Aiden was in awe of the massive crowd around him. It seemed as if the entire world had gathered at Etiril.
'Does everyone here belong to our sect?' he wondered as he stared at the unfamiliar faces.
The number of people Aiden knew could reach a few hundred, all thanks to his father who was a social butterfly. While he was an introvert, his father was a people person and could strike up a conversation with anyone at any time.
Otherwise, Aiden would barely know anyone, maybe countable on his fingers.
With a sigh, Aiden looked at the time on his phone, It was only a few minutes past seven. They still had some time.
Aiden glanced around him with his brows raised. Even though the crowd was huge, somehow, the situation seemed orderly. The ones who didn't have the Astral Flame sect bloodline in them yet were related to them were tasked with handling the people, and they were doing an excellent job at it.
Aiden's eyes widened when he noticed a familiar face. Halvard Bellamy? What was he doing here?
Aiden's lips parted in shock, and he gaped at the man he admired and revered the most. As far as he knew, he was one of the few people who didn't despise the Astral Flame sect. In fact, he was always cordial, and that was one of the reasons why Aiden respected him greatly.
"Dad, what's Halvard Bellamy doing here?" Aiden questioned, maintaining his voice as low as possible, his eyes still fixed on Halvard.
As if sensing his name being taken, Halvard immediately turned in Aiden's direction and the young man's heart skipped a beat. Flustered, he averted his gaze instantly, hoping desperately to not have been caught.
"Aiden, a lot of people here do not belong to our sect. While some are here to help us, others are here to join the fun," Richard explained, his twinkling eyes still darting around in delight.
"Help us? How?" Aiden couldn't decipher how they would be of any help.
"Son, our sect doesn't have anyone to guide us once our abilities awaken. We need their help."
"Ohh." Aiden nodded and discreetly returned his gaze to Halvard only to find the man staring in his direction with a soft smile lingering on his lips.
Aiden didn't know if it was an illusion but he felt the man smiling at him. But why?
"Aiden!"
Aiden heard his cousin, Nico shout and he turned towards his maternal uncle's family who were making their way towards them. His paternal grandparents had joined them at some point and his grandfather especially was beaming as if he had won a trophy.
'Grandpa, control your emotions. Otherwise, someone might think that you have already awakened your abilities,' Aiden thought but didn't dare voice it out. His grandfather could be quite eccentric and he wasn't interested in getting whacked in public.
Aiden greeted his relatives and moved back, pulling his cousin Nico with him. On seeing her brothers step aside, Tessa too joined them. Her elders were conversing among themselves and she was bored out of her mind.
"Wait for me!" she shouted and ran after them.
Aiden glanced at Nico who gave him a helpless look. Although they didn't hate Tessa, they still weren't willing to bring her along. She was quite annoying sometimes and they had to use a lot of strength to remain calm whenever she was around.
"Tessa, we are going to join our friends. Why do you want to join us?" Nico was irked.
"What's wrong with me joining you? It's not like I am going to eat you guys alive." Tessa shot back and Aiden rolled his eyes in dismay. "And I don't think you can find your friends in this massive crowd. Stop lying to me."
Well, she had a point.
Although it wasn't impossible to look for their friends in the large crowd, it surely was difficult. Moreover, they couldn't afford to waste time. After all, the registration would start at 8. They had less than half an hour left.
Nico glanced at Aiden who just shook his head. Eventually, they gave up persuading her as they stood within their family's sight.
"Confident?" Aiden questioned, giving Nico a thrilled look.
"I guess so. I hope I awaken some ability. I don't care which, any will do."
"Me too." Aiden agreed. After all, not everyone was fortunate and the percentage of people probably awakening their abilities was low.
"You guys are so stupid and cowardly. You should always aim higher," Tessa mocked as she looked at her nails. "I don't want any meager ability. My ability will be superior and powerful."
Her words were extremely annoying and Aiden wanted to smack some sense into her.
It wasn't as if she was buying fish in the mart that she'd look for something of superior quality. She had to be lucky first. Only if she was blessed, she could awaken her abilities.
Aiden would have surely smacked some sense into her if not for the sudden snicker from a person nearby. He turned in the direction of the sound and saw a girl who seemed to be around his age laughing, more like in ridicule.
