SONG OF POWER

Chapter II: Courtship

SONG OF POWER

CHAPTER II:  COURTSHIP

Midsummer Festival was an exciting time in Cyen, traditionally a day for weddings and lovemaking.  The day was holy to both Biotan and Lillicule, the god of Life and the goddess of Love, respectively.  So in Cyen, Midsummer Festival was the day of courtship; marriages were seldom performed at any other time.  Engagements were nearly unheard of; after a day of courting, a group wedding was held that night.

In Cyen the tradition was for the eligible women to try and secure one of the eligible men; the women would dress in their finest and display their womanly skills.  Every home with a woman seeking a husband was spotless, with fresh food laid out and a brazier of fresh-smelling herbs burning at the door.  Some representation of their dowry would also be present; carved figurines of livestock, a pile of buttons (to represent coins), or other depictions would be set on the table beside the food.

Any young man seeking a wife would dress for battle and gather at dawn in the town square and train (for all were expected to serve in the town militia); though the eligible women were not allowed to attend, they would send their married friends or relatives to observe and then receive a report later.  After militia training, the men would all go to the small pond near the Pyretary to clean up and dress themselves in their finest garments.  Each was given three distinct wooden tokens; then the men were to patrol the village, visit the homes of eligible maidens, sample their food, observe them bustle about their homes, engage in conversation, and so on.  If the woman, the home, the food, and the dowry all added up to a match the man desired, he would leave her his token.  The men would tour the village, visiting the maidens and bestowing tokens until all the tokens were given; for the good of the village, the men were not allowed to keep their tokens (they were not allowed to remain bachelors).

This all had to be accomplished before sunset, at which time all of the young men would gather in the Rosy Pucker, Cyen’s only tavern.  The tavern would be decorated with symbols of love, fertility, and life.  The hopeful maidens would then arrive and serve the men a round of Cyen Graveshroom Pale Ale, a special brew never exported. 

Maidens who preferred one suitor to another would find a way to let him know; a look, a gesture.  After drinks were served, Cyen’s mayor and its friar would arrive and join in a second round.  At this point the young men and women were separated; the mayor would sit and talk to the men, and the friar would take all the women aside and talk with them.  Discussions would range from the harvest to Cyen’s traditions and would always end with what was expected of the youths as married villagers.

After these discussions, the women would choose their desired suitor from the tokens they received.  A single token meant the woman must be wed to the giver of it, while multiple tokens meant the woman had options; however, she could not choose to remain unwed if she gained at least one token.  If two or three women chose the same suitor, he would he was legally obliged to choose as many of the women as he could provide for (possibly acquiring two or three wives).  In this way both the men and the women had a say in whom could marry whom.  The women who received no tokens, the men who received no replies, or those that were simply unlucky at love would find no mate that year, and would have to wait until the next.  Completed matches would be married at the Midsummer Festival Feast.

There were five notable young men in the town square the morning of Midsummer Feast; Cipher Lostheart, Wisp Ignus, Pantifer, Samuel Evers, and Trevor Heather II.  Of the five, only Wisp was lacking as a warrior; he was slight of build and frail of health, given to the study of magic and hating such physical exertions.  To add to his embarrassment, he was a year older than his friends, and was nothing but unlucky the year before.  Pantifer was short and lithe, but moved with cat-like grace.  Trevor was in possession of a more womanly figure, yet was as skilled with a dueling-blade as his late father (an infamous brigand from the south) was rumored to have been.  Cipher, too, was swift and strong, and able on the training grounds, master of a unique fighting style that combined mobility and dual-wielding to deadly effect.  Yet of the five Samuel, who stood head and shoulders above his peers, was the most impressive in training, an able warrior who preferred to wield sword and shield like his father before him..