The outside of the University of Viadelux was in various states of ruin. The wall of stone was strewn about its "entrance," but even more of the attack became apparent as Aureum got closer.
The buildings facing the gap in the wall had a few holes. As Aureum turned around the corner, she stopped. One building had a whole chasm through it.
Unfathomably large, it dug into the ground as well.
Aureum felt a chill.
But unlike the Outer City, the damage was already being cleaned up, if not repaired. Much of the rubble was piled up. There was even a bit of wood scaffolding on one side of the building with the chasm through it.
There awaited another surprise for Aureum as she kept going. In the courtyard between all of the buildings, a crowd of people gathered. There was a… sort of arch with flowers wrapped around it. "Sort of" in that it was two long boards of wood dug into the ground and leaning on each other.
A couple stood before it. It was Sitis and Lacuna. The crowd circled them.
"Does anyone object to this union?"
Aureum stumbled into the wedding's crowd.
"Huh? You're getting married?"
Her words made the entire crowd turn to look at her.
"Are you objecting—
"Aureum, you made it!"
The priest in charge of the ceremony took being cut off by the bride with good will.
Lacuna, the bride, smiled at her. The gentle woman turned to look at Sitis, and he nodded.
Lacuna hastily walked to Aureum, with Sitis trailing a bit behind. Aureum stood awkwardly. Whether to find a place to stand, or pull away from the crowd, or just hide. It was too late. She'd already interrupted the ceremony.
Lacuna hugged her as she stood there.
"Made it?" Aureum said. "Lacuna, I wasn't even invited!"
Instead of pretty words, all that came out was her confusion.
"Oh, that's right!" Lacuna said, raising a small hand to her face. "I sent the letter before I was even asked, so I couldn't have invited you. But it's fine since you're here. Come!"
Lacuna took Aureum's hand and led her through the crowd.
"Lacuna, congratulations!" Aureum finally said. Quieter, in a whisper, she continued. "…But isn't this a little hasty? You've been with him for…"
Has it already been half a year? No, it's less than that.
"It'll be fine, Aureum," Lacuna said, softly disregarding her friend's rude but honest concerns. "It actually feels overdue."
"Here, stand right here," Lacuna said.
Aureum was placed next to Sitis' friends. The ones who helped her with Hiems back then. She rubbed her wrists awkwardly.
It wasn't just that she was the worst dressed for the occasion. Most of the crowd wasn't in anything fancy either. Even the seats the crowd stood in front of were from many different sets and origins. One she spotted was a barrel.
She had wanted a life with the man she once feared. Maybe a life was too far, but she had been quite willing to go along with whatever situation she and Hiems had been falling into until the attack. try
Lacuna's and Sitis' relationship made much more sense by all comparisons.
Fine, Aureum thought. I should try to be polite.
The wedding continued where it had stopped. The priest ordaining made it a light comment about unexpected guests, and everyone chuckled. Then he again questioned if there was anyone who disagreed with the union.
There was no one.
"Then, under the authority invested in me by Bonum and Malum, I announce these two husband and wife! May they be blessed with all of the good things of marriage, and may any misfortunes of the pairing be turned aside from the union. The two may now kiss!"
Everybody in the crowd cheered. Aureum smiled and clapped, even as her head throbbed. She felt her throat itching too.
Jealousy? Maybe she would feel it tomorrow. Right now, as her surprise faded, all she felt was the hollow ache.
After the ceremony, there was food and drinks in the closest building. There was somebody playing a lonely lute, which sufficed for music. Lacuna and Sitis had a first dance, which wasn't a somber affair at all. All laughter and large movements.
Aureum watched from the sidelines, munching on some buns. She didn't taste them, but she was hungry.
Aureum was happy to watch from the sidelines. It allowed her to sit down.
The entire thing seemed like a dream. In the middle of the wreckage of war, these people celebrated a marriage. Perhaps not all of the audience cheered. There were quite a few small groups who were talking quietly with each other, seemingly having very little to do with the wedding festivities, but that wasn't unexpected.
Maybe… it makes a certain kind of sense. Aureum thought. Why wait another day if you could lose it all tomorrow?
