PLANE
Chapter 15
Epilogue
In the end Kate had never been able to solve the problem. Mostly it was about timing and logistics. The mirror could only be opened every three weeks and for only three hours each time. The ceremony itself was going to last far longer than just three hours. They did things differently here than on the Prime Material Plane. And the Commander was the one getting married which meant it was going to last a long time.
Kate decided she couldn't force her father to stay here forever, let alone three weeks. So as sad as it made her, she was going to have to get married without her dad being able to walk her down the aisle and hand her off to Rick.
Then there were other issues. They didn't do white wedding gowns here so she had to find a dress that she liked and wear it. Actually, she didn't even know what Rick was wearing until she ended up in front of him. She didn't need to do the something blue stuff. She wouldn't be carrying a bouquet of flowers to throw later. There wasn't going to be a whole lot of rice thrown after the wedding.
Then came not actually getting married in the city itself. There wasn't enough open space for large groups like this one was going to be. In addition, all those Dragons weighed far too much. The city wouldn't fall, that wasn't the issue. The issue was that so many tons of weight would damage the city, so they would be doing it on the other level of this Plane.
Now Alexis herself had been down here many times because of Murus, her boyfriend. But Kate could actually say she had never even left the city while on this Plane so this was going to be something totally different.
It turned out they were to be married on a raised Dias with people attending the wedding itself around them on all sides. Sort of like rings. Everyone stood since there would be no chairs.
Then she found out this would be a very Magical wedding in a way she had never imagined. The Dias they were on would project copies of them up into the air and increase their size several fold. It was just a projection but it would offer everyone a view of the two of them and everyone else that would stand on the Dias.
Kate didn't understand how, and even though the Wizard had tried to explain it to her she still didn't understand how everyone that ever saw their wedding, either live and in person or later, would hear every word that was said perfectly. Especially given that neither of them nor anyone else would be yelling.
Also in attendance was almost the entire Royal family of Murus and his Triton family. They had come to accept that he loved Alexis who was human and given that perhaps one day they would have hybrid half-Triton and half-Human children, it seemed to be enough for most of them. Just not all of the Royal family.
However, no one was going to miss seeing not one, not two, but four massively huge Silver Dragons in attendance and each was going to be given as wide a berth as possible. Not for fear of being stepped on but because none of them could conceivably keep from moving their tails! They were practically weapons in their own right.
Kate had never believed that any wedding short of the ones in movies, could contain so much pomp and circumstance as her wedding. There wasn't just one person officiating this wedding. Oh NO! There were twelve of them. TWELVE!
Each of them had something to say. Some ritual they had to perform or this marriage wasn't official. And no, no one else had had a wedding like this one.
"This is because of you, isn't?" Kate glared at Rick after they finally finished all the pre-wedding explanation of what would be happening and in what order it would happen. Kate finally had Rick all to herself once again.
"It's not every day a Commander of a level on an Outer Plane gets married. Sorry." Rick wasn't really a fan of all this either but the wedding itself was pretty much out of their hands.
"I had dreamed of a big wedding when I was just a little girl but this? …This is insane, babe." Weary, Kate stepped up to him and wrapped her arms around his neck to tickle the short hair she found back there and raised up on her toes to kiss him.
"Just so long as we end up married, I guess. And I like the beard. You finally look distinguished and handsome. Not that you weren't handsome before the beard. I just mean you're even more handsome." Kate tried to cover her tracks and knew she was rambling.
Rick tried desperately not to laugh at her. "Are you ready to stop talking now?"
"Yup. Are you ready to take my clothes off of me and make love to me? I would kind of like to be pregnant while we get married." Kate bit her bottom lip.
She squealed when suddenly he swooped her up and was carrying her to their bedroom. "I thought you would never ask," Rick told her and that had Kate burying her face into his neck. She didn't understand why she wasn't pregnant already given how often they made love to each other. It was literally every day and yes, she was addicted to it. So sue her.
.x{O}x.
They were both still in the tower itself getting ready for… The Wedding of the Century? Ages? Something. Kate had Alexis and Talia helping her while Rick got Murus the Triton and Roitus the Centaur to help him.
Next came a trip to catch their ride. Now while a Wizard could transport them to the other level of this Plane, someone that didn't identify themselves, but both of them had a guess and her name started with an "A", had talked two Silver Dragons into being their rides from this Level to the next Level.
