The Forgotten Zodiac

Elincia stood up with a smile as Ritz returned. "Shara told us that you are supposed to wear that," the young queen said, nodding. Nephenee nodded her approval, remembering all too well that she herself had won Geoffrey's attentions in her old, dented armor. Ritz's looked to be in much better shape than hers, at that.

"It looks real nice," she said quietly.

Ritz sighed and rolled her eyes, trying, and failing, to be exhasperated with Shara. "It's just like her to predjudice you for what she wants." Despite this, she smiled and crossed over to the mirror where she kept what makeup and smaller accessories she wore. She pulled out an ornate bobby pin and inserted it into her hair on the right side of her head. Ritz spun around again and looked over at Lucia. "Well? I feel like I should be more dressed up to get married; but everyone else seems to think differently."
Lucia looked Ritz over and shook her head. "You look great, Ritz." Before she had to elborate, Shara reentered the room. Her skirt and half-shirt were now replaced with a long, olive green dress. The dress cut off mid-shin, though a slit in the side ran up to her mid-thigh. Her sleeves dropped to just below the elbow, though its sharp white cuffs turned upward and subtracted from its length. Dark fingerless gloves covered her palms, and her quiver now hung across her back. Her greatbow hung in a case by her side, never left behind. "Well, Ritz? You ready? The ceremony starts soon; you should go meet up with Ezel," the Viera said, referencing the Nu Mou she'd asked to give her away.

Elincia stood and smiled. "I suppose we'll go take our seats, then," she said. "And don't be nervous or anything, Ritz! I know I was before my wedding, and it nearly ruined the mood," she said. "Just be happy. You're marrying the love of your life, you know!" she said. Then the young queen smiled once again and turned for the door, knowing Nephenee and Lucia would follow.

The wedding began shortly after that, and it ended quite quickly after it began. Mewt presided as Crown Prince, looking more nervous than either the bride or the groom. Ritz was given away by Ezel Berbier. Shara was her maid of honor, and Montblanc was Marche's best man. The vows were mostly traditional, though the audience was not. As many of the Koringwood Viera as could travel had come to support Ritz, and many of Marche's friends and associates from Clan Nutsy came as well. Many nobles filled the back of the room; there to watch Mewt based on the politics. All three groups tried to avoid socializing with the others: the clanners feeling socially low, the Viera, most of whom were either old or quite young, feelilng scandalized by the large amounts of male company, and the nobles feeling entirely superior to everyone else present. Despite the extreme tension in the audience, the wedding went smoothly and quickly. Within two hours, everyone was gathered now in the ballroom, happily distracted with food and alcohol. Dancing started quickly, though Marche and Ritz had not yet arrived.

It did not take Elincia long to coerce Ike onto the dance floor. She followed as best as she was able to his clumsy lead, but smiled all the while. "You haven't gotten my foot yet," she said, tilting her head back slightly to meet his gaze fully. "That means you're improving. Have you been practicing with someone else?" she asked in a subtle jibe, before laughing softly.

Nephenee, Soren, and Lucia were mainly watching from the sidelines. Nephenee had been offered the hands of two seperate suitors; she turned down both with an embarrassed murmur and a reddening face. Lucia had not been asked, but that was probably due to Soren's close proxemity and the assumption that the pair was together.

Carefully, Nephenee approached Lucia - she'd come to know her sister-in-law better, but her shyness was pervasive. "Do you reckon... ah, do you think there will be any sort of line type dancing later? I might join in if'n it's something I know..." she said.

