Chapter 33 - The Wedding Dragon

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The day after I found out I was a prelate Clementine already wanted to celebrate the marriage. After a small talk I and Clarisse managed to make her change idea and wait a week, using the fact that I wanted to give her a ceremony worthy of that name as an excuse. The real reason was that Clarisse still wasn’t as ready as her announcement would have made her mother think she was and wanted to have some more time but couldn’t bring herself to tell her mother. It obviously wasn’t because I suck at memorizing tedious religious passages, to the point I thanked Creation when his religions took over most of the world, making most prayers to me nothing longer than a “good luck” or a knock on some wood.

The week passed by in the blink of an eye, between the preparations for the marriage during the day and Holies’ magic training and my studying at night.

We had decided to hold the ceremony in front of the small church near the border of the village, seeing as the weather was nice and a lot of people came over once they heard I was going to be the one wedding them, and the church itself wouldn’t have been able to hold that many people inside. Every villager who didn’t have a pressing matter to attend to was present and even some people from neighbouring villages and Vilfori came to attend. Probably some were there only because of the free feast that was planned to take place after the wedding, especially considering how they were eyeing the pork that was roasting whole over some fire down the street and the two cauldrons, big enough to have a person inside, next to it.

Even more people were gazing at the ice sculpture I made in the morning that sat on the other side from the improvised kitchen, the crystal clear, ten meters long, dragon shone under the rays of the sun, creating a show of dancing lights, a lot of those gazes weren’t focusing on the ice sculpture though, but on the many vilam bottles that were resting against the scales on its back and two kegs of ale, one held tight in its jaws and the other pinned down on the ground by his front left leg.

When everyone was finally either sitting on the few wooden planks we had managed to gather or standing behind them, the groom walked up to me from my right while the bride came from my left.

When they were finally in front of me I said a few words to the audience about how we were here to celebrate love, a new family and all that stuff audiences like to hear at a wedding, no matter the actual reason for the wedding.

After having addressed the audience I turned to the two nervous teenagers in front of me. Jacques was wearing a simple but clean and somewhat elegant outfit, composed of a dark brown pair of pants, a white button shirt and a brown jacket. Clarisse meanwhile was wearing a cream colored dress with white frills I had her prepared by a certain apprentice tailor I had the pleasure to know in Vilfori during the drinking night with the elves.

I told them some lines about the goddess of light then took Jacques’ right hand and Clarisse’s left and overlapped them, both facing upward, before tying them loosely with a white string. After another couple of boring lines I placed my badge on their hands over the string. As soon as I did it turned a dull gray color but, after the two put a ring each over it and I recited the next phrase of the ceremony, it started shining, bathing the three of us in a golden light.

After the light subsided I took the two rings and put one on Clarisse’s right annular and the other on Jacques’ left and said, “those rings signify the everlasting bond of marriage as it was blessed by the goddess. I now declare you husband and wife. May your lives be joyous and prolific,” ending the official ceremony.

I untied the string on their hands and said, “now, who’s in for a feast?” loud enough for everyone present to hear.

Cheers and clapping of hands could be heard coming from all over the street in response to my question and I said, “then, let’s celebrate! Everything you see is free for all to take,” I hadn’t even finished talking that a guy I had never seen was already about to shave off a piece of the still roasting pork, so I shot a shard of ice at the knife and said, “but the first two plates go to the new couple” as he turned around, a hint of fear on his face.

The two newlyweds walked, hand in hand, up to where the food was being prepared to receive their plates, meanwhile, having finished the ceremony, I went to talk to Holiés, not before fetching a bottle of vilam from the ice dragon though.

“Do you think she’ll be fine?” I asked him, while I uncorked the bottle.

“Would you, if you were in her place?”

I stopped drinking from the bottle in my hand and looked him in the eyes before raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, I asked the wrong person,” he said, half laughing for a moment before turning serious again, “honestly, I can’t say. I can only try to be here for her.”

“I guess our hunts together stop here then,” I said, after another sip.

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“Yes, I prefer staying where I can reach her, at least for a while.”

“Fair enough,” I said, before giving him my bottle as Clementine came up to us, tears in her eyes.

“Lady Fortuna! It was such a beautiful ceremony,” she said, wiping off the last tears of happiness she cried during the marriage, “I never thought my little Clarisse would have had such a wonderful day for her marriage. How can I thank you?”