Kate petted his face even if he did still have a huge head full of ungodly sharp looking teeth, and climbed up and sat in her saddle. "Are we doing twists and other stunts along the way?" Kate queried.
"ABSOLUTELY!" he responded since he was dying to give her the ride of her life, one that she would never forget.
"YES!" Kate screamed as loud as she could as he suddenly just fell over the side and plunged straight down.
.x{O}x.
Now the area was full of people and he couldn't just land in the middle of them, so he landed far outside of that. Kate climbed down carefully. "I thank you for the ride, kind sir." Kate bowed deeply.
"I am honored. Now go get married." And all of a sudden Kate found herself standing on that Dias she had been told about.
"He didn't tell me he could do that!" She knew the transport doors had been made and you needed a lot of Wizards to make the things. It was a teleport spell and her Dragon had just displayed that he knew that spell. "I'll get him for that." Kate vowed to extract her revenge for keeping a secret from her.
.x{O}x.
Rick walked out and found Setheldath waiting for him. "I presume Alexis put you up to this?" This was definitely not part of the planning. This was new as of this morning.
"I'll never tell. I like my scales right where they are, thank you," Setheldath responded.
"That's what I thought." Rick climbed up and sat in his saddle. "So shall we have some fun first before I get married?" Rick asked her.
"My thoughts exactly," Setheldath told him. She too fell over the side and plunged straight down. Only she got to listen to Rick scream as loud as his human lungs would allow.
.x{O}x.
Thankfully Setheldath had landed nice and soft and she had allowed him time to get his heart to slow down to a more normal rhythm and not give him a heart attack.
Rick climbed down. "You are a good friend, Setheldath. I am honored that you have accepted me. Perhaps one day your mate will yet return."
"I am honored, Commander. Perhaps. Dragons live a very long time. Now go marry her. She is perfect for you." Setheldath cast her spell and he vanished from her sight. "Perhaps." Setheldath walked toward the site since to reach it she couldn't just land there. She would crush people under her weight. Sometimes being a Dragon was a pain.
.x{O}x.
Kate was spinning in place. She wasn't that high off the ground but there was already a massive crowd of people all around her. Now most looked to be in clumps. Meaning all humans there, all Elves there, all Tritons there. But that wasn't always the case. She even made out a large group of Centaurs and eventually spotted Talia standing next to one waving at her for all she was worth.
Talia was fun. She had such an enthusiasm for life itself. Nothing she did was simple. From what she was training to be, to falling in love with a Centaur. She also didn't have much of a filter. She was only too happy to tell Kate just how big a cock he had and that they usually made love doggie style or in this case horse style. How much she loved the taste of his climax. Yeah, Talia was fun. Kate waved back and that finally got her to stop and lean against her boyfriend, content that Kate had finally saw her in all of this.
Then suddenly Rick was standing right there. "Hi." Okay, she was being just a bit shy. She had thousands of people around her to watch her get married. Granted, she loved him with every fiber of her being, but did it really have to be this fucking huge!?
"Hi, love the dress. May I take it off of you now?" Rick teased her.
"Down, boy, later." And given how long this was going to take, it was going to be much later. Still, she did want him to almost literally rip her dress off of her and take her. God, she needed him even after all the sex last night. "Hormones." She was so fucking horny that could be the only answer.
"What?" She was talking to herself and something about hormones, he thought.
"I think I'm pregnant." Kate's eyes sparkled and her smile got wider. Then suddenly the first of the twelve doing this ceremony showed up and their projections were cast high up into the sky for all to see. The wedding was starting.
.x{O}x.
Kate tried to pay attention at first. She wanted to hear at least some of this. But after the first hour it was all just talk and her feet were aching from just standing there all the time and doing nothing else. She was trying to shift her weight from one foot to another but a quick look up told her that her shifting her feet when she was… GOD, how tall were they up there anyway? It was embarrassing to be seen fidgeting at her own wedding so she consciously tried to stop doing that. She didn't know how Rick did it. He was just standing there.
Worse! She didn't dare say a word. Not a grunt or a moan or even a sudden sneeze because that would be just awful for all these people to see and hear. That wasn't how she wanted to remember her one and only wedding.
.x{O}x.
Kate was guessing somewhere around hour two and they were on yet another of the twelve. TWELVE! Kate was trying to keep her eyes on Rick's eyes. Maybe it would go faster if she got lost in his blue eyes. Just go swimming in them or something. Except she raised an eyebrow when this one, which happened to be an Elf, started singing. Granted, she had a nice voice, but she was singing. Though it did finally get Kate to see Rick put on the slightest of grins since he, like her, was well aware just how big all of them were…right over their heads.
