dye

[isthisart]

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."

Comments

[first_loyalty]

"I - um - yes! Of course!" she says, with a hesitant but sincerely delighted smile. "I'd be honoured!"

[isthisart]

"Excellent! What are the constraints on your schedule in about, oh, a month's time?"

[first_loyalty]

"Um - nothing other than usual - I'll have to find someone to watch Nikki, and make sure Tien doesn't need me for anything."

[isthisart]

"All right. We should have a date figured out soon; the only other relevant parties to work around are Miles's parents and Ivan, I think, everyone else will come if they can and not if they can't."

[first_loyalty]

"Congratulations," she says. "If congratulations are appropriate for a re-wedding. I'm not sure."

[isthisart]

"I think they're perfectly appropriate." Linya finishes shuffling and deals cards.

[first_loyalty]

Ekaterin turns her attention to the game. It's not impossible to follow, if she concentrates.

[thisvorlunatic]

Meanwhile, Miles calls Ivan.

[middlingalong]

"Hullo, coz, what's up?"

[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?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"I'll do my very best," he promises.

[middlingalong]

"Then I'll see you then, and probably in between sometime too."

[thisvorlunatic]

He smiles. "All right. Thanks, Ivan."

[middlingalong]

"You're welcome."

[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."

[on_my_word]

"...Ah - I will," he says. "And you can call me Aral."

[isthisart]

"Thank you. It seems less stilted that way, doesn't it?"

[on_my_word]

"Yes."

[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."