“May the Green gods invest you with health and fertility. May the Red gods give you vigor and strength. May the white gods grant you good winds and fair weather. May the Blue gods grant bounty. May the Yellow gods grant you wealth. May the Gray gods grant wisdom. May you two support each other, respect each other, and protect each other, till the black gods call you into the blissful dark...and May your children grow strong enough to carry your names after you’ve gone…”

The Priest gave his blessing and the two youths awkwardly received it.

Their parents, their one pair of parents, tearful and stonily watched the proceeding while a friend of the family served as witness to the ceremony.

This was how the vis-Oddmund’s said goodbye to their two youngest children. Sending them on their way with the gift of supplies for the road, and a cart and horses to carry everything.

Embla’s culture was a mixture of simplicity and sophistication. There were people who lived in  mid-industrial, super cities of iron, magic and steam, and others who lived in feudalistic medieval empires.

Civilizations as a whole sat somewhere in a brutish, fantastical middle-ground, where pragmatism, honor and violence were the law of the land.

As such, for most, marriage wasn’t about love, it wasn’t about feelings, it was about resource sharing and making and strengthening inter-familial bounds.

Primal like beasts, logical like machines, the monsters and titans that had become Embla’s peoples led existences that were often both simple and complicated at the same time.

As such the lovely Vanessa vis-Oddmund, had always expected to have a marriage that made sense on a practical level.

While she’d expected to know who her husband would be before the big day and perhaps be the one who made the final decision on whether to marry him or not, she knew that it would be facts not feelings that decided the issue.

A pairing that was more economy than emotion because that was how marriages in Embla worked, at least for the most part.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

Still...she’d always hoped that there would be a little more space for feelings. Which girl wouldn’t hope for a little romance in their lives. Was there anyone out there who didn’t want to be able to say that they loved the one they’d ended spending the rest of their lives with?

And so it was, with mixed feelings, that she allowed herself to be wed to Edwin, the strangest and youngest of her three adopted brothers.

It was true enough that her wedding was only taking place because that was what made the most sense right now. Serving as yet another shield to hide her in her time of crisis.

Yet, it was still Edwin, that she was getting marriage to here, there was no getting around that. There was no side stepping that issue or the fact that it was neither something she’d wanted or expected.

She didn’t hate the boy. She couldn’t, for all his oddities and eeriness, he was still her brother, and he’d been a good brother for the most part. Offbeat, yes, but loyal and reliable.

In fact it was for that same reason that her parents had decided to strike her name from the family registry as a daughter so they could put her back in as a daughter-in-law.

Edwin vis-Oddmund was known throughout the town as a  young man who kept his promises. A man you could trust. A man that could be relied upon.

“You two...be safe out there, you hear me? Look out for each other” said Olivia. Chiding the pair sternly  while wiping the corners of her eyes with a lace handkerchief.

“Yes, mother.” said Edwin. Saluting. His look incongruously jaunty.

“Yes, Moth-, Madame.” said Van. Her mood subdued and muddled.

Looking at things in a certain light, if she didn’t know so much about her brother’s odd parts and if he wasn’t...well...her brother, she probably wouldn’t have been so against this pairing.

Though the age gap was a bit concerning, considering the average Jotun’s 200 year lifespan, sans cultivation, twelve years wasn’t that big a deal.

And in the end, she knew that all this was her parents trying their damndest to try and keep her safe. Which just lead to more frustration.

A big bubble of boiling anger and hate rising in her gut as thought of the fellows who were making designs on her life.

That the same loathsome people who killed her mother and tried to throw her away, were now so “graciously”  trying to pull her back into the fold, filled her with a fury that made her wish she was strong enough flip the whole town over and dash those schemers from her noble father’s side of the family, to pieces.

Eventually the small ceremony was over, Van gave hugs and gifts for her parents to give to all the friend’s she’d not been able to say goodbye to.

She gave one extra tight, extra long hug that was meant for her adopted mother and father. Since no matter what the extenuating circumstances and no matter what the family record said, she still thought of them as such.

Then when everything that could be said and done, was said and done, she climbed up onto the wagon and let Edwin lead them both out into the Wilderness.

Their destination set for anywhere but here, with the vague parameter of “far away” as their guide, and their elder brother Wallace serving as a mid-point for their journey.