The next group came forward with a gust of wing and thing from the outside began to fly inside, grass, leaves, mud, even droplets of water. Together, the 10 witches and warlocks formed a golem. Akiye wondered how it looked like for the people outside. The mud creature had hollow for his eyes and his hands were undifined, as were the elbows, knees or feet. People appluded them before they sent everything flying back out, leaving the circle of moonlight clear for the next group.
A moment of awkward hesitation. No one stepped forward, then a first year warlock stepped forward and his friend came from the other end. They stood under the moonlight for a moment, hand hovering close to one another. Moonlight, in thick shapeless gust surrounded them, and entered their body, turning from pale white to faint gold. The blessing of a seer, she had read. A rare sight, she paused to watch. When the two young men opened their eyes, one had golden rims in his iris that faded back and the other glowed from every pore of his body, eyes like lamp. A seer and a high priest in training.
The next group was pair of twin, a young man and a young woman, each with the head of bright blue hair. As soon as they stepped into the moonlight, shoulder to shoulder, one hand extended each, faint blue light surrounded them. The boy's hand extended far, making the blue light a little distorted. His sister slapped his hand and a few people laughed. The boy glared back and threw a ball of water at her face. She dodged and threw one right back. More and more people laughed. Seeing how they made a mess, each of the twin put their arm out, over the water, palm down and took the water, as if absorbed by their bodies. A mess of a show but a show.
The next person stepped up, a girl short for her age. As she walked, grass sprouted at her ankles and she looked back awkwardly, trying to make it go away, sometimes successful, sometimes not. Akiye whispered, "she is already so gifted and we all wish for one more blessing."
As the girl stepped into the moonlight, grass sprouted around her as she walked. The moon enhanced her powers and it was small grass field before she could reach the centre of the moonlight. For a moment Ash wondered what would happen if she were to step into the moonlight. Back home, the dome of the temple was forever open to let moonlight in, every night and anyone could bathe in it. On the day of the full moon, the temple was full of people. It was a festival, where people rejoiced in their awakening and the high of a blessing coursing through them. Here, the dome only ever opened on full moon for a special ceremony.
As the girl stepped back, the high priestess raised her hand and the grass disappeared back into the ground. A warlock stepped forward next, or three. Two went back because the moonlight rushed to one of them, piercing straight into his chest like an arrow, bending even before he had reached. The warlock, surprised himself, paused, taking a step back. Then he looked at the high priestess, who gave him an encouraging smile. The warlock stepped forward, and into the moonlight. In his presence, the moon seem to glow a little brighter, stronger, harder. Nothing else happened. The man stood there for a moment before going back to his position. However, as soon as he was in the shadow, a faint glow emited from his skin. Another high priest in training.
The two warlocks, who had paused, stepped up now. Hand in hand, one raised his hand to have fire dance on his fingertips while other making the same fire dance around with wind. They worked well together and seem to have the connection long before they stepped into the university. The next person to step up was also water magic, and more water magic and more. Then a rarity happened and a witch stepped forward, or a warlock. With the broad shoulders of a man but the sway of a woman, the person who stepped forward glowed in colors of so many multitudes that the moonlight paled in his comparisons. People began looking at one another, whispers rose, "what does that mean?"
"Look at him stand?"
"Wow. That's like a rainbow."
The person stood straight, head held high and Ash admired him silently. The longer he stood, the stronger the colors got, expanding around him, bigger and bigger and bigger, until it filled the entire moonlit area. Ash had never witnessed or read about such a thing. If she asked Akiye, she would be one of the many to whisper about him.
Akiye announced, "we are here."
Ash noticed they were close to the high priestess who pointed her towards the circle with an encouraging smile. Even if the priestess could understand her reluctance, she did not know where it stemmed from. In the end, the last person came back into the circle with the sway of his hips.
Akiye pressed her hand tightly before letting go. Ash's could feel her heart beating faster and faster as she stepped towards the circle.