.x{O}x.
It was hour three and Kate wasn't sure she could take much more of this. Kate was down to begging Rick with her eyes. Please, babe, do something! She was dying here. No marriage ceremony should last that fucking long.
Kate heard a voice yell out, "MARRY HER!" Then it was repeated yet again. It took a few minutes but whoever it was had turned it into a chant by hundreds, if not more. "MARRY HER!"
It had Kate finally looking out into the audience instead of on Rick's eyes. She knew just where to look for Talia. All she had to do was find all the Centaurs. She didn't even know there were so many. She saw Talia jumping up and down and her friend appeared to be yelling.
Bless you, Talia! Maybe she hadn't started it but at least someone besides her thought this wedding was taking far too long.
Then Rick interrupted whoever was talking and stepped up so he was right in Kate's face. He began his vows to put an end to all this talking and both of them instantly heard the crowd in all its thousands go silent. "Kate, my love, I never would have believed anyone could reach so far into my heart. To find a way to wrap herself around it and strengthen it the way you do.
"I would have gladly waited to find you on the next world, in another life. Instead, you found me. The Gods everywhere had to be listening to my heart wishing and praying." Rick reached into a pocket and brought out his little sword that would go into her ear where only last night they'd both gone to have their ears pierced and winced from the pain of it.
"I offer this to bind my heart, my very soul to yours for the completion of this life and into the next one." Rick held it out for all to see.
Kate was blinking back tears. She could feel her heart trying to do just that. To reach out and wrap itself around his, to embed itself deep inside his as an anchor so it couldn't get away.
"Marry me," Rick said to her.
Kate had to find hers and admittedly fumbled a bit to find it until she held it up.
"I never thought I would find anyone. My search had always come up empty. I don't know who guided me to here to you. All I was doing was chasing someone who led me straight to you. I've never loved anyone like I love you. My heart aches to feel the touch of your heart. I want nothing more in this life to be married to you.
"I offer this so that all can see that my heart belongs to someone other than me." Kate held up her little sword to him and turned her head so he could insert his into her ear and lock it into place. She barely even felt it. It really did weigh next to nothing despite its size.
Rick turned his head so his ear was facing her. Kate had to find the hole first, then insert it, and lock it into place.
"I LOVE YOU!" they both managed to say at the same time and Rick wrapped his arms around her and kissed her. Kate raised her arms to go around his neck and kissed him back with as much passion as she could muster.
While they were still kissing the crowd finally erupted into clapping and whistling only to ultimately be drowned out as four Silver Dragons ROARED their approval of the wedding.
What Rick and Kate didn't notice because, well they were busy kissing, was that the Dias with only them still on it rose high into the air and somehow managed to join their huge projected figures while still kissing.
.x{O}x.
It was hours later and only a small portion of the audience was still in attendance. It consisted of various groups. All four Silver Dragons were still here. The Royal Triton family was still here. All of the Centaurs were still here. It naturally meant Alexis and Talia would still be here. They were all still here because Rick and Kate Castle were still here.
The rest of the group that had attended was a mix of every race on this Plane.
The Dias had finally come back down and Rick and Kate were sitting on it and watching as part of the Royal family with Alexis in attendance came walking their way. Only Talia and her boyfriend were walking toward them out of the Centaur groups, however.
"Commander." An older Triton woman bowed a bit to him. "I enjoyed the wedding. A bit longer than our average weddings, but still very lovely."
"Noticed that, did you? I thought sure they would never stop talking." Kate rolled her eyes and listened to her burst out laughing.
"You did it, Dad!" Alexis walked right up to him and hugged him as he sat there.
"Was it your idea to have Setheldath and her brother bring us down here?" Rick asked her.
Alexis denied any involvement but she did grin a little. "I have no idea what you are talking about. You teleported in. I saw it."
"Right!" Rick didn't believe a word of it. "Well, tell Setheldath and the others thank you again anyway."
"I don't get to fly home? I want to fly home on a Dragon." Kate didn't like this idea very much and saw the looks she was getting. "WHAT!? He's nice and he's the best roller coaster around here."
Before Rick could even try, Alexis was already calling Setheldath and the other four Dragons over. "I'm told the married couple would happily pay any price you desire for a ride back to the city," Alexis told them.
