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The wedding and banquet went off as planned. Dorian weddings require very little rehearsal on the bride’s part, fortunately. She repeats her lines one at a time as the priest says them, takes her sips from each sake dish after the groom takes his and passes the dish to her, and mostly just looks pretty the rest of the time. The only blunder I made was the tradition of feeding the groom at the wedding banquet, which I didn’t know I was supposed to do.
Fortunately, Mireia had the role of the ‘bride’s attendant’, and she knew the script. She whispered into my ear that I had to take Rod’s chopsticks and feed him rice before he could feed himself. And brides are usually very nervous and tired at this point, and no bad luck traditions are associated with her making fumbles like that. People just think of her mis-steps as cute, apparently.
A wedding would normally move from the formal and stuffy ceremonial banquet in the shrine’s feast hall to a private venue for a more relaxed party. But it was less than a hundred days after the death of our parents, when no such casual celebrations were allowed. The guests had to look forward to a party on our first wedding anniversary or some other appropriate date instead. Once dinner was over, we simply rode Rod’s carriage back to Narses Castle.
“If they don’t allow celebrations, then what was all that about as I was on my way here, with the firecrackers and dancers?” I wondered.
Big Brother Rod… no, I suppose I have to stop calling him that. My husband simply shrugged helplessly and stated, “I’m not very familiar with Dorian customs.”
But Mireia, who was born in Suldor, knew the answer. “The dancing and the firecrackers aren’t for celebration, My Lady. They frighten evil spirits away from the bride. That was the purpose of stopping at the inner sanctum as well.”
“Evil what?” I asked, baffled. What would those be? As a child of the Ostish temple, my knowledge of Dorian religion is not strong.
She smiled and shrugged. “It’s religion, not science, My Lady. Perhaps evil spirits were an ancient understanding of gidim. Although I don’t think that gidim are actually scared of such things. Or rather, I suppose the Fire magic in firecrackers might do them harm if they came too close to them, but that’s about it.”
Mireia was in the carriage as my attendant as well. The bride’s attendant is a chaperon to ensure that no naughtiness occurs before nightfall. As additional insurance, she was the one seated beside me, rather than Big… my husband.
The bride’s attendant is supposed to be a member of the bride’s family, or at least a family friend, but the only living relative whom I know is Aunt Elianora, who stood in for Mother in the ceremony and couldn’t take this role. Weirdly, the black ceremonial gown that the bride’s mother normally wears looked perfect for her.
Uncle Matthias stood in for the bride’s father, looking a bit uncomfortable in his gold and red Tang suit. It totally didn’t suit him at all. Uncle Arken would have been a better choice, but he had ceded the honor to Matthias out of respect.
“My Lady, are you okay?” Mireia worried, placing her hand on my arm.
“Sorry,” I told her with a smile. “Do I look troubled?”
“If I were to choose a word, I would say, ‘lonely’,” she answered.
Before I could come up with a response, a certain cat made a surprise appearance, jumping into my lap again.
“You think so too, Kiki?” Mireia asked with a chuckle, while scratching the animal beneath her chin.
“What is this creature, anyway?” I asked, since Mireia apparently knew her.
“A pixie friend of yours, My Lady,” she answered.
I blinked in surprise. “A pixie cat? There’s such a thing?”
She shook her head. “She’s a normal pixie. She’s been playing at being a cat for about a week now.”
To the cat, she said, “You should go back to normal and introduce yourself. Your big sister doesn’t remember you, I think?”
The cat suddenly transformed into a fairy-like figure with silver dragonfly wings, light blue hair, a green raiment as a wrap around her chest and a short sarong around her hips. Perhaps she was a little more than ten inches tall.
“Big Sis sad sad?” the creature wondered.
I shook my head. “I’m just finding everything very strange and confusing. You’re Kiki?”
“Kiki is Kiki!” she announced proudly, then flew up, did a spin in the air as if modeling her outfit, and settled on my shoulder.
“Be careful you don’t turn your head and knock her off, My Lady,” Mireia said, stifling a giggle.
I had my head turned to look at the pixie at the moment, but she was right. The ornaments in my hair stuck far out to the sides.
The creature suddenly leaned in and hugged me around the chin, pressing her cheek to my face, close to my lips. “Feel happy happy! Big Sis pretty! Big Sis strong!”
“She’s very protective of you,” my husband noted. “She barely left your room, the entire time you were asleep. She’s been as bad as your Blood Servants.”
Something in my head clicked, as I noticed what it was he said.
I frowned. “Servants? Plural?”
My husband suddenly looked like he regretted letting something slip. A horrified feeling filled me again.
“Um… yes,” Mireia nodded. “I’m… not the only one, My Lady.”
After a gulp, I asked, just to confirm, “There’s another?”
She bit her lower lip, then stated, “I guess there’s… five of us in total?”
“What have I been doing for the last three months!” I cried, appalled.
Suddenly, my husband was leaning across from the opposite couch and gripping my hand.
“Protecting many people. Saving Amelia, twice… no it’s three times now, after what happened over Narses. Saving my brother’s army. Protecting me and my knights. Defending many people from demons and enemies. Being the best knight that has ever served my father or my brother. For the last three months, you’ve been absolutely amazing.”
“You even killed a dragon,” Mireia noted.
