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The battle the witch hunters find themselves in could be going better. It could also be going worse though. Not a whole lot worse, but worse nonetheless. Lethica throws another guiding bolt at an enraged cultist before his axe gets to her. She shouldn’t be this close to the fray, but everyone is struggling right now. Farryn has given up on offensive spells, Jericho is running around casting cure wounds on those who need it, and Briggsy is casting the same cantrip over and over again. Yorgrim is trying to act as a wall to give the spellcasters some reprieve, and the priestess has lost sight of the party’s paladin. Scanning the battlefield doesn’t give Lethica a clear idea of what she should be doing right now, but it allows another fanatic to get a strike in. Or, should’ve let the fanatic get a strike in. Instead of feeling a deep slashing wound along her spine, Lethica hears the clanging of metal like a bell’s toll.
“Away from her you fiend!” Marius pushes the combatant back before striking them down with his great sword, “Lethica, are you alright?” He positions his shield to protect her while his attention is focused on the elf in front of him.
“I am fine Marius,” Lethica swipes a broken nail across the paladin’s cheek where a cultist got a scratch in. She casts a quick healing word as she does this, “How are you?”
If a vampire could blush, Marius would be, “I’ve seen better days. These bastards are unfortunately quite skilled,” The last couple of words are strained as Marius maneuvers Lethica behind him while he slashes at an approaching cultist.
“Really? These zealots are skilled?” She casts guidance on her defending knight, “They seem like mindless brutes to me,”
The attacking fanatic swings down with their axe again, but Marius swings his shield to block it, “You would think so, but they know how to get around my shield!” With a shove, Marius can get his sword out to stab through the cultist’s gut, “They must be smart enough to figure that out,”
“That is a problem,” Lethica hides herself in the paladin’s shield to avoid a crossbow bolt.
Marius and Lethica both kneel to make the most of the shield’s cover as a second and a third arbalist join in, “I don’t suppose you have any tricks from Shar to help us,” He braces against the barrage of bolts while Lethica thinks. The only people looking and feeling tired right now are her, Farryn, and Jericho. Briggsy and Marius haven’t wielded as much magic as the others and seem to be physically fine. Yorgrim is doing the best of anyone in the fight. To win the fight, the three that don’t need to rely on magic to fight are the party’s best chance. If Lethica is going to do anything, she needs to make sure it bolsters one of them. A quick glance around the golden shield shows an injured Farryn defending an unconscious Jericho, so Lethica and Marius are the only support left standing. The knight needs to be focused on combat and not healing, so Lethica needs to be protected as well. What spell would protect both her and Marius? What can she do to shield the two of them more than Lathander and Shar have already? Then it hits her.
“Marius!” The mentioned knight stops scouting above his shield, “I have an idea, but you have to say yes no matter what I ask of you,” She reaches an ashy purple hand to the paladin’s armored shoulder.
Marius pulls her more behind the shield and inadvertently into himself, “Of course, I trust you,”
“Will you marry me?”
“ What ?” With the porcelain mask on, it can be hard to tell when Lethica is joking. Especially since she’s got quite the dry tone when she’s jesting. Which leaves Marius the near impossible job of figuring out whether she’s serious or not, “Lethica, what are you saying?”
“Shar honors new marriages of her followers by protecting the couple for the first week of their marriage. I know a spell that would have us married in her eyes. No ceremony, no ritual, I just need your consent, and then my dark lady will protect both of us,” Her hand moves from Marius’ shoulder up to cupping his cheek.
“Lethica…”
“I will not force you into anything you don’t want-”
“I will,” He lowers his head and takes a deep breath, “I, Sir Marius Renathyr, will marry you, Lethica Nightborne,”
It’s not necessary for the spell because she’s already touching is face, but Lethica mimics the knight and rests her forehead against Marius’, “And I, Lethica Nightborne, will marry you, Sir Marius Renathyr,” A bolt of shadowy night and starlight circles around them before dissipating. Nothing feels different, but the priestess has faith that her goddess hasn’t let her down.
“Stay behind me,” Marius and Lethica stand up. The heavy fire of the crossbow bolts hasn’t lessened during their ceremony, but the paladin trudges on. Marius isn’t a follower of Shar, but he has faith in Lethica. He doesn’t even allow himself to think of the possibility that Lethica’s plan might not work. If he had to give actual vows, one of them would be about how there’s only three people he’s found himself putting blind, unwavering trust in: Lathander, his king, and Lethica. Somehow she wormed her way into Marius’ mind, but unlike the Duchess, the cleric of Shar has never led him astray. He can put his blind faith in his wife.
The knight gets close enough to one arbalist that he goes in swinging his sword. Marius’ ruby eyes widen as he realizes he misjudged the fanatic’s position and is preparing to be met with a bolt to the face. Except, the same shadowy night and starlight essence blocks the blot. Both Marius and the arbalist are surprised by this intrusion to their fight, but the paladin recovers his resolve faster and decapitates the cultist.