"Excuse me," she whispered, wiling no one would hear it. They didn't. She had the urge to look back at the high priestess, or even Akiye but that's not who she was. Forcing herself to move, she pressed forward and asked, "Excuse me please."
Two people parted and Ash stepped past the circle. It took every muscle in her body, not to move her head, or keep her hands in a practiced casual rhythm of movement. There were no more than 200 people in the room, maybe 300. She had addressed more. This was a small part of what she trained for. But she never trained for this. She did. She trained every year how to step in front of so many people as her crowning was announced to the world. She trained not for how to expose her worst movement in life in front of strangers and still stand tall and high.
Her feet paused at the edge of the moonlit circle. Was the circle smaller now? It couldn't be. Her vision was far too focused on the moonlight. She wished she didn't have to step into it. She wished no one would see when she stripped a part of herself in front of the strangers. With that thought she raised a feet and pushed forward like she did for everything else.
The circle shrunk, the line of the moonlit area shrunk smaller and smaller in distorted shapes. Ash looked up to see cloud from three sides, closing into the moon and right before her eyes, it was engulfed. Her heart sighed louder than her breath could have allowed and she kept walking until she was in the middle of the supposed circle.
"Ominous sign?"
"It might rain tonight?"
"It's windy. It's just passing clouds."
"Untimely."
Ash heard all kinds of whispers, good and bad but nothing could compare to the relief she felt. She looked back and the high priestess smiled a little. Satisfied, she began to step away and the cloud began to clear behind her.
"Very ominous." she heard a whisper, where she stepped away from the circle of witches and warlocks.
"The moon goddess refused her a blessing." One voice said louder than the other and the room accepted it readily, calling her ominous, unblessed, and unheard of. She even heard a remark that called her unidentified. She couldn't see Akiye where she had left her but a familiar figure with straight slicked back hair and narrow shoulder slipped past one of the big double doors that led to the dormitories.
"Now that everyone has been blessed, we will move out into the open." The high priestess, took the attention away from her. Akiye found her again and said something about a change of clothes before disappearing into the dormitories. Ash hung back until very few witches remained, fewer ears to eavesdrop on their conversation.
"Forgive me for asking this for I do not see what you see. Why ask me to step into the moonlight? Your disagreement earlier about my blessing had been aparent."
"You don't see it. Do you?"
Ash shook her head. "I see what you mean but look at this," saying she walked back into the circle of moonlight and stood there without any affect. For others, the moonlight reacted, wrapped and danced around them but for her, it was the same moonlight that shone on other humans, plain and ineffective.
The high priestess shook her head, leading towards the dormitories she had never visited. Ash stepped out of the moonlight and followed her into the unfamiliar path. "I was perhaps wrong then. It is not that you are incapable of the moon goddess' blessing but that you are already blessed enough to call darkness at your will. When you stepped into the moonlight I could feel your strong reluctance to show everyone your dark blessing and in doing so, you presented the most unexpected showcase of the night."
Ash remained silent. If what the high priestess was to be believed, she had brought in the dark clouds to hide the moon, to hide herself but if she could control the weather, the clouds, and specifically the dark clouds, why did the people of her island had to suffer the persisting weight of the thunderclouds that refused to heal even with her brother's magic. If she was reason for those ominous clouds over Kalai, then the reason her father wanted her out of the island became a lot more jarring.
The high priestess opened the dormitory doors wide and Ash looked up at the closed dome. The moonlight still filtered in but covered in shadows. None of the earlier clouds hung in the vicinity. The high priestess was waiting for her on the other side.
She fell in step with the tall woman and asked, "I do not fully comprehend this blessing. Is it even a blessing?"
"Everything is a blessing once you learn to use it."
"We will first have to find out the extent of your ability, then we can start some training."
"Extent. Didn't we just experience the extent of my ability?"
The high priestess looked at her sideways. "That is far from it. It might be a part of your ability, something used unwittingly, in a moment of need but it is far from the full extent of them."
"How do we find the full extent?"
