My Big Fat Royal Wedding
I held Mordred and Freya tightly and when I let go gave Mordred a light smack over the head. "Don't EVER threaten anyone with magic! I taught you better than that!" He looked at the floor and then I titled his chin up, "And don't ever scare me like that." I kissed his forehead affectionately and he grinned up at me. "Now Mordred, at the edge of the woods is some baby's breath, I need you to fetch me two bundles, and when you're done with that meet me here and you will apologize to Prince Arthur and King Uther." He nodded and rushed off.
"It's good to see you Lady Emrys," Freya said. I hugged her and she smiled. "I assume you want me to begin work on your dress immediately."
"Freya, calm yourself. You need time to rest, take some time to relax and explore before we start. Tomorrow we can start but today I show you around." I walked her around and explained about the restrictions on magic.
"How can King Uther ask someone to suppress their gifts, it's ridiculous."
"I know but it is the law," I said and we walked toward the lower town passing the training field. I waved to Arthur, Gwaine and Leon. They all three smiled and Arthur gave an order while he walked over.
"Hello Merlin," Arthur said grinning. Freya shot an icy glare at him. I barely caught it ad luckily Arthur didn't.
"Hello Arthur, this is my handmaid Freya, Freya this is Arthur, my fiancé," I introduced. Arthur bowed and Freya curtsied. "She's the one that will be making my dress."
"Well, I give you the best of luck Freya, and I must be off love." He gave me a quick kiss on the cheek, receiving whistles from the knights, especially Gwaine, and he headed back to training. He started yelling orders and I heard a collective groan from the knights. I chuckled and I saw Mordred running toward the castle he didn't see us.
"You should tell him," I said watching him climb the stairs.
"Tell who what my lady?"
"Mordred, what you feel. I think that it might be a good match, you and him."
"I c-could n-never," Freya stuttered.
"You'll be fine. Don't beat around the bush, come out and say it to him straight," I said walking again. She nodded and I left the topic open. "Freya, you'll have to tell him sometime."
"I know it's just a scary thought, telling the person you care for most that you do. Having to face the rewards or consequences. I know he still loves you and I'm scared he won't want me. I'm not you Lady Emrys," she said watching her feet.
"It's hard. Whoever said love was easy was a fool," I said turning back toward the castle. The walk back was peaceful but then a crowd of servants came sweeping through the halls all headed in the same direction, the audience chamber. We broke through and made our way to our chambers and Freya started to pull fabrics, paper, and a pen set from her bag. "What are you doing?"
"Well my lady, you have to decide what style and what fabrics you want in your dress before I make it. I'll sketch up a few designs and you can look at the fabrics," she said getting to work. I looked and felt each fabric and it was all so nice that I had to have help, Guinevere.
"I need help Gwen. I don't have any idea what to choose. What do you think?" I asked looking at the table, half covered in fabric the other in wadded and stacked pieces of paper. One stack that was blank, the other, a much smaller stack, scribbled on by my maid who was deep in thought.
"Well Merlin, what colors do you want it to be?" she asked.
I thought, "Well, I wanted it to tie in the culture of Ealdor and Camelot."
"Please don't tell me you're going to say blue, red , gold, and silver Lady Emrys," Freya said looking up.
"No, I meant that I wanted the white that most people wear here and the green of the Druids from back home." I snapped. "I'm not sure what shade of green though."
"Well, here are some greens and here is some white," Gwen said pulling a few fabrics closer and moving the other fabrics onto my bed. She laid out the four greens and three whites side by side. "Now does that help?"
I nodded vigorously. "Will you stay though?" I asked sounding like a frightened child. At that moment Mordred came in panting and red faced. He produced the flowers from under his cloak and handed them to me. "What happened?"
"I… got lost…couldn't find it…" he panted.
"Alright just sit down and get your breath," I said turning back to my choices. I ran each fabric through my fingers making sure they were too scratchy. One particular white fabric felt watery and I lived the way it moved when I picked it up.
