The Wedding
K aid climbed through my window, looking rough around his edges.
The holy ash on his temples was smudged, black stubble covered the normally shaved sides of his head, and dark circles clung below his eyes, visible despite the soot from Varas’ fires.
He looked both older and younger as he stood before me, exhaustion fighting his limbs as he caught his breath from the climb.
“Three days,” he said, pulling me into a hug, my face burrowing into his powerful chest as his nose pushed into my hair.
“I have a contact willing to smuggle us south on his ship if we can make it to the coast. It’ll be tight, but if we leave sooner, that’ll give them too many opportunities to cut off our escape. ”
I nodded against his shirt, and his arms tightened around me.
Those three days couldn’t pass fast enough.
My birthday was two weeks away, and Hreinasta would waste no time claiming me.
The moment I turned twenty-one and came of age, she planned to possess my body.
The priestesses had already started preparing for the ceremony.
They cleansed me daily in fragrant waters.
They called me to endless prayer at their side.
A cycle ago, I would have bent an obedient knee and submitted wholeheartedly to their purification, but now it was all I could do not to scream.
Fear was my constant companion as the acolytes bowed reverently when I passed.
Dread was my dearest friend as I sat elevated in the temple’s inner sanctum for all the devoted worshipers to see.
My mother visited often, my father remaining in the outer courtyards where the men prayed.
They worshiped at the busiest hours, not there to visit me or to repent, but to garner the respect of their peers.
How holy their family was, how sacred. Hreinasta had chosen their daughter as her next host, and how they bathed in the praise and envy of Szent’s upper class.
Watching my mother preen and squawk and strut strengthened my resolve to flee this place with Kaid.
Not once during her worship did she look at or speak to me.
All my parents cared about was how my sacrifice and suffering brought them status and wealth.
It wasn’t devotion or religion. It was a performance.
My faith meant nothing in this temple. Their faith meant nothing at all.
They abandoned me cycles ago, though, so their disregard shouldn’t have hurt as acutely as it did.
I was never their child. I was their thing, and I wondered how much shame my escape would bring them.
How the tables would turn on their arrogance in three days.
The guards had doubled as well. It surprised me they let me sleep alone, but I assumed they thought me safe so high off the ground. No one accounted for a thief. Thank the gods, otherwise, our plan would never work. Those three days couldn’t pass fast enough.
Kaid rarely visited since our decision to leave, and while I understood, it only heightened my anxiety.
Sneaking into my room had become almost impossible because of the increased security, and he’d been too busy as he both served Varas and planned our escape.
We had to disappear, running fast before they caught our trail, but there would always be a chance they would find us.
We weren’t escaping oppressive parents or abusive masters.
We were fleeing the gods, the all-powerful rulers of the realm.
Even with Kaid’s meticulous planning, we might never make it beyond Szent’s city limits, but neither of us cared.
We would try. We had to. I refused to let Hreinasta possess me without a fight.
“I didn’t think I would see you until our escape,” I said as Kaid finally loosened his strangling grip on me.
His hold was tight, almost uncomfortably so, but those were my favorite hugs.
His love and devotion bled through his limbs into my skin as he held me, reminding me of just how intensely he wanted me with him.
“I assumed you would come for me when it was time. The guards are too many to risk a visit.”
“I know.” He caressed my cheek with hesitant fingers. His expression was filled with nerves, and I noticed how flushed he was.
“Are you well?” My hand flew to his forehead to test his skin, but he caught my fingers and brought them to his lips.
“I am.” He kissed my knuckles. “I should stay away, but Sellah, my goddess, there’s something I want to do.
Something we won’t have time for once we flee Szent.
” He released my hand and cupped my face in his calloused palms. “Once we escape, we’ll always be on the run, looking over our shoulders.
We may find sanctuary in the presence of a lesser but sympathetic god, but it’s not a life I would have chosen to give you.
It’s the only one I can, though, so I’ll embrace every hardship with gladness.
Our first months together will be filled with fear and struggles.
We won’t have time for what I wish to do.
