by Auriane Bell
After having fulfilled her duty, Hilda took her place among the maids and relaxed when the dreadful music finally came to an end.
Adrijan cleared his throat. This was a nightmare he knew he had to endure, if he wanted to see the end of it.
“Dearly beloved, we have gathered here today…” his own voice sounded unreal and distant. He continued to listen to it as if it were a recording – one that couldn’t be stopped.
“If any person can show just cause why they may not be joined together let them speak now or forever hold their peace.”
In all the years he had been in service, he had never experienced such a sad moment. There was something inhuman about monarchs, doctors and priests. In a way they were aloof, untouchable and unreachable for the average human being, but at this very moment his master was only a man like any other. Alfred knew the pain he had to be feeling, the longing for a person that was so utterly out of reach.
The old man gazed at Miss Muriel, then at Master Vivian and finally at Master Adrijan. Should he speak up?
No.
Alfred imperceptibly shook his head.
No, it wasn’t his place to decide what was best for his master.
“A-cho!”
Mairin turned her head. Couldn’t Engelin have suppressed the sneeze at a time like this?
“I’m sorry,” she said rolling her eyes. “I’m allergic to bad endings.”
Meanwhile everyone present had at least stolen one glance at the cheeky girl.
Adrijan cleared his throat. “Is there something you want to tell us, child?”
“Well…-” Engelin began. Änlin quickly put her hand over the girl’s mouth. Her protest was muffled but Mairin thought that she was trying to say that she had a valid reason. Her mother wouldn’t let her speak.
“I do apologise,” Änlin said. “She’s just a child. Please proceed. It won’t happen again.”
Hilda gave Corinne a dig with the elbow. The young maid coughed and glared at her, not looking dangerous in the least. Luckily the reading had been short but silly as the girl was, it had been long enough for her to start crying. Her tears hadn’t stopped flowing as Father Adrijan had continued on, talking solemnly yet without showing any emotion, bestowing upon the celebration the air of a funeral. Even the exchanged wedding vows had been minimalistic and slightly peculiar, bearing the characteristics of a contract.
Hilda sighed. She didn’t know why she was so cranky and she caught herself almost wishing that Engelin would cause another scene like she had initiated with the fake sneeze. For the past few days she had been looking forward to the wedding but now that it was time, something felt wrong and she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.
Mairin’s clumsy struggle with the ring conjured a wry smile on Vivian’s face. It was pitiful how her hands were nervously shaking and he inconspicuously tried to aid her.
Finally the ring was in place and it was the immortal’s turn to affirm Adrijan’s question. He did so without hesitation and while steadily keeping his eyes on the beautiful bride. The fateful words spoken, he gently supported Mairin’s hand and very gracefully put the ring on her finger. He had always enjoyed the satisfaction of carrying out whatever he did with perfection.
Vivian observed Mairin, waiting for her to recognise the special design Adrijan had chosen for the piece of jewellery. It should have been his brother standing here, discovering the spark in her eyes as she gazed at the symbol of their bond.
“I hereby pronounce you husband and wife.”
Vivian slightly tensed, awaiting what he knew would follow.
“You may now kiss the bride,” Adrijan stoically proclaimed.
Hearing these words from Ade’s mouth was certainly strange, but Vivian shrugged off the bothersome feeling and moved on like he always had.
Knowing Vivian’s temper she had expected his kiss to be passionate but his soft lips merely touched her mouth, gently and quickly like a fleeting dream.
Taken in by the experience of her first kiss, Mairin was unprepared when the master of Mondstein castle simply tore away her loosened veil. With a vigorous gesture he commanded the orchestra to play and while the first notes of the waltz resounded in the grand hall, he was already dragging her to the dance floor. Mairin gasped.
Adrijan gazed at the now empty place where the bridal pair had danced to the rhythm of the music.
One, two, three… One, two three…
What kind of evil sorcery was it, that allowed the tune to linger on even after the orchestra had already packed up and left?
Alone in the great hall, surrounded by a perceptible nothingness, Adrijan was still able to conjure up the scene of the never-ending waltz of bride and groom: Vivian taking the lead, Mairin’s hair flowing as her graceful figure was floating over the dance floor, the wings on her dress swaying just like an angel’s.
He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, reminding himself that the angel was gone, that the hall had been cleared – that it was over.
Adrijan straightened up and started to walk. His steps sounded through the emptiness – an emptiness that wasn’t unlike his own state of mind. Almost in the centre of the grand room he came to a halt.
A peculiar fatigue had taken hold of him and caused him to blink slowly, as if he couldn’t find the strength to open his eyes after closing them. He had hardly gotten any sleep the night before, but he knew that the exhaustion he felt was based on more than physical strain. Gradually Adrijan turned around and the walls slid past his view like single slides projected by a diascope. Daylight had become scarce yet he felt no urge to do something about the increasing darkness. More precisely, he didn’t feel the urge to do anything.
Adrijan was puzzled by his own unnatural calmness.
