Chapter 1938: Beautiful Procession

His mothers were away. Myrasyn walked him in Lumi’s place, while Emily walked him for Miri and Katalin both, his primordial mother and his human one.

Emily wore a dress instead of a uniform and held her Master’s arm as if it might be taken from her.

"Master... the mistresses should be... I am only the... forgive me, I told myself I would not-"

"You’ve had my house since the beginning," Quinlan said, and put his hand over hers on his arm. "I’d be honored."

"I’ll tell her everything when she returns," Myrasyn said on his other arm, so quietly that only he heard it, and held on harder.

They walked him. Down the aisle between two lines of weeping elves, past the heads of the Consortium and the beaming Mediator, past Kaede Fujimori, past four beastkin lords and a queen of fourteen, to the foot of the altar where the Dawn Breaker waited.

Emily let go of his arm one finger at a time, curtsied to the Arch Priestess, and went to the front row, where Anna and Beatrice were waiting to hold her up. Myrasyn bowed to Quinlan, then to the altar, and took her place in the front row beside Felicity.

Then the doors at the far end opened a second time, and the flower girls came through them.

Rosie Elysiar walked in front, solemn as a proclamation, with her hands folded, scattering nothing at all. Overhead, the white canopy did it for her, and petals came down the length of the hall in a slow, steady snow.

Feng Jiai walked one step behind her with a basket, in a formal robe, looking like a younger Ayame who had been told to behave, and threw petals by the handful.

"Rosie is the flower girl," Rosie informed the square, in case anyone had missed it.

"We’re the flower girls," Feng corrected through her teeth.

"Rosie is the flower girl. Feng is the helper."

"Like father like daughter, huh?" Feng grumbled, and kept throwing petals. "Always treating me like a sidekick..."

When they reached the altar, Feng dumped what was left of the basket on the steps, dug the ring box out from under the last of the petals, and took the place at the groom’s left. Then she informed him, with uncharacteristic softness, "I’m happy for you..."

"Thank you, Feng." Quinlan smiled, and was about to give her a headpat when his arm was slapped away.

"I spent the entire morning on my hair! Don’t you dare!" Feng Jiai hissed, and Quinlan grinned.

"My bad. Got carried away."

"Hmph!"

The brides had drawn their order from a hat the night before at Lucille’s suggestion. This was the best way to avoid souring the mood.

Ayame was the first to agree, not wanting to go first just because she was the first woman he met or his second-in-command.

The Hexwitch came first, and the square learned what silence sounded like.

Vex wore white with red accents, no horns, exactly as advised. The woman walking her down the aisle was Black Fang, who had put on black, and the aisle got very wide as she came down it. Behind the pair walked Raika and Orianna, Vex’s sister-disciples under Black Fang.

"Master, you’re walking too fast."

"You are walking too slow."

"It’s a procession! People are supposed to look at me!"

"They are looking at you."

At the altar, Black Fang set her disciple’s hand in Quinlan’s and let go.

"Hubby!!" said Vex, which covered everything else.

Then the Venomborne Terror turned around, and the aisle she had just walked down was empty before anyone saw her leave it.

She was standing at the great doors in the same breath, hands at her sides, waiting for them to open.

Ayame came second.

The samurai walked the aisle in white with her black hair pinned up, glowing brilliantly. On her right arm, in a black coat she had plainly been forced into, was Iris Ravenclaw. On her left... Ayame’s eyes widened.

"Big sis?" Ayame gasped. "You ran."

"I did not run."

"For me...?" Ayame beamed like a second sun, and took Black Fang with her left arm. "What a present... Thank you!"

"..." Black Fang merely held her hand tighter.

The Demon of Vengeance walked stiff as a plank and stared straight ahead.

"Walk faster. Everyone’s staring."

"You’re the one dragging your feet~"

At the foot of the altar Iris put the samurai’s hand into Quinlan’s as if handing over a sack of grain. "Before I beat her up," she told him. Then she went and found a pillar to lean on.

Black Fang put her sister’s other hand into his, held it there for exactly as long as the gesture required, and looked at him once.

Then the Venomborne Terror joined Iris, back against the same pillar, observant.

Vargis Ironfang walked his daughter Kitsara in full war-chief bearing, jaw set, eyes forward, five white tails wrapped around his forearm because the foxkin could not stop them. His sons Darius and Fenrik followed at a respectful distance, mostly to make sure he did not cry in public.

Blossom nearly said yes at the doors.

"Master!!"

Every head in the square turned, and the gorgeous dogkin stood at the far end of the aisle in white with a channel down the back for her tail, ears up, shining with achievement. Her mother Natalie had a hand between those ears, and her elder sister Poppy had the other arm.

"Don’t say yes yet, dummy," Poppy hissed into her ear, as low-key as possible, sweating bullets over her little sis making a fool of herself. As a big sister, she took it as her duty to ensure Blossom was as radiant as possible today.

"Only after the question is asked!! Blossom remembers!" Blossom decreed, tail wagging so hard the doors behind her nearly fell off.

"That’s right, sweetheart," Natalie said, tears streaming. "I’m so happy..."

Blossom was walked down the aisle by her family, and at the altar she looked up at her Master with her whole heart on her face.

Serika came next, and so did the sound of hydraulics.

Rykar Vael, the unyielding anvil of the Fire Nation, walked his daughter down the aisle on four mechanical limbs that hissed at every step, burn scars up his neck, back straight as it had ever been. He was crying so hard he could barely see the altar.

Seraphiel came in moonlight.

Sylvaris of House Vaelorith walked her daughter in the full silver glory of a moon-elf matriarch, and the light coming off her made the white leaves overhead look dim. Sera, shameless in a dress that had been cut to prove several points at once, kept giggling at her mother.

"Mom, stop glowing so much. You’re upstaging me!"

Sylvaris said nothing at all, pressed her lips together, and inclined her head to Quinlan when she gave him her daughter’s hand.

Aurora Lorien came with both parents, and one of them was not going to make it.

Naomi walked on her daughter’s right, steady as a table. Gideon, on her left, had lost the ability to speak somewhere near the doors. The man who lectured nobles without batting an eye could only look at his girl, wipe his face, and try again.

"My girl-"

That was as far as he got, every time.

"Walk, dear," Naomi told him softly.