Later, the knocking on her door slowly brought her to consciousness. "Sedryn? My dear?" The voice of her father Norlad could barely be heard through the thick oak door to Sedryn's room.
Sedryn smiled as she woke up. Her father was always welcome. "Come in, Father." She got up from bed and opened the door.
"My dear!" he said.
"Father!" she said, hugging the grey-haired man. "Come in."
"I only came to give you my blessing, and to see if there's anything else that needs to be done." Norlad said.
"Thank you, but I think everything has been accounted for." she blushed. "Wherever I go, Gondorians have offered me goods and services in preparation. Everywhere! I don't think that a single merchant hasn't sent me offers of service. I haven't the faintest idea why, considering that funds are so limited."
Norlad laughed. "They see the strength in you, Child! That is why. They'll love you, if they do not already, as they do Boromir and Faramir. You have some spirit, and that will help you if indeed you are the Healing of Gondor."
She blushed again, cherry-red. "Father." she hesitated a moment before going on. "Boromir and I…" she stopped and started again, running a hand through her hair. "Have you ever heard of a mind-clasp?" she asked.
"Well, yes, but the method has long since been lost," the gray-haired man said.
"No it hasn't." she said, shaking her head. "Boromir and Faramir and I are now connected in a way I've never dreamed of."
Norlad's eyes sparkled with excitement. "They know it? Sedryn, this is news. They used the mind-clasp often in Númenor! But beware, for if any others learn of this they may use it against you."
Her eyes hardened for a brief moment. "Nobody knows but for you. But think of it, father! In this day and age we are going back to Númenorean ways!
But suddenly Norlad seemed old, weighed down by the cares of age. "Númenor is lost, and if there is anything I do not want, little girl, it's that you were born in these dark days. But you have some strength in you, Child! I saw it even when you were young."
Sedryn went and laid a gentle hand on his shoulder, guiding him to sit in the chair before her mirror. "If I am strong it is because your blood flows in my veins."
But Norlad shook his head. "No Sedryn. It has nothing to do with what I have given you." His deep grey eyes bored into her own. "The coming days will be difficult for you and your Beloved. Understand, with your marriage your allegiance is to him, and through him to all Gondor, past, present, and future, to the end of both your life and his, to whatever end."
"I know," she said, nodding. "But I already do love him and I love Gondor. I am happy to offer my life to him, to whatever end. Father, I am already given to him, and I want nothing more."
"Then you have chosen well. You have my blessing, my dear. May you live long and well!" he answered, watching how her eyes seemed to mirror the depths of his own soul. "Already I feel a different presence about you. Your Númenorean blood has been awakened."
"Perhaps," she said. "Perhaps it is only in preparation for the time to come."
He nodded. "That may be. Is there aught you would ask of me, before I go?"
She smiled. "No Father, thank you." she said, and raised herself a bit to kiss him on the cheek.
"Then I will see you presently." He said, smiling and leaving the room.
After he left, Sedryn went to her closet and retrieved her wedding dress. Though she had chosen a simple design for economy, the seamstresses had invested hours of work embroidering silvery patterns into the light blue silk. Lacing it up quickly, she slid her feet into her new slippers just as a maidservant knocked at the door. "Come in." she said, hoping that the hairdressing wouldn't take too long. Boromir would come soon, and with him not only Faramir but Denethor, Lord Imrahil of Dol Amroth, and his daughter Lothíriel and others as well.
As the maid dressed her hair with pearls and white flowers, Sedryn heard a steadily strengthening hum outside as the crowd lined the traditional route that Boromir would lead her from the First Level to the terrace on the Seventh Level.
Her heart began pounding when the roar outside diminished to a complete silence with the advent of Denethor and the others. Faramir, she knew beforehand, was already there waiting with her mare. She could feel Boromir's mounting excitement as Denethor knocked and she descended down the flight of stairs, and knew that both Boromir and she held their breaths in anticipation. When her friend Elena opened the door, the people cheered, but she only had eyes for Boromir standing next to Denethor, and he for her. He was resplendent in his Captain-General's garb, the Seven Stars seeming to sparkle even brighter to mirror those embroidered into her own gown.
She barely heard Denethor's muttered remonstrance to stop acting like a lovesick girl and pretend at least to have some of the dignity her father carried. Smiling, she took Boromir's proffered hand and followed him to where Faramir held her saddled mare, Lethe.
