Kayden couldn't think. She couldn't breathe. She didn't even remember Bellamy walking her back to the main area. All she knew was that suddenly, she was standing in the trees nearby the celebration, watching as the people gathered and split to form an aisle. She watched Bellamy walk down the empty path and take is place next to an older man holding a tray with 2 shiny objects on it. Kayden immediately recognized them as rings.
She sucked in a breath. Her heart was pounding fast. She saw the Commander and a few of her councillors standing at the opening of the aisle. The Commander whispered something to the guard next to her and he ran off somewhere. Kayden realized they were looking for her. They couldn't see here where she was though, hidden by the trees. It was getting dark.
I could do it, she thought to herself. I could run. They wouldn't find me. No one would know.
For the first time since all this had happened, since she'd agreed to go through with it and do her duty, Kayden looked inwards. She contemplated every choice she'd ever made, every action she ever took, every minute detail that had lead her here, to this moment in time. Time seemed to stop. She heard nothing. She felt nothing. She saw nothing.
And then she did.
She heard the people; heard them talking and laughing and joking and celebrating and cheering. She looked up and saw them hugging each other, clapping each other on the backs, fathers raising their sons on their shoulders, mothers pulling their daughters in close. It was so beautiful that, without realizing it, Kayden had begun tearing.
Then she imagined these people running, screaming, fleeing a war zone. She imagined them bloody and battered and… dead. Then she imagined her own people. Mutants being captured and tortured and experimented on. Kayden then decided with crushing realization that she knew what she had to do.
She dried the single tear from her cheek, gathered her dress, held her chin up proudly, and walked toward the Commander at the aisle's beginning. At first, nobody saw her. But then, as people started noticing her, they would stop talking and their neighbors would look and do the same. By the time she reached the Commander, the entire gathering was silent, all eyes on her.
The Commander looked at her, and for the first time since Kayden had known her, her eyes weren't that cold, distant blue. They were soft and warm and looked at her with such tenderness that Kayden wondered if her mother had somehow come back from the dead to possess the Commander's body. She had always looked at Kayden like that.
Grimelda took her hands and pulled her into an embrace; the only one Kayden had ever received from the Commander. When Grimelda pulled away, her eyes were watery. She didn't say anything but Kayden understood, like she always had. Goodbye.
Then the Commander did something even more unexpected. She pulled Kayden a bit closer and placed a light kiss on her forehead. "You're all of us," she said. Then she pulled back and suddenly, Kayden was standing alone.
She took a deep breath and turned around. All eyes were on her. She looked up and suddenly there were no people, no guards, no Commander or Chancellor or Councillors. It was just her and Bellamy.
It was easy to focus on him. He was staring right back at her and the two just looked at each other as she walked down the aisle. Not with love. Not with passion. But with something greater. A shared understanding. A mutual agreement to omit all emotion for the time being and simply do what needed to be done.
When Kayden reached him, she turned to face Bellamy slowly and raised her head to him. He stared back at her. He wasn't smiling but his eyes were warm. Warmer than she expected. She could get lost in those eyes. He offered her his hand and she placed her own in his, resting it lightly.
The time passed slowly, endlessly. She heard bits and pieces of the man's speech. "Alliance" and "holy matrimony" and whatnot. The man tied a ribbon around their clasped hands, symbolizing the joining of two entities. Then, without looking away from her, Bellamy took the ring the man offered to him. The next words she heard clear as a bell.
"Do you, Bellamy Blake take Kayden Stark to be your lawfully wedded wife. To have and to hold, to forsake all others and be faithful only to her. For better or worse, with riches or poverty, through sickness and in health, until death do you part."
"I do," he breathed. He placed the ring on her finger. It was nothing special; a simple gold band with a spiraling design on it. The ring was cold but Bellamy's hands were warm. Then the man turned to her.
