A blue haired young man sat on the edge of Kardia's dock, absentmindedly swinging his legs and watching the waves hit the shore. A piece of flower embossed paper was clenched in his hand, most of the words smeared into unintelligible chicken scratch from how often it had been read over.

"Nicolas!"

He turned around to see Sabrina, his mother, and a couple steps behind her was Neumann, just at the edge of the wharf. Neumann had been remarried to Sabrina for the last nine years, and Nicolas was happy for them, but now, with the letter in his hand, he couldn't help but to grudge them that a little bit.

"Russell wants to know if you plan on going to the wedding. He doesn't think he'll be able to, but he thinks that someone from Kardia should be there for Ceci," Sabrina continued. "I think you should go, Nicolas."

Taken aback, and before he even really knew what he was doing, Nicolas nodded silently in agreement. He hadn't really been planning on going, but he would. For Russell, of course, not for himself.

"Great! I'll let Russell know!" And with that, his mom and Neumann walked off, swinging their clasped hands together between them.

Nicolas sighed wistfully and turned back to the ocean. He knew that his old friend Cecilia would have a wedding one day, but he had tended to favour the thought that it would be to him, not to some other man. When he truly thought about it though, he knew she would never have married him, not when he realized that her letters had started to come less often, and they were always full of Kyle. Kyle this and Kyle that. For every three letters he wrote to her, she replied with one. Back then, he had thought she was mad at him for not visiting. It wasn't that he hadn't wanted to, it was that eventually he would have to come back home and leave her there. Like when she had left Kardia, it was too painful to put himself through again. And now he could finally stomach the fact that she hadn't cared whether he visited or not, since it was only Kyle that mattered to her.

He shook his head at himself, angrily. How could he have been so blind? And why the hell did he just agree to go to the wedding?

Resignedly, Nicolas crunched up the letter in his hand and threw it out into the ocean before getting up and returning home to start packing.

Dear Nicolas,

You'll never believe it, but I'm getting married! Remember that farmer, Kyle, that I mentioned in the last few letters I sent to you? Well, he proposed, and I accepted! I'll get to live on a farm and have monsters and everything, just like Raguna. Oh, Kyle is so much like Raguna, I know you'll love him when you meet him. You will come to wedding, won't you, Nicolas? I haven't seen you in forever, and I'd really like for you to come.

Love, Cecilia

Nicolas sat in the back row of Alvarna's church, slouching down in his seat in an attempt to avoid the stares of the town's citizens. Almost all of them had asked who he was, and when he had told them his name, they had looked at him with pity, or in the case of the elf, Jake, laughed derisively. As if they knew anything about him and his relationship with Ceci.

He knew it had been a mistake to come. He didn't need these strangers' stares or condolences. Nor did he truly want to see his childhood friend walk down the aisle to be married to that farmer who was eerily similar to Raguna.

"Excuse me, is this seat taken?"

Pulled from his melancholy thoughts, Nicolas looked up, meeting the eyes of a woman around the same age as him. She was pale with dark hair and looked almost foreign. Her bright blue eyes shocked him, and she had to clear her throat to bring him back down to earth. "Oh, yeah. I mean, no, it's not taken. You can sit there," he said, picking his jaw up off the floor.

"I'm Yue, a traveling merchant. I haven't seen you around before, are you new here?" she asked him, sticking out her hand for him to shake.

Nicolas shook his head. "No, I'm a… friend of Ceci's from Kardia. Nicolas."

"Oh! Cecilia's told us tons about you! She really likes you, you know. I always thought… but, never mind." She blushed, and his face turned red as he looked away.

The music started then, and the back doors were opened to reveal the half elven girl, all decked out in her wedding dress. Nicolas watched her silently as she moved up the aisle to join her soon to be husband. After such a long time of not seeing her, he couldn't believe how beautiful she had become, and how stunning she looked in her white dress. But now, in the heat of the moment, he found his heart did not hurt quite as much as he had thought it would.

Just then, Yue whispered a comment into his ear about the funny little hat on Kyle's head, and Nicolas had to quickly cover his mouth to prevent a rather loud laugh from echoing around the church.

He found that he could watch the rest of the ceremony without grimacing, and could even walk up and congratulate the two newlyweds, with a little help from Yue. He managed to hold himself together when Cecilia squealed like a little girl and smothered him with hugs. And he even made it through the reception, and watched her kiss Kyle without so much as a pained cringe. He even found that he liked Kyle, which surprised him to no end. Maybe it wasn't a mistake to come here, after all.

His trip was pushed out another week when Yue asked him to stay a while longer, to show him the sights around Alvarna. He hadn't planned on it, but it ended up turning into one of the best weeks he had had in a long time. When it came time for him to go home, he found himself reluctant to leave, but not because of Cecilia.

Dear Mom,

Russell would have been so proud of Ceci. She looked amazing as she walked down the aisle towards Kyle, and the smile on her face was dazzling. If Russell was worried about their marriage, he has no reason to be, for I think- no, I know they will be really happy together. I have to admit… I am a little jealous of him. I mean, they.

You're probably wondering what's been taking me so long to get home. Don't worry, I'm alright! I made it through the wedding, with help from a girl I met there. Her name is Yue, and she's loud, confident and makes me laugh so easily. She offered to show me around Alvarna for a while and I couldn't say no, of course. You would understand if you saw the place, mother, it's very beautiful and I just couldn't leave right away. But now, I'm on my way home. Yue promised she would come to visit, so you'll be able to meet her. Soon, I hope.

Love, Nicolas