"I know the priests keep saying the bride won't die, but I hear a mortal sacrifice isn't really a sacrifice until they die."
"REALLY, THIS IS ALL NONSENSE!" Papyrus insisted. He was sitting near one of the bonfires on top of the city wall, taking his break with some of the other nightwatchmen.
"I'm just telling you what I heard."
"And why is it everyone only ever wants to share the bad things they hear?"
"THANK YOU, DAVIS! THAT IS AN EXCELLENT POINT."
"Look, it just makes sense. A sacrifice isn't a sacrifice unless there's some kind of destruction involved, a thing has to get handed over to the gods."
"FIRST OF ALL, MY BROTHER IS NOT JUST A THING. SECOND OF ALL, IN MY EXPERIENCE THE OFFERINGS ARE ONLY SYMBOLICALLY BURNED AND INSTEAD ARE HANDED OVER TO THE PRIESTS."
"Okay, but who would hand over their bride to-"
"BRIDEGROOM."
"Yeah, stop being so insensitive."
"No one would hand over their newly wed spouse to someone else, that's just silly. So probably your brother's gonna get laid out over the altar and the priest will take a knife and…" The watchman mimed pulling a finger across his throat while making a tearing sound and sticking his tongue out.
"WE DON'T EVEN HAVE THROATS, OR ANY KIND OF FLESH TO CUT WITH A KNIFE."
"Set him on fire then. I'm sure a godly fire can get hot enough to even melt stone."
"The gods aren't like that," Davis insisted with a frown. "Lord Fiersome's not like that."
"RIGHT, AND YOU'RE NOT BEING HELPFUL AT ALL."
"I just want you to be prepared when your brother gets dusted."
Papyrus stood up. "I THINK MY BREAK IS OVER." He stalked quickly away, it had only been a few days and this was the fourth… no fifth! Person to tell Papyrus they were sorry but they just had to share this or that horrible rumor with him, for his own sake. Papyrus just needed to clear his head, maybe take some deep breaths. Even if these people weren't actually being helpful they were at least trying, right?
"Papyrus, just the monster I wanted to talk to."
"OH, GOOD EVENING, CATRINA." Papyrus nodded in greeting to the head nightwatchman.
"Do you have a moment? There's something I've been meaning to tell you."
Papyrus took a deep breath and put on his best smile, "I THINK I HAVE A LITTLE BIT OF MY BREAK LEFT."
"I just wanted to let you know that you don't have to worry about Sans's job."
"THAT'S A RELIEF, EVEN IF I WASN'T WORRIED ABOUT SANS'S JOB TO BEGIN WITH. SHOULD I HAVE BEEN?"
Catrina shook her head, "I suppose not. I just meant that even if I already replaced him, if he ever needs a job again he'll have one waiting for him. You did say the priests don't know how long this whole weird marriage thing will last, right?"
"RIGHT, WE WON'T KNOW UNTIL SANS TALKS TO LORD FIERSOME, AND EVERYONE KNOWS THE MARRIAGE COUPLE AREN'T SUPPOSED TO SEE EACH OTHER BEFORE THE WEDDING. THOUGH I THOUGHT THAT WAS ONLY THE DAY OF THE WEDDING."
Catrina laughed, "Well whatever happens, you and Sans don't have to worry about making ends meet."
Papyrus, strangely enough, did feel better after being told that.
"… and this is the bridegroom," Fieri said as he gestured to Sans.
Sans put down the book he had been reading and hopped down from the stool at the archive desk he'd been sitting at. The quiet sounds of quill on paper stopped abruptly, the archive room going quiet as everyone's attention shifted to Fieri and the other person he had just brought into the room, a monster covered in dark fur with a few streaks of gray sprinkled about, who only stood an inch or two taller than Sans. He had quite a bit of gray fur about his muzzle, all of it neatly trimmed, just like the abundance of fur over his eyes.
"Sans, this is Terry Houndini, the head priest of Lord Fiersome's temple in Fidelity."
"nice to meetcha." Sans held a hand out.
Terry accepted the hand for a firm shake, then engulfed it with his other paw to pat Sans's hand indulgently. "It's a pleasure to meet you."
"thanks."
"If you don't mind my asking, why are you wearing gloves?" He held up the hand still firmly in his grip, showing off the thin leather gloves covering them.
"bones don't got a lot of grip to them, so gloves just make life in general easier."
Terry nodded before finally letting go of his hand. "If you have a moment, I'd very much like to get to know the first recorded mortal bridegroom in over fifty years."
"i heard you're the one who figured out that's what was even going on?"
"That I am, and I brought along all the texts we could find as well."
"Why not take this out into the garden and let the scribes get back to work?" Fieri motioned for the three of them to leave. "Bonnie might be out there as well."
