Arezoo took a moment to gather herself. She looked at Ruvon, and Annani could see her organizing the words she had prepared and deciding, in real time, how much of them she would still use.The vows people prepared often did not survive contact with the actual moment. The good ones knew when to depart from the script.
"Ruvon." She paused, lifting her chin a little higher. "When I came to this village, I was a collection of fears in the shape of a girl. I flinched at everything, every sudden movement, the sound of footsteps behind me."
The crowd was very still.
"And then you came over to a bench at a playground with two cups of vending-machine coffee, which were surprisingly decent, and sat a proper distance away, respecting my boundaries. You were awkward and unsure of yourself, and I think that was what eased my fears. You seemed like someone who had never courted anyone, but you were learning how, for me. You showed up the next day, and the day after, and the day after that, asking nothing of me except my company."
She drew in a breath.
"I vow to love you, Ruvon. I vow to love you the way you love me, which is patiently, steadily, and unconditionally. I vow to be honest with you, even when it's hard. I vow to trust you, which I already do, more completely than I have ever trusted anyone. I vow to read poetry with you in any language we might one day learn, until we have read every poem ever written and have to start writing our own."
Ruvon chuckled, and Arezoo smiled.
"I vow to take every adventure you offer me, and to offer adventures of my own. I vow to never let either of us forget there is nothing better in this world than our love. I am yours. I willbe yours forever, and beyond, and if there is anything beyond beyond, I will be yours there too."
She stopped. The green stayed quiet for the space of a long breath, and then began, softly, to fill again with the sound of people who had been moved.
Annani lifted her hands.
"You have spoken your vows, and the Fates have heard them, and so has everyone gathered on this green. With my blessing, and the blessing of all who came before us, and all who will come after, you are joined forevermore."
She placed one hand over Ruvon and Arezoo's clasped hands and held it there.
"May your journey together be as boundless as the sky and as luminous as the stars."
She lifted her hand and smiled. "You may kiss your bride now."
Ruvon did not waste a moment.
He leaned down, and Arezoo lifted up onto her toes to meet him, and the kiss was soft and slow and without hesitation.
The green erupted around them.
The applause came in waves. Someone let out a sharp, piercing whistle that did not belong at a wedding ceremony but felt right in that moment. The bridesmaids were tearing up, Soraya was openly sobbing into her handkerchief, and Kalugal was clapping with a huge grin splitting his face.
Annani let the joy of it wash over her.
This was why she did this.
This was why she had survived everything she had survived, and built everything she had built, and gathered her clan around her across the long centuries of exile from her birthright. So that on a pleasant afternoon under a sky just beginning to darken, two young people who had walked through fire could stand in front of her and promise each other forever and have it be true.
When the kiss ended, and Arezoo and Ruvon turned to face their guests, still holding hands, Annani spread her arms wide.
"My children, friends, family. May Ruvon and Arezoo's joy be your joy. May their union bless our community."
The applause rose again, louder, brighter, and Annani let it all in, every part of it, and allowed herself to feel hope.
Hope for the world they would build together. Hope for the day, perhaps not so very far away now, when she might stand on a dais like this one with her Khiann by her side.
13
DROVA
Drova hadn't gotten emotional during the ceremony. Not at all.
Some of the other bridesmaids had been welling up and wiping the tears from under their eyes with their thumbs so their makeup wouldn't get smeared. It had gotten especially bad when Ruvon described the bench at the playground, but Drova hadn't succumbed to the group sniffling of the other bridesmaids.
She was a Kra-ell warrior, and she had an image to uphold, so getting blurry-eyed when Arezoo had pledged her everlasting love to Ruvon was out of the question.
