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Ben Medinets / story2r

PART III

Chapter 18: The Imperial Wedding

Preparations were going fine for the wedding. It didn’t take long for the pavillions to be completed and errected. A make-shift wedding platform with a covering canopy was constructed in the middle of the much-decorated compound was errected to provide shelter to the Bride and Groom if the whether should go sour.

As the preparations were drawing to a close, Prince William was dressed in a fine tunic and pants. On the tunic across his breasts bore the ancient symbol of his family’s house, the dragon. He wore a silver helm with a dragon device on top. As he was progressed through his own personal preparations, he became even more excited and more nervoous.

Things weren’t so different across the make-shift compound, as in a different tent, Princess Sara was surrounded by several maid-servants from her own house. They helped her with her braiding up her hair, and doing up her gown, which was stunning in its design and despite being green was still gorgeous and had the very look of soft emeralds. Once her hair was done up, they put a circlet of leaves in her hair, which symbolized her allegience to the people of the forest and of her bearing the GREEN MAGIC CRYSTAL.

The Bishop, Jean-Pierre came and prepared for the ceremony that he would soon perform. As a former pupil of his, Benny came and game assistance to him, at least until it was time for the ceremony. Both were quite happy to have each other company at least for this little bit. Benny knew that the Bishop would have to return to the Imperial Palace after the wedding festivities.

For a short time, Cletus hung out also. Unfortunately, Cletus had only met the Bishop for only a few hours before and hadn’t enjoyed his company as much as Benny did. He left when Princess Lisa came by, partially due to being just about his time to begin his guard duty, and partly to the fact that seeing Princess Lisa there reminded him too much about being at home, and of his courtship to the daughter of Sir Richard the Elder.

Princess Lisa definitely enjoyed the Bishop’s company almost as much as Benny did. The Bishop enjoyed it even more that she did. She lovingly remembered frustrating Benny during the middle part of his studies when he stayed at the Royal Townhouses under King Leon’s sponsorship, and under the circumstances that the holy man had asked her to leave because of the effect she was having in his studies. The Bishop, himself, loved how innocently she pretended to be, when in fact she was quite, deep-down, quite naughty inside. There was a definite playful connection, if not slightly perverted, between the two of them.

So the Bishop was entertained until later that day when the Royal Family of Wembly arrived at the GUILDHALL. King Leon gave a firm hand-shake to the Bishop, and a bear hug to his daughter and one to Benny. Queen Beth gave each of them a kiss on the cheek, and allowed Benny and the Bishop to kiss the back of her hand. Princess Stephanie did likewise. Finally, Sir Vic, Princess Stephanie’s suitor, then greeted all 3 of them, and gave hand-shakes to Benny and the Bishop, and gave Princess Lisa a kiss on the cheek and a very quick embrace.

Later that evening, while Tommy was on guard, the Emperor made his appearance. Tommy had the trumpets blare, and the section of the Imperial Guards that were there welcomed their Imperial Master to the wedding. The rest of the camp enlivened, until the Emperor dismissed them and asked for privacy, which was immediately given out of respect. The Imperial Guards however, while the crowd slowly thinned out, added their own two cents and shouted, “The Emperor demands his leave and privacy,” This fell mostly on deaf ears because there were soon no one around, for they all had retired to their own accommodations, for all knew that the next day would be very busy for all.

The next day, the sky was a nice shad of blue, with soft clouds that hung high in the air looking quite harmless. The sun shone brightly and gave off a warm but not too hot glow. In short, the weather was absolutely perfect for the wedding.

The decorations were equally perfect and many flowers decorated the surroundings around the GUILDHALL. The cooks were already gearing up for the enormous feast that would happen after the ceremony. It didn’t take long for the people to wake up and put on their finest for today’s activities. As honored guests, Benny and Tommy would stand by the Crown Prince and the Emperor.

