For such a personal and intimate occasion, it seemed strange to have a crowd of people sitting and observing such a display of affection. The first two rows consisted of close family and friends, though that seemed to be quite sensible. The remaining rows - as few as there were - held witches and wizards, young apprentices and those from around the land of Ingary with some connection to the heroes of their land. However, Gwenda and Calcifer hadn't envisioned their wedding to include so many people they were unfamiliar with.

Though, to be honest, neither hadn't envisioned partaking in a wedding at all.

The presider standing between them spoke. "You may now speak your vows."

Calcifer cleared his throat as his cheeks reddened. He tugged at the tightness of his collar, wishing he could loosen it just a little bit. Human clothes were still uncomfortable to him, and the finite details of proper attire only frustrated him more. He'd asked Howl and Kenta hours before the ceremony how to properly tie a tie multiple times and he still wasn't sure he had it exactly right.

"You're fine, Calcifer." Kenta had said. "You need to relax."

"But what if it's tilted?" Calcifer adjusted the tie back and forth, though only managed to loosen and undo Kenta's handiwork.

Howl chuckled as he flipped the bar on his own cufflinks. "Never would I have imagined Calcifer would be this nit-picky about his looks. Now you know why I always put in the extra time."
Calcifer narrowed his eyes as Kenta looped the tie again. "You used to spend hours in the bathroom wasting my time with hot water. All I want is to have a suit look right."

After pulling his sleeves down, Howl placed a firm hand on Calcifer's shoulder. He smiled as he said, "The only one you need to worry about liking how you look is Gwenda. Everyone else you see is just here for support. She's the one you're going home with tonight."

It was those words that Calcifer repeated through his brain as he released his grip on the tie and fumbled with the smooth paper in hand instead - the vows he had written. He needed to write his thoughts down on paper, and he spent too much time crossing out sentences and rewriting what he wanted to say. He didn't understand why he was so nervous; maybe it was speaking in front of all their friends and family, or maybe just the nerves of sharing his feelings with Gwenda publicly. Either way, his heartbeat hastened like a shooting star in the night when put on the spot.

Calcifer turned to the crowd as they stared at them like an exhibit in a museum. Though the comfort of Sophie and Howl in the front row with Morgan and Markl eased him slightly, as well as his future brother- and sister-in-law behind them, the following rows of strangers and passive acquaintances increased his fear of possibly saying the wrong thing.

Gwenda noticed his heightened nerves and gently held his hands in hers. As he looked into her eyes, all those trivial worries simply vanished. Her eyes twinkled back at him, the fading sun dancing its radiant light against her icy blue. This was the only time she willingly chose to wear a dress, though he knew that she was prepared to return to the comfort of slacks at the first opportunity. How he marveled at her beauty - her dauntless smile reassured his anxious mind, reminding him that there was nothing to fear.

As long as they were together.

He held up a slip of paper and began to read. "It's sort of an unspoken rule that demons don't make promises. It's in our nature to only think of ourselves and what will benefit us. My entire life has really just been a string of empty promises and selfish bargains. For a long time, I only truly cared about myself and everyone else faded into the background."

Sophie leaned closer to Howl and whispered, "Does he know what vows are?"

Howl shrugged as Morgan tried reaching for Howl's long hair. His smile was contagious, and Howl reciprocated the charisma of his son. He tickled the boy and they giggled in unison. The high-pitched sounds of the infant toddler rang loud to the guests sitting nearby, and some buzzed brooding comments quietly amongst themselves.

Markl elbowed Howl, as his assessment of the disrupting scene was more cognizant to a teenager than the mature wizard playfully entertaining his son. The young, red-headed boy clenched his teeth as he whispered, "Shush. I can't hear Calcifer."

Howl was oblivious to his own commotion and continued tickling Morgan. Growing into the early stages of his teenage years, Markl had begun magnifying his sense of irritability and annoyance with especially optimistic and jubilant moments. He glared at the cheerful father and son begrudging stare as he silently wished they would mute themselves during the ceremony.

Kenta leaned forward from his seat and tapped Howl's shoulder. The wizard turned around to his friend, who merely glared with meager vexation. Howl had finally noticed the passing stares at them, then nodded and worked to calm young Morgan from his giddy behavior.

As Kenta glanced over to Markl, hoping to reassure the boy, the juvenile apprentice simply crossed his arms and stared forward.

Calcifer continued speaking, barely noticing the slight clatter in the audience. To him, he and Gwenda were the only two people in the room. "I say this because that was me before I met you. That was me before you changed my heart and gave me a purpose beyond my own survival. All those days and nights we spent together opened my heart to a world I had sheltered myself from for fear that vulnerability was weakness. And yet, you brought me true love, Gwenda Maguire, and my only wish now is that I will spend the rest of my days committed to this promise. Never will I cause you to doubt my intentions; never will you question my loyalty and trust. I love you, Gwenda. Forever and always."

Gwenda released a light trickle of tears amidst her wide smile. After seeing her through afflictions, after lamenting and mourning through every desecration, it was a blessing to witness her cry tears of joy. Even her sister Lona, sitting in the crowd with a newborn baby girl in her arms, sniveled and sniffled an onslaught of tears.

