Broken Wings
N.W. 2537
A Queen Among Women

Lloyd Aurion was, perhaps, the luckiest man in Doromir. Well, in his opinion at least. He knew there were plenty of men and women who detested his very existence, and he could care less about them.

He was getting married.

Well, again, but Corellia knew about Colette (and Lilia), and though they'd originally meant to hold to the dwarven tradition of living together, raising any children together, but not marrying...

They'd made friends as the days passed. The minor lord for whom Lloyd had needed to work through the night for to complete his order. A couple captains, whose ships Lloyd had made parts for, and whom Corellia had brought to his shop on their request. A trio of half-elves who'd come into town to get away from Kelduan had wandered into Lloyd's shop by accident, but had each left with their own new treasure.

Harold, the lone male of the three, had seen through the illusion hiding the Flamberge, and as he'd proven himself to be a swordsman in his own right, the brilliant crimson blade had been gifted to him with the same rule Lloyd gave everyone to whom he lent the blades.

Elysia, the youngest, had spotted a broken necklace laying on Lloyd's workbench, a necklace Lord Lyle Orenterre had thrown in with a number of other half-destroyed items of value. She'd recognized the stone in it as a gem the elves called a unicorn's tear, and Lloyd had gladly finished fixing it and gifted it to the healer.

Darbe, who at first had seemed to simply be following along behind the other two without any real purpose, had left with her companions initially, and then returned with a flower-shaped crystal, a set of worn golden rings, enough ivory to make any respectable lady of the court jealous, and a painting of what appeared, at a glance, to be some kind of strange, flat wind chime.

But when the project was finished, Darbe showed him what it was truly for, and he had to admit to being impressed by how much the cymbal could enhance her mana control.

And now, months later, he counted the three among his friends... which had led to today. Their friends had found out about what he and Corellia were planning, and had demanded an actual wedding.

Thus it was that Lloyd found himself walking the impressive gardens of the Orenterre Manor, which had been strung up with ribbons and flowers and the delicate, painted paper lanterns he'd insisted upon when Elysia had grabbed up Lyle's three daughters and begun planning the decorations. The wedding would be small, all things considered, and rather more informal than Lyle's eldest had wanted.

And he... he was actually dressed up, again, for the second time in as many decades. Lyle had brought in his tailor for both Lloyd and Corellia, and Lloyd had found himself quite pleased with the man due to how well he'd listened to Lloyd's requests.

"I must admit that I'm impressed. You clean up quite nicely, Master Blacksmith," Lyle said as he strolled across the yard, a large hound at his heels as was often the case. Though most of the Orenterre dogs would stay in their kennels, the one Lyle called 'Rhodey' refused to do so, and followed him around wherever he may go.

Lloyd sighed, shrugged, and reached down to offer scratches to Rhodey, much to the hound's delight. "The other angel that still flies was nobility, a long time ago. He dragged me along to so many parties that there are days I remember those times and find myself grateful they ended within a couple centuries. I don't think I could still be doing that now, not thousands of years later. The dwarven court was bad enough."

"I wasn't aware the dwarves had anything resembling a monarchy," Lyle said.

"The monarchy came and went with the times. In the centuries I lived alongside them, they didn't, not until right near the end when the four remaining cities all combined, the inhabitants of three all making the long trek to the fourth. They elected their first king by popular vote... and the position was passed down from him, to his son, to his son, to his daughter, to her son, whose wife died giving birth. King Arandur followed his queen when the little prince was but a few years old... and having stood by the kings and queens of the dwarves since the first, it fell to me to raise the boy," Lloyd admitted. "I had the great honor of being called 'father' by King Athame... the last of the dwarven kings."

Lyle was silent for a moment as they found their way to the pavilion that had been set up for the wedding. "The dwarves are gone, aren't they?"

Lloyd took a deep breath. "At present, I am the last dwarf-kin whose fires yet burn. The rest have been returned to the earth from whence they came... save for Athame, who requested a special burial so that when the gates of Vraelheim fail and city is found, those who find it will know what it is they have uncovered."

"I'm sorry."

Lloyd blinked, and looked over at Lyle in confusion. "What for?"

The graying noble smirked. "Your bride is going to have my head if I don't get you smiling again before she comes down the aisle."

Lloyd chuckled. "Eh... I'll be grinning like an idiot the second I see her. I did for Colette, and for Lilia the day I gave her... Well. I explained dwarven courtships, right?"

"All I got out of my daughter was something about dwarves not marrying," the man replied.

"They didn't. And I never married Lilia. I helped her raise her son, I supported her when she couldn't make ends meet on her own, I gave her gifts made by my own hand, and she allowed me to share her house and her bed. Any dwarf who'd watched the two of us would have said we were a couple, and never looked for rings."

"And that was what you'd been planning with Corellia?"

