by Davies, Sean
“As you probably have already heard, it’s an open bar,” Lucius continued, “and the same goes for the food. Waiting staff will be on hand all night to take any orders. Enjoy!” With that, he stepped down and refilled his glass.
“That was very... nice,” Winston slurred.
Veronica nodded sadly. “Just wish Xavier was here too, and the others.”
“I know,” Winston said as he cuddled up to her, “but I’m sure Brooke and Alexander will be about shortly.”
“Yeah, where are they anyway?”
At that point, Gregory and some of the others from the Woodsholme area arrived. The stoner Mage was looking far more presentable than usual in a crisp green shirt and brown trousers. His brown hair was neat and tidy, and he’d even had a shave.
“Congratulations, Winston.” Gregory shook his hand vigorously. “You’re always on the up, aren’t you?”
“Thanks Greg, I try,” Winston replied, trying to fight the sense of vertigo.
“And Veronica,” Greg said, giving her a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Glad you’ve finally found someone to settle down with, although that outfit says otherwise...”
“Thank you,” Veronica said with a wink. “I’m trying to get him worked up for the wedding night!”
Gregory laughed. “Well you’re going the right way about it. I can see you two have been hitting something stronger than Dreamleaf.”
“Artravenia,” Veronica whispered comically.
“It’s... interesting stuff!” Winston said with wide eyes.
“I thought it was too early in the night to be getting totally wasted, but seeing as you two have already started I think it would be rude not to now!” Gregory said with a big grin. “I’ve got to talk business with Lucius quick – I won’t bore you two with it – so I’ll see you later, yeah?”
The couple nodded and Gregory walked over to Lucius’ table. Veronica could see the look of concern on her fiancé’s face; even the Artravenia wasn’t switching his brain off.
“Are you hungry?” she asked.
Winston snapped out of it and thought about his answer for a moment. “Yeah... now that you mention it, I could go for some food.” He took a long drag from the Dreamleaf joint and let out a big puff of light blue smoke, but his eyes still flickered over to Gregory and Lucius.
“Cool, let’s go and sit down.” Conceding defeat, Veronica took him by the hand and walked him over to Lucius’ table.
Gregory had moved his chair close to Lucius and was talking in hushed tones, so Veronica and Winston took a seat a respectful distance away on the rectangular table.
“...we’re getting slaughtered out there,” Greg was saying. “If it wasn’t for our edge with the potions we’d already be fucked, and since he’s got most of the Alts away, they’re going to start dwindling pretty damn soon.”
“I know, I know,” Lucius said in reply. “I’ve already spoken about it to Omniosis, the Capital and the harbour towns and cities are the only places that are secure on the continent. He’s only interested in merging the Capitals. What happens to the rest doesn’t seem to be his concern.”
“I don’t want to speak out of place, but you spent all that time expanding the Circle’s territory to cover Rura and now this Archmage is letting it all slide away.”
“I’ll have words with him after the ceremony,” Lucius promised. “You’ll get your support one way or the other.” Gesturing in the direction of Winston and Veronica, he added, “Try to have a good time tonight, for their sake.”
Gregory nodded and headed to the bar, patting Winston on the shoulder as he went.
Veronica watched as Winston quickly finished his joint and threw it to the floor, grinding it out under his shoe. She hated seeing him like that and quickly tried to think of something to say, anything to take his mind off the pressure and guilt, but her mind had gone blank aside from unpleasant thoughts about the Archmage. She could feel herself crashing already. If the down was hitting her then it must have been even worse for her lover.
Luckily, a waiter approached them. “Are you dining tonight?” he asked politely.
“Yes please,” Veronica said hastily. “What do you fancy sweetie, apart from me?”
Winston snapped out of his reverie. “Pizza. A meaty, cheesy pizza. Is that good with you?”
