by Brad Clark
There was some mumbling that swept quickly through the crowd of Elves, but it lasted only a moment. Conner could see annoyed looks on some faces, but not many. Most had friendly looks and were eager to see the ceremony, as it had been many years since they had been witness to a Ceremony of Marriage.
With a deep breath, King Illichian began, “Today, in the center of our village, we welcome Conner, a man from lands to the north who has opened our eyes to a new world order. For five thousand years we have lived apart from the rest of the world, living in peace and comfort. While we have kept ourselves busy with our own lives, the species that we once called enemy flourished. Humanity spread across the continent, building great cities and powerful kingdoms. They forgot about us, even though few of us forgot about them. Most of you lived through the wars, but Humans, with their short lives, let the stories of the past become distant memories that faded into myth and legend. The man who stands before us is not the man of the past. I look upon him and see a new creature, a new creation, and not the enemy that we fought. I ask all of you, before we begin the ceremony, to do the same. Conner is a Hurai, a man of the chosen race of the Creator. His bride is a Human from the land of Karmon. Both are wonderful people who deserve our respect and admiration for their courage in coming to our land. At least for the next few minutes, I ask each of us to put aside any hatred or bitterness and to embrace these two Humans as friends of the Elven-kind. For when the ceremony is complete, not only will they be joined together as husband and wife, but they will also be Friends of the Elven.”
More murmurs came from the crowd, and most of them seemed to be positive towards what the king was saying. Conner caught the scowling face of Jiahasha and realized that not everyone was in agreement.
“The Ceremony of Marriage is a sacred event,” the king continued. “The vows that Conner will speak, and the vows that Queen Elissa will speak will be in front of the Creator himself and will bind them together for eternity. We all will hold witness to this event and share in the glory of their union. Even though they are of a different race, Conner and Queen Elissa have accepted the way of the Elven-kind and accept the vows of the Ceremony of Marriage.”
The king gave a slight nod to the musicians who immediately began playing. Their song was a bright march that could lift the spirits of even the most downtrodden. The Elven villagers all turned to the rear and parted the middle.
Conner let out a gasp. Standing at the rear of the crowd was Elissa, dressed in a white dress that glowed in the darkness. Spread across the flowing material, small orbs were stitched, and each one glowed with the soft blue light of magic. Her golden hair hung down either side of her face in big curls, framing a face that was all smiles. Even from this distance, he could see her green eyes, sparkling in the light of the lanterns.
It seemed that each time he looked at her, she was more beautiful. His heart began pounding hard, and his entire body became a sweaty mess. The love that he felt for her was about ready to burst from his chest, and he wanted to cry. He tried to breathe deeply, but only an emotional snort would come out. Tears formed at the corners of his eyes. The emotion of the moment made him wobbly, and he almost fell to the ground.
Glaerion stepped forward and put an arm around his shoulders to steady him. With a whisper, he said, “Easy, bend the knees and don’t lock them. Otherwise, you’ll fall over.”
Slowly, as the music played, Elissa walked forward. She could not contain her smile, nor keep her eyes from watering. It seemed like it took a lifetime for her to arrive, and when she did, Conner reached out and took her hands.
Conner looked down at her and could feel his heart pounding deep in his chest. The ceremony continued, but he could not concentrate on anything but her beauty and the deep love he felt for her. The king spoke, talking more about the ceremony and the vows that the two of them were to take, but Conner heard little of it. Even when the king prompted him to repeat the vows for all to hear, he did it mindlessly without thinking, as his attention and heart were directed towards Elissa, who stood in front of him. Then it was her turn to repeat her vows to him. Her lips moved, sound came out, but he had no idea what she said. He had been told the vow ahead of time, but now, he could not remember what the words were, nor did he care. All that mattered to him was the beauty in front of him, and soon he would be able to call her wife. All his dreams since the moment he first laid eyes on her were about to come true.
“Conner?” Glaerion prompted from behind him.
Glaerion looked up from her and over at the king. He was smiling at him. With tender patience, the king repeated, “The vows have been spoken in front of the Creator, and He looks upon you with tender grace. To seal your vows, you may kiss your bride.”
Conner almost laughed at having been so distracted that he missed being prompted to do the one thing that he had been looking forward to. He stepped forward and took her head in his hands and placed his lips to hers. The Elven crowd behind erupted in cheering and rejoicing.
It may have been two seconds, or maybe it was two minutes. Time seemed to have stopped during the kiss. He heard nothing, saw nothing, but the scent of her hair filled his senses, sending tingling up and down his spine. When he finally pulled away, he could not stop smiling, nor could Elissa.
“We’re married,” she whispered, a smile plastered on her face.
His head was spinning so fast, he almost fell over. He was so giddy, he almost wanted to giggle.
Trying to contain his excitement, he said, “What do we do now?”
A flash of seriousness crossed Elissa’s face, and she took a step back. “It is time for me to be queen.”
It wasn’t so much the words that caught him off guard, it was the sudden change in her voice. The smile was there, but her eyes held a fierceness that he had seen before. Not only in her, but he had seen that look in her father’s eyes. The late King Thorndale had been one of the most well-liked kings the kingdom of Karmon had ever known. But a stubborn fierceness was always there, just under the surface, ready to explode.