Wasn’t he supposed to panic at the thought that Mairin was about to spend her wedding night with Vivian? During the marriage ceremony he had felt like a drowning man and it had taken him a lot of effort to do what had to be done. Now it seemed that he was watching himself, the corpse floating in the watery depths, like a subject of study.
Not far away from where he stood Adrijan spotted a few instruments leaning against the wall. They had been brought in as substitutes and after they hadn’t been needed, the servants had obviously forgotten to put them away.
Slowly he walked over to them. There was no rush.
Examining his find, he discovered a violin case. Carefully he removed the stringed instrument. It wasn’t a very valuable violin but of course that wasn’t of importance. Unhurriedly he picked up the bow, put the lower bout on his shoulder and performed a few precise upward strokes to see if the instrument was tuned.
The small brush tickled on Mairin’s skin. For the past half-hour the artist had been preparing her for the – in her opinion early – wedding night by drawing a loose, arabesque pattern of rarely intertwined silver lines and dots on her body. It was a delicate floral motif that looked its best when Hilda directed the spotlight at Mairin’s skin, increasing the visibility of the ornament and causing it to sparkle like traces of magic.
Despite her own fascination with the beauty of the art Mairin was embarrassed having to let the middle-aged woman use her as a canvas. Absorbed by her work she stayed so close to her that Mairin was relieved to have taken a shower after all the dancing. Under the woman’s scrutinizing gaze she was also tremendously glad that she had been allowed to put on underwear. While it was certainly better than being naked, the white slip that was diaphanous – except for where it really mattered – and the very short and slightly transparent negligée of the same colour, were only of little comfort to her when she thought of what was going to happen once she was ready.
Finally the artist put away the brush and Hilda stepped closer to let Mairin’s long, wavy hair down. She extracted a few drops of oil from a small bottle and dispersed it, bestowing an unfamiliar but pleasant fragrance to the curls.
The maid encouragingly smiled at her mistress and handed her the strange flowe
r she had used in the ceremony instead of a bouquet. Mairin took a deep breath.
It was time.
The room had been heated with regard to the planned preparations but she was shivering and her stomach was still trying to make her change her mind.
Hilda opened the door to the adjacent room where Vivian was already waiting for his bride. Reluctantly Mairin stepped through the opening and listened to the sound of the door being shut and locked behind her.
“So you’ve decided to come,” Vivian welcomed her in a soft voice.
Hilda was in a hurry to leave the room. Fearing that she would be involved in something she didn’t remotely want to know about, she wasn’t keen on staying close to what she called the ‘crime scene’ any longer than necessary. The mere thought that she had locked in her mistress and didn’t know if she was faring well, filled her with horror.
Donning a mask of professionalism she politely guided the hired artist outside, deciding that it would be early enough to clean up the mess they had made the following day.
“Her husband will certainly be pleased,” the woman noted smiling proudly.
Hilda was shivering. She tried to calm herself with the thought that the immortal certainly wasn’t an evil person. After all he attracted so many women and none of them had ever complained. Nevertheless she felt like she had abandoned Mairin and she wasn’t quite herself when she saw off the special guest.
On her way back upstairs, Hilda passed by the great hall to see if everything had been cleaned up properly and was surprised to hear the sound of a lonely violin.
Mairin couldn’t tell if Vivian had expected a different turn of events.
Now that she was here, the thought that the time of her initial sacrifice had finally come was almost overwhelming and her chest grew so tight that she could hardly breathe. Standing in the dark and with her eyes still trying to adjust, she hadn’t been able to make out the immortal yet.
“Let me turn up the light so I can take a look at you,” Vivian said silently.
Mairin wanted to protest but as soon as she had heard the immortal’s smooth voice, the veil of darkness around her was carefully lifted and despite the room not being brightly lit at all she felt a strong urge to hide.
The faint source of light was limited to small glowing lamps of different size and intensity and bestowed the dreamy appearance of a starlit sky upon the arched ceiling.
“Hmmm,” Vivian hummed not yet satisfied and the glazed floor under Mairin’s feet came to life, illuminating like a pool of water and emitting a deep cyan glow.
With the lightness increased, the ornaments on Mairin’s skin sparkled as she walked over the heated ground, ever closer to the immortal. Wherever her feet touched the floor, waves of light were created, small circular ripples that originated from her steps and gently ebbed away.
“How beautiful…” Vivian remarked, never taking his light-blue eyes off her.
It was truly beautiful, yet she was aware that he hadn’t been talking about the magic that enthralled her so. Mairin tore her gaze away, knowing that she could no longer avoid focusing on the man in front of her.
Vivian was close, lying on his back in the spacious bed, naked, with the blanket drawn up to his hips and his arms crossed behind his head. The master of Mondstein castle looked like a god and just like one he seemed to be in a playful mood.
Realisation of what was imminent caused Mairin to be rooted to the spot, unable to proceed any further.
Casually the immortal drew back the blanket on the unoccupied side of the bed before returning his arm into its previous position. A cheeky smile played upon his lips and his invitation wasn’t much more than a whisper.
“Join me, Prinzessin.”