"And do you, Kayden Stark, take Bellamy Blake to be your lawfully wedded husband. To have and to hold, to forsake all others and be faithful only to him. For better or worse, with riches or poverty, in sickness and in health, until death do you part."
"I do," she said, not taking her eyes off Bellamy. She slid the matching band onto his finger.
"Then without further ado," the man announced to the people; he spoke the next line more quietly; kindly to her and Bellamy, "you may kiss the bride."
Kayden and Bellamy were still looking at each other when they leaned in. Bellamy hesitated, but Kayden closed the gap between them.
The kiss wasn't anything dramatic. Just a light press of their lips and then it was done and everyone was cheering and celebrating again like they had before. The people progressed to the second celebration. It was dark by now so there was a bonfire set up and music and dancing commenced by the firelight.
Bellamy and Kayden were led to the Head table and told to take their seats in the middle, replacing the Chancellor and her councillors. It felt strange to be sitting where she knew the leaders of the Ark were supposed to sit, but her nerves finally caught up with her and she was suddenly grateful that they had somewhere to sit rather than having to mingle with the people.
For the first time since she'd entered the camp, she realized she was hungry. She was about to get up to go get some food but Jaha stopped her and gestured for her to sit back down.
"Please, allow me," he said. He didn't say anything more before he walked off towards the buffet, but the message was clear. The Chancellor wants you two on display.
When Jaha came back with a plate of all different kinds of food, meat and fruits and bread, she thanked him politely. He bowed to her and walked off to chat with one of her own people's councillors. Kayden ate in silence.
The brief moment that she and Bellamy had shared at the altar was gone now. All they were left with was the aftermath of what had occurred. The crushing realization of the events that had come to pass. They were married now, husband and wife. And they knew next to nothing about each other.
Kayden was grateful when their awkward silence was broken by the arrival of the Chancellor and her councillors. Kane was next to Chancellor Abby, holding a brown box. He placed it on the table in front of Kayden and Bellamy.
"A gift," Abby said sweetly, "for the lovely couple. May your bond be strong enough for us all." The gesture was kind but the Chancellor's voice was cold as ever. Her intent was clear. Screw this up, her words said, and it will be over for all of us.
Her councillors then proceeded to offer them a few smaller gifts. Jaha was the last to offer a present. He placed a black and white checkered board on the table and set a box down next to it.
"A chess set," he explained. "It brought many fond memories to me and my family. My son is gone now," he got a distant, pained expression on his face, "but I hope it brings you as much joy as it brought me and my child." He smiled at Kayden one last time and she thanked him for his gift and kind words. He bowed once more and turned to leave.
When Jaha walked away, the Commander stepped up with her Councilmen. She gestured to her guard to put down the box he was holding and take out the object. He reached into the container and laid a round object on the table. It was colored with a mix of purple and blue that glistened from within the glass shape.
At first glance, the object seemed harmless enough. But Kayden sucked in a breath as she realized what it was. Glimmer, she thought, taken aback. Glimmer was a particularly talented mutant who was in charge of distant communications back at camp. She had the ability to create small orbs which she could speak through, one of which was contained in the glass ball that Grimelda had just offered to Kayden.
The Commander was giving Kayden a direct emergency line straight back to her.
She flashed alert eyes at Grimelda. The Commander spoke calmly.
"A gift, from our people to you. We hope that it gives you the strength to see the right path when it is unclear," she turned to Kayden, "and do what must be done to ensure safe passage for us all."
She offered no further insight to Kayden and walked off gracefully, her guards following obediently in her wake. Kayden didn't hear the rest of the councillors present their gifts.
When they were all finished, the man who had conducted their ceremony walked up to them. He looked at Kayden as if it pained him to be the one delivering the news. Like with Jaha, Kayden got the feeling that he seemed to understand their situation better than most.
"It's time," he said simply.
At first, she didn't understand. But then her heart pounded when she realized what was happening. The final step in their marriage.
Consummation.