The day finally arrives; a hectic morning of Gwendolyn scrambling around trying to get everything in order will culminate into a wedding in a mere hour.
“You should relax, everything is going to be fine. You should be enjoying yourself,” Kali tries to keep her friend calm.
Gwendolyn takes a deep breath before agreeing, “I know, I just want everything to be perfect... but I know with us that’s rare”.
“It’ll be good enough,” Lunette comments from the side, readjusting her navy blue dress so it fits better.
In a room down the hallway, Xander, Drakthar, Kayde, Jorge, and Fore are similarly getting ready. Xander notices that while Drakthar and Jorge are wearing the correct grey suits, Kayde is not.
Xander starts to panic as the dark green suit Kayde dons is nowhere near the color that he is supposed to be wearing. “Kayde your suit is green,” he tries to get Kayde to realize his mistake.
“Yeah, I know. Green is my favorite color,” Kayde pulls the jacket snug and checks himself out in the mirror.
“Okay, but you know you were supposed to wear a grey suit right?” Xander wants him to admit he is aware of how his choice of clothing is a problem.
“Look man, I thought green looked better so I told the tailor to make mine green instead,” Kayde is very matter of fact about it.
Xander gives up on trying to reason with Kayde, instead, turning to Drakthar, “Can you go let Gwendolyn know that Kayde’s suit is green so she doesn’t have a heart attack when she walks down the aisle?”
Drakthar nods and heads off down the hall, making his way to the room Gwendolyn and the others are preparing in.
“I have a message from Xander,” he tells the women through the door, while knocking. Kali opens the door just a bit and peeks her head through and sees Drakthar all done up in his suit.
She smiles a little before hearing Gwendolyn ask from behind her, “What is it?”
“Kayde has a green suit, not a grey one,” Drakthar relays this message with as little emotion as humanly possible. He sees Kali start to cringe knowing Gwendolyn isn’t going to take this well.
“That little... What an… He did this on purpose, just to make me angry that…” Gwendolyn starts to go off, understandably.
She gives herself a second, accepts it, takes a deep breath before responding, “Drakthar, tell Xander to have Kayde stand at the edge instead of Jorge so he doesn’t stick out as much”.
“I will let them know,” Drakthar walks away, prompting Kali to close the door.
“I actually think you handled that well given the circumstances,” Kali compliments Gwendolyn, impressed she didn’t yell for longer.
Kali gets a better look at her and realizes she is about to break out in tears.
“Hey, it will be fine. He’ll be at the end, he won’t stand out. Nothing is ruined,” Kali frantically tries to talk her off the edge.
“I knew this was going to happen, nothing ever goes smoothly when Kayde is involved,” Gwendolyn wipes away the moisture that was starting to form around her eyes.
“Hey, that’s my guy you are talking about,” Lunette tries to defend Kayde and is met by a death stare from Kali, almost trying to convey to her that now is not the time.
The venue for the wedding turns out to be too small for the amount of people that actually showed up. Most of the seats are filled with members of the Silent Brotherhood and those from the Sacrosanct Empire who made the journey for the summit the previous day. Those two groups along with those from the desert capital, Jean the Blacksmith, and the city guards from Melusarej all sit in rows of chairs crammed into the room. Standing in the back so the others can sit are a few Silent Brotherhood men.
Xander and the groomsmen take their places at the front. Music starts to play and Lunette and Kali join the others at the front, leaving everyone in the room waiting for Gwendolyn’s entrance.
The music changes, signaling the opening of the doors at the back of the room. Everyone turns around to look at Gwendolyn being escorted by Grayson down the center.
Xander watches as she approaches, mesmerized by how beautiful she looks in her dress. The woman beaming at him as she gets closer causes him to smile as well. Half of the attendees are enraptured by Gwendolyn’s beauty, while the other half are holding back their laughter at the man walking along with her with tears of joy streaming down his face.
