"Brian Jefferson, no elemental affinity!"
The nervous boy breathed a sigh of relief and happily moved his hands away from the dull surface of the cold smooth crystal, although he felt a little disappointed for not awakening any element, he was mostly glad that he wasn't 'the cursed one'. As he walked down the stage, he could hear the loud mockery and worried whispers of his friends and family, but he still smiled and walked back to his position quietly.
"Another one with no affinity? how unlucky! This year's awakening ceremony is bound to be the worst!" Alaric, one of the elderly men observing from the balcony of the headmaster's tower said.
"We are getting less and less awakeners each year now, this is bad. We mustn't let the other nations know of this or they will surely strike!" Rosetta slammed her wooden cane to the ground.
"What's the point of hiding it? With or without this knowledge, they will still strike. it's the Jefferson's 10th generation to awaken, those slimy bastards will use this as an excuse!" Alaric huffed in annoyance.
"Why don't we observe first? For all we know, this might just be a miscalculation or a facade. If you haven't noticed, nearly all of the existing Jefferson descendants have already went on stage, we should be happy that none of them is 'the cursed one'" Cobbener thoughtfully rubbed his rough beard.
"Tsk, who asked your opinion? We can't rely on a drunk theorist's prediction, this is a serious issue." Rosetta crossed her legs and leaned back on the sofa.
Cobbener awkwardly scratched his head with a nervous smile "Actually, I'm not drunk right now and I'm a researcher too… yeah… that"
"Shut up, I can smell your breath from here brat!" Rosetta pinched her nose in disgust.
"Enough!" The headmaster gently slammed his hands together, creating a small burst of wind that breezed past everyone's faces.
"Let's continue watching, there's a promising candidate going up the stage"
Many in the room craned their necks to get a better look, they could all see that the hundreds of people down below were uneasy after a certain name was called.
A boy in exquisite looking clothes came out of a fancy looking carriage and dusted the imaginary dust off his coat.
He faced the man in the front seat and gave a small bow "I won't disappoint you patriach"
The patriach nodded and looked away, his gaze landing on a petite woman dressed in worn-out clothes.
His eyes darkened when he saw a young girl behind her "Rana, you still dared to bring her here? Do you want to embarrass our family?"
"Our family has already produced two non-benders, what difference will it make if Ayasha ends up the same?" Rana retorted.
"Rana! After the identity of the 'bearer' is revealed, you can get lost!"
"With pleasure." Rana grabbed onto Ayasha's hand "oh and by the way Osborn, dressing someone in sparkling clothes won't gurrantee that they will awaken. Beware, least you end up embarrassing yourself in the end" Rana chuckled and disappeared into the crowd of people, leaving Osborn fuming with anger.
Riko walked to the front with his chest puffed out, swelling with pride and unwavering confidence. When he reached the stage, he quickly placed his hands on the dull cold surface of the crystal and waited for the results as the crystal analyzed his internal energy.
After a few moments, the crystal lit up in three different colors, shocking everyone on the scene.
"That kid…. Is a triple element bender! You stinky men better not bully a lady and take him from me!" Rosetta stood up abruptly, afraid that the others would fight her to death if she didn't say it first.
"Don't flatter yourself Rosy, I'm sure that kid will want to specialize in the fire element and only my Inferno academy can offer that" Alaric confidently patted Rosetta's shoulders.
"Pffft..,. Are you blind? Can't you see his two elements are plant and water? It's obvious that he should be part of my Harmonia institute!" Rosetta spat.
"Be quite! Let the boy choose himself" the headmaster rubbed his temple in annoyance.
Rosetta and Alaric hatefully stared at each other before looking away.
While everyone was admiring and praising him, Riko wasn't so happy. He removed his hands and placed them on the cold crystal again but the result was the same.
He reluctantly moved down the stage when he saw someone else walking up. Seeing who it was, he snorted and deliberately bumped on her shoulder, making her stagger.
Ayasha nervously walked on the stage, placed her shaky hands on the crystal and waited, not many people were paying attention to her due to the sensation that Riko had caused.
While waiting for the result, Ayasha glanced at the family head who had a big scowl on his face, when their eyes locked, Ayasha couldn't help but feel a chill crawl down her spine. There was something disturbing about his eyes but she didn't know what exactly it was, her gaze moved towards her mother who was dressed so shabbily and looked more nervous than she was.
She closed her eyes and made a silent prayer 'just one element, even if it's useless and weak…. Please… for my mother'
At that moment, as if answering to her prayer, a bright flash of light blinded everyone for a moment. When they regained their sight, they could see a myriad of colors shinning on the crystal's surface. Before they could even count the colors or express their amazement, the colors moved out of the crystal together and danced around Ayasha before drilling themselves on her leg and disappearing from sight.
Ayasha stood frozen on stage, she realised what these colors represented and meant, and so did everyone else present.
The first one to react was the patriach of the Jeffersons, he stood up from his seat in the carriage and shouted, projecting his voice with his wind magic to make it louder. "Protect the young lady!"
Those words set off a chain of reactions as they brought back people from their shock and thoughts.
People who had been hiding amongst the crowd suddenly jumped towards the stage, their weapons drawn and some were already casting various kinds of magic towards Ayasha.
Under the patriarch's command, a different kind of group consisting of guards along with some of the string Jefferson members tried to make a formation around Ayasha to protect her.
The headmaster along with the other two principles, simultaneously jumped off the balcony and hurried to the stage. None of them noticed that Cobbener had remained behind.
"Well well well, the bearer of the mark at last! Hahahaha!" He laughed in delight before sitting down on the headmaster's chair, relaxing and drowning himself in a bottle of wine.
Everything was happening so fast that Ayasha had no time to react, not to mention that she was just a newly awakened. Being attacked by one highly ranked awakened was already a death sentence let alone a dozen of them!
In the crowd of people, the moment she saw the bright flash, the color drained from Rana's face. When she tried to move forward, hostile people suddenly started running towards the stage and she could see who their target was. Her heart palpitated wildly in her chest but she was helpless in the moment, unable to offer any help to her daughter.
When the first attack was fired, the ball of fire burnt everyone in its way indiscriminately, causing panic to errupt. And as the other attacks arrived, more people were injured and even killed. Most of the people present were unable to protect themselves as they were either non-benders or low ranked benders. All they could do was scream and run around chaotically, trampling each other to death.
The first two attacks against Ayasha were deflected but more kept on coming, nearly overwhelming the guards.
The headmaster floated above everyone else and started casting protective barriers around the ordinary people while deflecting stray attacks from hurting them.
"Headmaster Thorne, what are you doing! Help me end the curse!" Alaric yelled when he noticed what the headmaster was doing.
"I will harm no one, my duty is to protect the people"
"Useless!" Alaric turned around only to find Rosetta pointing her wooden cane at him.
"I can't allow you to kill that child, do you even know what the term 'bearer of the mark' means?" The cane turned green and started rapidly branching off and growing into many thorny vines, all of them flying towards Alaric.
"Ha! I didn't know that you were so delusional Rosy, bearer of the mark? That's just your nice way of seeing things!" Alaric stretched out his arms and huge flames of fire spurted forth, consuming and burning the thorny vines completely.
"That child is a curse! And l will get rid of her before she destroys us all! "