The wagon ground to a halt, turned hard to the right, and stopped a second time a few moments later. “We’re here,” Marten called back from the driver’s bench. I followed the sound of his footsteps to the back flap of the wagon and climbed out behind him. He led me to the chapel’s side door, which opened into a small office space. The cloying scent of sacramental incense filled my nostrils and set my eyes watering, and I held my breath as we continued onwards into a narrow hallway on the opposite side of the room.
After a few more twists and turns that left me entirely lost in the maze-like passages of the chapel, we arrived at our final destination. The room was unadorned and nearly empty aside from a full-length mirror standing beside a tall wardrobe and a table with two wooden stools. Marten pulled out one of the seats and motioned for me to sit. “You wait here,” he said, returning to guide me by the shoulder to the table. “When the ceremony starts, someone will come to that door—” he gestured to a wooden door on the left side of the room, “—which leads directly to the altar.”
“Thanks,” I said with a slow nod. I folded my hands on the table in front of me and stared at them intently as my head swam. A low buzz had filtered into my thoughts when we entered the chapel, but I only started to truly notice it when the room fell silent and my thoughts began to wander. I wonder if Lia is in a room like this one. Waiting, just like me, a few dozen yards away. How many people are out there? It’s just Hana, Elise, Bella, Marten...no, Marten is here with me. It’s Hana, Bella, Marin...Elise, Marten...
A metallic thunk jarred the table and drew my attention. “Take this,” Marten chuckled, pressing a canteen into my hands. “I’m sure you’re thirsty.”
I smacked my mouth loudly and realized he was right. “Thanks,” I said again, lazily tugging at the cork.
“Do you want me to stay here with you until the ceremony starts?” The concern in his voice pulled me partway out of my stupor, and I looked up to find a wide, knowing smile spread across his face. “I don’t mind.”
“No, I’m fine,” I shook my head. “I’m sure you want to go see Lia before it starts, too, or find your seat with Hana.”
“Alright, then,” he said, patting me on the back. He gave me a final, lingering look, then made his way back to the door we had entered through.
“Marten, wait,” I called after him, lurching to my feet. I stuck my hand out towards him and noticed my fingers were trembling. “Thank you. For everything.”
He accepted the handshake with both hands, squeezing my fingers so tightly that it felt as though they might pop off in his calloused grip. “Of course,” he said softly. “Thank you, Lux.” He held me there for a long moment, then sniffed loudly and withdrew his hands. “I’d best be off to find my wife. I’m sure she’s worried we got lost at this point.”
I retook my seat as he left, and the fog over my mind immediately set in again. So now I just...wait, I guess, but for what? Is someone going to come get me? Or are they just going to knock? What if I don’t hear it? I turned to the wooden door across from me and narrowed my eyes, trying to force my fragmented attention on it to little effect. Who is even running the ceremony? Is there anybody here? Obviously Lia is here, and Marten. But who else?
A sluggish tendril of mana wound its way down my leg and crept across the wooden floor towards the chapel door. I won’t peek. I just need to see. As soon as the energy passed beneath the door, it encountered the amber glow of Lia’s mana. I withdrew in alarm, not having expected to find another presence nearby, but my brain pieced together the information soon after. When my mana returned to the door, Lia’s aura was gone, but I encountered it again a few feet further into the room.
Hi. Lia’s voice was unusually timid within my head, but it cut through the buzz and fog with ease.
Hi, I answered.
There was a long pause before she responded. Mother says it should be starting soon.
Marten said the same thing.
Another, shorter pause. I guess that means it’s starting soon.
Yeah, I agreed, I guess it does.
Are you nervous, Lux?
Not at all, I lied. You?
No, she replied, not at all.
That’s good. Music began to filter into the room through the door, and I felt my heart lurch into my throat. That means it’s starting soon, right?
I think so. I felt her presence begin to withdraw from the doorway, and her voice faded away with a soft laugh. I’ll see you soon.
A wide grin spread across my face as I sat alone in the small room. The distracting buzz had lifted from my mind during our brief conversation, replaced with a warm, tingling feeling of lightness throughout my entire body; I would have easily believed I was drunk if not for my overactive brain. How will I know when the ceremony starts? Is this really the band we chose? I don’t remember them having a flute player. Maybe Lia decided on—
A knock at the door immediately silenced my scattered thoughts and froze the breath in my lungs. Shakily, I took a final swig from Marten’s canteen before crossing to the door, cracking it just enough to peer out with one eye. An unfamiliar woman in the plain gray robes of a Unity priestess
