Convulsion

✿ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴛᴡᴇɴᴛʏ ᴇɪɢʜᴛ ✿

Lily

It's been six days. Six days since I visited the Health Center. Six days of training. Six days of solitude. The only people I've seen since the Health Center have been Brayden, Ethan, and Luna. Ethan for training, Brayden for food, and Luna for just talking. Amaryllis and Steve have been at the Health Center and Richard is still missing. I got used to just me and my thoughts, but now... now in this crowd, the only things I can really see are people.

Here, in the ballroom of Valon's Palace, there's barely any space to walk or to move at all. So many people have come to my ceremony that they're all just becoming a huge blur to me, and I hate it. I don't know any of these people besides some of the Representatives of the Council and the Guardians. Right now I can't even find any of them as I make my way between different sets of tables and chairs. I don't even know how they all fit in here.

I've pretty much been a wreck ever since I found out that Steve has been Chris. Sure, I haven't seen him in three days, but the revelation took its toll on me. How many times have I gone through my life on Earth, wondering how much of it has been lies? Too many. The blow I received from Vashti hurt me too, and it took awhile for me to get back to a version of normal. I spent most of my time walking around Grandcrest Cover these past days, occasionally learning from Ethan. I've gotten stronger. Turns out I don't need fancy words from English or the Elemental Language in order to communicate with nature, I just need the Gem and some emotion. And the results that have come, they're amazing. I never would have thought I could reach a point where I control the nature around me.

With Richard still on the run we haven't been able to locate Gwen or any other members of the Gloaming, even with Brayden and Ethan constantly searching. Whenever Brayden and Ethan left the Keep of the Elementals I would only have Luna for company, and she's actually really nice. Vashti has been gone for the last three days, thankfully. She was ordered to stay back at the Praesidium until my ceremony after what she did. Amaryllis and Steve were also ordered to stay at the Health Center until the day of my ceremony. Which is today. Right here. Right now.

I'm wearing some sort of lace green tail dress, where the fabric at the front flows down to my knees before stopping whereas the tail, the fabric at the back of my dress, reaches to my feet. Really though, this fancy dress and its flowy green fabric isn't helping me as I try to fight my way through the crowd. It only brings more attention to me because I'm the only one wearing green. Why? I wonder if the Representatives made me wear this for that purpose. They probably did.

There's a balcony that I'm making my way on the other side of the humongous ballroom, attached to a part of the shiny copper and rose gold wall ahead of me. As far as I know, this room is in one of the towers of this Valon's Palace. You can tell because the roof of the room is slanted into a cone shape, with glass panels creating a large swirl at the very top. But I'm searching for the large balcony, because that's where I'm supposed to be. It's where I'm supposed to stand as they crown me as Head Guardian.

I try to stand on the tips of my toes, even though I'm in silver high heels. I can just see the balcony over the heads of the people surrounding me. The balcony looks huge, almost as big as a speed boat. It's the highest point in the room, attached to the flat part of the wall right before the section where the walls start to slant inward to transform into the roof. So far I can only see Axel and Perla, sitting in large golden thrones as they chat and look over the crowd.

"Lily." A voice rings out and calls out my name from behind me. I suck in a breath, tripping over my own feet before I turn around. Steve is standing there, dressed in a fancy gray suit and dress pants that match his dark blue tie. The suit looks good on him; it's tight and loose in all the right places and with the way he styled his waves of brown hair, it makes him look handsome. I bite my tongue, suddenly remembering everything that's happened between Steve and I in his presence. I don't know how to feel about it at all.