Mairin’s gaze slowly wandered back and forth, from her husband to the place he had prepared for her.
Eventually she put the flower in her hands down to the ground, causing another series of ripples to be emitted.
The time to falter was over. Mairin knew very well what she had to do.
Adrijan bowed the strings of the violin, summoning a beautiful melody he had not played in decades. The human capacity to repeat a once learnt series of actions, a multitude of automated movements one thought long forgotten, was a curious thing. Rather than consciously remembering the succession of notes, his fingers knew where they had to move.
It was the melody of Ravel’s pavane for a dead princess which he played, first silently with little motivation, then, once the music had started to affect Adrijan mood, more intensely and passionately.
How many girls had he delivered to Vivian? How many brides had he seen walking down the aisle? In his mind Adrijan summoned the images of his brother paired up with the various young women. He let them gracefully dance through the dark hall, simultaneously, watching them as they carefully put step after step just as it was the way of the pavane.
And then there was Mairin in her revealing dress, accepting Vivian’s offered hand with a rapt smile.
The melody stopped abruptly. Adrijan let his arms sink, the bow in one hand, the violin in the other. A heavy, elongated sigh escaped his lips. It seemed that all of his accumulated sorrow had tried to escape his chest at once.
Adrijan snuffled and went backwards, taking two steps until he touched the wall. Bereft of all energy he leaned against it and slowly slid to the ground.
There at one end of the hall he sat in the darkness, with his legs drawn to the body, the feet firmly on the cold floor, leaving a moderate amount of space between them. His arms were resting on his knees and he dejectedly let instrument and bow droop from his crossed hands in front of him.
Adrijan swallowed to make the knot in his throat go away but it was to no avail. A faint burning in his eyes caused him to blink repeatedly and he ended up being annoyed about this sudden spate of weakness.
Just when he thought to have regained control about his thoughts, Mairin’s face flashed in his mind. He couldn’t bear remembering the way she had sometimes looked at him, the way she had allowed him to long for more. The choking feeling in his throat remained persistent and he put back his head against the wall hoping that it would soon stop.
Adrijan counted the seconds.
It didn’t subside.
Adrijan blinked, unwilling to shed a single tear.
It was a tragedy that even the accumulated experience of such a long life as he had had was insufficient to know what was right and what was wrong before it was too late.
Mairin firmly looked at the master of Mondstein castle, trying to gather her courage.
“Vivian, I...”
Vivian sternly returned her gaze. She was unable to assess his mood.
“I-” she nervously started another attempt.
“You don’t want to do this,” he interrupted her.
Mairin nodded, grateful that he had guessed her thoughts.
“You’d rather do it with Adrijan,” Vivian stated almost nonchalantly.
Again she nodded – then, after realising what she had just admitted, vehemently shook her head.
“I see,” he said under his breath.
Nevertheless it worried her that Vivian’s smile had disappeared and she felt that she had to say something to set things right.
“During the past months I’ve come to enjoy your company and I’ve started to like you, but-“
The immortal frowned.
“There’s no reason to sweet-talk me, Prinzessin. Don’t worry; it takes more than this to bruise my ego.”
Even considering that their being together was to seal a business deal and they had talked about her feelings for Adrijan before, her confession felt strange. After all it had been she who had agreed to marry Vivian and now she wasn’t able to pull it through. Never before had she felt the significance of the difference between intent and execution that clearly.
Moments passed in silence and not knowing what to say Mairin nervously started to play with her mother’s necklace.
Vivian thou
gh wasn’t lost for words. He let out a deep sigh.
“Well, I’m seriously relieved that I don’t have to sleep with Adrijan’s first love. But Mairin, do you realise, what you have done to him? Couldn’t you have spoken up a bit sooner?”
She knew that it had been wrong but she hadn’t acted without reason.
“After all that happened I thought it was the only way to help him... to help you both,” she tried to explain disheartened. “It seems I can’t even do that much.”
Had he just called her Adrijan’s ‘first love’?
“Did you see his face at the wedding when he had to watch us kiss?” Vivian interrupted her thought.
“It’s not that I have hopes that he wants to be with me… and… I didn’t enjoy it either!” she grumbled.
Vivian didn’t respond yet his gaze spoke volumes.
His glare was so intense that Mairin felt as if she had been stabbed in her chest and she was overcome by a sudden spell of dizziness. It was still too early to feel relieved.
“What is going to happen to me now?” she asked hesitantly.
“Let’s talk about it on the balcony,” he suggested. “I have the feeling that the sight of this bed weighs heavily on you.”
She nodded in agreement, glad about Vivian’s consideration. “Thank you.”
“Don’t worry, Prinzessin.”
His face softened and in one quick move he sat up and folded back the blanket.
Mairin gasped. She had seen Vivian naked once before but unprepared as she was, she hastily covered her eyes with her hand.
Vivian laughed.
“It’s safe to look, Prinzessin.”
Tentatively she peeked at him through her fingers and eventually drew away her hand in surprise. Vivian stood in front of her with a whimsical smile on his face. He was wearing a pair of blue jeans.
