Beneath the Dragoneye Moons - Chapter 515: The Wedding II

The dress was something special, something only Auri and I could do. We’d practiced it in her hall of mirrors, working on getting something just right that I loved.

My little phoenix friend’s utter mastery over flames of every color gave me infinite possibilities and variations. Interestingly, white as a wedding color hadn’t caught on, or at least hadn’t been the Exterreri fashion for hundreds of years. They took the approach that brides looked much better in black, which seemed strange to me – but not getting married in black seemed strange to them.

Took all kinds.

Either way, red had always been my color, and red was the primary color of fire.

My wedding dress was predominantly red, going from my shoulders, sweeping all the way down to my ankles. We could’ve gone for a super fancy train or ridiculous dress – Auri’s mastery of flames could let us do silly things – but that just wasn’t me. It was a tighter, closer dress that I would’ve described as ‘clingy’ if it wasn’t made out of fire.

From that base, Auri showed off. Subtle threads and laces were woven throughout in dozens of different colors. Blue streamers, orange ‘wings’ against my back, a trim of green around the hem, and finally, a tiara of golden flames on my head.

Auri needed to be close to me in order to keep the flames going, and so she was hiding in the tiara, the flames the exact color of her beak. As my bonded companion, it was only right that she spent most of the day with me.

The doors flew open, music from the temple across the road blared, and Iona marched in with a dozen other Valkyries, a barbaric grin on her face.

She looked fantastic.

A Valkyrie first, she’d elected to get married in their tradition, which in her case, meant getting married in her full plate armor. The very same full plate I’d gotten for her as a wedding present.

I was well-paid. I thought an entire oversized villa was expensive.

It was nothing compared to a suit of three-alloy magical metal.

Crucible smiths were rare.

Magic metals were rarer, every scrap desired.

Crucible smiths that could alloy magical metals were about as rare as healers that could grant Immortality to others.

And then I needed a smith that could alloy exactly the metals I wanted, which was like getting the exact type of Immortality-granting from a healer.

In the end, I’d needed to settle a hair for a [Crucible Alloy Smith] that actually existed, as opposed to getting my dream combination done. The combination was arguably more amazing than what I’d planned, given that the smith actually knew their stuff, versus my doodling and daydreaming.

Adamantium. Famous for being practically indestructible.

Arcadium. Famous for slowly regrowing itself, with an emphasis on slowly.

Aegea. Utterly useless on its own, it amplified any other magical metals it was alloyed with.

Alloying metals together naturally made their individual properties ‘weaker’ – an adamantium alloy wasn’t quite as indestructible as pure adamantium – but the aegea blended in reversed that, making the suit even stronger than pure adamantium.

The mango on top – the entire blend came out dark blue, and Iona looked amazing in it. I felt my knees go a little weak as she came in.

She suddenly stopped as she locked eyes with me, almost causing a pile-up as the other Valkyries behind her weren’t expecting her to stop.

“Wow.” She said breathlessly. “You look fantastic.”

I blushed at the compliment, and felt my normally confident tongue getting all tied up.

“That’s why we’re here to kidnap her!” Goblin Slayer shouted, Iona’s maid of honor keeping things moving along.

Technically, she wasn’t called a maid of honor, but the role translated well enough.

The rest of the Valkyries roared in bloodthirsty approval, the six of them quickly surrounding me. Goblin Slayer moved to pick me up, then hesitated, looking to Iona.

“Uh, Dusk, is it safe? She’s got 400 levels on me and those flames look hot.”

That snapped Iona out of her daze and she stepped forward, holding out a hand for me.

“If the poor victim will come this way?” She gallantly offered.

I fluttered my eyelashes at her.

“Oh no! I can see no other option here but to go along with this dastardly plot!” I exclaimed, taking her hand and letting her lead me out of the chapel. There was a palanquin waiting for me, and I gracefully took my seat, Amber climbing in behind me. Goblin Slayer and the rest of the Valkyries picked it up, and with much hooting and hollering, paraded us around the temple once, Iona triumphantly in the lead.

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Thank goodness for good skills – a clever, strong weapon skill Goblin Slayer had let her protect the palanquin, stopping me from getting a hot seat and smoking us out. The image of the Valkyrie picking up a palanquin and beating someone over the head was amusing.