Aureum's eyes stung when this thought occurred to her. She waited, but the tears didn't fall.
After the dance everybody came up to congratulate the couple. There was the family of the bride: Lacuna's mother, father, and brother. They were peaceful. There was a sort of calm acceptance from the mother. Maybe it was just Fluentem's situation on top of everything else.
Sitis' family was absent. Instead, his peers from the university took turns headlocking him. Or at least trying too. Sitis was tall and a little unwilling. Not all of them could manage it. There was a lot of laughter and cheers from that crowd.
It couldn't be called quickly, but surprisingly fast considering the setting, Lacuna came to Aureum again.
"How are you?" Was her first question.
"Lacuna, I'm… fine," Aureum replied.
Lacuna saw in Aureum's face the strain that took to say.
"You can stay with me and Sitis," Lacuna said. "We don't have much right now, but we can room you for a while."
Aureum felt herself smile. It almost made her face creak.
"I think you'll need all the space you can get for awhile," Aureum said. "I'm sorry I don't have a wedding gift, but I don't think I'll give the you the curse of being a guest right now. I'll find somewhere to stay…"
Lacuna frowned in return.
"Things aren't how you left here, Aureum," she said quietly. "You won't find many inns opened for business that will be safe for you. If you can't stay with us, we'll find somewhere in the University to keep you."
"Speaking of that!" Aureum said, standing up. "What happened? How exactly did you come to be at the university?"
"Those of the Outer City came to the university so they could be safe," Lacuna said. "Now, we're still not allowed to leave. Everyone is becoming even more hateful of Nix as the days go by."
She sounds regretful of that fact.
"You don't have to have compassion for Nix's soldiers on my account," Aureum said. "I hate them just as much as all of you."
"And when the streets of Fluentem run red with their blood and ours will you then be satisfied?"
Lacuna gritted her teeth after she spoke. She hadn't screamed or yelled, but there was a fierceness that edged them. Aureum bit her tongue.
To speak so causally of such things, of course Lacuna would be infuriated.
"I'm sorry—
"I don't want you to apologize!" Lacuna said, her eyes glistening. "Your hatred, everyone's hatred, is justified! I just wish I could see a better way… A way where people didn't have to die for good things to happen…"
Aureum was silent for a moment. She reached out and held Lacuna's hand. Lacuna let her tears fall in silence.
"I'll help you however I can," Aureum said.
Lacuna sniffled a little, but wiped her eyes.
"Stop it with the sad words!" She said. "Today's a happy day! I only wanted to cry tears of joy!"
"That's right! That's right!" Aureum agreed, a little anxiously. "Tell me about how Sitis proposed to you!"
"How could I not have mentioned that?!" Lacuna eagerly welcomed the change in subject. But soon she shyly let her eyes fall to the ground. "It might not be as grand as you're imagining."
"I'm not imagining anything!" Aureum said. She slapped the bottom of the chair next to me. "Come sit. I want to hear the completely normal and boring way that stoic guy proposed. I don't expect any bells and whistles from it."
Lacuna sat eagerly and edged the chair closer to Aureum.
"Well, we were both too busy to even talk. We're both helping out with the people from the outside city who came to be protected here. After Fluentem… Well, we've had to hastily change our expectations of the situation. But everyone at the university has been understanding and we've done our best to move things around since things are… uncomfortable."
"All right…" Aureum said, urging her to keep going.
"I actually hadn't seen him for more than a few moments since I told him about your letter. Then he comes up out of the blue, I think I wanted to ask him if there were anymore storage rooms that could be emptied to put people in, when he asked me to take a walk with him. Mmmhh!"
Lacuna finished her sentence with a happy noise.
"And you agreed?" Aureum said.
"No! There was too much to do! I'm sorry you didn't get to see his face. But it made him so awkward that I ended up saying a short walk would probably be good for me anyway…"
At this point Lacuna just smiled, remembering.
"So where did he take you?" Aureum said, again having to prompt her.
"He took me to a small spot in the training grounds."
"What!"
