Chapter Five Hundred and Eight - Bridal Wail

"Broccoli!" Booksie said as soon as we entered her shop.

She lunged across the store, and a moment later I'd had the wind knocked out of me by two armfuls of crying bun. I would've fallen backwards into the street if Amaryllis hadn't put a hand on my back to hold me upright.

I pulled air back into my lungs. "Booksie?" I asked.

After that guard told us that Booksie needed help, we'd decided against splitting up or even stopping to grab a bite. Instead the lot of us had made good time across Port Royal to get to Booksie's shop.

I don't know why, but I half expected to discover a crater or something on arriving, but other than... a bit of a huge mess inside, the shop looked like it was normal.

"Hey, there there," I said as I started to rub circles into Booksie's back. I didn't know why she was crying, but the least I could do was comfort her.

Was it the wedding? Wait, no, that was a silly thought, of course it was the wedding. Was the stress getting to her? Was she getting cold feet now that it was so close? I'd heard of that kind of thing happening, and it sounded super scary.

Booksie sniffed, then pulled back and tugged an ear down to dab at her eyes. "S-sorry," she said. "Oh, it's good to see you. All of you. Please, come in, I'm blocking the entrance, aren't I?"

"It's okay," I said, and my friends murmured similar sentiments behind me. "Come on, let's get you sitting, and then you can tell me everything that went wrong, okay?"

"Okay," she said before pulling a small tissue from her pocket to blow her nose.

"Where's Caprica?" Amaryllis asked as she looked around. The store did seem rather empty at the moment.

"She's been helping a lot," Booksie said. "But I think she's at the embassy now? Or talking to the guards? I don't think I've seen her sit down since your group left. She's running around more than I have been."

"That... does sound like her, yeah."

"She keeps saying that this wedding is a practice run for something called the bastion? Some sort of castle, maybe?"

"Uh," I said. I suddenly felt a bit of cold sweat pooling on my back. "Yeah, something like that."

I ushered Booksie into a seat, then sat down next to her so that I could continue keeping her close. Stress was bad, but hugs were good. Back rubs helped too, of course.

"Can you tell us what's going on? Since we left, I mean? Maybe venting it all out will help? And we're back in the city now, we can put off getting any more guild jobs until the wedding is nice and over with. That way we'll be here to help."

"Thank you," Booksie said. She balled her hands into fists on her lap and then took a deep breath. "I think I had a small panic attack earlier. I broke out into cold sweats and I felt dizzy. It was like someone was squeezing my chest."

"Oh no," I said. I gave up on the backrubs and instead leaned to the side. Awen, being a good friend, sat on Booksie's other side and placed a hand over Booksie's. "Are you better now?"

"I'm fine," Booksie said. "It's just... so much."

"I get that," I said. "Weddings are complicated."

"Is the groom helping at all?" Desiree asked.

Booksie groaned. "He tried. I've decided that he's not allowed to help anymore. I had to find a new caterer because he threatened to burn down the last one."

"Ah," I said. "Well, at least he's... trying to be helpful?"

Booksie nodded along. "He tried, and it's sweet of him. It's only... well, there are certain difficulties when you're an adult dragon that people don't consider."

Desiree tilted her head to one side. "I would have thought being a dragon would be a significant advantage, but I suppose it does have some downsides."

"Mhm," I agreed. "Okay. Let's help, then. Tell me everything that went wrong. Amaryllis?"

"Yes?" Amaryllis asked.

"Can you take notes, please? I don't want to forget anything."

Amaryllis shrugged, then removed her pack and fished out a notepad from within, then summoned a pen with her banking ring to take note with. "I'm ready," she said.

Booksie took in a deep, deep breath, and I immediately started to worry. No one who only had a few simple problems needed that much of a lungful to express them all. "So, the venue is a mess. I wanted it to be something nice and simple, maybe at one of the local venues that are just big enough for friends and family, but then Rhawr won't fit, and you can forget his family fitting, so I decided to rent a field next to the city, but that's too small and not official enough, so we don't have a venue."

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"Oh boy," I said.

"We want, or rather need, vendors set up around the venue, wherever that ends up being, but the local vendors are worried and no one can quote us a reasonable price. And I don't want any foods that smell too strongly, but they're being picky about it."

"Noted," Amaryllis said.

"My dress needs fitting. I just haven't had the time for that. Rhawr's suit too. The bridesmaids outfits... oh god, I need bridesmaids. Broccoli?"

"Me?" I asked. She nodded. "Okay!"

"Thank you! Okay! Okay... I'll ask Caprica as well. I think I need to ask Cholondee, which means a dress at her scale. And I need a few more..." She eyed my friends.

"I'll be organising," Amaryllis said. "I can't be slapping idiots around in a pretty dress."

"Awa, I don't mind?"

"Perfect!" Booksie said. "Alright, next, the guest list keeps changing. I thought it would be small, but now I have dignitaries. Dignitaries. I think that's Caprica's fault, being a princess from one nation means others need to step up as well, at least the local nations. But no one is sending their RSVPs back! It's been two days! Why hasn't anyone replied?"

"That's rude of them," I said.

"Noted," Amaryllis added.

"The weather's going to be a mess. The local Meteomage said that it'll rain. Now the mage's guild wants to charge a fortune to fix the weather. Rhawr said he'll blow the rain away, but that always gets the local farmer's guild in a huff."

"Noted as well," Amaryllis said.

Booksie nodded. "There's sound equipment we need. The Exploration guild volunteered theirs, but it's decades old."

"Ah, I can look at it," Awen said.

"No, you can't. This is a huge undertaking. We need experts, and a lot of them," Booksie said. "This isn't something simple like an airship, this is a wedding!"

"We'll figure it out," I said. More back rubs were needed.

She swallowed. "We need to make sure there's room for landings near the wedding site, Rhawr's mom will be there. She takes up... space. Which means warning the city's transportation department."

"Got it," Amaryllis said.

"Catering is a mess. There's some family drama that I don't want to get into on Rhawr's side of things. This is the one time I'm happy that my own family is so far away. The big ring, Rhawr's, was stolen. Cholondee is on that one. Oh, and there's legal issues!"

"Legal issues?" Desiree repeated.

Booksie slumped. "Deepmarsh accepts interspecies marriages, but they have a list, and Bun and Dragon aren't on it. So technically we can't legally be married here because that old law wasn't written to be inclusive of non-traditional things or some such. Also technically, Rhawr said he'd burn down the capital if they kept sticking their noses into things."

"That does sound complicated," I said. "Maybe we need a solicitor as a first step, before resorting to dragon fire."

"You'd think that, but there's nothing that moves a bureaucracy faster than an annoyed dragon," Booksie said.

Amaryllis lowered her notepad. She had gone to a second page after filling the first. "Is that everything?"

"I think that's enough, don't you?" Booksie asked.

"Oh, it's plenty," Amaryllis said. "We'll never get all of this done if only one person tackles it all. We're going to need to split this into tasks."

"Two-by-two?" I asked. "It'll be easier if we're not all alone."

"I suppose so," Amaryllis said. "Booksie, Broccoli, Awen, you'll go to the dressmakers. You need to be there personally for that one. Broccoli, after that, your task is the vendors. I'll take care of the venue. Awen, Desiree, can you two take care of the weather and the sound issues? Calamity... come with me, and then we'll see about the missing ring."

"What about all the other problems?" I asked.

"Those can wait until we've fixed this first batch," Amaryllis said. She clapped her wings. "Okay, you know where to go. Get going, we only have days to get ready. Chop chop."

***