Lethica is elated that her spell worked. Her dark lady is now protecting Marius, her husband . A warm feeling creeps itself into her only to be replaced with cold dread as the priestess quickly turns around. She knows she’s not going to be able to get her chakram or a spell up in time to stop another cultist’s surprise attack on her, but she doesn’t need to. A shield of golden sunlight separates her from her foe. The fanatic wasn’t expecting such a radiant shield from the drow in blacks and purples, but he was expecting the chakram to slash his face even less.
Marius and Lethica quickly make their way over to Farryn and Jericho. With a quick cast of healing word from the paladin, Farryn leaves the scarecrow’s side and wild shapes into a giant dark bear. Lethica continues the druid’s work of stabilizing Jericho while being protected by Marius and Farryn. Her whole focus is on healing Jericho, yet she’s not being hit by any foes that get past the other two party members. Flashes of golden sunlight and the toll of a bell ring out all around her as her husband’s deity protects her.
Marius finds that he is having a much easier time hacking away when there’s an occasional shield of darkness having his back. He quickly becomes so used to it that he doesn’t register the confused eyebrow raise that bear Farryn gives him at some point. A loud boom rattles from behind him accompanied by the hooting and hollering of a crocodile that is having a far too good of a time. Soon a shovel messily decapitates a fanatic in front of the paladin. Blood sprays all over Marius and Yorgrim. A couple shots from Briggsy, slashes from Marius, swings from Yorgrim, and bites from Farryn before everything seems to calm down.
“Is that it?” Marius wipes only the blood near his mouth away. He scans the field that hosted the battle. Dead cultists and fanatics litter the ground as the dirt absorbs the spilt blood.
Farryn turns back into her normal satyr self, “Seems like it,” She hisses with a step, “It better be, I don’t have much left in me,”
“I don’t think any of us have much left,” Lethica stands up supporting Jericho’s body, “Do we feel able to make it back to the house? Aside from Jericho,”
The orc lumbers over to the duo, “I can carry him if needed,”
“Well thanks Yorgrim,” Jericho lets himself go limp in the gravedigger’s arms while Virgil perches menacingly on his hat.
“I think the rest of us are fine,” Marius says while healing the druid’s leg, “Let’s proceed before more cultists find us,” It’s only because of his heightened vampiric sense that Marius can hear the snap of a bowstring being released from one of the bodies that wasn’t as dead as everyone thought it was.
He can see the trajectory of the arrow. Marius doubts the recently dead man had been aiming at anyone in particular, but the arrow is headed straight for Lethica.
“LETHICA!” He shouts and rushes to her side, but before he can make it to his wife the arrow collides. It collides with a shield of early morning sunlight. The collision makes a bell tolling sound that marks the soon death of the archer.
“STAY!” One blast, “THE!” Two blasts, “FUCK!” Three blasts, “DOWN!” Four blasts, “YOU!” Five blasts, “MOTHER-” Six blasts, “FUCKER!” Seven, eight, nine, and a nice even ten blasts of voodoo energy punctuate every single word from Briggsy and then some.
“Miss Lethica are you alright?” Jericho weakly lifts his head up.
The priestess brushes some dust off of her dress, “Yes, the arrow never got near me,”
“Are you sure?” Marius’ hands want to be everywhere but he forces them to only hover around the elf.
“Positive,” Lethica gras a handkerchief from the vile bag at her hip. She cleans up the blood from Marius’ face, “Your morning lord isn’t going to let me get hurt,” The cleric of Shar starts to lead the group back towards the Crooked House. She doesn’t need to see to know that she left Marius with an adorably dumbstruck expression.
Nobody is really in the mood for conversation on the walk back. Everybody is more focused on keeping themself upright and moving to discuss anything. Until Farryn opens the front door and gawks at the gift left in the foyer.
There’s a bottle of expensive looking champagne and another of some deep red wine with labels that the satyr doesn’t recognize sitting in a bucket of ice. It’s next to something far more eye-catching. A large, ornate glass vase holds an absolutely gaudy bouquet of flowers bigger than Farryn’s head and wider than her shoulders. Red roses, purple columbines, a rainbow of hibiscuses and orchids, and pearly white baby’s breath all wrapped up in a delicate white paper. The rest of the party funnels their way in as Farryn picks up a note within the flowers.
“What’s all this for?” Briggsy’s decaying claws immediately reach for the champagne.
Marius grabs the champagne from the crocodile, “We don’t who this is from, the drinks may have been tampered with,”
“And the flowers? Gawrsh there just so pretty I don’t think anyone could mess with them,” Jericho immediately pricks his finger on a rose thorn.
A quick snicker from the druid interrupts everyone’s musing, “They’re from Adela,” She hands the note over to Marius, “Nothing to worry about, lover boy,”
“What?” His eyes stay locked on Farryn and tries to parse what the fuck does she mean. Marius isn’t even looking at the note when Briggsy gets in space and starts to read it out loud.