"Ah, I haven't seen her in an age! How's the old gal doing?"
Sans followed behind because it was expected of him, he also had a feeling the stack of books he had been working through would mysteriously end up in his room. At least he'd be able to find them again. And if Bonnie, the head priest of the temple in Ashborough, was in the garden too even time spent with Fieri wouldn't be so bad. She was friendly, if the situation got too awkward she'd help defuse it. Probably.
"HELLO, BROTHER!"
"hey papyrus, how you been?" Sans pulled Papyrus into a hug.
"I'VE BEEN QUITE WELL, JUST LIKE I WAS YESTERDAY AND THE DAY BEFORE!"
"heh, of course you are." Sans grinned up at his brother.
"BUT SOMETHING IS AMISS, THAT HUG FELT STRANGE."
"oh yeah," Sans dug into his robes and pulled out his pet rock, "for fun i've been lugging balboa around all day."
"HELLO, BALBOA, YOU'RE LOOKING QUITE WELL. I'M GLAD SANS IS REMEMBERING TO TAKE CARE OF YOU." Papyrus happily pet Balboa, who responded with a happy little rumble.
Sans noticed one of the passing priests give them a strange look, but Sans shook it off. He wasn't going to let anything ruin Papyrus's daily visit.
Papyrus leaned in close and put up a hand to his own face as if about to impart a dark and terrible secret. He whispered, "DO YOU HAVE SOMEWHERE MORE PRIVATE FOR US? I'VE BROUGHT YOU SOME CONTRABAND."
"bro, that's so scandalous!" They both giggled. "but yeah, let's go to my room." Sans led the way, absently petting Balboa as they went. The room was more cluttered than Papyrus's first visit, the wall now had swaths of cloth in pale saffron and brilliant canary, the bookshelves and furniture surfaces were now crowded with all manner of small knickknacks, every corner now sported decorative statuary, and either side of the fireplace had tall vases with exotic feathers and dried plant stalks poking haphazardly out of them.
"I SEE YOU'VE RECEIVED MORE GIFTS."
"yeah, people just keep giving me stuff. i have to spend a good chunk of the day just sitting in the main temple and letting people give me things. not to mention whenever someone important wants to give me something more expensive. they just get to waltz in whenever they feel like and demand a private audience with the 'bride to be' so they can hand over some gaudy piece of jewelry or whatever."
Papyrus had noticed a small set of drawers were now sitting on top of the dresser, a large jewelry box he supposed. "THAT DOES SOUND RATHER ANNOYING, THE POLITE THING TO DO WOULD BE TO AT LEAST MAKE AN APPOINTMENT. EITHER WAY, FOR THE NEXT LITTLE WHILE PUT ALL THAT OUT OF YOUR HEAD. INSTEAD LET US ENJOY…" Papyrus paused dramatically as he slowly brought out a handkerchief wrapped around something, "THESE TREATS I BROUGHT FOR YOU!" He dramatically pulled off the handkerchief to reveal two of the meat pastries Sans used to sell.
"awwww… that's so sweet! thanks, bro." Sans took one of the offered pastries and broke off a piece of crust, he crushed it over Balboa's plate before depositing the rock on it. Balboa rumbled their approval. Sans then broke off two more small pieces to toss into the fire.
"OH, HAVE YOU MOVED ONE OF THE HOLY FLAMES TO YOUR FIREPLACE?"
"nah, they just showed up here all on their own. two of them, actually. wait…" Sans paused to count the number of coal black eyes staring up at him. "oh, guess it's three now." He broke off another little piece and tossed it into the fire before finally biting in the pastry himself. He hummed happily, letting the food slowly dissolve into magic as he savored the taste.
Papyrus took a bite of his own pastry. "I THOUGHT YOU MIGHT LIKE TO KNOW THAT I WAS OFFERED YOUR SHIFT WATCHING THE CITY GATE, AND OF COURSE I ACCEPTED."
Sans plopped into the overstuffed chair to keep eating while Papyrus sat carefully on the bed. "that's great, one step closer to finally getting into the city guard."
"RIGHT! I HAVE DEFINITELY BEEN NOTICED BY THE GUARDSMEN WHO COME TO CLOSE THE GATE EVERY NIGHT. WE EVEN TALK! I MIGHT EVEN BE, DARE I SAY IT, MAKING… FRIENDS?"
"that really is great, i knew the guards would like you once they saw your work ethic."
"IT'S SO STRANGE THOUGH, EVERYONE GOING IN AND OUT SEEMED TO EXPECT ME TO SELL PASTRIES? AND EVEN THE BAKERY THAT MAKES THEM EXPECTED ME TO BUY A WHOLE BUNCH?"
"heh, that is weird."
