It wasn't long after telling the maids in the castle about our journey that the whole capital was telling the story, and playhouses were showing 'The Legend of the Immortal Lily'. Everyone was obsessed with the legend of the immortal lily. Emboldened lovers would often try to fly through the cloud around Storm Mountain as a testament of love, and it quickly became a premarital ritual. At least they would pack healing potions ahead of time; otherwise, I would have gotten Lysara to shut that practice down. In the weeks leading up to today. I have since regaled our story countless times.
It has been a few months since Thultu's kidnapping incident, and everyone is in full swing for our wedding. It is the event of the capital this season. Everyone is bustling around, working on preparations to make sure it is a grand occasion. We wanted to elope and run away, but Lysara will officially be appointed as the crown princess during our wedding, since she will be the next Demon King, we must stay in the capital.
Queen Elinesha tried to have me go through their queen's training classes, but Lysara talked them into letting me showcase my training to exempt me from taking those classes. She fought so hard on that for me. I think she was worried about my old wounds, but to be honest, I would have gladly sat through training again as her bride. I never voiced that, though. I rather enjoyed watching Lysara fight for me. She enjoyed it, too. I know she could smell my excitement from our shared looks as she was fighting for me. She was so sexy in those moments.
In these months, Leo has returned to our side along with Kenji and CoCo. We make sure that Leo writes to his mother often, though sometimes it feels like pulling teeth. He is a teenager after all. We have decided we are going to take him with us on our honeymoon and just make it a family affair. We are going to put Leo to work to watch Thultu when Lysara and I want to play. That and we want him to travel with us to search for his family to help him. Though since Lysara is the crown princess or will be as soon as we marry, she has to return to the castle often.
We separated a lot during this time.
Lysara would travel with Leo and Kenji to set up teleports around Patala and link them to a station in the capital, while I stayed in the capital with Thultu, Dysis, Sky, and Coco to heal people who teleport to the capital, so healing is all in one place. This way it keeps it simple for the people, so they always know where I am and where they can get help. Lysara has also been providing in-depth safety tutorials for the towns so they can safely use them without any casualties. Commerce has really improved in Patala since her teleports have been put in place, as well as among many other improvements. When King Victor heard of Patala's teleportation magic, talks of another treaty started, but this time it was separate from our union, so the separatists had no reason to object to our marriage when the treaty came back into play.
On the day of our wedding, I am so excited.
The day I have yearned for since I fell in love with Lysara, which was pretty quickly. They separated me and Lysara so we could get ready without seeing each other. They started pampering me like they used to back home before big events. Perfumed hot bath, trimming and filing nails, massage, painting my nails, moisturizing, makeup, hair styling, and finally, wardrobe. Lysara prepared an elegant collar that was white and gold for the ceremony that I am currently wearing. They are putting me in a very dapper white suit with gray, black, and red accents throughout. The dress shirt under the blazer has one arm. The arm that is missing is the side with my lightning scar, and it is beautiful with this outfit. I love it, and I can tell Lysara picked this out for me. Once I am completely made up, I take a look at myself in the mirror. I look really good. Adoni and the other maids did a great job. My hair is perfectly styled in a stylish swoosh. They used grays and blacks in my eye shadow and used a deep red for my lips, but they did an ombre with a black on the top and fading into the red on the lower lip.
Now all that is on my mind is messing up this wonderful lip color.
I just want to kiss Lysara.
One of the maids, who is a succubus, smells my desire and scolds me before I can do anything, "You are not going to Lysara just yet. We will not let you mess up your lip color before the ceremony." I groan in sexual frustration, "Party pooper." The other maids laugh, and then Adoni comes in with jalapeno poppers with blood in the cream cheese, just like I like them, and I munch on some while waiting for the ceremony, while wearing my handkerchief as a bib to protect my dapper outfit. All of the maids love to hear me regaling the tales of our adventures again, especially the part about the immortal lily. They always swoon, "That is just so romantic! I just love hearing this story!"
Adoni comes in and says, "It is time." While wearing a huge smile on her face. A touch I think Lysara will like is me holding a bouquet of immortal lilies. I went back up to Storm Mountain about a month or so ago to get more just for today, but I kept it a surprise for her. During that trip, I got my rematch against Dysis, and now the score is 1 to 1. We will need a tiebreaker sometime. She takes me to the temple where they are having the ceremony, and the first thing I notice when opening the door is Lysara and her brilliance. She was standing up at the altar wearing a gorgeous black and red dress with white and grey lillies sewn beautifully as if cascading down to collect at the foot of her dress. At this moment, it feels like we are alone in this chapel, and it is just us.
I can't take my eyes off of her.
I walk up to the altar, and Lysara has a few tears in her eyes, and she wears a soft smile on her face. I get up to the altar and hold her hand with the one not holding the bouquet. The priest takes my bouquet from me and starts the ceremony, and the whole time, I am only focused on Lysara. We kept squeezing each other's hands and stealing glances while the priest was talking.