Ike shook his head sharply, focusing as carefully on the dance. He had improved significantly in the past three months, especially because of the frequency of his need to. If there was a downside to marrying the queen, having to dance was definitely it. The king said nothing for a time until he reached a point where he deemed himself stable enough in the dance to make conversation. "No one but you. After you made me practice with Geoffrey, the memories have been much too painful." He grinned at her, referencing the time period before the wedding when she had indeed convinced Geoffrey into teaching Ike to dance. The experience, while not truly painful, had been less than enjoyable.
Despite, or possibly due to, Soren's proximity to Lucia, his partnership had been asked multiple times by the young Viera. Like Nephenee, many of them were quite show; but they all had an extreme desire to dance while they had the opportunity. Since they were in town only for Ritz's wedding and were wary of unpartnered men because of their lack of contact with others, they gravitated strongly toward men safely in relationships. Soren had initially been a very likely target, for not only did he appear to be in a relationship, but he was also from Tellius. However, after he snubbed the first several, they stopped asking for him and left him alone, finding other men to dance with.
Lucia looked at Nephenee and smiled reassuringly as she thought through her sister-in-law's question. "I'm really not sure. If it were a normal noble's wedding, I would say there was no possibility of it. It's Marche and Ritz, though. Considering what I know of their pasts, it could be possible. I'm sure if you asked Ritz, she would make it happen." Lucia stepped to the side to fit Soren into her conversation with Nephenee, positioning her body so that they formed a triangle.
A fanfare echoed off, announcing the arrival of the new couple. Marche, dressed in the same dressy clan uniform he'd worn to the wedding, entered with Ritz, who had changed costume entirely. Instead of the old uniform she had been clothed in, she now wore a long dress of a dark emerald green. Bronze diamonds were embroidered into the top half of the dress. At the bottom tip of the diamond, the dress changed from green to white as it flowed toward the ground.
Behind the picturesque couple came a scruffy looking young man, clearly Marche's brother. He had short brown hair and had apparently neglected to shave before attending. His white shirt was streaked with colored powders, mostly green, red, and blue. In occasional spots, there were splashes of black powder. Even his black pants had streaks of colors on them, which would have made him look like a slob if anyone had been able to identify the powders. The trio worked their way over to the one already in the room and joined the conversation. Marche broke the silence. "Lucia, Soren, Nephenee," he slowed slightly as he struggled to remember her name, then continued. "This is my younger brother, Doned."

Nephenee brightened a bit as she saw Doned, if only because someone now looked out of place than she did. Her face quickly reddened at the thought, and she mentally kicked herself for being impolite.

"Pleasure to meet ya... you, milord," she said, giving a small curtsy. She turned to Ritz and smiled. "It was a really pretty wedding. And ya look wonderful in that dress," she said.

Soren gave the couple a polite nod. "The reception's nice," he commented politely. He shifted slightly, scanning the dancers for a moment until he found Ike and Elincia. "They're certainly enjoying it."

Elincia smiled up at Ike. "Then I suppose it worked," she said, laughing softly once again.

Doned and Ritz laughed, almost in unison. Doned, who was further from being a lord than Marche was, hurried to explain. "I'm not a lord, far from it. From what I recall of my childhood, I goaded Marche into beating nobles up for me." He laughed shortly, then stopped when he realized how completely socially inappropriate that story was. "Only the ones who deserved it, though. I'd never get him to senselessly bludgeon someone because I didn't like them."
Ritz also hurried to explain her laugh, knowing that Nephenee's shyness could make her misconstrue the expession. "This is the dress Shara felt the need to talk me out of wearing to the wedding. Speaking of Shara," she glanced around before locating her friend directing various guests to where they belong. "Marche, we should probably go- oh, <i>Exodus</i>. C'mon, Marche, Syl's stupid father is here. Let's go talk nice to him." She took her new husband by the arm and led him off toward Alexander and a slightly taller, significantly wider man who had entered next to him. Ritz waved at the group over her shoulder and headed off, fitting a fake smile onto her face.
Lucia, somewhat amused by Doned's appearance, tried to start the conversation on a neutral topic. "You're Marche's brother, he said. Does that mean you're with Clan Nutsy, or do you do something else for a living?" So far, practically everyone they had met had been either a noble or a clanner; but she knew the people of Ivalice would have more than that. Any functioning civilization would have to.
Ike smiled down at her, grinning fairly uncontrollably. "You know, I could just carry you the whole time. Then <i>you</i> wouldn't have to worry about getting stepped on by me, and <i>I</i> wouldn't actually have to try to dance. I could just spin around in circles."

Soren did his best to look invested in the conversation, but no more so than was required of his station as a Tellius noble. He wasn't really much of a social person to begin with, and he could think of about ten things he would rather be doing.

One, in particular, pressed more than the others.

Therefore, the mage seemed largely distracted as Lucia and Nephenee spoke to Doned, his thoughts wandering a bit, but  not far enough that he couldn't be pulled back in to the conversation if he was required to do so. Calling his name would certainly work, but he wasn't totally zoned out (as Ike was prone to doing so often). He snapped to attention as Nephenee looked his way. She gave him an odd look, but said nothing and only blushed, so Soren assumed he wasn't missing much.

The young Queen tilted her head to rest on Ike's shoulder for a moment as she smiled. "I think I prefer this," she said, then straigtened back into a posture that Ike was more accustomed to dancing with - after all, she didn't want a broken toe. He'd yet to inflict one, but it wouldn't be good if tonight was the night he started.

