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]

"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?"

[royal_obligation]

He notices her family's not here. What, did they not want to come? That's... Okay, whatever works for them, he supposes. He's not about to call them out for incredible rudeness. Her familiar, too, where is he, Edarial had thought that Iobel was a spellbinder. Usually they always attended their human's marriages. Did she just - not want them involved? Or what?

Then it gets to the part Edarial wishes he could have had changed. 'Protect, cherish, and guide' her? What, like she's a goat? His familiar, the snake Berathyme, agrees with his sentiment and rolls her eyes. She didn't catch all of that, but she caught the gist of it and thinks it's stupid.

But it's what he has to say to become king (and so his brother doesn't have to, and so the country doesn't fall apart).

"I so swear," he says, quietly, so his voice doesn't shake.

[come_midnight]

"And Iobel," says the priest, "do you swear to heed, adore, and support Edarial as your husband, in sacred ordained marriage so long as the tie binds?"

She tells herself the promise is meaningless. Given under duress, the ceremony would be stupidly worded anyway, she's more likely to kill her husband in his sleep than "adore" him. But she knows her script full well and he has Cricket.

"I so swear," she says in a low voice, still staring down Edarial with eyes full of ice.

"My prince, take the tiara from her hands and make her your queen," says the priest.

[royal_obligation]

Edarial is trying not to think about the look she has on her face. If he did, he would turn and run, just go with Zevros's half-baked plan and flee the country. The thought of - being bound to a woman who's looking at him like that, like he's a monster - it makes him want to throw up. What did he even do to deserve this kind of treatment? But he can't think about that, he needs to get married.

The tiara is taken, and onto her head it goes.

Edarial can't help but feel like he's just locked himself in a cage with a tiger.

[come_midnight]

"And you may kiss your bride," says the priest.

Iobel

holds

absolutely

still.