“Definitely,” Veronica agreed happily. “We’ll have some nachos with cheese and dip too please. Oh, and get us some Rushdust as well, we could both use a pick-me-up.” The waiter scribbled their order down and went to serve Lucius, who ordered a very rare steak with potatoes and vegetables along with another bottle of wine.
“Thank you for all this Lucius,” Veronica said to him across the table, “and for everything else over the years.” She was so happy for the lengths he’d gone to for the occasion.
“Yeah, thank you very much Lucius,” Winston added.
“You two are very welcome,” Lucius said, smiling. “I hope you both have a great evening.”
It wasn’t long before the waiter brought out their orders. More waiters and waitresses began bringing out other people’s food, and eventually most people began sitting down.
The pizza was brought out on a wooden platter and was so large that it took up most of the space on Winston and Veronica’s part of the table. A big plate of nachos with melted cheese and chopped peppers was placed beside it, and the waiter pulled a small clear bag of reddish-pink powder from his pocket.
Winston pulled out two Imperial Credits from his wallet and handed one to Veronica. They took a pinch of the Rushdust for themselves and lined it up on the table, before rolling the Credit notes up into a straw shape and snorting it all.
The drowsy, relaxed feeling from the Dreamleaf was replaced with a surge of energy and an insatiable impulse to keep busy. Combined with the side effects from the Artravenia, Veronica’s peripheral vision was now filled with frantic pulsing shades of red. She and Winston attacked the pizza and nachos, and between them their meal was gone in a matter of minutes.
“Ah, the entertainment has arrived,” Lucius said cordially while he slowly ate his steak.
Winston looked towards the double doors leading to the inside of the building, and Veronica followed his eye line. Two hotel staff members were holding the doors open while a precession of half-naked men and women were entering the outside dining area. They were dressed in outfits resembling that of ancient Imperian slaves, which amounted to little more than some cloth covering the right areas and a silver slave collar. The strippers had arrived.
“Oh, oh, oh, you got guys too!” Veronica said to Winston excitedly.
“Surprise,” he said, imitating her trademark wink.
Some of the strippers offered themselves to the guests, and the remainder arranged themselves in between tables and danced erotically. The outfits soon came off and they began liberally engaging in various acts of foreplay. The strippers tending to the guests unbuttoned trousers or lifted dresses and began pleasing them orally, while one lithe woman lowered herself onto a guest’s cock and began fucking him hard.
Mortissa Aurorana, who still looked eerily attractive wearing the dead songstress Marissa Aluniana’s face and hair, was dolled up with her needle maidens and were dancing for the Alternatives. The Mayor was positively beaming, with one arm around a corset wearing puppet girl and a big plastic bottle of lemonade in the other – although he did occasionally stare daggers at his human counterpart, the Governor, who also had a human girl in one arm and a drink in the other. With the Governor’s new upbeat persona he was almost indistinguishable from his Gloom equivalent, but the pair clashed a lot and weren’t afraid to show it.
Veronica looked around wildly. For a moment she wondered if it was the drugs, before her gaze settled on a handsome pale skinned man delicately sucking the dick of a dark skinned Tropican. “How can they all... in the open?” she asked, baffled.
Winston shrugged and smiled. “It’s not breaking any laws, considering we make them now. I thou
ght you’d like the guys.”
Veronica nodded, mesmerised by the acts around her. “I do, so much!”
Winston reached up her dress and gently caressed her pussy through her G-string. “Just remember... not until the wedding night.”
She clamped her legs shut and Winston pulled his hand free. “You...”
“Looks like he played you at your own game,” Lucius laughed. “You’d better watch out for him, Veronica.”
Veronica chuckled and punched Winston on the arm playfully. “You know I’m going to get you back for this, right?”
“I’m looking forward to it.” Winston kissed her and fondled her breasts.
Veronica’s world was spinning around her, but in a good way. She locked her arms around her man and kissed him repeatedly as he played with her. She was so happy and so in love. It felt like old times again, even though she knew that after the wedding it would go back to the stressing and worrying until the world was theirs. For now though, she was glad to have this time to appreciate it.
