Announcements

Aaron and Lysa make a decision about their future.

12.

Announcements

 

He waited until their guests had returned to the Airship and the men had settled down for the night.    Lysa stood by her bunk, next to Aaron, watching the men prepare for bed.

“It’s somber seeing those dead men’s bunks.”   She finally said as they watched the men.

“I blame that demoness - the more that I think about it, the more certain I am that she somehow manipulated this whole thing.”

“I will sleep better once she is sent back to Hell, Lord.”

“Yes, I will as well.    But I have another thing that threatens to keep sleep from me tonight.”

She looked up at him when he didn’t continue.   Her gentle eyes had a somewhat scared look in them.     He took her hand and led her around the curtain barrier into his section of the bunkhouse.

“Lysa, I wonder if you have thought any more about what I asked today?”

“I’ve thought about it all day, Lord.”   She said, shyly looking down at her feet.

“You’ve been so quiet today.”

“I’m sorry, Lord.    I have fretted all day long.”

“Why?”

“I began to wonder if what you had said to me was an after-effect of that pool.   We were both still wet with the water of it, and maybe you said something that you wouldn’t normally have said.”

“You’re right, Lysa, it was wrong.”  

She looked up at him, stricken, “What?”

“I take that request back.   That wasn’t the proper time.”

“But-“ She was fighting tears and he realized that he was breaking her heart.

“Shh!   Let me do this properly.    I take back that request of you, Lysa.    Let me do it properly.”    Taking her hand in his, Aaron knelt down there on the packed dirt floor of the blockhouse, while pulling the pouch that he had received from Zeatt in his other hand.

“Lysa, I have been very blessed to have found you and had you by my side.     Every day I find that I love you more and more and honestly I don’t feel even remotely worthy of the love of someone as wonderful as you.    What I said to you this morning I now ask again, but with this added in.”   

He opened the pouch with his free hand and shook out a gold ring set with a beautiful diamond.   He held it up to her, “I was going to give you this anyway, for I have worried about your safety for a long time.   It is the Autocaster ring of my mother, which my father had made for her many years ago.    It is obviously much fancier than the usual Autocasters, but he gave it to her out of love.”

“Lysa, this ring is a gift to you, regardless of any answer you give to me, for this ring holds no obligations.   It is for your safety.   I was going to give it to you as a ‘graduation’ gift when we returned to Westmark in a month or so, for I intend to knight you after I present you to the King for approval.    But Zeatt brought it with her, for I had her add some enchantments to it and it has taken her and a bunch of wizards about six months to complete them.”

“It is now a Ring of Regeneration and has protective qualities to it, as well as the usual Autocaster spells.   You have certainly deserved this, Lysa, for your bravery and loyalty to me.”

He took her trembling hand and slipped the ring on her finger.

“There are no strings attached, Lysa.    But since I am kneeling here with your hand in mine, I would like to formally ask you if you would do me the honor of becoming my wife?”

He looked up at her, finding tears streaming down her beautiful cheeks, “What if I say no?”

Aaron shrugged, “Well, then you become my mistress and we create a scandal and probably lose our Paladin status.”

“Well, I certainly don’t want that.”    She pulled him to his feet, “Here is your answer.”   She embraced him and passionately kissed him.   Aaron lost all sense of time and place, lost in bliss.

The kiss lingered on wonderfully, but when it finally broke, Aaron asked, “So is that a yes?”

Lysa nodded amid a roar of laughter from behind them.    All the soldiers had gathered and they broke into a roaring round of applause around the sides of the curtain surrounding Aaron’s section of the blockhouse,.

“You can’t back out now.”  Aaron told her, “I have a roomful of witnesses.”

 

***

 

It took a while for everything to quiet down, but Lysa and Aaron were too excited to sleep.    The Autumn Maid floated just a few feet off the ground and they surprised the crew by knocking on the cabin door and requesting to see Reverend Zeatt.

She knew immediately why and hugged them both as if they were her own children.

“I’m so happy for you both.”  She said, holding each of their hands, “You’ll want a fine wedding, no doubt.”

To the Drow Cleric’s surprise, they both shook their heads.

“We just talked about that, Reverend Mother.”   Aaron told her, “We want you to marry us back in Westmark, tomorrow evening during the feast - after the big announcement that you spoke of, and with King Eleazar’s approval.”

Zeatt was taken back, “Tomorrow?   But there won’t be time for any preparations-“

“Everyone we know and love will be at the feast, right?”

“Well, yes, I suppose they will, but they won’t be prepared either.”

“That’s no matter, Reverend Zeatt.    We just want a respectful, but simple ceremony.”

Zeatt looked to Lysa, “Are you sure, child?”

“Yes, ma’am; in fact, it was my suggestion.”

“But what about a wedding dress?”

“It doesn’t matter to me, ma’am.”

Zeatt scratched her chin, “Still, you need to look the part - every bride deserves to look like a queen on her wedding day… hmmm… I know of some seamstresses that use magic to alter dresses-“

“Ma’am, it’s really not a big deal to me-“

“Shh, child, of course it is a big deal!   You need a beautiful dress for your wedding!”

“But-“

“Quiet, child!   You’ll have a lovely dress or I won’t perform the wedding!”

Aaron and Lysa blinked in surprise, but the Drow Cleric smiled warmly, “Trust me, children, you’ll regret it if you don’t do it properly.    Leave the details to me.”

“But we can’t let you do that!”   Aaron protested.

Zeatt snorted, “I love ceremonies, children!”   Zeatt wrapped her arm around Lysa, “Now we’ll need to get measurements for a dress, of course, so we’ll have to do that tonight so I can get them to the arcane seamstress as quickly as possible tomorrow.”   

Gently ushering the girl into the cabin of the Autumn Maid, Zeatt looked over her shoulder at Aaron, “You can go back to bed, Duke, your fiancée and I have preparations to make.     Good night!”

Lysa waved at him a bit helplessly as she was led into the Airship, leaving Aaron on the deck, shaking his head in wonderment.

Reviews

[Elina]

"Around the sides of the curtain surrounding Aaron’s section of the blockhouse, all the soldiers had gathered and they broke into a roaring round of applause." The order of this feels a little off. Perhaps start the sentence with "All the soldiers had gathered around the sides of the curtain...and broke into..."
"Yes, ma’am, in fact, it was my suggestion." This can be split into two separate sentences, or else, use a semicolon after "ma'am."