The cooks who had prepared the morning feast simply kept going, transitioning seamlessly into wedding fare. Pans hissed, ovens glowed, and the smells of baking and frying filled the open air. Crafters and merchants bustled about with trays of herbs and wildflowers, stringing them into garlands for the arch. Birds wheeled overhead in the bright sunlight, their calls mingling with the hammering of nails and the laughter of children.

Marco sat until the woman came back, shoved a tray of rings in front of him, and smiled.

"Choose."

Marco looked at the tray in confusion. There were hundreds of rings in it, not all of which were meant for fingers. All that were, though, were pretty similar to each other.

"How? What's good?"

"What's good is what she would like." The woman patted his shoulder. "I'll take this up to her after to pick yours, so don't worry about that. Which one of these rings is hers?"

Marco ended up figuring it out with a process of elimination. Aethe wouldn't like big stones, he knew. She spent too much time holding a bow. She wouldn't want something big. She wouldn't want something ugly, which some of the rings very obviously were, even to him.

In the end, he pulled out a silver-colored ring with a very faint etching of vines and leaves on it. The woman nodded in approval.

"You don't think it's too small?" Marco asked.

"I don't." She patted him on the shoulder. "Just so long as you don't lose it before you get it on her finger."

The woman gave him a little pouch to store the ring in and left to rejoin the women looking after his now-fiancée. Marco found himself watching the town’s activity just to keep himself sane as he hurtled faster and faster towards an event that now appeared to be completely inevitable. The stage rose, the arch bloomed with color, and he rolled closer and closer to the new, terrifying goal life had set for him.

By mid-afternoon, the square no longer resembled a place for commerce or trial. It was a festival ground. Marco now looked out on a wedding hall carved from wood, draped in cloth, and adorned with flowers. Townsfolk dragged benches and chairs into rough rows, gossiping cheerfully about the unlikely couple.

Marco sat on the edge of the fountain, watching it all come together, heart pounding with a mixture of pride, dread, and excitement. The wedding was no longer an idea. It was real and tangible, and it was coming for him.

He needed an ally. If he was going to stand up in front of all of these people, he needed someone up there with him. Luckily, tradition agreed on the matter. He just had to go find another willing man to defend him, and he’d have a companion. He thought he knew just the guy.

“Riv, I think you know what I’m going to ask you.”

“To stand with you? Yeah, I sort of figured. I’m going to say no, though.”

Marco felt something inside himself crack. He briefly considered asking Kuzai before dismissing the insanity of the idea and deciding to just bash against whatever wall Riv was putting up until it broke.

“What? Why?” Marco grabbed Riv’s sleeve as he tried to move back to his work. “Riv, I sort of need you here. I can’t order you, but I thought you’d want to do this.”

“Oh, I do, Marco. But I can’t. I think if you think about it, you’ll understand why,” Riv said.

“I won’t. I need a guardsman, Riv. That’s a friend. You are my friend. That means I need you.”

Riv shook his head, dropped the load of wood he had been hauling, and grabbed Marco by the shoulders before, ever so gently, head-butting him hard enough to set his entire brain ringing.

“Ow! Why?”

“Because I wanted you to pause,” Riv said. “And consider that while I’m your friend, I am not your best friend. Not at all. Not even close. You should not, Marco, be asking me. I should and am saying no. Now go back to your business and I’ll go back to mine.” Riv smiled brightly. “Good luck, buddy. I’m rooting for you.”

Disagreement welled up in Marco’s head, but the pain from the headbutt really had cleared it more than he wanted to admit. It was traditional to have a man as your guardsman, which was why it was named that in the first place. It wasn’t law, though. And if it wasn’t law, Riv was absolutely right. There was someone else he should be asking.

“Help!” Marco caught up with the merchant lady moments after she came out of Aethe’s base. “Can you find Elisa for me? She’s…”

“Oh, I know who she is.” The woman gave Marco another appraising glance. “Glad to see you figured it out. The bride guessed she’d have to tell you. Wait here.”

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It took about ten minutes for Elisa to emerge from the building. She looked with pity on the sweating wreck that Marco had become, walked up to him, and gently mopped his brow with a handkerchief.

“Yes. I’ll do it. Thank you for asking.” She shook his hand. “Thank Riv for telling you what to do, and no, nobody expected you to figure it out by yourself. Yes, I understand you agreed the moment it was explained to you. Yes, I love you, and I’m very excited. Good?”