Then he turned up.
“Winston man, sorry to interrupt but I need to talk to you!”
The couple pulled away from each other to see Lewis standing in front of a group of armed Alts. Veronica bit the inside of her lip to suppress a hiss. She’d had a feeling he would ruin the night somehow. Since the first mention of the Archmage and especially after the merger, he had grated on her immensely.
“What...” Winston began.
“It’s Brooke and Alexander,” Lewis interrupted. “They’re gone, probably dead!”
“Wait, what?” Veronica shouted. “Explain now!”
Lewis nodded. “I’m sorry, it’s... I’m still in shock! They went after some rebels raiding old bunkers to the north and they didn’t report back, so me and the guys went looking for them, and...”
“And what?” Veronica demanded.
“There was a fight. They’re gone but there was blood everywhere. It looks like the rebels’ robots got them.”
“No...” Veronica uttered, tears welling up in her eyes. The thrumming of the drug rush slowed as her mood plummeted down even lower than it was before.
Lucius shook his head regretfully but didn’t say a thing, though a look of hurt and anger was clearly visible in his expression.
Winston put his arm around Veronica, but his comfort did little to offset the depression seeping in.
“That’s not all I’m afraid,” Lewis said sadly. “It’s your parents, man.”
Winston looked up and Lewis handed him some dog tags.
Lewis sighed. “Brooke and Alexander killed them.”
- - -
Winston stood at the altar outside the Archmage’s tower nervously. Dragons and media helicopters circled the dark sky above, and two Airships also patrolled around the city beyond the walls. The sleek silver and white deltoid-shaped Inquisition craft had been hard to master, but Mortissa and her needle maidens had found ways to get the troopers, who were captured in the battle for the Capital, to instruct them in the basics before they were taken away for ‘alterations’. The circular hover rotas now crackled with sickly green magical Gloom energy, rather than the usual plasma blue. DVAF and the Alts from Pollutia had jury-rigged them to increase their mobility and offensive capabilities. The rest of the commandeered Airships that had been in or around the Capital after the Inquisition’s failed assault had been sent over to the continent of Desem, to help with the harassment and eventual conquest of Industria City.
People and Alternatives from all over the Capital crowded around the plaza beyond the MPK barriers, and seating had been put out in the gardens either side of the pathway next to the Archmage statues for close friends and associates.
Winston’s gaze was focused down at the steps towards the cordoned-off road. After the night before he wasn’t sure if Veronica would even turn up. She had left in a hurry after Lewis had told them the bad news, saying that she wanted to be alone, and he had gone with Lewis back to the Archmage’s tower.
That night his best friend Lewis had brewed him a potion of cleansing that quickly removed his intoxications, and they had spent the night talking about Brooke, Alexander, and his parents. Even though Winston and his parents had never been close he was surprised at how hard the news of their death had hit him. He knew that his ambition would take him to dark and dangerous places but he never could have guessed that they would be harmed due to his actions. Winston was sure that Brooke and Alexander wouldn’t have realised that the rebels were his parents, and he wasn’t upset or angry with them. If anything, he was hurt more by the loss of them, and he hoped with all his heart that his old guards were alright.
The Archmage Omniosis stood completely motionless at the head of the altar; he was so still that he could have doubled as one of the statues leading up to the entrance of the building. Winston tried not to look at the guests sitting on the benches because he could almost sense their apprehension, all wondering if Veronica would show up just as he was. He wondered what all the people watching on their televisions were thinking.
Finally, a black limousine pulled into the plaza escorted by MPK’s and Supernaturals on motorcycles, to the cheers of the citizens of the Capital. Omniosis stirred from his stupor and open his armoured arms wide. The guests on the benches turned their heads to try and see, while both Lewis and the Mayor smiled and gave him a thumbs up. The limousine came to a halt beside the steps, and one of the suited Supernaturals got off their bike and opened the passenger door. The crowd collectively held their breath and cameras clicked and clattered as Lucius stepped out, followed by Veronica in a beautiful white wedding dress, somehow looking even more stunning than usual.
