Celeste's life is far from the enchanting fairy tale one might expect from a princess. Her father, a ruthless and self-absorbed king, leaves a trail of death and destruction in his wake. To seal alliances and maintain his power, he arranges for Cele...
The knock on the door, which I waited for hours in silence, was the sign that the day had arrived. It was my last evening as Christiaan Franders' wife. Some things you do by choice, others because you have to.
'Lady Celeste, have you woken up?' echoes on the other side of the door. Slowly, I turn my head towards Novak. The two red eyes look at me wistfully. He nods.
'Yes,' I reply as I pull the covers off me. Novak also pushes himself off the bed and starts picking up his clothes from the floor. I am just pulling the petticoat over my head when the door handle is pushed down a bit.
'Wait,' is the first thing that leaves my mouth as I look Novak's way. The movement of the door handle stops immediately but I don't believe for long. Novak's presence and the fact that our clothes are scattered across the floor will be the end of my marriage. He needs to get out of here before anyone sees him. For a moment, Novak seems to have regained his vampire powers and disappears under the bed before my eyes. I can just manage to slide the last of my clothes under the bed before the door is opened.
'Excuse me, it's the regulations.' A chambermaid stands in my doorway with a wooden tray in her hands. I look at the green-clad lady in surprise. The familiar brown-grey dress has been exchanged for a subdued but embellished green one. The dark green fabric touches her ankles. The embellishment on the dress is around her neck. Lace light green leaves run around her neck like a wreath. Her brown hair is tucked into a bud, held with a silver pin.
'What do you mean by regulations?' I ask confused by her appearance and the tray in her hands. The wooden tray carries a white folded fabric. Without saying anything, the girl takes a few steps in my direction.
'The morning ceremony of the wedding. It is prescribed that the maid of honour brings the bride her morning dress. I am Elia,' she replies as she slowly kneels on the ground in front of me. This is the moment when I realise that the wedding of elves is not the same as that of mages. I have no idea what this day will look like, what awaits me. All I know is that Novak is still hiding under the bed.
I look defeated at the folded dress before slowly taking it off the tray. The silk dress glides through my fingers like air. The white shines in the morning sun, reflecting the light against the wall. The fabric falls apart from the waist into a narrow skirt. You would expect it to have embellishments but it does not.
'Should I put these on now?' I ask the lady. She nods with a smile and slowly stands up. All I can do is nod, remove the nightgown from my body and let the new dress fall over my head. The fabric is even lighter than it already looked, even softer than it already seemed. The piece near my chest is tighter and the rest slopes down to a small skirt that reaches to the floor.
Elia has turned and is walking towards the corridor. I want to take one last look at the bed and walk away, but that doesn't seem to be the maid's plan. She comes walking back into the room with a green robe in her hand. A garment resembling a dressing gown is held out to me.
'This one should be over it ma'am,' she says kindly. Without contradiction or further questioning, I tuck my hands into the long wide sleeves. The smooth stick falls next to me at the same height as the underdress. Again, the embellishments are few, as is my knowledge of things.
'You look beautiful,' she says with a smile. Although this is not the situation I want to be in, is not the man I want to marry, I smile. Nothing will top my marriage to Christiaan in horror, nothing.
'Can you follow me?' she asks kindly. I nod. This is when I take a last look at Novak's hideout. The night had what I needed to forget reality. Now it is time to face my reality, get married and kill Walmoet.
The girl walks out of the door ahead of me. The corridor is silent, her footsteps barely audible. What I don't expect as soon as I walk out of the room is a room full of ladies. Dozens of ladies stand in a circle in the temple, in silence. All dressed in the same green dress and their hair put up in a bun.
Before I can say anything, all the ladies step forward at once. Elia slowly leads me out of the corridor and into the circle of ladies. I am too surprised, too confused to say anything. I don't know what to say, what to feel.
'Madam,' says the first lady I come face to face with. Only then do I notice that all the ladies have a silver necklace in their hands. The blonde lady holds out her arms. Naturally, I bend my knees slightly, giving her the chance to drop the necklace around my neck. The hundreds of silver orbs fall in a chain across my neck and shoulders until the ends reach my navel and just above my buttocks.
'Blessed marriage,' she says before taking a bow. Slowly, I run my fingers over the globes. They are smooth, glistening and are all the same size.
'Madam.' The next lady snaps me out of my thoughts. The necklace in her hands is exactly the same, except for the length. As soon as she places the necklace over my head, it becomes clear that this necklace is half an inch above the previous one. Slowly, I begin to understand what this means.
With every lady I stop for, I get a necklace that falls just slightly above the others. Each lady does exactly the same thing, says exactly the same thing. Only the length of the chain changes with each step. The 20-plus necklaces should be heavy, but they are not. The silver balls seem weightless. The dull dress, meanwhile, is so decorated that the white no longer stands out.
I expect to receive the smallest necklace from the last lady, but nothing could be further from the truth. I bend through my knees for the 23rd time but do not receive a necklace around my neck this time. The last lady bends further forward. Her silver necklace is not the same as the rest, has not been placed in the same place. She places a chain over my hair as if it were a hairband. The silver chain clings to my forehead while at the back it extends into smaller chains, adorning my hair.
'Blessed marriage,' says the last lady. With those words, all the ladies bow one last time before my maid escorts me out of the temple. The further I walk out of the temple, the more voices I hear talking to each other. The sunlight shines like a mask before my eyes before I see what is taking place outside the temple. Three large and long white tables stand in the middle of the square. Dozens of silver candlesticks with white, green candles and green branches adorn the white. The colours continue unabated in the tableware in front of the white chairs on the table.
'The bride,' Elia shouts across the square. All the green-clad ladies rise from their chairs. The men seem unable to participate in this breakfast. In the whole square there are only ladies, all looking the same except Walmoet's other wives. The women have green wreaths in their hair and sit at separate tables. Alisha seems nowhere to be seen. Strangely, I don't get to sit with the other women. The only two empty chairs are at the longest table. Elijah takes me there, I take a seat and all the other ladies go back to their chairs. I notice that the only cutlery I have is a spoon, while the others also have knives and forks. All eyes are waiting for me. What they are waiting for is unclear to me.
'You need to make your wishes for the wedding known,' Elia then whispers to me. It would have been nice if someone had briefed me on all the customs and rituals. I stand here empty-handed and with no knowledge. But they don't seem to accept that. I am forced to stand up again, searching for the memory of my mother addressing the guests.
'I thank you for coming to celebrate this joyous day with me. Especially on a day like this, all miss Queen Nalu's presence. I will take her wisdom into my new life, her warmth and patience. A marriage full of progress for me, my husband-to-be and the people. May the gods seal our bond with progeny and wealth. Thank you. Not a word is sincere, nor mean. Yet all the women clap as if it is what they wanted to hear. I slowly sit back down, blow out my restrained breath through my nostrils and wait for the next unknown.
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