“Great.” Marco’s dry mouth worked through a mockery of a swallowing motion. “Love you too.”

Everything after that was a bit of a blur. Marco recalled being carted off to some sort of quick bath and clothing selection process and of Riv coming by to mention that as Aethe’s second, he wouldn’t be present for most of those festivities. Beyond that, though, everything was swallowed in a blur of stress, excitement, and anticipation.

Then, with a clunk, reality came back into focus. Marco gazed out over an entire outpost’s worth of people seated and looking at him just until the music started and their gazes shifted backwards to a curtain, a barrier that was parted almost immediately to reveal someone that, in any culture, looked like nothing so much as a bride.

It wasn't just her dress, which was gray and understated in a way at once beautiful and tactical. It wasn't her hair, which was braided in a more intricate way than usual but was still more or less practical if she had to move quickly. It wasn't even her lack of weapons, because she didn't have any. Her bow was laid across her back as usual, ready to go at a moment's notice.

It was all of those together to some extent, making her look just different enough that nobody who knew her would mistake how she looked in the moment for anything but special. But the real draw, above all those things, was her eyes. Aethe's eyes were normally looking here, there, and everywhere, subtly learning, observing, and looking out for danger. At the moment, they weren't doing any of that. They were frozen in place on Marco's face, taking in every tanned bit of skin like he was the most important thing in the world.

He supposed he was doing the same thing.

"Well, it's rare we get a wedding here." The mayor stood between and behind them both relative to the audience, scratching his chin. "Do you want the long ceremony or the short one? I have both of them in the book."

"Short, please." Aethe said, and Marco breathed a sigh of relief. The long ceremony took as much as an hour. "We like the short one better."

"Okay. Everyone, these two are getting married. Does anyone have a problem with this?"

Marco saw Riv's eyes glint with mischief, but they calmed down in time. As a result, there would probably be no arrows in him today.

"All right. Does anyone approve of this ceremony?"

That was a different question entirely. Both Riv and Elisa roared out shouts of approval, and the better part of the audience joined them, glad to see two of their heroes making things permanent.

"Looks like the ayes have it." The mayor turned a page. "Do both of you know what you are getting into? This is a forever sort of thing. Forever is a long time. Are you sure you want that?"

Aethe and Marco locked eyes. Marco had been thinking about that question all day, but in the end it was a pretty easy question. At this point, Aethe was supposed to be right by him. Any time she was gone, he felt vulnerable and alone. Any time she was there, he felt covered and comfortable.

Looking at her looking at him, it seemed she felt something like that. A small, graceful smile appeared on her face, and she nodded at him in satisfaction and affirmation.

"Yeah," Marco said. "I am."

"Me too."

"Great. Do you both have rings?"

"I have hers here," Elisa said, handing the ring to Marco.

"I have his." Riv did the same for Aethe.

The mayor looked at each and motioned with his hands.

"Then put them on each other."

Marco reached for Aethe's hand and slipped the small silverish ring on her hand. It glowed slightly as it settled into place. She revealed a plain, jet-black band and put it on Marco's hand, where it glowed in much the same way. They joined hands.

"In the eyes of the system and the people here, you are now joined," the mayor said. "Now enjoy your lives together."

Aethe was in Marco's arms a second later. Any worries he had about her having second thoughts washed away when he saw the simple, uncomplicated joy on her face a moment later.

"I can't believe you two actually went through with it." Riv shook his head. "I can't imagine getting married, myself."

"Riv, that's because nobody you know even wants to marry you. Now go get some ale. If there was ever a time to drink and be happy, this seems like it."

For the third time since they had arrived, a party broke out. Marco drank and ate with the team, laughing and smiling while all the time keeping his hand on Aethe's. An hour or so slipped by as outpost dwellers found them, congratulated them, and talked about how different things had been since they decided to visit. Marco sensed that stories of them would persist in this place for a long time.

"Use your stupid crystal!" Aethe said. "The clear one! I want to add that to today!"

"I don't know if we've decided what to do with that yet." Marco was feeling almost as tipsy as Aethe looked. He didn't have any confidence in his decision-making skills at the moment.

"Jus' do it." Riv was slumped over on the table in front of him. "That's how it was always going to end up."

"He's right." Elisa juiced Riv with some healing magic as she sipped away on her own drink. "Just do it. Aethe is right, it will be fun."

Marco held up the crystal and inspected it. The system gave him more information on it than he expected.