Member
rush99999Nadia Parnel
Bride of Keregar @Legion02 and Sister-Bride of Xaelia @EllionInteracting with: The Family
Nadia's fun was over quickly, as soon a guard called for the girls to all leave the springs. She at first thought that she'd completely lost track of the time, but as she climbed out of the pool, with the help of one of the other splashing Gems, she heard someone call out that they'd only been there an hour or so. Nadia couldn't see the girl who'd spoken, but it didn't matter, because the guard continued to speak to the whole room as soaked Gems ran for their towels.
Our husbands... It's that time already? She wrapped her own towel about herself, trying to hide the shape of her form from the leering guards she had to walk past as the Gems were all shuffled back to their rooms. They would be given some time to get dressed for the 'wedding', and then it was off to the Drakkan Capitol... She couldn't even remember its name now, if she'd ever been told it in the first place. When she got to her room she was shivering from the cold of the Castle's halls. She lit the fire in the hearth, the same as she had the first night she'd come here, and for the first time she finally opened the chest that her father had packed for her.
On top was a gown she knew well- a gold and red silken thing that brought tears to her eyes as she gently lifted it out of the chest. This was to be her wedding gown- her mother had showed her how to make all of its parts, but everything about this dress, Nadia had created herself. She began to put it on delicately, as if the fabric it was made of was a thin film of glass, although she knew better. The heavy silk was comfortable, and lovely yet durable. Her favorite type of fabric. Every stitch, from the seams to the hems and all the embroidery on the front panel, every stitch had been made to last, even though she knew she herself would probably only wear it once in her lifetime.
"I only wish that this wasn't it." She said to her reflection in the mirror that was now standing in the corner of the room. As she struggled to tie up the laces (The sleeves were just a little bit too long for her still- she had been meaning to fix that weeks ago...) she actually looked at herself in the mirror and was surprised at how... how much older the dress alone made her look. Certainly she was no child- at 18 she had curves in all the right places and was almost the average height of any Gemmenite woman- but the dress seemed to remove the rest of the child’s likeness from her. Her face and shoulders, normally so rounded and narrow to make her look almost 16, were now made by the dress to give her an air of grace and fragility. The collar dipped down just enough to accent her chest without showing too much, and the way the sleeves flared out made it so her waist seemed even narrower than it would with just the laces tied as they were.
She looked stunning, and the only ones going to see her like this were strangers and Drakkan. Her mother was on the other side of the mountains now, her father somewhere between here and there, and she was about to be going into the belly of the beast. She watched as a few tears began to fall down her reflection's cheeks, before turning away to look through the rest of the chest her father had packed for her.
The next thing she saw was one of her mother's necklaces. Nadia had never been one to wear jewelry, and neither had her mother really, but as she clasped the necklace around her throat she felt like she would never take it off ever again. The red jewels gleamed against her fair skin, and the metal which should have felt cool instead had an almost happy warmth to it, a Loving warmth. As if her mother had known how she'd be feeling right now, and had put her very essence into the Jewels. She let her fingers brush over the deep red, feeling how smooth and perfect they were for a moment, and wishing that just wearing them could make her just as flawless.
If she were perfect, like this, would she be treated well? Her reflection looked hopeful, and she wasn't about to be the one to tell that girl "No".
Nadia lingered in front of the mirror for only a moment longer, tying up her now- dry hair into a bun, purposefully leaving a few strands loose to frame her face. Once that was done, she looked through the rest of the chest, finding a pair of slippers to match her gown, and three other, less fancy dresses that she could wear later, hopefully. There were no books or papers, trinkets or other baubles for her, except for a small, long metal cylinder engraved with the words "For Nadia, My Light." written in her father's script. Turning the strange item over in her hands a few times, she heard a knock on the door.
A Drakkan guard poked his head in, and after just looking at her for a moment he grunted, "Ten minutes, then to the carriages wit' ya. Hurry it up girlie."
"O-okay." She managed to say just as he closed the door again.She slipped the item into her right-hand pocket, and the action made her remember the one thing she couldn't ever allow herself to lose. She fished the idol of Pyrus out of the pocket of the Grey trousers she'd been wearing up until bathtime, and transferred it into the left-hand pocket of her gown. There it sat perfectly invisible to everyone but her, as she could feel the small lump against her hip as she walked to the door.