Winston stood on his tip toes to try and see his bride-to-be beyond the stone steps. He imagined she’d be wearing something raunchy and revealing; knowing her it would leave nothing to the imagination, and he wouldn’t have even been surprised if she turned up in lingerie or less. But as Lucius walked her up the aisle, he could see that he was very wrong.
Her dress was an elegant flowing white masterpiece. The top half hugged her voluptuous figure slightly and was embroidered with silvery swirls, and the bottom half blossomed outwards at her thighs like glistening white petals that finished just short of the ground.
Lucius gave Veronica a kiss on the cheek, and went to sit on the front bench where there was a space for him beside the Mayor’s well-stuffed form. Winston gave her a nervous smile as she stood beside him, and she gave him a kind smile in return, but her red eyes were a mix between joy and sadness. She gave him a nervous nod as if to say that she was okay to proceed.
The Archmage clasped his hands together sending the sound of a metallic slap throughout the plaza, and soon everyone was silent. “Ladies and gentlemen,” he began in a booming yet distorted tone. “Thank you for gathering here today to bear witness to the matrimonial bonding of these two fine young individuals, Winston Reynolds and Veronica Hedgemoore.”
The smile on Veronica’s face widened, and Winston’s nerves dissipated slightly knowing that she was still truly happy to marry him. He was still fretting over the thought of performing the service live on the air and in front of the people who had turned up from across the Capital.
“Usually it is customary to have speeches before the wedding ceremony,” Omniosis continued, “but we have decided to forgo the tradition in order to speed these two lovers on the way to their honeymoon.”
The guests and the people from around the Capital laughed at the Archmage’s jest, but Winston knew the reality was that he was cautious about what might be said on camera. Although they were all on the same side, the Archmage always liked to be in control and have everything planned out meticulously in advance. He hated the idea of being defeated by the moment.
Omniosis let the laughter continue for a short moment before clasping his hands together and bringing silence once more. “Now then, on with the ceremony.”
The Mayor smiled with his wide golden plated grin, pulli
ng off his dusty moth-eaten top hat and rummaging around within the magical depths until his arm had disappeared up to his elbow. Finally, his shiny black eyes went wide and he pulled out a small black ring box, along with some little green Blightmoths that fluttered away as he handed the box to a smartly suited Lewis. He gave the young lad a pat on the back that almost threw him off the bench, and Lewis composed himself after giving the Mayor an angry glance with his black eyes.
The blonde Book Wielder quickly brought the ring to Winston. “Congrats man!” he said happily as he carefully pulled the ring out of its box and placed it in Winston’s palm.
“Thanks Lewis,” Winston said, giving him a manly hug before his best friend went to sit back down again.
The Archmage began, “Do you, Veronica Hedgemoore, promise to take Winston Reynolds to be your husband, to love and to cherish, from now until the end of time and through to the great unknown of death?”
Tears welled up in Veronica’s eyes as she locked them with Winston’s. “I do, a thousand times I do!”
“Do you accept your new title of Veronica Reynolds?” the Archmage asked.
“Hell yes!” Veronica laughed.
Omniosis gestured to Winston. “Please place the ring upon her finger, Winston.”
Winston opened his palm, picking up the ring and taking Veronica’s hand. She gasped as he slid the diamond encrusted golden band onto her ring finger. It was an obviously expensive piece of jewellery, but not in a gaudy way. The diamonds were set at regular intervals around its outer circumference within a recess that was inlaid with detailed filigree, and at the ring’s peak was a blood red ruby cut about a centimetre in diameter.
“It’s beautiful,” Veronica said, stunned.
“A beautiful ring for a beautiful wife,” Winston replied with a smile.
Lucius stood up, approached Veronica and placed a ring in her hand. “All the best you two, and do try not to kill each other on your honeymoon,” he said with a big grin.