Conner opened his mouth to ask a question, but he was distracted by movement through the crowd of Elven villagers. As the small group made their way forward, a confused murmuring followed them.
King Illichian stepped in front of Conner and Elissa, almost as if he were trying to protect them. “What is this?” he asked.
Hallendrielle, Glaerion’s wife, led a contingent of female Elves who proudly stood behind her. They were not dressed casually as the other villagers, they were clad in long tunics that hung down to their knees. The tunics had no sleeves, exposing arms that had gold bands across their upper biceps. Each also had a dagger tucked into a thick belt that was tied around their waists.
Conner’s first thought was that they were prepared for battle. His second thought was that Glaerion should be jumping forward, angry at the interruption. He glanced back to see Glaerion standing stoically, a slight smirk on his face.
Elissa stepped forward. “My Elven friends,” she said in a loud and clear voice. “I am Queen Elissa of the kingdom of Karmon. Thank you all for coming to be a part of our celebration. This day is the greatest day of my life.” She turned to look back at Conner and smiled at him. But quickly, she turned back to the crowd. “I have married my best friend and what could be greater than that!” Her words echoed off the trees of the jungle, and she was greeted with silence from the confused crowd. The smile on her face faded, and she took another step forward.
“Queen Elissa,” King Illichian said, his voice starting to reveal anger. “This is quite out of the ordinary. The Ceremony of Marriage is quite precise in its protocol.”
Elissa glanced at the king, but she did not respond to him. To the crowd, she continued, “Tomorrow, Conner and I will leave on ships to head back to our kingdom. And thus will be the saddest day of our lives as we will go back alone to fight an enemy that we cannot defeat on our own.”
“Queen Elissa!” King Illichian cried out, his voice carrying across th
e village. “This is most improper! You are defiling this sacred ceremony!”
Surprising everyone, Hallendrielle spoke up. “On the contrary! It is well within protocol for the newly married bride and groom to make a speech. In fact, it would almost be an insult to us if they did not.”
King Illichian spun around to glare at Glaerion. “What is this! Control your wife!”
Glaerion simply laughed and shook his head. There was no controlling her when she wanted something. Plus, he had no reason to stop her as this was as much his plan as hers.
“Addressing the crowd to thank us for attending is one thing, but I can see where you are going with this,” the king said to Elissa. “Do not go there! This is neither the time nor the place.”
Queen Elissa stood up to the king of the Elves and replied, “This is exactly the time and place. Does everyone here even know why Conner and I came here?” She turned and pointed to an Elf at the front of the crowd. “Do you? Do you know that Conner and I came here to ask you for help, and your Elven Council turned us down? Do you? Do you know what that means?”
The Elf slowly shook his head, his eyes wide with surprise.
Elissa pointed to another. “What about you?” But she did not wait for a response. “The world needs help. Not just my kingdom, not just Humans, but all of us. The war is raging to the north across the ocean. I have friends that are fighting and may have already been killed. I do not know what we will come back to when we return. Hopefully, they are alive, and my army is fighting. Yet, even if they are, they won’t last long. Not without help.”
Elissa continued to step forward towards the crowd and a sinking, low feeling swept across Conner. Elissa stood and spoke with such confidence and royal presence that he was reminded who she was who he wasn’t. She might look like the delicate flower that could be easily trampled upon, but she had grown into a presence that could not only fill a room but fill a jungle village full of those who had once hated her. Clearly, this was not a spontaneous act. Hallendrielle looked up from the crowd with the bright eyes of a proud sister. Glaerion stood back behind them, unmoving and silent. When Conner looked back at him, Glaerion quickly glanced away.
A mixture of confusion, surprise, and loss kept Conner frozen in shock. Even if he knew what to say, he wouldn't have been able to speak the words. What was supposed to be the most important day of his life was turning into a farce.
“The Elven Council has made its decision,” the king said as calmly as he could. “They have weighed all the options, using all their collective wisdom and knowledge. We must abide by their decision as it is the law of our people.”
“I will not abide by their decision!” Hellendrielle called out. The female elves behind her echoed the same sentiment. “We will stand together and join Queen Elissa in her journey back to her kingdom. She will not fight alone.”
“This is against all our laws!” King Illichian called out.
“Did you not oppose the council?” Elissa asked loudly for all to hear. “Did you not advocate for helping us?”
“Well, yes, I did. I did not hide my opinion, but when the council makes their decision, we must all abide by it. That is the law!”
Glaerion stepped forward and said, “Then it is time for the laws to change. I will be joining my wife and the other female Elves for the journey north.”
“You know what this means?”
Glaerion glared at the king. “It is likely that I will be killed. That we will all be killed. Being exiled from exile does not matter. And if I do survive, maybe we can learn something from the Humans.”
The Elven Council members had pushed their way forward to the front of the crowd. Jiahasha stood at the front, he eyes ablaze with anger. “There is nothing that we can learn from that vermin. They breed like animals and rape the countryside as they build their cities and expand their kingdoms. They are uncivilized barbarians. And the punishment for treason is not exile. It is death.”
