Announcement

[royal_obligation]

Edarial makes a list of necessities for a wife. He has Zevros check it over, who promptly rips it up and throws it at him. He is of the opinion that if Edarial doesn't actually want to marry a specific person, he shouldn't, and Zevros will have nothing to do with any of it. Edarial sighs, rewrites it, and keeps it and a copy of it away from his twin in the future.

He makes the announcement to various interested people that he will be looking for a bride. Just saying it makes him feel sick. Edarial manages to keep it together long enough to give a list of the qualities he's looking for before he flees. He says he's busy, no one will look twice at him being curt and disappearing to get work done. So no one comes after him when he hides in his room and locks the door.

Face buried in his pillow, he realizes that there's no way he can be personable to his - whatever they are. Potential brides, suitors - whatever, he doesn't care. He'll hire someone to vet them, so he doesn't have to torture himself dealing with women trying to persuade him to marry them.

Comments

[come_midnight]

"Yeah. That was my problem, too."

[aestrix]

"I - can look during the - the wedding, maybe? Or - no, then you'd still be married to him..."

[come_midnight]

"I currently expect to get him back after the wedding, and then I'll see - if it's bad enough to risk running away. If they don't give him back..."

[aestrix]

"I-I can help look?" offers the woman, shivering a bit with fear.

[come_midnight]

"Maybe. What's your name?"

[aestrix]

"Zephrys," says, apparently, Zephrys. "Zephrys Birch, it's um - nice to meet you, but not under the circumstances."

[come_midnight]

"I understand the feeling. Okay. What am I wearing?"

[aestrix]

"A pretty dress? I was all prepared to get excited about it before but now it's just..."

[come_midnight]

"Of the things that bother me about this situation the dress isn't really one of them. We might as well get on with it. I don't want anyone to think I'm stalling so I can put together a grand cat rescue plan and have them decide to jump the signal."

[aestrix]

"Good point. Okay, dress and hair and makeup."

She gets to work doing her job. She turns out to be extremely good at it.

[come_midnight]

At the end of it Iobel is attired in lavender satin and draped with periwinkle silk, both shot through with silver threads, and several tendrils of her hair have been woven into complicated braids that form a knot around the loose remainder. The makeup is pretty enough to supply an extra incentive to try not to cry, even if she'd never want to spend the time on an ordinary day. The jewelry could probably buy an entire row of houses, all sapphires and platinum.

There's a tiara, but apparently she's supposed to carry that and let her husband put it on her, not wear it yet.

She looks like a princess and she's about to look like a queen.

Fuck.

"Okay. Do I go now, or later - are you showing me there or is someone else?"

[aestrix]

"I'm showing you, I - Iobel, he might not - unmake you, I don't think it's a thing he'd do, so if you - if you run..." Her voice is shaking.

[come_midnight]

"Then he'd still have my cat, and it would be hanging over my head forever until someone decided my extremely unfriendly cat was too much trouble. He's already covered one guard in wounds that are definitely going to scar."

[aestrix]

Zephrys nods, looking kind of like she wants to cry. "Okay. Then - then I guess there's... Nothing I can do." She moves to take her hand. "I'll help in any way I can, okay? It's probably not much, but I'll try!"

[come_midnight]

"If you find the cat - want to learn a phrase in his language so he doesn't attack you?"

[aestrix]

"Yes, please."

[come_midnight]

Iobel walks her through the phonetics for - "taught this nice brunette lady to say this". She doesn't really expect this terrified servant to tell anyone else the words, but just in case, she doesn't want it to be a panacea for Cricket's wrath.

[aestrix]

Zephrys memorizes the phrase, practices a bit, softly, then nods to Iobel and says, "Okay, I think I've got it. Um." She looks guilty and sad. "We - shouldn't be late, it starts soon..."

[come_midnight]

"Of course. Let's get on with it, shall we?"

[aestrix]

"Yes," she winces.

They leave the room - oh look, a friendly escort. 'Friendly.' Zephrys looks at them with surprise, but doesn't dare question it, she just smiles a fake, happy smile and then starts filling the silence with wonderful things Iobel can do in the palace.

It's a distraction. She takes Iobel's hand, and gives it a squeeze. She's so sorry that Iobel has to do this.

Off they go. To the wedding.

[come_midnight]

Yes indeed.

Iobel manages not to cry on her pretty makeup.

[royal_obligation]

The groom, elsewhere, is trying not to freak out.

He's been freaking out for about a week straight, and he's decided that he needs to stop it. He can't let himself fall to pieces, not now. Edarial will be king, and then he will finally have the power to fix the numerous problems with Marlatia. If he falls apart, nothing gets fixed, and either Zevros is forced into a loveless, incompatible marriage - or there would be civil war. He has three options - his twin's suffering, the country's suffering...

Or his own.

Deep breaths, deep breaths, think about the goal, think about the end result, that's what's important. It'll be worth it. Not for him, maybe, but for the country, for his brother - yes. It will be.

He fixes a bit of his hair, hopes that his hands will stop shaking during the ceremony itself, and then heads off to be married.

[come_midnight]

There's a curtain across the center of the ceremony hall. When Iobel is on one side of it, tiara in her hands, and Edarial is on the other, the priest who's officiating pulls a cord and the curtain falls to floor.

Iobel isn't running, maybe, but she's not whimpering and powerless, either. She looks Edarial right in the eye, levelly, coldly.

[royal_obligation]

Edarial is momentarily distracted because the woman who will be his wife is absolutely gorgeous. He wonders, vaguely, if it's even fair that someone he chose for her intellect should be that - ... That. Then he wonders if maybe he's not damned to a loveless marriage, after all.

That little, frail, pathetic hope dies when he meets her eyes. Cold as ice, without a trace of even basic respect.

He averts his eyes and closes them. Nope, he's definitely damned to a loveless marriage.

[come_midnight]

"Edarial Elire Cartalian and Iobel Maryah Swan are here today," says the priest, oblivious, "to join in marriage. Marriage is a powerful force. It solidifies love, connects families -"

(Iobel's family is not here. She supposes they don't even know where she is. She was going to write them after fleeing the country. She supposes she'll instead write them after getting married.)

"- begins dynasties, and models commitment for a new generation of children."

(She does not visibly shudder. How long will it take her to find a sterility spell or invent her own from scratch and cram it into her head?)

"The marriage between the young man and young woman before me will surely do the same, and moreover, it will see new royalty on the throne of Marlatia. Edarial, do you swear to protect, cherish, and guide Iobel as your wife in sacred ordained marriage for so long as the tie binds?"