Members of the Silent Brotherhood quietly snicker to each other as they watch their proud former Commander’s uncharacteristically emotional moment. The two of them arrive at the front, Gwendolyn hugs her now sobbing father before he takes his seat in the front row.
The music stops as the minister presiding over the ceremony begins, “Today we are here to celebrate the union of Xander and Gwendolyn…” As he goes on Xander and Gwendolyn stare into each other’s eyes, not paying attention to what he is saying in the slightest.
The only thing that snaps them out of it, is a sudden whistle from Kayde after the minister asks for the rings. The audience turns around once again to see Fore, having heard his cue, happily walk down the aisle with the rings in a case on his back.
He waits for Xander and Gwendolyn to grab them before walking to the edge and sitting by Kayde.
“Now I hear the two of you have prepared words for each other,” The minister states, waiting for the two of them to do their parts.
“Gwendolyn, I used to be reclusive, I didn’t trust people easily, and I wasn’t very confident. I wasn’t the most well-rounded person… I’ll admit that. I was too focused on my grudges to notice other people… that is, until you showed up. When I saw you all the walls I had built up around me for my entire life shattered. For the first time, there was this woman in my life that I didn’t want to ignore. As we got closer I learned a lot, way more than I would have wanted... but good things too. Most importantly, I learned to rely on other people… and because of that you were able to help me achieve the goals I had been working towards my entire life. You’ll never understand how thankful I am for that… anyway with all of those things behind me the only focus I have left in this world is you,” Xander pours his heart out to her.
“Xander, before I met you my life was slowly going downhill. I felt trapped, forced to be with someone I didn’t want to be with, doing things I wasn’t comfortable doing. At the time, I thought that’s what I deserved, that it was the best I could have... but then came the day I met you. You made me realize that I could be happy, that I wasn’t forced into anything if I didn’t want to be. I thought that was the end of it, but unfortunately, the doubts that had been put into my head from those experiences lingered and caused me to not always treat you the way I wish I would have. I doubted you a lot when I should have trusted you, I made you do things that made you uncomfortable, and I fought with you when you did nothing wrong. But through it all you put up with me, you shouldn’t have, but you did… and I feel so guilty that through all of that I’m still able to be with you. So please let me start to make it up to you,” Gwendolyn laments, trying to get him to forgive her whether he was expecting this or not.
Xander is taken aback by this; he didn’t know her speech would be so apologetic.
“It’s okay, you know how much I love you,” he whispers encouragingly to her, not wanting her to feel guilty about anything she has done in the past.
“Alright, now do you Xander take Gwendolyn to be your wife?” The minister asks and looks to Xander, trying to continue with the ceremony.
Stolen novel; please report.
“I do,” Xander slips the ring onto Gwendolyn’s finger as he responds.
“And do you Gwendolyn take Xander to be your husband?” The minister turns to Gwendolyn.
“I do,” she answers, putting a ring on Xander’s finger as well.
“I now pronounce you husband and wife, you may kiss the bride,” the minister tells them.
Despite the minister’s words Gwendolyn moves in first, making it almost more apt if the man had said she could now kiss the groom. They kiss amidst cheering from those looking on at them.
They part and the minister takes his leave. As the couple walks out the front, Kayde grabs the microphone, “The reception will be at the place across from here, be there to hear really embarrassing stories about both of these crazy kids”.
Most of the people at the ceremony make their way to a building across the street that has a ballroom large enough to hold all of the attendees of the massive wedding.
“You know I think that went well, you’re speech kind of surprised me though,” Xander comments as the two of them enter the ballroom.
“It’s what I felt. With everything we have been through lately, I feel like I had to apologize to you somehow… I know you won’t accept it, but I’m sorry,” Gwendolyn apologizes again.
Xander sighs, “Guess I have no choice then. I accept your apology”.
Gwendolyn, upon hearing this stops him in his tracks and kisses him again, his accepting her apology is very important to her. They sit down at their table and food is served to everyone in attendance.