She rubbed her hand against his knuckles, her silky fingers caressing his jagged, dry skin. Though she hadn't prepared a script like Calcifer had, she spoke with the same level of poise. "I mean, it's like you took the words right out of my mouth. I was by no means a vision of perfection, either. Growing up only seeing marriages fail and fall apart, I thought I was protecting myself from a lifetime of sadness and disappointment. And then I met a snarky, yet charming fire demon who convinced me otherwise."

A light chuckle erupted from the audience, even from Calcifer himself, as she continued. "You were the one who once told me that love truly is beautiful, and even then I still wasn't sure. But you never gave up; you tore down that wall I used to protect myself and showed me what I was really missing - happiness. I know that with you in my life and by my side, I will always be reminded that choosing love was the right choice. I love you, Cal."

They both turned to the presider who then finished his closing statements and, after they exchanged rings, announced their marriage official. The crowd stood up in a cheerful applause as the new couple embraced in their first kiss as husband and wife.

"Congratulations, Mr. Maguire." Gwenda whispered with a wink.

Calcifer's cheeks reddened at the sound of his new name - Maguire. What a lovely sound it was to have a surname. After centuries of living with a singular name, he was ecstatic to be able to share a new one with someone he loved. And if he was to share a name with anyone, he was honored to share hers.

As the sun disappeared behind the hills of the Wastes and the stars began to scatter the sky, the love between Gwenda and Calcifer had never been more evident.

(—)

Where was it?

Calcifer rummaged through the tiny drawer in the kitchen, where he remembered specifically pushing the letter underneath all the crap inside. Empty potion bottles shattered into tiny shards as he thrusted them down and the scraps of paper floated to the ground below to meet them. His efforts were in vain, however. As he emptied the drawer clean, there was still no trace of the violet letter.

He panicked.

Where was it?

Think. He needed to think. Maybe he tucked it in his coat pocket or pants pocket. Maybe it had made its way into the laundry bin. At that thought, he sprinted to their bedroom and flung the door open. He rushed to the laundry basket, pouring dirty clothes onto the unmade bed. He searched through every pocket, opened every zipper, but still found nothing beyond lint and loose strands of fabric.

"Where are you?" He seethed as he opened the nightstands on both sides of the bed. He shuffled through the mini drawers, thrusting the contents onto the bed and the floor. His fingers shook with an uncontrollably fear of the unknown - still no letter.

In a frantic rage, he flung the closet door open. Atop the high shelf were boxes he and Gwenda hadn't opened in years. Even still, he floated them down to the floor and opened each and every container, sifting through in search of that violet envelope. Nothing but old documents and official papers only humans cared for resided in the dust-ridden boxes - and now they were scattered about the room.

Calcifer breathed in and out like he was in the middle of running a marathon. He whispered delirious nothingness as he pulled hard against the red strands of hair attached to his head. He needed to feel the pull in order to feel something other than the internal agony that existed during the last few minutes since he had last seen her.

Find me when you're the man I married again.

His breaths were short and quick. Gwenda had walked out, and now the letter he so desperately tried concealing from her was gone as well. As he wiped the sweat building and staining his forehead, his mind reeled through every event within the last 24 hours since that letter first arrived in a vain attempt to piece together this incomplete puzzle.

He picked up the mail, saw the scorch marks, and immediately hid it in the drawer no one ever looked through. He and Gwenda went to work and he asked her to watch the shop while he experimented with new potion recipes. They visited Kenta and Lona and when they got home, had their biggest argument aside from what they had just experienced that morning.

Calcifer fell to the foot of the bed, resting his arms on his knees as his mind boggled with a lack of answers. How could she have known about that wretched letter? When would she have had the time to find it? He could only assume it was in her hands now, and that was more frightening than not knowing the deliverer. Magic was tricky, and this letter was beyond most magicians Calcifer had ever known - even Howl.

Who knew what spontaneity it could cast in the hands of a human.

Calcifer sighed, remembering who was thinking about. Gwenda was strong; he had seen her do magnificent and brave deeds, and watched her almost lose her life on multiple occasions. If any human could face true magic, it was her. There never should have been a single doubt in his mind about her.

He turned to the bedroom window, watching as the flower curtains swayed in the calm breeze that flowed inside. He could see the top of the buildings across the street and heard the whistling sound of trains and trolleys as they strolled through Port Haven. Wherever she had gone was a mystery to him, and the oblivion ripped at his soul the longer she was away.

Should he have followed her? If he explained himself, would she have listened to him? The alternate possibilities tormented him as he only imagined positive outcomes where she would eventually understand his reasons and forgive him for his actions. Yet, even he knew, Gwenda was not one to relinquish so easily. If he was going to fix this, he needed to make amends for his own decisions and shortcomings.

As he stood up, he finally opened his eyes to the state of their bedroom. It was like a tornado had funneled its way through and sporadically threw everything they owned on and around the bed. Observing his tantrum and impulsive reaction to tear apart the room in search of a letter he didn't even want in the first place brought him back to reality - he was the tornado.

