Sea Shadow (General Kirigan & Nikolai Lantsov)

After

Few months went by, both palaces were being rebuilt and today was Nikolai and Kaida's wedding. The coronation would be when the chapel was finished, but Nikolai insisted that he couldn't wait to marry Kaida so they were celebrating the wedding in the garden. The ceremony was privat, only the novelty from Ravka and other countries and their friends were invited, but after the ceremony, Nikolai and Kaida planned to go to the village and open the garden doors to the Ravkas, they all deserved to celebrate.

Kaida was in one of the rooms of the Grand Palace getting ready. Greta, the palace stylist was with her along with the rest of her assistants.

Greta had insisted that Kaida should marry in the dress that the previous queens had worn, Kaida was not sure, but she had never belonged to royalty so she decided to follow her recommendations.

Today would be the first time Kaida would be seen wearing the dress. First they had done her hair, her head was heavy, she wore a tight high braided bun and then they would put the dress on her.

Careful not to ruin the dress, Greta helped her put it on and then tied it, almost taking Kaida's breath away.

"Wow, you look beautiful," Greta said with a big smile.

Kaida turned to look in the mirror and what she saw horrified her. The dress was huge, 6 or 7 times bigger than she was. It had sparkles all over it and the tulle was too exaggerated. Her arms were completely covered as well as her neck by a thick white fabric that made her feel suffocated.

"What do you think?" Greta asked.

"It's awful. I look awful," Kaida said, feeling her heart start to beat a mile a minute.

"You look beautiful," Greta said.

"No," Kaida's hands began to shake. She was very stressed, it would be the first time she would be introduced to all the nobles and important people from all the countries, plus her wedding in which Fjerdanos would attend and in which many things could go wrong and at that moment it was the dress. "No, I'm not getting married in this," she refused.

"It's tradition," Greta insisted.

"I don't care. Call Genya Safin and Zoya Nazyalensky, tell them to come," Kaida requested.

"Miss, I don't think that's a good idea,"

"I don't care what you think! It's my wedding, I'll get married in the dress I want," Kaida shouted. "Sorry. Now, go and call them."

Greta left and Kaida went back to looking in the mirror. Her eyes began to burn with tears and her body began to sweat from the heat brought on by the dress. Her breathing began to become rapid.

"Miss?" one of the attendants still in the room asked her with concern.

"Leave me alone," Kaida requested. The attendants said nothing and left the room.

After a few seconds the door was opened and through the mirror Kaida could see Genya and Zoya enter.

Without thinking, she turned quickly to face them and with reddened eyes said to them:

"Help me,"

Kaida could feel and see the horror in Genya and Zoya's face, they didn't like it either.

"Saint, what are you wearing?" Genya asked, horrified.

"You need to help me...I...I can't do it, I can't. And...and my dress is horiful and we have less than two hours to try and fix this mess and a lot of things can go wrong today and it's really hot. Did all the other Queens got married in winter?... I can't, I can't do this," Kaida took her hand to her face.