We’ll weave through humanity, becoming new people, and losing all traces of this life.
I cannot wait to live the rest of my days with you, but I need to do this right.
So, will you climb with me one last time to our roof? ”
I nodded, wondering what he had in mind, but I followed without question.
He’d tell me when he was ready, and his urgency told me to be patient.
The climb took longer than usual since we had to avoid the constant patrols, but we eventually reached the roof.
The moon bathed us in her ethereal light.
The crisp harvest air brushed against our skin, and I shivered at the coolness.
“Most travel to their temples to recite their vows, but we can’t.
The gods aren’t bound by flesh and blood or stone, though, so while it’s tradition to pledge this at their altar, some still speak their promises in the old way.
” Kaid smiled nervously, taking both of my hands in his, and I stared at him with curiosity.
“Before the birth of mankind, two deities fell so in love they forsook their own names, choosing to be called by one name instead.” My heart stumbled in my chest when I realized what vows Kaid was referring to.
“Elskere, the wed gods, became husband and wife under the moon’s light in that first age.
They vowed their undying love with both their words and bodies, with only the heavens as their witnesses.
Centuries later, they are still one, still lovers, and all who wish to marry journey to their shrines.
But there are those who still wed below the moon and stars with both their words and bodies, praying for Elskere to bless their union.
” Kaid paused, as if to gather his strength, and then he reached out, brushing a thumb over my cheek.
It was only when his skin touched mine that I realized I was crying.
“Sellah, my best friend, my entire soul, marry me? When we flee this place, I want it to be as husband and wife. I want to wed you in the name of Elskere and make you mine until death claims me.” A tear rolled down his cheek, and I leaned forward, capturing it with a kiss.
“I’m already yours,” I whispered against his skin. “Of course, I’ll marry you.”
Kaid wrapped me in his arms, almost strangling the breath from me.
“I’ve never seen a wedding,” I said between suffocated breaths, and he loosened his relieved grip.
“I have,” he said. “I know the words, but even if I didn’t, I don’t think Elskere cares how we say it.
They abandoned their first names to become one.
No one remembers what they were called before they joined, not even the gods.
I trust they only care if those evoking their blessing have the same fierce love they do. ”
“They already know I love you like that,” I said, and Kaid kissed me, unable to stop himself. When we finally broke apart, I was breathless and panting, yet so full of bliss.
“Come.” He knelt in the moonlight, pulling me down before him, and clasped both of my hands in his. “Are you ready?”
“Marry me, Kaid.”
“Elskere, I call upon you to bless my vows,” he said with a smile bright enough to challenge the sun, and then he nodded at me.
“Elskere, I call upon you to bless my vows,” I repeated.
“I am your humble servant Kaid.”
“I am your humble servant Sellah.”
“And from this day until the end of my days, I forsake that name so that I might be called husband.”
“From this day until the end of my days, I forsake that name so that I might be called wife.”
“As you became one, so will I become one with Sellah.”
“As you became one, so will I become one with Kaid.”
“With your blessing, my love for her will be unending.”
“With your blessing, my love for him will be unending.”
“In the name of Elskere, Sellah, you are my wife, my love, my present, and my future. I reject all others for you, and I pledge my body, my soul, and my being to you and only you.”
“In the name of Elskere, Kaid, you are my husband.” I paused, trying to recall the vow, and Kaid mouthed the rest of the oath with me.
“With this kiss, Elskere.” Kaid released my hands and cupped my jaw, his face never so beautiful as it was under the moonlight as we wed. “I seal our vows.”
He kissed me, and my arms wound around his waist as I poured all my love into our embrace.
I meant every word of our promise. Kaid was my husband, and I was his wife, and as we married beneath the moon, a strong wind blew through Szent, extinguishing every torch in the city.
As the world plunged into darkness, I pulled at my new husband’s shirt.
Elskere had blessed us with this blackness, I was certain of it.
It would take time to relight every torch and fire, granting us perfect secrecy.
No one would see us as Kaid and I completed the vows of our words and began the vows of our bodies.