"What are you laughing at?" Tessa exploded in rage and she glared at the girl.
"I'm laughing at your stupidity and ignorance."
"You..."
Tessa was ready to hurl profanities at her. But the girl just scoffed and walked away, her actions humiliating Tessa all the more. Furious, she turned to her brothers who hadn't defended her even once.
"Why didn't you fight her?"
Aiden raised his right hand and pointed his index finger at himself as if questioning if she was asking him.
"She was humiliating me and you two did nothing," Tessa complained as if the two had committed a heinous crime.
"She only told the truth," Aiden mumbled and pulled out his phone, ignoring his annoying cousin.
"What did you just say?" Tessa was damn sure that he was mocking her. But she didn't hear what exactly his words were.
"What did you hear?" Aiden questioned back, not lifting his head as he replied to his friends on the group chat.
All his friends who belonged to his sect were in Etiril and were asking about each other's locations.
On seeing that his sister was about to flare up, Nico butted in, "We should return. I think it's going to start soon."
Aiden nodded and showed the group chat to Nico who nodded back at him as they returned to their family, leaving a fuming Tessa to catch up.
"Dad..." Tessa had barely started whining when the crowd went silent and everyone looked up at the stage just by the stone stele at the entrance of Etiril. All the sect elders were on the stage with the sect leader, Drayse Kalmar in the center.
Approaching the mike, Drayse ran his gaze around before he started speaking. "Astral Flame sect members, we all know why we are gathered here. I will not waste your time and will dive straight to the main point."
Aiden silently gave the man a thumbs up. No one here was interested in long speeches. They wanted to jump into action soon.
Speeches? Even he could give one if he was in the mood.
"You are all to proceed towards the registration desks according to the first three digits of your identification number. It's just like an attendance check, nothing complicated. Once done, you can enter Etiril." Drayse explained and Aiden listened intently.
"Now, Silver Lotus sect leader, Halvard Bellamy will explain what will happen once the curse is lifted."
Drayse stepped back, allowing Halvard to take over.
Halvard needed no introductions and he didn't go through the trouble as well. "Once the curse is lifted, you will feel a spiritual energy surge through you, that is if you are one of the blessed ones."
Halvard stopped, waiting for everyone to digest his words. "Once you feel the spiritual energy, return to us here. Do you see the crystal ball?" He raised a crystal ball for the crowd to see.
"This will tell you what kind of power you have awakened. Does anyone have any questions?"
"How do we feel if we have spiritual energy or not?" someone shouted.
"Trust me, you'll feel it. You'll know it," Halvard assured with a confident smile.
"How long will it take for us to feel the spiritual energy?"
"It should be instant and mostly people aged twelve and above will feel it."
"What if it's not instant?" Someone else shouted.
"It's usually instant. If not, I'm sorry to say that you aren't blessed."
A gloomy silence fell over instantly and Aiden became nervous at the possibility of him being one of the unfortunate ones.
"Let's all be positive. The Astral Flame sect might have the most powerful person. We never know," Halvard encouraged, but Aiden didn't feel better. Yet, he didn't show his emotions on his face.
"What Etiril though? Can't we awaken our powers from anywhere in the world?"
Aiden too had this question in mind. Why Etiril? Couldn't he find out if he was the blessed one or not from the confines of his home? How cool would that be?
"Well, we don't know what is going to happen once the curse is lifted. And we just want to make sure there aren't any unexpected situations. After all, it's been ten thousand years since the Astral Flame sect had anyone with abilities. We are just being safe," Halvard stated and Drayse nodded, not caring that Halvard had answered for him.
"Moreover, it's never bad to know your origins," Drayse added loudly.
Many people agreed with him this time, including Aiden.
"Any more questions?" Halvard waited. When he didn't receive any response, he nodded and stepped back, allowing Drayse to take over once again.
"The leaders and elders from all the sects other than Astral Flame sect will be here. You may reach out to them if you face any problems. And please don't try to test your spiritual power once you sense it. We don't know the strength of your powers. We don't want to harm anyone around you. Right?" Drayse joked and the tense atmosphere broke instantly.
"If everyone is ready, please proceed towards the desk. We don't know when the curse will be lifted. But according to the books, it should be sometime before noon. Until then, take your time exploring Etiril."