"Did I say that!?" Kate stared at Alexis. She didn't remember making that kind of a deal. "Fine. May I please have a ride back to the city? I will willingly pay any price, within reason." Kate added the latter softly. "For a ride back to the city," Kate told all four of them and then leaned into her husband and put her lips at his ear. "I need to pee so badly."
That had Rick starting to laugh his head off and kept laughing even after Kate poked him in the ribs and glared at him for laughing at her.
.x{O}x.
Her ride willingly dropped down so she could climb up and sit down in her saddle that he was still wearing all these hours later and walked away to get some space so he could spread his wings.
"You pee on me while I fly you home and I will double my cost," he informed her.
"OH GOD!" Kate thought sure only Rick could have heard her say that. Then suddenly he was running and flapping to gain altitude. Going down had been easy. Flapping hard to gain this much height wasn't quite that easy.
Still, after they landed Kate kissed his face and reached to remove her saddle so he was free to go anywhere he chose. "Thank you, you're the best."
"I will remind my older sister that you said that." He promptly backed up, fell over the side, and flew away.
"She's going to kill me." Kate needed to learn when to keep her big mouth closed. Then her body reminded her that she needed to put her saddle away and find a restroom because she really needed to pee now. Her back teeth were floating.
.x{O}x.
Kate was allowed to step through the mirror while three months pregnant. She hadn't been back and didn't know yet just when she ever would. She had a new life, a new husband. She was still training to be a Tattooed Monk. She even knew what she was going to select for her next two Tattoos. One was a Knight in Armor and the other was a Shield. The main drawback to being a Monk meant she couldn't wear any armor of any kind. Nothing like what Alexis and Talia were wearing. She was going to have to go almost naked effectively. These two Tattoos would help correct that problem. She wasn't ready for either yet, but she was getting there.
Kate saw her dad sleeping peacefully and placed the disk she had for him on his nightstand next to his bed. "I love you, Dad." She leaned down and kissed his cheek softly. He stirred a bit but didn't wake. "You need to watch this, Dad. It's my wedding. And this one is my message to you. I can't let you ask me questions I can't answer and I don't want to lie to you. Mom would kill me somehow."
Kate took a step back and watched him sleep. Kate put a hand on her belly. She was already showing and she knew she was three months pregnant. She even knew they were both boys. Something about another one of those spells they used.
"I'll bring you another one of the boys after they're born. I promise and I'm sorry about this but I can't think of another way. I can't ask you to come to me and I'm not moving back. I'll stay in touch, Dad. I promise." Kate wiped away her tears and turned and stepped into the bathroom. She looked back one more time and then reached for the mirror and found herself back in her husband's arms where she broke down and wept.
There just had to be another way. A better way. They just couldn't think of one. The two Planes were so very different.
"We need to go, Dad," Alexis told him standing there in her combat suit next to Talia in her combat suit. "We got the Lich last time. We just need to clean up the mess he made." Alexis saw him nod while he held a weeping Kate in his arms.
Alexis touched the mirror and vanished. Talia felt for her friend but she didn't have an answer either, then touched the mirror to follow Alexis.
"Home?" Rick asked her.
"Please." She needed to go home and just cry since she couldn't think of a way to fix this problem.
Kate's training to be a Tattooed Monk was still on course. She just couldn't hit the mat since she was pregnant. So she got to throw her Master for a change. That and keep up her training on how to deal with her increased speed. It had turned out to be a lot harder than it sounded. You try being that fast with every step you take and learn how to be slowwww.
.x{O}x.
"Here." Rick handed her something to drink and sat down next to her. He had today off since he knew this quick visit was going to hurt.
"Thanks." Kate took a sip and leaned into her husband. She wasn't crying any longer but her heart was still hurting.
"It's not over yet, Kate. We can't think of something now but if he drank those potions you left him last time he's fine." Rick groaned since his mate, wife, whatever had him using that damn word still.
One would heal any wounds he had and that included any damage he had done to his liver with all of his drinking. Another removed any poison he might have in his system. The last one removed any disease that was trying to affect him. All told he should be the single person on the Prime Material Plane that would be in perfect shape. And Rick and Kate had every intention of sending him even more.
"It gives us time to think of something. You said something about retirement once. He does that and we can bring him here to live out his life, playing and spoiling his grandchildren," Rick offered.
Kate sniffled and raised her head to kiss his cheek. She loved her husband; he was a good man. She just had to wait for that day when she wasn't asking her dad to quit his job and move here.