One of our original plans had been for Iona to ‘kidnap’ me back at the villa, then have Fenrir fly us over for the ceremony, but landing space and ‘gigantic fucking wyvern coming into the city, causing a panic’ had nixed that plan. Instead, we did more of a ‘victory lap’, since the entrance was right there but what was the fun in only crossing a street, when we could enjoy the moment a bit?

Auri had cleverly hidden a basket of flowers under the palanquin, and was busy using her [Mage Hands] to grab and throw handfuls of flowers to the various people near the temple – most of whom I recognized as members of the Sixth Legion, who were cheering me on.

We’d tried to keep the invite list manageable, but Katerina had decided that this was a good ‘teambuilding exercise’, and what good soldier was going to say no to celebrating one of their own, followed by a huge party with an open bar?

Thank goodness most of that activity would be going on somewhere else, and my party wouldn’t be crashed by 5,000 people.

It was all Katerina’s mess, and I was happy to leave her to it. I didn’t mind all the extra people cheering for us on our big day – it was fun!

We made our way around the temple, the Valkyries putting us down at the front. Iona and I traded a quick kiss.

“Love you.” I said. “Good luck on the trial.”

Iona hugged me back.

“Love you too.”

We entered the temple hand-in-hand to great cheering and fanfare from all of our friends, the place utterly packed.

There was no ‘Iona’s side, Elaine’s side’ nonsense. Valkyries stood shoulder to shoulder with Sentinels, squires were next to centurions, and flowers – love, devotion, romance, beauty, and courage in the Pallos flower language – seemed to endlessly cascade from the ceiling.

Night and a shrunken Fenrir were at the altar. It had been dressed up in the regalia and symbols of the moon goddesses, their symbols everywhere, the candelabras glowing with soft blue-and-yellow lights, and a delicate red ribbon was on the altar.

The only person conspicuous by her absence was Arachne. The demands and duties of safeguarding Sanguino and the empire unfortunately outweighed her desire to attend our nuptials.

Iona and I waved, then split off to our respective aisles.

Doing things ‘in order’ had seemed strange to us – why should someone walk down first, and someone walk down second?

“Detail! Present! Arms!” Katerina ordered, and select men and women of the Sixth Legion in their full gear – may the gods have mercy on their souls in this summer heat – thrust their spears up and over, creating an archway of steel for me to march through.

Grizzly was at the head of the line, along with the surviving members of ‘Legionnaire Bunny’s’ line.

The look on his face when he’d found out – priceless.

A great clashing of steel rang out through the temple, killing the music, and that was my signal to go. I slowly walked through the steel arch, keeping an impressed half-eye on Iona.

The Valkyries did things a little more… violently.

The Sixth presented arms, letting me walk through them.

The Valkyries had a complex and intricate weaving of flashing blades moving at superhuman speeds and strength. If Iona walked at exactly the right pace, she’d pass through them all without a single nick.

Worst case, she’d lose her head entirely. Literally.

In their tradition, it was a test of resolve, commitment, and bravery. Anyone could pass through, and the idea was simple. If they weren’t willing to test their lives against the steel, if they weren’t committed or brave enough to weather the storm, what sort of spouse would they make?

They were a little more understanding that I had my own set of traditions and people who wanted to respect me, and that was the excuse given why I had the ‘easy’ way through.

Nobody was willing to give voice to the real reason – there literally weren’t enough Valkyries. Most of them had decided to come attend this event – our place was rapidly becoming the new nerve center of the Valkyries, being all wandering [Knight-Errants] wasn’t great for communication, who would’ve guessed. Even with nearly all of them being here, they needed to spread out quite a bit more than was normal just to fill the entire aisle, barely giving Iona a passable trial of blades.

I was grinning like an idiot the entire way up, even when the men and women of the Sixth turned into a number of Sentinels providing an honor guard. Devour and Queen, Tyrannus and Skater, Ooze and Calm.

My eyes caught Artemis and Julius sitting in a seat of honor, the two of them filling in for my parents for the ceremony. Mirroring them was Alruna the Perpetual and Sigrun the Grandmaster, filling in for Iona’s parents.