The high priestess, put a hand on her shoulder and navigated her away. The next moment, a door opened, and a row of warlocks fell out in a mess of wet mud. the room looked like a ball of huge mud had exploded into the room. The high priestess stepped around her and spoke sternly, "clean up in 5 minutes. I want all of the warlocks in room B to be standing front row at the blessing."
The men shuffled, some of them already moving their palms, ready at work, while others answered, straightening up. "Yes warden."
She pushed Ash's shoulder and they continued walking. It is only now Ash realized they were in men's dormitories. She had been too preoccupied in her own dark blessing to give any thought to men and their presence. As they wound down a row of staircase, she heard a siren song through the second floor corridor. the priestess, pulled out two pieces of cotton from her long overcoat and passed them to her.
Ash refused politely, "thank you but I have some resistance to it."
The priestess put her own earplugs and continued to chat, "we will find the full extent of them by exposing you the full moon every cycle, and maybe even exposing you to the new moon too. The absence of moon goddess' energy in the night air might also help you. Perhaps, this time, we will do it privately as you want."
"Thank you." she spoke to soon. the high priestess added, "until you can get comfortable exposing your abilities to the people. By owning your blessing proudly, you express your gratefullness to the goddess who granted you the blessing."
Ash paused. They just reached the ground floor. Gratefulness. She had never even considered having an ability. To know she had one, for who knows how long, alone was a shock. "To accept, that a blessing can also come in such form, might take some time."
"The gods have lived before us and will continue to live after us. They are patient." The high priestess stepped towards Room W, "come on in. We will leave in a moment, once I have chanced."
The high priestess opened the door and Ash saw the state of her room was no better than the state of the room she had seen upstairs. Clothes covered every surface.
"I will await your return right here." Ash said, uncomfortable witnessing the humane side of the high priestess or entering into her personal space. Without giving the warden a moment to answer, she turned around and stood by the wall.
"Apologies for the condition of the room. I am constantly feeling the boys' rushed energy here." she said, clearly a little embarrassed herself and vanished inside, door closed.
Down the corridor, two doors opened simultaneously and someone she least expected to see poked his head out. He didn't wear his glasses. His eyes, seemed sharper without the rounded edges of his glasses and he seemed surprised to see her, annoyed perhaps. Because the next thing she knew, he pulled back and the sound of the door echoed into the hall. It was as loud as her heart.
The high priestess' door opened immediately. "Who was that?"
Ash hesitated. "Just some boy. They got flustered to see a woman in the corridor."
The high priestess had changed into a casual long dress. "Apologies if it surprised you," she said but her smiled looked like she knew, she knew something Ash was not ready to share.
He could feel a slight buzz under his skin. There was only a few other times he had felt like this. Once, when he was in the booth, another time, when he was in the cafeteria and a third time in the conference room. His body came alive, whenever she was close. There were only two places she could be for him to feel like this. An unease crept into his heart. Buzzing with the need to lay his eyes on her and unwilling to find her in the most likely place, he walked to the back window and pushed one open. They were not big enough to slip out but they were big enough for him to poke his head out.
The back alley, as usual was full of secretive couples and incandescent activities and much to the unwarranted relief, she wasn't among them. He scanned the line of trees but found no more than a handful of wolves, late wolves making their way around the building, to join their tribes out in the forest.
He closed the window shut, much more gently than he had opened it. The other option, though unlikely, was the corridor outside. If she wasn't there, he was unwilling to entertain the possibility that she would be in one of the other rooms.
As soon as he opened the door, their eyes met. She stood, straight backed, besides the warden's room, hands folded in front of her. Did the warden bring her here? If she did, then she could sense his attraction too. Suddenly he stepped back and slammed the door shut. The warden must have felt it. She will come looking in the room, poking into their lives. As dignified as the high priestess was, as a warden, she was pretty nosy into the boys' life. Suddenly inside his chest, he could feel what a beating heart felt like. He put a hand to his chest, it was dead, cold and silent but he could still count the rhythm of it.