Vampire Academy: Different paths and unexpected choices

Chapter 13: Memorial Service and Marking Ceremony

The day dawned bleakly with rain and the skies were deep gray when Memorial Service and Marking Ceremony occurred. It was held in the Auditorium as it’s big enough to host the entire senior school and the Guardians. The auditorium has candles lining the walls while Amazing Grace was played throughout the room. Song stopped when Alberta stood up and solemnly announced the names of the deceased and that the toll all together has reached 30, out of those were 9 Moroi, 5 Novices and 16 Guardians.

Moroi: Mrs. Candice Allen, Mr. Anatoli Babkin, Abigail and Xander Badica, Camille Conta, Samantha Dashkov, Ralf Sarcozy, Justin Tarus, and Randolph Zeklos.

Novices: Dean Barnes, Richard Booth, Leigh Donovan, Melissa Ravilovich, and Micah Toler.

Guardians: Raisa Andropova, Luka Astakhov, Micha Bartkowicz, Sasha Brezhnev, John Bythesea, Christopher Dalton, Susan Evanovich, Kolya Gagarin, Darren Johnson, Ella McManus, Leonid Medvedev, Josif Milojevic, Lee Mitchell, Anthony Stevens, Deborah Weissmuller and Konstantin Yanayev.

Everyone in the room stood up and bowed their head down in deferential silence as prayers were uttered in their names by Father Andrew. Thanking them for their sacrifices was said in English, Romanian and Russian.

After the prayers ended, and everyone murmured "may they rest in peace" before sitting down.

Then Kirova came up and thanked the Dhampir for fighting to keep the school and Moroi safe, and is thankful for their sacrifices. Rose rolled her eyes at this line and Dimitri caught the look and quirked his lips a bit.

Kirova said "she has a message from Her Majesty Queen Tatiana Marina Ivashkov since she couldn’t make an appearance today".

Her message reads out

‘Dear my loyal subjects,

I apologise for not being able to make it to the Memorial Service as well the Marking Ceremony. I am relieved that the Strigoi has not decimated St Vladimir’s because of the Guardians. Guardians, I am thankful you all went into the battle and fought off the Strigoi. I thank you all for making sacrifice to protect the Moroi. I am sorry for the loss of your fellow Guardians. As for the Moroi, I know we have lost a few and their loss will be deeply felt. Nevertheless, I am grateful that more Moroi are still alive.

I hereby bid that Lord Christian Ozera and Novice Rosemarie Hathaway, due to their outstanding partnership in the battle, they are to be given a Zvezda mark each. This makes Lord Ozera the first ever of the Moroi to be given a mark. Also this makes Novice Hathaway the first ever student to be given this mark in the history.

I reward Guardians Alberta Petrova, Stan Alto, Emil Balan, Janine Hathaway, Dimitri Belikov, Celeste Morgan, Jean Smith, Yuri Kirasnov, Daniel Holloway, Danila Gorbachev, Nikolai Andropov, Nikita Papanova, Vladimir Albescu, Leonardo McDonald, and Alexander Chase a Zvezda mark each.

Many thanks"

Sincerely,

Her Highness, Queen Tatiana Marina Ivashkov

Dated 18th of March in the Year of the Lord 2013

Kirova finished reading out the message and called out for Leo, the St Vlad’s tattoo artist and three other tattoo artists sent in from the Royal Court to come up and get ready to tattoo the Dhampirs and Lord Christian Ozera. In addition, the novices who participated in the rescue and helped kill Strigoi will be given a Molnija mark.

Guardians and Rose and Christian goes up on the stage to be tattooed a Zvezda mark, which takes three hours to complete and then the 15 novices goes up and were tattooed a Molnija mark which also took a couple of hours

Moroi and Dhampir alike are witnesses to the historic milestones shown before them. They realized this is history and they’re privileged to witness this. The room exudes respectful feeling as they remained quiet throughout the tattooing well aware they, the Moroi, will likely never see the Marking Ceremony again.

Kirova announced the end of the ceremony and told them to head to cafeteria where buffet dinner is ready to be served. 

Eddie and Rose stood up and hugged before filing out of the room. Rose searched the area before locating Dimitri and they hugged where he whispered in her ear "what time his family will be on Skype and told her what time to come to his room tonight". She nodded and went to join her friends for dinner.