In The Name of Love

Minna and Fifi stand side by side outside the golden doors of the Royal Zoche of Zosya, waiting for their cue to enter so that the marriage ceremony can begin. With them are Manuela, Adalberto’s sister, and her young daughter Maeve, whom the Aethyrozian sisters find absolutely adorable, a spitting image of her mother with her fiery red hair and emerald green dress. To Fifi’s relief, Maeve’s antics have given Minna some respite from her nerves.

“It’s all going to be fine,” Manuela assures Minna, not for the first time. “Adalberto’s a good man, and I’d tell you if he wasn’t. I grew up with those five princes, and he’s the only one I’d agree to live with long-term again, if I had to.”

“Thank you,” Minna replies faintly. Her grip tightens on her bouquet of deep red roses. They don’t really match her magnificent gold and purple gown, in Fifi’s opinion, but that doesn’t matter now.

“And he likes you,” Fifi adds as she straightens her own royal blue and silver gown. “I’m sure he does.”

“I’ll second that. Didn’t think he’d take to anyone after Valeriya, but he hardly spoke to anyone else last night,” Manuela affirms.

“Pretty pretty,” Maeve coos, tugging on Minna’s skirt as she looks up at Minna with wide brown eyes.

Ethereal strains of music from the Aethyrozian Royal Orchestra float through the golden doors.

“It’s time!” Manuela says with a smile that lights up her whole face. Her red curls bounce as she moves to open the door. “Come on, Maeve! Time to go!”

Maeve buries her tiny fist in her gilded basket of rose petals and toddles with her mother into the zoche. Fifi adjusts Minna’s gold lace veil over her face.

“Don’t let me trip,” Minna whispers. The veil nearly reaches the floor in front of her.

“You won’t trip,” Fifi assures her, taking her position behind Minna to carry her train.

“Are you ready, Your Highness?” the Aethyrozian ambassador to Syazonia asks with a slight hiccup as he approaches them rapidly from the general direction of the privies. Fifi smells wine on the tall older gentleman’s breath.

Minna hesitates, then nods. The ambassador offers her his arm. She accepts it, and then the great golden doors swing open, allowing them to walk into the zoche. Fifi follows behind them, her arms full of her sister’s skirt and her eyes wide with wonder.

The Royal Zoche of Zosya is far grander than the zoche in Adelhyod. The floors are highly polished white marble, where Fifi can see them around the hundreds of feet of the guests standing within. High vaulted ceilings and the wide pillars that support them are decorated with mosaics and paintings of scenes from the Lanourehm. Huge stained glass windows scatter colored light across the people within, who have parted to offer Minna and her small retinue a path, now decorated with rose petals from Manuela and Maeve, to the altar at the far end of the space. The priest of Chuezoh standing behind the altar wears the crimson robes customary for the season between Friggenter and Oggerheim. To his left is Adalberto, resplendent not only because of his elegant white and gold attire, but because he is actually smiling, his eyes locked on Minna.

When Minna and the ambassador reach the altar, the priest lifts off its gleaming golden cover with a flourish, revealing a basin of holy water. Minna puts her bouquet of roses into the basin as an offering to Chuezoh. The ambassador bows to Adalberto, and the prince takes the ambassador’s place beside Minna. As she artfully arranges her sister’s train, Fifi notices that the ambassador has taken a place near Adalberto’s family, at the front of the gathered guests, and that he’s pulled out a flask from somewhere.

The priest starts chanting in Lanourese. Fifi can tell immediately that it’s the traditional passage about the beautiful institution of marriage, created and sanctioned by Chuezoh, such that husband and wife might support one another by fulfilling the roles best suited to them. She does her best to tune him out as she takes a place off to one side of the altar, amongst immense gold vases of roses and blazing candelabras and gilded cornucopias laden with produce, noting that Lisandro has been stationed similarly on the other side. While the priest chants, Adalberto leads Minna around the altar at a slow, stately pace. Once they’ve circled it five times, the priest takes two sticks of incense, lights each from the large white candle of Chuezoh burning behind him, and hands one to Adalberto and one to Minna. The two of them walk hand in hand towards King Celestino and Queen Casilda, who are holding another candle on a golden tray.

