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The room Essek stepped into was an explosion of doodles, cloth samples and pamphlets, with one tiefling at the center.
“Ah,” he said.
“Now do you see why I asked for reinforcements?” Beauregard said from right behind him.
“Essek! You’ve come to help! Here, hold these samples, I’ve got a new idea for bridesmaids dresses.” Jester stood up, colored pencils and crumbs falling from her skirt, and shoved some frilly bits of lace and tulle into Essek’s arms. Essek heard Beauregard choke a little bit behind him.
“I think Beauregard thinks that you might need my organizational expertise, not necessarily my ability to be a clothes hanger.” Though perhaps an Unseen Servant or two would help as well.
“Oh, well, okay - I’ve got it figured out though. We’ll have the main wedding in the Lavish Chateau, have a procession down to the docks and then take three ships to Rumblecusp, but also have Caleb make a tower with Mama’s room so mama can feel like she’s at home, but also maybe have a couple stops where everyone can switch ships? Or we can have some way to swing from ship to ship, that would be good.”
Essek took a moment to parse. “Why do you need three ships to Rumblecusp?” They should have more room for persons if there’s no cargo.
“Well, we’re going to have mama and Bluud and all the Nein and their families and also the Lavish Chateau and the Gentleman’s crew everyone on the new Nein Heroez and Caleb’s students and the people I taught at Summer Camp and I’m going to try to see if The Bright Queen is free.”
“I talked her out of the hag.” Beauregard chose to say in Undercommon.
“Jester. The Kryn Dynasty is still under orders to have me arrested on sight.”
Jester shrugged. “They can take a week off. It’s not like you’re new treason.”
Essek considered if he should try to explain that a decade was not that long after more than a millennium. And then considered whether Jester could, in fact, convince the Bright Queen not to ruin her wedding by arresting her best friend.
“This is what happens when you spend your childhood planning your wedding,” the undercommon commentary continued as Beauregard picked through the various drawings. “Jester, you can't have your wedding be everything all at once. You gotta pick one idea.”
Jester scoffed at that. “We took down a weird meat city and a demigod and also a Cerberus Assembly member that turned into a weird demon guy last week. I think we could plan my dream wedding too.”
There was something off in Beauregard’s calculations. Jester hadn’t been planning her wedding since she was a child. Not precisely. Jester’s childhood dreams included fat unicorns and lollipops and romance and freedom… but only as fantasies, not as a real thing that happened to people. She’d been planning it as a dream wedding from a romance novel because that’s what she knew best.
“Jester, how many weddings have you been to?” Essek asked.
Jester lifted one figure, looking a little mulish at Essek. “You and Caleb didn’t have one, so I only went to Beau and Yasha’s.”
Caleb and Essek couldn’t have a formal affair, and had invited the Nein to a quiet celebration, but this was a well trodden argument.
Some other conversations they’d had around that time - about the nature of falling in love - floated to the top of his memory. “Jester, has being in love been like what you’d imagined it would be?”
Jester frowned. “I mean, there’s more fighting and stuff but the making up is so much more worth it. And I thought I’d be swooning more and laughing less.”
“Perhaps your wedding should reflect your experience of love.”
Apparently it was the right thing to say. Jester looked at what was in her hand, and then around at what was covering her walls, wide eyed.
“Yasha and I had a lovely wedding. We had flowers, and dancing and friends. I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. You don’t need Nicodranas and a three ship adventure and Rumblecusp.” Beauregard’s tone was softer, more soothing. She finally found a path through the wedding related detritus and put her hand on Jester’s shoulder.
“But I want Nicodranas and Rumblecusp and I know Fjord wants the ocean but doesn’t want to push for it.”
Beauregard squeezed her shoulder. “You kinda have to choose one.”
“Not… necessarily.” Essek cleared his throat, and Beauregard sent a little glare in his direction. She might have recruited him to talk some sense into Jester, but she had also forgotten that he loved Jester’s talent for excess and fripperies.
He would still do his best to keep Beauregard in a suit. He wasn’t cruel.
But Jester was looking at him in anticipation, so he hastened to explain. “Among the Dens; family structures are … complex. There might be a family that birthed you, the Den that accepted you, the Den you may have belonged to in a previous life, a spouse and family and children from a previous life, and so on. Weddings themselves tend to be multi-day affairs, in multiple locations, with different guest lists; each ceremony as important as the others. You can invite some to Nicodranas, and some to the high seas, and some to Rumblecusp, and have a theme for each”
Jester immediately brightened and threw her arms around Essek, pulling him closer to the ground. “This is a great idea, thank you thank you thank you!”
All in all, Essek enjoyed the feeling. But also, he hoped this would be enough to convince Jester to make sure that he and Leylas Kryn were at different ceremonies.