T'Lar
The wedding was hardly the first one at which where T'Lar had officiated. Indeed, it was the three hundred and thirty seventh. She performed the majority of them in her first years as a priestess of Mount Seleya, both before and after her mastery of Kolinahr. Bonding ceremonies and weddings certainly did not need one of the Kolinahru presiding over them, otherwise even one so revered as the late T'Pau, who was most talented but not of Gol, could not perform them. It only took one of sufficient mental ability to not be drawn down by the couple's mind touch so clouded by pon farr, to keep oneself and the couple clear of its grip until the ceremony was completed.
However, this wedding held a special import. It was held in unspoken agreement on Mount Seleya and Gol that following T'Pau's death, T'Lar herself would preside over Spock and Saavik's wedding on whatever day it may be. Indeed, most people, not having been a part of the long discussions between T'Pau and T'Lar, knew nothing of the distinctive nature to this marriage and the people in it. The couple themselves might even be unaware.
In fact, the wedding went very much like any other. Or at least until the moment she touched their minds, and waited as they touched each other's. As always, her strong presence, bolstered by the peace of Kolinahr, helped calm them, strengthening their own controls that held pon farr at bay. Her presence never did more than that, never affected the wordless thoughts or the emotions bubbling below the surface. She pointedly ignored these, her disregard giving them the only privacy she could.
Some couples, once having been bonded at the age of seven or later, never made an effort to contact each other before Koon-ut-kal-if-fee. They faced each other as strangers to either find themselves well-matched or continued strangers who might find a way to build a life together. T'Lar never understood the logic of this, but it was not her place to judge such things.
Others came here with some knowledge of each other, knowing they matched intellectually, but not yet knowing each other well enough to know if they matched each other heart and soul.
And then there were those like these two.
The whirl of their thoughts spoke of each other, the depth of their commitment made without words. Spock sensed some part they both played in the scope of time and their place in the universe. Saavik realized how much she was a part of him, and their place in each other's lives.
Satisfactory. And then T'Lar sensed something that turned everything different.
Saavik was pregnant.
T'Lar knew from T'Pau that the couple had sought medical advice from the Science Academy's geneticists when they were first bonded. Being hybrids might mean they'd have trouble having children, conceiving or carrying them. Spock and Saavik knew they were not sterile since geneticists worked on them both while unborn. However, logically knowing children were a possibility for all the years they weren't bonded was a world apart from needing to make sure they could have them once children were wanted.
And of course, pon farr increased fertility. The fact that a baby had been conceived was not a surprise, but it did change things.
T'Lar wondered if they knew about the infant Saavik carried. She paid more attention to the thoughts streaming past her, doing her best to maintain some sense of privacy. They did. In fact, knowing she was pregnant made Saavik question Spock for the first time on whether his goals meant he had time for a family. She swore she'd stand by him no matter what, but as wife and especially mother to their children, she needed to know a family didn't interfere with his buk, his destiny -- and that the destiny didn't interfere with his family, at least not while they were too young.
That question took courage and strength to ask. T'Lar was satisfied to see they had both. They were going to need both as well as the resilient bond clearly visible between them. She questioned how many more simple days they had for career, marriage, and children before a greater future overtook them. She gave them a warning that such days were numbered.
"We always had a plan for thee. Thee shall fulfill it." And to Saavik: "Thee shall be guardian."
She listened as these thoughts settled on them. Spock's satisfaction was composed of the plan he had for himself and the part he sensed he played in the line of time. Her message was no surprise to him in that way. He shared his wife's resolve not to risk their children, but T'Lar sensed he recoiled at the knowledge his wife was quite capable of risking herself.
The Elder knew the children would not be sacrificed. However, it was quite probable that Saavik or Spock would be. No one could predict the future; it defied calculations. Surak had known what he had risked when he had sought peace for warrior Vulcans; Spock knew what he risked if he sought peace between his people and their Romulan brethren. But he quailed at drawing in his wife.
For Saavik, however, T'Lar's message was part surprise, part not. She always hazarded much for Spock whenever she thought it necessary, and he for her. Now the strength and determination she had used to build a life from the ten-year-old savage to the highly respected Vulcan and Starfleet officer needed to focus on a far larger path. Spock's detractors would fight against him when he sought reunification. Members of the Federation Council, Starfleet, and Vulcan itself would be shaken, declaring him a traitor. His message needed to be heard and fought for on this side of the Neutral Zone as well as within the Empire.
Not to mention, his actual physical safety would have to be insured if he was to survive his life's mission, as Surak did not.
T'Pau once told T'Lar of how Spock's first betrothed gave this reason to reject him besides wanting another: I did not want to be the consort of a legend…
T'Lar waited, seeing the almost overwhelming scope of their future filtrate through Saavik's consciousness until the woman's strength shouldered the responsibility for the new life she must build, the one quite different from what she had planned. She would need to change more than her life. She and Spock's disagreement over reunification would have to be settled, although how to settle her biggest conflict when it was a wife's right to fear for her husband's life? And in addition, the hatred she carried for those cruelties done to her by the Romulans.
But T'Lar had no doubt Saavik would find a way to make it. She had, after all, gotten this far.
Saavik's name may never be known in history for the part she played in it. Historians rarely noted such people, but then T'Lar saw no desire within the young woman to be a legend herself.
Spock was going to change things for Vulcan, for the entire Federation. He did not seek to be legendary himself, he never had. But as he sought not only peace but also a refusion between Vulcan and the Romulan Empire, a legend would build around him, greater than when he sought out Starfleet. Saavik was to be his shield.
Satisfactory.
T'Lar looked at them from her perspective measuring three hundred years. So young, both of them.
She released them to enjoy the time they had before the future caught up to them.
