Typical Wedding

Writers: Eimi, Paula
Date Posted: 21st April 2011

Characters: U'kaiah, Aileyan
Description: Aileyan and U'kaiah talk before the wedding ceremony.
Location: Harper Hall
Date: month 13, day 29 of Turn 6
Notes: Mentioned: Merlish

"Aileyan," U'kaiah smiled, bouncing Ravyan on his shoulder.
"Where have you been?"

"I went to see my father and his bride with my sister," Aileyan
replied.

"Oh. How'd it go?" The bronzerider wasn't exactly sure how to read her
face, but that was pretty normal when dealing with Aileyan.

"Awkward. She was so young! She can't be much older than me," she
grimaced. "Not what I expected."

"You didn't know?" U'kaiah asked, rather surprised that bit of
information had escaped her. "I thought only young women married in
Holds."

"Usually, but sometimes older women remarry if they lose their first
husband," Aileyan replied, "Supose I wasn't really thinking it," she
shrugged.

The bronzerider had only ever gone to the weddings of powerful people,
and they always seemed to marry young, so he had just assumed. "So, did
you like her?"

"Hard to say. She didn't talk much. She must be as shy as I am," Aileyan
said, laughing shortly for the irony of the thing.

"Maybe so." U'kaiah knew well just how reserved the greenrider could
be. "Do they seem to love each other?" he asked, figuring that was the
more important point for a wedding.

"No, trust me, this is purely arranged affair," Aileyan replied.

That also seemed to fit his image of a Hold wedding. "Well, thank
Faranth you escaped that life, eh?"

"Thank Faranth indeed," she agreed and slipped her arm to his. She was
well aware thet she would probably been died in childbed by now if she
had not Impressed.

He squeezed her arm gently against him as his other arm held her son
steady on his shoulder. "And you're lucky, too, little man." Afterall,
he owed his young life to an event that would shock most of the men and
women who swirled around them. "Do you ever regret it?" he asked
Aileyan. "There has to be something about this life that you miss."

"Let's see.. husband I barely know or don't like, nope. Dying on child
birth, nope," she ticked them off with her fingers, "Being subservient
to a man, nope. Mother and mother-in-laws, nope. What's left," she grinned.

"Shards, if you put it like that, why don't more women run off to the
Weyr?" U'kaiah said with a shake of his head. Didn't they even realize
just how restricted their lives were? Just how free they _could_ be?

"It's not so easy to get away," Aileyan said.

"Maybe they just need a handsome bronzerider to tempt them. If the
bride as young and disinterested as you say, I might still have a
chance," he said with a teasing grin.

"Good luck," Aileyan was actually feeling symphathy towards Merlish.
"She didn't seemed the type to run off with anyone. Of course, you never
know."

He shrugged, undaunted. "I tempted you to 'run off with me' before and
there's many a man who I think would have thought _that_ impossible."

"Well, there's that. Shall we go to find a good seats?" Aileyan nodded
and suggested.

"Sure! I'm looking forward to seeing a typical wedding." Though he
didn't know if it would be much different. As a harper, he did know how
to perform a wedding ceremony, but living in a Weyr, he'd never had any
cause to see, let alone officiate one.

"I wonder if there's anything typical in this wedding," she gave a
thoughtful pause. "Or maybe it is typical."

"Well, you'll have to explain the difference afterwards." He found a
seat rather close to the front and nodded for her to go ahead.

After she had gotten seated and smoothed her skirts down, she lifted
Ravyan to her lap. He was getting big and heavy for her. Soon he
wouldn't be able to sit in her lap any longer. That made her sad and she
pulled him to a hug. The boy squirmed, not interested in motherly
affections right now.
"A love marriage would be unusual in a hold and a hall," she remarked.

U'kaiah pulled out a toy for Ravyan from the bag they had brought to
entertain him during the ceremony. "I can't imagine why anyone would
bind themself to someone they don't love."

"Well, I know why but I would never want to do it," Aileyan replied.

"Why?"

"Because you don't have any choice. Because you've been raised to
believe it's your duty," she replied.

That certainly didn't sound like any way to live. "Well," he sighed,
curling his hand around hers, "you're free now. And now no one will try
to make you do anything you don't want to do."

"Thank Faranth to that," she said from the bottom of her heart.

He leaned in to give her cheek a quick peck before the Master Harper
took his place. "I think they're getting ready to start."

Aileyan nodded and settled to watch it.

Last updated on the April 28th 2011

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Typical Wedding