Between the Willow Trees [NaNoWriMo 2013] (Editing)

Chapter 18: Wedding Planning

Chapter 18: Wedding Planning

Now that I’ve supposedly fixed the problem with the wood elf camp, Thorne has decided that he’d like to start planning our wedding. I decide to go along with it, but I’m no longer going to be getting married to him. If Aranni doesn’t manage to fix the portal before the end of this week then I am going through with my own plan that I’m gradually beginning to form. The date we’ve now set for the wedding isn’t until next week and hopefully this will all be over by then.

Despite this I still have to pretend to be planning the wedding. Today I have the joy of trying on hundreds of wedding dresses to choose a dress that I won’t even be wearing.

I am woken up rather early by Ellen who informs me that Aywin, Elethoria’s best tailor, will be here in less than an hour. I jump out of bed and get ready then go to the kitchen to have breakfast.

Very soon I’m told that Aywin has arrived and that he’s waiting in my bedroom with just under a million different dresses for me to try on and hate. I stuff the rest of my slice of toast in my mouth, because I know that this is going to go on for hours and I won’t be allowed to eat anything until it’s over, then I walk back into my bedroom.

I’m met with a room full of fluffy material in hundreds of different colours and a rather eccentric looking wood elf. He’s wearing a mash of colour that really shouldn’t work well together and yet he manages to successfully pull it off.

“Astrid, my dear, I have big plans for your wedding dress!” he exclaims as I enter the room. Ellen is in here too and I hear her supress a giggle. Obviously she knows that I’m about to go through a day of absolute torture.

“Awesome,” I reply as I loiter in the doorway, unsure what to do.

“Don’t just stand there my dear, come over here. I need check your sizes for the dress,” he says as he waves a measuring tape around. I do as he says and stand there looking awkward as he measures my waist, hips and bust size.

“Can’t I just chose the dress that I like most, try it on and then be done here?” I ask.

“No, no, no, no, no,” he replies. “You’ll need to try on all of them so that we can see which one best fits your skin tone and body shape. I want this dress to be perfect! This is the most important job I’ve ever been hired for and I am determined to get it right! The dress we choose will be the most important and iconic dress in Elethoria. Even after the wedding people will remember it for years! And then hundreds of artists will be eager to paint pictures of the beautiful royal couple. This dress will be making history, so it needs to be perfect!”

I roll my eyes and Ellen tries not to laugh. I almost want to tell him that he’ll be wasting his time because I’m not going to be getting married. All his work will come to nothing. Instead I try to act as interested as possible.

“Back on earth it’s traditional for the bride to wear white, I guess it’s not the same here?” I ask.

“You’re correct. Traditionally, here in Elethoria, the bride should wear a dress that’s the colour of her lover’s eyes. Luckily for you, the king’s eyes change colour! So you may wear whatever colour you want.”

I shake my head.

“No, I should either wear green or purple. Thorne’s eyes are usually green, but when he’s happy they’re a beautiful dark shade of purple. So I think it should be one of those colours. Oh, and definitely not red,” I explain.

“If you do not mind me saying so, my lady, but his eyes are not purple when he is happy,” says Ellen from the side of the room. “His eyes are only purple when he is with you. My theory is that purple stands for love. He often tries to stop his eyes from changing colour because he hates the fact that it is so easy for people to read him but when he is with you he cannot focus on doing just that. His emotions control him when he is with you. For you he is an open book.”

She’s right. I know that she is. Plus, now that I know that, I’ve suddenly realised what every colour means.

I change my mind about the colour of the dress. I don’t want to wear a colour that is a symbol of his love for me.

“The dress should be green because it’s such an important colour for the both of us. It’s the colour of Thorne’s eyes, the colour of the scarf he caught when I was five, the colour he chose for his banner and my favourite colour. It has to be green,” I insist.

“Green it is then!” agrees Aywin.

Fortunately this narrows it down to just ten dresses he wants me to try on, which doesn’t take very long at all. The dress I like the best is one of the simplest. The top is quite plain, with short sleeves and decorated with just a few diamonds and emeralds that are in the patterns of flowers. The skirt of the dress is the least puffy. Instead it’s rather straight and has a layer of green lace over the top of it. I love how simple the dress is, in fact, I think it’s beautiful. It’s almost a shame that I won’t actually get the chance to wear it.

Aywin agrees that this dress also suits me the most, so I get to have this one. He just wants to take it away for minor alterations.

In the afternoon I’m invited to the King’s Council again and so I decide to attend. All the regular members are there along with our new wood elf addition who was elected by Aranni’s army.

Generally the King’s Council is boring now that there doesn’t seem to be any armies forming to take Thorne off of the throne. This means that they only seem to discuss how money should be used throughout the kingdom. I mostly sit there daydreaming for hours.

Just as the meeting is about to end there’s a knock on the door.

“You may enter,” Thorne calls and the door opens. It’s one of the palace messengers.

“They have managed to locate and capture Levi the Cambion, your grace,” the messenger says as he bows to the king. Thorne literally jumps out of his seat, though I’m not sure whether he did so out of shock or excitement.

“Is he here yet?” asks Thorne as he walks towards the door.

“They will be arriving here with him shortly,” the messenger replies.

“Brilliant, come on Astrid.” Thorne holds his hand out for me to take.

“Wait, sorry, what? We’re not going down there to see him are we? I don’t want to see him,” I say, shaking my head a little too violently. I need to keep up the act, pretend to be scared of Levi.

“Do not worry, he cannot hurt you anymore. He will be behind bars and I will be there to keep you safe,” he assures me.

“Alright, I’ll go, but why exactly are we going down to see him?” I ask as I take Thorne’s hand and he leads me out of the room.

“We need to find out what his plan was. How was he going to take the throne away from me? That is why I ordered my men to catch him rather than kill him because you said that we need to get the truth out of him,” he explains.

“How are we going to do that?”

We walk down all the steps into the darkness of the dungeons.

“You are going to get the truth out of him. You will go and see him alone. There will be no guards and he is in a secure cell away from any other prisoners. I just want you to talk to him, see if you can find out his plans. If you cannot then do not worry, we will think of another plan.”

Does he realise that he’s giving me the perfect opportunity to talk to Levi and get our story straight? Is this a trap? Maybe he still doesn’t trust me and this is all a set up to try to reveal the truth? Either way I have no idea what to say to Levi. I’ll have to get myself out of this situation.

“I think you should think of another plan now because I really don’t want to face him alone,” I almost plead.

“He is going to be behind bars, you will be fine,” he insists.

“No, I can’t do this.” I let go of Thorne’s hand and begin to make my way back up the stairs. Thorne follows me.

“Please, Astrid?” he asks.

Fine, whatever, I’ll do it. If this is all just a trap he’s leading me into then I’ll run. I still have the pocket watch and there’s still the possibility that the others will fix the portal. If I ruin everything now by talking to Levi then we still have hope of defeating Thorne.

“Alright, I’ll do it. I’ll try to get the truth out of Levi.”