were drooping, and Lia rushed to catch her. Hurriedly, she was taken away by various maids.
The announcer, Valentia, motioned for everyone to calm down as they started to get louder. The crowd was stunned when June began to faint. "It is normal when one has high magical aptitude. Do not be alarmed."
Lia began walking toward the dais. She did not wait or care if he called her forward. When she was standing on the dais, she cleared her throat to get his attention.
The Mage began to ask her questions. "Are you prepared, princess?"
Lia spoke with a soft voice at first. The voice in her head was getting louder. It was nearly impossible to ignore. It drowned out everything. The sounds within the room were gone, and the voice's seductive tone reached deep into Lia's heart. "Give me the needle."
He looked supremely confused. "What?"
Lia spoke again, much more firmly. "Give. Me. The. Needle. I will not repeat myself." The voice was calling for it, begging to be obeyed.
'Come now...You know what you're doing..He can't spill YOUR blood...OUR blood. It would be a travesty. Only we're allowed to spill our blood. You know that. Much better than anyone else~'
Before he could react, she swiped the needle from him. "I will do this myself, you are NOT drawing my blood, no one but me will perform such a task."
The entire room went silent.
Before anyone could even protest, Lia performed the ritual with pinpoint accuracy, and her blood began to seep from her finger. An unnaturally large amount left her body as she heard a series of strange sounds go off in her head.
*D-Ding*
*D-Ding*
She ignored them for now and began to stare at the massive sphere of blood in front of her. It moved and shifted as if it was alive, and she felt as if she might be able to...direct it..?
In the end, it was only a thought, as the blood wouldn't obey her commands. When the ritual was finished, Lia had the highest aptitude for Black Magic and very very little aptitude for much else. She may be able to learn perfunctory spells from the other two branches, and that was honestly enough for her. Black magic was the most interesting anyway.
The blood began to rush back into her system, which immediately made her faint on the spot.
Maids caught her as everyone watched her get carried away.
Her parents watched her go with prideful expressions, yet they were also filled with deep concern. Most of her aptitude was in black magic, and with Lia being the way she was...she'd never let it go.