This post's authors have general content warnings that might apply to the current post.
View Flat HTML
View Metadata
Search Post
The next time Linya and Ekaterin meet up (for impromptu bonsai skellytum pruning lessons, lunch, and an attempt to teach Ekaterin the simplest version of a complicated haut card game) Linya says, while shuffling for a second example round:
"Miles and I are planning to get married again, Barrayaran ceremony groats and all, and I wondered if you'd be my Second."
isthisart
thisvorlunatic
"Oh, Linya and I are planning our Barrayaran wedding, and in the spirit of warning you ahead of time I thought I'd call and ask you to be my Second before we put your name down."
middlingalong
"And in the spirit of warning you ahead of time, you are aware that customarily this would lead to me kissing your wife, the once, yes?"
thisvorlunatic
"Yes. I think I'll survive. I don't think Linya has quite decided what she thinks of that custom, but she has indicated she is not implacably opposed."
middlingalong
"Wasn't your survival I was worried about," mutters Ivan. "Right then, that being the only associated threat to life and limb, I'm all for it, when's the wedding?"
thisvorlunatic
Miles snickers. "In a month. I'll tell you the exact date when we've pinned it down. Any schedule concerns I should know about?"
middlingalong
"Just work, and that's regular barring crises for me. Do avoid having crises double-booked on the day of your wedding, will you?"
isthisart
About a week later, after an economics lesson with Tsipis (he has recently invited her to call him Gavril if she'd care to, and she reciprocated) Linya reflects that it's fairly awkward for her and Count Vorkisigan to call each other, respectively, that, and "Lady Vorkosigan". So when he and she are the first to arrive at the dinner table, she says:
"You could call me Linyabel if you'd like."
"You could call me Linyabel if you'd like."
isthisart
Time elapses. The day arrives.
Linya, having consulted with Alys, gets beautifully dressed up in silver with little black and gold accents, and wears her hair down and brushed out in a lustrous sheet (it's more practical braided, but at its most striking on its own merits when loose).
On a brick circle at Vorkosigan Surleau, with the House crest picked out in another color of brick, groats in pretty colors are strewn in a small circle, which is circumscribed in a star and then a greater circle.
Linya is, in traditional Vor style, fetched on a horse, which is named Fat Ninny. (The name of the horse is not traditional.) It has been pointed out to Miles that she already lives in his home and the fetching is a bit silly even above and beyond the beast's name, but he wanted to do it and Linya doesn't mind. Her hair swooshes behind them as they approach.
And then they dismount from the horse, and clasp hands, and walk together into the interior circle.
Ivan and Ekaterin are both supplied with little bags of still more groats. And Alys cues Miles, ready to feed him his lines if he does not produce them because he's too busy admiring his wife's glowing smile or her shiny hair or her pretty outfit.
thisvorlunatic
Her smile is very glowing and her hair is very shiny and her outfit is very pretty, but Miles has operated under conditions more distracting than this.
"I, Miles Naismith Vorkosigan, do take thee, Linyabel Miriat, to be my spouse and helpmeet, forsaking all others. I swear to stand with you, united in love; to give aid where needed, and accept it where given; to guard your honour as you guard mine, our lives intertwined, for as long as we both shall live."
"I, Miles Naismith Vorkosigan, do take thee, Linyabel Miriat, to be my spouse and helpmeet, forsaking all others. I swear to stand with you, united in love; to give aid where needed, and accept it where given; to guard your honour as you guard mine, our lives intertwined, for as long as we both shall live."
isthisart
And when Alys looks at Linya:
"I, Linyabel Miriat, do take thee, Miles Naismith Vorkosigan, to be my spouse and helpmeet, forsaking all others. I swear to stand with you, united in love; to give aid where needed, and accept it where given; to guard your honor as you guard mine, our lives intertwined, for as long as we both shall live."
And then she makes a graceful little curtsy so she can kiss him without picking him up off the bricks.
"I, Linyabel Miriat, do take thee, Miles Naismith Vorkosigan, to be my spouse and helpmeet, forsaking all others. I swear to stand with you, united in love; to give aid where needed, and accept it where given; to guard your honor as you guard mine, our lives intertwined, for as long as we both shall live."
And then she makes a graceful little curtsy so she can kiss him without picking him up off the bricks.
thisvorlunatic
Kiss! Excessively married kiss!
(That is a lie. They are just the right amount of married.)
(That is a lie. They are just the right amount of married.)
middlingalong
And when Linya stands up again, Ivan sweeps a gap in the circle of groats, makes eye contact with the bride, and -
loses his nerve at the last minute and kisses her just on the cheek. And promptly stands beside Ekaterin to collect her arm and walk her out of the groat arrangement.
Armsmen, off where they are lined up, perform their Shout.
loses his nerve at the last minute and kisses her just on the cheek. And promptly stands beside Ekaterin to collect her arm and walk her out of the groat arrangement.
Armsmen, off where they are lined up, perform their Shout.
isthisart
There is dinner, and dancing, and small talk, and much gooey gazing between bride and groom.
isthisart
And after the guests have been cleared away and Linya has valiantly refrained from carrying her husband up to their nuptial bed -
- the positive energy of the wedding seeps away bit by bit and leaves her pensive.
- the positive energy of the wedding seeps away bit by bit and leaves her pensive.