The Guard was still standing there sourly as she pushed it open, but his frown seemed to lessen as he saw her step out of the room. "Finally I get one tha' doesn't put up a fuss." He motioned her down the hall, presumably towards the carriages that would take her to her doom. "I'll bring yer stuff for you. Just get there before the boss comes huntin' people down." She nodded silently and followed the slow trickle of Gems to the place, getting into one of the large carriages as they all began filling up.
The ride was much shorter than the one to the worth had been, but it felt so much longer. She and the 9 or 10 other girls in the carriage spent the whole time in silence. The excuse Nadia told herself was simply that there didn't seem to be anything to talk about- but she knew that she at least was only being so quiet out of either grief or fear. Or both.
Eventually, they arrived. The girls were ushered off the carriages, and then they had only a minute before they were all marched into a room full of Drakken dressed in either finery or war armor- it didn't seem like there was any in-between. The Prince from their first day at Shadow Worth addressed this crowd, and then one by one the girls were dragged off by various Drakkan to be given to various other Drakkan.
Nadia froze as the Prince motioned for her to follow him. The guard that came up behind her had to poke her before she could snap out of it and start walking alongside the other girl that had been motioned to. They were led to an older-seeming Drakkan, and then just as suddenly as everything else had happened so far, they were left at this new Drakkan's side.
He was, Terrifying. Everything about this was terrifying. Nadia glanced at her now sister-bride, and seeing that she also seemed speechless, decided that she herself had better say something before bad could happen. She clasped her hands in front of her, bowing her head before opening her mouth. "M-my Lord Husband, I- My name is Nadia. It is... nice to meet you." She kept her head bowed as she waited for a response, waiting in suspense to know just what now lay in her future.
Onyx Briyll
Bride of Wilhelm @Saltwater Thief and Sister-Bride of Amalia @BelleInteracting with: The Family
Onyx pulled herself out of the Springs as she was ordered to, and marched down the halls with the rest of the girls without a fuss. Honestly, she wasn't sure if she was numb, or if the shock of it all was so bad she couldn't even tell if she was putting on her dress correctly. A quick glance in the mirror said she was, of course, and after brushing out her hair and braiding it over her shoulder to dry during the trip, she was ready.
Walking down the halls to the carriages, she noticed that her dress was much more plain than any of the other's that she saw. Short sleeves left her arms mostly exposed, while the simple brown and white skirt only covered down to her knees, and she was wearing her same slippers that she'd been wearing this whole time- which she now realized was a very cold style, as the wind felt like it was cutting through her otherwise bare legs as she cut across the courtyard to get into a carriage. She read during the trip, same as she had during her last long, unpleasant carriage ride.
At their destination, she was grabbed by a guard and then dragged over to a Drakkan that looked well put-together, as opposed to the many Drakken she could see around them that looked, well, put together. Glancing at her Sister-Bride now, Onyx hoped that she was also a daughter of Vivari. The two being Earth Gems would make it so much easier to support each other, if fate would allow them such a thing.
Before she could say anything, their husband began to speak. "Were you expecting a drunken savage?" he asked them, "A half-beast drenched in drool, perhaps?"
Well yeah. Were you expecting a pair of pretty little pets to drag along with you by a chain? Onyx didn't dare say so out loud, though she knew her self-control would only last so long as he continued. He placed a finger under her chin, forcing her to look at him, which she didn't resist. She listened as her Sister-Bride spoke up, and as he responded. "I am Wilhelm, as you both no doubt heard. You will refer to me as milord or lord husband. For now, you will tell me your names, your elemental skill, and what sort of place you come from."
He was concise, and obviously would not accept anything less from them than what he explicitly asked of them. Onyx could respect that. As Amalia answered him, Onx reached up and held his hand, gently moving his finger from its place under her chin as she moved to hold it just over her heart, but keeping her gaze locked on him all the while. Once it was her turn to speak she knew exactly what she wanted to say.
"I am Onyx, from the blessed town of Pyrvi- a mostly quiet place in the western woods of Gemmenia, where I assisted my Father with running the town's library. I also am of the Earth, I am good at working with plants, but not any animals- unless the fairies count." She smiled slightly and waited to hear her husband's opinion on their answers.