Relax, he thought. Relax your heart. Your mind. Everything. His rash decision-making made all logical thoughts somehow disperse and vanish from the core of his being. It didn't help that his persistent headaches only ceased when he engaged in such an aggressive temperament. Nevertheless, he couldn't rely on impulsive nature to release his emotions - not after all the damage he'd caused in such a short span of time.

With a wave of his fingers, the clothes floated back to the laundry bin, resting in a messy heap. The miscellaneous items on the floor returned to the nightstand drawers and the bed made itself. Once he used his magic to reorganize the boxes, however, his control snapped.

Everything he had touched with magic - the bed, the clothes, the drawers - everything convulsed and twisted in abnormal shapes. He hardly recognized the room he stood in, the room where he and Gwenda had built their lives, as his magic distorted the space and ejected the pristine organization he had been hopeful of accomplishing. It was as disheveled and deranged as before - yet somehow worse.

Calcifer widened his eyes, hoping what he'd seen was simply a sad dream he could awaken from. It all worked as it should and returned back to order at first. For once, he didn't have to analyze his spell to make it work - it just did. Then, in one moment, one slip of control, his magic decided to go on the fritz.

He slumped back on the ground, gripping his hair with tight fists. "Why can't I just do the right thing?"

There wasn't much of himself that Calcifer was particularly proud of. From a star to a demon to a human, the consistency of only valuing himself was quite evident. Though Gwenda would say he had shown more love for his family than she had seen from her own, he was still skeptical that he had forsaken all of his previous tactics. At the end of the day, he was still a selfish demon.

He circled the wedding band that clung to his finger. His words were jittery as he dared to whisper to himself, "Are you sure you made the right choice, Gwenda?"

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a faded letter lying on the ground next to him. What appeared as something old and pointlessly collecting dust, Calcifer picked up its crinkled edges and wiped away the filth that blurred its text. The color had aged a brownish yellow over the years, and the words were faint as he attempted to read the first line: It's sort of an unspoken rule that demons don't make promises.

His vows. For some reason, he assumed they had been lost or thrown out over time, yet here they were tucked away in the boxes Gwenda held for safekeeping - the boxes he had just torn through. Reading line by line, reliving the joyous memory of the day they were married, Calcifer couldn't help but weep at his failures.

Never will I cause you to doubt my intentions.

Never will you question my loyalty and trust.

How had he strayed so far from his own words?

Calcifer closed his eyes. He crossed his legs and sat with his back straight against the edge of the bed. He clenched the vows in one hand, refusing to let them go. With the other hand, he circled his wedding ring round and around his finger. Whatever the cost, whatever it was that he needed to do to make things right, he would take that risk. Gwenda was worth that risk.

"Please, Gwenda." Calcifer whispered in his mind, "If you can hear me, please answer me. I know I've broken my promises, but I will not let that happen again. I will not let my failures ruin our future together."

Silence. He continued. "I will do what it takes to be better. I will be the person you deserve. If you can hear me, please answer me. Gwenda."

Nothing.

Calcifer's lips trembled. "Can you hear me, Gwenda? Can anyone hear me?" Goosebumps trickled up and down his arms and he shivered. "Please, can someone just answer me?"

"Calcifer?"

He shot his eyes open. He was still the only one in the room, yet he heard his name. Someone had actually heard his pleas, and was willing enough to acknowledge him. As much as he longed for the grace of Gwenda's voice, he was still relieved to hear another familiar sound respond.

Calcifer closed his eyes once more. "Howl? Is that you?"

Howl chuckled in his mind. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"A little too long." Calcifer bit his lip, trying to think of the words to say. He urgently ached to make amends with Gwenda, but maybe he could do so by making amends with another who needed his help. "Sophie said you're on another mission - about Markl, this time."

Calcifer could hear his friend sigh in a futile vain. "Unfortunately, yes. We're at a loss and desperate for answers. Looks like you are as well."

Calcifer gulped. "How much did you hear?"

"Enough to know that we're sort of in the same boat."

Calcifer sucked in a calming breath. Gwenda said she needed time alone; she didn't want to speak to him or even be in the same room as him. Though the misery and heartache were at times too much to bear, Calcifer knew he must respect her decision. It was the only way for them to salvage their brokenness.

"Are you still there?"

"Yes, Howl." Calcifer said. "And I want to help you."

Howl paused for a moment. "I appreciate your concern, but it seems like you have bigger issues to worry about. We'll manage; I promise."

"I have to show Gwenda that I'm not the demon she thinks I am. Please, Howl. Helping you find Markl might even help me." Selfish, he thought on his own, to use the disappearance of a boy in order to piece together the shattered parts of his marriage. And yet he knew there was nothing else he was attached to in this world. His family was everything to him - and he would not turn his back on them again.

"Howl, where are you?"

For a while, there was a dead ringing in his ears. He waited and waited for a reply, a word, something from Howl that would reveal his whereabouts. One thing Calcifer knew for certain was that he couldn't sit in his apartment spoiled by his own deceptions. He had tainted his home and it now appeared dark and cold to him. It wasn't until she left that that had become abundantly clear.

A few moments later, Howl replied, "We're back in Kingsbury. Be careful, though. You never know what monsters may still be lurking around."