“ Dearests Marius and Lethica,
I am so happy for you! I knew from the moment I saw all of you in my dreams that this day was going to be coming and I’m so excited that it’s finally here! I kept telling Phil that we should just set you two up, but he insisted that we let you two go at your own pace. I’m quite sad I missed the whole thing, but I expect to be told every single detail the next time we meet! I want to hear EVERYTHING. Where did he propose? How romantic was the speech that Marius gave when he proposed? Did Lethica cry while saying yes? What do your rings look like? Are you Mr. and Mrs. Renathyr or Nightborne? When’s the wedding? Where’s the wedding going to be? If you don’t have an answer for that last one, Phillip and I would be honored for your two to be wed at Chateau Clair de Lune! I can’t wait for the next time I see you all!
Sincerely,
Adela Druskenvald
P.S. Please enjoy the flowers and drinks. I picked them all out myself, ”
It’s a miracle that Briggsy was able to get through all of that without breaking down in tears and laughter. “Since when did you have the balls to even ask Letty on a date, let alone marry her?” He cackles directly in the flustered knight’s face.
“There’s a bit of a misunderstanding here,” Marius looks to Lethica for support.
“There is,” She picks up a dark red orchid, “I believe I proposed to you, not the other way around,” Briggsy laughs even harder that now he’s threatening to throw up some of his organs, “But in all honesty, I performed a spell that granted us some extra protection for a week and all we had to do was say we’ll marry each other,”
“But you’re still married?” Farryn inspects the flower Lethica has.
The priestess walks up to her husband, “Legally no, but in the eyes of Shar and Lathander we are,”
“Adela might have already made us legally married,” Marius distracts himself from his pretty wife by checking out the champagne. “For which I apologize,”
“Apologize? For what?”
Marius flashes his fangs at her, “I’m not the desirable suitor that I used to be,”
Lethica gently turns his head to look at her, “I don’t know, I think anyone would be lucky to snag such a loyal and handsome knight for a husband,” She tucks the wine colored orchid into his golden locks.
“...Thank you,” He responded after he finally processed her words. “I think anybody would be lucky to call you their wife,”
Lethica cocks a hip, “You are quite lucky, aren’t you?” And Marius wants to argue that no, he isn’t lucky, but something in him tells him to shut up.
“This is so sweet,” Jericho hiccups and wipes a nonexistent tear from his eyes, “I’m going start writing a song about y’all,” He strums a few notes on his banjo and hums some words.
“Maybe we’ll be groomsmen, eh Yorgi?” Briggsy goes to elbow the orc only to discover he left this conversation a while ago, “Yorgi? Yorgi!” The pirate leaves calling out to his friend.
“What rhymes with Shar?” Jericho asks Virgil, who squawks in annoyance, “That is a very mean thing to say to the newly weds,”
“Star, bar, char, jar?” Lethica offers while she leads him to his room.
Jericho perks up with her suggestions, “ She’s a priestess of Shar, and he worships the morning star! ” Marius and Farryn hear before he’s fully out of earshot.
“Congratulations,” The satyr says while checking the water level in the vase.
Marius stares at her before responding, “Thank you, but you know this isn’t a proper marriage, right? Lethica was just trying to shield both of us” He watches her kill some of the orchids and hibiscuses whose colors don’t fit in and grow some dark green foliage in the vase. It’s still a giant ass bouquet, but because of the druid’s magic it’s at least coherent and not a mess. A bouquet of lavenders, dark reds, and bright pink flowers with emerald leaves of all shapes and sizes.
“Lathander and Shar don’t seem to think so,” Farryn twirls a decaying orange hibiscus in her fingers, “ Lethica doesn’t seem to think so. You love her, don’t you?”
“ Love is a strong word,”
“You blindly trust her, find her the most gorgeous person in the room, and choose to spend as much time as you can with her,” Her pitch black eyes stare into his red, “I think that’s love, and I should know,”
…
“I’m sorry you couldn’t get this with Gwenna,”
Farryn shoves the ice bucket into the knight’s arms, “I’ll forgive you if you make the most of what you have,” She leaves for the conservatory.
“Marius?” Lethica enters the foyer again, “Everything alright?” The paladin just takes a minute to stare at her. Beautiful, intelligent, and savvy Lethica married him , and Lathander approves of it. He knows he’s not great at accepting good things happening to him, but he trusts in Lathander. He trusts in his wife.
“I’m fine,” Marius acts before he can second guess his decision, “Shall we enjoy our gifts, love,” He kisses the back of her hand. He mentally kicks himself until he sees quite the lovely sight. The mask let's Lethica get away with being hard to read and nobody knowing the exact emotion on her face, so one wouldn’t imagine you can see her blush. Marius can though. Marius can see the tips of her ashy purple ears turn rosy and darker. The only giveaway that Marius flustered her.
“Wonderful idea, darling,” She picks up the vase and nods approvingly at the adjustments Farryn made. Marius thinks he’s safe with his vampiric nature preventing any blood flow, yet he forgets he’s not the one in the mask. Lethica may not get to enjoy a flush on those carved cheekbones, but she does get the soft smile with a hint of his fangs and a fond laugh to accompany it.
The newlyweds enjoy the sight of their spouses while Lethica imagines her husband all gussied up in his finest suit and Marius thinks of what kind of ring to get his wife.