"Don't judge him," Lacuna said. "At that time it was the quietest spot. Though it did give me a lot of surprise when he got on one knee."
"So he did the whole thing," Aureum said.
"Yes, even gave me this ring," Lacuna, spinning it on her finger as she spoke. It was a slim gold band with an amber gem. "Apologized for not having one for the wedding too. As if any of that mattered…"
Lacuna was emotional, but after Aureum watched her drift off for the third time, Aureum decided she must have been exhausted, too. But her exhaustion didn't wipe the grin off her face.
"So… you're happy?" Aureum said.
Lacuna looked at Aureum lazily. Not in an unfriendly way, but as if she looked past her a little. When she spoke, her smile felt like the sun's light radiated from her.
"I couldn't be happier," Lacuna replied.
Aureum nodded. If Lacuna had made up her mind to this point, she had nothing more to say.
But then Lacuna turned away and frowned. Aureum saw the light catch on the hollowness beneath her eyes.
"Actually… I could be happier… I forget for a moment when I think of him… how precarious things are these days. Maybe I'm really very foolish!"
Well, maybe Aureum had a few more things to say. She took Lacuna's hands and held them.
"It's one form of wisdom to wait until things are good to be married," Aureum said. "We all know that's true. But maybe it's another form of wisdom to not wait until the world rights itself. Only you can live your life, and only you get to decide what you'll regret."
I'm trying to cheer her up, Aureum chided herself. Do these words even help? Can words even do anything?
"I hope this decision makes you as happy as you are today ten years from now," Aureum said.
Lacuna tightened her grip in return.
"Sometimes Aureum," Lacuna began, "you seem a lot wiser than you act!"
"Don't tell me the truth, Lacuna," Aureum moaned. "I'm too sensitive for it today."
Lacuna chuckled at Aureum's attempt at a joke.
"Lacuna," Sitis said.
The two women turned to see him standing before them. He brought a plate of food and a drink, which he passed to Lacuna.
"Aureum, it's a pleasant surprise," he said.
Aureum nodded. Then she stood up.
"Congratulations to both of you," she said. "I'll let you be. We can catch up later."
Aureum walked off to find another place to sit. She felt terrible.
There was much more she had wanted to say.
Please help me! Hiems is captured! Please help, Hiems is dead! They took Gemmo! They took him! They might have killed him too!
With what they had learned about little Gemmo and him being in Nix's hands, it might be better for everyone if he was dead.
Aureum needed to throw up. She walked unsteadily out.
In all her desperation, Aureum still had pride. Or maybe it was mercy. She wasn't about to ruin the day for a happy couple.
Not even in her suffering.
It wouldn't help much right now.
Seeing them made things more real. Aureum realized she was missing many things if she was to ask for their help. A plan that wouldn't get them all killed for one.
A clear goal, whether her goal was to attack Nix or directly save Hiems, was another. She still was going back and forth on what she should be doing.
How could she possibly figure out a way to bring him down? To save anyone? How much would it cost?
All the money in the world couldn't be traded for one of her friends' lives.
All of her adventures, she had survived. By luck, by her skill, or by the people beside her.
There was hardly ever a moment she could call a clear victory.
And that had been when she was running away.
Aureum walked over to a quiet corner in the celebrations and sat. Now that she was full, the happy noises reminded her of her exhaustion and discomfort.
I need… more.
More skills. More mana. More weapons. More strength.
It might have been easier to get all of this outside of Fluentem… but I can still leave.
It's not like it didn't carry risk, but it had been so easy the first time, Aureum felt assured she could do it again.
Despite everything, Aureum began to drift off into sleep as soon as she sat down. This was not allowed. Lacuna touched her shoulder, and Aureum jumped.
"Ah, Aureum!" Lacuna said. "I found you. We've prepared a bath, a bed, and some clothes. I'll take you to it."
Aureum looked up at Lacuna in amazement.
"Did I forget to mention it?" She said. "Sorry, I've been terribly busy."
"That's fine," Aureum said.
It wasn't the warm bed or being clean that warmed Aureum from the inside out. It was the consideration and acceptance when she had appeared in the worst state and at the worst time.