Marcos stood at the railing the went around the Elfven cavern, his two friends Hale and Kohl by his side. The seniors never had to wait in the entrance hall before coming into the cohorts, as they had to set up initiation.

Marcos and the rest of the seniors got to work on initiation. Every year in the Elfven cohort the invitation process was the same, tradition and all that. The sacred book, The Folktil, was placed on a large pedestal in the center of the room. Behind the pedestal were 7 large mahogany chairs, one for each elected representative from the different grades. On the other side of the pedestal were hundreds of fold up chairs in an arena set up.

Marcos opened the book and flipped to the third page, where the initiation spell was. Being the 9th year's representative meant he had to help recite and preform the initiation spell along with the teachers and elders.

The elders were a group of old Elfvens who came to the Thrafting school twice during the school year, for initiation and for graduation. To be an Elder you had to be above the age of 60, be an Elfven (obviously), been born and raised in the Elfven community, and be a full blood Elfven.

(The last two requirements were long standing tradition and pretty insensitive, but the older elfvens refused to change the rules. These rules set the Elfven apart from the other cohorts, which are all fairly accepting and equal societies). If you met all of these requirements, you would then have to be nominated by a current elder, which resulted in only a few families being elders.

Finally the first students entered the room, mainly older students who the tunnel knew were Elfven. Then the first few first years started trickling in, and the seniors standing by the door led them to the first row of chairs to wait for initiation.

Marcos went to his seat behind the pedestal and noticed that the second year's representative looked nervous.
"Hey, you're Julia, right?" Marcos said, approaching her.

The 11 year old nodded, turning to him,

"Listen, don't worry about initiation, you just get to sit there and watch it all happen. At the end a song will play and every first year will walk across the stage, and then you will exit after them." He said, smiling.

Julia nodded and climbed up onto the chair. "Thanks," she said, smiling nervously. Marcos grinned at her and gave her a pat on the back.
"You'll do just fine," he reassured her, walking back to his chair.

Slowly the auditorium filled and the number of students entering the cavern slowly trickled down until the large wooden doors at the end of the tunnel slammed shut, the sign that all students were accounted for. The chatter died down and the Head Elder rose from his seat to the Pedestal.

"Welcome to the Elfven cohort." He said, his voice booming over the auditorium.
"As you will come to know, we Elfven revolve heavily around tradition.  Today is a key example of that, as we begin initiation. First years, please rise for the oath." The first row of students, the first years, uncertainly rose from their seats and glanced around.

"Raise your right hand and repeat after me,
I promise to uphold the ideals and values of the Elfven cohort;
I promise to live by the Elfven laws and respect their ancient meaning
I promise to respect the cohort that my Elfven ancestors have worked hard to maintain
And I promise to never forget the Elfven Legacy."

The elder paused after every sentence and the quite but steady voices of the first years repeated what he said. When the last sentence was spoken a burst of white light showered down upon the first years and the auditorium cheered.

"Welcome, new Elfven! Let the school year begin!"