“How did you afford this?” Xander asks, shocked at the sheer amount of food and drink that is being served to everyone.
“Being the leader of the Silent Brotherhood has its perks,” Gwendolyn winks back at him.
While Jorge is occupied at the open bar the entire length of dinner, everyone else finishes their food prompting an unenthusiastic Drakthar to reluctantly get up from his chair and grab the microphone positioned at the front of the room.
“Hi, I’m Drakthar… I’m the best man. I was told I have to give a speech, so here it is. I was there the moment Xander and Gwendolyn first got together, it was years back, I had just defeated a man I had wanted to challenge for half of my life. Xander gave Gwendolyn the artifact she tasked us to retrieve for her… but that wasn’t the only thing he gave her”.
Xander watches in a state of complete terror as Drakthar pulls a familiar-looking parchment out of his pocket.
“He also gave her this poem that I’ll read to all of you. I have thought back to that moment many a time… as I saw something all too sublime… I witnessed the arrow you shot with aim so true… And in that moment I knew I felt something deeper for you. Then one day I went to see you, but you had gone away… My heart dropped, I was desperate and my chest felt bare… I searched the city but you were nowhere. If I see you again I will not be scared… I will finally let you know how much I care. Gwendolyn, I ask if you would spend time with me, that I may attempt to make you happy,” Drakthar finishes his rather unenthusiastic reading of the poem.
“You did make me happy,” Gwendolyn tells Xander before kissing him on the cheek amidst the sounds of laughter all around them.
“After reading that she kissed him and here we are today. That’s all I had,” Drakthar takes his seat, handing the microphone to Kali who was waiting next to him.
“Hi… I’m Kali, for those of you who don’t know me. Maid of honor…” Kali starts out awkwardly, not used to public speaking.
“Anyway… Um… I am going to tell a story too. I used to live in the Marshlands in the north by the mountains, don’t know if you guys have heard of it… it’s not a really popular place,” Kali pauses expecting a little bit of laughter, but only Kayde, who exaggerates his laughter to the point where no one believes he actually found that funny, laughs.
“Anyway, I met the two of them there and I joined them on their journey. As we were leaving the Marshlands we took this small little boat that capsized due to some lizard creatures. When we flipped the boat Xander didn’t resurface like the rest of us. Gwendolyn went crazy trying to find him, diving down over and over again under the water. Even though I could tell she’s a terrible swimmer. No offense. We ended up finding him on a bridge, he wasn’t breathing, and apparently he had tried to save a bag of heavy armor that was in the boat with us. While Drakthar was resuscitating him, Gwendolyn was so concerned for him, it was unlike anything I had ever seen before and when he came to she wouldn’t let go of him for hours. I never knew what it truly meant to love someone until that moment. So I wanted to thank both of you for showing that to me. That’s all I have,” Kali finishes before going to sit down again next to Drakthar.
Kayde is the one who walks up and grabs the microphone, “Hey guys, I’m Kayde, I’ll be your M.C. for tonight. You’ve already heard from the best man, Drakthar, and the maid of honor, Kali, here’s to them getting hitched next”. Kayde holds up a glass while Kali panics, looking over at Drakthar to see his reaction to what Kayde just said. He’s stone-faced as usual.
After the crowd drinks to Kayde’s toast, he continues, “Now they’ve given you a couple of touching stories, but let me give you one that is a little more raunchy. So this one takes place in the Marshlands too, right before we meet Kali actually. We were traveling through this really thick fog, like can’t even see the hand right in front of you thick. Drakthar, Fore, and I made it through but we noticed that Xander and Gwendolyn were nowhere to be found. We called out for them, but they weren’t anywhere near us, so we had no choice but to wait for the fog to clear to go back and look for them. We looked for hours until I saw an odd sight… the two of them were caught in a net, dangling from a tree. And instead of trying to break free, they were making out. Which I came to learn they had been doing for hours”.
Gwendolyn interjects to make sure everyone knows the true story, “We tried to get out initially”.
