"With the close of the Perihelion, the Goddess having shone her light on both Alvonia and Princess Marina through her statue has personally acknowledged them both." said the high priest.
"And with this both Alvonia and the third star of the empire, Princess Marina has been accepted by the Goddess." the high priest said and a thunderous cheer erupted in the temple.
After the service, Princess Marina stood next to her parents and siblings and every noble and commoner extended their greetings as they passed by the noble family.
Among them the Earl, Malachi Morando, approached the imperial family with his legal wife Elaria Morando and his legitimate child Maldareth Morando. As they spouted empty pleasantries to the imperial family. Princess Marina surveyed the temple for two identical orange haired individuals and sure enough Aldric and Aleron were not anywhere in sight. As the pleasantries moved from Esmeralda and Zarya. Princess Marina tried hard to hide her glare when the pleasantries reached her.
Flashback
The palace dungeons
"Princess Marina!" A female guard said in shock.
"You didn't need to come down here." said the female guard that accompanied Princess Marina to the Grand square.
"This place is not suitable for a dignified being such as yourself." The female guard said, worried the Princess Marina would be greatly disturbed by the blood and gore that she would undoubtedly witness the minute she stepped into the prison cell that held the male guard that accompanied Princess Marina to the Grand square and the wind user.
Even now, the sound of fists hitting flesh could be heard as the male guard tried to make the wind user speak. Deciding that this wasn't a place that Princess Marina should step into, the female guard tried to gently tell Princess Marina to go back.
"Before I go," Princess Marina said politely.
"Can I ask you a question? Princess Marina asked politely.
"Absolutely." the female guard said, nodding her head firmly.
"Have you been able to extract information from any of the prisoners?" Princess Marina asked curiously.
"No," the female guard said, shaking her head.
"We haven't even be able to get their names." The female guard said with a sigh.
"They have been tight-lipped since they got here and they have shown no signs of ever speaking!" The female guard said in frustration.
"This" the female guard said pointing at the door that hid the visual of her partner hitting the wind user.
"Is our last resort." the female guard said and Princess Marina nodded in understanding.
Turning around in her dark green dress with dark green lace as sleeves, Princess Marina ascended the stairs that took her to the prison grounds. Heading to her thinkering room, Princess Marina met Lorraine as she opened the door.
"How did it go?" Lorraine asked as she followed Princess Marina further into the room.
"They haven't been able to get any information." Princess Marina said as she picked up a device that is used to amplify sound.
Dismantling the device, Princess Marina carefully separated the little fragments of a clear ore from the added materials from the device.
"What are you doing?" Lorraine asked, as Princess Marina reconfigured the device and added pieces of metal that she had poked holes into.
"I am building a way to get answers." Princess Marina said with a toothy grin.
Flashback end
"My son told me that you were able to conjure a willow tree using a borrowed blessing at your coming of age ball." Elaria said in a pleasant tone but Princess Marina heard the underlying hint of a mocking tone at the word "borrowed".
"I would have love to see it with my own eyes but an unavoidable circumstance kept me from attending an important event such as a coming of age ball.' Elaria said with a time that hardened on the word "unavoidable".
"The Earl didn't want her there." Princess Marina thought in an amused tone.
"I am honored that you have heard such good things about me." Princess Marina said with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.
Noticing that Princess Marina caught on to her mocking tone in her first statement, Elaria Morando, smiled and became more courteous.
"If you ever venture into using attributes displayed by those blessed by the earth, my son, Maldareth is considered a promising genius among those blessed by the earth." Elaria said with false kindness.
"I will keep that in mind." Princess Marina said politely.
"Although I would like to learn to use the attributes displayed by those blessed by the blessing of water from someone Maldareth knows very well." Princess Marina said with a smile.
"And who would that be?" Elaria asked politely.
"Was his name Aldric or Aleron?" Princess Marina asked as she tilted her head upwards like she was trying to remember.
"Having met them just once I can't possibly tell the difference but I am sure one introduced themself to me as one blessed by the spirit of water." Princess Marina said with a smile so pleasant that both Elaria and Maldareth expressions darkened.