Glaerion touched his hand to his dagger. “Why don’t you come up here and try and to carry out that sentence.”
Jiahasha touched his dagger as well. “Maybe I will.”
King Illichian stepped between them. “Enough of this! This has already gone too far. Glaerion, you are not going north. It is against the law, and I forbid it!”
“I am not asking. I do not need your permission. I serve all Elves by doing this. The war rages on to the north. While Queen Elissa’s kingdom is being ravaged, we are arguing about protocol! At some point, we just need to do what is right!”
“Not at the expense of our laws!” Jiahasha yelled back. “King Illichian, you are to carry out our commands, and the Council commands that Glaerion, Hallendrielle, and all the traitors be arrested immediately! And these two Humans will be sent back to their ships, or they will face the same punishment as these traitors.”
King Illichian did not move. He simply looked from Hallendrielle to Jiahasha and back. In between, he saw his people looking up to him. It had been a long time since such an important decision hung over him. Not only was the fate of many Elves hanging over him, the fate of his rule as well.
Queen Elissa turned to King Illichian. “I know I have overstepped my place,” she said. “But I am desperate. Even if you help us, we may not win this war. But I know that without your help, we will have no chance. The armies of our kingdom are decimated, and even the mighty centurions of the Taran Empire will fall to the might of the Deceiver. But your people can offer more than just swords and arrows. I have seen what Glaerion can do. He alone on several occasions helped us survive. An army of Elves that can use magic like him will help us. Hallendrielle, Glaerion, and a handful of others have already committed to helping us. But with your blessing, we can have many more. We can have that army we need to win this war!”
Jiahasha walked up to King Illichian. “You cannot allow this to continue. You must stop it now. And if you do not order the arrest of these traitors, I will.”
King Illichian turned and glared Jiahasha. “You hold no such power. You can sit in your dark chambers and make rules all you want, but I alone hold the power to command the males and females to take up arms. I said my piece to you, and you did not listen. That is your prerogative. You are the chosen of the people, and you believe that you are doing what is best for Elven-kind. But it is I that must bear the burden of carrying out the rule of law. And I can also refuse to enforce your laws. And that is what I will do. Stand aside.” King Illichian pushed past the Elven Council member.
“You cannot!” Jiahasha cried out, grabbing the king by the arm.
Glaerion stepped in and pulled Jiahasha away, pushing him away from the king. Glaerion held up a finger to Jiahasha when he started forward. “Don’t,” was all Glaerion said.
King Illichian strode away from Elissa and Conner, stopping at the edge of the villagers. They all looked at him in silence. The chirp of crickets could be heard while the king pondered his words.
“You have heard the pleas of Queen Elissa. It is not in my nature to oppose the rule of law, much less the Elven Council. Their wisdom has kept us thriving for thousands of years while we lived in peace and comfort. And in those five thousand years of exile, we have lived comfortably away from the rest of the world. Queen Elissa and Conner have come from afar to plead for help. By now, we all know their message and the war that awaits them back at their homeland. I am not going to ask you to take up arms to fight in their war. But I will tell you that if we do not, the war will eventually make its way here, and we will be forced to fight. There will be no place to run and hide. There will be no land of exile that we could go to. This would be the land of our last stand. Fight to live, or fight to die, but a fight it will be. No one who wishes to help the Humans will be stopped. No one who returns, if there is victory, will be denied their return back into the village. That is my command, and it will be followed by all.” He turned to make sure Jiahasha heard him. “I will not ask any of you to leave the peace of our village. But know this,
at first light, when the Humans return to their ships for their voyage home, I will be on that first ship. I will not stand by while another race of the Creator’s is left to fight alone. Even if I am the only Elf to join them, I will do so. And I will fight to the end.”
Hallendrielle pushed forward and joined the king. “You will not be alone! We will fight to the end as well.”
Slowly at first, and then in a mad rush, many Elves joined the king and Hallendriellle.
Conner watched in amazement as nearly the entire village declared their commitment to helping them in their fight. His heart still ached at the feeling of being used, but it seemed to have worked out in the end.
“You are not happy?” Elissa asked.
Conner realized he must have been standing with a frown upon his face, still thinking about the real intent of the Ceremony of Marriage.
“This was planned all along, wasn’t it?” Conner asked.
The joy that was in her eyes flashed away. “What do you mean?”
“All this,” Conner said with a wave and a harsh tone. “This is what you really wanted, to bring the village together so that you could recruit them for our war? And Glaerion was in on it, too?”
“Well, it was the only way to ensure that the entire village was together. That is what we needed to convince them. The Elven Council would have done anything to prevent such a gathering. But they could not prevent this.”
“Then it was all a sham?”
“What? Of course not!” She looked him over for a moment. “Wait? Are you upset?”
“I thought this was all for us, and it wasn’t. I get it, though. I understand what you were trying to do, and that’s okay. We don’t have to go through with it.”
“What are you talking about? Go through with what?”
“The marriage. We really didn’t have to go all the way through the whole ceremony, you know.”