The Imperial Musicians played an endervoring wedding march with flute, lyre, and with horn. Princess Lisa appeared down the aisle wearing a very nice green gown, and stood opposite to Benny. Then to Tommy’s surprise, down the aisle came Willow the Ranger, dresed in a matching green gown. She stood beside Princess Lisa and stood opposite to Tommy. Tommy gave her a slightly mischievious smile, and Willow just blushed for a moment and then quickly looked away, flirtingly. Next, Princess Stephanie walked down the aisle in the same, matching gown, but her flaming red hair was clashing with the colour. She stoop next to Willow, and opposite to the Emperor. The Emperor was quite happy to have her and the other young ladies in his view, and gave all of them a lustful lear. Princess Stepanie and the others that stood there, just gave him a dirty look and tried their best to ignore him.

Lastly, Princess Sara came down the aisle walking even slowly and even more gracefully. She looked breathtakingly gorgeous. She had that circlet of leaves in her braided hair, her emerald neckless that matched her green coloured gown. She was escorted down the aisle by her true father, King Leon of Wembly. All stood in reverant awe as the Princess walked down the aisle, and Prince William felt truly blessed that she was going to be his wife.

At the platform stairs, both the Princess and her father slowly ascended, and the king presented his own dear daughter to the Crown Prince, who gave the King a quick bow, and then took the Princesses arm, and both of them, bride and groom faced the Bishop to begin the Wedding Ceremony. King Leon then went down the stairs, and then sat beside his wife, Queen Beth and Soren the Sage, with his future son, Sir Vic seated nearby.

The Bishop, Jean-Pierre welcomed everyone to the wedding celebration and proclaimed his much gratitude to be honored to be dispatched for this service to the Emperor. He then delivered a small sermon and then called for the couple to exchange their vows to one another. Once the vows were exchanged, Benny and Princess Stephanie handed the rings to the Bride and Groom, and Princess Sara and Prince William exchanged rings and put them on the finger of eachother’s hand.

Then the Bishop called out, “if anyone has any reason that these two should not be wed, let him speak now or forever hold their peace.”

No one dared to speak forward. It would be considered an act of treason against the Emperor if anyone attempted to block the wedding. So the Bishop paused, and when there came no interruption, he continued to deliver the ceremony.

“By the power vested in me by the Emperor of this land and by the King of Wembly, I pronounce you two, Man and Wife. May you two have a long and prosperous life. Prince, you may kiss your Bride.”

And Prince William took his bride into his arms and while they embraced, they exchanged an unusually long kiss on the lips. The crowd burst into applause, and the wedding party slowly descended the stairs of the platform, signalling the end of the Wedding Ceremony and the start of the feast.

The food tents were opened up, and the crowd lined up, with the Wedded Couple at the start of the line. Eventually all received food and drink, and made their way to their seats. While everyone was in line, servants set up tables on the platform for the Wedding Party. After everyone got a chance to have food and drink, everyone was offered to have as much as they wanted until the food and drink lasted.

As the feast progressed, it was soon time to begin to toast the newlywed couple. Leading off the toasts, was the Emperor, himself. He toasted his son and daughter-in-law, and then formally welcomed her to his family. King Leon went next, and toasted the couple, and welcomed Prince William to his family, and proclaimed his happiness that he was now the father-in-law to the future Emperor.

Ther were others like Tommy, Benny, Willow, Princess Stephanie, and a number of others who all took their turns toasting the happy couple. Then more food and drink was consumed. Not too long after the last person finished up their toast, the band struck up, and that was the signal for the newlyweds to start the dance, and they gave a graceful performance. Halfway through the first song, the rest of the people then went and joined the newlyweds in their dancing and festivities.

All too soon the feast was over and the honoured guests retired to their temporary lodgings while some of the servants prestend started the large clean-up. The newlywed couple spent their first night together alone like they would if they were on a honeymoon.

The next morning, the Emperor left, followed shortly, King Leon and the Wembly Royal Family left. Other honoured guests like the Bishop left soon after. The servants finished the grueling task of cleaning up the mess from the feast, and once all the clean-up was done, they headed back for the Imperial Palace or to Wembly Castle, under the protection of the soldiers of the Empire or Wembly.

Prince William and Princess Sara were very happy that nothing bad happened on their special day and that it was absolutely perfect. It was, however, over far too soon to their liking. Now the happy couple would return to reality, and resume their obligations to protect the GUILDHALL, the Empire, and the rest of the land.

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