For just a moment, she felt his joy and happiness shine through their mind-link. Sharing a smile with him amid the crowd's smiling and laughing, she walked up the boosting steps and sat astride her horse, arranging her skirts so that they reached to her ankles. Faramir handed the reins over to Boromir, still standing smiling at his bride. Boromir didn't see them until the Gondorians around him laughed as Faramir prodded him in the chest with them. He laughed too when he realized his "distraction." Taking the reins, he stole one last look at Sedryn then led onward. They gathered in pairs, Faramir on his horse next to Sedryn and behind them Denethor and Norlad. Imrahil and Lothíriel were last in the party, before the nobles and guards.
As it was a custom in Gondor for the people of Gondor to provide the flowers to make up the bride's spray of flowers, Boromir led her down the road, where they waited. Seven flowers from each level, all different shapes and kinds, was the tradition.
She accepted her first, a delicate white gardenia, from a little one barely able to walk. "F-For Lady Thedryn," he lisped as Boromir lifted him up to hand the flower to her.
"Thank you, kind sir." she said, her eyes growing soft as she regarded the little infant before her. She kissed him before Boromir put him down. Boromir shared a quick look with her before going back to the reins and she didn't need to be connected to him to feel his hope for, someday, one of their own.
Somewhere else, a young man offered one, a spray of apple blossoms. Sedryn looked into his eyes and smiled, feeling kinship with him when she saw the hopes and ideals swirling in his eyes like eagles in the sky. Oh, she knew those thoughts, those dreams!
On a different Level, an old Woman standing next to a white-haired old man in a chair handed her a sheath of gaily-colored crocuses, carefully cultivated in the cool of their garden. Bowing her head, Sedryn accepted it. "In hopes of a bond that lasts as long as yours, Mother." she said respectfully.
"No, child; longer, much longer!" the woman said, kissing Sedryn's hand.
A woman, grief and weariness written in every line of her dejected body, gave Sedryn an ethereal white rose. One of the petals suddenly dropped like a tear from Sedryn's hand to land on her dress. "In hopes of your courage, Lady." She paused a moment to lay a hand on the woman's shoulder and squeeze it comfortingly. The woman's dark mourning dress rustled under Sedryn's hand.
The faces of those lining the streets and doorways and windows whirled into a blur as time went by, but Sedryn knew she would never forget those whom she had accepted her flowers from. Their faces were imprinted on her mind, and Sedryn knew she would never regret giving her entire life to her people.
"Thank you." Boromir answered.
For a moment she was startled until she remembered that he knew her thoughts. "How can I not?" she answered. "They look to us to make things right and I find that I would do anything to make it so. I did not know I felt so strongly about this!"
"I know," he said after a moment's pause. "I feel the same. I will never stop fighting for our people until we are at peace."
"I am with you," she answered.
The sudden silence brought them back to themselves. They were at the Seventh Level. Dismounting, Sedryn and Boromir climbed the steps up to the terrace, and then turned to face Denethor and Norlad as they mounted.
Standing on the step directly below Boromir and Sedryn, Norlad took Boromir's right hand and Sedryn's left and stood there, waiting for Denethor to guide the couple through the beautiful old Númenorean vows.
A beaming Denethor stood before the three and spoke. "Today we are gathered to celebrate a joyful occasion rather than a sad one. Today Boromir and Sedryn wed, and with their coming happy days we look forward to happier days for all of Gondor. Let the wedding of the heir of Gondor and the healer of Gondor inspire you with fresh hope! For today life springs new."
Norlad felt a smile growing on his face as he stood there between the two dearest to him and felt them both quivering with nervousness. In a symbolic gesture, he took their two hands and joined them together, signifying that now they depended on each other, rather than their parents. "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh."(1) Oh, but that was long, so long ago, thought Norlad. He remembered a time long ago he had read that scrap of poetry to Sedryn's mother, before they married. Now it was their daughter's turn.
Boromir spoke his vows first, the beautiful words he had chosen resounding into the silence. "When in the morning I awaken with you lying next to me I will touch your sleeping eyes and again realize that I will give my last drop of blood merely to give you an untroubled sleep. When at midday I see you among the people in our City of Stone I will smile and again realize, my love is given to one who adds her love to mine and spreads it through Gondor. When in the evening I see you approach me with your gentle smile I will feel the length of the day drain away into nothingness. When at night you lay beside me with your hands caressing my face, I will hold you and feel that we do not fight for naught. And when in the years to come, years of joy and peace, I will see you with our little children, playing at your feet, and I know that I could be granted no greater life than the one that I will have with you. In the hope of these do I promise to care for you as a king his crown. I promise to protect you. To help you, and strengthen you though my strength is taken from you. And as my final promise…" Boromir pulled a little embroidered sack and opened it to reveal a single crimson rose. Taking it from the bag, he placed it in her hair, right where some of it was held back by a lacy band. "I crown you with a promise of passionate love."
