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She paused in her journey for refreshments as a silky voice exuding confidence rang out over the crowd, hushing everyone for a brief moment before a reply of ‘good evening’ was returned to the owner of the voice. Sister Deborah continued with her speech, an introduction to not only the importance of this day to the coven as a whole but how more special it was by bringing the initiates into the fold as true witches by the bonding to the wellspring. It was at this time that the crowd's attention turned to them, applause of happiness ring out around them. Hana tucked her empty cup behind her, the praise of everyone’s clapping being a bit embarrassing if she was to be honest so it was almost a relief when Sister Deborah drew in their attention once more. She spoke of those they had lost and her heart felt heavy in her chest. It clenched painfully as she thought of the names on that list and how the families must feel. It was a fact though, they all knew this could happen when signing up to be part of the coven just as the initiates did. It didn’t make it any less horrible when tragedy struck.
She felt her eyes close, taking a moment of silence for them, to thank and remember them even if she might not have known all of them personally. Hana only opened her eyes once more as Sister Deborah switched tones, moving the focus back onto the future and of lighter topics. The feeling of excitement bubbled up again at the thought of being part of the coven. Ten minutes, in little more than ten minutes it would start and she couldn’t wait. The nerves she felt earlier faded a bit to be replaced with the hope of what the future would bring. The list of names was staggering for the amount of new initiates but it luckily wasn’t as surprising when you looked at the table that had been laid out. It was more impressive and surprising to have them all listed by name and in alphabetical order nonetheless. She could barely hear the applause as they wrapped things up, her mind racing on if she should just head to the house early or if she should just refill her drink as planned before finishing up her meal. Instead, her thoughts were thrown off by Iris who ended up teasing that she had somewhere to be. Hana chuckled a bit and gave a light wave goodbye while replying,
”Alright Iris, catch ya later.”She had every intention to just head back to her seat, either to finish her plate or clean up the mess when she felt someone brush past her. She was about to apologize for standing in the way when her voice left her at exactly who she had light bumped into. Why in the stars did it have to be him? Hana had been careful to completely avoid any and all of the long standing coven families. It wasn’t anything against them personally but was more like she had no idea how to behave around them and wanted as little trouble as possible. The last thing she needed was to be in Summer’s presence and say
exactly what she thought or do something that would completely embarrass the person she was hanging out with because of something she had done inappropriately without her knowledge. Plus, when you were with higher standing families...they just naturally drew in attention and that just made her feel awkward. She took a deep breath to shake off her thoughts, hoping she hadn’t looked like a deer in headlights for a moment and was fully prepared to speak when Arken’s words took her completely by surprise.
Hana found herself nodding softly at her own name, confirming that he indeed had it correct. Her mind was frantic though as he spoke, filled with curiosity and awe at what was even taking place right now. It was actually really sweet of him to wish her luck though she had no idea what could have prompted the gesture as they had never spoken before this moment. It was the wink though that made her instantly blush, gripping the cup in her hand like a life line since she had no idea what that was about or how to really react. Was he teasing her or something? Was that flirting? No, no, it was probably just his personality since she had seen him do that kind of thing before. She didn’t want to be rude though when he had been kind enough to take the time to wish her luck and introduce himself even if she actually knew who he was. She noticed he had started to turn away to head for the gathering location and blurted out,
”You too!”, before composing herself a bit and lowering the tone of her voice,
”I-I mean, g-good luck to you too. On the ceremony t-that is.” She felt her fingers playing with the ends of her hair nervously and she slowly moved herself backwards a few steps before turning on her heel and heading the opposite direction while stating,
”I’ll see you around, Arken.”Hana plopped back into her seat, setting the cup down before placing her forehead on the table and covering her face with her hands. What the hell had that been?! What had just happened?! How did he even know her name? If someone had asked her if Arken Stone knew of her existence, she would have honestly said no until today it would seem. She lifted her head, looking at the plate before her and sighed. There was no way she could eat now with all the nerves from the pathetic attempt at talking to someone new and excitement for the gathering that would take place in mere minutes. She gathered everything up, dumping it into the trash bin before making her way to the location like the rest of the group. It seemed like everyone was doing the buddy system, going in together that it made her think that maybe it wouldn’t be so bad making some closer friends. It wasn’t like she liked being a loner. She wanted to talk to people but when she tried to start conversations, she felt all tongue tied and anxious. Hana shook herself, clearing the negative thoughts and looked towards the positives. She had a nice short conversation with Iris, she had at least tried to respond to Arken, and she was about to become a full fledged witch. Things were going well and as long as she was trying her best then that was all she could ask for.
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Speaks With: (Iris) @Blizz, (Arken)@Infinite Cosmos
Mentioned:(Summer) @Danvers