Fortunately for Soren, Doned didn't really have any interest in speaking to him. The you man was perfectly content, even eager, to continue his conversation with Lucia and Nephenee. "I'm not much of a clanner, really. I do some work establishing Clan Ambervale, but now they mostly fund my experiments. I'm currently working on the airships out of Baguba Port, redesigning the engines. My fireworks are pretty popular too; that's what I was working on that has me all coated in colors." He laughed slightly and glanced at the outside sky, wondering when Ritz would want him to start lighting them off.
Lucia paused, fastening her attention on the part of Doned's explanation that was incoherent. "Airships? How could ships possibly sail in the air? Do you have floating wood? How do you land? Or harvest it?" She stopped, waiting for Doned to answer her questions before she fired off any more.
Ike shrugged, faltering slightly in the dance as Elincia moved close to him. As another show of how significantly he had improved over the last three months, he managed not to step on Elincia's foot as he readjusted to her position changes. He did, admittedly, nearly fall over in his active attempts to keep her feet safe, but he managed all the same. "If you say so. I'm just pointing out that it's an option."

Lucia's words drew Soren back in to the covnersation, and now he looked on interestedly. "It's probably some sort of magic," he said, glancing up to her. "Is that assumption correct, Doned?" he asked. Of course, he didn't really believe that boats could fly on their own - magic was the only viable option.

"Always good to consider the options," she said, smiling up at him. She pulled back as the song ended and turned with the other dancers to applaud the musicians.

Much to Lucia' surprise, Doned immediately denied Soren's theory. "Magic? No, not entirely. We use some magic to stabilize and such, but it had most of its fucntioning capability separate." He elaborated on the functions of the airship immediately, restraining himself from including much more detail than was necessary. "The airship is mostly mechanical; so that, if something happens to the mages, it can still be landed safely." Doned began detailing the workings of the airship, how it converted steam to power an engine, which lifted the airship into the air. Once in the air, the ships combined sail and air power with several great engines. Air spells were used to help lift and stabilize the ship, while fire spells were used to heat the water to create the steam. The only indispensable magical component were the stabilizing spells, which could be functioned without for short periods of time, if absolutely necessary. "Any questions," he asked when he'd finished his explanation. "I've never had to explain them so completely before."
Lucia turned to Soren quickly, waiting for the mage to ask any questions he had. She knew they would probably be more pertinent questions, and he was considerably more interested than she was. Wind magic was his specialty, after all.
Ike wrapped an arm around Elincia's waist and navigated them off the dance floor. "Do you want to go talk to Marche and Ritz, or are we going back to Soren 'n' Lucia 'n' them?" He started off in the general direction of both groups, leaning slightly toward Marche and Ritz, as that was who he expected her to choose. They hadn't seen them since the wedding, after all.

"An engine?" Soren asked, tilting his head slightly to the right. He listened to Doned's explaination of the gears and such with interest, then said. "We have nothing of the sort in Tellius."

"I would like to see one," Nephenee said, speaking up suddenly. "I never thought such a thing might be real. Beorc, able to fly?" she asked. "I figured only Laguz could do that."

Soren paused after Nephenee's words, then added some more of his own. "Honesty, I don't know that I'll believe it until I see it, myself," he said.

"We should go talk to Marche and Ritz," Elincia said. "I want to tell her how beautiful her dress is," she added quickly.

Doned frowned slightly. "Beorc? You mean Humes, like the four of us?" When Lucia confirmed his question, he continued with the conversation. "I don't know if I'd say it's like flying; even on the top deck, you're inside a closed space." The man paused in thought before pressing forward with his line of thought. "How long are you staying? 'Cause, I mean, I could probably arrange something in the next few days. If you like, I could even arrange one with an open space on the top, one without the glass enclosure so you could feel the wind and everything." He looked off into space slightly as he kept thinking, estimating how long it would take him to get a ride set up. "Assuming that storm front doesn't blow in, I could probably get it ready for, say, two days from now?"
Lucia frowned and tiltled her head back to think. "I was under the impression that we were leaving tomorrow, but we could probably push it by a day. Would you be able to include Ike and Elincia as well? I'm positive Ike would be interested, and Elincia would then be willing to come as well." She glanced at Nephenee curiously, shocked that her sister-in-law had spoken up so abruptly. It was good, especially if it meant that the lancewoman was overcoming her shyness.
"Alrighty." Ike moved along quickly next to Elincia, speaking quietly into her ear. "I don't suppose you want me to carry you over there. They're married now too, so we can hardly be judged." Luckily for Elincia, they reached the group they were approaching before she had to reply to that. Ike straightened up, though he left one arm around wrapped around Elincia's waist. "Hello, everyone. Congratulations, Marche. You're officially a member of the boring."
Next to the new couple, still engaged in conversation, were Alexander and the man who was clearly his father. Marche, decently aware of etiquette, introduced the man immediately. "Ike, Elincia, this is Lord Richard De Issand, Lord of Cyril. You've met Alexander, I believe. Lord Issand, this is King Ike and Queen Elincia Crimea of Tellius. They're the ones who were so gracious as to take us in as we tried to find Mewt's would-be-killer." His tone was completely light and off-hand; no one would realize that the very lord he was speaking to was a suspect in the hiring of that man.