"Lovely isn't it?" Freya said. "The texture and the flow makes it a good choice." She watched me intently.
"This is defiantly my choice for white. It's spectacular!" I said. I heard Mordred stifle a giggle. "And what are you laughing at young man?" I asked sounding like my mother.
"Nothing. I don't see why it's a big deal to get a new dress just to get married," he said wrinkling his nose. "I hate having to stand there and get measured. It takes so long! And when they pin them to make sure they fit right, its torture!" he said sticking his tongue out.
"Well Mordred. For one thing Lady Emrys is royalty and she's marrying royalty. It's important for her to look her best," Freya lectured. "Lady Emrys may be different than them but she stills has to follow customs."
"Alright Freya, I get it." He looked at her obviously in thought.
I looked at the different shades of green and thought. I didn't really want to green to blend in with the white so I pushed the pastels away and that left two. One was a grassy green and the other was a deep forest green. "I like both of them," I said thinking out loud. "I don't want to green to be obnoxious, it's just there as a symbol of who I am. I think I'll go with this one." I picked up the grass colored fabric and set it by my choice of white, they looked nice together.
"Well my lady," Freya said. "Here is what I came up with for the styles." She handed me a few papers with her scrawling covering them. I narrowed it down to two in a few minutes. One was quite simple it had a straight neckline with long sleeves that covered almost all of my hands, curls of the green fabric decorated the hems. The other was more complicated, it too had a straight neckline and the sleeves sat around the shoulders, they billowed out at the bottom and around the neckline, waist, and biceps of my arms were a weaving pattern. I looked at Freya and Gwen, they understood my look and Freya started to explain to me the benefits of each dress.
"This first dress is flowy and easy to move in, it has the curls that might help represent that your life here and back in Ealdor are intertwined. The second dress is more suited for your body type. It accentuates your waist and the weaving could be done in green. The bodice could also be done in green or the sleeves. The weaving would symbolize the same thing as the curls if you made a few strand gold and a few strands of silver and green," Freya said.
"I like the second one best," I said pointing. "I'd like to do the weaving like you said and put a strip of green under the weaving. Would that work?"
"I think I could make it work," Freya said standing me up. "Mordred can you start packing up these fabrics? And could you fetch me my ball of yarn? I need to measure Lady Emrys," she said waving at the boy and taking the fabrics she was going to use. I sighed, maybe Mordred was right.
The next days passed quickly and when it was the day before the wedding I didn't think I would sleep but I did. My dream was odd though, no tragedies this time. I was standing on the balcony with Arthur, the one we announced our engagement on, and I was holding a baby. Mordred was standing beside me and Arthur finally stepped forward. "Queen Merlin has borne a son! The natural heir to the throne! Our adopted son Mordred has a brother!"
I woke up and felt like crying from happiness. It was my wedding day and I knew that I would have a least two sons! Freya walked in and rushed to my side. "Are you alright my lady?" she asked concerned. I nodded and swallowed.
"I had a vision," I said.
"What did you see?" she asked. "What happened.
"I saw arthur and myself, and our sons," I said beaming.
"Sons?"
"A natural born son and an adopted one. We adopted Mordred," I said feeling giddiness swell up inside my chest.
"That's wonderful!"Freya said. "I'm happy for you." she looked overjoyed and she had a bounce in her step.
"The dress is beautiful Freya," I said as I ate a few strawberries and drank some water. "Extraordinary!'
"Thank you." She pulled out the magnificent dress and shook it lightly. It would have shimmered if the curtains hadn't been closed. No curious courtiers, servants, or Arthurs were allowed to see the dress until I was walking down the aisle to my future. She helped me get into it and I looked in the mirror, I'd never seen it complete on me, it was gorgeous. "Here, from Mordred and myself," Freya said. She lifted up a marital wreath of roses, baby's breath, daisies, and forget-me-nots. She had pinned my veil to it and placed it on my head carefully.
"Thank you," I said hugging her gently. "I love it."
