Chapter 208: A Human Wedding
After leaving the elven village, the journey of Rhodes and Serie continued. They still followed no particular path, sometimes wandering from the main road and into some hidden, picturesque valley, and they would stay there for a few days.
Flamme's reply had come. She and Ela were now on high alert and would continue their search for the elven villages as planned. He had never intended for her to uncover the demons' conspiracy, just for her to meet her own fated apprentice. It was a strange twist of fate.
In the days that followed, the spatial magic he had placed on her remained untriggered, and so they were able to set aside their worries for their students.
One afternoon, they came to a human town. Even from a distance, they could hear the sound of an orchestra and the cheers of a crowd.
"A little noisy," Serie said with a frown. She preferred the quiet and was not fond of such boisterous places.
"It looks like they're having a festival," he said with an interested look. "Shall we go in? We can restock our supplies, and see if we can find any good food. Like that pie from before."
He remembered that she had had a surprisingly good opinion of that simple human dish. Though she still preferred his roasted mushroom skewers, they couldn't eat that every day. Not that she seemed to mind, but he did. A balanced diet was important for a healthy life. Though to talk of a 'healthy life' in a world of magic... it felt a little strange. The holy magic of this world could regrow a severed limb, after all. A little nutritional imbalance was hardly a cause for concern.
But for now, the desires of the palate were a more pressing matter.
They followed the crowd into the town.
In the center, the windows and balconies of the houses were all crowded with onlookers. The main street had been cleared, and a new, red carpet had been laid out. At the end of it was a small, steeple-roofed chapel, its doors now open, the sound of a beautiful choir wafting from within.
"It's a wedding," he said, having gathered as much from the excited chatter of the crowd. "A human's bonding ceremony."
She looked at the small chapel, and at the people on either side of the street, who were now throwing flower petals, and a look of a pure and simple confusion came over her. "I don't understand. So many people, and so many resources, just to announce the union of two people? The customs of humans are strange indeed."
In her own long life, the bonding of elves was a quiet and private affair, a thing that took place in a secluded part of the forest, far from the prying eyes of others.
"I think you're misunderstanding. It's just a ceremony, to tell everyone that they're together now."
"I still don't understand."
He smiled. "Perhaps," he said, and his gaze swept over the many faces in the crowd, "it is not just a ceremony, but a way to share their joy, to receive the blessings of others." He pointed to the chapel's entrance. "Look, those must be their friends and family."
Just then, the chapel's bell began to ring, and the crowd let out a new and even more enthusiastic cheer. The doors opened wide, and a couple, dressed in their finest clothes, emerged, surrounded by their loved ones. The groom was wearing a black suit, and the bride... her gaze was instantly drawn to the bride.
She was wearing a pure white wedding dress, a garment of a complexity and a beauty that she had never seen before. Layers of lace cinched at her slender waist, and a wide skirt flowed around her, shimmering in the sunlight like a cascade of pearls. A veil covered her hair, which was tied up in an intricate bun, and the edges of it were dotted with small crystals that sparkled with her every step.
She had a shy but radiant smile on her face, a smile of a kind she had never seen before, a smile that was as beautiful as a blooming flower.
He, too, could not help but stare, admiring the beauty of a human girl in her finest moment. And at the sight of that white dress, a symbol of a sacred vow, a thought, unbidden, came to his mind.
He turned to the elven miss beside him. "Serie," he said, a playful tone in his voice, "I'm a little curious. What would you look like in a dress like that?"
She was still looking at the bride's dress, a dress that was beautiful, but so obviously impractical. She turned to him, a look of a pure and simple bafflement on her face, a look that was then replaced by one of a cool and detached disdain.
"Me?" she said, and pointed to herself, then at the bride, who now needed her bridesmaids to help her with her long and flowing skirt. "Impossible. That dress is useless, except for being pretty. And it's just made of ordinary cloth. A simple fire spell would turn it to ash." And then she concluded, "It has no practical value whatsoever."
He couldn't help but laugh at her battle-mage's assessment. He pictured her in a beautiful wedding dress, her face a mask of a pure and utter seriousness, complaining about how the skirt was getting in the way of her dodging, how the veil was obstructing her vision. The image... it was so... adorable.
"Ahem," he said, trying to suppress his laughter, but a look of an undeniable expectation was now in his own eyes. "But... I want to see it."
Just five simple words, but they were a magic of their own.
Her own critique of the dress, her list of its many flaws, it was now stuck in her throat. She looked at him, at the unconcealed longing in his deep and dark eyes, and her own heart gave a small, almost imperceptible, lurch.
She was silent.
And in the din of the wedding, for a few seconds, time seemed to stand still.
She looked down, and a few strands of her hair fell over her face, casting a small shadow on her cheeks. She seemed to be in a deep and serious contemplation, weighing the impracticality of the dress against... his own, foolish, wish.
In the end, she seemed to come to a decision. She looked up, and though the disdain had not completely left her eyes, there was now a hint of a new and strange... concession. She looked away, her gaze on some distant point, and in a voice that was as flat and as casual as she could make it, she said, "...if you really want to see it... I suppose... it's not impossible."
And the smile on his face grew even wider, so wide it was almost a grin.
(End of chapter)
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