"VERY WEIRD. I MAKE SURE TO DIRECT EVERYONE TO THE NEAREST RESTAURANTS AND FOOD STALL. MOST TRAVELERS SEEM QUITE GRATEFUL, EVEN IF MOST OF IT'S ALL SWIMMING IN BUTTER OR GREASE."
"after a long day of traveling a hot meal of any kind is welcome, i'm sure they really appreciate it."
"BUT ENOUGH ABOUT ME, TELL ME ALL THE LATEST GOSSIP! NYEH HEH HEH!"
"oooooh! is my bro finally becoming the gossip monger he always dreamed of?"
"I ONLY MONGER THE MOST TRUE AND HELPFUL GOSSIP, BUT THERE ARE MANY A MONSTER WHO KNOW TO COME TO ME FOR THE LATEST AND GREATEST OF NEWS."
"that's really great, i'm so happy for you." And Sans was, he never wanted anything more than for Papyrus to be happy.
There was a knock at the door, followed by a rabbit peeking in, the shadows on her white fur making it appear purple. "Hello, I heard your brother is here for a visit?"
Sans and Papyrus both looked up at the intruder guiltily, Papyrus still mid bite.
"Oh! There he is, hello hun." She walked into the room with a friendly smile, gently closing the door behind her. "Don't mind me, I promise not to tell on you," she added with a wink.
Papyrus jumped up while also shoving the last of the pastry in his mouth. He hastily clapped off any lingering crumbs and held out a hand. "HELLO! I'M THE GREAT PAPYRUS, BROTHER OF BRIDEGROOM-TO-BE."
"Bonnie, head priest of Lord Fiersome's temple in Ashborough."
"WOWIE! IT'S NICE TO MEET YOU!" Papyrus began to shake her hand enthusiastically.
"Likewise."
Sans was sitting on his bedroom floor, angled to catch the light being cast from the hearth, hastily scratching out notes from the new book sitting open in his lap. He turned the page, finger keeping his place as he scanned over the lines. There was a knock at his door, followed by the sound of the latch. Sans sighed and looked up, unsurprised to see Fieri peeking into his room.
"Oh, I expected you to already be asleep, it's quite late."
Sans glanced out his window to the dark, glittering sky, then gave a shrug. "i was a nightwatchman, this is usually when my day would start. what're you doing up if it's so late?"
Fieri frowned, then wiped the expression away as he stepped into the room. "I was studying some of the texts Houndini brought with him, based on the new information in them I think some changes to the ceremony may be in order."
"you can just say you changed your mind, you know. nothing wrong with that."
"I didn't change my mind, I'm simply incorporating information that wasn't available to me earlier."
Sans leaned his cheek on a hand and resisted the urge to sigh deeply, "yeah, so what're we changing this time?"
"We are nixing the stand in groom."
Sans's permanent smile gentled at the edges, softening just a little. "can't exactly do a regular wedding without two people there, though."
"I should think nothing about this wedding will be regular, but since this is actually the summer solstice ceremony I've decided to simply adjust that rather than throw together a half baked wedding that would be difficult to perform even if both grooms could be in attendance."
Sans nodded. "sounds good, i'm all on board for that." He gave a thumbs up just to reinforce his approval.
Fieri nodded. "We'll be going over the changes to the ceremony in the morning, bright and early. So you should get to bed soon."
"gotcha, just wanted to finish up with this first, shouldn't take long."
Fieri stepped closer, standing right next to Sans and bending forward awkwardly to read over his shoulder.
"do you mind?"
"I'm simply curious what you're reading."
"you could have saved yourself a backache and just asked."
"It's the text I was just studying."
"yeah, terry brought a couple copies, make life easier for everyone. got any more questions?"
"You seem to have organized some sort of checklist?"
"sure, it's easier to see trends when you just have a couple columns with checks or blanks than when it's spread out over several different books." Sans looked up at Fieri, who stared back down at Sans with a crease to his brow. The crackle of the fire was the only sound in the room.
"Well, we'll go over the revised ceremony in the morning. I'll see you then, good night."
"yup, see ya in the morning." Sans waved Fieri off before returning his attention to the book, his hand scribbling away again.
AN: Okay, so this story feels a bit rushed to me. I think it's mostly because all the stuff I'm really looking forward to are in the sequel, but a part of it is definitely the fact that I wanted to make this a satisfying stand alone and had to restrain myself from adding in all the little hints and foreshadowing for the things to come in part 2. There is still quite a lot, they were intended to be one full story after all. But like I said: at the end of the next chapter everything will be wrapped up nice and neatly, if you don't want to keep going then those hints won't be anything more than a little world building. There is a definite shift between the end of this part and the beginning of the next (for all it's going to start the next day XD) and my muse was adamant it be separated into two parts. It's looking like part 2 is going to be twice as long though. XD So anyway, see you guys next chapter! I'm looking forward to bringing this story to its close.