The Monocle's Eye

Chapter 30

 It was a warm day the next spring, the trees covered in green dots, their little buds like green paint flecks on a brown scaffolding. I hadn't seen Illy since that morning, and although I would not have cared if she walked down the aisle with her fluffy bedhead curls and white nightgown, I would be lying if I said I wasn't exited to see how she looked now. I could see the slightly parted flowers against the white chairs and twirling dresses, tinted by the shaded windows, the curtains drawn. The maids slipped through the crowd like invisible ballerinas, their black and white uniforms a dash of opaque in a sea of bright floral dresses and sparkling blue suits. I let the curtains drop, and the scene disappeared like a reversed painting.

"Not going to have any second thought fits,?I hear those happen sometimes, even in happy couples." The gold twins chorused behind me.

"No." I laughed, "Though I'm not exited about the two of you calling me Master after this. Talk individually, won't you?"

"No can do, your a Princess now." They replied. I turned around to see them but found two empty suits instead, brilliant red cravats tied around their invisible necks.

"Why the hiding?" I asked. They materialized before me, and reached up to wipe sparkling tear drops off their black eyelashes. I smiled.

"Your excellency will be happy again." They said, opening the door and staring out. "It's been so long." And with a click of the lock, they were gone. I walked over to the mirror and looked in on myself, this is, once I made myself appear. I had not thought I wanted the dress until I saw it. It was of silver silk, it's long aline sleeves fell off my arms and curved down the dress. It hugged my figure before it cascaded out into embroidered flowers at the tail, which fanned . The flowers tricked up and framed my exposed back, my back hair pulled back loosely, white flowers scattered throughout.

I was so exited I could almost see the blue lights swarming around me in the mirror, and a glance down at my hands confirmed their presents. "Don't condense yourself so close." A voice said from behind me, and I turned to see Count Clock in the doorway. "It puts strain on the environment around you. It's better to let them rome further away."

"I can't help it." I replied with a smile. "Has it begun?" I asked, hearing distance music.

"Mortemine just saw her down the aisle, I was sent for you. You've really go a woman's wedding going on here. By god, I knew most the men were killed off but this is pretty extensive." He laughed.

"Venastras not enough eye candy for you." I laughed, starting out the door after him. Mother stood by the red carpet, the huge wooden doors were closed, ready to be brought back.

"No, he's more than plenty." Clock laughed, stepping to the side and slipping out the side door. Mother approached sort of like a cautious deer, her eyes wide as she took my arm, and positioned us in the center of the carpet.

"Book on your head, smile and step, smile and step." She said, looking to me. "Mind your manners or you'll be dead." She laughed.

"Great advice mother." I laughed, but I understood what she meant, and that it was good advice. Know how to balance, one at a time, consider the other, and you'll succeed. The doors began their edging back, and through the crack I heard the light chatter distill and settle as the light flooded in, the colors untainted, their hugues full and robust. I wanted to blink to adjust my eyes, but I could not pull myself from the scene, convinced that if I closed my eyes for that moment, I would miss something crucial in the painted before me. There was so much to take in.

Then we were stepping forward, slowly, each step with the chorus of the violins, or the chord of a piano. I caught sight of her at the end of the chairs, standing alone beside her mother, staring at me like I now stared at her. There was a white suit, a gold vest, crisp buttons and slim cut slacks above her cascading hair, pinned in place by the same flowers that held back mine. A purple pocket square matched her eyes, but I didn't care, not for nothing but the awestruck look on her gorgeous face, as we edged closer, step by step. Then we were in front of the minister, or whoever he was, I could not have cared less. Not for his voice, for it was a mere candle to follow through such a wondrous scene. It was not the warmth of the candle that held my focus and pulled me along, it was the hand that grasped mind. The candle illuminated the path that hand drew me down.

A little flower girl coated the aisle in all sorts of colors, and then the vows began, and I wasn't sure if I had prepared any, for they were lost. But Illy was to go first.

"I think, if you do not mind, dear minister, dear friends, dear crowd, that I would like my vows to fall upon one pair of ears alone. They are meant for only her." Illy said softly, but her words echoed down the pavilion and up the marble walls like wind-chimes.

"I think the same." I replied softly, sniffling back the start of a tear.

"Then do you, Ilustra Caedis, take this woman to be your wife." The minister said.

"I do."

"And you, Eleutheria Clementia, take this woman to be your wife." They said. I felt the world flash before my eyes for a moment, then it was all replaced by the scene before me, by the last year, by even my thoughts as I first glimpsed the edge of her golden monocle in the dark tension of the auctions room. I saw a white flower in her hair.

"I do." I said.

"You may kiss the bride." They said, and with a small gust of wind I could see lights of all colors in the air, pulled off of us, dissolving into our skin. I saw the purple orbs get closer, and shut, and then mine were dark too. I felt a touch of the cold glass of her monocle, that icy zing was addictive, and now it was mine. The icy zing of white flowers and monocles and keys and purple and red and now, of linked hands.