“May Chuezoh’s light bring the two of you together as one and light your path through life together,” the priest blesses Adalberto and Minna. In unison, they touch the lit ends of their incense sticks to the wick of the candle, lighting it. Then they deposit the incense sticks on the tray, which they reverently take from the king and queen and bear together to a small gilded pedestal not far from where Fifi is stationed.

“And now, as another symbol of how Chuezoh binds you together in blessed union,” the priest continues, pulling a length of gold and royal blue cord from behind the altar. Minna and Adalberto stand facing each other, their right hands joined, and the priest wraps the cord around their hands, once again chanting in Lanourese. Fifi can’t see her sister’s face as she once again adjusts her gold and purple train, but Adalberto looks happier than she’s ever seen him and seems to be murmuring something to Minna. I’m glad he’s found some joy in this, Fifi smiles to herself. She never admitted as much aloud, but she has also been concerned that remarrying so soon might be difficult for him. In this moment, though, it’s hard to see Adalberto as a grieving widower.

The priest leads Adalberto and then Minna in their vows to one another. They make the traditional promises—fidelity, respect, compassion, honesty, perseverance, patience. What about love? Fifi wants to interrupt, but she knows better. There’s no place in a royal wedding, even one set up by a Quest for Favor, for any mention of love.

After the vows, the priest glares at Lisandro and at Fifi. Fifi takes this as her cue to pick up a gold- and gemstone-encrusted box from amongst the cornucopia and bring it to Minna. Lisandro brings a similar box to Adalberto from his side of the altar.

“The bride and groom have brought gifts for one another,” the priest announces. Minna takes the box from Fifi and offers it to Adalberto, who in turn takes the box from Lisandro and gives it to Minna. They open their boxes while the priest drones on about the significance of these gifts—matching chalices, cast in Syazonian gold and studded with Aethyrozian sapphires in a design of a swan dancing with a bear to represent the relationship between their kingdoms that will be sealed by their marriage.

Adalberto and Minna set their chalices next to the candle on the tray, then rejoin the priest at the altar, facing each other.

“Prince Adalberto, you may kiss your bride,” the priest directs. With trembling hands, Adalberto raises Minna’s golden veil and drapes it over the back of her head. After a moment’s hesitation, his lips meet hers for a brief, chaste kiss. He and Minna both flush, Fifi assumes from embarrassment. I’m glad my first kiss wasn’t in front of so many people, she thinks, and then a powerful wish that Kai could be here with her threatens to overpower her. She tenses every muscle in her body and forces herself to keep smiling. Think about Minna and Adalberto, how good they look together, how happy you hope they’ll be, she tells herself.

As Minna and Adalberto pull apart, still holding each other’s hands, the priest sprinkles them with holy water. “Cheya chae Chuezoh hayu nietiem preyunah sah nou sesepa raenye maenii,” he intones, a final blessing meant to ensure a lifelong union: What Chuezoh has joined together, let no man separate. “Go forth with Chuezoh’s blessings, and be fruitful and multiply.”

The guests in the zoche applaud as Adalberto leads Minna out the way she came in, followed by Lisandro and Fifi, who fall in step beside one another. Their eyes meet for a moment, and Fifi can see that at least part of him is jealous of his older brother. In that instant she feels bad for him, but as she returns her attention to Minna and Adalberto, every bad feeling vanishes. They look equal parts relieved that the ceremony is over and happy to be together.

“Come, let us feast!” Adalberto bids the guests in the zoche as he and Minna reach the immense golden doors. Fifi freezes in her tracks as dread wells up inside her. She had forgotten there was another feast, and dancing to follow, as part of the wedding celebration, until this moment.