"There is one more thing but I've been delaying telling you. I don't know how you're going to take it." Rick did have an idea about something but was loath to get her hopes up since it might not work.
Kate turned her head to look at him and asked him what with her eyes.
"Keep in mind this might not work. But, a Cleric does have various spells to contact the dead. Determine their location and they don't really talk to you. They only answer questions you give them. But say we add a Miracle spell or a Wish spell or both. There is a way for you to perhaps talk to your mother from here."
"Seriously!?" Kate knew this place based nearly everything on magic. This city floated because of Magic. Her tattoo was magic. Her ring was magic. "It'll work?" Kate had never dreamed of such a thing.
"There are a couple of more things to think about. One, she has to still be dead. Not passed on to her next life and she might be a totally different person on a different Plane. For that we would need different spells but she won't remember you. To her it is a different life. You don't exist for her. So talking to her dead spirit might not work. But if it does work there's one more thing for you to think about.
"First, she needs to still be dead and a spirit somewhere. Second, we need a piece of her. You told me that you bury your dead, and while that's a weird concept, I'll accept it because for you on the Prime Material Plane it's a rite of passing. We'll need to dig her up, take a piece of bone, and cast a spell provided she says yes when or if you get to talk to her.
"This spell will bring her back to life. She will be the same age when she died and will remember nothing about her life, or existence if you will, after she died," Rick told her.
"You're not serious!?" Kate searched his eyes and knew he wasn't just looking at her. "So what's the catch?" This was too good to be true. There just had to be a catch somewhere.
"First, she has to be dead and still a dead spirit. Second, the talking spell has to work on her. Third, she has the option, if she chooses, not to come back from the dead. She has the right to decline, so even if we cast this spell it may not work for that reason. And there's one additional problem. Some of these spells are seriously expensive. Wish and Miracle alone will cost the caster a lot and you may be asked to pay it. Meaning a year of your life for one or each spell."
"I'll pay it! I'll pay it! This will actually work?" Kate questioned him.
"It should, but there's one final problem. We can't do it till after you give birth. We do it now and it might cost one or both of the boys a year of their lives," Rick cautioned her.
"OH!" She certainly wasn't doing that to her babies. "Why didn't you tell me about this before now!?" Her mother could already be alive and with her!
"For the same reasons I'm cautioning you now. Besides you were still trying to wrap your mind around all the magic that we do around here. All the magic that doesn't take place on the Prime Material Plane but does out here off of that Plane," Rick replied.
"So I have to wait till after the boys are born?" Kate went back to resting against her husband. The husband that was offering her something she had thought was stolen from her years ago. "How do I tell Dad? What do I tell her?"
.x{O}x.
Kate was standing there watching the Cleric that had one of her mother's bones from her grave. Alexis and Talia had happily agreed to dig her up a bit before putting all that dirt right back where they had found it, casting her spell.
Rick held James Robert while Kate held Micah Wade and both were watching as a wisp of smoke came from seemingly nowhere and began swirling as the Cleric talked.
The questions Kate had asked her mother were a little bit elusive. She didn't really want to give her mother a chance to flat out say no and since she hadn't said no, she had given her consent that she wanted to talk to her, so that meant bringing her back to life.
Thankfully the boys were sleeping, which was something Kate wasn't getting. These two… When they slept, they slept. When they didn't they were rarely quiet and how someone so little could cry so loudly and still have lungs left was amazing.
Kate had been warned that this was going to take ten minutes but to her it looked to be taking an eternity. Still, she watched as this swirling cloud slowly turned into a person until at last she looked just like she remembered her. She was even wearing the clothes she'd been wearing when she had been killed.
For Jo, she felt very weird and nothing she saw really made a lot of sense to her. She was inside but she had been outside and in the dark. She saw two people directly in front of her. "Katie?" It sort of looked like her but she was different. That and what was she wearing and why was she holding a newborn baby? She didn't babysit. She was totally confused.
Then the man next to her looked vaguely familiar and he was also holding a newborn baby. And why was Katie suddenly crying?
"Hi, Mom!" Kate croaked just as Micah suddenly decided to wake up and started to fuss. It wasn't time for another feeding yet. They had planned this out perfectly. Might be a diaper. A real honest-to-god cloth diaper. They didn't have Pampers here or anything like it.
"Katie?" Jo tried again and didn't understand why she was about to break down sobbing. "Is that Richard Castle?"
