Marks of Power

Here Comes The Bride...

       At 12:00 sharp I arrived at the doors of Mr. Duval's office with Jabari by my side. We hardly even waited 5 seconds before a lively yet perpetually formal Mr. Duval swung the doors open.
       "Hello sir!" Jabari smiled and nodded his head slightly as we walked through the doors and sat down.
Once we sat down Mr. Duval pulled out a black leather journal along with a matching black pin. "Hello you two. I hope you've been well," he smilied. So, first order of business who would you like to stand up in your wedding?"
"Well," I started quietly, "I would like to have Mauve as my maid of honor."
       "Mauve! Sweetheart, you surely don't mean Mauve Aurelia! We can't have an x stand up at our wedding, let alone the fact that she's a servant!" Jabari practically screamed trying to mask his anger.
"We can and we will, Jabari," I hissed.
"Ok then! Mauve as the maid of honor," Mr. Duval quickly finished the argument. "Now who else would you like to serve in the wedding?"
Before I could come up with anyone Jabari began spewing names like we had already discussed them for months. "Well of course we need Antoinette Dubois for you darling. Oh, and Maël Roux as my best man..."
Jabari kept coming up with names of people that I had to search deep into my memory to even remember their face (if I even could) for what felt like at least fifteen minutes. As Jabari did that Mr. Duval quickly wrote down all the names in a small black journal.
"Well I think that about covers it. What do you think Rosemary?" Jabari finally finished and asked.
"Um yeah sure- that's great." I don't know why I agreed to his list when I didn't even know any of them. I think the only reason I did is because I didn't have any friends other than Mauve and Sebastian.
Oh no, Sebastian!
"Um, do you think Sebastian could stand up in our wedding too? I mean we've been friends since we were little. Plus, having x's in our wedding could help unite the empire, right Mr. Duval?" I quickly remembered.
"Yes, Miss Lèvon, I think that would work quite nicely," he said before Jabari could object, "now onto the ceremony itself. Of course it will take place at Unir Abbey and we already have a list of people we must invite. But other than that, what do you want the ceremony to look like? What are your colors? What will your bridesmaids dresses look like? Most importantly, Rosemary, what will you look like?"
       "Well to be honest Sir, I hadn't really thought about it all that much. I've always really liked dresses with lace and trains. I hate big puffy ones though," I finally decided.
       "I'll get the designers right on that Rosemary. Do you know what you want your color scheme to be? Once we decide on that we can decide on decorations and bridesmaids dresses," Mr. Duval said as soon as he stopped writing my words down.
       "Well I think gold would look wonderful! We could do royal colors: gold, black, and white," Jabari quickly cut in. He was obviously upset about not being able to talk for the past ten seconds.
       "What do you think, Rosemary," He asked, although I could tell it wasn't really a question.
    "I think that sounds wonderful Jabari." Lucky for him I approved of those colors.
       Thank god he didn't pick something stupid like orange and green.
       After about forty-five minutes of working out every last detail Mr. Duval finally let us leave. However before I could turn down the hall to quietly go back to my room and try to relax and forget about today altogether Jabari quickly grabbed my wrist.
"What are you doing?" I asked anxiously as he led me down the hall. He sped down hallways and rapidly turned corners until finally he opened a door to one of the guest rooms that I had never been in before. In the center of the back wall there was a canopy bed enclosed in red curtains and matching comforters. Next to the bed there were green velvet chairs to match the green damask wallpaper. The walls were also covered with paintings of majestic past rulers and descending from the ceiling there was a crystal chandelier. The room truly was magical, but I couldn't really enjoy it due to the dark grimace on Jabari's face that caused a sense of anxiety to rise in my chest.
       "Wh-what is it Jabari?" I asked trying to keep my voice steady and powerful.
       "What was that stunt you just pulled?" He snarled.
       "What do you mean?" I knew what he meant, I just didn't want to believe that he was still upset about it.
       "I mean what were you doing even suggesting that two x's -not to mention palace workers-  stand up in our wedding! Why would you think that's ok? What will the people think? They need to see us as their leaders, their superiors, not their weak equals!" He screamed.
       "They're my friends Jabari! In fact they're my only friends! Who cares if they're x's! Don't you think that the people will be happy to see that we support them no matter what's on their wrist? Don't you think that they'll maybe even stop rebelling when they see one of their equals  standing next to their king and queen? Don't you see that they're rebelling because they don't see us as their equals?" I fired back.
       "Give me your wrist," he calmly stated. Initially I refused. Why should he feel the need to look at my wrist? What was the point? Then just as I was about to verbally refuse and scream at him, he grabbed my right hand wrist and roughly pulled up my sleeve.
       "Hmm, just as I expected...... an x," he spat.