“Sure you did,” Kayde dismisses the notion.
“So does anyone want to come up and say something about the happy couple?” Kayde opens it up to the audience.
“Sure!” Lunette is the first to respond, jumping up from her chair and making her way over to the microphone.
As Kayde moves to sit back down when Lunette is talking, he hears Gwendolyn comment to him quietly as he walks by, “Did you really have to tell that story, my subordinates are here?” Kayde just shrugs back at her before taking his seat.
“I met Gwendolyn way before meeting Xander, like around a half a year before. Xander got himself captured by the bad guys over in the Sacrosanct Empire. Gwendolyn and I didn’t really get off on the right foot, I might have knocked her out a couple of times, I realize that... but she wasn’t that nice either. She was always doing stupid things trying to get Xander back, no matter what the consequence might be. While I don’t agree with everything she did, I realize she was just trying anything she could to get Xander back. She never stopped trying the whole time actually… so maybe this whole marriage thing could work out for the two of them,” Lunette explains before leaving the front.
“Anyone one else have anything to say?” Kayde asks the crowd once again.
“Yeah, I got something to say,” the audience turns to see Jorge call out from the bar at the side of the room.
Everyone watches as the drunken man stumbles his way over to the front and takes the microphone from Kayde.
“I was there when these two meet. Didn’t go smoothly if ya ask me. Xander was still just a quiet lad I had just met, and Gwendolyn was this imposing beauty hiding among a caravan we were charged with escorting across the desert. We ended up getting attacked by some raiders. Did our best to keep em from getting to the caravan, but there were too many of those little pests. Gwendolyn decided to step in and help us, the impressive archer that she is. With her help we drove em off, but at the end of the fight Xander and this other guy in our group got into a fight over who would get one of the dead raider’s guns. Gwendolyn didn’t like that, she went straight over to the two of em and let em have it for thinking of themselves when a man was injured nearby. Xander heard that and ran straight over to the man and patched him up. And later that night he went straight over to her and apologized over and over for what he did. I’ll tell ya he was in love with that woman the moment she yelled at him,” Jorge laughs out loud with the crowd before sloppily shoving the microphone back into Kayde’s hands.
Before Kayde can ask, Grayson has already come to the front and started to speak, “I am Grayson, Gwendolyn’s father. I’d like to thank you all for coming here today. The time I first met Xander, Gwendolyn was already engaged to another man, someone I selected for her to marry... so understandably I was confused when she brought a different man home. I wasn’t always the best father, I overlooked a lot of what was going on to Gwendolyn because of things that seemed more important to me at the time, but I was mistaken. It took meeting Xander for me to realize that. I put him through things it was unfair of me to and he impressed me more and more each time. So I wanted to thank you Xander, thank you for being brave enough to stand up to me in order to give Gwendolyn a better life,” Grayson stares at Xander as he finishes, going over to hug the two of them before he sits back down.
Kayde goes back up front, but no one else wants to say anything. Oswald contemplated it, but Avesa advised him against it, not able to relax even in this sort of setting. The rest of the night is filled with people dancing, half of them drunkenly, while others talked and laughed reminiscing about old times and the good times to come.
Eventually, everyone finds their way back to their rooms, or for some other’s rooms for the night. The next morning Xander is woken up by a knocking on the door to Gwendolyn’s room on the airship, where they had spent their first night as a married couple together.
He gets up and slips out of bed, making sure not to wake Gwendolyn when he does so. He wraps a sheet around his waist while cracking the door to see whom it is. He sees the tall and imposing man he calls his best friend glaring at him from the other side. Seeing that it is Drakthar, Xander goes outside and closes the door behind him so they can talk.
“What’s up?” Xander inquires as to why he is there.
“It’s time, let’s do this,” Drakthar declares confidently. Xander knows what he is talking about, he wants a rematch now that the wedding has passed.
“Okay… but can I put some clothes on first?” Xander asks with an awkward grin.