Sedryn answered: "When in the morning I awake with you tracing my face I will smile, blushing, for I will have awoken from dreams of your skin on mine. When at midday I glimpse you through the crowds my heart will bound for in the short time since I saw you last I will have already missed you. When in the evening I see you smiling at me I will laugh and know that my love strengthens one whose love is already boundless." She gripped his arms tightly, barely aware of the hushed crowd as she met Boromir's gaze with one every bit as intense as his. But she wasn't finished yet. "And when at night I rest in your arms I revel in your strength for I know this: that by the strength in you does this land still hold to hope for a different time than the one they have been living in so long. And in return for your promises I offer mine own, which are these: with pleasure, I promise to heal you when you are ill. I will stay with you when you are hurt. I will bear your children and be the lady of your house. By the blood of my forefathers, I will not fail you because I love you. And to prove this…" she took from the folds of her dress another embroidered bag, showing from its shape that it too held a blossom. From the fabric a red and white rose emerged. Oh so carefully, she disentangled it from the bag and arranged it in the little slot on his sash, just over his heart. "I tell you what I hold dearest to my heart: my union with you."
By the time she finished she was breathless from the emotion she had poured into her vows. Nearly in a daze, she heard Denethor's final words.
"Then, children, you've heard your promises. Remember them, commit them to memory, that when the time comes you will recall your promises to one another and fulfill them. Let it be written in the books that henceforth, Boromir and Sedryn are one. As the Steward of Gondor, I pronounce you wedded!"
The crowd erupted in cheers as Boromir and Sedryn turned hand in hand to face them. Overhead Faramir unfurled the banner of the House of Hurin and watched happily as the wind sent the banner flapping upright in the breeze overhead.
They were wedded! The thought sent rushes of exhilaration through their minds as they walked through a haze of congratulatory shouts to their seats on the green.
Lady Sedryn of Gondor, wife of the Steward's heir. It sounds well. Boromir sent, smiling as he met her cheery gaze.
Not as well as it feels. She answered.
Ah, well. Boromir said, chuckling. I can't top that.
Just then Faramir appeared out of nowhere, a goblet of wine in each hand and the third on his head. Boromir blinked. "Are you drunk?" he asked point blank.
"No," Faramir said, the corner of his lips quirking. "The top one for the lady," he continued, kneeling down so that Sedryn could retrieve her goblet. "And these for you and me." he said, offering the tankard in his right hand to his brother. "To your eternal health and fellowship." He said.
"And yours!" Sedryn answered, toasting him.
"Impressive." Boromir said. "You didn't even shake."
"Ranger." Faramir said smugly. "Much more…subtle, shall we say, and steady, than an average Captain. And, quiet."
Boromir laughed. "I can outdo you anyday." He told his cheeky brother.
"With a bow? Stealth?" Faramir laughed. "I will admit to being taught by the best in swordfighting and fisticuffs, but otherwise…"
This time Sedryn laughed. "Caught! Caught. Outdo him there, if you dare!" she teased Boromir. The three of them laughed together.
Faramir took Sedryn's other arm and pointed at the flowers in her bouquet, his voice suddenly gone quiet and soft. "The people of Gondor have high hopes for you, Sedryn." He said. "The gardenias symbolize joy. Apple blossoms are symbols of promises, and the crocus mean foresight.
She looked at him, smiling shyly. "Everyone I asked only knew the meanings of the colors of roses. They told me the meanings of the other flowers had been long forgotten. Where did you find them?"
He smiled. "A little forgotten volume in the library. I'll show you sometime. But now I've kept you long enough from the madding crowd. Go eat before they swarm."
The couple laughed. "Come with us." Boromir said. "You haven't eaten yet, have you?"
"No, but surely you wish for some solitude." Faramir said.
"Yes, but time for that later," he said. "Join us."
With a smile, Faramir fell into step with the couple, and soon all of them were plunged into a whirl of people, food, and laughter that would last long into the day. Norlad, recalling the day, remembered how the three of them seemed nigh inseparable, and how they all seemed to grow happier and brighter as the day passed. Though, he supposed, that could be chalked up to the wine. He had noticed how Boromir and Sedryn, though newly married, still addressed Faramir as much as they did each other. Courage, Healing, and Wisdom – it was extraordinarily apt.
By the end of the day Sedryn was exhausted but happy. The wedding had gone off beautifully, and there had been dozens of toasts to the new bride and groom wishing their health and happiness. But finally, when hours later the festivities ended and the last of the well-wishers had gone their way Boromir took Sedryn's arm and led her to their House, laying a gentle kiss on her cheek in response to her sudden blushes…
(1) Mark 10:8