Moriko smirked as the doors to the dungeon opened with an overly dramatic grinding sound, she was pretty certain that Kazue was responsible for that as the doors were normally rather quiet. The monk had a feeling she knew the sort of things her two spouses were about to be up to, and she was on guard as she followed Ricardo into the entrance of the dungeon along with a few guards and some other merchants who had joined the caravan after the meeting back at the capital.
Just as a red-haired blur threw itself into Ricardo's arm, shouting “Daddy!” Moriko felt a whisper of displaced air behind her. Before he could grab her, she spun into a jump and grabbed Mordecai by the head instead, pulling him into a kiss while she wrapped her legs around his waist.
One of the things she enjoyed about her husband was that she could completely trust in his strength and skill. Which wasn’t just about the fact that he was strong and tall enough to catch her and balance them both, but that she could trust him to do so. She clung to him like that for a rather long kiss, then slid off as she licked her lips. “Gods I’ve missed you two.” She turned to where Ricardo was hugging Kazue tightly, trying, and failing, to not cry. Not that Kazue was doing much better at the moment.
She shook her head with amusement. “Well, I suppose it’s fair to have to wait a moment this time.” She leaned back and rested in the warmth of Mordecai’s embrace as he nuzzled into her hair. Oh, it was so very good to be home.
After a little while more the father and daughter pair managed to break apart and Kazue bounced over to throw herself onto Moriko’s arms, giving her a chance to enjoy her second welcome-home kiss. It was nice, but she didn’t hold it as long and instead drew Kazue to the side. Ricardo had recovered his decorum as much as he could and was doing his best to stare down Mordecai.
“So, you’re the one who talked my daughter into this little marriage, hmm?”
Mordecai looked unruffled by this as he smiled and inclined his head slightly in acknowledgment. “I suggested it, yes.”
Ricardo snorted. “And you’re not in the least concerned with meeting her father after having set up a marriage like that?”
“Not particularly. I could see it in other circumstances maybe, but unless you think you can claim to be scarier than her…” As he trailed off, Mordecai looked pointedly behind Ricardo where a different red-headed kitsune was walking out from one of the side corridors. “Oh, and I do hope you listened to Moriko’s advice.”
Ricardo muttered, “Point," before coughing and turning around to face Akahana. “Hello love-.” The man fell into stunned silence as he beheld what she was wearing. The kitsune was in her human form and wearing a layered green dress. The bottom layer was a slinky, sleeveless green sheath of silk that fell to just past her knees, with overlapping slits up to her hips that only flashed her legs when she moved. Over that draped shifting layers of diaphanous silk that created moving shadows and highlights to partially hide and partially tease the curves that the tight dress underneath showed off.
Akahana sashayed over to him before drawing his head down to give a warm greeting kiss, and when the druidess was done she pulled back enough to smile at him. “Now, you were about to say something?”
The merchant blinked and nodded as he gathered his thoughts back. “Right, er,” he sighed. “I’m sorry this isn’t the most romantic way, and I am sorry for being an idiot all these years,” As he spoke, Ricardo pulled a small jewelry box out of a pouch. “Akahana, will -”
“Yes!” She interrupted with a mischievous look, plucking the box out of his hand before he could open it. “Now let’s see, oh, pretty. The central emerald looks gorgeous, and I like the double halo of rainbow moonstones and dark garnets. All set in gold, and enchanted. You can tell me what it does later.” She leaned in to give him another kiss before holding out the ring and her left hand. “Well, go on, put it on me.”
He continued to look a little dazed as he complied, then Akahana snatched up his arm and started dragging him off to the corridor she had just come from. “What? Love, what is going on?”
“Well, I am certainly not waiting any longer. Our daughter got married before us even! So I’ve made sure everything is ready.” She was clearly trying to not laugh at her soon-to-be husband’s expression. “And we have the perfect priest already lined up! Or did Moriko not happen to mention that Mordecai is a priest of Ozuran? Oh, and he helped me create a fabulous pair of wedding bands that will go wonderfully with my engagement ring.”
Moriko was gaping at the scene in front of her, but Kazue just simply started giggling. “Okay, time for Mordecai and I to change our roles. See you in the shrine!” She gave Moriko another kiss before disappearing, and Mordecai made an inviting gesture at their other visitors. “I apologize for the unorthodox greeting, but I hope being able to attend a wedding will suffice as recompense. We can turn to business in a little bit.” He then kissed Moriko as well before he dissipated his avatar.
The half-elf shook her head in bemusement before she followed the about-to-be-married couple down the hallway and into the shrine holding statues for the major gods of Kuiccihan, the slightly confused guards and merchants in tow.
There she found the shrine well decorated for a small wedding, with a slew of bunkin and rabkin acting as audience and attendants. Mordecai stood in front of the statue of Ozuran in what Moriko could only describe as gothic regalia, his majestic robe and cloak falling to the floor like liquid shadows and seemingly drawing light towards the fabric, but leaving his face well-lit.
Kazue was now wearing a frilly white dress with a basket full of petals on one arm, and she walked before her parents tossing the petals onto the ground to create a path for them. Ricardo still looked a little poleaxed but he was recovering as he was now walking alongside Akahana instead of being pulled by her.
Stolen story; please report.
Moriko settled herself against the back wall to watch with amusement as her mother-in-law and father-in-law finally got hitched.
When the couple stopped in front of Mordecai, he gave a fairly typical speech regarding the seriousness of speaking binding oaths in front of Ozuran, and to choose their oaths carefully. It was not exactly a surprise that the couple chose “until life’s end,” given that both had them had been merely pretending to not already be committed during the past twenty years of a long-distance relationship. Today’s ceremony was only making the marriage official, Moriko suspected that most gods would have considered them married anyway.