Soren quirked his brow. "Well, I for one would be interested. In watching." He cleared his throat slightly. "Though I believe I'd feel safer on the ground. I'm not sure I would enjoy being up in the air for too long." He glanced over to Ike. "Though certain opinions hold sway over mine." The last begrudging sentence was added as a mutter, and the mage shook his head slightly. "We'll see what happens."

Elincia inclined her head slightly to the Lord of Cyril. "A pleasure, I'm sure," she said, elbowing Ike slightly in the ribs. He still wasn't so skilled at addressing nobles without offending, and though he'd done a good job of not treading on toes this night, she knew well how his mouth could get him into trouble. "Your country is quite impressive. You are quite lucky to live here. And, if you would pardon my curiosity, what is your province like? Ike and I should like to learn as much about Ivalice as out time here may permit," she said, smiling politely at him.

Doned bristled, slightly offended at the inference that his airships weren't safe. "They're entirely safe. Hundreds of people travel on them on a regular basis. The ship I have in mind has a perfect record; it's never been crashed or even had to land for unexpected repairs." His that defense out of the way, he calmed himself down to contemplate Soren's side of it. "I suppose I can see why you would be reluctant, if you have no flight capability where you come from. Not that it's any reason to doubt the Harrier."
Lucia watched Doned's reaction in surprise, shocked at the sudden passion when he felt a slight to his passion. She stepped in quickly, intervening for Soren before he said anything else unfortunate. "I"m sure Soren just meant that he's afraid he would get airsick; the way people get seasick on boats. As brilliant as your spells sound, the motion could still be troublesome, couldn't it?" Her words quickly passified the mechanic, who had no intention of holding a grudge. He could just be passionate when it came to things he worked on.
Ike silenced himself immediately, for he had been about to inquire whether Lady Cyril was present or otherwise occupied. Upon speculation, he did realize that would probably be a bad thing. Syl had never been anything but thrilled with his mother, but his relationship with his father was clearly more strained. "It's my pleasure and all that. Yeah, we want to learn all we can about your country. It's quite different from Tellius, but super interesting."
Lord Richard drew himself up and started a description of Cyril. It was fairly dry, deliberately, for the lord felt no need to win the admiration of either the king or the queen. As the politics currently stood, he was the next candidate for the throne. He found Tellius an unpleasant interruption that merely served to disrupt his politics. His reign would come soon, and their interference would no longer be necessary. He simply droned on in an explanation of Cyril, how it was the largest city in Ivalice, how the surrounding countryside was filled with fertile farmlands, how the people's of the city were diversified and yet function, and continuing from there.
Alexander, after only a few minutes of this, excused himself and departed the conversation, moving off to make nice to various nobles or their children. That should have been warning enough, but the Lord of Cyril could go on this way forever.
Luckily for everyone present, the conversation was interrupted by a loud explosion and flash of red light. As everyone in the room gasped, Ritz jumped, grinning, and squeezed Marche's hand. "C'mon, those are the fireworks!" With Ritz, Marche, and Doned at the head of the crowd, everyone flowed outside. The colored explosions lit up the night sky, perfectly explaining the colors that coated Doned's shirt. The whole crowd continued gasping in awe and delight, for fireworks were a relatively new invention and very few people could make them.
Lucia, who'd been separated from her group in the rush toward the door, found her way across the balcony and over to Soren, who was standing in the corner. "Enjoying the light show, Soren? It wouldn't surprise me if these were some of the first things Elincia tries to trade for. They'd sell quite well, you know, assuming they didn't require magic." She thought back to her impression of Doned and cancelled that option out. The man could be many things, but he certainly wasn't a mage. He was far too muscular for that.

Elincia seemed as grateful for the escape from Lord Cyril as Ike might have been - as much experience as she had conversing with nobles, she still grew bored of ones like Richard easily. Their pension for ego-stroking did not sit well with the young queen, who'd been raised more humbly than the rulers before her. She would much prefer to talk to Marche and Ritz, but the flashing display in the sky distracted her from this thought. She took Ike's hand and headed to the balcony with all the others, staring in wonder at the fireworks.