Lloyd nodded. "Yes. The elves don't really marry in the human sense of the word, either, and though she's been living among humans for decades, she was raised by her father, who was an elf. So we were planning to effectively split the difference between the elven and dwarven customs and go with that." A wry smirk got aimed Lyle's way. "Your daughters, on the other hand..."

The noble chuckled. "Yes, they do get rather pushy when they don't like something, don't they? I must say that I'm impressed with how quickly you all managed to put things together, though."

Lloyd shrugged. "Five weeks is better than three."

"You must be joking."

"Nope. Colette and I had just come this close to dying, and we needed each other more than anything. I just wish I'd been enough to keep her going."

"And... you're brooding again."

Lloyd laughed, paying no heed to the thankfully small list of guests as they entered the pavilion to witness the marriage that would be occurring today. "I wouldn't call it brooding..."

"You'd better not be, or I'm going to have a very annoyed bride on my hands."

"Our hands," Harold corrected Lyle as he joined the two of them near the altar. "Though I have to ask, who's presiding?"

Lloyd smirked. "And that is exactly why I succeeded in talking Lizbeth into not inviting the entire town."

Harold and Lyle both gave him wary looks, and Lloyd gestured toward the woods at the edge of the property. He could see Verius, Origin, and Martel with ease due to his angelic sight, but the human and half-elf would have to squint just to see Verius, whose bright fur made her the most visible of the three.

Harold gasped. "That fox..."

"It's not alone, either. Though I'm not sure if the green one is my imagination or not," Lyle added.

Lloyd shook his head. "The fox is Verius, a summon spirit whose powers are over the heart and the deepest wishes within each heart. Her power wanes and waxes as the harmony between the various communities does. But she officiated at my wedding to Colette, so I wanted to invite her to this one... even though a certain other spirit got first dibs on officiating today."

"Oh?"

Lloyd chuckled. "The one you can probably see easily is Origin, spirit of creation. We have a pact that's held strong for nearly as long as I've lived. When he found out we'd forgotten to invite him to my wedding to Colette, he kinda got a little upset. So when Lizbeth insisted on this..."

"You offered to let him officiate," Harold finished, impressed.

"And the blue-haired lady in green currently making her way across the field?"

Lloyd froze, blinked, and then looked over at Martel again.

He'd seen her back in the forest, but the shadows had made her hair color difficult to discern. With her crossing the distance between the trees and the pavilion, though, it was quite apparent that she had, indeed, changed her appearance since last he'd seen her.

And he knew that shade of blue. He remembered it so clearly. How could he not, when the last time he'd seen it, he'd brushed it aside so that he could close sightless silver eyes?

"You're staring, big brother."

Lloyd blinked twice, then shook his head. "You surprised me, little sister. I just saw you a few weeks ago, after all. I wasn't expecting the color change," he admitted, brushing a bit of now-blue hair over her shoulder.

Martel's face colored a bit and she ducked her head. "Do you like it...?"

He smiled. "It's lovely. Not quite your color though."

The spirit giggled. "Always honest."

"You'd hit me upside the head with that staff if I weren't," he pointed out.

"Too true. She's already knocked me upside the head a few times this morning," Origin stated as he and Verius joined them as well. "Though, that might have been more because Verius and I were arguing than anything else."

He couldn't resist rolling his eyes and shooting Lyle and Harold a look that screamed 'what can I do'? "I don't think I've ever known you two to not argue. The only other spirit Verius had trouble getting along with was Ratatosk, and that..."

"That was aimed more at Emil than me," Verius confirmed. "Hm... I think the ladies are ready to begin."

Lloyd took a deep breath, anticipation swelling as he realized it was nearly time.

Lilia's jewelry set had been silver and sapphire. Colette's had been gold and amethyst.

Corellia's was copper, because gold wasn't her metal at all and she had a mild allergy to silver, and because bronze was too dark. Copper, emerald, and peridot to match her bright green eyes.

Her dress wasn't white.

She'd insisted on that, claiming that her hair was just a shade off of white, and she didn't want her veil and dress to simply turn her into a solid spot of white. Lloyd had quickly seconded that, and told Lizbeth of Raine's wedding, and the fact that the Professor had worn a lavender gown.

Corellia's was a soft peach, with green embroidery. The copper bridal ensemble he'd made for her shone, harsher than her dress, but a nice complement, her tiara rather more elaborate to make, though also more elegant in design.

Colette, trapped at sixteen from the moment she'd accepted her Cruxis Crystal to the day Zelos had destroyed the stone, had looked like a princess on their wedding day...

The woman who stood before him now, from whom Lloyd could not tear his eyes, was a queen, with all the grace and elegance of the elves and the determination of a human.

It was probably a good thing that he and Origin had a mental link... because he didn't hear a word the spirit of creation said.