“Please, I did nothing at all, madam. Consider it a gift for the new couple. Now, go to your daughter and feast with her, it’s her day after all.”

“Thank you again Lady Fortuna,” she said before leaving.

“I can’t really say I like your mother,” I said to Holiés.

“I can’t really say I like you, but we have to do with what we have,” he said before taking a sip from the bottle I gave him.

“Says the guy who kissed me,” I said, which caused him to spit the vilam in his mouth.

“It was a delicate moment for me, ok?”

“Yeah, yeah, pass me my bottle now,” I said, extending my hand towards him.

He passed me the bottle and I took a sip as I watched the guests start eating and drinking. After a while he said, “thank you.”

“Not you too,” I joked.

“You know what I mean, I’m not thanking you for a roasted pork and some alcohol.”

I took another sip and passed him the bottle again, saying, “don’t mention it.”

“Do you think we’ll actually get to eat something if we stay here?” he asked me.

“I don’t really like queues.”

“Fortuna… I’m pretty sure they’ll let you skip the line.”

“Oh… right. Well then, let’s go fetch some food.”

We went to the improvised kitchen and the people waiting for food let us pass ahead of them without batting an eye, soon both I and Holiés had in our hands a piping hot plate with a vegetable soup in it and another with some slices of the roasted pork. With our hands full we walked past the improvised kitchen, towards a few tables behind the cauldrons that were slowly getting full of people, most of which were standing, except a few lucky ones who managed to get the few chairs available or those who moved a bench from the church front.

I saw the two newlyweds sitting at the last table, facing the party, a visible tension between them as they ate. I started walking towards them, followed by Holiés, trying not to make everything I was holding fall as I passed through the small crowd.

“Mind if we sit here with you?” I asked once we were in front of their table.

“Lady Fortuna! Please, I would be really glad if you did,” Clarisse said, actually looking glad we came here, “I don’t think there are any chairs left though.”

“That won’t be a problem,” I said, before raising the ground on our side of the table, creating a small bench.

I put the plates on the table and sat on the bench in front of Jacques and Holiés did the same next to me, sitting in front of Clarisse.

“So,” I said, taking the bottle that Holiés had put on the table. Realizing we had no cups nor glasses, I conjured two glasses made of ice for the two of us, as the young couple already had some cups to drink from, and poured some vilam in mine, before continuing, “are you liking the party I organized for you?”

With that we started talking about trivial things, both me and Holiés trying to ease the tension in the air while we ate.

More than an hour had passed when Jacques left for a brief bathroom stop, leaving Clarisse alone with me and Holiés.

“How are you?” I asked her.

“I’m trying. When we are like this it almost seems like we could go back to how we were before.”

“It’s good to hear that,” I said and Holiés nodded next to me.

“It’s also thanks to you I’m able to say this, Lady Fortuna.”

“No, I’m sure Holiés would have been enough to help you had I not been here.”

“Maybe, but I was really thinking about running away and joining the Valkyrie Corps before our talk,” she said with a small laugh.

(The what now?)

“You would have been a terrible Valkyrie and you know that,” Holiés said.

“Hey! You can’t know that!”

“Right, you’re really the image of a valiant soldier running through the battlefield,” Holiés said, laughing which made Clarisse start laughing too.

Jacques returned to the light mood that had created, which helped him relax a bit too, and joined back in the conversation.

It was late afternoon when the feast finally ended. The new couple went to their new home together as per tradition, leaving the remaining guests behind.

I was sitting on one of the benches in front of the church, looking at the villagers who were tidying up, when Holiés walked up to me holding another bottle of vilam. He sat next to me and offered me the bottle.

I took a sip as he said, “can I ask you something?”

“Yes, sure, ask away.”

“Why did you do all this?”

“Selfishness,” I said, before taking another sip.

“What?” he asked baffled.

“Not only selfishness, also laziness and hypocrisy.”

“I don’t think I’m following you.”

“Clarisse wasn’t the first and won’t be the last girl to whom something like this happens. Many have it much worse than her. Helping her was easy, just as it is easy, or in a sense hard, not to help all the others. It almost makes me feel better. That’s why I say it was because of selfishness, laziness and hypocrisy,” I said and took yet another sip.

“Are you drunk?”

“Nah… Maybe…  just a bit.”

“Fortuna… you aren’t all-powerful, you aren’t a god, you’re just a person. You can’t hope to help everyone in need,” he said, a bit of worry in his voice.

I cracked a smile.