In Stone

32: "Yes, temple keeper."

32: “Yes, temple keeper.”

It seemed that this part of a wedding spanned cultures. The coming together of friends around bride and groom to celebrate the day with them and share in their happiness was a universal symbol that Caia found herself appreciating in ways she wouldn't have believed had it not been happening to her. It was no different from a wedding at home in that regard.

Well, it was a little different in that the wedding dress was green with flowers, but the gathering of girls around her to help her dress was exactly what it would have been at home. Caia could barely get in a word because they were all talking and laughing around her. She didn't even really try to make herself heard because she was just enjoying the sound and feelings of it.

Vaeri was the loudest one there. She was brushing Caia's hair even as Nyna was setting out the dress and Elanil was complaining about how Caia was too skinny to fit into it properly. There were others there, setting out the fresh flowers, preparing hair adornments, and one was mixing make up paints in a bowl to make a bright shade of red. They were all girls that Caia recognized from around the town, girls that she had spoken and laughed with before her secret had come out.

On the other side of town, she knew, Caspian was going through something similar. It was probably a great deal less feminine, but he was experiencing nearly the same thing as he dressed. The gathering of friends was equal for bride and groom.

“I love this hair color,” Vaeri said, running her finger's through Caia's tresses. “You're going to be the most beautiful bride.”

“I'm excited,” Caia agreed as Vaeri directed her to sit at something like a vanity. Caia didn't want to call it a vanity because there was no mirror. Those were expensive and this town didn't have the resources to make them.

The best they had was a hand mirror of polished hematite. It was Nyna's prized possession and she usually kept it in her shop for customers. Today though she had brought it with her to Vaeri's house so Caia could see herself once she was finished being prepared.

Vaeri and another girl began working on her hair together as Nyna began weaving a selection of flowers into a garland. Her hair was short, so it couldn't be done in anything elaborate. That didn't stop Vaeri from styling it.

Using a long rounded stone that had been heated in a flame, Nyna carefully curled Caia's hair. She had to wear thick gloves to use the stone, but Caia couldn't deny that it was effective. Then she was taking the finished garland of small, fragrant white flowers and fixing it above the curls. Ribbons trailed from the end of it, down her hair and ended in two pretty quartz stones.

“My turn,” Nyna announced once Vaeri was finished.

Then Caia was being pulled to her feet and Nyna and two other girls, one that Caia recognized as one of her apprentices, began pulling at the strings tying Caia's dress on. Realizing that she was about to, once again, be stripped in front of others, Caia blushed hotly.

Her embarrassment only became more acute when Vaeri came back with a pot of lotion that smelled like the flowers in her hair and began spreading it over each part of her skin that became exposed like she had always touched Caia so freely.

“I can do that,” Caia tried to say but Vaeri cut her off.

“Stop being shy. It's our job to dress you.”

“And it will be Caspian's job to undress you.”

Caia's blush deepened as the gathered girls giggled appreciatively at Nyna's comment. Then, just like any other wedding preparation, talk turned to the wedding night. It didn't matter that Caia was likely already pregnant and the two of them had slept together – in the guest room to avoid using the marriage only bed – just last night. The girls teased her like a virgin.