It was sweet to watch these two getting married, and she liked seeing this aspect of Mordecai in a less stressful situation. He had usually been at least a little playful with her and Kazue, and the few times he’d not been had been situations where at least someone hadn’t been happy. Here he was being serious and dutiful in his role as a priest and she kind of liked it. And not just because she’d suddenly discovered she liked the idea of playing out a ‘corrupt the priest’ scenario.
As the ceremony came to a close Moriko joined the cheering and clapping as husband and wife shared a lingering kiss. It didn’t take long for Kazue to start throwing the petals directly at her parents' heads in an attempt to get them to stop already, and Moriko was amused to realize that she had far more petals available than her basket could possibly have held. The little kitsune was of course using her dungeon powers to cheat.
Moriko waited until she had a chance to catch Kazue’s eyes before she spoke over the link the three of them shared. “Kazue love, don’t you think he looks so dignified and handsome when he’s being serious like that? I’m certain that such a proud priest would never fall to the temptations of two wicked temptresses, right?”
Kazue blinked. “What? Oh, oh! Yes, it would be an absolute shame if a holy man were to fall to base temptation. I am sure he is far above such things.” The two of them shared a smirk and then looked toward Mordecai.
He merely raised a lofty eyebrow then ignored the entire conversation with a touch of haughtiness, already playing the role they’d selected for him. This was going to be a fun day of anticipation until Moriko finally got the two of them alone.
There were several hours of celebratory chaos that spilled back into the main entry, with the word spreading quickly back to the rest of the caravan and the laganthros serving all the guests food and drink. As more people came in to celebrate Mordecai and Kazue temporarily opened up the entire first floor to freely explore to try and accommodate everyone. Which let the faeries and dire rabbits investigate the celebrations as well.
While she couldn’t hear it the same way, Moriko could feel when her husband and wife were focused on the dungeon and it quickly became clear that they were giving orders on the fly to let everyone stand down from normal duty and to spread the celebration around. They’d have a chance to congratulate the newlyweds later, though they’d not had a chance to meet Ricardo yet.
The groom had his own surprises in store for them however, and slipped out briefly to return with a gift separate from what he’d been planning for his business with the dungeon. With a wicked grin, he presented a wax-sealed metal bottle with a dwarven maker’s mark stamped on it to Mordecai. “I think this should call us even for the party. Unless you don’t think your dungeon is up to replicating it of course.”
Mordecai’s eyes widened when he recognized the bottle and Akahana gasped in surprise, but Moriko and Kazue were left to share a confused look. Mordecai accepted the bottle almost reverently as he murmured, “Golden Opalfire Mushroom Elixir.”
Oh. Moriko knew of it, it was the dwarves’ most famous brew, but she’d never even seen a bottle of it in person. The exact formula was a tightly held secret but there were a few details deliberately bragged about; the starting point was some mixture of particular deep-growth mushrooms and fungi, the water came from underground mineral springs with special properties, and there was a persistent and oft denied rumor that the blood of a specific cave-dwelling species was needed. The elixir was then aged for a very long time in a steel cask lined with opal grown on a gold matrix blessed by dwarven priests.
The matrix required decades to create on its own, assuming you didn’t damage it before it was done, and the matrix for each cask was broken apart after it was used and the opals and gold used to seal the bottles that the elixir was transferred into. Moriko didn’t know what the going price was for the bottle in front of her but she was pretty certain she couldn’t afford it without selling some of the jewelry she’d recently been gifted with.
The bottle shimmered a moment as Mordecai took the time to analyze it, then gave Ricardo a smile. “For your wedding night, I assume? You just weren’t expecting it to be this fast. A good choice. And I think you and your bride deserve the first pour from the original bottle.” A bunkin had come over and held up his hands to receive the tray Mordecai conjured, followed by some closely bunched shot glasses. Mordecai carefully peeled off the wax seal, which was also stamped with the same mark, to reveal the ‘cork’ of the bottle: A cap made of gold to seal the bottle, decorated with a single large, intensely red opal on top. It looked almost liquid as it shimmered in the light, like it wanted to just flow off the bottle.
Mordecai gently pried the cap off and handed the cap to Kazue, then proceeded to pour the elixir into the waiting glasses. It held the color of bright, fresh blood despite being a much thinner and more translucent fluid. He poured carefully but there was some spill as he deliberately chose to fill two of the glasses out of the same pour. He held the bottle out to Moriko, then picked up the two glasses to hand to Ricardo and Akahana. “I think you know how to do this,” he said with a grin.
The couple smiled at each other then twined their arms at the elbow and drew close before downing their shots simultaneously. Another roaring cheer went out, and when it died down Mordecai gave a loud clap to draw everyone’s attention. “I will make sure there is enough for everyone to enjoy, but I want to make sure something is clear. I have no intention of drawing the ire of every dwarven nation, I will not be selling reproductions of this elixir. I will serve it occasionally, and it may, rarely, be available as a reward, but I will not compete with the dwarves on this. Also, I can only make a copy of the final product in this case, I don’t know enough of how it was manufactured to reliably make variations.”
Moriko was pretty certain that the last part was a political lie given what she’d grown to learn of their capabilities, but it was a good choice here. She drew the bottle close to give it a sniff and liked what she smelled. It burned a little of course, but it was a unique sort of earthy, semi-spicy aroma with both dark and bright notes. The gold couldn’t provide any flavor, but the opal itself certainly could. Whatever the truth of how it was made, she knew she wanted some and made sure to get a glass from the first tray before helping to fill more glasses with the original bottle. No business was getting done this day.