Though I am actively participating in this wedding, I am not paying attention because Lysara is so stunning and I can't stop looking at her. The priest motions to the aisle, which awakens me from my trance of looking at Lysara, and I see Thultu riding on Leo in his wolf form. Both of them are in suits and ties, and Thultu is carrying our rings. IT IS SO CUTE! It is at this moment that I remember we have guests and I quickly scan our guests and I see Marie, Father Xavier, Fawynn, Keylira, Naki, Tetra, King Victor and Queen Gloria, and many other familiar faces from Entre and other towns we have visited and also many unfamiliar faces as well. Thultu gets to the altar and hands us our rings like a very good ring bearer. I bend down and kiss him on the head, and he does the up thing with his hands. Lysara and I giggle, and I pick him up and he wraps around my neck and I hold him with one arm. Lysara whispers in my ear, "You know I am a little jealous how he always goes to you first." I giggle more, and the guests are just eating up his adorable antics.
Leo is sitting in his wolf form off to the side with his tail wagging while wearing a serious face. It is adorable in this form, too. The priest says, "Take your partner's ring in hand and place it on their finger and repeat after me. 'I will remain by your side on the best of days.' I take Lysara's ring and place it on her finger, slowly echoing what the priest said as she does the same. The priest continues, "I will remain by your side on the worst of days." We echo him while looking into each other's eyes, and he continues, "I will provide for your every need." We echo him again, and he continues, "I will remain by your side until the end of my days." We echo him, and he then says, "Do you have vows you would like to say to one another?"
I start off by saying, with tears escaping my eyes, "Lysara, from the moment you entered my life, it has been a breath of fresh air. I was barely living, barely breathing, and you came and rescued me and brought me back to life and showed me how to live. You have taught me a lot of things about this world throughout our journey together. You have supported me ever since we met, staying by my side at your own risk. There is nothing I desire more in this life than to provide you the same kind of support you have given me and provide you with everything you need."
Lysara responds warmly with tears also escaping her eyes, "You say you want to support me like I have supported you, but I feel the same way. It feels like you have been my rock and supported me all this time. Ever since the first time I met you when you saved me from those humans, you have always seen me for me. You never compared me to anyone else, like everyone else I have ever met. Everyone saw a broken succubus, but you saw a lady succubus. I can say with confidence that the moment you cut me free from those vines and then proceeded to deescalate that situation when we first met, I fell so madly in love with you right then. I never told you before, but I have never starved myself for anyone, but I did for you. I was terrified you would run away from me, and I wanted to treasure you. I want to continue treasuring you. Some people may think that a bouquet of immortal lilies is a national treasure, but to me it's you." There are a few squeals from the audience, and the priest then says, "I now pronounce you wed. You may now kiss one another." Lysara whispers, "I almost don't want to mess up your lipstick. It is so beautiful." I whisper back, "It is funny you say that because I have been imagining you messing it up from the moment I saw my reflection." She purrs and comes in and kisses me.
The priest has two clerics who have pillows with crowns on them and crowns both of us. Once we are crowned, he says in a loud voice, "May the goddess bless your union. Long live crown princesses Lysara and Ariela Nocturae!" The audience all echoes, Long live crown princesses Lysara and Ariela Nocturae!
Ariela Nocturae.
I like that a lot better than Romo. They feel more like family than my own, and I would rather have their name than Romo. That name has hurt me a lot. That name was the core reason for my suffering. Though Lysara's family is a lot less dysfunctional than mine was… Though they obviously still have problems. I hear Queen Gloria ask loudly after the crowd cheers from her segregated viewing section with King Victor for security since they are monarchs, "So when is the immortal lily bouquet going to be thrown? That wouldbe a national treasure if received." Queen Elinesha chimes in, "We have a replacement bouquet for the ceremony. This bouquet will stay in this castle." Queen Gloria groans, and the audience giggles.
We then go into the post-wedding reception party, and Lysara and I start with a dance. She has me remove my blazer so I am in my one-armed dress shirt, showcasing my beautiful lightning scar. I then put all of that queen's training to use and danced the most beautiful dance I have ever danced. This time, I was truly smiling, which made a world of difference. We didn't know this at the time, but people would talk of this dance for decades and even centuries. They took an image using a light magic orb, unbeknownst to us, that captured our joy in the moment of our dance, so future generations could see the dance.
The maids, often during the festivities, would frantically pull me aside and fix my lip color since I would often kiss Lysara, messing it up. Thultu ate so many sweets and crashed into a sugar coma Adoni's lap. Father Xavier was the first person other than Lysara to ask me to dance, and I obviously had to say yes to the man I wished were my father. I then went on to dance with everyone we met on our journey here who came in attendance. It was a very happy and joyous day to mark the beginning of the rest of our very happy and very long marriage.