The Price of Peace

A final breath before the dive

A/n
This was supposed to be 'A deal signed in love' but I decided to split the chapter.

Marriages have a reputation of bringing joy. An apocryphal rumor from my point of view. As far as the sharpest eye could see from the tallest tower, there was chaos. Artisans, musicians, seamstresses, entertainers and common folk alike scampered around with panic painted clearly across their blurred faces.

Florists argued with gardeners over the amount of flowers needed for garlands and the right amounts to be left on the plants to beatify the gardens, Bakers whined about the quality of wood the woodcutters brought back from the forests. They wished everything to be perfect and would stop at nothing until they achieved this impossible task.

Of course my wedding was not going to be in Lemigion; all this preparation was for Safael. Our weddings were taking place on the same day. His at home and mine on Sadaires. A carefully planned detail to ensure that neither party decided to pull out after the other married. Thus assuring that only the brides would travel to their husbands' planet.

The thought of Mother and Father being absent from my wedding ceremony  deadened the pain of the tightening corset that Alana laced around my waist.

The wedding ceremonies were to begin at dawn the next day. In accordance to the atavistic traditions, brides were allowed to try on their dresses only once before the wedding. Rumor has it that this practice started out during an era women would parade around the market place in their wedding gowns, looking for a man besides their husbands to be, to take into their beds for a night. They would keep circling for days until they found someone, thus wearing out their dresses to a certain extent. And based on the condition of their dresses after they completed this task, then the man would decide if she was worthy enough to be married to him. If the women was beautiful she found a man on the first day itself and spared herself the disgrace of a dirty dress. But there were a few men who preferred women who could find no one as it was a sure sign of their inability to ever cheat on him. Some say that the practice of this tradition died out as people began to value virginity more and this was all that's left of it.

Alana pulled once more before she was satisfied with the size of my waist. The torturous garment forced me to shorten and quicken my breaths. During the last three years, I lost nearly all the excess fat on my body and now my collar bones stuck out as unappealingly as my hunched shoulders.

Stuck between girl and woman the corset hat to be drawn tight to fill out the shape of the gown's bodice. My features were more defined now nut still lacked the regal beauty of a woman. My hair was still the same. although longer now, it still had to e brushed at least twice a day to look even mildly presentable.

Outside the palace grounds a little boy fell off a light post, on which he was wrapping tinsel. The young lad landed on a pair of twin girls. The cages they were carrying fell to the floor, one clattered harmlessly on toe pavement, but the other careened into the palace wall. The fragile container shattered on impact and a lovely pair of mogaime birds broke free.

I watched from the window as the birds spread their magnificent wings and shot into the sky. The sunlight caught their variegated feathers casting an iridescent glare. Their golden plumes shone like polished golden crowns fit for only the most just of rulers.

The girls must have been quite familiar with the boy for they wasted no time in taking off their footwear and hitting him over the head with it. Berating him ceaselessly and threatening to tell his mother of the loss he caused them.

Alana pulled a series of stiff nets over my head and two full length cotton petticoats and more lace skirts. Her gentle but firm hands twisted my hair and pinned it atop my head with a clamp.