"Are you ready to get married Lady Emrys?" I nodded. "Well go on then," she said her eyes tearing up. I peeked outside and there stood my parents.
"You look stunning Merlin!" my mother trilled. My father nodded and they both took my arms. The walked me to the doors of the audience chamber and my father peeked in and talked to someone in a hushed voice. He nodded finally and I heard trumpets. The doors swung open and there was Arthur staring in shock as I proceeded down the aisle. I nodded to people I knew and when I saw Gwaine he whistled making me blush. He smiled and that's when I spotted Leon, he too was smiling and gave me the thumbs up next to him was Morgana who smiled brightly. I nodded in response. I saw Lancelot and he smiled and next to him was Gwen who was tearing up. I spotted a few of the other knights I had met in the last few days, Sir Percival, the funniest, strongest, and sweetest knight, Sir Elyan, Gwen's brother, and Sir Tristan with Isolt who he was courting. Percival smiled as did Elyan and Tristan looked ahead at attention and Isolt smiled encouragingly. I looked back forward and when I was almost to Arthur my mother kissed my cheek and my father walked ahead until Arthur and I faced each other. He handed me to Arthur and I watched him leave. I spotted Gaius and he smiled. I smiled back and faced Uther.
"Good morning everyone, friends, knights, and nobility. Today we celebrate the joining of our own Prince Arthur and the girl that captured his, and all of our hearts, Princess Merlin of Ealdor," Uther coughed a bit and continued, "Arthur, do you commit yourself, in front of these witnesses that you will honor cherish and be faithful to Merlin as long as you shall live?"
"I will, with all my hear promise to honor, cherish, and be faithful to Merlin," he said. He smiled and I grinned back.
"Merlin, do you commit yourself, in front of all these witnesses that you will honor, cherish, and be faithful to Arthur as long as you shall live?"
"I will, I pledge that I will promise to honor, cherish, and be faithful to Arthur," I said feeling my heart swell.
"The rings and ceremonial tie," Uther said and a servant gave it to him. Uther cough a bit more harshly but continued. "I want you two to put these rings on each other's fingers to be symbolic of your unending love for each other." Arthur took the smaller ring, quite similar to my engagement ring and slipped it on my ring finger in my right hand. I did the same with a solid gold band to his ring finger on his right hand. "Now, to symbolize your eternal ties to each other I bind your right hand Arthur and Merlin's left." He tied the red ribbon to our wrists and we held them up for everyone to see. "I now pronounce you husband and wife. Kiss the bride," Uther said finally. Arthur kissed me and I felt realization ripple through me, I was Arthur's wife. I heard cat-calls and whistles from the knights, especially Gwaine and Lancelot, and the rest cheered. We walked to the banquet hall and there we toasted to our marriage and danced. At first it was hard with the ribbon in the way but then we got used to it and it was easier. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Freya talking to Mordred and they danced to an upbeat Druid dance that only Freya, Mordred, and myself knew so I guided Arthur.
When the night was over I couldn't stop giggling. "What are you so giggly about?" Arthur asked leading me down a corridor.
"I'm your wife now, why shouldn't I be giggly?" I said holding his hand in mine.
"I should be giggly because I'm your husband now," Arthur said nuzzling my nose. "Come on let's get you to bed."
"My chambers are that way," I said pointing in the opposite direction that we were going.
"We're married, you're staying in our chamber tonight," he said emphasizing the word ours. I kept walking and swung his hand playfully. When we got inside Arthur locked the door and kissed me passionately. The sensation made my head spin, I felt like I was floating and grounded at the same time. I felt a spark of electricity run through me and Arthur jumped back. "Ow."
"What?"
"You shocked me," he said. "Your eyes are gold."
"That's what happens when I use magic. My magic must have reacted to you," I said. He looked at me then reclaimed my mouth for his own. The kiss grew heated and we eventually ended up lying on the bed with him hovering over me.
"Just tell me to stop and I will," he said panting.
"Trying to scare me Arthur Pendragon?" I challenged.
"Have it your way," he said and we didn't get much sleep that night.