25. The Wedding
Arganan heard Zael visibly groan as the Gold Spider appeared, and the younger man took out his sword. "Not another spider!"
"Another spider?" Arganan frowned. It sounded like Zael had some familiarity, based on how the other reacted to seeing it appear. "Have you fought them before?"
"Mirania, Yurick, Dagran, and I all fought a huge spider back at the Vono Islands." Zael managed, dodging the spider's attacks before trying to swipe at it a few times with his sword. His hand glowed with the Outsider's power as he tried to make the spider pay attention to him.
Arganan moved to start charging up a healing spell but – that was when the spider released webbing at the three. The Count ducked behind a pillar in time, but as he glanced out toward the rest of the area, he saw that Calista and Zael were both snagged – with Zael being dragged toward the spider.
"No!" Arganan heard Calista cry, but it was too late – the spider moved so fast that it ate up Zael in seconds.
A yelp left Zael from inside the beast, just before Calista got herself loose from the webbing, about to fling Holy magic at the spider. It wasn't often that Arganan saw her angry, but she looked ready to murder the spider with her own bare hands if she could. Despite her attacks, the spider wasn't taking damage. "Stupid spider! Spit him out, now!"
"Calista, wait!" Arganan pulled her out of the way of the spider trying to spit wrebbing at her. "Gold Spiders are immune to Holy magic – there's no use with using it!"
"But what about Zael!?"
"I'm okay!" It was Zael calling from within the beast. Arganan watched the spider writhe in pain – was Zael attacking it from the inside! "Ugh, it's gross in here!"
"Is there any way that you can cut yourself out of there?" the Count called. There was nothing he could do to get Zael out of there, and it wasn't like Calista had any magic to extract Zael from a spider's body!
"Maybe!?"
"Keep trying!"
The spider eventually had enough of the pain, spitting out Zael. The younger man hit the ground, groaning, and Arganan quickly used a healing spell on him – only to grimace as he realized that Zael was covered in both spit, webbing, and blood.
"Eugh. You'll need to clean up after this battle…"
Zael shook his head, standing. "Let's just get this spider finished off first!"
The spider spit out webbing, and this time Arganan found himself snared by the legs, hitting the ground. But he noticed none other than Calista being pulled toward its jaws instead. "Uncle! Zael!"
"Calista!" Zael rushed toward Calista, and managed to make in time to cut her loose from the webbing. "You okay!?"
"I'm fine – Uncle, look out!"
Arganan tried to struggle as the spider pulled him towards its own jaws instead, but he used the opportunity to jam his sword into the ground, delaying his entry into the spider's mouth. Thankfully, Zael used his own abilities to quickly free him of the webbing, pulling him to his feet.
"Thanks…"
"No problem," Zael smiled lightly, before glancing toward the spider. "Let's finish it off – together!"
The rest of the battle was a blur of dodging spiderwebs, trying not to get eaten, and landing hits on it whenever they could. It didn't take long for the spider to be defeated, much to Arganan's joy as well as Zael and Calista's, clearing the path for them to proceed.
The three moved forward, entering into what appeared to be a courtyard area – but Arganan knew it was more than that.
This was where Calista's parents were buried. The magnificent gravestone created for them was still fully intact. A bit dusty and in need of polishing, but it was still there and completely intact. Some of the writing on it faded slightly over the years, but it wasn't completely illegible. The columns at the sides of this isolated area reminded Arganan of the main castle's courtyard.
He watched Calista exhale a breath, before whispering, "Hi Mom. Hi Dad."
Zael wrapped an arm around her in silence, and Arganan stood with them, gazing forward at the gravestone. Would Calista's parents be happy knowing that the war was over? That things were at peace?
Even though they'd lost loved ones, Arganan knew, at least he and Calista had each other. And Zael, and their own friends and others they held dearly. At least there was hope for their future, and a way forward.
"Hey, Zael!"
Huh!? Arganan turned to see none other than Syrenne, Lowell, Yurick, Mirania, Dagran, Therius, and even Asthar present, entering the area. "What are all of you doing here!?"
"We heard that you three were coming here, so we thought we'd pay a visit as well." Lowell chuckled.
"What?" Zael balked. "It would've been a lot easier if you helped us!"
"And miss all that?" Syrenne laughed, pushing a few stray strands of hair out of her face. "Not a chance!"
Arganan thought he saw Yurick smiling. "You work really well together."
"Two's company, but nine of us would be a crowd." Mirania managed, with Asthar chuckling lightly. Even Therius looked mildly amused, despite him usually being so stoic.
"Besides, we would've stepped in if you three really were in a lot of trouble." Dagran stated, and Arganan thought he saw him smiling. "And I overheard you two conversing a little while ago about something important. Mirania?"
"Something important?" Arganan repeated, just before Mirania offered Calista her hand. In her other arm was a dress – white as snow. "Wait, Calista, you and Zael were thinking of…?"
"Getting married?" Calista's face flushed, looking toward her uncle sharply. Clearly she was embarrassed about all of this being discussed here and now. "Z-Zael and I were going to bring it up with you earlier, but then we got caught up in talking about going to this temple and…"
At this point, Arganan figured, he shouldn't be surprised that his niece and Zael were so in love to the point of getting married, even though it was only just after a war. They were happy together, and he liked them together. Besides, it would also look good in the savior of Lazulis married his niece, the eventual Countess-to-be, so…
"Go get ready." Arganan offered his niece a soft smile, giving her a pat on the shoulder with his right hand. "We can discuss figuring out how to publicly let the people know about it later." Sure, it wasn't technically an official ceremony, but this would be worth it.
"Thank you." Calista pulled him into a hug, and Arganan hugged her tight in return, before letting her go.
It didn't take long for Calista to get changed, and Lowell had taken it upon himself to preside the wedding.
"Zael, do you take Calista's hand in marriage?"
Zael looked in awe as he gazed at Calista, taking her hands in his as he said, "I do."
Lowell smiled. "And do you, Calista, take Zael's hand in marriage? Do you both swear to love each other for all eternity?"
"I do," Calista breathed, and neither her nor Zael hesitated to kiss each other.
The others started cheering for the happy couple, and Arganan joined them. Despite there being little pomp and circumstance otherwise involved in this occasion, something about it made him feel light inside – like a heavy burden lifted from his shoulders. For once, everything felt at peace.
It was only then that he realized that none of his past visions had appeared at all, since the war ended. He blinked once, letting that sink in as he glanced at the others and their happy faces. There were those whose demises he prevented other than his own, that could share in this happy occasion too – and he was glad that they were here.
Was this it, then?
Had he avoided whatever foretold doom was supposed to happen? Was this a happy ending for him and everyone else here?
Maybe not quite an ending, he decided, as he watched Calista and Zael kiss, their friends and family cheering for them, but a new beginning.
He didn't know if any more visions would ever appear again foretelling doom. But right now, at least things changed for the better – and he looked forward to seeing it all unfold.
Author note:
Thank you to everyone who read "Avoiding His Doom!" This was incredibly fun to write, and I hope all of you enjoyed reading Arganan's attempts to avoid his own demise (and others, too) throughout the story. Thank you for all the comments, kudos, favorites/alerts – I really do appreciate all the support.
I hope you look forward to reading any future works of mine, whether it be another oneshot or multichapter fic in this fandom, or a different fandom entirely, or one of my original works. I'll be uploading some new oneshots for this fandom in the upcoming weeks and also Happy reading, and thank you once again!