We didn’t have parents, and yet, at the same time, we did. Seeing them sitting there and beaming filled my overflowing heart with joy and love.

They were here for me.

Night was the priest for the event, dressed in a simple cloth raiment. Iona and I stepped up before him at the same time, the two of us trading a loving glance.

It was here! It was now! It was time!

A pair of trumpets quickly blasted out some high happy notes before falling silent again.

We paused a moment, and the room darkened as the predicted solar eclipse hit, one of the moons blotting out the sun. An auspicious time for our ceremony. A subtle influence and presence from the moon goddesses – the ashen skies above Sanguino entirely blotted out the sun. The eclipse shouldn’t have done anything.

It was a fairly brilliant maneuver, and I mentally praised them. The wedding was attended by a lot of high level Classers, and as a subtle flex it was great. They would all notice.

Night spoke softly, but his words carried. I had no doubt that even the soldiers suffering from tinnitus with a padded helmet on in the back of the temple could hear every word clearly. Not that anyone was, I was blasting my healing throughout the entire section of the city.

“Welcome one and all, welcome humans and vampires, welcome old and young to this auspicious event, the marriage of Elaine, the Dawn Sentinel to Iona, the Dusk Valkyrie. On this day…”

My heart was racing too fast and I only had eyes for Iona. Night’s speech washed over us. A message of love, of commitment. Of two becoming one, of facing challenges together as a team.

“… and now, if the two of you would please link hands.” Night asked.

Iona and I clasped hands together, my right with her left. Night turned to the altar, took the red ribbon, and tied it around our hands and wrist. We were bound together, and it’d be bad luck if we broke it before the end of the night. Cooperation and teamwork were required, and while nobody could tell if we’d used a skill to reinforce it and make it harder, it wasn’t classy to do so.

“The vows, if you would.” He said, nodding subtly to me.

I’d worked on them quite a bit, but I was no poet. In the end, I’d gone for shorter and sweeter.

“Iona, my love, as I stand in front of you, I’m reminded of the day our paths first crossed, a moment that forever altered the course of my life. In you, I found not just a partner, but a soulmate, a companion in both sorrow and joy. I vow to be your sanctuary, your place of peace and understanding. I vow to listen with compassion, speak with kindness, and act with love. In health, I will celebrate and walk beside you, basking in the light of our shared joy and triumphs. I will be the steadfast hand that holds yours, the gentle voice that soothes your fears, and the unwavering spirit that supports you. In sickness and in health, through blessings and curses, in wealth and poverty, not even death can do us apart.” I swore.

The crowd was silent as Night turned to Iona.

“I have faced countless challenges, but standing here before you and pledging my heart is the most significant and joyous battle I could’ve ever undertaken. I vow to protect you as your eternal guardian, in both life and death. I promise to be your sword and your shield, to fight for our love with the utmost fervor. In the quiet moments away from battle I will be your gentle companion, listening and learning from your wisdom. Come weal or woe, come famine or disaster, come cataclysm and destruction, blessing or curse, I will be by your side. I promise to respect, cherish, and love you, for all that you are and all that you make me, and not even death can do us apart.” She swore.

[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the General Skill [Wedding Vows with Iona]. Would you like to replace a General Skill with it?]

[Warning: Vows are binding]

Iona clearly got the same notification, and we locked eyes, thinking the same thing. A tiny shake of her head, a flicker of my eyes, and we mutually dismissed the notification.

We didn’t take the skill. Why would we?

“Now. Please bow to each other.” Night said, which was our first challenge. We were close enough for our hands to be tied together – if we didn’t execute it well, we’d bump heads and look bad. We’d practiced, which was fortunate, and executed the bow flawlessly.

“Bow to your parents.” He said, which was another small challenge. We needed to shuffle in a circle to keep our ribbon unbroken, but we pulled it off.

“Bow to the moon goddesses.” Night said, and the two of us had to shuffle around once again.

“Before Selene and Lunaris, before all the gods and goddesses in the pantheon, before the heavens and earth, before the vast and boundless sky, before friends and family, with the power vested in me, I declare you two married as wife and wife. You may kiss.”

We kissed.