I gaped at her, and at Rod. There was indeed a dragon at the end of my memories, but…
“See?” Kiki declared, her little chest sticking out with pride. “Big Sis strong strong!”
Mireia took my other hand. “Melione took the risk in order to help you protect everyone. Lady Ceria became your Servant willingly as well, to help you rescue the Hero’s Party. Lady Chiara… you should probably get that story from her, but she’s willingly repaying a debt by serving you. All of us have benefited from being your Servants.”
With them holding both my hands, I could only continue staring, turning from one to the other and back, completely forgetting about the peril to Kiki. I had many questions, such as exactly how such a situation came up so often, and how exactly they would benefit from something I had always believed was always a bad thing.
However, Kiki had transformed back into cat form and crawled from my shoulder onto the back of the carriage seat in order to lay there.
Finally, one question came to me that I had to ask.
“Five?”
Mireia, Melione, Ceria, Chiara. That made four.
Mireia scratched her cheek. “The fifth one is kind of complicated.”
“You won’t meet her for a while,” Rod declared, his face suddenly darkening. “She’s the reason you collapsed.”
“Don’t worry though,” Mireia suddenly assured me. “She’s safe and sound, like you requested. We moved her to the Citadel.”
I had gone from puzzled, to concerned, to just confused. “What in the world is she?”
“A hellspawn,” Rod stated, still looking angry. “I wanted to have her killed, but Mir insisted. She said her goddess told her to keep that thing alive.”
“A hellspawn?” I echoed, flabbergasted. “Is that even possible?”
Mireia nodded. “The goddess says it’s because hellspawn are actually humans with demonic mana, not demons.”
“You aren’t to go near her,” my husband warned. “Not until we know how to keep you safe.”
I reached the Castle still baffled at everything they had told me. I couldn’t imagine how any of it could be possible. I was just a junior knight errant, and all the things they said I had done seemed so far beyond my capacity.
In keeping with the theme of the day, the maids served our dinner Dorian style on the tatami platform. The cat was still staying nearby, and Mireia was glued to my side as well. Everyone seemed so worried for me. It was a very unfamiliar feeling.
Then, before I knew it, they were dressing me for my wedding night.
Even though I was very accustomed to Mother’s rather extreme sense of style, the lingerie they were putting on me this time elevated it to a new level. Gossamer fabrics similar to Mother’s raiment when she goes for nighttime ‘strolls’ in the sky, a distinct lack of sufficient closure everywhere, such that a new patch of bare skin was flashed every time I moved…
The nerves that had plagued me all day suddenly became far worse. I mean, you do that on your wedding night, after all.
“Is this one of Mother’s designs?” I asked, as I viewed the finished work in the mirror. The garter belt and stockings showed through the fabric, not to mention all the other unmentionables. Not that it mattered, because you could somewhat see through them as well. Eying the pink tips clearly visible at my bosom, I noted, “It looks, rather more forward than usual?”
Miss Genette giggled and told me, “She made this one specifically for your wedding night, My Lady.”
“It’s wonderful, My Lady,” another maid assured me, “Your body is too beautiful for anything less.”
“Can you… put something over it?”
“There’s a stole, don’t worry,” Genette said, with a slight smirk, hefting the garment in question. As she slipped it onto my arms and over my shoulders, she looked absolutely treacherous! This woman knew exactly how embarrassed I was right now!
She closed it and tied the belt and stepped out of my way so I could see…
They still showed through?
“If it’s this thin, what is the point of the stole?” I cried.
Genette leaned closer to my ear and whispered, “It’s another layer of gift wrap to remove.”
I’m pretty sure the scarlet tinge to my skin was visible all the way down as the rest of the maids giggled. I gave them all accusing stares, but they all refused to affect even the slightest bit of guilty conscience.
Thankfully, they added an actual bath robe before they led me from the dressing room to the bedroom, where Mireia held the door for me. Rose petals had been scattered on the bed where they seated me, scented candles provided lighting and a variety of wines and snacks waited.
For… breaks, I guess?
But I was surprised when, as the maids retreated, Mireia shut the door and remained in the room.
“Isn’t your job finished now?” I wondered.
She smiled. As she moved toward me across the room, she agreed, “My job as the bride’s attendant is indeed finished, My Lady.”
“Then…”
“I now have a different job. That’s why I’ll be staying,” she noted with a smile. “Rod will be here in a minute, but you made it very clear before, that you couldn’t sleep with him.”
My nerves had gradually become worse during the preparations, so her words were a sudden, brief relief. But my first thought, that she was somehow here so that Rod couldn’t do anything, didn’t make any sense. Rod is a gentleman. If I didn’t want him to do anything, he simply wouldn’t. So I was left confused.
She sat on the bed next to me. She was very close…
“The Privy Council wants Rod to father a mortal heir for the duchy. We already know your babies are fairy vampires, just like you, and my goddess says any more babies that you have will be the same. So I’m the surrogate you chose to make a mortal heir.”
It wasn’t too shocking, since they had already told me about her and Rod. But why was she snuggling up to me?
“We’ll do things the same way as when we made your babies, My Lady. That was when I made love with Rod for the first time, so you helped me. Actually, you made love to me first, while he watched…”
My eyes grew into saucers as she began kissing my cheek.
A familiar feeling started in my mouth, but she held her finger to my lips while whispering into my ear.
“You can feed on me later, but only at the end. That’s the rule, tonight.”