"These are amazing!" she called to her husband over the booming display and delighted gasps from the crowd gathered below. "You must be able to see these for miles! Aren't they wonderful?" she asked, pulling her gaze from the show to look up at Ike, a brilliant smile on her face.

Nephenee had trailed after Doned as the fireworks began, assuming that Soren and Lucia would be right behind her, as they'd not finished their conversation with Marche's brother. She gazed up at the sky in wonder for a few minutes, but when she looked back down she discovered that not only had she lost sight of Doned, but that Soren and Lucia were no where nearby, either. She spent a moment in a blustered panic, before calming herself and deciding to just enjoy the show - she would find the others later, and she knew that they wouldn't leave without her. Perhaps it would be best, for now, to make her way to a balcony and watch as the rest of the crowd was. No one would notice her, anyways - she may as well just enjoy herself while her shyness was out of the way for a short time.

Soren was watching the sky, a bemused look on his face that faded as he heard his name being called. He looked around until he spotted Lucia and smiled a bit as she made her way over. He regarded the sky for another moment before answering.

"I'd say that Elincia would want them. They've managed to entertain me," he said, smirking a bit. "It's a brilliant display. Absolutely superfluous, but stunning all the same," he conceeded. He straightened a bit and shifted a bit closer to Lucia as the fireworks lit up the sky in a rapid sucession, squealing and chirping as they ascended and flowering out with a thunderous boom. He smiled a bit to himself and shook his head, then looked over to Lucia. "How many do you suppose they have?" he asked.

Ike, transfixed by the flashing lights, drew his attention back to earth and to his wife's question. "Yeah, they're great. Where do you suppose they came from? Most of the people here seem just as new to them as we are; but they do seem to be planned." He jumped as a particularly large amount of fireworks all went off at once, in one extended roar. "How do you think they color them? They sort of look like colored fire spells, except that they don't light up until they reach the top."
"They fill them with colored powders, as I understand it." Marche, Ritz still on his arm, came up behind Ike and Elincia. They had separated from their friends only to also be able to separate from Lord De Issand. Once that mission had been accomplished, they had worked their way back through the crowd to rejoin their previous conversation partners. "Explosives and colored powders all get put in this tube and then lit on fire. It's much more complicated than that, of course; but that's basically how they work."
Lucia laughed, glancing at Soren quickly before returning her gaze to the sky. "I'm shocked. I never thought there would be a superfluous activity that you deigned to be entertained by." She stared at the heavens as the most recent cycle of pyrotechnics exploded. "They seem to have past the ark. They had gradually increased in amount they fired off, and now they're decreasing. I would guess they'll fade to very few going up, and then launch a finale of some sort." Lucia smiled and looked over the landscape as it was illuminated by the fireworks. "It helps that they have this open field and mountains to launch them over. I'm not sure it would look nearly as beautiful if they were above, say, the castle courtyards."

"I think they're beautiful," Elincia said, turning to look at Marche and Ritz with a large smile spread across her face. "A lovely touch. I like it a lot," she said, clearly excited about the new invention and the show it created. She directed her gaze to the sky as the booms came in rapid sucession, smiling widely. "Is this the finale?" she asked, watching transfixedly. She fell into a silence with the rest of the crowd as the firewords lit the sky brilliantly, her hand drifting to Ike's and holding it.

Soren nodded slightly, then, realizing that Lucia wasn't looking at him, replied vocally. "I agree," he said, looking at the landscape for a moment. "I believe they're wrapping up," he added after another long pause, during which the explosions grew louder.

Ritz smiled back at Elincia, personally thrilled with the way the celebration had turned out. "I can't really take the credit. You remember Montblanc? His brother, Nono, is a brilliant inventor. He and Doned came up with them, and Doned offered to make some for the wedding." She spun back to watch the final explosion of fireworks , bouncing despite her attempts to restrain herself.
Marche answered Elincia's question, his knowlege being slightly better than Ritz's due to his knowledge of Doned. "This is either the finale or someone dropped a match. Either way, this should be the last of them."
Indeed, it was the end, thankfully because of an intentional finale and not because someone had made a mistake. When it became evident that the show was over, the crowd burst into applause. Marche and Ritz separated themselves from Ike and Elincia and positioned themselves by the door. Most of the guests departed quickly after that, wishing the couple well and leaving to their homes in the city. Those who remained began dancing again, trickling off the balcony and back onto the dance floor.
Lucia, who had been silent during the end of the fireworks and the movement back inside, reopened her conversation with Soren. "It looks like you were right. They wrapped it all up." She leaned up against him on the balcony and gazed up at the stars, which seemed much more significant now that the explosions had stopped. "It really is gorgeous here, don't you think?"